![]() During his lifetime he was seen as an extremist in terms of educational theory and practice, with his emphasis on children's personal freedom and his insistence on equality of status between teachers and pupils. Rather, it is the application and development of his democratic and learner‐centred approach as manifested in the Summerhill School project, rather than its articulation in a body of philosophical or theoretical writings, for which he is remembered. Neill's philosophy and theories of education were not, however, systematic or definitively argued. ![]() He argued that the purpose of education was not to control the child or to inculcate a set of values or beliefs, but to ‘to find out where a child's interest lies and to help him live it out’. ![]() His reaction to his own Calvinist upbringing led him to the conviction that children should not be subjected to the imposition of morals or values by adults in authority over them, and should not be disciplined externally by fear or threat. ![]() Alexander Sutherland Neill was an exponent of democratic, pupil‐centred, or ‘free’ schooling, and the founder of Summerhill School. ![]()
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