Leila's blog

Sun, Mar 02, 2008

Freedom to grow

We had some friends over for lunch today. They home educate and we had an interesting discussion about the relative merits of different types of schooling. My eldest son and I are currently thinking hard about which secondary school he should attend - mainly Welsh or mainly English - no happy bilingual medium. T.ese type of choices highlight the obvious: that our current system doesn't work for some children. It is too rigid both in subjects taught and the school day as a whole. This rigidity is made a necessity by the demands of the National Curriculum, the poor adult:child ratio, and the increasing size of schools. My friends and I would both like to see greater availability of schools like Summerhill and Steiner / Montessori across the country with state funding. This would improve child / parent choice especially if it were put in place with flexi-schooling, support for the development of small schools and smaller class sizes. I think far more children would have a happier educational experience.

After we had fed and watered our guests we went out to enjoy the late afternoon sunshine and fresh air. In our now expanding veg garden we planted an early sowing of carrots and broad beans, whilst indoors we planted broccoli and salad. As you can tell I am feeling ambitious this year and am looking forward to saving on food miles with plenty of homegrown veg.

Comments and questions

Misha Gale wrote at 19:57, on 14/03/2008

I thoroughly agree that the state ought to sponsor alternative schools, and generally foster diversity in the education system. Summerhill School would always have liked to offer free (as in money) education as well as free (as in liberty), but it would sadly be impossible to practice a Summerhillian educational philosophy while accepting state funds. I hope one day we have a government that accepts that there is more than one way to educate children.

Until then, the A.S. Neill Summerhill Trust exists to provide bursaries for children who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford a Summerhill education. It so happens we're having a fundraiser in London this week, both to raise money for said bursaries, and to celebrate Summerhill's recent good fortune; a positive Ofsted report, and a successful CBBC drama about the school.

More details at http://mishagale.fastmail.fm/summerhill.pdf

Misha Gale wrote at 19:58, on 14/03/2008

P.S. Good luck with your veg garden :)