Social Transformation: The Summerhill School Essay (Critical Writing)

Introduction

Recognizing that schools serve as agents of social transformation regardless of the intent, individuals such as John Dewey and A.S. Neill suggest that this position should be both recognized and employed as a means of creating a more natural and productive world as is shown in the film “Summerhill Video.”

What do we expect schools to do?

One of the most fundamental questions we should ask ourselves about education is what do we expect schools to do? Although there are numerous standardized tests developed each year to determine whether or not our students are learning what we expect them to learn, how often do we personally assess the relevance of the material we are teaching to the actual development of the human soul? How we answer this question will have a significant impact on what we expect schooling to accomplish for our children and the process by which social transformation will occur. Current school systems generally include a combination of academic and special interest classes that typically require students to learn requisite information to achieve a base score on these standardized tests. Students who achieve a specific proficiency level with this information are ‘graduated’ out of the system and launched into the modern world as young adults.

This type of schooling is perfectly suited for producing industrial workers who must be capable of performing basic functions within the technological world, but there is little to no opportunity for the development of individual identity, personal expression, or creative new thinkers. The primary question in determining the role of the school system in training our youth thus becomes a question of social transformation. The present system tends to reinforce the status quo in producing new generations that think and are educated upon the same structures and information systems as their parents, with only slight modifications for new technologies and scientific discoveries.

Yet even these modifications are frequently questioned and controversial long after the issue has been widely adopted and proven – the issue of evolution in American schools is a good example. Recognizing that schools serve as agents of social transformation regardless of the intent, individuals such as John Dewey and A.S. Neill suggest that this position should be both recognized and employed as a means of creating a more natural and productive world as is shown in the film “Summerhill Video.”

The influence of Pragmatic philosophy

John Dewey’s pragmatic philosophy is specifically relevant to this issue. Pragmatists propose that the value of ideas is ultimately determined by the result. The fundamentals of pragmatism include a need to have ideas tested by the consequences of carrying them out. If this action makes a positive difference, it should be applied and if it makes a negative difference or no difference, it should be set aside. When applying this concept to education, pragmatism stresses the point that the actual value of education is its capability to provide students with an ever-increasing ability to gain knowledge. “I take it that the fundamental unity of the newer philosophy is found in the idea that there is an intimate and necessary relation between the processes of experience and education” (Dewey 20).

While students participate in various endeavors, including play, they undergo what Dewey referred to as an ‘experience.’ This experience, more than the physical act itself, is at the center of Dewey’s viewpoint. Ordinary human experiences, in the customary use of the term, are not comprehensive, are seldom fulfilling, and lack wholeness. They are frequently disorderly or interrupted without concluding. “An experience is always what it is because of a transaction taking place between an individual and what, at the time, constitutes his environment, whether the latter consists of persons with whom he is talking about some topic or event, the subject talked about being also a part of the situation; or the toys with which he is playing; the book he is reading (in which his environing conditions at the time maybe England or ancient Greece or an imaginary region; or the materials of an experiment he is performing” (Dewey 43-44).

A Dewey defined experience as completeness because the information experienced, or learned, concludes in some sense of personal accomplishment that encourages the desire for further learning. The completeness comes because the experience encourages active engagement of the individual throughout the experiential process. It is the escalation and final creation of this consummation that gives an experience of its completeness. In an experience, a student learns to attach meaning to the subject at hand and value the encounter from a fresh point of view.

Concepts realization in the film

These concepts were illustrated in the video of the Summerhill School as students stood around talking with the founder of the school, A.S. Neill.

They do not seem to be engaged in any kind of formal lesson, standing outside in a small group of varying ages of boys and girls. While some children stand around to talk to the older man, others choose to run off and play, chasing each other through the grass or doing other things. The children take respectful turns speaking and seem very comfortable with each other as if they’re used to listening to each other and have an interest in knowing more about what each other thinks.

The parts of the conversation that can be heard include a discussion of the meteorological elements of the weather as they discuss the types of clouds they see overhead, the architectural styles of the school building and the cause of visual effects that they see, the history of the house and the differences between the society Neill knew as a child and society as it exists today. This illustrates how the children are actively engaged in learning even though they are not within a formal educational structure, having just participated in learning science, humanities, art, history, and social studies within the space of a single conversation.

They are learning what they want to learn, learning from each other, and have lost much of the contention frequently encountered in more traditional school settings. Because they are learning what they want to learn, they are actively engaged in the learning process, actually listening to their fellow students as they talk with Neill and actively listening to Neill’s responses.

Essentially, a student that is the recipient of pragmatic learning experiences enjoys broader observations of a particular subject, ingesting the material in more deeply personal and dynamic ways.

This enhanced method of perception is complemented by anticipation, emotion and is appreciated for its inherent value. These experiences are profoundly responsible for the transformation of a student’s relationship with the methods by which they learn. “I believe that many of my old pupils do not want to become teachers because they are too well balanced, too alive to enter a system where they would be expected to become stuffed shirts demanding obedience and deference” (Neill 52).

During expanding perceptions, students discover how to better interact within new activities and knowledge originally, to view the process differently, and assign different meanings to learn. By following pragmatic forms of education, students transform not only themselves but help society to progress as well.

However, this concept of freedom in education can also be taken too far, as is illustrated in A.S. Neill’s book Freedom, not License. As Neill points out in the introduction to this volume, “I define license as interfering with another’s freedom. For example, in my school, a child is free to go to lessons or stay away from lessons because that is his affair, but he is not free to play the trumpet when others want to study or sleep” (Neill 11). This is the prevailing concept underlying Neill’s entire educational theory in which children deserve the same rights of choice adults receive and this will lead to a happier, healthier world.

Although there are elements of various positions we may not enjoy, such as the teacher who feels he will have tremendous struggle to overcome dull college classes to reach his goal of becoming a teacher, the choice remains within the individual. “Nobody will let you become a teacher of children unless you have official qualifications – so it is up to you” (Neill 59) is the advice Neill provides in various incarnations throughout the day and suggests is adopted for the general approach to education. The children set the goals; the adults help guide them through what they need to know to make these goals come about.

Through this approach, children’s emotions become the driving force of education to ensure that they are actively engaged in the learning process and thus can learn more efficiently. In the video, Neill illustrates how this approach works when he mentions, “if the emotions are free, the intellect will look after itself.” At his school, the emphasis is constantly placed on allowing students to become balanced, sincere people because their emotions are the focus.

The true spirit of the individual is nurtured and given a chance to develop into its true expression. This is vastly different from the traditional approach in which the student is expected to conform to a pre-defined shape that becomes further defined as the student progresses through standardized grade levels. As the video demonstrates, students are given the option to participate in regularly scheduled ‘classes’ in which the teacher will be available to work with students on a variety of subjects, making it their decision whether to sit still for an hour or two or to go out and play.

This removes the contention between the teacher and the student that is observed in traditional class structures as students of different ages and skill levels join together to learn something new. Students learn to love life through the excitement they feel when they learn new skills, discover a new field of education that thrills them and remain free, through it all, to continuously be involved in the progress of their own life.

Conclusion

The Summerhill School represents a revolutionary shift in the social transformation that is fundamentally opposed to the traditional schooling structures. While the traditional school systems are focused primarily upon the intellect, the Summerhill School is focused primarily upon emotion. There is an additional difference in the two approaches in that they each have a different conception of the intellect. The traditional structure holds that the best development of the intellect equips students to take up positions within the materially structured society by indoctrinating them into pre-defined positions of conformity. The theories brought forward by Dewey and Neill as illustrated in the video about the Summerhill School hold that the intellect is the manifestation of the emotions in pursuing those objectives that provide a sense of fulfillment and discovery.

The best way to develop this is to ensure that the emotional well-being of the student is provided by encouraging self-possession, self-awareness, and a sense of interconnectedness with the external world in a spirit of democracy. By allowing individuals the freedom to explore their interests and talents, the emotional approach ensures the development of happy, balanced people who are fully interested in discovering their chosen field and remain active learners throughout the remainder of their lifetime. Because these two theories are opposed, there is no true avenue of compromise between these two theories, however, both have been tested.

The traditional structure has proven to be deadening to the spirit and not greatly successful for most students while the Summerhill School has proven to produce active, engaged people eager for the discoveries tomorrow will bring.

References

Dewey, John. (1997). Experience and Education. New York: Touchstone Books.

Neill, A.S. (1966). Freedom – Not License. New York: Hart Publishing Company.