Is Summerhill an ideal school?

Education has always played an essential role in social development all around the
world. Amongst different worldwide institutions, Summerhill stands out for its
unique characteristics. However, Summerhill has some drawbacks including
excessive amount of freedom for students and lack of suitable guidance from
teachers, which make it less ideal.

At Summerhill, students are given too much freedom. For example, instead of
choosing to attend formal academic lessons students choose recreational activities.
Moreover, students at Summerhill are free to choose their own subjects and never
have to study anything in which they are not interested. Of course, it may be
argued that such freedom means that students are always interested because they
themselves choose to attend them. Admittedly, the fact that students are motivated
by interest is good, yet not pursuing a broad education (including those subjects in
which students are not immediately interested or proficient), they are limiting their
choices for later in life. Therefore, Summerhill has too much emphasis on freedom,
and this must limit future student career choices.

The roles of teachers at Summerhill seem limited to just being friends with
children. Teaching is not considered significant at the school, and children who
want to learn long division will learn it no matter how it is taught. Also, students
can choose to learn a subject by their own ways, without prior instructions from
teachers. It may be asserted that when students are left to learn new things by
themselves, they can naturally develop their intelligence and talents. Although it is
a good approach in educating children naturally, this could make them unconscious
of what they should and should not do by lacking guidance from their mentors.
This could make them believe that their ways are always right, and they probably
end up being stubborn. Thus, teachers should be more involved in guiding and
teaching students appropriately.

To conclude, as students at Summerhill are given too much authorization and the
teachers’ role as mentors is unappreciated, the school is generally unappealing.