HOW CHILDREN LEARN

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• vezzy-fnord · Dec 24, 2013 · Recommends

  …Underground History of American Education. Charlotte Iserbyt: the deliberate dumbing down of america. Ivan Illich: Deschooling Society. John Holt: Anything at all, but particularly How Children Fail and How Children Learn. ---------- Besides Sudsbury schools, there's several other alternative school models: anarchistic free schools and democratic schools. Look those up, as well. Ultimately, what people need to realize…

  on “How Does This Not Blow Your Mind?” ↗
• gregjor · Oct 10, 2022 · Recommends

  …confining them in school or a simulation of it. The majority of homeschoolers in America do it for religious reasons, though you can find secular homeschooling groups in every city. Some resources: How Children Learn and How Children Fail by John Holt. The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher by John Taylor Gatto (online) https://www.wanderings.net/notebook/Main/SevenLessonsTaughtI... Dumbing Us Down and Weapons of Mass Destruction…

  on “Ask HN: Planning for Parenthood” ↗
• gregjor · Jun 12, 2021 · Recommends

  …recover your innate curiosity and ability to learn. If you went through typical schooling you have to give yourself permission to learn on your own. I recommend John Holt’s books How Children Fail and How Children Learn, and Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich.

  on “Ask HN: How did you learn to learn?” ↗
• gregjor · Jan 22, 2022 · Recommends

  …drop out, possibly learning some useful information and skills, but too often just wasting a lot of time. You might look into Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich, John Holt’s books How Children Fail and How Children Learn, and Grace Llewellyn’s The Teenage Liberation Handbook. John Taylor Gatto, a former Teacher of the Year, wrote this great essay The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher about school: https://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html

  on “How will high school look like in future?” ↗
• gregjor · May 23, 2024 · Recommends

  …article, I no longer have school-age children. For anyone interested in the difference between learning and school/education, and some alternatives such as homeschooling: Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich How Children Learn and How Children Fail by John Holt The Six Lesson Schoolteacher by John Taylor Gatto: https://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html

  on “A Theoretical "Case Against Education"” ↗
• gregjor · Jan 29, 2025 · Recommends

  …can find some videos and accounts of unschoolers with feral kids who can't read. That happens too but not the norm in my experience. If you haven't already found them, get John Holt's books, especially How Children Learn and How Children Fail. Also Grace Llewellyn and John Taylor Gatto. I liked the book Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich.

  on “Homeschool to college interview with four students” ↗
• KiwiNige · May 7, 2008 · Recommends

  Another good one is John Holt's How Children Learn, in which he says something along the lines of "It's just as well that we don't try to teach children to walk and talk" or else they would struggle to learn that as well. My wife and I are homeschooling…

  on “The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher” ↗
• gregjor · Nov 22, 2025 · Recommends

  …influential in early homeschooling movements. Parents or potential parents interested in education and schooling might also want to read Maria Montessori, and John Holt's books "How Children Fail" and "How Children Learn." We as a species actually know quite a bit about raising children, socialization, and education. I think we get duped by our surrounding society and government institutions hijacking those goals in…

  on “Homeschooling hits record numbers” ↗
• mbrock · May 17, 2015 · Mentions

  John Holt's book "How Children Learn" uses the cello as an example. After discussing what he's found by observing children play with a cello (some will tire immediately; some will indulge in "total activity" of random exploration, followed…

  on “Learning the Cello as an Adult (1997)” ↗
• mbrock · Nov 11, 2015 · Mentions

  …but instead you feel clumsy, weak, confused, tone deaf, and awkward. So that can easily kill your whole motivation if you don't really internalize the idea of progressive learning. John Holt's book "How Children Learn" has some thoughts about learning instruments. > There is a special sense in which it may be fair to say that the child scientist is a less efficient thinker than the adult scientist. He is not as good…

  on “On Being Smart (2009) [pdf]” ↗