Tonight I am handing over blog duties to Pat Farenga.  Pat is the President of Holt Associates, Inc., having worked closely with John Holt until his death in 1985.   Pat is the father of three homeschooled children.  He has written several books on homeschooling, has appeared on several national TV shows including The Today Show and Good Morning America as a homeschooling expert, and travels and speaks to audiences across the globe about homeschooling, unschooling and the work of John Holt.   The link I’m posting here is to his blog.  (For some reason it doesn’t link directly and you’ll need to copy and paste it into your browser.)  This entry, in which he quotes John Holt speaking about the teaching of foreign languages, gave me a lot to think about.   Maya has Spanish in the morning, and one of the reasons she enjoys it is that we hear it a lot on the street and she likes being able to understand what people are saying.  (imagine that!).    Anyway, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did:

http://patfarenga.squarespace.com/pat-farengas-blog/2011/4/28/learning-foreign-languages-or-just-learning-to-play-the-scho.html