One persistent criticism of Summerhill is that the children
swear. It is true that they swear--if saying old English words is
swearing. It is true that any new pupil will swear more than is
necessary.

At our General School Meeting, a girl of thirteen who came
from a convent was always being brought up on charges for
shouting out the phrase son of a bitch when she went sea bath-
ing. It was impressed upon her that she only swore when bath-
ing at a public beach, with strangers around, and that therefore
she was showing off. As one boy put it to her, "You are just a
silly little goose. You swear in order to show off in front of peo-
ple, and you claim to take pride that Summerhill is a free
school. But you do just the opposite--you make people look
down on the school."

I explained to her that she was really trying to do the school
harm because she hated it. "But I don't hate Summerhill," she
cried. "It's a terrific place."

"Yes," I said, "it is, as you say, a terrific place, but you aren't
in it. You are still living in your convent, and you have brought
all your hate of the convent and your hate of the nuns with you.
You still identify Summerhill with the hated convent. It isn't
really Summerhill you are trying to damage--it's the convent."
But she went on shouting out her special phrase until Summer-
hill became a real place to her and not a symbol. After that, she
stopped swearing.

Swearing is of three kinds: sexual, religious, excremental. In
Summerhill, the religious type of swearing is no problem be-
cause the children are not taught religion. Now most children

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