The Spirit
of Ma’at Vol 1, No 10
by Sandra Fann
It used
to be said that children should be seen and not heard. At Summerhill School, in
the south of England, that idea has been thrown right out the window. In fact,
if a window is open at Summerhill, you may just hear the voice of a child
shouting at the teacher!
Summerhill
is a small boarding school. It was founded in 1921 by A. S. Neill. Today, it is
run by his daughter, Zoe Readhead.
The
school was founded with the idea that, to quote A. S. Neill, ''Every child has
a God inside.'' Neill felt that if children were allowed free expression, the
God inside of them would be expressed. And that if they were not allowed that
freedom, the God would turn into a devil.
Neill,
the fourth of thirteen children, had a father who was the stern schoolmaster of
his village school. When Neill was 15, his father began to train him to follow
in his own footsteps - but the son had a different way of perceiving the world.
Neill
received his degree from Edinburgh University, and became a journalist for a
time. Later, he became headmaster of a small school.
''I am
only just realizing,'' he said then, ''the absolute freedom of my scheme of
education. I see that all outside compulsion is wrong, and that inner
compulsion is the only value. And if Mary or David wants to laze about, lazing
about is the one thing necessary for their personalities to develop at the
moment. Every moment of a healthy child's life is a working moment.'' (For more
support and a deeper explanation of this point of view, see Relationships and
the Power of Gentle Ways in last month's issue of the Spirit of Ma'at.)
Neill's
school moved several times. At one point it was in Lyme Regis, in a house
called ''Summerhill.'' When it later moved to Leiston, a town in Suffolk, the
name ''Summerhill'' was retained.
The
Smallest Child Has an Equal Vote
More
than just a school, Summerhill is considered to be a community, where the votes
of children are as important as those of their teachers. In fact, the vote of
each student and teacher carries the same weight as that of the headmistress
herself.
Summerhill's
current director, Zoe Readhead, explains the ideas upon which the school is
based: ''Imagine a school...'' she invites us, ''where climbing trees and
building dens are considered as important as learning decimal fractions. Where
you can shout at the teacher if you want to. Where the rules governing everyday
life are made democratically by the whole community. Where the children are
free to play all day if they want'' ( Summerhill2000).
''I
don't think anybody is good enough or clever enough to tell another person how
to live,'' Readhead says. She believes that the traditional system of rearing
and schooling ''will either produce obedient sheep, or rebellious and angry
individuals. If people are suppressed and tyrannized, they will live fearfully
and harbor huge resentment. We can and have seen throughout history the results
of this...''
At
Summerhill, meetings are held where the laws which govern the school are voted
on. The school has approximately 12 staff members and 70 students, each having
an equal vote. These meetings are called Tribunals.
A Tribunal
is held twice weekly to discuss any problems or conflicts that have developed
in the community. Students can bring charges against teachers or other
students. Staff, as well, may present any problems to the Tribunal. The issues
are discussed and voted on, and punishments are assigned when needed.
Children
can attend classes or not, as they choose, but there are regulations that
govern what they can do during the hours that are set aside for classroom
attendance. One regulation is that they are not free at that time to watch
television.
''We
believe in freedom, but not licence. This means that you are free to do as you
like, but you must not interfere with somebody else's freedom. You are free to
go to lessons or to stay away, because that is your personal business. But you
cannot play your drum kit at four in the morning, because that would interfere
with the freedom of others.''
Summerhill
has traditionally been a boarding school, and although it is still mostly run
within that framework, a few day students attend. There are three full-time
house parents, eight full-time teachers, and some part-time teachers. All
full-time staff live on campus. Subjects include science, math, English,
French, German, Japanese, woodwork, art and pottery, drama, history, geography,
computing, and music (for interested students).
Sports
are included, and extracurricular activities include swimming, computer study
(with rooms and equipment set aside for this), field games, a dark room, pets,
skateboarding, tennis, and theater.
See
s-hill.demon.co.uk for answers to questions about the school.
An
ex-Summerhill houseparent, Matthew Appleton, had the expectation when he joined
the staff at Summerhill of finding an environment where everyone was happy (see
flatlandbooks.com).
Once
there, however, Matthew observed that some of the children were antisocial and
discontented. He found himself harboring angry feelings towards these children
for not fitting into his idealistic version of what the school should be like.
If he
had left then, Matthew states, he would have felt disillusioned. But he stayed.
And he saw these children change.
He saw
''shy, emotionally withdrawn children, traumatized by their experiences in
other schools, turn into confident and open young people. I saw children,
hardened by what life had thrown at them, soften and relax.''
In
fact, the children that misbehave at Summerhill are, for the most part, the new
arrivals that have not yet adjusted to the change of lifestyle and the freedom
that is allowed. The older a child is when he or she enters the Summerhill
environment, the longer this adjustment takes. But eventually, it happens.
As a
result, during its 78 years there has never been a pregnancy at the school, nor
does Summerhill have drinking or drug problems. And the bullying, harassment,
and other events that happen when young people live together are dealt with by
the whole community in the Tribunals, where a majority vote decides what to do.
It
could be argued that Summerhill is a small, private boarding school whose
approach could not be applied to large public day schools.
But
perhaps we need to consider whether the trend toward larger schools is really
worth the monetary savings. Is saving money more important than saving our
children?
Writer
Sandra Fann can be reached at garyfann@clas.net.