Horses, horse culture and a school for children
Zoë Readhead, the principal of Summerhill School, loves horses. In this post I talk about how her love of horses has had a beneficial effect on the school.
What Can You See in the Big, Big Picture?
What is the Big Question in education. In this post I look at the way our lives are changing and will continue to change. If we think education can follow the same tired old model we are fooling ourselves.
Thursday Thoughts: Play
Play is the sap and essence of childhood. And if there is one dark evil in this messed up modern world we have invented, it is the way we have taken free play away from children. We allow the evil octopus of school work to dominate more and more of their lives. We give them…
Tuesday News, or the Wonderful World of Summerhill Democratics
This week we have been busy. The blog post on Examinations struck a chord with many people. I’d love to hear what you think! Jason went to La Cantonera in Gran Canaria. It seemed like a great deal to be on the Canary Islands in March but the weather turned out to be wet, windy…
You are invigilated: Examinations at Summerhill
Examinations are the triumph of small minds over vitality. Summerhill School has always offered examinations but tries to limit their stultifying effect. In this post I shall describe how examinations work at Summerhill and suggest how this could be a model for other schools in their attempts to promote freedom. Many readers of this blog…
Freedom of Speech: Floral Prints and Turbans
Are you prepared to tolerate your neighbours’ views even when they are radically different to your own? In this post I want to consider the broader implications of freedom. How free should we be to have free schools? There were turbans and floral print dresses, dog-collars and dreadlocks. I was at an OFSTED presentation for…
Sunday Basics: Maturity
Getting older is not the same as gaining maturity: we have all known teachers who are less mature than their students, for example. Age divisions in schools are an attempt to impose a system on a natural process. In schools with year groups this system is a mechanical one, as though the children were machine…
Is Summerhill School A Hipster School?
Creativity is a buzz word in education these days. Just plug the word into Google and see what comes up. You might have to scroll down past Sir Ken Robinson, but you will find that there is great interest in stimulating creativity in children. It is not just education. There are experts in creative business,…
Cordoba University: I’ll have pescaíto frito to go, please!
“Ah, you are going to Andalusia, you must have pescaíto frito.” “Yes,” I said, “Is it better than the sardines here in Asturias?” One of my favourite restaurants is a place by the dock in Luanco where they flash fry the sardines and whip them out to you on a chipped old plate with a…
Sunday Basics: Age Divisions
Age Divisions Summerhill is a boarding school. There are two different types of age division in the school: one is academic; the other is related to the boarding accommodation. In this post I want to describe these divisions and discuss whether they have any validity outside Summerhill. There are four academic divisions: Class 1, Class…
