Tudástár Egyesület Képzés Üzlet Blog Kapcsolat

Fóti Péter: Comparing Summerhill

Introduction
Many people know, that children’s learning is

Continual
Effortless
Inconspicuous
Boundless
Unpremeditated
Independent of reward and punishment
Based on self image
Vicarious / Resolute
Never forgotten
Inhibited by testing
A social activity
Grows
This learning style I will call original learning style. This original learning style will be extinguished (killed) in the
traditional school which is
Occasional
Hard work
Obvious
Limited
Intentional
Dependent on rewards and punishment
Based on effort
Individualistic
Easily forgotten
Assured by testing
An intellectual activity
Memorisation
Summerhill never writes about this difference! This is because they have a blind spot around learning. This way of
learning I will call dead learning.
I learned about this difference from Frank Smith book: “The book of learning and forgetting”. I suggest everybody to
read it. (https://www.amazon.com/Book-Learning-Forgetting-Frank-Smith/dp/080773750X) (Some chapters are
translated into Hungarian! – read it!) (http://www.foti-peter.hu/smith.html)
Two democratic schools
I will compare two democratic schools. I visited both schools, a short time I taught in Summerhill to build lego robots
with children, and visited Harzberg school twice, I read nearly every book of A.S. Neill, and many pages from Falko
Peschel books, too.
Both schools have a self government. Summerhill’s self government meeting happens two or three times a week,
where all children and teachers come together. In Harzberg there are much more gatherings. It is a smaller school for
30 children, and they meet three times a day. I won’t describe here the two schools. Because Harzberg is less
known, I only refer to a text of David Gribble about the Harzberg school. (I have to add, that his report is based on
written evidences, and he never visited the school personally) (https://www.davidgribble.co.uk/index.php/open-
learning-an-introduction-to-the-work-of-falko-peschel)
Returning to the original and dead way of learning, I already mentioned, that Summerhill does not bother about this
crucial difference. Peschel’s school does bothers, and wants to give children the possibility to learn in the original
way. This is a big difference, and based on this difference you will understand the difference between the two
schools.
Both schools care about children! Both are in a way a therapeutic communities for “wounded” children. Both schools
can help them. But they help in a different way. Summerhill will say: Don’t bother with learning any more, play as
much as you want the whole day. In Harzberg, they would say, you can play as much as you want in the afternoon,
but before noon, during the regular school time, we will help you to relearn your original (and lost) learning style. It
will happen without any coercion. You will be in the school, and will see your peers to learn with their original learning
style, freely choosing what they want to learn, how they want to learn, and with whom they want to learn. You will
also take part in the regular social activities in the school. You will meet your teachers and peers three times a day (at
8.30, 10.30 and 12.15 h) and you will learn the rules we made for ourselves. The most important for you at the
beginning is not to disturb your peers when they learn. If you don’t keep the rules, you will be reminded, and ask to
follow them. You will always have the possibility to change the rules. And also one more important thing. At every
meeting you will hear what your peers have learnt, and you can evaluate them. If you want, you can also make a
presentation about your selected topic. And one more thing, this is a school, and that is why you cannot play before
noon. (This rule is not really nessesary because most children are happy when they finally can learn in the school.
Exceptions are children who are not ready for the school. This changes of course if they are taught without
concerning their individuality and their knowledge in an uniform way.). But we hope you will find many interesting
activities, you will hear something interesting what other children do, and you can join, or you find out what interests
you. At the end of morning and 10:30 circle, you can say what you want to learn, or you can ask for help from your
peers or from your teachers.
So Summerhill will wait that children start to learn, but Harzberg gives more impulses, and does not wait so long. In
Harzberg there is more activity together. The children are also from 6 to 10 years, not like in Summerhill from 5 to 16
or 17.
You will see children develop in both places, but I think at Summerhill you have to wait longer! Children will show
more development very soon, and that can be an interesting point for the parents. In Summerhill you will hear: you
have to wait some years without any sign of progress, and in Harzberg you will see that your child is active and
learning new things.
Two breakthroughs in education
Both schools are results of a breakthrough in education: Summerhill is a result of a break through of A.S. Neill (1883-
1973), and later the influence of Homer Lane (1875-1925). It happened that the young inexperienced English
teacher, A.S. Neill became a head of a small school. (1914) He was a deeply “wounded” child. He had very bad
learning experiences, and his original learning style was killed at an early age in his father’s school in Scotland. He
connected learning with bad feelings, and as a head teacher acted on this experience. He gave up what we call
frontal teaching, and gave children freedom to play. Later he took over the idea of self-government from Homer Lane.
He really destroyed everything what we think a school is!
The Harzberg school is also a kind of breakthrough, but a different one. In a German state (North Rhine-Westfalia)
there has been a progressive educational governance since the 1970s. This government inspired some experienced
teachers, one of them is Hannelore Zehnpfennig. Under the influence of the progressive educational ideas, she
started to break down the way she had taught earlier. She also got rid of frontal teaching, but her motives were very
much different from A.S. Neills. She herself loved learning. And this love of learning she wanted to give her pupils.
She realised that during her lessons children could not learn because the school gave only learning possibilities,
where they would kill the original learning style of children. So Hannelore Zehnpfennig gave up frontal teaching, and
started not to teach in old ways during her lessons. Her class was a success. Children had the possibility to return to
their original learning style, they could move during the lessons, they could choose more different learning activities.
Everything was very similar to what you see today in Harzberg. With a big difference: There was no self government.
Next steps
It was the young teacher, Falko Peschel, who knew Summerhill well , and when he visited Hannelore Zehnpfennig’s
class, he realised that he has to combine the two of them. And so he did it. With success.
So Hannelore Zehnpfennig and Falko Peschel destroyed a lot of things, but they also kept something. They did it
sincerely, because they knew, there can be something good in a school, if children have the possibility to keep their
original learning style. They kept the idea that children have to learn at school, but their learning can be interesting,
and their efforts rewarding. Even better than in Summerhill.
Peschel also realised that Summerhill is a place for people who themselves were hurt during their school time, and
they think a school will wound their children. Generally they are right. But the Harzberg school does not wound
children! The problem is not the school itself! The problem is that school fosters the dead learning style that hurts
children. But it is not necessary!
Summerhill gives you the freedom to learn or not, but the lessons are themselves traditional. In Harzberg children
can also apply for a period to make a longer time without learning. This request will be voted by all members of the
community. On the other hand Harzberg says, that they made learning more democratic: They don’t have to follow
instructions by a schoolbook. They are free to wite on an empty page, or on an empty screen. They call it, “your own
product”. These product follow their learning path and not any other precribed predetermined script. Free writing, free
research, free mathematics.
In Harzberg children have the possibility to discover a new grown up learning style, based on their previous
experiences. They use this good learning style, but they don’t do it consciously. They analyse, they plan etc, without
telling themselves: Now I have to analyse the problem, and when the analysis ready, I can plan ….no, they just do it,
and maybe after years they will realise it.
In both schools children learn to understand each other and find solutions for their social life. In both schools they will
become good chairs of meetings, they will get used to taking responsibilities.
Children learn and play from the very beginning of their lives. They play a lot, they learn a lot. They do it without
direct adult help. They ask for help when they need. Adults generally think that this is not enough, and want to speed
up everything. They think playing is something childish, and the original learning style of children is rubbish. They
want to press their adult learning style on them. And this is a mistake. A sad mistake.
In the late 1960s John Holt already mentioned this problem in his two books: “How children Fail” and “How children
learn”. Not too much happened. Unfortunately not even in Summerhill. Neill was not able to learn from Montessori,
and also not from Holt. Falko Peschel had more luck. He was able to learn from different places: he learned radical
constructivism, he learned from Hannelore Zehnpfennig, from Montessori, from Freinet, from Summerhill. Let’s follow
his path!
Javították, korrigálták: Ginter Zsuzsa, Kristóf Péter, Falko Peschel
(Visited 24 times, 1 visits today)

Fóti Péter
Szerkesztő

Uncategorized

Hasonló cikkek

John Holt: Túlélés vagy tanulás? – Juhász Iván: John Holt Iskolai kudarcok Yaacov Hecht – Demokratikus oktatás:
Pódiumbeszélgetés című könyvéről Sokszínű tanulás – tanulás egy
Pódiumbeszélgetés – 2023. április 22-én, a Demokratikus Ennek a könyvnek a kapcsán merült fel egy emlékem a 80-as demokratikus világban
Nevelésért Egyesület közgyűlésén John Holt amerikai tanár évek második feléből. Egy általános iskolában dolgoztam, és
Harmadik fejezet (folytatás) Erősségek Úgy gondolom, hogy
először 1964-ben megjelent könyve egyszer már elért amikor kiment az osztályom nyolcadikban, az igazgatóm
a tevékenység és érdeklődési területek tárháza nagyobb,
Magyarországra 1991-ben. Ekkor a Gondolat Kiadó javasolta a testületnek, hogy a bukott tanulókból hozzunk
mint ahány ember él a Földön, és hiszem, hogy minden
gondozásában jelent meg a könyv, annak eredeti, 1964-ben létre egy osztályt. Igen, ennek az
egyes emberben van valami “zseniális” az élet egy bizonyos
megjelent formájában. John Holt azonban
Tovább olvasom » területén. Hiszem, hogy nem csak néhány tehetség,
Tovább olvasom »
Tovább olvasom »

Csatlakozz a Demokratikus-Iskola
csoporthoz! Neved

A lista nekem olyan, mint egy igazi iskola modellje: a részvétel önkéntes.
E-mail cím
Nincs feleltetés, nincsenek dolgozatok.

Vannak viszont időről időre személyes találkozók, ahol sokat beszélgetünk, vagy Elfogadom az Adatvédelmi irányelveket
meglátogatunk egy-egy érdekes iskolát. Főként a lista tagjaiból alakult az
egyesület, amely a demokratikus iskola elveinek és gyakorlatának terjesztését FELIRATKOZOM

tűzi ki céljául!

ELÉRHETŐSÉG OLDALAK KÖVESS MINKET!

[email protected] Főoldal
Miként kapcsolódhatnak be egy iskola
Facebook Rólunk
tanulói az iskolai önkormányzatok
munkájába, miként lehet bevonni öket az Blog
iskolai tanulásba? Kapcsolat

Az oldal online zetési szolgáltatását a Barion szolgáltatja

2022 © Minden jog fenntartva! | Adatvédelmi tájékoztató | ÁSZF | Süti szabályzat