"When, without any very great plan in mind, I began to allow more and more time during the school day for my students to talk to and do things with each other, I began to learn enough about them, their experiences and ideas and interests, so that I could see some ways to make the classroom a more useful place for them. They had to teach me before I could begin to teach them.

Thus, when I learned, from hearing her talk to her friends, that one of my students loved horses, I was able to help her with her 'reading problem' by putting within her reach a copy of National Velvet. She loved it, as I thought she would, and her love for the story and the people in it gave her the desire and strength to overcome her 'reading problem'—which was mostly the fear that she really couldn't learn to read, and the shame she would feel if this proved to be so." Holt

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