I am currently reading “Neill of Summerhill – the Permanent Rebel†by Jonathan Croall.
I don’t know how much of A. S. Neill’s work and philosophy I understood when I was at college in the late 60’s/early 70’s. What I do know is that I’ve known for a long time, as did he, that infants are innately good when they are born.
There were days in the past few years when I have thought, as Neill wrote in a letter in 1931, “…I am weary of cleaning up the mess that parents make.â€
It was my own schooling that had the most profound influence on me. From my first experience at age 4 years 7 months when I first attended a Catholic primary school as one of the few non-Catholics until I finally left my academic English grammar school 14 years later to take an office job, every aspect of how I was treated formed my ideas of the education that I hoped for for my children.
I had doubts about an American education when I was first contemplating it for my oldest son. We had talked about educating our children ourselves even before we had them. As we were compiling the first US edition of Reed’s Nautical Almanac we envisioned ourselves sailing around the world and our children travelling everywhere with us. A Sail Magazine article published in the 1970’s about a family that lead such a life was inspirational to us both. (We never sailed round the world!)
The only reason my oldest son attended a part-time pre-school was because by the time he was 4 years old nearly every other child he knew was in full time or at least half day part-time pre-school. Gone were the days of meeting at the park with other families where our children were free to create their own games.
Of course, once I encountered the meanness of public school administrations I knew I had to do something different. It was really only that I was so different from those around me (that funny English accent made me unusual to start with!) coupled with not being religious – did I mention that on marrying I also took a Jewish surname? Too many factors making me an obvious “outcast in the south†all of which prompted me to do what I could for my child to appear conventional.
I was wrong to even think that either of my sons would end up being “typical Americansâ€. You simply can’t be a typical American family when you come from first generation immigrants on both sides!
Thus came our choice to home educate our sons. It was some time before I realised that I had brought our children up with freedom prior to them reaching school age (they were already being ‘home educated’). Once I went back to that, away from the rigidity of the book learning traditional route, their brains went back to functioning as they had in their earliest years. Freely and naturally.
Which brings me back to Neill of Summerhill. His great belief in the children that he taught, especially those who were troubled in their early years, his belief that parents were contributing factors in the problems the children had and that in order for a child to heal they needed tenderness, time and freedom, are all my beliefs.
It’s belief in the goodness of the child over the efficiency of the system or convenience of the parents.
I’ve come to it by myself but am encouraged to read more of the books by individuals who wrote about such beliefs in the 20th century.
I wonder where similar thinkers are in the 21st century?