This is a story of a modern school -- Summerhill.

Summerhill was founded in the year 1921. The school is situ-
ated within the village of Leiston, in Suffolk, England, and is
abot one hundred miles from London.

Just a word about Summerhill pupils. Some children come to
Summerhill at the age of five years, and others as late as fifteen.
The children generally remain at the school until they are sixteen
years old. We generally have about twenty-five boys and twenty
girls.

The children are divided into three age groups: The youngest
range from five to seven, the intermediates from eight to ten,
and the oldest from eleven to fifteen.

Generally we have a fairly large sprinkling of children from
foreign countries. At the present time ( 1960) we have five Scan-
dinavians, one Hollander, one German and one American.

The children are housed by age groups with a house mother
for each group. The intermediates sleep in a stone building, the
seniors sleep in huts. Only one or two older pupils have rooms for
themselves. The boys live two or three or four to a room, and so
do the girls. The pupils do not have to stand room inspection
and no one picks up after them. They are left free. No one tells
them what to wear: they put on any kind of costume they want
to at any time.

Newspapers call it a Go-as-you-please School and imply that
it is a gathering of wild primitives who know no law and have
no manners.

It seems necessary, therefore, for me to write the story of Sum-
merhill as honestly as I can. That I write with a bias is natural;

-3-