Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing
Also known as Summerhill (Neill)
A. S. Neill's 1960 account of Summerhill School and child-rearing through freedom.
At a glance
Key ideas
Self-regulation, Optional lessons, Against moulding
See all 3Reception
Margaret Mead, R. G. G. Price, John Vaizey
See all 3Connections
A. S. Neill, Summerhill School and Erich Fromm
See all 3
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Neill describes Summerhill School, run as a children's democracy where lessons are optional and rules are made at a weekly meeting.
- The book aims to show where unhappiness comes from and how to raise children to avoid it.
- It affirms the goodness of the child and argues that attempts to mould children are coercive and harmful.
- It repackaged material from four of Neill's earlier books.
Why it matters
- It introduced Neill's ideas to America and became a key text of the free school movement, selling three million copies.
Key facts
- Author
- A. S. Neill; foreword by Erich Fromm1
- Published
- 7 Nov 1960, Hart Publishing Company, New York1
- Sources
- Drawn from The Problem Child, The Problem Parent, The Free Child and That Dreadful School1
- Sales
- 24,000 in its first year; three million by 19731
- Revised
- 1993, as Summerhill School: A New View of Childhood, St. Martin's Press1
Key ideas
Reception
-
Margaret Mead1
Saw it more as a historical document than something to take at face value.
-
R. G. G. Price1
Called Neill's line against teaching algebra to future repairmen "the most shameful sentence ever written by an educational pioneer".
-
John Vaizey1
Called Summerhill "clearly one of England's greatest schools".
Connections
Links
Sources
Last checked against its sources today
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