I heard back from Alfie Kohn in response to my question about John Holt and homeschooling. His anwser was that he likes a lot of what Holt said, especially in his earlier works, but he wouldn’t go as far as Holt and recommend homeschooling for two reasons:

  • Public schools are an important democratic institution, one worth preserving and working to support. (And improve.)
  • Kids learn a lot from collective intellectual exploration and knowledge testing and construction.

Which makes sense; I can’t say either of those reasons are show-stoppers for me, but they’re both good ones nonetheless.

Fortunately, we have several years to figure all this out. (And perhaps to improve Mountain View’s post-fifth-grade programs.)