FREEDOM" FOR CHILDREN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 126, 29 May 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

FREEDOM" FOR CHILDREN.

" THAT DREADFUL SCHOOL."

A. S. NEILL TELLS ITS STORY.

Unorthodox educational theories are not uncommon, but few of their propounders are given an opportunity —or make one—to test them in practice. An exception, perhaps the most notable in England, is A. S. Neill, author of "A Dominie's Log," "The Problem Parent," and other books, and founder of Summerhill School. In "That Dreadful School" (Herbert Jenkins) he has told the story of the school, which is now lt» years old, and has 70 pupils. "Neill" —which is how pupils, staff and servants address him—appears to get his personality into his writing, from which it may be judged that he is provocatively unconventional in thought and manner, deeply sincere and intensely alive. He is also dogmatic and combative, perhaps because he has long had to meet severe criticism. As to his school the layman can only say that the account of it is intensely interesting, and that its principal and staff must be extremely patient and selfsacrificing. It is popularly known as a "go-as-you-please" school. Lessons are optional. "Children can go to them or stay away from them—for years if they want to Personally I do not know what type of teaching is carried on, for I never visit lessons, and have no interest in how children learn." Nevertheless pupils have passed the London matriculation. But "Neill" repeatedly declares that hi« children are not allowed to do as they please, except in things that affect only themselves and do not interfere with the freedom of others. If they do interfere they are tried and "sentenced" by the others. A general meeting is held every Saturday night ("I have more than once wakened up a dull meeting by proposing that second helpings be abolished.") A "government" is elected at the beginning of each term, and the vote of a seven-year-old has the same value as the principal's. The author declares that as an education self-government is of infinite value, though one of its drawbacks is that "popularity too often pushes aside ability." At the beginning Summerhill was an experimental school, and many of its pupils were children who for various good reasons had left orthodox schools. Such pupils are no longer welcomed, for the principal wante the school judged by the children whose whole education has been received there. There is hardly anyone who will not be interested in this book, though the interest of many will be indignant and (particularly if they have no acquaintance with Freudian psychology) shocked. Some will conclude that the man is mad; others will suspend judgment and ' hope to hear or read an impartial verdict on the school and its methods. Mr. Neill says it is now a demonstration school, "for it demonstrates that freedom works and succeeds." Last year he went to South Africa as the guest of the Transvaal Teachers' Association, and in the final chapter of the book he gives about 70 questions that he was asked, and his answers.