Summerhill School

“No pupil is compelled to attend lessons. But if Jimmy comes to English on Monday and does not make an appearance again until Friday, the others quite rightly object that he is holding back the work, and they may throw him out for impeding progress”
That’s a quote from A S Neill, the late head of a school in Sussex called Summerhill. Ranging from six to seventeen, the students have, effectively, no rules. Or rather, the students propose, discuss and vote on the rules. Think about our school council teams and the role they play in developing Chew Valley – food, décor, environment, and activities. All the aspects that surround school life and make it a rounded experience have some influence from the council. Many things have been accomplished by our school council, but you could hardly claim they have a defining role in the core tenets of school policy.
What if not just the council, but all the students, had the final say in how Chew Valley was run? Summerhill holds tri-weekly meetings where anyone can submit a new rule proposal, bring up an issue or person that needs addressing, or just listen and vote on what other people suggest. Hypothesise briefly that this was the situation here. How many stupid rules would go straight away? How long would it take before those inbuilt ideas we’ve got regarding our education would start to be questioned?
Turning up to lessons on time, regularly or at all, for example. If you don’t fancy turning up today at Summerhill, well, don’t. It’s sheer stupidity to think that every lesson is valued and used productively by students – there’s a lot that can happen at home or wherever that just ruins your ability to concentrate or absorb what you’re studying. That maths lesson, when you’ve had a crap day and just need some peace, how much will you really learn? Well, if we organised like Summerhill, then you’d be free to just go off and do something else. Basically, it’s a school where lessons aren’t compulsory, teachers don’t just fall back on being a teacher to win an argument and everyone involved with the school has an equal say in how it’s run. More schools should follow the idea that, if you treat people like adults, they tend to act like adults.
Which is not to say you’ll get away with anything. If you’re basically being a cretin and holding back other students, then those other students are well within the rules to kick you out of the class. That freedom to decide how the school is run isn’t just your freedom, it’s everyone’s. Otherwise you just end up with the same situation we have now, where students can only fiddle at the edges of school life. Freedom is merely privilege extended unless applied to one and all. Not only that, but Summerhill isn’t just a school, it sees itself as a community. A circle of participation is created, whereby everyone can have a say, so everyone feels part of it, and because they feel part of it, they want a say. See how it works?
And it does work – Summerhill’s results are not exceptional, but they are solid and well above what the government wants. Which, seeing as I cannot think of an education less geared towards passing GCSEs, is pretty damn impressive. Think about it, what’s likely to produce happier, healthier and more rounded people; Rigidly teaching for an exam and skimming over everything else, or a broad, personal and participatory education?
Summerhill relies on students respecting each other and working together. They’re trusted to do this, and it works. It requires adults to believe in young people and young people believing in each other. They should, we do, and let’s see some more Summerhills.

labour cuts article

What is the Labour Party, if not a moral crusade? What are we for, if not to stand up and fight for those who cannot stand for themselves? Without our key causes at heart – fairness, equality and community – there is no point to the Labour Party.

 

Why then, are we not fighting with all our strength to challenge and dispel the Tory narrative? Conservative ideals and values caused this crisis, yet it has been spun into an issue of public spending. By allowing this to happen, Labour has betrayed not only our beliefs, but our backbone too. Every low paid public sector worker, unemployed young person or single parent has had this crash slammed onto their shoulders, and Labour's defence of ordinary people, our core, this country's core, is no where to be seen. Let's ignore briefly the economic injustice of the cutting the debt away, and see the social strife it will foster. I ask you, is it fair, or even true, when low paid and low status people in our society are blamed for not trying, not working, not learning and now somehow being the cause of Britain's economic problems? Hypocrisy that makes you want to get out on the streets and shout at the injustice of it. How can self belief and a confidence to learn or work ever be built if every day another attack against trade unions, young people or job seekers is launched?

 

The debt has got to go, it's fatuous to deny it. Involving such huge sums, it's easy to just panic and start slashing and burning public expenditure. Is this the right way to do it? No. Talk about the risks to economic recovery all you like, the social ills heaped upon us will simply not be worth it. I cannot quite explain how utterly wrong it is for working people to lose their livelihoods, families to be pushed into poverty and young people to lose the education they deserve, purely because a tiny group of international speculators demand some sort of demonstration that the government cares more about credit ratings than community breakdown.

 

Look for one moment at what cutting away our services will do. For every incremental step taken with the last government, we're now waiting for the great stumble backwards. When the Tories came out with the big society, I was as shocked as anyone else that they'd thought up something sensible; community empowerment is more important than ever. But how is the big society supposed to flourish merely by withdrawing the state? A slow retreat is needed to encourage participation and gradually take power out of the hands of the state and put it into the hands of society. Sudden abandonment isn't going to foster engagement, is it? Here in B&NES, as one example, the youth service is being hacked away at, and who's left to foster in young people a desire to help out in their communities? No, really, that's a genuine question, because I have no idea who's supposed to step in.

 

The state is not necessarily a force for good. A vacuum of institutions and stability is necessarily a force for leaving people out in the cold. I almost wrote that my village, me even, will be fine in the face of the cuts – but that's not true. What about the pensioners who rely on government funded workers coming to help, what about my next two years in a sixth form that will be losing money, what about my sisters in the lower school, at a crucial stage of their education? Little cuts hurt a lot.

 

Complaining about the situation is a little therapeutic, but does nothing to change the reality. That's why it's so important for Labour to get campaigning and present an alternative to abandoning the most vulnerable. What should our plan be? In my opinion, a return to full employment. New jobs will have to be created to facilitate this, so government investment in green industries and science is crucial. Manufacturing needs to pick up again. The taxes and consumer spending from this will feed private sector demand, which must be restructured to centre around co-operative business models that are fairer and more productive. Higher tax receipts and lower welfare payments as employment flourishes are the route out of debt, not mindless cutting. We'll do it in our own time, not at the behest of some trader in London, New York or Tokyo. More importantly, we'll do it in a way that's fair for our people, our communities, our families and our lives.

Manifesto draft 28.3.10

Chin up, old boy – Cotterill's Manifesto for Britain

In Britain, things have not being going wonderfully, of late. Not only has the economy realised, after thirty years of bravely keeping its eyes shut and praying, that it was standing on its own shoulders (try it, seriously), but all these unpleasant social problems that we've carelessly left brewing have come to the fore. Unemployment, uncaring, uncouth, unmotivated. An unattractive selection of malaises currently afflict us.  Our country has been systematically abused by a succession of partners; global capitalism, America, politicians – they've all come in late one night, reeking of beer and piss, to take a swing at poor old Britain.

No longer.

There are themes that unite Britons. Fair play, justice, respect for democracy. A knowledge that no matter where you start, you should damn well have the same chance at life as anyone else. The last three decades have seen a string of gits steering us away from these values.

“Sink or swim” - or, alternatively, kick a man when he's down. Twice. Really, is that a value you want to see nurtured in society? I damn well don't. I want to see a society where a hand up, not a look away is the norm. No one gets anywhere without other people helping them. So let's have a government that encourages co-operation, rather than jumping up and down on some poor sod's face.

“There's no such thing as society” - well then, who are those people in the pub, enjoying a refreshing pint and a laugh together? Who are those ladies selling cake in the village hall? Who are those two million men, women and children who marched against an unjust war? I tell you, they are our society. This is our society – the people you see every day, who probably annoy you every other day, but who you know will be around for support when you need it most, and share the same values and basic beliefs that give us the foundation for everything we know and love.

So, Britons, it's time. Time to take the final gallant swig of tea (or other preferred beverage), rediscover that stiff upper lip, make a few self depreciating remarks, then pace purposefully out of the door, to face our brave new world.

Fred Cotterill