The Plowboy Interview: John Holt

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PLOWBOY: And you expect to see it grow?

HOLT: I'm not expecting large numbers right away. After all, when you're blazing a trail, you're necessarily going to attract small numbers of people . . . but the more folks who walk a trail, the easier the path becomes to negotiate. For now, I'm hoping that in three years school districts will start seeing that they should cooperate with the home schoolers so that we can move out of the "combat phase" that we're in now.

PLOWBOY: You think that public schools might actually cooperate?

HOLT: Oh, yes . . . we're beginning to see evidence of such a trend now. For example, I know of several school districts in Massachusetts that are saying to homeschooling parents, "If your children want to come to school and use the library and gym, or take part in a play . . . why, they're welcome to do so."

And why not? Home schooling is not a threat that's going to overturn the whole school system. Most people are never going to try it . . . they don't like their children enough to want them around all of the time.

The truth is the home-schooling movement is good for the schools. We provide, among other things, extremely important educational research. Besides that, if-in the long runschools are going to have a future, they will eventually have to function as learning and activity centers which more and more people come to voluntarily . . . and the sooner our institutions begin to move in such a direction, and some community schools already are moving that way, the better off they'll be.

Home schooling is good for society as a whole, too. Most young people come out of high school today with feelings of alienation, selfhatred, bottled-up anger, and the sense that life is useless. Such emotions constitute a largescale and potentially dangerous social problem. I don't entirely blame the schools for this situation, of course, but they have pretty well demonstrated that they can't change it . . . and I don't expect home-schooled teenagers-since they've grown up in contact with serious adults who take young people seriously-to have the same problems.

PLOWBOY: So all in all, you're optimistic that the home-schooling movement will continue to grow?

HOLT: Barring the social changes that would come with a major war, yes. After all, home schooling is part of our countrywide movement toward increased self-sufficiency, smaller-scale activities, and local independence. THE MOTHER! EARTH NEWS is a major voice for this movement, of course, so I'm really hoping that a lot of MOTHER-readers will see us as kindred spirits.

In fact, I'd like to say something directly to MOTHER's readers, if I may.

PLOWBOY: That's fine with me. Why don't you just go right ahead and wrap up this interview yourself?

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