Celebrating A.S. Neill
October 17, 2025
Peter Gray, the famous author of Free to Learn, wrote for Psychology Today, “most of the schools in the world today that call themselves ‘democratic schools’ or in other ways focus on the preservation of children’s rights and the value of freedom owe at least some of their philosophical origins to A.S. Neill and Summerhill.”
On October 17, 1883, a man was born whose work would forever change the course of education: Alexander Sutherland Neill of Forfar, Scotland. Educator, author, husband, parent, brother, and founder of the renowned Summerhill School, Neill became the guiding spirit of the democratic free school movement—the beginning of an educational revolution that would inspire hundreds of schools across the world.
The School’s Journey
Summerhill was initially an experimental school: the experiment was freedom. What if the school were made to fit the child, rather than the child being made to fit the school? Taking (1) the view that children are born good and (2) that no one was good enough to mold the character of another. Children would have the freedom to choose and would not have to go to class.
Although Summerhill has spent most of its time in Leiston, England, that is not where it started. It was initially called the “Neue Schule” and was established in Hellerau, Germany, in 1921. In 1923, the school moved to Lyme Regis, England, where it rented a building named 'Summerhill'. When the three-year lease was up, Neill, with twenty-seven pupils to house, set out to find a larger place. The last property on his list was a house called 'Newhaven' in the small Suffolk town of Leiston. (A.S. Neill’s Summerhill Since 1921) Neill brought the name 'Summerhill' with him from Lyme Regis and claims that, in his forty-four years there, not a single visitor has asked him what it means, despite the fact that the place is dead flat. (Barefoot in November) During World War II, Summerhill was temporarily relocated to Ffestiniog in Wales.
Summerhill takes its name from a place—in this case, a building—following the English tradition of giving houses names that often serve as their addresses. Naming a school after a place is an ancient custom in education. Plato’s Academy, or Akadēmeia, in Athens drew its name from the public grove where he taught, itself named after the hero Akademos. Many of the world’s most renowned schools, it seems, share this lineage: institutions whose names are bound first to place, and then to the spirit that place inspires.
Neill’s Personhood
He enjoyed a good Pilsner beer. He also admired H. G. Wells for a while, and I’ve often wondered if that is where he got his own naming convention from: A. S. Neill. He loved sweet pastries and happily ate what his wife and daughter would bake, whether good or bad.
Neill lived in the lodge house at the entrance of the school with his wife, Ena. He liked to make soap (Barefoot in November), and he also liked to make hammered brass items like bowls. He dreamed of one day being able to play Frédéric Chopin on the piano for his students every Friday afternoon. He also wrote fictional stories and plays, admired the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, often quoting from An Enemy of the People: “the strongest man is he who stands alone.” He even won the "Buxtehuder Bulle" award for his work, The Last Man Alive (known as The Green Cloud in German), one of Germany's most prestigious literary prizes.
He signed off in some of his letters to old friends as “Allie”. His younger sister, Clunie, couldn’t say Alec (short for Alexander), and Neill went by Allie for a time. (All the Best, Neill) His favorite book was The House with the Green Shutters by the Scottish writer George Douglas Brown. He claimed to have read it 20 times and even to have read Brown’s original handwritten manuscript of the book from the Edinburgh Library.
Revolutionary Ideas
Neill was a remarkable thinker—one who, despite modestly claiming that philosophy was too “clever” for him, deserves the title of philosopher. He was also, in the truest sense, a psychologist. Though his M.A. from Edinburgh University was in English, he studied and practiced psychology during the time of Freud, whose groundbreaking theory of the unconscious had been published only twelve years earlier.
Summerhill, to me, has been a philosophy for life, and a school secondly. Once a book I found incidentally became a school I visited, a new dream, and the reason I work in a Sudbury school today. Neill is a hero who served as a turning point in my life.
Summerhill, to me, has been a philosophy for life, and a school secondly. Once a book I found incidentally became a school I visited, a new dream, and the reason I work in a Sudbury school today. Neill is a hero who served as a turning point in my life.
William Ayers, writing On the Side of the Child, published by Columbia University, New York, wrote, "For Neill, the principles guiding Summerhill were identical to the basic requirements for a healthy life, and they numbered two: love and freedom." (On the Side of the Child)
A New Tradition: A.S. Neill Day
On October 17th, the Summerhill school has a tradition of walking about a half mile to where Neill’s ashes are buried to sing happy birthday, light incense sticks, and hang out for a while before walking back.
In what I hope can become a growing tradition, on this day let’s wear orange, eat cake, and celebrate Neill’s ideas. Check out his legacy living on today; maybe watch the Summerhill Movie (2008) made by the school itself! His works belong in every philosophical toolkit for democratic, free school, and self-directed education.
“Many, many times I have been asked how I became a reformer in education. Was it rebellion against my village dominie father with his tawse? I have never been able to answer.”
— Neill! Neill! Orange Peel!
— Neill! Neill! Orange Peel!
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