Summerhill School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Summerhill School was founded in 1921 in Hellerau near Dresden, Germany by A.S. Neill. Today it is a boarding and day school currently located in Leiston, Suffolk, England, serving primary and secondary education in a democratic fashion. It is now run by Neill's daughter, Zoe Readhead.
Summerhill is noted for its influential and groundbreaking philosophy[citation needed] that children learn best with freedom from coercion. All lessons are optional, and pupils are free to choose what to do with their time. Neill founded Summerhill with the belief that "the function of a child is to live his own life — not the life that his anxious parents think he should live, not a life according to the purpose of an educator who thinks he knows best."
In addition to taking control of their own time, pupils can participate in the self-governing community of the school. School meetings are held four times a week, where pupils and staff alike have an equal voice in the decisions that affect their day-to-day lives, discussing issues and creating or changing school laws. Meetings are also an opportunity for the community to vote on a course of action for unresolved conflicts, such as a punishment for bullying.
It is upon these major principles, namely, democracy, and equality, that Summerhill School operates.
Summerhill has had a less than perfect relationship with the British government, and is still the most inspected school in the country. During the 1990s, it was inspected nine times. In March of 1999, following a major inspection from OFSTED (The "OFfice for STandards in EDucation"), the then Secretary of State for Education and Employment, David Blunkett, issued the school with a notice of complaint, which took issue with the school's policy of non-compulsory lessons. Failure to comply with such a notice within six months usually leads to closure; however, Summerhill chose to contest the notice in court. The case went before a special educational tribunal in March 2000, when four days into the hearing, the government's case collapsed, and a settlement was agreed. The pupils who were attending the hearing that day took over the courtroom and held a school meeting to debate whether to accept the settlement, eventually voting unanimously to do so.
Courtney Love claimed to have been the first ever expulsion from the school on a BBC Radio 5 Live interview with Simon Mayo on 24th November 2006, and also later that same day (although recorded the night before) on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.[citation needed]
[edit] See also
- Democratic school
- Kirkdale School, South-East London, UK (another school that adopted the philosophy of A.S. Neill).
[edit] Books about Summerhill
- Summerhill School: A Free Range Childhood, by Matthew Appleton ISBN 1-870258-46-0 (UK) ISBN 1-885580-02-9 (US) A recent first-hand account of life as a member of staff at Summerhill.
- Summerhill, by A.S. Neill ISBN 0-14-020940-9 A book about the school and its philosophy, by the school's founder
- Summerhill: For And Against, by various authors ISBN 0-207-12633-X A collection of essays, arguing both in favour and against the schools approach.
- Neill of Summerhill: The Permanent Rebel, by Jonathan Croall. ISBN 0-7100-9300-4 (UK) is mainly a biography of Neill but of course has plenty of material about the school and Neill's ideas.
