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> A.S.Neill Summerhill trust > history |
...where success is not defined by academic achievement...
I have been relaxed, open-minded and I have found my personality here
so people can see who I am and not what grades I get. Because of non-compulsory lessons, I enjoy learning, I am not prejudiced
against teachers, I am mature in my attitude towards learning. The friendships I have made are meaningful and will last for forever.
I know that I don’t need to have 10 GCSEs to be a worthy person.
They are not that important. Summerhill gave me the one precious key condition for learning: if
there is something I don’t know, I am eager to learn about it.
I have a strong desire to learn and improve myself. I see learning
as a lifelong process, in which the most important thing is motivation – the
thirst – to go on and feed your mind. Most of the school work that adolescents do is simply a waste of time,
of energy, of patience. It robs youth of its right to play and play
and play, it puts old heads on young shoulders.
Look at who we, the Summerhillians, have become: we are artists, writers,
professors, scientists, soldiers, administrators, theologians, bankers,
musicians, carpenters, landscape architects, small business owners.
We hold BAs, MAs, and PhDs. We vote. We are precisely the ‘useful’ people
their curricula is designed to produce! And we are happy and productive
to boot. I would rather Summerhill produced a happy street sweeper than a neurotic
Prime Minister. ...where the whole school deals democratically with issues...> | |
To provide choices and opportunities that allow children to develop at
their own pace and to follow their own interests. Summerhill does not
aim to produce specific types of young people, with specific, assessed
skills or knowledge, but aims to provide an environment in which children
can define who they are and what they want to be.
I don’t feel disadvantaged. In fact I feel advantaged because
I know how to think for myself and work things out for myself.