In thirty-eight years at Summerhill, we have had very little sick-
ness. I think the reason is that we are on the side of the living
process--for we approve of the flesh. We put happiness before
diet. Visitors to Summerhill generally remark on how well the
children look. I think it is happiness that makes our girls look
attractive and our boys handsome.

Eating raw greens may play an important part in curing kid-
ney disease. But all the greens in the world won't affect the sick-
ness of the soul if that sickness is due to repression. A man who
eats a balanced diet can warp his children by moralizing,
whereas a nonneurotic man will not harm his offspring. My
experience leads me to conclude that warped children are less
healthy physically than free children.

Incidentally, I note that many of our boys at Summerhill
grow to be six footers, even when their parents are compara-
tively short. There may be nothing in it; then again, it may be
that freedom to grow in grace also means freedom to grow in
inches. Certainly, I have seen boys grow more rapidly after the
masturbation prohibition has been removed.

Then there is the question of sleep. I wonder how much truth
there is in the dictum of doctors that so and so much sleep is
necessary for a child. With small children, yes. Allow a child of
seven to sit up late at night, and he suffers in health because he
often cannot go on sleeping late in the morning. Some children
resent being sent to bed because they feel they will be missing
something.

In a free school, bedtime is the very devil--not with the jun-
iors so much as with the seniors. Youth likes to burn the mid-

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