How
Children Learn by John Holt. Initially published 1967, revised 1983.
When I
first became interested in ‘non traditional’ methods of early childhood
education, several sources directed me to the writings of John Holt. From a
background of initially politics, then teaching in a range of schools and
serving as a visiting lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Education, he
became an early proponent of the homeschooling movement and had a key role in
several important pieces of legislature. At the time of publication in 1967,
his writings were seen as somewhat revolutionary.
Several key
topics are covered: Learning about children; games and experiments; talk;
reading; sports; art, math and other things; fantasy; the mind at work; and
learning and love. Initially he starts by describing his observations of
several young children with whom he was acquainted. He would simply watch,
observe, look for patterns, describe what he saw. Some of this was familiar to
me as a parent with young children; for example, how to one person a child may
seem to be ‘fiddling’ whereas in fact they are trying to explore the world
around them and make sense of this. He defies certain myths, such as that
children have a short attention span (have you ever watched a young child who
is utterly engrossed in something for a prolonged period?), or that children
must not be let near precious or delicate things (he describes the way children
would respond when given a typewriter, or when trying to produce a note on his
cello).
But today,
I want to discuss his ideas and observations regarding how a child learns to
read. This is particularly relevant to me at present, as my two oldest boys
(aged 4 and 3) are starting to recognise letters and words, and starting to
show an interest in making their own letters and shapes with pencils and
crayons. I have been wondering whether I should follow any particular method or
curriculum to capture their current interest and excitement; in fact what I
have read from John Hold steers me away from this line with a note of caution.
How do
children learn?
Children
learn as they start to make sense of the world around them. In terms of
talking, this almost invariably involves a period of babbling, of trying out
many different sounds to see which are recognisable, useful words. Similarly
with reading and writing, there is often a time of experimenting, of testing
boundaries, of seeing how things fit together; if an adult clumsily tries to
force the child to do something a certain way, it can crush their confident
explorations and may put them off the endeavour.
John Holt
describes several young children who challenged his stereotypes of learning. He
noted that nobody really understands how a child learns to read, but that they
reach a point where a lot of new words can be deduced from context, their
understanding of phonics (a bit more on that later!) and general recognition. He also describes some children who loved to 'read' even though they were either remembering the story, or making bits of it up from the pictures, but were adamant that they were 'reading'; this type of behaviour is positive, and should not be discouraged. One of my sons is currently doing this a lot, and is becoming very confident and pleased with his reading; it would not be right to tell him that he is not doing it correctly, as this will become clear to him in the fullness of time. For now, he is exploring in his own way the relationship between the black squiggles on the page, and the words he hears.
Why
testing and questioning may be counter-productive
He cautions
against frequently checking up on and ‘testing’ the child’s comprehension.
Several key educationalists are quoted in their observations that children may
be insulted by both the basic material they are expected to read, and the
questions they are asked.
Children
may answer questions incorrectly for several reasons. One may be ignorance of
the subject matter. Or it may be that they feel the question cannot be so
straightforward, and so do not trust their initial hunches. Others become
anxious when feeling they are being tested, so give an incorrect answer; all of
this may result in loss of confidence. This undermines the belief that children
can be trusted to learn. One can easily see that in a classroom type setting,
there is little option; large chunks of a curriculum must be covered, and there
need be some way to determine whether the children are meeting the targets and
jumping the hurdles; however, this approach can be counterproductive. I found
this interesting, as my middle son will often give an incorrect answer when
interrogated, when we know perfectly well that he does know the correct
response. I wonder whether by asking too many questions, we are forcing him
into such a category.
Motivation
is key. What are we trying to achieve?
An
important point is the child’s motivation. Are reading and writing simply skills
which must be acquired, or are they invaluable tools which enable
communication with others in the world? There is a vast gulf of difference
between the two.
Reading
should be a fun process for everybody involved. It is the transfer of
information; it is not merely an end in itself. ‘Even children who like being read aloud to don’t like it when the
parents don’t like it’. ‘There’s no reason to feel that we must always read
aloud to little children from ‘easy’ books that they can ‘understand’. If we
are reading something we like, with great expression and pleasure, a child may
well like it... After all, children like hearing adults talk, even though they
can’t understand much or all of it.’
‘When they learn in their own way and for their
own reasons, children learn so much more rapidly and effectively than we could
possibly teach them... we can afford to throw away our curricula and
timetables, and set them free, at least most of the time, to learn on their
own’ .
Interestingly, in the 1983 edition, with another 16 years of educational
experience behind him, Holt reflects, ‘I
would now say, ‘all of the time’. Children do not need to be made to learn,
told what to learn, or shown how. If we give them access to enough of the
world, including our own lives and work in that world, they will see clearly
enough what things are truly important to us and to others, and they will make
for themselves a better path into that world than we could make for them’.
Concerns
about phonic-based approaches
And this is
one reason why some of the modern phonics approaches are not helpful; rather
than consisting of engaging stories with rich, challenging vocabulary, these
texts tend to include repetitive sounds and syllables, and often a storyline
which is unexciting, unrealistic and which does not capture the imagination of
the child. It is interesting to note that Holt wrote in 1967, before phonics
had become such a big thing in primary education. However it is clear that he
could see a worrying trend and I wonder what on earth he would have made of
some of the materials in existence today. I hear echoes of Charlotte Mason, as
she describes ‘twaddle’ and ‘stultefying’ materials, again, many years ago.
‘If, as is more and more true of school reading
books, there is no meaning in the text, just a few easy words repeated in
almost nonsensical ways over and over again, or if, as is also too often true,
whatever meaning there is in the text seems uninteresting, unreal, and false,
children will either refuse to read the text at all or, by changing words in
it, will ‘correct’ it to make it more interesting and true.’
I’ve had my
own concerns about phonics for some time, but it helps to read some of these
clearly articulated by one who has studied early childhood education in depth.
A valuable quotation is that ‘children
who read well certainly know a lot of ‘phonics’, but they have probably learned
at least as much phonics from words as they have learned words from phonics. No
one taught me that the letters PH say the sounds ‘fff’. I figured it out,
probably from hard words like ‘photograph’ and ‘telephone’.
Challenges
with strict curricula and inflexible timetables
Another
observation is that children are able to recognise their own mistakes, and
going back to their basic principles, can often correct these; however this
process takes time (and a variable time in different children) and so in a
classroom type setting, there may be insufficient time and space to allow this
process to occur. ‘If a child cannot
correct his mistake immediately, someone else will correct it for him’.
‘One of the most important things teachers can
do for any learner is to make the learner less and less dependent on them’.
‘Many children learn to read like Scout Finch,
heroine of Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. She learned by sitting in her
father’s lap while he read to her aloud, following with her eyes the words as
he read them. After a while she found she knew a lot of them and from what she
knew, had enough information or intuition about phonics so that she could start
figuring out words for herself’.
The
observations are often very simple and commonsense; Holt does remark upon the
culture of mainstream education, whereby it is assumed that the school system
and teachers are right, and that we should not question what goes on within
educational establishments. However, taking a simple step backwards and looking
at the bigger picture, looking at how our own children learn, we see a voice of
reason standing out against the prevailing trends of society. And to re-iterate,
this book was initially written nearly 50 years ago. I do wonder what Hold
would have made of today’s rigid curricula, heavy use of simplified techniques
including phonics, and the frequent requirement to undergo testing, even at
primary school level. It is as though all of his wisdom has been overlooked by
the mainstream educators, and as the author points out, possibly correctly, the
wellbeing of each individual child is not the primary motivating factor as
regards political decisions relating to education. But I will not delve into
politics here!
‘If from the start they could think of writing
as a way of saying something, and reading as a way of knowing what others are
saying, they would read and write with much more interest and excitement’.
And in
terms of curricula, of anxiety about the attainment of specific milestones at
set times, he first illustrates several examples of children who appeared to be
‘late’ in attaining a certain stage, but in fact later excelled, but also
remarks that ‘we act as if children were
railroad trains running on a schedule’. They learn in fits and starts. And
when there is a real interest and desire, much can be accomplished quickly; the
converse also being true.
In summary,
through reading this section of John Holt’s book, I am both encouraged and
challenged as I consider how we are teaching reading to our sons.
Things that
we will continue:
·
1) Reading
out loud to them, often, using books they have chosen
·
2) Reading
the ‘adult’ Bible rather than a simplified version (both linguistically and
spiritually, I see important reasons not to go for a simplified or potentially
diluted version)
· 3) Regular
visits to the library
· 4) Starting
some stories which do not have pictures
Things that
I may change/ work on:
· 1) Give
a little more time for the children to read ‘by themselves’; as they
concentrate on the words of a familiar storybook, they may well be working out
the words and systems for themselves
· 2) Reading
some of my favourite childhood stories; immediately Tolkien springs to mind (I
remember being mocked by my schoolmates for reading Lord of the Rings when I
was seven, but as John Holt argues, there is no need to put literature into age
brackets)
· 3) Trying
to ask fewer testing type questions and give them a little more space to learn
by themselves
· 4) Not
comparing to others! I’ve linked to some helpful blog posts about this issue,
but it is a temptation!
