Alexander Neill (1883-1973), Scottish libertarian educator, proponent of children’s liberation, founder of the Summerhill School. Born October 17, 1883 in Scotland in the family of a school teacher. First he helped his father, then, after graduating from the University of Edinburgh (1912), he began working as a school teacher. During this time, he began to become disillusioned with traditional parenting methods, describing his views as «Nietzschean enough to protest that children are taught to be meek and humble.» He himself sought to «shape the minds (children) in such a way that they question, destroy and rebuild.»
Neill believed that the priority in education and upbringing should be to maintain a child’s sense of happiness, and that this feeling grows out of a sense of personal freedom. He believed that the deprivation of a child of personal freedom in childhood is the cause of the subsequent feeling of unhappiness in adulthood, which in turn causes various mental disorders. In those years, this idea seemed seditious, although now it is considered almost generally accepted.
Neill organized his own school Summerhill (translated from English — Summer Hill), first in 1921 in the vicinity of Dresden in Germany, then moving to England. At this school, the presence of children in the classroom was voluntary. In addition, the school was based on democratic principles — children could discuss and vote on school rules, and students and teachers had equal voting rights.
Summerhill’s experience has shown that, freed from the pressures of a traditional school, students respond positively to the learning process through their own positive motivation. According to Neill, Summerhill graduates had much more healthy skepticism about the adult world upon leaving school than their more conformist-bred peers from mainstream schools. The positive results of the children’s stay in Summerhill are even more noticeable and striking if we take into account that the so-called «problem» children were also admitted to this school, who had acute experiences of parental conflict or parental neglect behind them, which certainly had a negative impact on their psyche. .
As a supporter of psychoanalysis, Neill opposed sexual repression and the establishment of strict Victorian rules in the school. He believed that to have a negative attitude towards sexuality means to hate life as such.
Neill taught algebra, geometry at school, and also taught children how to work with metal. At the same time, he himself often said that he admired skillful artisans much more than people who achieved success in an exclusively intellectual field. Although attendance was voluntary, the lessons themselves at the school were fairly strict.
In addition, Neill conducted so-called “personal lessons” with students (in fact, psychotherapy sessions), in which the personal problems of children were discussed. Subsequently, he refused them, referring to the fact that even those of the students who did not undergo such psychotherapy nevertheless successfully got rid of «criminal» behavior due to the fact that the atmosphere of freedom reigned in the school.
During his time at the school, Neill wrote dozens of books that were published from 1916 until his death. His most famous book is Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Learning (foreword by Erich Fromm) (1960). In addition, Neill wrote a memoir, Neill, Neill, Orange Peel! (Neill, Neill, Orange Peel! (1973)), and was also the author of humorous books for children.
Neill was most influenced by the ideas of the British educator Homer Lane, as well as the radical psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, with whom Neill corresponded for many years. Collaborated with Neill and the famous British scientist, philosopher, libertarian teacher and socialist Bertrand Russell, who created his own school in Beacon Hill. Neill’s ideas, in turn, had a great influence on educators around the world, in particular on the American John Holt and the unschooling movement.
Neil has been married twice. His second wife, Ena Wood Neill, worked with him at Summerhill for several decades, and after his death (September 23, 1973) became principal. Then Summerhill was headed by their daughter Zoe Redhead (Zoe Readhead). Summerhill School still exists today.
In Russian, the works of Alexander Neill were published in the collection Summerhill — Education by Freedom (Moscow, Pedagogy-press, 2000). A. Neill’s school had existed for more than forty years by the time his book was written (After A. Neill’s death, his daughter, Zoya, headed the school). During this time, the results of her work continued to amaze. The fact is that the school accepted mainly «difficult» children, who were rejected by the traditional school and even their parents. In Summerhill they were «cured»: they began to study and became happy children with normal behavior.
Books A. Nilla
- Summerhill — Liberty Education
- Bringing up children
- Sex
- Religion and morality