Established by A. S. Neill in 1921, Summerhill School is the oldest children’s democracy in the world.  Today, Summerhill is considered as one of the most successful, unique and revolutionary Schools in the field of Education.    
Recreating Summerhill values of Freedom & Happiness for children in Oasis Summer camps in year 2012 made the camps instant success with children. Then, so called, ‘Summerhill Camps’ evolved into ‘Oasis Dream India Camps’ and became the most popular camps not only with children but also with Facilitators, Resource Teachers, Volunteers & Guests. Oasis launched Children’s Freedom Movement in 2016.
Henry Readhead is a grandson of A. S. Neill and currently Vice Principal of Summerhill School. On invitation from Oasis, Henry visited India for the first time and spent a fortnight in a series of Programs across India.  The Program was – ‘Dialogue with Henry Readhead’ & the theme was to discuss - How to inculcate democratic values in Schools, What freedom is for children & How to give it, and How children thrive maximum in such atmosphere of Freedom & Happiness.  
Henry visited 7 places across India in 15 days and had a dialogue with @ 1000 School Principals, Teachers, Authorities, Parents, Children and people from organizations associated with Education & Children.  He visited Oasis Valleys (Vadodara), Surat, Bengaluru, Delhi, Srinagar, Jammu & Mumbai during 25th August to 9th September.         

 

In his Sessions Henry explained What is Summerhill by sharing his personal journey at Summerhill - How as a kid he wanted to pursue music and by the age of 30 he realized that his heart lies in Summerhill School as he was constantly talking about Summerhill than music. That’s when he decided to dedicate his life to Summer Hill School and become an educationalist. 
Henry explained how Freedom & Happiness work for wholistic growth of children. He talked about 3 pillars of Summerhill - 1. Freedom, Not license, 2. Equality, and 3. Meeting Process - Resolving conflicts through democratic ways. He talked about rules made by children at Summerhill and shared examples of Meeting Process. 

Highlights of his talk were:
• The word Freedom is not so easy to understand. Freedom is not license. You do need to bring a sense of commitment and structure. The Summer Hill School encourages children to define their own boundaries. Freedom for them does not mean they cross over the freedom of others. It’s about being responsible.
• Education should focus on holistic development of a child, social-emotional development is as important as academic development.
• Children should find their own individual goals and interest themselves, the parent and teacher will only provide the right environment to do this. It is important that we do not jump into taking decision for children.
• Learning should be play. Play is the most natural way to connect with environment, people and themselves.
• School should support children to get where they want to get to. For example- If a child wants to become a doctor, the child should make the decision on the effort that needs to be put into, the school should support this decision and effort.
• The strength of Summer Hill school is its community Mindset, the teachers meet very often and children come together to make decision on things that actually affect them.

During the Questions & Answers session, many were asked and discussed. Some highlight of questions were - 
1) What Summer Hill believes about pedagogy for teaching? Has there been unhappy children even at Summer Hill?
2) How Summerhill recruits teachers? Do they find such teachers easily?
3) Is there clash between Summer Hill School students once they grow in freedom environment and parents who may not have that Mindset? Do you conduct programs for Parents?
4) What support do you provide if some school want to follow your foot steps and seek your guidance?
5) How do the children who study in Summer Hill school adjust to the world outside which still thinks IQ is important and believes in competition?
Henry answered every question from the audience beautifully with amazing sincerity. 

At couple of places, he demonstrated democratic conflict resolution by enacting a Meeting Process. 

At the end of program, at each venue, Oasis Volunteers informed the participants about How Summerhill principles incorporated in Oasis Dream India Camp and what wonders they have created. Oasis envisions to create Learning Communities based on these principles throughout the country. 

And, Henry has promised to come again. 

(content courtesy Oasis Bengaluru team)

Oasis Coordinators, Purvi Dalal (right) & Mital Patel (left), informing
about Oasis Dream India Camps at Surat Event. 

Henry with Bengaluru Team