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How Children Fail – John Holt
Non-fiction / 24th November 2022

Introduction How Children Fail is the author’s partial record of his not very successful attempt to find out why children fail. This revised edition was published 20 years after the first edition when the author thought he knew much more about why. I would like to learn the reasons children fail and try to avoid them so that I would not fail my child. Authors John Holt was an American author and educator. He wrote a total of 11 books on the subject of schooling, as well as starting the newsletter Growing Without Schooling (GWS). Contents How Children Fail contains a foreword, and 5 chapters. The chapters are Strategy, Fear and Failure, Real Learning, How Schools Fail, and To Summarize. Review How Children Fail first shares some shocking statistics. Close to 40% of high-schoolers drop out while one third of college students fail to finish their courses. The reasons of failure are fear, boredom, and confusion. Above all else, children are afraid of failing, of disappointing or displeasing many anxious adults around them. The sharp line between success and failure appears when pleasing adults become important. The author gives an honest assessment about school. It is a place where they make you…