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Highlighting some sentences that stick out to me... #summerhill
No specific training can prepare anyone, staff or otherwise for living at Summerhill. People learn through experience #summerhill
Adults are far less important in a community where children are empowered. The more children are trusted, the more they trust in themselves (and the opposite occurs w/ the usual continual adult interference). Being an adult is not a big deal in Summerhill #summerhill
This is an aspect of Summerhill that visitors and onlookers often have difficulty with. It breeds misconceptions that are also partially caused by them not grasping the deeper dynamics of everyday Summerhill life. They grasp an aspect and think it the whole #summerhill
Another thing outsiders have difficulty with is the idea that adults do not have the usual "hidden agendas" when interacting w/ the children. The lack of artifice puts both adults and children at ease #summerhill
It can be hard for new staff to adapt to summerhill life given years of being told what to do and how to do it. On the other hand, there's also freedom for staff to integrate all kinds of their interests into community life. #summerhill
The author has seen children shed previous timidity once in Summerhill. He sees this previous timidity as a defense against the adult squashing of "natural" aggression (which he distinguishes from a sadistic "bullying" aggression) #summerhill
Adults find assertiveness threatening but timidity endearing. The author gives an example of how this warps natural aggression into a sneaky sadism that avoids responsibility by hiding behind adults. #summerhill
When empowered, children can be capable of working out their difficulties. External authorities swooping in can hinder rather than help. Adults should be sensitive to the exceptions but avoid acting as a constant "guardian angel" #summerhill
(Putting aside the main example of the post as whole, I'm reminded of this bit from a Scholars Stage blog post on the difference between how children are raised today and how they were raised in previous times) #summerhill
"When kids genuinely do pine for home, it is not necessarily because they were happier at home. The home that they sicken for is often an idealized one, a fantasy" #summerhill
"When things are going wrong at home children often feel they ought to be there. Perhaps one day they will stumble across the magic words that will make Mummy and Daddy love them. Or they will find a way to get Mummy and Daddy to love each other again"
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This is interesting: the author speaks positively in this section of parents overruling the expressed wishes of their children with regards to homesickness. I think a lot of people would find this very unexpected in this kind of book #summerhill
On the other hand, "an insight in one area can easily become a dogma in another". He had misread the quality of a different boys homesickness and his criticism of that boys parents had been incorrect #summerhill
We put too much of a focus on the family alone and underestimate the importance of the larger peer group for the child. Children lead a large part of their lives outside the sight and earshot of adults. #summerhill
These meeting-places of childhood have diminished greatly. Parents are afraid and so children are kept in environments where their own worlds aren't allowed to develop. Summerhill is one of the few places where kids can live their lives mostly unsupervised by adults. #summerhill
Swearing is fine in Summerhill itself but the kids don't want the school to get a bad reputation in the nearby town. Hence, the general Meeting has passed laws prohibiting swearing and showing off when kids venture outside the school. #summerhill
Television and computer games are enjoyed at times but the excitement generated by other kids distracts from simply spending hours in front of screens #summerhill
