Thread: Summerhill School

Originally Posted by Quick Orange

What a waste. I mean, charming

I mostly agree with QO, but it depends entirely on the teacher and the student. There is absolutely nothing wrong with cracking the whip on an unmotivated child so that you teach them there are consequences to their lack of motivation when it doesn't matter as much. Take a really motivated kid, and they'd flourish at Summerhill...but they'd probably flourish anywhere.

Personally, I'd never ship my kid off to a boarding school. What's the point of having kids if they don't live with you?

Originally Posted by TULIP

Personally, I'd never ship my kid off to a boarding school. What's the point of having kids if they don't live with you?

Depends on the kids I bet.

I do not know, X is not yet a father and he is already thinking about boarding school.

i still do not think this method is all that sound; sure there will be some kids who will excel, but they would be likely to excel at any school, but what about the ones who don't? are they bounced out of the place and thus not included in the studies on their success rates?

i like the idea of allowing the child or adult for that matter time in the day to sit and think and IMAGINE.... but there also must be time to muck in and do the things needed to get by in life. the balance between the two that is where the joy, happiness and success come in.

Originally Posted by bjrn

"Odd" is putting it lightly. There are some weird ideas there, and certainly some racism as well, although almost (if not all) schools really don't have any hints of that in any way.

What point made you note racism? I haven't found anything like that related to the approach so far......

Originally Posted by majurey

There are some state schools here that churn out great results, and some super-priviledged private schools that churn out totaly unremarkable results despite the high fees.

So true...look at those children of privilege currently in the US administration....

Originally Posted by WireBeard

So true...look at those children of privilege currently in the US administration....

You just can't help taking pot shots, can you Mr. Beard?

Originally Posted by WireBeard

What point made you note racism? I haven't found anything like that related to the approach so far......

Well, it's not really a part of the educational ideas, but Steiner was part of that whole new agey Theosophic circle with Madame Blavatsky etc. And he expressed (somewhat in line with the ideas of theosophy) that there are different races that can be ranked, mainly in spiritual evolution. And that mainly the germanic people were at the top. Then again, he also said that the characteristics of individuals were more important than racial factors.

Some people who dislike Waldorf schools like to bring the racism bit up, and that Steiner said in a way that there are better and worse races. I thought I'd mention it. There's are small bits about it on wikipedia in the article on Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy, if you're interested. As I said, it's something that's mentioned occasionally but really isn't part of the educational system in any way.