September 1973), known as A. S. Neill, was a Scottish
educator and author known for his school, Summerhill School, and its philosophies of freedom from adult coercion and community self-governance. Neill was raised in Scotland, where he was a poor student but became a schoolteacher. He taught in several schools across the country before attending the University of Edinburgh from 1908 to 1912. He was born in Forfar, Scotland to George and Mary Neill. He was raised in an austere, Calvinist house with values of fear, guilt, and adult and divine authority, which he later repudiated. As a child, he was obedient, quiet, and uninterested in school. His father was the village dominie (Scottish schoolmaster) of Kingsmuir, near Forfar in eastern Scotland, and his mother had been a teacher before her marriage. The village dominie held a position of prestige, hierarchically beneath that of upper classes, doctors, and clergymen. As typical of Scottish methods at the time, the dominie controlled overcrowded classrooms with his tawse, as corporal punishment. Neill feared his father, though he later claimed his father's imagination as a role model for good teaching. Scholars have interpreted Neill's harsh childhood as the impetus for his later philosophy, though his father was not shown to be harsher to Allie (as he was known) than to anyone else. Neill's mother (ne Sutherland Sinclair) held high standards for her family, and demanded comportment to set the family apart from the townspeople. The Summerhill classroom was popularly assumed to reflect Neill's anti-authoritarian beliefs, though their classes were traditional in practice. Neill did not show outward interest in classroom pedagogy, and was mainly interested in student happiness.
He did not consider lesson quality important,
and thus there were no distinctive Summerhillian classroom methods. Neill felt that children (and human nature) were innately good, and that children became virtuous and just naturally when allowed to grow without adult imposition of morality. In this way, children did not need to be coaxed or goaded into desirable behavior, as their natural state was satisfactory and their natural inclinations "in no way immoral".
If left alone, children would become self-regulating, reasonable, and ethical adults. Together with Homer Lane, Neill supported personal freedoms for children to live as they please without adult interference, and called this position "on the side of the child". Neill's practice is summarized as providing children with space, time, and empowerment for personal exploration, and with freedom from adult fear and coercion. The aim of life, to Neill, was "to find happiness, which means to find interest." Likewise, the purpose of Neill's education was to be happy and interested in life, and children needed complete freedom to find their interests. Neill considered happiness an innate characteristic that deteriorated when children were denied personal freedom, and that this unhappiness led to repressed and psychologically disordered adults. He blamed a "sick and unhappy" society for widespread unhappiness. N eill claimed that society harbored fears of life, children, and emotions that were continually bequeathed to the next generation. He felt that children turned to self-hate and internal hostility when denied an outlet for expression in adult systems of emotional regulation and manipulation. Likewise, children taught to withhold their sexuality would see view those feelings negatively and fuel disdain for self. Neill thought that calls for obedience squelched the natural needs of children. Moreover, their needs could not be fulfilled by adults and a society that simultaneously prolonged their unhappiness, though perhaps a school like Summerhill could help. As for "interest", Neill felt it came organically and spontaneously and that it was a prerequisite for learning. Neill considered forced instruction (without pupil interest) to be a destructive waste of time ]
When Neill said children should be free, he did not mean complete freedom, but freedom without licensethat everyone can do as they like unless such action encroaches upon another's freedom. As such, adults could and should protect children from danger, but not trample their self-regulation. Neill emphasized that adult removal from child affairs was distinct from disregard for their security. He felt that children met their own limits naturally. Neill believed in equal rights between parents and children, and that undesirable "disciplined" or "spoiled" homes were created when those rights were imbalanced. He felt it unnecessary to fulfill all of childhood's requests and had great disdain for spoiled children.
Summerhill children were naturally restricted by the school's limited teaching expertise and low funds. Self-governance was a central idea to Summerhill, and is perhaps its "most fundamental feature". Summerhill held a weekly general meeting that decided the school's rules and settled school disputes, where every member of the community staff and student alikehad a single vote.
Almost everyone in the school attended the meeting, and children always held the majority. Meetings were managed by an elected Chairperson. At times, the school had over 200 rules.