Working Within the System “Democratic schools are just groups of privileged kids playing at equality,” says Ted. “That’s not really democracy. You can’t learn about good governance by shutting yourself away from the world.” “What do you mean?” I ask. “What’s wrong with giving children choices?” Children Born Into a World of Choices “Ha,…
Anarchy Rules… um… OK? Democratic schools flirt with anarchism. Anywhere you have a small democratic community that turns its face away from Socialist central planning on the one side and Capitalist manipulation of the market on the other, anarchy is bound to be mentioned. Anarchists look at Summerhill in confusion. “Why didn’t Neill come right out…
Giving Choices: the Invisible Teacher It doesn’t matter how nice you are, how exciting you are, or how well-meaning you are, if your basic instinct is to reduce choices you shouldn’t be working in a democratic school. This is a tricky issue. You might be a real believer, for example, convinced that you have the…
“The English have boarding schools because they do not love their children,” says José. “That just won’t work here.” I can’t really argue with him because there is a profound cultural chasm between us. I don’t find the closeness of his Mediterranean family heart-warming; I find it suffocating. Summerhill is a boarding school of another…
Touch is problematic in most schools. Summerhill is different. Sometimes it seems like a troop of monkeys, but there are safeguards to ensure that touch does not become something it shouldn’t. In this post I ask if something can be learnt from the way things are done at Summerhill.
Suicide, self-harm and depression are huge problems for our schools. What is the solution? Continuing to deprive children of their childhood by an absurd reverence for schoolwork seems to be counter-productive.
Do you know what is good for children? You are wrong! I have heard people say things like, “children love structure” or “routine is good for children” or, on the other side, “children need to be left alone” and “freedom is the best tonic for children.” I don’t believe any of this because I don’t…
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 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.
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…
