The Plowboy Interview: John Holt

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PLOWBOY: What about providing a child with the chance to learn social skills? Don't parents ever worry that a homeschooled boy or girl may not have the chance to make friends?

HOLT: Most of the children I know who are learning at home do have social lives. They see peers after school and on weekends, and have the chance to experience friendships, arguments, and all the ups and downs of true social life. When youngsters live a long, long way from anyone their own age, groups of parents can make arrangements to bring their children together to solve this problem. In fact, we print a directory of home schoolers in GWS, partly to help such folks get in touch with each other.

More important, though, I think the social life of most schools is so competitive and snobbish and status-oriented, and so full of meanness and teasing and ganging up, that-even if I didn't have any other reason for wanting to keep a child out of school-that very "society" would be reason enough to educate the youngster at home! I don't think schools teach young people anything about friendship, intimacy, and trust.

For years and years-since long before I got into home schooling-I've seen evidence of the harmful desocializing effects schools have on children. Even my sister, who certainly is not an educational critic, told me that her five-yearold never knew how to do anything really mean, sneaky, or dishonest until after the tot had gone to school.

PLOWBOY: Suppose the children want to go back to school when they get older. Do they have peer problems then?

HOLT: Actually, they'll be in better shape for coping with school, because they're going there by choice and for their own reasons. It's like the difference between a prisoner in jail and a sociologist who goes in to study prison conditions. Both people are in the same building, but they're in very different frames of mind.

PLOWBOY: What other worries do parents express about the consequences of home schooling?

HOLT: Some are concerned about whether their children will be able to get into college or land a good job without an "official" diploma. However, anyone can take the high school equivalency exam to earn a secondary diploma . . . and anyone can get into college-a good college -if she or he scores well on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

PLOWBOY: John, we've talked a lot about the benefits of home schooling, but how can a parent actually try it? How do people get around our country's compulsory education laws?

HOLT: Well, I first thought all you'd have to do to be able to home-school a youngster would be to tell the public school authorities that you were going to send your children to private school . . . fill

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