Summerhill might be defined as a school in which play is of
the greatest importance. Why children and kittens play I do
not know. I believe it is a matter of energy.

I am not thinking of play in terms of athletic fields and
organized games; I am thinking of play in terms of fantasy.
Organized games involve skill, competition, teamwork; but
children's play usually requires no skill, little competition, and
hardly any teamwork. Small children will play gangster games
with shooting or sword play. Long before the motion picture
era, children played gang games. Stories and movies will give
a direction to some kind of play, but the fundamentals are in
the hearts of all children of all races.

At Summerhill the six-year-olds play the whole day long --
play with fantasy. To a small child, reality and fantasy are very
close to each other. When a boy of ten dressed himself up as
a ghost, the little ones screamed with delight; they knew it
was only Tommy; they had seen him put on that sheet. But as
he advanced on them, they one and all screamed in terror.

Small children live a life of fantasy and they carry this fan-
tasy over into action. Boys of eight to fourteen play gangsters
and are always bumping people off or flying the skies in their
wooden airplanes. Small girls also go through a gang stage,
but it does not take the form of guns and swords. It is more
personal. Mary's gang objects to Nellie's gang, and there are rows
and hard words. Boys' rival gangs are only play enemies. Small
boys are thus more easy to live with than small girls.

I have not been able to discover where the borderline of fan-
tasy begins and ends. When a child brings a doll a meal on a

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