This chapter is the heart of the book. It analyses the conceptual structure that underpins Holt’s account of learning and his critique of education. One way to view this analysis is as the solution to an interpretative problem. After all, the exceptional clarity and plainness of Holt’s prose can hide the fact that his central claims about learning and education are, prima facie, rather puzzling.

It is now time to turn from theory to a brief consideration of practice—to ask the question, if something like the analysis given in the preceding chapters is correct, then what, if anything, does it demand that we do? At the end of chapter one, it was pointed out that, considered analytically, Holt’s works consist of three main components. First, they contain a positive or constructive account of what he considers the ‘best learning’, the sorts of conditions that promote such (...) learning, and the sorts of conditions that are hostile to it. Secondly, they contain a critique of education, which is justified by appeal to the foregoing account of ‘best learning’. And thirdly, they contain a range of practical strategies, aimed at mitigating the problems of education (especially compulsory schooling) and maximising the opportunity of acquiring the ‘best learning’. This third component was of great significance to Holt. Although there is a sense in which Holt’s work is ‘utopian’, in that it criticises some foundational cultural assumptions and envisages a possible society that exists nowhere, he is, at the same time, a deeply practical, realistic thinker. He does not offer airy plans for grand social reconstruction, addressed to nobody in particular; rather, he tries to answer the question of what can be done by us, here and now. In the words of one of his book titles, he wants to answer the question: What do I do Monday? (shrink)

John Holt (1923–85) was, during the 1960s and 1970s, the most famous radical critic of the US education system. His first book, How Children Fail (published in 1964) was a runaway best-seller.

This is the first-ever book to offer an analytical study of John Holt’s philosophy of education. It provides a clear analysis and critical evaluation of the key themes in his work, considers the main objections to his views, and discusses their relation to the contemporary homeschooling movement. The book examines Holt’s critique of compulsory education and his account of the relationships between learning, freedom, intelligence and character. It argues that Holt’s works contain a philosophically rich critique of instrumentalism in education, (...) and thus continue to represent a significant challenge to many mainstream views on education today. Given its scope, the book will be of interest to anyone who wants to understand Holt’s work and influence as a critic of compulsory schooling; educators and education students; philosophers of education; and those seeking a better grasp of the ideas behind unschooling and homeschooling. (shrink)