Published: 1 December, 2011
by PETER GRUNER

The award-winning children’s author and illustrator John Burningham spoke this week about the “stress and pressure” that is depriving today’s young people of the ability to enjoy their childhood.

He was commenting on the publication of a new book, After Summerhill, by Hussein Lucas.

The book chronicles what happened to former pupils at the contro­versial “alternative” private boarding school – which Burningham also attended – where lessons are voluntary and pupils can make the rules.

Scottish teacher and rebel AS Neill, who died in 1973, created Summerhill in Suffolk in 1921 as a response to the strict and highly disciplined schools, where the cane was used regularly, which emerged out of the Victorian age.

He once said: “I would rather Summerhill produced a happy street cleaner than a neurotic scholar.”

Nearly 100 years on, Summerhill, where children are free from adult authority, is still a popular option for parents whose children don’t seem to fit in anywhere else.

It is, however, a mainly middle class, fee-paying establishment, although there are grants and bursaries for poorer families.

Hampstead-based Burningham, who attended the school from 1948 to 1953, believes that while the free philosophy may not suit everyone, today’s parents and educationists could learn from its atmosphere, which avoids the pressure to succeed.

“We have today an obsession with exams and tests,” he said. “People are terrified that children are never going to grow up into responsible adults.

“I say let children grow up in their own way and let’s have a bit of faith in them.

“Not everyone will become a star but you want people to be happy and adjusted citizens.”

Burningham’s own parents tried him at 10 schools before he found Summerhill – not that it was perfect.

“In my day it was not properly financed,” he recalls. “The facilities and equipment were not very good. They didn’t pay their teachers well so you had a few who were extremely good and some who were dismal.

“If you are providing children with an option to go to lessons you should at least make them attractive. But this is difficult if you cannot furnish the needs of classroom.”

The non-structured environment suited Burningham, but he admits he has no idea how he would have fared in a more pressurised school.

“If I had gone to a place where academia was thrust down my throat I might still be doing the same thing or possibly something else entirely. But then I’ve never known what I wanted to do, even today.”

Hussein Lucas examines the experiences of 15 ex-pupils who attended the school from the 1920s to the present day.

They all appeared to feel that they benefited from their time there, although many subsequently found it difficult fitting in with normal society.

Despite cynicism for Neill’s methods, edu­cation over the past 50 years has probably moved, if anywhere, more towards his liberal view.

Corporal punishment, a mainstay of schools right up to the early 1960s, has been abolished and children today have “rights”.

In the late 1960s Neill’s success at Summerhill was finally recognised and he was awarded honorary degrees from the universities of Newcastle, Exeter and Essex. He was also recognised as being among the top 12 men and women who have influenced British schooling during the  past century by The Times Educational Supplement.

Lucas suggests that today’s pupils at mainstream schools may be sacrificing their quality of life to study and are hoarding qualifications which they believe will automatically lead to a financially secure job.

“Whilst not wishing to deny the importance of formal learning,” he writes, “my experience of Summerhill, based on meeting and getting to know former pupils, has led me to believe that the school is a success.”

He describes former pupils as blessed with confidence and a social conscience about the world.

“The key feature that sums up the distinctive nature of the Summerhill experience over the past nine decades,” he writes, “is the virtual absence of fear.”

Instead, former pupils appear to have “a feeling of optimism” and a “positive outlook” on life. There is no fear of failure, fear of authority, or fear of social ostracism.

• After Summerhill. By Hussein Lucas. Herbert Adler, £9.95