After Summerhill
most radical school?
Founded by the legendary educator AS Neill in 1921, Summerhill is notable for the fact that it does not require any of its pupils to attend lessons. Furthermore, the school is run by a council of pupils, teachers and houseparents where questions of discipline are decided democratically. What, one may ask, is the likely outcome of sending a child to such a school?
In After Summerhill, Hussein Lucas investigates these and other questions in a series of extended interviews with people who were educated at Summerhill throughout its history.
The former pupils who emerged from this radical experiment talk about how they coped after they left the idyllic environment of Summerhill and went on to face the harsh realities of the world at large, and how their experience of the school affected their lives subsequently.
After Summerhill is also in part an oral history of the school told by those who were there: a vivid and illuminating picture of what it was like to be a member of this remarkable educational community.
It also reveals how throughout its 90 years Summerhill has undergone a number of changes, yet never lost its basic ideals.
Most of all, this is a book that deals with the actual outcomes of an approach to learning and education that seems to fly in the face of accepted wisdom.
Reviewed and featured in over a dozen media outlets, including The Independent, The Times, BBC Radio 4.... Click here for links
Size: 136 x 218 mm
Binding: softback
Extent: 224 pages plus 4 colour plates
ISBN: 978-1-84289-052-3
Price: £9.95
