How Teachers Make Children Hate Reading By: John Holt

John Holt (1923-1985) was a an American theorist of education. His numerous books, based on his teaching experience, include How Children Fail and Escape from Childhood.
Future (and current) educators can benefit from reading his work. Recently I familiarized myself with a piece of his titled, How Teachers Make Children Hate Reading.  


In this, Holt claims that the classroom emphasis on "understanding" and not making mistakes interferers with student's growth as readers and writers. In response to this I believe this statement to be accurate. I agree that classrooms today are so set in making the student grasp the material and to pick the information apart. This depletes the encouragement and curiosity for the material itself. I believe true understanding comes from curiosity. Holt also states that school is a "place of danger". The word danger can be applied to this case because danger is something to fear, run away from. If reading and writing are seen as an unbearable task or moment of fear and humility, then yes the classroom does become a "place of danger." I have learned from my own experiences as a young student as well as a college student that anxiety leaves no room for learning.
Holt states, "When we are anxious, we don't perceive clearly or remember what we once perceived" this statement stood out to me because I agreed with it. I know from my own personal experience as a student growing up in fear of reading aloud, math problems on the board, or taking a test would cause me severe anxiety. Negative thoughts would pulse through my brain; the ultimate outcome of failure would haunt me. In the end this fear, this dread, tore reading and math from my life and was no longer seen as enjoyment but a chore. To this day even though I have recovered "relationship" with my school work, I know the foundation that it was built on is weak. If I could go back and tell myself that there was nothing to really fear, that the understanding came from the emotions the material gave me or the journey  of exploring, I would have. In a way I am doing just that, in earning my degree in Elementary Education so that I may teach my student not to be afraid but to ask questions. I remember what it was like learning in fear, and I promise to myself and my future students, that will never be the case in my classroom.