In December I invited everybody who'd been involved in helping to set up York Credit Union to come for a drink to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first public meeting in 1997. Not many people turned up, but it was a good evening and I was pleased to meet one of the original volunteers, John Hume, a local businessman and philanthropist. Over several drinks we had a jovial conversation... and he proudly told me about his daughter's latest screenwriting success.
Government defeated
Alisom Hume has written a film about Summerhill, the famous 'free' school in Suffolk set up by A. S. Neill. He told me about the school's ethos of democratically deciding the rules, with every pupil and teacher having an equal vote, and the children not being made to attend classes. He explained that the school inspectors had tried to shut the school down, and Summerhill had taken the Government to court, and won! Her film about the school is due to be broadcast on the BBC during the next fortnight.
I didn't know much about Summerhill but it sounded interesting, especially as I hated much of my schooling, my children are not that happy with the amount of homework they are forced to do, and my wife often mentions 'home schooling', although I feel that the benefits of a normal school community of socialisation and structure would be lost if we tried this. But I was intrigued and found out more and am looking forward to the programme.
(At Summerhill children learn at their own speed)
Learning at their own speed
A.S. Neill was a visionary who believed that children would become balanced adults if they experienced as much play as they wanted, learned at their own speed and in their own way. He opened Summerhill in 1921 and it has attracted a lot of attention ever since. The school is a community, with children aged 5 to 16, the older ones often being boarders. It is sometimes seen as an anarchic and 'all play and no work', but this is not true, as they have up to 250 rules..... all voted for by the school community.
Occasionally the rules get voted out... and for a few days there are no rules, but this teaches them all how important rules are and they invariably get voted back. The headmistress is Zoe Readhead, the founder's daughter, and she says that the academic results are comparable to other schools. It is a fee-paying establishment, but the fees are not high and there are quite a few middle and lower income children there, as well as many wealthy foreign kids, giving an international feel.
The programme is a drama inspired by real events, and aims to contribute to the debate about the aims and methodology of education in the UK today. It was filmed partly at Summerhill during the holidays, and some pupils were used as extras. The full film is to be shown on BBC4 on 28th January at 9pm, and there will be four 30 minute episodes shown on 21, 22, 28 and 29th Jan on CBBC at 6pm, and on BBC1 on 23, 24, 30 and 31st Jan at 4.30pm. I will be watching with my children and I expect they will wish that they were at Summerhill!
Schools and climate change
For those of us connected with ordinary (or extraordinary) schools, I wonder if the time is right for us to ask what the school is doing to address the challenges of climate change and promoting sustainability education? There are many ways we could achieve this; through the head teacher, the PTA, the school council or direct to the Governors.
I am delighted that the head at my children's school has invited me to write something about the issues which I'd like to see dealt with to give to the Board of Governors early next month. There's also talk of a gardening club starting up... so I feel things are eventually beginning to go in the right direction here. And I have a lot of writing to do......
Comments (1)
I have commented on UK home educators' reactions to the Summerhill series (so far), at www.daretoknowblog.blogspot.com
re: socialisation and HE, most of the HE groups around our way remind us very much of what you see at in the Summerhill series: children who with a little adult help, acquire great skills in managing a very flat democracy.
With only a little effort on the part of parents, HE kids don't miss out socially at all. In fact, they so hugely out-perform traditionally schooled children in this field, that being repeatedly told that HE kids must be socially deprived is somewhat galling!
Posted by Carlotta | January 27, 2008 5:55 AM
Posted on January 27, 2008 05:55