Sharing Treasures

Book reviews by John Holt

Edited by Patrick Farenga and Jane Prest Holcomb

Sharing Treasures

is a collection of book reviews by John Holt about education, children and learning. John Holtreviewed the literature of education for the popular press of his time, but as his interest in children and learning expandedbeyond school walls, so did his search for books and materials that would be useful to people who are learning withoutattending school. These are John Holt’s personal recommendations for homeschooling resources. His insights, wit andeclectic selection offer us new ways to view learning.John Holt (1923- 1985)John Holt wrote ten books about education, including

How Children Fail

How Children Learn, Teach Your Own

and

Learning All the Time

. His work has been translated into fourteen languages.

How Children Fail,

which the

New York Review of Books

rated “as a class with Piaget”, has sold over a million copies in its many editions. John Holt, for years aleading figure in school reform, became increasingly interested in how children learn outside of school. The magazine hefounded, Growing Without Schooling, continues to reflect his philosophy. 1.

Schooling2.

Home schooling3.

Children and Learning4.

Tests5.

Facts and Science6.

History and Geography7.

Math8.

Economics and World9.

For a Changing World

10.

Remembering Childhood

11.

Health12.

For Young Children13.

Fiction-- Children and Adults

14.

Poetry and Literature15.

Music Books and Records16.

Art and Materials

17.

Home and Garden18.

GadgetsINTRODUCTION

Sharing Treasures

is a collection of John Holt's reviews, mainly of books relating to education. John Holt's talents as abook reviewer were often in demand and he wrote about education titles for the popular press of the sixties and seventies–

The New York Review of Books, Look, Harpers;

many of these reviews we reproduced in this book. However the vastmajority of reviews included here were written for the magazine John founded in 1977,

Growing Without Schooling

(GWS). He started his own mail order catalog at the same time, reviewing in GWS only books and materials that headded to his catalog. From the many reviews John wrote we selected those that reveal his ideas about education as well ashis understanding of the nature and interests of children.John often used book reviews to make his own statements about education. Though certainly times have changed, and thelanguage of some reviews is dated (such as using the word “Negro" in the early reviews, “black” in later ones), what isstriking about these reviews is how much punch and relevance they have to schooling in the nineties.The reviews in this collection also show the evolution of John's concept of education. Evident in his early works for

Harper’s

and

Book Week

are the seeds of John's later position in favor of home schooling to allow children to benefitfrom more access to the real world and more control over their own learning. His book introductions (particularly

MyCountry School Diary, Acting Out,

and the

Changing Nature of Man

) are really small essays that tell us as much aboutJohn's ideas on education as about the ideas of the authors he introduces. Other reviews, especially his passionate pieceabout

The Lives of Children

, further demonstrate John's clear vision about education and how to make it better. Theforeword to

Somewhere Else

heralds John's future work for home schooling.I met John Holt because of books. Not his own books though. In fact, I didn't read a book written by John Holt until Istarted work at Holt Associates in 1981. Before then I was the assistant manager of a bookstore John frequented, and itwas there that I met John Holt, bookstore browser. Later, after I volunteered at Holt Associates, I got to know John Holtavid reader.