Summerhill
Bruce Robinson (bruce.rob who-is-at btinternet.com)
Thu, 27 May 1999 23:30:18 +0100
You may be interested to know that Summerhill, the private progressive
school founded by A.S. Neill, is likely to close, according to various
reports in the British press. Apparently, it failed some sort of official
government inspection, not merely on the grounds of poor accommodation
(which had apparently been a problem before), but because of the children
not being forced to attend lessons and what the (now Thatcherite inspired
results-oriented) inspectors considered the low academic level. Neill's
daughter, who now runs the school, has said she would close it rather than
compromise his principles. However good or bad the school is, it is clear
that all education is being forced into the same narrow instrumental mould
we discussed recently by means of the current inspection regime in Britain
and other centralised prescriptions such as the national curriculum.
Bruce Robinsonmmmmmmm