How Children Fail is a non-fiction book by John Holt that was published in 1964 and republished in 1982 in a revised edition.

[1] In it, he cites personal teaching and research experiences that led him to the belief that traditional schooling does more harm than good to a child's ability and desire to truly learn.

When children are very young, they have natural curiosity about the world, trying diligently to figure out what is real.

A teacher's job is to help them overcome their fears of failure and explore the problem for real learning.

Holt maintains that when teachers praise students, they rob them of the joy of discovering truth for themselves.

Holt believes that end of year achievement tests do not show real learning.