This book is not about punk. Obviously. But talking about something that is certainly dear to us all: the freedom '. Which freedom ' e' una delle necessita' prime per raggiungere o anche solo riuscire a riconoscere un'altra delle grandi utopie del mondo di sempre: la felicita' . E ne parla analizzando una tappa della vita a cui tutti siamo stati sottoposti, che tutti noi abbiamo dovuto in qualche modo subire, chi guadagnandoci solo tagli ed umiliazioni, chi portandosi a casa una qualche temporanea quanto illusoria soddisfazione da quattro soldi: la scuola , con la sua beneamata "formazione dell'individuo".
Alexander S. Neill era uno scozzese, nato nel 1883 in una buona famiglia, in cui il padre era un severo direttore scolastico all'inglese, e morto nel 1973; irreprensibile anarchico libertario con un background Freud, he inherits some of ideologies American educator H. Lane. including the total rejection of authority ' in education.
AS Neill gave birth in 1924 in England, to a revolutionary school called "Summerhill" , in many respects similar to a municipality, without any kind of authority 'and hierarchy, where classes were not compulsory and was boys, aged 6 to 18 years, to decide how to spend their time. Each student could decide what, if attend courses, if spending time in the laboratory of mechanics, electronics, carpentry, art, music, gardening, knitting, rather than in class to learn to read or in the garden to play football. There were no votes, it ' exams, it' special awards that could put a student over another, as frustrating in the rankings we are used to the rest of us.
Any decision related to the school and society or group, including any "punishment" (in quotes, 'cause it was always constructive measures) for social offenses was taken in' general meeting on Saturday evening, where the vote of a child was as good as that of a teacher. And all this
works a treat!.
Only one girl decided to laze around for 6 months, as he was stifled by the need 'to blow off steam from the rigid discipline impartitale institute of nuns from whence he came. Past 6 months I learn 'to read and take an interest' with more joy to the lesson that 'the person concerned.
Many other pupils showed great rapidity 'learning, even after long periods of idleness and' how to learn something is undeniably more 'easy when you study the topics that really care about rather than having to worry about hundreds of useless knowledge.
Neill sought to shape the school around the pupil, as opposed to traditional teaching that is done, and that to develop in children their freedom 'inner and with it the respect of others, always bearing in mind the difference between freedom ' e licenza , al fine di farne degli individui felici e soddisfatti della propria esistenza , pieni dei piu' svariati interessi e delle capacita' piu' disparate.
Ai giorni nostri noi tutti ci ritroviamo con un futuro incerto, buio, per certi versi triste e pieno di sacrifici; gli alunni di Summerhill ne uscivano sicuri delle proprie conoscenze e della propria personalita', arricchiti di quelle capacita' di base e di quella prontezza di spirito che gli avrebbe poi assicurato la soddisfazione personale in qualunque campo avessero deciso di impegnarsi, dal piu' misero al piu' celebre ed impegnativo.
Tutto cio' in netta contrapposizione con l'operato della scuola classica, che inculca nella testa degli alunni valanghe di notions of various kinds, mostly intended to fade with time, in order to make successful men .
E 'difficult in a few lines to describe how brilliant it was perfect and yet incredibly simple and natural Summerhill. To help me I will give you 'the cornerstones of the methodology Neill, taking them from the preface to the book written by Erich Fromm:
1 - Neill nourished firm confidence "in the goodness' of the child" and believes that the average kid is not born a coward, automaton without a soul, but rather 'provided a potentially rich attitude of love and concern for life.
2 - the purpose of education, the purpose of life, and 'to work with you to find joy and happiness'. Happiness 'Neill second means have an interest in life, or, in my own words, responding to life not only in the brain, but with the whole personality'. Education is not 'enough to promote intellectual development. Education must address both the emotional and the intellectual. In society 'we find a modern increasing separation between intellect and feeling. The experiences of man today are largely mediated by the thought and do not reflect a perception of what 'the heart feels, the eye sees, the ear hears. In fact, this separation between intellect and feeling has led human beings to a state of mind almost 'schizoid that made him almost incapable of perceiving anything by 'an authentic and immediate.
3 - Education must adapt to the skills' needs and the 'psychology of the child, who is not' altruistic. The love for him is not 'feeling the mature adult. It 's a mistake to expect from him a conduct which he could demonstrate only a hypocrite. Altruism is only later childhood development.
4 - The discipline imposed dogmatically and punishment create fear, hostility comes from fear '. This may 'not be open and aware, but in any event paralyzes the spontaneity' authenticity and 'feelings. Indoctrination disciplinary continuous and 'harmful to children and blocks psychic development.
5 - Liberta 'does not mean license. This important principle emphasized by Neill, which means respect for the individual must be mutual. If a teacher has no right to use force against the child, such, for its part, has no right to use it against the teacher. A child should not impose an adult just because 'and' a child, it 'must use many means of pressure available to him.
6 - Closely linked to this principle and 'the need' to be genuinely 'complete by the teacher. The author says that he never lied to a child in forty years'. Anyone reading this book you can 'realize that, far from being a bluster, this claim is not' nothing but the truth '.
7 - The balanced development of quality 'human requires, eventually, the child cuts the primary ties linking him to the parents, or subsequent replacements that the company' offered him, and becomes fully independent. He must 'learn to cope with the world that individual. Must 'learn to find his security not in a symbolic attachment, but in his capacity' to grasp the world intellectually, emotionally, artistically. Should use all its capacity 'to find a relationship with the world, more' than to find safety in submission or in the domain.
8 - Feelings of guilt are mainly the function of subjecting the child to the Authority '. Feelings of guilt are an obstacle on the path of independence, causing the onset of a process that varies continuously between rebellion, repentance, submission and even rebellion. The sense of guilt, so 'and as' experienced by the majority of individuals in our society ', not' due to the voice of conscience, but essentially and 'the feeling of having disobeyed the Authority', with the consequent fear of punishment. It 's not important that it is natural that it takes place or a deprivation of affection or simply make the individual feel out of place. All these give rise to feelings of guilt, the fear and hostility created by this' and hypocrisy.
When you get to the low end of 170 pages of this masterpiece you will have proof of what 'everyone has always felt inside:
traditional teaching and' terribly wrong, inhumane and harmful . It is not 'only the first culprit of crap in our society' and all of us human beings, in our folly and our perennial mismatch. You
evidence that humanity 'better, more' free and more natural, not 'only possible but it' s also easy and fun, while today's world and 'the result of constant machinations, repression and indoctrination often beyond' of our imagination and our paranoia.
be clear, however, 'that the reading of "Boys Happy Summerhill' and 'anything but heavy: book, said in a light and often funny Neill with the experiences of school children, peppering it all with the intuitive knowledge of psychology upon which much of the work of the author.
In a way I could venture that this book will help to live better , creating awareness of the 'cause of the most' basic human behavior in society 'and shows the grave' of what 'we all had to suffer.
It 'obvious that the work of Neill represents a major revolution ' as is' tragically obvious, however, that if the 70's today and not 'over' having a school like Summerhill in 2006 and still it is hard to find in libreria le pubblicazioni di A. S. Neill, l'unico motivo plausibile e' da cercarsi nello scarso coraggio della nostra societa' , nell'inesistente voglia di rischiare e di migliorarsi e nella cupa ingordigia dei bastardi che continuano a voler ridurre l'essere umano ad un mero ingranaggio della produzione mondiale.
A ingrigire ancora di piu' lo scenario, come fa notare anche il libro stesso, c'e' la palese osservazione che di uomini come Neill (e lo capirete voi stessi leggendo il suo operato) c'e' n'e' uno su un milione e di genitori decisi a rischiare il successo e la carriera dei propri figli in favore della loro felicita' semplicemente non ne esistono piu'.
Almeno until one of us will not decide 'and that' time to have children and of education for freedom '.

Link: http://kernel-panic.noblogs.org/post/2007/02/28/alexander-s.-neill-i-ragazzi-felici-di-summerhill