Growing Without Schooling: A Record of a Grassroots Movement, Vol. 1: August 1977 - December 1979
Brand: Brand: Holt Associates


Used Book in Good Condition

Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.5 x 10.75 inches
ISBN-13: 978-0913677100
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0913677108
Publisher: Holt Associates
Publication date: January 1, 1997
subtitle: Paperback – January 1, 1997
author: John Holt
review: Editorial Reviews Review Growing Without Schooling , Vol. 1, is an important publishing event, destined to achieve archival status as the record this tiny journal wrote and continues to write (a record of grassroots human accomplishment in the face of pedagogical theories which deny that such events are even possible). Make no mistake, for all its quiet words and homely illustrations this is a revolutionary book you are holding. I envy you the amazement you will feel as you learn about the genius of children and parents in these pages and use what you learn to awaken possibilities in yourself." -- John Taylor Gatto, author of Dumbing Us Down From the Publisher Growing Without Schooling is celebrating its 20th anniversary of publication this August. From the Back Cover John Holt, the author of eleven books about schools and learning, including the bestsellers How Children Learn and How Children Fail, promoted the homeschooling movementwhich he originally called unschoolingwhen he published the first issue of GWS in August 1977. Here, for the first time under one cover, are the first twelve issues of GWS, fully indexed and organized to help you browse or research its vast archive of ideas about how adults and children can learn together in their homes and communities. These first issues are particularly important because they contain much writing by Holt about the how and why of unschooling that is not published anywhere else, as well as hundreds of firsthand accounts by unschoolings earliest practitioners that resonate with even more meaning today. It is not what we teach children but how we treat them that determines what type of people they will become, Holt once told me. This is why unschooling is as much about social change as it is about school reform: unschooling is about creating or reclaiming places and events for adults and children of all ages to live and learn together. Certainly there may be places and times when one wants to learn in traditional school settings; unschooling isnt about denying access to school to anyone, but rather, about being able to choose to learn in a school when one needs, or wants, to do so. But children learning this way will choose to play all day and never do any serious learning, some will argue. The response to that criticism is spread throughout the pages of GWS, and crystallized in these first twelve issues. From the Introduction by Patrick Farenga About the Author John Holt (1923-1985) is the influential author of How Children Fail, How Children Learn, and Learning All the Time. A lecturer, visiting professor of education at Harvard Univ. and Univ. of California, Berkeley, and amateur musician (his book Never Too Late describes how he learned the cello in his fifties), John Holt founded Growing Without Schooling in 1977 as a way to help parents and children learn together outside of the obstacles conventional schooling poses to them. His work continues today as Growing Without Schooling celebrates its 23rd year of publication, and homeschooling has grown to encompass more than one million children in the United States alone. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. From GWS #9, May, 1979. Written by John Holt. We might add a little extra spice to this game by making some surprise sentences, in which we don't know until the last word whether the sentence is true or false. Thus: "Grandma's house is covered with spots," or "Our house is full of elephants," or "We are riding in a green boat," etc. And it might be fun to have the children contribute words to the sentences as we make them up. What Follows Are Excerpts From The First Issue Of Growing Without Schooling. John Holt, editor. Issue No. 1 August, 1977 GWS will come out whenever we have enough material to make an interesting issue. This may at first be only three or four times a year. Later, as more people read it and send in material, it may come out as often as six times a year. GWS will not be much concerned with schools, even alternative or free schools, except as they may enable people to keep their children out of school by 1) calling their own home a school, or 2) enrolling their children, as some have already, in schools near or far which then approve a home study program. We will, however, be looking for ways in which people who want or need them can get school tickets, credits, certificates, degrees, diplomas, etc., without having to spend time in school. And we will be very interested, as the schools and schools of education do not seem to be, in the act and art of teaching, that is, all the ways in which people, of all ages, in or out of school, can more effectively share information, ideas, and skills. On Social Change In starting this newsletter, we are putting into practice a nickel and dime theory about social change, which is that important and lasting social change always comes slowly, and only when people change their lives, not just their political beliefs or parties. It is a process that takes place over a period of time. At one moment in history, with respect to a certain matter, 99% of a society think and act one way; 1% think and act very differently. Some time later, that 1% minority becomes 2%, then 5%, then 10, 20, 30, until someday it becomes the dominant majority, and the social change has taken place. Some may ask, "When did this social change take place?" or "When did it begin?" There is no answer to these questions, except perhaps to say that any social change begins the first time one person thinks of it. A School Story In his wonderful book How to Survive in Your Native Land (Bantam paperback available from GWS) James Herndon writes: In September of 1967 I looked through the cumulative folders we were going to have in our class for the coming year, that is to say, the next Monday. I read what I already knew: the first grader with the testable high IQ, the remarked bright student, leader, reads at third-grade-level, headed for the big time; and the fourth grader with low-average capability, IQ 89, lazy kid, must-be-pushed-to-achieve, reads-at-second-grade-level, discipline problem, parents cooperative. The first grader and the fourth grader are the same kid. I read this once to a group of school administrators. I asked them if they had kids like that, and if so how many, in their schools or school systems. None of them knew. I asked if any of them had ever checked through their files to see whether they had some kids like that. None of them had. Read more