Community and Modernity
Is Summerhill an African idea? My flatmates in Edinburgh certainly thought so. They didn’t think it could work in the UK, but it was just the way they had grown up.
Thursday Thoughts: Boarding
“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…
Democratic Meetings in the World
Democratic meetings are an essential part of of democratic societies… But it seems like people do not know how to run them, behave in them and make decisions in them. This should change.
Ombudsmen
Have you ever been in a situation that you cannot resolve and wished there was an impartial onlooker with the authority to help you resolve it? Ombudsmen at Summerhill are these impartial witnesses. The way ombudsmen work is perhaps more impressive than the Meeting itself, even though all their authority comes from the Meeting. Ombudsmen…
