Escape From Childhood

From YRN

Escape From Childhood: The Rights and Needs of Children was written by John Holt, who is best known for his books on education. Escape From Childhood was published in 1974, the same year as Richard Farson's Birthrights, and about four years after Youth Liberation of Ann Arbor became the first known youth rights organization. It is widely regarded as one of the most important publications in the youth rights canon.

Holt makes essential points for youth liberation in the book, laying out the first argument for the youth rights movement. Escape From Childhood is similar to Birthrights in many ways, but Holt builds his argument more slowly. Holt also writes in a less technical manner than Farson. Escape From Childhood contends that young people can, and indeed must, control their own lives. This means voting, traveling on their own, consuming what they desire, etc.

Children's rights

Holt laid out several specific rights he thought all children should have. They included:

• The right to vote
• The right to work
• The right to own property
• The right to travel
• The right to choose one's guardian
• The right to a guaranteed income
• The right to legal and financial responsibility
• The right to control one's learning
• The right to use drugs
• The right to drive
• The right to control one's sex life.

Quotes

"By now I have come to feel that the fact of being a 'child', of being wholly subservient and dependent, of being seen by older people as a mixture of expensive nuisance, slave, and super-pet, does most young people more harm than good. I propose instead that the rights, privileges, duties, responsibilities of adult citizens be made available to any young person, of whatever age, who wants to make use of them." (p 4)

"Children acting really competently and intelligently do not usually strike us as cute. They are likely to puzzle and threaten us. We don't like to see a child acting in a way that makes it impossible for us to look down on him or to suppose that he depends on our help." (p 85)

"But what I want more for the child than the right, in spite of being a child, to have all the protection that the law grants to adults. I want in addition to the right to decide not to be a child, not to be dependent any longer on guardians of any kind, but to live as an independent financially and legally responsible citizen. I want the right, in all respects, to escape from childhood."

"If we take from someone the rights to decide what he will be curious about, we destroy his freedom of thought."

"Some five-year-olds and younger, as much as any adult, are uptight, guarded, devious, calculating... manipulators and con men..." [They] "do almost everything they do, including smile and laugh, to get an effect or reward."

External links

• Escape from Childhood write-up on Holt Associates website.
• UNESCO webpage on Escape from Childhood.
• Original 1975 review from Harper's magazine.