Instead of Education: Ways to Help People do Things Better [Paperback]

John Holt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2003

Holt's most direct and radical challenge to the educational status quo and a clarion call to parents to save their children from schools of all kinds.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Be clear about this: Instead of Education, although less widely known than his more famous titles, is John Holt at the top of his game. If you are one of the millions of walking wounded still staggering from your own encounter with forced institutional schooling, and trying to spare your own kids from its damage, this book will be your guide and a good friend. -- John Taylor Gatto, Former New York State Teacher of the Year

John Holt was a prophetic voice in the educational wilderness who vividly explained why our system of schooling often frustrates genuine learning. He made this quite clearly indeed in his groundbreaking work Instead of Education. It is as radically relevant to the educational challenges of our generation as it was to his. -- Ron Miller, Ph.D. Author of Free Schools, Free People

About the Author

John Holt was a fifth grade teacher who worked in private schools. In 1964, his book How Children Fail created an uproar with his observations that forcing children to learn makes them unnaturally self-conscious about learning and stifles children's initiative and creativity by making them focus on how to please the teachers and the schools with the answers they will reward best. His subsequent book, How Children Learn (1967), also became widely known. The two are still in print and together they have sold over a million and a half copies and have been translated into over 14 languages. Holt went on to become a visiting lecturer at Harvard and Berkeley, but his tenure at both places was short-lived. Holt did not feel the school establishment was serious about change in the ways he wanted to go, such as changing the relationship of the child to the teacher and the school to the community. In 1985, John Holt died of cancer at the age of 62, having written 10 books that were very influential in the development of the homeschooling and unschooling movements.

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Sentient Publications; 2nd edition (December 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591810094
• ISBN-13: 978-1591810094
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #192,440 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Holt great as usual, January 10, 2007

By 

Dorota Konowrocka (Warsaw, Poland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Instead of Education: Ways to Help People do Things Better (Paperback)

It's the sixth book of Holt I have read so far and probably the most syntetic; he outlines not only the problems but also the solutions. He has no mercy for knowing-better educators, T-eachers working not FOR, but ON students, S-chools full of fear and anxiety and humiliation, coercion, mindlessness, forced learning, carrot-and-stick attitude; and great appreciation for sensitive, competent t-eachers that are models themselves, self-directed do-ers and s-chools that are not compulsory and help their students to thing better on their own terms. Holt's radical vision is very clear, very understandable; his solutions so natural that they seem to be inevitable and not radical at all. His ability to deconstruct the mechanisms of human learning and expose the hidden curriculum of public schools and social system we live in is outstanding. The book is worth every minute you spend on reading.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book., June 16, 2009

By 

Henry "Henry" (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Instead of Education: Ways to Help People do Things Better (Paperback)

I have read a lot of Holt's books, but this is one of the best. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in schooling, education, and providing children and teens with quality experience. As a public school teacher, I can say every word in this rings with sheer brilliance. I disagree that school can cause injury or damage, but I do agree that the hours, years in school could be spent much more fruitfully, authentically, and enjoyably.

31 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A seminal contribution to education policy discussions, October 10, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Instead of Education: Ways to Help People do Things Better (Paperback)

Instead Of Education: Ways To Help People Do Things Better by alternative education advocate John Holt (author of the 1964 book How Children Fail) is an iconoclastic and seminal work presenting a persuasively argued case for "un-schooling" from traditional classroom structures and curriculum fare, to innovative, self-directed learning as the basis for a truly creative life. A direct challenge to the complacency of today's educational status quo (even in this political age of "no child left behind" and school voucher proposals), Instead Of Education should be required reading in every Teacher's College, District School Board, and governmental education policy development office whether it be federal, state, or local. Instead Of Education is a significant and seminal contribution to education policy discussions and commended to the attention of education reform activists at all levels and from all perspectives.