Summerhill School

The last context of learning that I will be looking at is Summerhill School. This context is one which mainly focuses on creativity and allowing children to express themselves freely and gave them the freedom to do so. Summerhill School was founded by A.S. Neill in 1921. He believed that the school should fit the children and not the other way round. This context of learning sees play and creativity to be the basis of children’s learning and development, not just academically but also within the children themselves.

This context of learning does have some beneficial factors which I believe that children benefit from, these include:

• Children and teacher are on the same level.

• Children choose subjects which they are interested in

• Builds children’s self-esteem and independence

• Enables children to find their own identity

• Allows improvement for social experiences
• Play is the essential part of learning

 I also think there are weaknesses when it comes to this context of learning these include:

 

• No routine, sometimes I think children need a routine in order to prepare them for future life tasks.

• Children and teacher are on the same level, but I don’t think this is beneficial when punishment is involved, will they respect them enough or does their have to be more of an authority role?

I believe that the Summerhill School is a very interesting context of learning because I can understand why they let children have so much freedom to develop and experience things for themselves. However, I also believe that the children who go to Summerhill School may have too much freedom when it comes to learning because I believe that you can learn so much without the use of a teacher guiding or being some sort of structure to help a child develop. I think that the teacher and the child being on equal levels is a good thing when it comes to a child’s learning but I also believe it is not a good thing when the teacher may have to explain when a child is in the wrong because they might not have the same level of respect. In my opinion the school does have more beneficial factors to improving a child’s personal development and can benefit a child’s academic development because they are more independent and creative when it comes to learning.

 

 

This video explains the difference between Summerhill School and a normal school, it shows this through the use of pictures and its shows how much freedom and creativity Summerhill School has:

This next video is A.S. Neill talking about Summerhill School and expressing his own views:




For more information on Summerhill School check out their website:
 
http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/


References:
http://rolandkemp.com/gallery/albums/Croatia/normal_Croatia_K172-279.jpg
http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/national/asneillban.jpg
http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abzUqdh6yKY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-C2i9Iq9vY