John Holt: April 14, 1923 to September 14, 1985

Sept. 14 is the anniversary of John Holt’s death. He would have been 88 had he lived, but he died at the young age of 62 from cancer. In honor of his memory, and to support those who act upon John’s ideas and further them, I have revised the www.holtgws.com website. All the issues of Growing Without Schooling magazine are now online and available for free, as well as many articles, video and audio recordings, and photographs that have been out of the public eye since we closed HoltGWS. In the case of the video and audio recordings, some have never been available until now.

If you take the time to explore the site you will discover John’s thoughts about how schools could be better, how unschooling and homeschooling are self-selecting and self-correcting activities that do not need central authorities to dictate content and standards, and how his goal was not to create an insular education movement for children but rather “A life worth living and work worth doing—that is what I want for children (and all people), not just, or not even, something called ‘a better education.’”

At a time when education reform is about technocratic fixes and students are just test scores to be processed by the school machine (there are teachers in schools who resist or ameliorate these issues for their students but they are outnumbered) it can be disheartening for me to remember John. After all, things have gotten worse for students, not better, since John died. Sure, we can point to test scores that may have improved as a result of billions of dollars being spent and regulations that keep children in school longer, but what of their lives? Compared to 1985 when John died, more children live in poverty, have broken homes, do not have health care, and suffer from a lack of community and free play in their lives; children now read less and less for pleasure, are less civically inclined, and they face jobless recoveries while trying to pay usurious college-loan debt.

But John was not a pessimist, and he believed that if shown another way to help children learn and grow some people would choose it. You can read about John’s “Nickel and dime theory of social change” in the first issue of Growing Without Schooling. If you do so, I hope you will continue reading through the site and gain courage and ideas about how you and your children can forge lives worth living, not lives handed to you based on your school test scores.

Comments

[Suzie Andres]

Pat,
We owe you a great debt for making all of GWS and so much more available at the revised holtgws site. I hope you won't, after all, be disheartened when you think of how far we still have to go for the children's sake. What encourages me is to see that the ranks of those who advocate for a life worth living and worth work doing, for unschooling, for peaceful mindful lives with children - these ranks are growing. And if, according to John's initial assessment, it is a person to person grass roots endeavor, we may not yet have convinced everyone (!) but each day is a new chance to share the message. Thanks for your continued work. It is appreciated!
gratefully,
Suzie Andres

[Pat Farenga]

Thank you , Suzie. You're right - each day is a new chance to share the message - and I'm going to keep that in my heart and mind, especially when the going gets tough.

Best wishes,
Pat

[Hugh]

Dear Mr. Farenga,

Thank you very much for setting up the Holtgws site. It is a great thing to keep all that material available. As a father with two young children thinking about education it is wonderful to learn more about gws,

Thanks for all of your work,

Hugh

[Therese]

Thank you so much for making the GWS archives available to all - they are a treasure.

[Pat Farenga]

Thank you all for your kind words!