John Holt

“Birds fly, fish swim, man thinks and learns. Therefore, we do not need schools. We need shrines of learning where people can come and go as they please.”

“Living is learning and when kids are living fully and energetically and happily they are learning a lot, even if they don't know it.”

“The true test of intelligence is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do.”

“What is essential is to realize that children learn independently, not in bunches; that they learn out of interest and curiosity, not to please or appease the adults in power.”

“To a very great degree, school is a place where children learn to be stupid.”

“Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners.”

“We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way.”

“The biggest enemy to learning is the talking teacher.”

“Children do not need to be made to learn about the world, or shown how. They want to, and they know how.”

“A life worth living, and work worth doing - that is what I want for children (and all people), not just, or not even, something called 'a better education.'”

“We can best help children learn, not by deciding what we think they should learn... but by making the world, as far as we can, accessible to them.”

“If we taught children to speak, they'd never learn.”

“The human animal is a learning animal; we like to learn; we are good at it; we don't need to be shown how or made to do it. What kills the process are the people interfering with it or trying to regulate it or control it.”

“What makes people smart, curious, alert, observant, competent, confident... is not having access to more and more learning places... but being in wholehearted, energetic, and unafraid engagement with the world.”