How Children Learn

{{Short description|1967 book by John Caldwell Holt}}

{{Infobox book

| name = How Children Learn

| title_orig =

| translator =

| image = How Children Learn.jpg

| caption = First edition

| author = John Holt

| illustrator =

| cover_artist =

| country = United States

| language = English

| series =

| subject = Education

| genre = Non-fiction

| publisher = Pitman Publishing (1967)
Delacorte Press (1983)
Perseus Publishing (1995)

| release_date = 1967, 1983 (revised)

| english_release_date =

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| pages = 189 (1967 ed.), 303 (1983 ed.), 320 (1995 ed.)

| isbn = 0-440-03835-9

| dewey= 370.15/23 19

| congress= LB1060 .H64 1983

| oclc= 8786109

| followed_by =

}}

How Children Learn is a nonfiction book by educator John Caldwell Holt, first published in 1967. A revised edition was released in 1983, with new chapters and commentaries. It is considered a prominent text in the homeschooling advocacy movement.{{cite book |last1=Gaither |first1=M. |title=Homeschool: An American History |date=2008 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |isbn=9780230613010 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q6sYDAAAQBAJ |access-date=27 March 2023}}

How Children Learn was Holt's second book and continues the argument of his earlier book How Children Fail in criticizing formal education.{{cite news |last1=Kozol |first1=Jonathan |title=A Pioneer Book About Children |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cEoEAAAAMBAJ |access-date=27 March 2023 |publisher=LIFE Magazine |date=15 December 1967}} Like that book, it became a bestseller and, according to researcher Mel Allen, brought Holt considerable fame.{{cite book |last1=Veerman |first1=Philip |title=The Rights of the Child and the Changing Image of Childhood |date=26 May 1992 |publisher=Springer Netherlands |isbn=9780792312505 |page=137 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2zvayKFKkgoC |access-date=27 March 2023}}

How Children Learn focuses on Holt's interactions with young children. The book is divided into five parts: "Games and Experiments," "Talk," "Reading," "Sports," and "Art, Maths and Other Things," each of which contains his observations of children learning.{{cite book |last1=Meighan |first1=Roland |title=John Holt |date=23 October 2014 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9781441106162 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iE6CBAAAQBAJ |access-date=27 March 2023}} From them, he attempts to make sense of how and why children do the things they do. The central thesis of his work is that children learn most effectively by their own motivation and on their own terms. He writes that it encourages children to develop coping mechanisms and focus on getting out of tasks teachers want them to do, rather than encouraging them to learn.{{cite book |last1=Aubrey |first1=Karl |last2=Riley |first2=Alison |title=Understanding and Using Challenging Educational Theories |date=12 October 2020 |publisher=SAGE Publications |isbn=9781529738087 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bhHnDwAAQBAJ |access-date=27 March 2023}}