Summer Hill

A free school is a prace where there are a whole rot of
things happening. The kids can come and make a
choice among the things that are happening， or make
the choice not to participate. Kids can work with
their hands or work with their minds， or work with a
combination of the two. What we try to do is to show
that， despite the bad experiences kids have had in
public schools， there s a real value in intellectuality.
It is one of the many things that is very interesting and
exciting and fulfilling to people， not that it has some
supervalue that makes it somehow superior to every-
thing else. ]t s simply fun to learn about the world and
to think about it， to analyze it， and to understand
things， We try to do the same thing in every other
area -- art， science， or any activity you like. That s the
kind of atmosphere we like to have， think we have，
and have had for a couple of years.
People should feel good about what they do every
day. They have to learn to tap their own fantasy lives，
to learn to get along well with other people. In other
words， learn how to build a community based on love
and human values， and based on a sharing of the
earth， the plants and animals， with other people. I
keep the school going because it s fulfilling for me.
It s an agency of social change in the sense that the
heart of the school is the idea that we could learn to
I~ve together， and that we can learn to grow up
together -- children and adults. We can learn to solve
our problems together as people. So I hope a large
number of schools are going to pick up from where
we are and go a lot farther， and do a lot of better
things for people involved in those schools. So far，
this school has been changing and evolving continu-
ally， and I hope that s always the case.