Resources for Do-ers

A practical question for unschoolers is: if children are not in conventional schools, what resources do they actually use to learn? Holt answered this in detail. The article works through the main resources he identified for self-directed learners.

Free schools

Holt talks about various resources for people who wish to learn through action. He talks both of resources that already exist and of resources that do not exist but should. The list is practical: a family considering unschooling needs to know what their child can actually use as alternatives to conventional school.

The first major resource is free schools. Free schools, in Holt’s vocabulary, are institutions that offer courses on a number of different topics that learners may take on their own discretion. They are not the same as conventional public schools, despite the school in the name. The example Holt gives is the Beacon Hill Free School in Boston.

Free schools are a lot like traditional centres of adult education, except that they have the least bit of administrative structure and more diversity. The administrative lightness is part of what makes them work. A conventional school has heavy administrative apparatus: registration, attendance tracking, evaluation, certification. A free school dispenses with most of this; learners come because they want to learn, and the school’s job is to provide opportunities rather than to manage attendance.

Free schools are not built around a political ideology. The neutrality is important: it gives them a broader base in the community than schools committed to specific positions could have. People of different views can use the free school for what they want to learn without having to subscribe to the school’s politics.

Free schools charge no money, in the model Holt describes. Therefore they do not need to guarantee anything to students. The transaction is voluntary: students come if they want to come; teachers teach if they want to teach. This arrangement makes them, in Holt’s view, the perfect centres of unschooling. The forced quality of conventional school is absent; what remains is voluntary engagement.

An important practical feature: free schools are not at all costly. Students do not pay, and teachers are not paid. The work is voluntary on both sides. This raises an obvious objection that Holt acknowledges. Critics say it is human nature to be selfish and no teacher would want to teach without getting paid. The criticism has some force, but free schools have existed and operated; some people are willing to teach for the satisfaction of teaching rather than for payment. The model is not for everyone, but it works for some.

Flashcard

What are *free schools* in John Holt's account, and what makes them a model for unschooling?

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Answer

Institutions offering courses learners may take on their own discretion, with light administration, no money, no guarantees, voluntary on all sides

The example is Beacon Hill Free School in Boston. Free schools are like adult education centres with less administrative structure and more diversity. They are not built around political ideology, giving them broader community base. They charge no money and teachers are not paid; the engagement is voluntary on both sides. The model makes them perfect centres of unschooling because the forced quality of conventional school is absent.

The Learning Exchange

Another important resource Holt discusses is the Learning Exchange, established in 1971 in Illinois. The exchange was started by Dennis Detzel and Robert Lewis, then graduate students at Northwestern University. Their founding insight was that the city of Chicago was filled with people of varied skills, talents, and knowledge to share. The problem was matching people who wanted to learn something with people who could teach it.

The founders believed every member of the community had something to teach. The view is broadly democratic: expertise is widely distributed in any community, not concentrated only in formal teachers. A retired carpenter has knowledge of woodwork that no school teacher can match; an immigrant grandmother has cultural knowledge that the standard curriculum does not include; a working programmer has practical skills the textbook only describes. The Learning Exchange built on this insight by creating an institutional means for connecting learners to teachers across the entire community.

The founders also believed that many places could serve as classrooms or learning environments, or meeting places. Even a telephone, they observed, could be a meeting place where people could answer questions or have discussions over the phone. The vision was of learning happening wherever people happened to be, with formal institutional space not required.

The exchange worked through a simple mechanism. A person phoned in for one of several reasons: they wanted to learn something, they had some knowledge or skills they would like to teach, or they wanted to meet other people sharing the same interests. The exchange filed all these phone calls and served as a catalogue for learners and teachers. When a learner called wanting to learn X, the exchange could point them to teachers who had offered to teach X. When a teacher offered to teach Y, the exchange could find learners interested in Y.

The Learning Exchange model anticipated, in its 1971 form, the kind of skill-matching that the internet would later make much easier. Modern unschooling families have access to online communities, video lectures, online courses, and direct skill-matching services that the 1971 founders could only dream of. The underlying principle (using the wider community’s distributed expertise as an educational resource) is what continues to work.

Flashcard

What was the Learning Exchange, and what insight did it operate on?

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Answer

An institutional means for matching learners with teachers across a whole community, operating on the insight that every community member has something to teach

Started in Illinois in 1971 by graduate students Dennis Detzel and Robert Lewis. The founding insight: the city of Chicago was full of people with skills, talents, and knowledge to share. Every community member has something to teach. Many places could serve as classrooms, including telephones for discussions. The exchange filed phone calls from people who wanted to learn, teach, or meet others with shared interests, and served as a catalogue connecting learners with teachers. The model anticipated modern internet skill-matching.

Libraries

The most obvious resource for do-ers, Holt says, is the public library. The library has features that make it an ideal unschooling resource, and other features that limit it.

The ideal features start with the library’s voluntary nature. Unlike schools, the library does not say we must use it, or that bad things will happen to us if we don’t, or that wonderful things will happen if we do. It is simply there, for us to use if, when, and how we want. The voluntary engagement is what unschoolers value: the library is available without coercion, and the user comes only when they want what the library offers.

The library does not test us at the door to see if we are smart enough. It does not claim it is better than other libraries because only the smartest are let in. Anyone can use it; the library is genuinely universal in a way schools are not. The lack of admissions barriers is part of what makes the library a democratic institution.

The limitations Holt identifies are also real. The number of things that libraries can help us do is fairly limited, partly because libraries do not have enough money. Though libraries serve all the people of a community, they have only a tiny fraction of the money given to schools, who serve only a few of those same people. The funding disparity reflects political priorities: schools get money because attendance is required, libraries get less because use is voluntary. Holt’s implicit argument is that this is the wrong allocation; the voluntary institution deserves more funding because it actually serves real interests.

Until recently, Holt observes, most librarians took a rather traditional and limited view of their work. Libraries were a place to store books and other written records. The librarians did not see themselves as facilitators of learning in the wider sense. Modern librarianship has moved beyond this older limited conception; many libraries now offer extensive programming, materials beyond books, and active support for community learning. The shift has been substantial since Holt wrote, and modern libraries are closer to what he hoped they could become.

A specific problem Holt names: most people, having learned to dislike the things (including reading) they were made to do in schools, do not do them any more after they leave school, and so do not use the library. The school’s effect on the population’s relationship to reading limits the library’s usefulness. People who would benefit from libraries do not go because schools taught them not to want to.

Holt believed that libraries should be developed more so that they could become excellent resources for do-ers. The vision is of libraries as community learning centres rather than as book repositories. Many modern libraries have moved in this direction.

Flashcard

Why does Holt treat the public library as the most obvious resource for do-ers?

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Answer

Voluntary, free, universal access; no testing at the door; available when and how the user wants

Unlike schools, the library does not require use or threaten bad outcomes for non-use. It is simply there, available without coercion. The library does not test users at the door or claim only the smartest are let in. Anyone can use it. The limitations: limited funding compared to schools (libraries serve all but receive a fraction of school funding), traditionally limited librarian views (book storage), and the school-produced dislike of reading that keeps many adults away. Holt hoped libraries would develop into excellent resources for do-ers; many modern libraries have moved this way.

Publications and sports

Two further categories of resources Holt mentions deserve brief treatment.

Commercial publications are, to a greater or lesser degree, a resource for do-ers. The category includes magazines, do-it-yourself books, manuals, hobby periodicals, and similar materials. These publications are produced for commercial reasons (the publishers want to sell them), but they serve a real educational function for self-directed learners. A young person interested in electronics, woodworking, gardening, computing, cooking, or any other practical area can find substantial published material at modest cost. The materials are usually written by people with real expertise in the area and are accessible to readers without academic credentials.

The development of the internet has dramatically expanded this category. Online resources (websites, YouTube videos, online courses, forums) have multiplied the publication-based learning resources available to do-ers. A modern unschooler has access to a vast quantity of skill-development material that the 1970s unschooler could only dream of. The underlying principle is the same: published material that serious learners can use to develop real skills.

Sports resources are also essential for a person’s education, on Holt’s account. We are, by nature, active, playful, and game-loving creatures. The cognitive and developmental work that physical activity does is real. Schools have often treated physical education as an afterthought; unschoolers can give it the priority it deserves.

Among outdoor sports resources, Holt mentions running, bicycling, and skating. These activities have specific value beyond their physical exercise; they are important parts of one’s daily routine, getting from one place to another. A child who walks or bicycles to where they need to go gets exercise, develops practical navigation skills, learns about their environment, and gains independence. The activities are educational alongside their other purposes.

Indoor sport resources mentioned include gymnastics, tumbling, and squash. The list is not exhaustive; many other indoor activities serve similar purposes. Board games such as chess are another resource: they help develop mental capacities, becoming another source of learning. Chess in particular has been associated with significant cognitive benefits in research conducted long after Holt wrote.

The cumulative picture is of a learning environment that draws on many resources, none of which is a conventional school. The unschooler is in a richer educational environment than the conventional-school student, on this view, even though the unschooler does not attend a school.

Flashcard

What broader picture do Holt's *resources for do-ers* create for the unschooling learner?

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Answer

A learning environment drawing on many resources (free schools, Learning Exchange, libraries, publications, sports) without depending on conventional school

The cumulative picture: an unschooler in a community with these resources is in a richer educational environment than a conventional-school student. Free schools provide voluntary courses; the Learning Exchange model connects learners with community teachers; libraries provide free voluntary access to books; commercial publications and online resources provide skill-development materials; sports and games provide physical and mental development. None of these requires conventional school; together they replace and exceed what conventional school offers.