Yet, one of the longest-established radical experiments in learner freedoms, Summerhill School, founded by A. S. Neill in 1921, has always given learners the choice of what they learn, or indeed whether to attend classes or not. Received wisdom would predict that without strict discipline and highly-structured learning programmes, young children would behave ‘irresponsibly’. The school’s exam results, however, are better than average, and the English government’s schools inspectorate in 2011 deemed Summerhill ‘good with many outstanding features’. The great American philosopher, John Dewey,
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