Unschooling, John Holt and the Natural Genius of Children
A Coach House Perspective
The educational philosophy of John Holt — one of the most influential voices in the home education movement — has come to be known by many as unschooling. Unfortunately, this term is widely misunderstood. Some people imagine it to mean a lack of structure, a lack of seriousness, or even a rejection of education itself. But Holt never meant any such thing. Unschooling is not the absence of learning, but rather the removal of unnecessary and artificial barriers to learning. It's about giving children the time, freedom and respect they need to learn naturally, through real life, at their own pace — not through rigid school routines.
At Coach House, we honour this principle. Our approach is about providing rich, meaningful resources across a wide range of subjects — and then giving students the freedom to explore, investigate, and create. We don't script every moment. We supply high-quality learning materials, tailored to the student's strengths and interests, and we equip parents to act as facilitators, not enforcers. In this way, our curriculum becomes a perfect tool for implementing unschooling in practice — not as a free-for-all, but as a thoughtful, individualised educational model that nurtures natural curiosity.
Children Are Born Learners
John Holt was unwavering in his belief that children are natural learners — a truth every parent recognises when they observe their child at home. Children are:
Born curious
Inherently competent
Capable of directing their own development
Holt insisted that the innate drive to learn is not something schools need to manufacture — it already exists. What children need is space, freedom, and the right environment, not top-down control.
Any parent who’s ever answered “Why?” forty-eight times before breakfast knows exactly what Holt meant.
Home Schooling Unlocks Natural Learning
Holt argued that institutionalised schooling replaces curiosity with coercion. In the classroom:
Children are asked to please adults instead of understanding the world
Natural learning is interrupted by rigid pacing and timetables
Exploration is sacrificed in favour of standardisation
By contrast, home education allows learning to unfold naturally:
It happens at the child’s pace
It is driven by personal interests
It is embedded in real-life experiences, not artificial classroom structures
It has no arbitrary time constraints, allowing deep dives into complex ideas
At Coach House, we believe children thrive when they are respected as active participants in their own learning journey. We’re not hands-off — we are deeply involved — but we recognise that our job is not to push or micromanage, but to guide, scaffold, and support.
What Learning the Cello Taught John Holt
John Holt famously learned to play the cello as an adult, and it became a notable part of his personal philosophy about learning.
He began learning the cello in his 40s, having had no prior formal musical training. Holt took lessons, practised diligently, and eventually became a competent amateur cellist, performing in chamber groups and local orchestras. He used this experience to demonstrate that learning is a natural, lifelong process—not something confined to childhood or formal schooling. Holt often referred to his cello practice as an example of self-directed, joyful learning, guided by personal interest rather than obligation or curriculum.
Holt's book, Never Too Late: My Musical Life Story offers profound insights into the nature of learning, especially as an adult. In this memoir, Holt chronicles his journey of learning to play the cello in his forties, challenging the notion that certain skills must be acquired early in life. The book isn't just about learning to play an instrument; it's a thoughtful reflection on how adults can reclaim the joy of learning and how true education is driven by curiosity, patience and intrinsic motivation. The title itself reinforces the message that it's never too late to learn something new. A particularly resonant quote from the book nicely captures his belief in the boundless potential of human learning:
"If I could learn to play the cello well, as I thought I could, I could show by my own example that we all have greater powers than we think; that whatever we want to learn or learn to do, we probably can learn; that our lives and our possibilities are not determined and fixed by what happened to us when we were little, or by what experts say we can or cannot do."
This experience deeply reinforced his belief that:
People learn best when they are genuinely interested
The fear of failure and judgement (common in school settings) impedes learning
Mastery comes through consistent, self-paced practice—not pressure
Coercion Can’t Replace Curiosity
This is one of Holt’s most powerful insights: you cannot substitute coercion for curiosity.
Children learn best when they are:
Interested in the material
Free to explore it in their own way
Supported by adults who trust their capacity to grow and understand
It’s this insight that is driving more and more families toward homeschooling — and toward curriculum models like ours, which honour the child’s natural rhythm, curiosity, and desire to learn.
At Coach House, we don’t believe learning should be a battle of wills. We believe it should be a journey of discovery — and that belief owes much to the bold, thoughtful work of John Holt. We highly recommend a read of his influential books, How Children Learn, Never Too Late and Instead of Education.
