Learning Never Stops!

I have taught high school for eight years and this book is complete anarchist/utopian propaganda…Complete dream land sort of idealism that will create young people that both know nothing and are obsessively self-indulgent. The idea that adults have very little to teach young people and they should only do what they “feel like” is just silly. I see “free and unstructured” classrooms all the time in my teaching experience and I can tell you very little learning takes place. As a matter of fact, the students will tell you too. Common sense dictates this (something most progressives lack because of their preoccupation with a utopian vision). Most students hate such situations and appreciate a teacher who creates a loving (yet structured) environment and teaches them to love a subject they may have never experienced on their own. This structure doesn’t have to mean bootcamp discipline, which is the straw man that many radical progressives present it as. How many teachers have inspired a love of art, history, mathematics, music, science, or literature? Countless. How many “imposed” their “curriculum” on the students through their requirements and structure? Most of the best ones for sure. Even great teachers that give students some choices do so in a structure that is geared toward success. The reality is that the best teachers LEAD and inspire students everyday and students thank them for it, albeit sometimes many years later. Summerhill is a radical progressive/anarchist school that plays to the worst of human nature: unchecked self-indulgence. Anyone with a child knows you don’t have to teach a child to be selfish, you have to teach them to care and be respectful of others (that includes the idea that you can learn from others too!) The problem with allowing students to make all the choices and adults just having “one of the votes” is that young people OFTEN make the wrong choices. Example: At Summerhill, Neill himself wanted to limit smoking to anyone over 12, yet the students outvoted him and abolished the age limit! Yeah, Summerhill is just what we need for our youth!
Rating: 1 / 5

My reading was of the original text, without other analysis or editing. Much of what I read seemed tedious, but the occasional insights and proposals are memorable. Had I not been very curious as an army medic (during the Vietnam Era) with limited options, I probably would not have read every word because much seemed vacuous to me. For me, the best parts dealt with the need for any civilized persons (beginning in childhood) to understand and accept aging and timely death–in the family or not–in a constructive way. This seems to me to be most valuable.
Rating: 3 / 5

In my reading of Summerhill, I found myself doing some hard thinking about what A.S. Neill’s philosophy of education is really about. I do not agree with his philosophy of children being able to establish their own rules and changing them as they go along to fit the way that they live. However, I do feel that children should have an input into setting up rules. In reading this book, it is hard to believe that the ideas A.S. Neill had were 75 years ago.

I will admit that I was not overly thrill with the independence the children are given at Summerhill, but as I continue to research for the education class I am taking, I begin to rethink some of my ideas of education and what type of independence children might have. There may be something to Neill’s philosophy regarding children and their right to free thinking. Summerhill’s success in providing a happy environment for kids, producing happy, well-balanced men and women, stands as continuing proof of Neill’s idea that “The absence of fear is the finest thing that can happen to a child”. Summerhill has survived 75 years and a lawsuit, yet as the world has changed their fundamental principals have remained.

Again, I do not agree with his total philosophy, but Neill does give one something to think about regarding children in the classroom and at home. I recommend the book for reading especially for those who are already in the field of education or plans to make education part of their career. Summerhill gives a person another view of education and ideas of what may or may not work.
Rating: 4 / 5