Social media reveals a lamentable lack of intelligence in our political discussions. Here I argue that politics is not all about image, that leaders should not be given the visibility of pop stars and that people are intelligent enough to have their own opinions.
Geoff is an authoritarian. He believes there are bad people in the world and the police are there to protect us from them. He believes the royal family is an essential bulwark of authority and stability in the world. He believes nationalism is an atavistic tribal urge that will never be replaced by internationalism.
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,…
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…
Party Time! Today I am going to describe how parties at Summerhill help the democratic community to work. If you are starting a democratic school or democratising an exisiting school, you want to give as much attention to the festive cycle of the year as to the academic cycle. I described before how the “book…
Ombudsman or Prefect. “An ombudsman? So that’s a bit like a prefect then, isn’t it?” says John who has been to a posh public school. “Sure, they are elected at Summerhill but it’s basically the same idea. You take the older and more responsible kids and give them some authority so that they can do…
What kind of democracy do you get in a democratic school like Summerhill? It is not political democracy- representative democracy as we know it at regional and national level. It is something else entirely, but it is not immediately clear what it is.
