In this essay John Holt makes the point clear that the current system of schooling for our children is bad for them. He thinks that the school systems across the country are limiting the creative learning power of the minds of the children by teaching them ways to fake the learning of things they are not interested in. Children learn more by exploring the world themselves and asking questions of adults when they can not come up with a solution on their own. When they are locked into brick buildings with nothing they are interested in, they do not learn. School should be one endless, educational fieldtrip, not dull, cold, white, institutionally decorated walls that do not stimulate the mind.
Even the things that the children are interested in are kept away from them such as other children. Many schools do not allow children to speak to one another during the school day or even at their lunch time. When in school, children are told by their "so-called" teachers, that they are, in effect, worthless. This of course is unless they "learn" everything they are "taught." The children therefore come up with ways to cheat the system or learn only what they have to for a test and then they forget it immediately afterwards, because they are simply not interested with the subject matter. .
Holt makes the point that on the first day of school every child is "smarter, more curious, less afraid of what he doesn't know, better at finding and figuring things out, more confident, resourceful, persistent, and independent than he will ever be again in his schooling" (84). He believes that the longer children are in school the more likely they are to want to drop out, because of the way the system is failing to teach them any real life skills. Holt sees that not everyone is interested in the same things and that the only way to really get children to gain knowledge and retain things they are not necessarily one hundred percent interested in is to make learning interactive.