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A. S. Neill

File:Neill_birthday.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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A. S. Neill

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Also known as Alexander Neill, Alexander Sutherland Neill

Scottish educator and theorist (1883-1973)

Person · Open Library

Born
17 October 1883
Died
23 September 1973
Works
66

Top works

  • Talking of Summerhill
  • Hijos en libertad
  • V _oli S Srcem, Ne Z Glavo
  • Problemati_en U_itelj
  • Problemati

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
United Kingdom
Active from
1883
Active to
1973
has german audiobooks

Discography

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
1
Total plays
17

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/A.+S.+Neill">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · A. S. Neill

Quotes

  • A good teacher does not draw out; he gives out, and what he gives out is love. And by love I mean approval, or if you like, friendliness, good nature. The good teacher not only understands the child: he approves of the child.
  • If the emotions are free, the intellect will look after itself.
  • A child is innately wise and realistic. If left to himself without adult suggestion of any kind, he will develop as far as he is capable of developing.
  • Hate breeds hate, and love breeds love.
  • My own criterion of success is the ability to work joyfully and to live positively.
  • You cannot make children learn music or anything else without to some degree converting them into will-less adults. You fashion them into accepters of the status quo – a good thing for a society that needs obedient sitters at dreary desks, standers in shops, mechanical catchers of the 8:30 suburban train – a society, in short, that is carried on the shabby shoulders of the scared little man – the scared-to-death conformist.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born
Alexander Sutherland Neill , 17 October 1883, Forfar , Angus , Scotland
Died
23 September 1973 (1973-09-23) (aged 89), Aldeburgh , Suffolk , England
Occupations
Educator, author
Known for
Founding Summerhill School , advocacy of personal freedom for children, progressive education
Spouses
Ada Lillian Lindesay Neustätter, Ena May Neill

via Wikipedia infobox

~28 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Alexander Sutherland Neill (17 October 1883 – 23 September 1973) was a Scottish educator and author known for his school, Summerhill, and its philosophy of freedom from adult coercion and community self-governance. Raised in Scotland, Neill taught at several schools before attending the University of Edinburgh in 1908–1912. He took two jobs in journalism before World War I, and taught at Gretna Green Village School in the second year of the war, writing his first book, A Dominie's Log (1915), as a diary of his life there as head teacher. He joined a Dresden school in 1921 and founded Summerhill on returning to England in 1924. Summerhill gained renown in the 1930s and then in the 1960s–1970s, due to progressive and counter-culture interest. Neill wrote 20 books. His top seller was the 1960 Summerhill, read widely in the free school movement from the 1960s.

Early life and career

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “A. S. Neill” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (2)