The educator Alexander Sutherland Neill passed away on September 23rd 1973 in Ipswich.
Born on October 17th 1883 in Forfar he is probably the second person I have posted about today you are not familiar with, but A.S. Bell, as he was known, was a pioneer, or indeed a rebel against the conformists views of the era in education. I first came across his name when researching for a post on the late great Ivor Cutler, who taught at the school for a time.
The son of a schoolteacher, Neill graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an M.A. degree in 1912 and became headmaster of the Gretna Green School in 1914. He recorded his initial teaching experiences in the autobiographical novel A Dominie’s Log and wrote several sequels to this work, with some of them being reprinted in 1975 as The Dominie Books of A.S. Neill, dominie being the old eclesical word for schoolmaster.
Neill and others founded an international school near Dresden., in 1921. The school was moved to Sonntagberg, Austria, three years later but was soon closed because its unconventional curriculum and teaching methods were opposed by the local authorities. In 1924 Neill moved the school to Lyme Regis, Dorset, in England, and named it Summerhill after the building he had leased for its quarters. In 1927 he moved the school to its permanent home in Leiston, Suffolk. Summerhill School became internationally known for its self-governing student-teacher body and its flexible curriculum that emphasizes the student’s own motivation to learn. Neill drew considerable criticism for his permissive attitudes toward academic discipline, but by the 1960s his school had become popular for its progressive approach to child rearing.
Neill’s principal book about his educational methods, Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing, stimulated debates about alternatives to conventional schooling. The book was more influential in the United States, West Germany, and Japan than in the British Isles
His other books include The Problem Child, The Problem Parent, The Problem Family, The Free Child, and an autobiography, Neill! Neill! Orange Peel!
In 1973 his health declined and he was admitted to Ipswich Hospital. Later he was taken to the small local hospital where he died peacefully on September 23rd 1973. Neill's daughter daughter Zoë is the current head teacher at Summerhill which continues to thrive. You can read more about the school here http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/
