Customer Reviews

What Do I Do Monday? (Innovators in Education)

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A wonderful book about teaching young children the basics; reading, writing and math. Where "How Children Learn" and "How Children Fail" developed a philosophy of education, this volumn details how Mr. Holt put his philosophy to work in the classroom. Full of descriptions of actual exercises you can try with kids, either in school or at home, that encourage learning without sacrificing creativity or future problem solving abilities. If you're looking for more theory on education, pass this one up for now. But if you're ready to apply some of the insights of a brilliant thinker and observer of children, read this book, and be prepared to take notes.

The focus here is on creative approaches to learning (and I absolutely don't mean happy faces and cute cartoons) in the classroom, and I don't know of a better book in this line. Can be useful regardless of your teaching methods. Also offers Holt's theory of learning which is also persuasive and useful. Holt knew and loved children, and was incredibly intelligent in his approach. Get this book if you're a teacher--or a parent, because these ideas can stimulate the whole family.

Alan Nicoll

I have been hearing a lot about John Holt while trawling forums and websites about homeschooling, so I thought I might as well check him out. What Do I Do Monday? (Innovators in Education) is the first book that became available at my local library, so this is the one I read first. Holt soundly condemns methods used in public schools at the time (methods that have improved very little since then!) and I found myself agreeing with the majority of his opinions.

He doesn't just argue against these methods, though. He also provides some alternatives. This book is packed full of great ideas for helping (not making!) children to follow their natural learning inclinations. I particularly love the way he explained certain Maths concepts. Not being mathematically minded myself, this is perhaps the first time in my life that I have fully understood some of these concepts!

This book is a must-read for anyone embarking on the homeschool journey, but I also recommend it to parents, grandparents, teachers and anyone else who cares for the children in their life.

I had heard great things about John Holt and was really disappointed in this book. Maybe part of it was that after reading about Charlotte Mason and reading books by John Gatto, it didn't seem so revolutionary to me. But Holt quoted psychologist Robert Liang extensively in this book, which to me seems like the most outdated psychobabble (granted this book was written quite awhile ago), saying if you make ____ mistake with your kids they may turn out schizophrenic!

He then continues on with different teaching techniques, which is also surprising since the unschooling movement generally refer to him as the source of their inspiration, but say you should not "teach" children, letting them learn as they become motivated to do so. So if you're looking for unschooling information you won't find it here. It also has odd references like to a school in which teachers express anger to the students to make things "real" and children seem to be allowed to hit each other sometimes.