Customer Reviews

How Children Fail

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was struggling to teach seventh grade reading when I came across this book. It had been mentioned in a William Gaddis essay, so I picked it up and I can honestly say that it's changed the way I look at the world. Like all great books, it says things that seem to always have been under your nose, that always bothered you a little, and says them with such simplicity that you're not sure how you could have missed them.

Once Holt's ideas are in your head I assure you that they'll become part of your mental model of the way things work: every time I was in front of my classroom I could see my students reading me for answers, and engaging in a hundred games and subterfuges based on the anxiety caused by the way my school forced me to run things - along, of course, with what I had always assumed education had to be.

It bothers me that this book is given to teachers who agree with its observations but declare that the solution is not to create the sort of environment that Holt recommends, but to keep schools exactly the same and just make it harder for kids to fake the answers; to engage in a battle of wits to force them to think; and provide all sorts of unrelated incentives to get the students to try their hardest. This book forced me to look at how phony most of my teaching was, and I am confident that the solution does not involve putting a slightly new face to the phoniness.

This book is one of John Holt's earliest published works. At this stage he still thinks that schools are essentially very good (and very necessary) institutions with a few things wrong with them that it is quite possible to fix. Later he becomes disillusioned with that notion, and begins to advocate alternative schools. Eventually he realizes that the very nature of schooling and the assumptions it is built upon go against some of his most dearly held ideals, and he begins to advocate 'unschooling,' starting the publication "Growing Without Schooling" and the organization Holt Associates.

I think that this book is a valuable read if you want to understand the evolution of Holt's thoughts about education, but I would also recommend you take a look at his later works. Personally, I'm a big fan of "Teach Your Own."

This book with its simple format and language has opened my eyes to possibilities and perspectives that I simply never thought of. As an educator, I think everyone in the world of education should read. From policy-makers to administrators to teachers to school psychologists, and very specially, parents, we all owe it to our children and to ourselves to become informed and critical about the efficiency (or the lack thereof) of our educational system. Especially at times, such as now, when our children seem to be failing more than ever. Holt's observations, although limited to private schools, provide one with a solid view of what is happening in the world of teaching accross the board. Holt makes and answers questions that are not only relevant to his subject but vital to the development of better teaching. Holt's idea that we don't know enough about student-teacher relationships could not be more accurate. I know this because I am an educator. I agree with Holt when he says that it is time that we look beyond ourselves and our own interest and begin looking at students with respect. As an insider, I couldn't help blushing while reading the reasons that Holt gives for children's failure in school. I was only able to nod my head positively when he said that teachers aren't listening to their students because they are only listening to what they want to hear. Another reason children fail, according to Holt, is that they are not being intellectually challenged enough at school. The conclusion made by Holt makes plenty of sense. Teachers definitely need to make every effort to free their teaching from ambiguity, confusion and self-contradiction. Besides teachers, the pointing finger also points to standardized exams. Standardized exams, I agree with the author, do not make our children more knowledgeable. Holt's final verdict is clear and pungent: Students are failing because adults-teachers, administrators, parents, policy-makers, etc.-are not doing their jobs. Although not a pleasant thing to hear (especially for those of us who have chosen to dedicate our lives to the education of our young), I am personally grateful to Mr. Holt for taking a bold stand to face us with our demons.

Being an education major I was assigned this book for a class project. It is an interesting day by day journal of author John Holt's experience as a teacher in a Colorado private school. Holt's insights are honest and convey what some of the major problems are with todays students. The book's strength comes from the way Holt sees through the eyes of children who desperately want to please the adults who teach them but, out of fear hold back their talents for learning. Although the book is sixteen years old it remains a strong indictment of our modern educational system. I strongly recommend this read for anyone entering the field of education.

All the years I've been "against" public school, they were for reasons I'd researched, or came from my own bad experiences and those of my child, and other reasons I just "felt" inside but couldn't explain... I'd certainly built a case for myself as to what was wrong with the whole environment. But I still had never seen or imagined what Mr Holt saw through the eyes of a teacher (yet I could relate it to my entire experience at public school and knew he was speaking the truth). As I read his book it just filled in so many of the vague holes I'd felt as to why I didn't like public school but couldn't explain why. What invaluable insight into what really goes on! It was truly a turning point in my resolve to homeschool. I wish I'd read this years earlier.

I was homeschooled all the way through high school. Although my parents did have an excellent curriculum, they simply didn't bother to make me read literature, great works, or write long essays. Holt asserts that given freedom - as I was - youngsters will naturally explore and educate themselves.
This has proven to be absolutely true. In high school, I read Shakespeare, Milton, Boswell - for fun. I also read many works on science, history, and even math. Like many homeschoolers, this has paid off in ways other than education and love of learning - I'm a National Merit Scholar attending college for free.
John Holt's idea of unshackling children from the bonds of boring, repetitive lessons works in real life.

Furthermore, this book is well-written, adopting a diary-entry approach to let the teacher's discoveries come in the context of a story.

I found his definition of intelligence, as an exploring attitude to life (to oversimply a bit), to be inspiring.

His book "How Children Learn" is basically more of same. You wouldn't regret reading it, but of the two, this is the essential one.

The book how children fail reminded me of my own childhood, during my elementary school year. Yes, I too wanted to get the right answer to please my teacher and not to be the dummy in the eyes of the other students in order for them to have a laugh for the day.

The teacher did suppress my indiviualism due to forcing me to have a lack of courage. My courage was often mistaken as misbehavior, and I was discouraged to speak my mind. I was taught to only speak in order to appease the teacher.

I truly disliked control and teachers always had control over everything in class, decision making, recess, lunch, field trips etc.

I could remember in my fifth grade class. I had a elderly teacher and my lessons in school was a big gap of not learning. All she was concerned with was retirement and not one intervened with the quality of our education.

I respect the idea of a second teacher in the classroom observing the children responses to the lesson being giving to them. A second teacher evaluates how, why and when to encourage a child in regards to their learning capablities and/or interest.

I plan to read the book more than once in order to gain a more knowlegde in regards to John Holt's observations. And I think it would be a good idea for other active teachers to also read how children fail, too.

In "How Children Fail" John Holt gives his perceptions about how children to fail. He takes the reader into the classroom and gives accurate accounts of children's fear to fail. He takes you through what has trained them into this behavior. Their fear encourages them to grasp strategies that hide their learning shortcomings. Holt believes that teachers have been trained to entice learning but promote failure. The teachers are described as faulty. Their teaching methods do not adjust to changing generations of children. It is not just teachers but schools that are contributing to the diminishing of learning. However, Holt assures his audience that real learning does exist.
I recommend this book to teachers, parents, and students. I give it 4 stars for it's easy to read format and descriptiveness. I think if enough people read it Holts insight will heighten our awareness and stop children's fear of failure.

I have been homeschooling my 6 children for over 10 years. This is one of the best books on education that I've read.

Holt really just advocates that we treat children with respect, and allow them some self determinism in their own education.

It is a radical viewpoint, unfortunately - he really strips away many of the false notions regarding education that the teacher's colleges seem to promote - but I think it's a sane viewpoint, all the same. Children raised and educated this way are surely more whole, stable, self-confident and able.

The book is a series of essays, which is a great format for this kind of material. I found it really compelling reading.

While I don't agree with absolutely everything in this book (he recommends that we have children guess at word meanings, rather than having them use a dictionary, which I strongly disagree with), almost everything else he says rings true for me.

Highly recommmended!

If you can't homeschool your children, pray that they have a teacher like John Holt. He seems so free from ego, that he is able to write about his own mistakes and shortcomings as a teacher, even while clearly presenting the shortcomings of the system. He is so compassionate, and writes from practical experience, about specific children, classes and events that are exemplary. I felt like giving some of these children hugs, before I remembered that they must be adults with their own kids by now. The positive side is that he elucidates the alternative to current school education, and how that will work better for the children. Meanwhile the ominous trends he noted in 1983 are even more in evidence now in election year 2000.