JOHN HOLT - Teach your own: the John Holt book of homeschooling

A Merloyd Lawrence Book

PERSEUS PUBLISHING

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and where Da Capo Press was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial capital letters.

Copyright 2003 by Holt Associates

Portions of this book appeared earlier in Teach Your Own: A Hopeful Path for Education, copyright 1981 by John Holt, and The Beginners Guide to Homeschooling, copyright 2000 by Pat Farenga.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2003101364
ISBN-13 9780738206943; ISBN-10 0738206946
eBook ISBN: 9780786730483

Da Capo Press is a member of the Perseus Books Group.
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Text design by Lisa Kreinbrink
Set in 11-point New Caledonia by the Perseus Books Group

First printing, March 2003

This book is dedicated to all those who have supported Growing
Without Schooling and John Holts work and ideas. This book
could not have been written without your courage and
determination in teaching your own children and then sharing your stories.

Acting Out (Betts)

Addition/subtraction

Adolescents. See also Teenagers

finding true work,

girls, relationships withmothers

Adults

children doing things done by,

children drawn to conversationof

children teaching computers to,

children testing

emotion in voices of

learning Spanish

Advice, not offering

African-American(s)

as class leader

hiding abilities from teacher

hounded by authorities

truant, in Metropolitan Museumof Art

Airplanes, studying

Alabama state-education-code

requirements

Alaskan home-steading families,

Albany Free School (New York),

Alice in Wonderland

Alternative Energy Limited

(AEL)

Alternative schools,

America, homeschooling in,

See also specifictopics

American Academy of Pediatrics,American Civil Liberties Union,

American Educator, American

Federation of Teachers,

Andrieshyn, Louise,

Animals, communicating with,

Animists, children as

Anticulture, schools invaded by,

Antischool climate

Anxiety dreams, about school

Anxiety, perceptual handicaps

related to

Apprenticeships. See

also Work

Apter, Teri

Archaeological dig

Armstrong, Thomas

Art establishments, childrens

Art exhibit (England)

Artist, precocious child as,

As, getting

Astronomy group, homeschoolerin

Atlas, fantasy game

Atomic bomb, news of

Attendance

compulsory school,

schools right to define

Audubon Society, as study of

biology

Authorities

dodging v. confronting

whites v. nonwhites in disputes

with

Authority crisis, schools in,

Average daily attendance (ADA)

formulas, Massachusetts,

Axline, Virginia

Babies

learning from

Suzuki method and

teaching tricks to

Yequana Indian (Amazon basin),

Baby boomlet,

Backwards, theory of seeing,

Bali

Barnstable, Massachusetts,

cooperating schools in

Barson, Leslie

Basics, the, learning

Bateson, Gregory

Batting practice, not coaching

during

Bedroom-reading

Bedtime, issue of

Behaviorist experiments,

Pavlovian

Betts, Roland

Bible, as textbook

Bilingual education

Bill of Rights, psychology

experiment using

Biochemistry lab, son learning in

Biology

Birth rates, declining,

Blackboard Jungle, The

Blacks. See African-Americans

Boat building/design

Born Kind,

Boston

Computer Society

Museum of Science in

Peabody Museum in

Public Garden

Boston Globe

Boston Monthly

Bowden, Blake

Boys

humiliating boys

Learning disabilities (LD)

and

Brain damage, label of

Breggin, Peter

Bus

family traveling in converted,

school in converted

Cafeteria-style schools

California

bilingual education and

State Court of Appeals on

reading lawsuit

State Department of

Educations refusal to

acknowledge homeschooling,

tax credits

Calvert Institute of Baltimore,

Maryland,

Caning, banning of (United

Kingdom)

Cardozo, Justice

Careers

Catholic educator, on word to the

wise,

Catholic schools

Cello

fifteen-month-old boy learning,

Milstein, Nathan, and teaching

brother

Certified v. uncertified teachers,

Challenging Child (Greenspan)

Charter schools

Chemistry

Chicago solar greenhouse in

Chicago schools

bottom-track students in

reading program of,

Chicago Tribune

Child neglect, charges of,

See also Courts

Childbirth Education Association,

Child-development

Child-learner

Child-led learning

Children

access to world for

as animists

capabilities of

Chinese

civil liberties of

creating own curriculum

curiosity of

declining population of schoolaged,

doing things done by adults,

drawn to adult conversation,

fantasy life of

Finding out,

gypsy

handling money,

inarticulateness in

labeling of

learning new languages

living with

made stupid by schools

maps shown to

needs of

perceptual handicaps in,

play led by

poor v. rich

pressures on

problem (Western)

resisting teaching

responsible for own time,

running schools

saying No to

songs/chants made up by,

suicide in

teaching children

teaching themselves

testing adults

and work

Childrens Hospital Medical

Center of Cincinnati

Child-teacher

China, children in

Christian Science Monitor, The,

Church schools

fundamentalist

registering homes as,

Cities, large

children out of school in

as resource

truancy in,

Citizenship, changing definition

of

Civil liberties, childrens

Clark, Joe

Class conflict, in schools

Clients, schools losing

Clonlara School

Clubs

family

homeschooling