From: Robert Smith <history_ssag-AT-hotmail.com>
Date: 08 May 2008 00:57:35 UTC   (07:57:35 PM in author's locale)
To: Situationist <situationist-AT-lists.nothingness.org>

Dear All.

Chomsky's devotees "devoid of humour, a sense of wonder, and undankified vision…. I know the answer to the Bill Nelson song lyrical question "do you dream in colour" with respect to these two self-bloats. No".  Too true Chris.  You could also add those who consider Naomi Klein as a spokeswoman of her generation.  All blind people feeling and "recognising" the elephant in the room.

 

I'm not in habit of recommending children's drama series to people, but I make an exception when it's a drama about Summerhill School, a democratic school which the radical educationalist A.S. Neill established in 1921 in Dresden as part of the Freie Schule movement and of Germany's greater progressive renaissance that emerged after WWI and choked to death by the Nazis.  It moved to England in the late 1920's and apart from the war years has been in Sussex on the south coast since the 1930's.

 

Neill was also afraid that when the Labour government came to power in 1945 that they would close down the school as "the little man is in the saddle", but it was many years later when Neill's daughter was the Head and soon after Blair's Labour government came to power that the little man attacked!

 

How different the world would be if our children were allowed to be themselves and fulfil their potential in terms of human growth.  Neill said that it is better that the school produces a happy roadsweeper than a neurotic politician and if he did produce a Prime Minister, he would have thought of himself as a failure! 

You cannot make children learn music or anything else without to some degree converting them into will-less adults. You fashion them into accepters of the status-quo - good thing for a society that needs obedient sitters at dreary desks, standers in shops, mechanical catchers of the 8:30 suburban train—a society, in short, that is carried on the shabby shoulders of the scared little man—the scared-to-death conformist.

You can't have a more child-centred and humanist attitude than that!

 

 

The quality of the clips are a bit dodgy at times, but well worth it….

Children’s BBC

 

Summerhill is a powerful true story and emotional drama for the whole family from BBC Children's Drama. Written by Alison Hume, it is a tale of personal transformation set against one school's battle for survival against Ofsted in 1999.  

Founded in 1921 by world-renowned educator AS Neill, on the principles of self-regulation, this unique Suffolk-based boarding school runs as a self-governing democratic community. Pupils (aged five to 16), teachers, live-in house-parents and principal Zoë Redhead (Neill's daughter) all possess one equal vote which they use during their thrice-weekly school meetings to decide on all matters pertaining to the running of the school.

The children police themselves, dealing with infractions of their multitudinous self-imposed laws with compassion and wisdom. The only rule they cannot change is the prime principle upon which AS Neill founded the school – that no child should be compelled to attend any lesson that they do not choose freely by themselves.

In episode one of this four-part series, 11-year-old Maddie is sent to Summerhill after collapsing from exam stress. When she arrives, she can't believe it is true – a school where you don't have to go to lessons, where you're encouraged to play, where you make all the rules yourself and where climbing trees and building boats are definitely part of the curriculum.

When 14-year-old Ryan is sent there after no other school can contain his disruptive behaviour, he thinks he has gone to Heaven. Summerhill changes both Maddie and Ryan in ways they would never expect.

Maddie is played by Holly Bodimeade and Ryan by Elliot-Otis Brown Walters.

 

 

Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education) - inspects and regulates achievement in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages.

 

SUMMERHILL

A RADICAL APPROACH TO CHILD REARING

By A. S. NEILL (1960)

Summerhill is the most unusual school in the world. Here’s a place where children are not compelled to go to class – they can stay away from lessons for years, if they want to. Yet, strangely enough, the boys and girls in this school LEARN! In fact, being deprived of lessons turns out to be a severe punishment.

Summerhill has been run by A. S. Neill since 1920. This is the world’s greatest experiment in bestowing unstinted love and approval on children. This is the place, where one courageous man, backed by courageous parents, has had the fortitude to actually apply – without reservation – the principles of freedom and non-repression.

The school runs under a true children’s government where the “bosses” are the children themselves. Despite the common belief that such an atmosphere would create a gang of unbridled brats, visitors to Summerhill are struck by the self-imposed discipline of the pupils, by their joyousness, the good manners. These kids exhibit a warmth and lack of suspicion toward adults, which is the wonder, and delight of even official British school investigators.

In this book A. S. Neill candidly expresses his unique  - and radical – opinions on the important aspects of parenthood and child rearing. These strong commendations of authors and educators attest that every parent who reads this book will find in it many examples of how Neill’s philosophy may be applied to daily life situations. Educators will find how Neill’s philosophy may be applied to daily-life situations. Educators will find Neill’s refreshing viewpoints practical and inspiring.

Reading this book is an exceptionally gratifying experience, for it puts into words the deepest feelings of all who care about children, and wish to help them lead happy, fruitful lives.

 

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