Skip to content

Arnold Kling is discovering John Holt

Arnold Kling, quoting John Holt on schooling:

Bryan’s view is benign compared with John Holt.

society demands of schools… that they be a place where… children or young people can be shut up and so got out of everyone else’s way…. They are a kind of day jail for kids. [elided much of this paragraph – Sam]

Apparently Kling was previously familiar with the work of Ivan Illich, who was a friend and colleague of Holt’s.

Since Illich and Holt were both more of the Left than the right (albeit, a liberty-celebrating Left that’s more like left-libertarianism than modern Progressives or even 1980’s liberal Democrats), I am curious to see how this influences Kling’s thinking.