Alexander Sutherland Neill (17 October 1883 23

September 1973), known as A. S. Neill, was a Scottish

educator and author known for his school, Summerhill
School, and its philosophies of freedom from adult
coercion and community self-governance. Neill was
raised in Scotland, where he was a poor student but
became a schoolteacher. He taught in several schools
across the country before attending the University of
Edinburgh from 1908 to 1912.
He was born in Forfar, Scotland to George and Mary
Neill. He was raised in an austere, Calvinist house with
values of fear, guilt, and adult and divine authority,
which he later repudiated. As a child, he was obedient,
quiet, and uninterested in school. His father was the
village dominie (Scottish schoolmaster) of Kingsmuir,
near Forfar in eastern Scotland, and his mother had
been a teacher before her marriage. The village
dominie held a position of prestige, hierarchically
beneath that of upper classes, doctors, and clergymen.
As typical of Scottish methods at the time, the dominie
controlled overcrowded classrooms with his tawse, as
corporal punishment. Neill feared his father, though he
later claimed his father's imagination as a role model
for good teaching. Scholars have interpreted Neill's
harsh childhood as the impetus for his later philosophy,
though his father was not shown to be harsher to Allie
(as he was known) than to anyone else. Neill's mother
(ne Sutherland Sinclair) held high standards for her
family, and demanded comportment to set the family
apart from the townspeople.
The Summerhill classroom was popularly assumed
to reflect Neill's anti-authoritarian beliefs, though
their classes were traditional in practice. Neill did
not show outward interest in classroom pedagogy,
and was mainly interested in student happiness.

He did not consider lesson quality important,

and
thus there were no distinctive Summerhillian
classroom methods.
Neill felt that children (and human nature) were
innately good, and that children became virtuous
and just naturally when allowed to grow without
adult imposition of morality. In this way, children
did not need to be coaxed or goaded into desirable
behavior, as their natural state was satisfactory
and their natural inclinations "in no way immoral".

If
left alone, children would become self-regulating,
reasonable, and ethical adults.
Together with Homer Lane, Neill supported
personal freedoms for children to live as they
please without adult interference, and called this
position "on the side of the child". Neill's practice is
summarized as providing children with space, time,
and empowerment for personal exploration, and
with freedom from adult fear and coercion.
The aim of life, to Neill, was "to find happiness,
which means to find interest." Likewise, the purpose
of Neill's education was to be happy and interested
in life, and children needed complete freedom to
find their interests. Neill considered happiness an
innate characteristic that deteriorated when children
were denied personal freedom, and that this
unhappiness led to repressed and psychologically
disordered adults. He blamed a "sick and unhappy"
society for widespread unhappiness.
N
eill claimed
that society harbored fears of life, children, and
emotions that were continually bequeathed to the
next generation.
He felt that children turned to self-hate and internal
hostility when denied an outlet for expression in adult
systems of emotional regulation and manipulation.
Likewise, children taught to withhold their sexuality
would see view those feelings negatively and fuel
disdain for self. Neill thought that calls for obedience
squelched the natural needs of children. Moreover,
their needs could not be fulfilled by adults and a
society that simultaneously prolonged their
unhappiness, though perhaps a school like
Summerhill could help.
As for "interest", Neill felt it came organically and
spontaneously and that it was a prerequisite for
learning. Neill considered forced instruction (without
pupil interest) to be a destructive waste of time
]

When Neill said children should be free, he did not
mean complete freedom, but freedom without
licensethat everyone can do as they like unless
such action encroaches upon another's freedom. As
such, adults could and should protect children from
danger, but not trample their self-regulation. Neill
emphasized that adult removal from child affairs was
distinct from disregard for their security. He felt that
children met their own limits naturally.
Neill believed in equal rights between parents and
children, and that undesirable "disciplined" or
"spoiled" homes were created when those rights
were imbalanced. He felt it unnecessary to fulfill all of
childhood's requests and had great disdain for
spoiled children.

Summerhill children were naturally
restricted by the school's limited teaching expertise
and low funds.
Self-governance was a central idea to Summerhill,
and is perhaps its "most fundamental
feature". Summerhill held a weekly general meeting
that decided the school's rules and settled school
disputes, where every member of the community
staff and student alikehad a single vote.

Almost
everyone in the school attended the meeting, and
children always held the majority. Meetings were
managed by an elected Chairperson. At times, the
school had over 200 rules.