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LEADER 00000ngm a2200349za 4500
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028 52 1115723|bKanopy
035 (OCoLC)921959179
040 VDU|beng|cVDU
245 00 Imagine a School... Summerhill|h[Kanopy electronic
resource]
264 1 [San Francisco, California, USA] :|bKanopy Streaming,
|c2015.
300 1 online resource (streaming video file)
306 Duration: 67 minutes
336 two-dimensional moving image|btdi|2rdacontent
337 computer|2rdamedia
338 online resource|bcr|2rdacarrier
500 Title from title frames.
500 In Process Record.
518 Originally produced by Documentary Educational Resources
in 2008.
520 In 1997, Tony Blair's new Labor Government took steps to
improve standards in education. Ironically, this would
threaten the existence of an unusual little school in
Suffolk called Summerhill... So begins an extraordinary
documentary about an exemplary school in England, in which
the students, the staff and a few formidable barristers
take on OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education) and
Tony Blair's Labor Government to fight for its existence
and the lifeblood of alternative education throughout the
world. It was a fight that not only saved the prestigious
institution, but proved the very educational principals on
which the school was founded. In the process, some
remarkable young people were given a chance to see how
they had grown within Summerhill's unique democratic
system and an up close lesson in modern government.
Summerhill, the famous coed alternative boarding school,
was threatened with closure by the British Labor
Government because it refused to compromise its
educational and social philosophy. Attendance in classes
is voluntary, and children can play all day if they feel
like it. The school runs as a free and completely
democratic society. Rules are developed and adopted in
weekly meetings, in which every member of the school
community, from a five-year old child to the headmistress,
has an equal vote. At Summerhill, the emotional
development of children comes first, lessons second.
Imagine a documentary... The filmmakers hand over to 11-
year-old students three camcorders, to be shared amongst
the community, with the instructions: here are the cameras
- now shoot. At first the students don't even know how to
work the equipment. Over time they are documenting their
daily lives, capturing the life of Summerhill from an
unfiltered and authentic child's point of view. Over the
next six years, the filmmakers film and interview students,
staff and alumni and chronicle the chain of circumstances
that end in a most unexpected turn of events. The film
follows a number of students from the ages of eleven to
sixteen as they grow up and make important decisions about
life and their education at the same time that they become
involved in the legal and political fight to save their
school. We watch them work and play and see them develop
as they take on the increased responsibilities that come
with age and experience in a self-governing community. The
film follows the same children who sneak out of their
dorms at night and dance to The Spice Girls at the end of
term party as they go on to help run the democratic
processes of their school, give a press conference at the
Houses of Parliament and, finally and triumphantly, turn
the high court into an unprecedented and historical
Summerhill general meeting to decide whether or not to
accept the terms of the British government. Filmmaker:
William Tyler Smith
538 Mode of access: World Wide Web.
653 Anthropology
653 Politics and International Affairs
700 1 Tyler Smith, William,|efilmmaker
710 2 Kanopy (Firm)
856 40 |uhttps://naperville.kanopy.com/node/115724|zAvailable on
Kanopy
856 42 |zCover Image|uhttps://www.kanopy.com/node/115724/external
-image