Educational Philosophy

1. DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION
AND
CLASSICAL EDUCATION
Haidever L. Manzano
July 13, 2019

2. DEMOCRATIC
EDUCATION
Alexander Sutherland Neill

3. A.S. Neill
(Alexander Sutherland Neill)
• Educational Philosophy
• Summerhill School

4. A.S. Neill
• October 17, 1883 - September 23, 1973)
• was a Scottish progressive educator, author, and founder of Summerhill
School.
• He is best known as an advocate of personal freedom for children, and
has been correspondingly criticized as an instigator of permissiveness.
• Neill deeply trusted in the ability of the student to direct his or her own
learning.
• He promoted the idea that this natural ability was nurtured in freedom.
In 1921 he created Summerhill School as an experiment in free learning.
The success of this school and Neill's writings about his experiences at
Summerhill profoundly influenced and motivated the Free
school movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

5. Issues and Resolutions
 Neill has been criticized for excessive idealism and even moral
indifference.
 His methods, some argue, do not inculcate positive values. Yet for
students to govern themselves requires of them considerable moral
responsibility.
 For students to determine their own learning gives them ownership
over their learning. The success of Summerhill suggests that when
Neill's methods are properly employed, teachers rise to an
exceptional level of caring and involvement in the lives of their
students.

6. Neill's educational philosophy can be summed
up in ten principles:
• A belief in the basic goodness of the child
• Setting the happiness of the child as the goal of his education
• Responding to the emotional needs of the child, not just his
intellectual ones
• Taking into account what the child wants, not just what others want
for him
• Limiting discipline to a minimum
• Allowing freedom, not license, and respecting the rights of others
• Making sure teachers are honest and sincere toward their pupils
• Cutting the child's ties to his parents. Making the school his home
• Avoiding giving the child guilt feelings
• Not teaching religion

7. SUMMERHILL SCHOOL
 Neill founded Summerhill School in 1921 in Hellerau
near Dresden, Germany.
 It is one of the most famous free schools in modern
educational history.
 Besides being an exemplar of individualized and
experiential learning, it has also been hailed as “possibly
the happiest school in the world”6 (Neill, 1968: 23).
 Today it is a boarding and day school currently located in
Leiston, Suffolk, England, serving primary and
secondary education in a democratic fashion.

8. The main goals of Summerhill are:
• allow children freedom to grow emotionally
• give children power over their own lives
• give children the time to develop naturally
• create a happier childhood by removing fear and
coercion by adults

9. For more than ninety years,
through Summerhill School, Scottish
educator, A.S. Neill (1883-1973) has
put this educational ideal into practice
— to give children a free learning
space to stimulate their creative
thinking.

10. • Summerhill is noted for its philosophy that children learn
best with freedom from coercion.
• All lessons are optional, and pupils are free to choose what to do with
their time.
• Neill founded Summerhill with the belief that "the function of
a child is to live his own life—not the life that
his anxious parents think he should live, not
a life according to the purpose of an
educator who thinks he knows best."

11. SUMMERHILL SCHOOL’S EDUCATION PRINCIPLES
A free Environment Professor Lu Meigui mentions in
her book An Evaluation of Summerhill School that
Summerhill School has three principles:
1. To integrate character education
2. To instill respect for personal individuality
3. To stimulate the ability to create

12. The success or failure of the nurturing and stimulation of creativity,
however, is dependent on whether students can express their
talents and potential in a free and unrestrained environment
where they can learn actively.
Summerhill School believes that “the meaning of love is to
approve of everything about the child, to make the school fit
the child, and not to make the child fit the school.”
“To approve of everything about the child” is indeed not a state
which any teacher or educator can easily train themselves to attain.

13. Neill"s school differed from the traditional ones of his day
and was founded on four of his strongest beliefs:
1. Schools are for the "living" rather than for "learning."
2. Teachers and adults are not superior to children but
should strive to develop equal treatment because the
adults may not know what is best for the child.
3. Schools should work toward individual development
rather than group conformity for democratic living.
4. Children are capable of democratic living and self-
government (especially older children).

14. Educational legacy
Neill's notions of freedom in education,
considered controversial in their time, influenced
many of the progressive educators that came after
him, notably John Holt, who spearheaded
the "unschooling" movement popular
among homeschoolers.

15. FREEDOM
So what Neill advocates is this –
an environment where the
individual has the freedom to
choose, learn and grow up.

16. This is because Neill believes that
only an unrestrained education
enables an individual to achieve
their potential and true self.

17. Neill believes that only when the
pressure to be promoted, grades,
comparison, destructive competition and
examinations are eliminated, students
can study what they love and love
what they study.

18. PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW
Neill's writings, as well as the
writings of others about him,
suggest an
EXISTENTIALIST PHILOSOPHY.

19. EXISTENTIALISTS answer the ontological
question
"WHAT IS REAL?"
WITH "I AM."

20. With the realization of existence, the existentialist then
begins the struggle to develop his/her essence.

21. Neill's entire life demonstrates a struggle to first
find self, then to identify the meaning of and for
being. For him, the goal of life and education is
happiness, and the most viable vehicle for
experiencing happiness is that of
FREEDOM

22. He states, I hold that the aim of
life is to find happiness,
which means to find interests.
Education should be a
preparation for life" (Neill,
1960).

23. CLASSICAL EDUCATION

24.  Classical education is like a very large museum with
many beautiful, wonder-filled rooms that could be
studied over a lifetime.
 It is a long tradition of education that has emphasized
the seeking after of truth, goodness, and beauty and the
study of the liberal arts and the great books.
 This approach to education also includes the study of
Latin. The classical approach teaches students how to
learn and how to think.

25. What is classical education
curriculum?
The classical approach teaches students how to learn and
how to think. ... It is largely because of its approach to how
and when students are taught. Regardless of
their learning style, children learn in three phases or
stages (grammar, logic or dialectic, and rhetoric), known as
the trivium.

26. What is classical education homeschool?
Classical education is an approach to teaching
and learning based on a three-part process to
training the mind, called the TRIVIUM. ...
Although used in schools for centuries, in the past
couple of decades many families have recognized
the benefits of a classical
education for homeschoolers.

27. What is Classical Conversations
curriculum?
Classical Conversations is a nation-wide program
that helps train and equip parents to provide their
children with a Christian classical education.
Individual communities hire parents to be trained as
tutors through Classical Conversations practicums,
who then lead small classes of children in weekly
meetings.

28. What is the Charlotte Mason method of
homeschooling?
The Charlotte Mason method is based
on Charlotte's firm belief that the child is a
person and we must educate that whole person,
not just his mind. So a Charlotte
Mason education is three-pronged: in her words,
“Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life.”

29. The CLASSICAL EDUCATION MOVEMENT advocates
a form of education based in the traditions
of Western culture, with a particular focus on
education as understood and taught in Classical
antiquity and the Middle Ages.
The curriculum and pedagogy of classical education
was first developed during the Middle Ages.

30. The term "CLASSICAL EDUCATION" has been used in
Western culture for several centuries, with each era
modifying the definition and adding its own selection of
topics.
By the end of the 18th century, in addition to
the trivium and quadrivium of the Middle Ages, the
definition of a classical education embraced study of
literature, poetry, drama, philosophy, history, art,
and languages.

31. What is Classical Education?
by Susan Wise Bauer
Classical education depends on a three-part process of
training the mind.
1. The early years of school are spent in absorbing facts,
systematically laying the foundations for advanced study.
2. In the middle grades, students learn to think through
arguments.
3. In the high school years, they learn to express
themselves.
THIS CLASSICAL PATTERN IS CALLED THE TRIVIUM.

32. The QUADRIVIUM
is the four subjects, or arts (namely
arithmetic, geometry, music
and astronomy), taught after
teaching the trivium.

33. INFLUENCE OF CHARLOTTE MASON
JH Classical Academy bases important aspects of its educational
philosophy and pedagogical methods, particularly in the lower class
levels, on the theories and practices of British educator Charlotte
Mason (1842-1923).
Miss Mason, a renowned “teacher of teachers,” founded a number of
grammar schools and a college to train teachers in her philosophy and
practices. JH Classical Academy has adopted Charlotte Mason’s
philosophy of education, and created four pillars: the personhood of the
child; relationships come first; truth, goodness and beauty; and
education as a catalyst for renewal.

34. Three phases of modern education linked to
classical education:
CLASSICAL EDUCATION developed many of the terms now used to
describe modern education. Western classical education has three phases, each
with a different purpose. The phases are roughly coordinated with human
development, and would ideally be exactly coordinated with each individual
student's development.
• "Primary education" teaches students how to learn.
• "Secondary education" then teaches a conceptual framework that can
hold all human knowledge (history), fills in basic facts and practices of
major fields of knowledge, and develops the fundamental skills (perhaps in
a simplified form) of every major human activity.
• "Tertiary education" then prepares a person to pursue an educated
profession such as law, theology, military strategy, medicine, or science.

35. PRIMARY EDUCATION
In classical terms, primary education was
the trivium comprising grammar, logic, and
rhetoric.
Logic and rhetoric were often taught in part by
the Socratic method, in which the teacher raises
questions and the class discusses them. By
controlling the pace, the teacher can keep the class
very lively, yet disciplined.

36. What makes classical education so
effective?
It is largely because of its approach to how and when students are taught. Regardless of their learning
style, children learn in three phases or stages (grammar, logic or dialectic, and rhetoric), known as the
trivium.
In the grammar stage (K–6), students are naturally adept at memorizing through songs, chants,
and rhymes. If you can get children in this stage to sing or chant something, they will remember it for
a lifetime.
In the dialectic or logic stage (grades 7–9), teenaged students are naturally more argumentative
and begin to question authority and facts. They want to know the “why” of something—the logic
behind it. During this stage, students learn reasoning, informal and formal logic, and how to argue
with wisdom and eloquence.
The rhetoric stage (grades 10–12) is naturally when students become independent thinkers and
communicators. They study and practice rhetoric, which is the art of persuasive speaking and effective
writing that pleases and delights the listener. Again, it is this approach to teaching students based on
their developmental stage that makes this approach so very effective.

37. GRAMMAR
Grammar consists of language skills such as READING and the
MECHANICS OF WRITING. An important goal of grammar is to acquire as
many words and manage as many concepts as possible so as to be able to
express and understand clearly concepts of varying degrees of complexity.
Classical education traditionally included study of Latin and Greek to
reinforce understanding of the workings of languages and allow students to
read the classics of western civilization untranslated. In the modern
renaissance of classical education, this period refers to the
upper elementary school years.

38. LOGIC
Logic (dialectic) is the process of correct reasoning. The traditional text for
teaching logic was Aristotle's Logic. In the modern renaissance of classical
education, this logic stage (or dialectic stage) refers to the junior high or
middle school aged student, who developmentally is beginning to question
ideas and authority, and truly enjoys a debate or an argument.
Training in logic, both formal and informal, enables students to critically
examine arguments and to analyze their own. The whole goal is to train the
student's mind not only to grasp information, but to find the analytical
connections between seemingly different facts/ideas, to find out why
something is true, or why something else is false (in short, reasons for a
fact).

39. RHETORIC
Rhetorical debate and composition are taught to somewhat older (often
high-school-aged) students, who by this point in their education have the
concepts and logic to criticize their own work and persuade others.
According to Aristotle, "Rhetoric is the counterpart of dialectic", concerned
with finding "all the available means of persuasion." Students learn to
articulate answers to important questions in their own words, to try to
persuade others with these facts, and to defend ideas against rebuttal.
The student learns to reason correctly in the Logic stage so that they can
now apply those skills to Rhetoric. Traditionally, students would read and
emulate classical poets in learning how to present their arguments well.

40. SECONDARY
Secondary education, classically the quadrivium or "four
ways," consist of arithmetic, geometry, music,
and astronomy.
Arithmetic is Number in itself, which is a pure
abstraction; that is, outside of space and time.
Geometry is Number in space.
Music is Number in time, and
Astronomy is Number in space and time.

41. Classical educators consider
the SOCRATIC METHOD to be the best
technique for teaching critical thinking.
In-class discussion and critiques are essential
in order for students to recognize and internalize
critical thinking techniques.

42. TERTIARY
• Tertiary education was usually
an apprenticeship to a person with the
desired profession. Most often, the
understudy was called a "secretary" and
had the duty of carrying on all the normal
business of the "master."

43. • Philosophy and Theology were both widely
taught as tertiary subjects in Universities,
however.
• The early biographies of nobles show probably
the ultimate form of classical education: a tutor.
One early, much-emulated classic example is of
this TUTOR SYSTEM is of Alexander the
Great, who was tutored by Aristotle.

44. UNSCHOOLING
John Caldwell Holt (April 14, 1923 – September 14, 1985)

45. John Caldwell Holt
was an American author and educator, a proponent
of homeschooling and, specifically,
the unschooling approach, and a pioneer in youth
rights theory.
who coined the term in 1977. Holt was a classroom teacher
who later rose to prominence by writing books about the
shortcomings of the traditional education system, such
as How Children Fail and Learning All the Time.

46. He founded the magazine Growing
Without Schooling, which became very
popular in the homeschooling
community.

47. The unschooling philosophy is built on the premise that
children are naturally curious, intelligent, and eager to
learn, and unschooling parents trust this premise. If a child
is daydreaming, then, rather than scolding him for wasting
time, the parent trusts him, knowing that the daydreaming
may be the precursor to a focused creative project like a
painting or a novel. Unguided doodling may evolve into a
comic book or a blueprint, and so on.

48. What is Unschooling?
by Becton Loveless
Unschooling: it's a point of eager discussion in the
homeschooling world, garnering enthusiastic support from
some and concerned skepticism from others. In fact, the
term "unschooling" itself is a topic of debate, with certain
groups ascribing it one definition while others ascribe it
another.

49. Unschooling is often called "child-led learning." As this
name suggests, unschooling allows children to follow their
own interests at their own pace, without direction from
adults.
In this sense, parents act less as teachers and more as
facilitators, watching to see what the children are interested
in, and then providing the environment, resources, and
opportunities to explore those interests.

50. The Pros of Unschooling:
• Educational Freedom: Kids are free to learn and grow
according to their unique personality, interests, and
learning style.

51. Kids Actually Want to Learn:
Unschoolers tend to be highly motivated, because they've chosen the
subjects themselves and they're actually curious about them. No more
butting heads up against brick walls trying to force children to complete
worksheets they're not interested in. Furthermore, kids can stop
pursuing a subject when it is no longer interesting to them.

52. Preparation and Monitoring is Much More Focused:
Rather than planning a course of study an entire year in advance,
without knowing exactly how much time a subject will take and how
well the student will have mastered it by a certain time, unschooling
allows parents to plan and prepare in response to the child's interests
as they develop. Parents also evaluate their child's progress in a similar
way, by being involved and paying attention to what the child has
mastered as they progress.

53. Kids Learn to Act Responsibly in the Community and
Beyond:
In unschooling, a great deal of education happens while the children
are interacting in the community or simply helping around the house.
As such, they become much more independent and comfortable with
interacting with new people of any age. They also develop a sense of
responsibility, and accountability for their own education and behavior.

54. The Cons of Unschooling:
Missing Puzzle Pieces:
Because children choose which subjects to study, there will likely be information
gaps in their education.
It Takes a Great Deal of Parental Commitment:
Parents must be highly involved in and aware of their children's growth, and must
be able to provide resources and opportunities when interests and needs change.
This schooling style requires a great deal of attentiveness, spontaneity, and focus,
and is not a perfect fit for every parent's personality or circumstances.
Kids Must Motivate Themselves: Some children thrive in a structured
environment, and don't respond well to the pressure of having to make all their own
educational choices.

55. What exactly is UNSCHOOLING?
To put it simply, unschooling is a form of
homeschooling but with a little more freedom. The
beauty of unschooling is that it can be done in
many different ways. Some people homeschool by
having a structured schedule, sitting their children
down, and working through a curriculum.
Unschoolers don't do this.

56. SUMMARY
DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION (Neill)
-Allows children to learn naturally in freedom
-“Existentialist: What is real with what I am?”
1. AUTONOMY – in the direction of one’s own educational path
2. CONTROL - ability to decide how to approach major educational needs
CLASSICAL EDUCATION:
Teaches more of Western Culture
Can also be applied in homeschooling
TRIVIUM – (Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric)
QUADRIVIUM – (Arithmetic, Astronomy, Music, Geometry)
UNSCHOOLING:
- a form of home schooling but with a little more freedom
- children chooses which subjects to study but will likely to have learning gaps

57. THANK YOU SO
MUCH!