Customer Reviews

Learning All the Time

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I read an article about 15 years ago in Parade magazine about the Colfax family and the homeschooled sons that they sent to Harvard. This got me interested in homeschooling any children I might have one day, but my fiance (now my husband) disagreed. So I began on long, slow process of picking up books at the library about homeschooling and leaving them in convenient spots such as the bathroom, for him to read. This book is the one that convinced my husband that homeschooling was a viable and intelligent choice for our family.

Filled with marvelous insights about children and how they learn, their initial love of learning and their later dread of it, this book explains why children's love of learning must be cherished and treasured. It is a wonderful book, for homeschooler and institutional schooler alike.

This is really a great book to have on hand when lost for ideas. It is one of many that I use for reference during the homeschooling year. In order to supplement it I do strongly recommend:

To the Shore of a Child's Ocean Part One: Homeschooling from Birth to Age Nine (see ArtisanPacificPublishing Website). To the Shore of a Child's Ocean Part One: Homeschooling from Birth to Age Nine

This is a great view into a the human mind in it's early stages. This book has given both my husband and myself the confidence to trust ourselves to trust our CHILD with their ability to learn, and their desire to learn. A very thoughtful, kind book.

The book includes three common metaphors that rule, unconciously, the way educators think and act in schools. Understanding these three metaphors is a necessary step towards changing the education system.

In clear, direct language, Learning All the Time describes the crucial difference between learning (making sense of the world)and education (being forced to digest and regurgitate what someone else dictates). Without vitriol, John Holt exposes how our children are harmed more than helped by institutional schools. He shows how all children are natural and gifted learners and how educational systems frustrate and fracture their innate curiosity about the world. His insights, ideas, and experiences show how to support children as they teach themselves. I wish I'd had this book when my child was born.

Unschooling cannot be attained through recipes of course, since every child and family is different. But Holt thoughtfully and sensitively manages to share his devotions and insights about learning, children and life in general so clearly that even the most hesitant parent can gain confidence in hir and hir child's ability to unschool.

The book is a collection of essays about many facets of learning and educational subjects (the three R's, science, music). Holt's profound observations help not only to understand how children tackle these subjects but also to gain a better understanding of these subjects ourselves.

Highly recommended for anyone involved in education.