The Underachieving School

John Holt, the “grandfather” of homeschooling, shook up the education establishment and started parents thinking about better ways to teach their children. In this book he lays out his basic arguments about how schools fail our children and offers a wealth of inspiring ideas for what to do about it.

The Underachieving School is a collection of essays and articles written and compiled by Holt, each brimming with inspiration and ideas on how to teach children. Taking into account how children actually learn, this book shows us the difference between learning and schooling through his original thinking; clear, thoughtful writing; and firsthand accounts of what does and doesn’t work in education.

“Education is something a person gets for himself, not that which someone else gives or does to him.”
—From the book

What others have said about The Underachieving School:

This gentle, soft-spoken teacher sounds a rallying cry for revolutionary change in the schools.
—Los Angeles Times

His indictment of the 20th century school is broad and powerful, supported by highly persuasive examples and reflections. His book is a warning beacon on a hill, luminous and inspiring. One of the most stimulating books this reviewer has yet been privileged to read on this subject.
—Christian Science Monitor

John Holt displays again with undiminished clarity a kindly intellect that is strong, eloquent and compassionate, holding out to a nation trapped in ignorance a rational way to light the darkness.
—Jonathan Kozol, author of Life

John Holt never minces words. He sees villainy in our schools and goes after it with the fury of a betrayed lover and the relentless advocacy of a prosecuting attorney. Holt stands for the child and against the school in its present form.
—Saturday Review

This book may stir up almost as much debate as John Dewey's Democracy and Education.
—Library Journal

With our schooling situation growing ever more deplorable, Holt's work is more critically needed than ever. He spells out the problem and its solution with such clarity and simplicity that any parent can read him and every parent should. We ignore his prophetic vision at our peril.
—Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of The Magical Child

About The Author:
John Holt was a fifth grade teacher who worked in private schools. In 1964, his book How Children Fail created an uproar with his observations that forcing children to learn makes them unnaturally self-conscious about learning and stifles children's initiative and creativity by making them focus on how to please the teachers and the schools with the answers they will reward best. His subsequent book, How Children Learn (1967), also became widely known. The two are still in print and together they have sold over a million and a half copies and have been translated into over 14 languages.

Holt went on to become a visiting lecturer at Harvard and Berkeley, but his tenure at both places was short-lived. Holt did not feel the school establishment was serious about change in the ways he wanted to go, such as changing the relationship of the child to the teacher and the school to the community. In 1985, John Holt died of cancer at the age of 62, having written 10 books that were very influential in the development of the homeschooling and unschooling movements.