The underachieving school Book

Picked this one up in a bin of secondhand paperbacks at Barrington Court. Best 50 pence I've spent for a while. John Holt is quite radical - think he is a lifelong communist/socialist - and while it is perhaps impossible to agree with all of his ideas, it is equally impossible to dismiss them out of hand. He details the various ways in which schools under-achieve for their students. A good deal of what he says has now, thankfully, become prevailing wisdom. But we've still got a long way to go, baby.

Equally, now that I've actually finished reading this, it did make me a little cross at times. He comes across - or at least the essays he's chosen to publish in this collection - as one of these experts who is forever on the side of the kids and never, ever, not never on the side of the teachers. Which can be disheartening, even some 40 years after the book was first in print. I have to say also, that it tends to peter out a bit near the end, the last few pieces are variously book reviews, talks he's given etc., which rather let down the quality of the earlier writing. It's thought-provoking as a whole, but sometimes in a way that makes you want to hurl it against the nearest wall! But definitely worth the read.