Have you read any John Holt?

“So many people have said to me, ‘If we didn’t make children do things, they wouldn’t do anything.’ Even worse, they say, ‘If I weren’t made to do things, I wouldn’t do anything.’

It is the creed of a slave.

When people say that terrible thing about themselves, I say, ‘You may believe that, but I don’t believe it. You didn’t feel that way about yourself when you were little. Who taught you to feel that way?’ To a large degree, it was school.”

~John Holt, How Children


Ronnie brought this to her blog from Unschooling.info, where Rue posted it.

It got me to thinking about why we decided to take our kids out of school.

I could see the light going out in Alec's eyes. He didn't even want to get up in the morning. It was so obvious in him.

Pretty amazing.