How Children Fail
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
A landmark in educational thought, How Children Fail presents a devastating and compassionate critique of the traditional classroom, arguing that the very institutions designed to educate children are, in fact, the primary architects of their intellectual failure. Drawing on meticulous observations and diary entries from his own classroom, John Holt chronicles how children resort to fear-driven strategies — guessing, bluffing, and pattern-matching — not to learn, but merely to survive the relentless pressure of adult expectations and institutional schooling. Rather than nurturing curiosity and genuine understanding, Holt illustrates how conventional teaching methods systematically extinguish the natural love of learning that every child possesses from birth. First published in 1964, this seminal work ignited a revolution in progressive education and remains as urgent and provocative today as when it was written. Holt's prose is direct, urgent, and deeply humane, grounded in the conviction that children are far more capable than schools allow them to be. His arguments laid the intellectual groundwork for the home-schooling movement and continue to challenge educators, parents, and policymakers to rethink the very purpose of education — leaving the reader to wonder whether the system can ever truly be reformed, or whether something far more radical is required.
Author: John Holt
Format: Paperback
Genre: Education theory
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
A landmark in educational thought, How Children Fail presents a devastating and compassionate critique of the traditional classroom, arguing that the very institutions designed to educate children are, in fact, the primary architects of their intellectual failure. Drawing on meticulous observations and diary entries from his own classroom, John Holt chronicles how children resort to fear-driven strategies — guessing, bluffing, and pattern-matching — not to learn, but merely to survive the relentless pressure of adult expectations and institutional schooling. Rather than nurturing curiosity and genuine understanding, Holt illustrates how conventional teaching methods systematically extinguish the natural love of learning that every child possesses from birth. First published in 1964, this seminal work ignited a revolution in progressive education and remains as urgent and provocative today as when it was written. Holt's prose is direct, urgent, and deeply humane, grounded in the conviction that children are far more capable than schools allow them to be. His arguments laid the intellectual groundwork for the home-schooling movement and continue to challenge educators, parents, and policymakers to rethink the very purpose of education — leaving the reader to wonder whether the system can ever truly be reformed, or whether something far more radical is required.