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…
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…
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…
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…
So here is the news! We woke up this week to the fact that our followers do not really know what we are up to. This regular Tuesday spot will keep you up-to-date on Summerhill Democratics projects. They do not always work out. That’s OK. We just keep on doing. University of Cordoba: last…
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,…
“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…
