RE: My Earliest Memory

[carolkean]

That book Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing by A.S. Neill

about the English boarding school Summerhill School by its headmaster A. S. Neill.It is known for introducing his ideas to the American public. It was published in America on November 7, 1960, by the Hart Publishing Company ...

And of course, institutionalized education just kept going, while "freestyle" self-led learning fell by the wayside.

Comments

[carolkean]

Here I go again, adding comment after comment. But this explains more, for those who won't bother to click on a link:

Summerhill is the most unusual school in the world. Here’s a place where children are
not compelled to go to class – they can stay away from lessons for years, if they want to.
Yet, strangely enough, the boys and girls in this school LEARN! In fact, being deprived
of lessons turns out to be a severe punishment.
Summerhill has been run by A. S . Neill for almost forty years. This is the world’s
greatest experiment in bestowing unstinted love and approval on children. This is the
place, where one courageous man, backed by courageous parents, has had the
fortitude to actually apply – without reservation – the principles of freedom and nonrepression.
The school runs under a true children’s government where the “bosses” are the
children themselves. Despite the common belief that such an atmosphere would create
a gang of unbridled brats, visitors to Summerhill are struck by the self-imposed
discipline of the pupils, by their joyousness, the good manners. These kids exhibit a
warmth and lack of suspicion toward adults, which is the wonder, and delight of even
official British school investigators.
In this book A. S. Neill candidly expresses his unique - and radical – opinions on the
important aspects of parenthood and child rearing. These strong commendations of
authors and educators attest that every parent who reads this book will find in it many
examples of how Neill’s philosophy may be applied to daily life situations. Educators
will find Neill’s refreshing viewpoints practical and inspiring.
https://trisquel.info/files/summerhill-english_1.pdf

[owasco]

I read this book in the 70's! I gave a copy to my father! I had forgotten all about it. Maybe it's time to revisit it.

[owasco]

I think there are many people following this method of education now. Unschooling. I wish I had done that with my own children, but as a product of much institutionalized education (in mathematics as it turned out), I could not see any other way. And the schools did a tremendous amount of harm to the entire family. It sometimes bothers me that my eldest is in that field.

[carolkean]

I hear you!
Tim's nephew married a woman who's one of eight children (four brothers, four sisters), all of whom were home schooled. Most became apprentices to the family's business (something involving farm equipment). One is now a nun at a convent in Missouri, where they've been harassed with drive-by shootings and stalkers watching the nuns at work (nuns on tractors! Why not charge admission!) - and now they are putting up a tall wall for privacy and safety. This is real. This will never make mainstream media. Christians, mostly white - who cares, right?
#Unschooled - that would be my preference, too.
Our Founding Fathers were home schooled or had tutors in the home. Institutionalized, public education is a fairly new thing, born of the Industrial Revolution. Gotta raise us some good, docile workers for all those factories and offices!
A book on ADHD made me feel good by pointing out that most entrpreneurs and bosses tend to fit under the ADHD label. Hunters. The workers are the Gatherers.
But that's a whole 'nother topic.

[owasco]

ADHD is a made up disease. Most diseases are these days, especially anything involving mental health. The pharmaceutical industry wants us all to focus on what is wrong with us, and to sink our money into their toxic drugs.

[carolkean]

Indeed! The previous term for ADHD was healthy, active, energetic, enterprising, alert, curious, multi-tasking, "NORMAL" child!