No doubt to teach one's own children...takes special qualities. But these are qualities that many people have, or with a little help, can get. ...The home-schooling movement is full of such people, ordinary people doing things that they never would have thought they could do - learning the law, questioning the experts, holding their ground against arrogant and threatening authoritiues, defending themselves and their convictions... Seeing them, other ordinary people think they can do the same, and soon they do. This is why it may be a little misleading to speak of the homeschooling movement. Most people think of a movement as something like an army, a few generals and a great many buck privates. In the movement for homeschooling, everyone is a general.
Since we can't know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned.
If you are happy with the way things are in the schools, and your children are happy and fulfilled, fine. I'm glad you are happy, and that the schools are doing what you want them to for you. But there are lots of people out there who are very unhappy, and it's to those people that I'm offering this other choice, and saying that they don't have to just accept what's imposed on them. It takes a lot of determination, and some hard work, but you can teach your own!
Books by and about John Holt
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