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A Brief Look at John Holt
by Gareth Lewis John Holt played a pivotal role in making homeschooling a viable option for parents and children in the United States. He started his career as a school teacher and despite the fact that he was successful was not blind to the deficiencies of the system within which he was working. He wrote two best-selling books - 'How Children Fail' (1964) and 'How Children Learn'(1967) - which became standard text books for students studying education and eventually sold over one and a half million copies. Rather than resting on his laurels (teaching at Harvard etc) he chose to carry on trying to understand the real reasons why children were learning so little at school. By the late 1970s he had come to the conclusion that schools could not be reformed - they are inherently flawed institutions - and that parents would be best advised to teach their children at home. His work became less and less accepted in academic circles but found a warm reception amongst parents who could not understand why things were not working out for their children at school. He started a magazine, Growing Without Schooling, in which he set out a radical philosophy: not only suggesting that children should not be sent to school but also that any sort or organised schooling was detrimental to a child's development. John Holt spent much of the remainder of his life campaigning for and supporting Homeschooling. His books are still amongst the most lucid on the subject. It is at least partly due to his efforts that Homeschooling is now legal in all the states of America. John Holt will be remembered as one of the people who did most to restore a measure of humanity to the education of children in western countries in the twentieth century. There is of course another side to the story , many people who homeschool feel intimidated by the legacy of John Holt - they do not feel comfortable with the way he recommended a lack of structure to the teaching day and the fact that he would not promote a particular curriculum or particular books. My perspective, as a European, is, however, that John Holt is the only person in a prominent public position, on either side of the Atlantic, who has been prepared to stand up and support parents in their attempts to defy the authorities and give their children a proper education. Whatever differences people may have had with him on points of detail, his courage helped to win everyone in America the right to follow whatever course of education that they believe to be best for their children. It must be at least partly thanks to him that things have moved forward so rapidly in America while so little progress towards real educational reform has been made in the UK and the rest of Europe. An excellent article describing his life and work of John Holt by Patrick Faranga - his friend and colleague can be found at http://www.mhla.org/HoltOrigins.htm. Visit http://www.freedom-in-education.co.uk/ for other great articles and information on home education from Gareth. Gareth Lewis is the author of the very popular "how to" homeschooling
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Please note: |
and support person Beverley no longer
takes phone call or email inquiries.
Please join one of her yahoo groups
if you want to know more about
homeschooling or have a question.
Beverley supports:
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Annual National |
Home Education Association
AussieHomeschool
Rockpool Homeschool
Joyous Learning
Life Learning Magazine
Parent at the Helm
books, ebooks and booklets by Beverley!
Interested in homeschooling, but still not sure? Read All You Need Is...'
Looking for educational resources?
Home Education Directory
Questions about homeschooling?
Browse the Article Library.
Wondering what to teach? See
Australian Homeschool Curriciulum
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Including...
Always Learning Books
Downunder Literature
Spiral Garden
Australian History Pictures
Home education is a legal alternative
to
school education in Australia.
State and Territory
governments
are responsible for regulating
home
education. Different states have different
requirements, however home educating
families are able to develop curriculum
and learning programs to suit the
individual
needs of their children.
For more information visit the
Home Education Association
Thank you for visiting!
Pioneering members of the home education movement in Australia, Beverley and Robin Paine are passionate advocates of true educational choice for families. They began homeschooling their children in 1986 and three years later started the South Australian Home Based Learners network.
Beverley wrote Getting Started with Homeschooling in 1995-97 and since then continues to write books and booklets on home education. She balances spending time helping home educators with working in her garden and renovating her home, as well as continuing to build her collection of writing on a variety of homeschooling subjects. Beverley maintains an extensive collection of websites as well as several Yahoo groups supporting families teaching their children at home.
In 2007 Beverley joined the HEA and became a committee member in 2008: she also edits and produce the HEA Newsletter, HEA magazine, Stepping Stones for Home Educators, annual Resource Directory and other HEA publications.
If you'd like to keep in touch with what Beverley is up to her in her life, sign up for the Homeschool Australia Newsletter or visit her Homeschool AustraliaFacebook page.