Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling (Paperback)

by John Holt (Author), Pat Farenga (Author) "WHY DO PEOPLE TAKE or keep their children out of school?..." (more)
Key Phrases: teach your own, homeschooling families, perceptual handicaps, United States, John Holt, Public Garden (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"An expansion and revision of the homeschoolers' bible, written by the late, outspoken Massachusetts education reformer John Holt." -- Boston Globe Magazine 03/21/04

"For many parents this book is an indispensable handbook for educating their children at home." -- Austin Family July, 2003

"[An] enduring homeschooling classic...A landmark work...This book is indispensable." -- Home Schooling Today December 2003

Product Description
The classic work on teaching children at home, updated for today's new laws, new lifestyles, and a new generation of homeschooling parents. Today more than one and a half million children are being taught at home by their own parents. In this expanded edition of the book that helped launch the whole movement, Pat Farenga has distilled John Holt's timeless understanding of the ways children come to understand the world and added up-to-the-moment practical advice. Rather than proposing that parents turn their homes into miniature schools, Holt and Farenga demonstrate how ordinary parents can help children grow as social, active learners. Chapters on living with children, "serious play," children and work, and learning difficulties will be of interest to all parents, whether homeschooling or not, as well as to teachers. This new edition is supplemented with legal advice as well as a guide to cooperating with schools and facing the common objections to homeschooling. Teach Your Own not only has all the vital information necessary to be the definitive reference for parents teaching their own children, it also conveys John Holt's wise and passionate belief in every child's ability to learn from the world that has made his wonderful books into enduring classics.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (April 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738206946
• ISBN-13: 978-0738206943
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #231,786 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

104 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How People Learn, March 17, 2004

By	Artist (Irvine, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Do you remember what they taught you at school? Me neither. I learned to read very early on, mostly at home, and I still remember some math, but only because I balance my checkbook and know when I'm getting correct change at the market. All those years, isolated from the real world in the artificial environment of school, sitting at a desk all day with 30 of my same age peers, how was I to learn about what an actual life in the world is like, or about what I wanted to do with mine? I remember learning to take tests. Now I never take them. A lot of it was pleasant enough, some of it was not, most of it was boring, and somehow I never noticed that I was mostly wasting my time.

Now I know better having read John Holt, a sweet, caring man and a wonderful writer. He's radical, but he never rants. He persuades, gently, eloquently. He learns through years of careful, loving observation and by trial and error and he shares that with you in a way that makes it seem as though he's one of your oldest, most comfortable friends. He reminds you of what you went through in school. He makes sense. He's fun to read. And you know he's right as you read him, because we have all gone to school.

94 of 96 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A treatise from the "granddaddy" of homeschooling, May 28, 2000

By	"mfshermantank" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teach Your Own (Paperback)

In this unofficial treatise for the homeschooling movement, John Holt, longtime private school teacher, maintains that the traditional classroom model no longer works and may, in fact, ruin kids for learning. He exhorts parents to challenge the conventional wisdom and be their children's teachers. You don't need to be a homeschooler to benefit from Holt's books; you simply need to care about children and education and to have uttered, if only once, "There's got to be a better way."

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CAUTION - WILL CHANGE YOUR FAMILY'S LIFE, September 4, 2007

By	IntegrityLee (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This single book completely transformed our family's plan for educating our child. After 3 years of perfectly normal, traditional (private and public) schooling, the light bulb went off and we are now embarking on the incredible journey of homeschooling. John Holt speaks such truth, and reminds us that all human beings are born naturally curious, wanting and able to learn. Imagine the potential of our world if each child spent 11,000 hours out in the real world, hungrily soaking up all that life has to offer, instead of sitting all day, being fed information to regurgitate with no apparent and immediate relation to their needs, their interests or their lives. Holt reminds us that "school" is a relatively new invention, and that earlier generations who could not only write exquisitely, invent, create, build and lead, were all schooled at home. Holt also helps every parent who has ever said "I could never homeschool my children" rethink the entire idea of being "the teacher". Rather, every parent can assume the role of "facilitator"... simply providing access, resources and examples... and watching the miracle of natural human development take off on its own. Take the journey. You will never look back.