Summerhill is a self-governing school, democratic in form.
Everything connected with social, or group, life, including pun-
ishment for social offenses, is settled by vote at the Saturday
night General School Meeting.

Each member of the teaching staff and each child, regardless
of his age, has one vote. My vote carries the same weight as that
of a seven-year-old.

One may smile and say, "But your voice has more value,
hasn't it?" Well, let's see. Once I got up at a meeting and pro-
posed that no child under sixteen should be allowed to smoke.
I argued my case: a drug, poisonous, not a real appetite in
children, but mostly an attempt to be grown up. Counterargu-
ments were thrown across the floor. The vote was taken. I was
beaten by a large majority.

The sequel is worth recording. After my defeat, a boy of
sixteen proposed that no one under twelve should be allowed to
smoke. He carried his motion. However, at the following
weekly meeting, a boy of twelve proposed the repeal of the
new smoking rule, saying, "We are all sitting in the toilets
smoking on the sly just like kids do in a strict school, and I say
it is against the whole idea of Summerhill." His speech was
cheered, and that meeting repealed the law. I hope I have made
it clear that my voice is not always more powerful than that of
a child.

Once, I spoke strongly about breaking the bedtime rules,
with the consequent noise and the sleepy heads that lumbered
around the next morning. I proposed that culprits should be
fined all their pocket money for each offense. A boy of fourteen

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