Twitter Book Club: John Holt (1964) How Children Fail - Chapter 4

How Schools Fail

"We need to ask more often of everything we do in school, 'Where are we trying to get, and is this thing we (cont) http://tl.gd/6vobc3less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"We must beware of making a virtue of necessity, and cooking up high sounding educational reasons for doing (cont) http://tl.gd/6voccrless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Why don't they learn what we teach them? The answer I have come to boils down to this: Because we teach (cont) http://tl.gd/6vodkaless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"What would happen at Harvard or Yale if a prof gave a surprise test in March on work covered in October? (cont) http://tl.gd/6vog52less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"The things we learn, remember, and use are the things we seek out or meet in the daily, serious, nonschool parts of our lives." Holtless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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RT @anderscj: "The things we learn, remembr & use are the things we seek out or meet in the daily, serious, nonschl parts of our lives" Holtless than a minute ago via TweetDeckJill Bromenschenkel
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"Teachers and schools tend to mistake good behavior for good character. What they prize above all else is (cont) http://tl.gd/6vojhaless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"They think that children who are brave will be hard to handle, rebellious, defiant, and that children who ar (cont) http://tl.gd/6volisless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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@anderscj Hi Carl, I'm interested in the Holt book u r referring to. Ruslanaless than a minute ago via TweetDeckRuslana Westerlund
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@EllBillofRights How Children Fail, revised edition (1982)less than a minute ago via Twitterrificanderscj
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@EllBillofRights the 1982 edition is an annotated version of the original published in 1964.less than a minute ago via Twitterrificanderscj
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"What is this test nonsense, anyway? Do people go through life taking math tests, with other people telling (cont) http://tl.gd/6voto0less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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I was sitting at the bar at Buffalo Wild Wings while reading this. I turned to the bartender and the people sitting next to me and asked them when was the last time they took a math test. They all looked at me like I was crazy.

"We teachers have to learn to present problems so that irrelevant clues will not lead so often to correct performance." Holtless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"When you show a child ten times over how to do something, and he still can't do it, you might as well (cont) http://tl.gd/6vp87gless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Even children much younger than we were learn what most teachers want and reward are not knowledge and (cont) http://tl.gd/6vpd26less than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"The student who will not be satisfied merely to know 'right answers' or recipes for getting them will not (cont) http://tl.gd/6vpe3dless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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"Children come to school curious; within a few years most of that curiosity is dead, or at least silent." Holtless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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This is, above all else, what I fear most about sending my own children to school.

" A child is most intelligent when the reality before him arouses in him a high degree of attention, (cont) http://tl.gd/6vq2ntless than a minute ago via Twittelatoranderscj
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This is the magic bullet everyone has been looking for. It is the truth about education that so often seems so elusive when clouded with all the bureaucracy but really is so clear. Let me repeat it in full:

"A child is most intelligent when the reality before him arouses in him a high degree of attention, interest, concentration, involvement—in short, when he cares about what he is doing." Holt

Why do most teachers find this so hard?