Shattered Illusions

There is a story told about how Neill set about winning over one particular boy who was always causing trouble and who clearly regarded all teachers with a hostile eye. On one occasion Neill, out taking a stroll, had just rounded a corner at Summerhill when he came across the boy playing on his own. The boy, not noticing he was no longer alone, picked up a stone and threw it through one of the school windows. Turning he saw Neill. Instead of finding himself shouted at angrily as he expected the boy was startled to see Neill bend down, pick up a stone and hurl it at another window. The boy had to pay to get the window repaired, as did Neill. But he thought this a small price to pay for establishing a bond between himself and the boy, whose behaviour improved afterwards.

Neill was a remarkable character who knew just when to be firm and just when to adopt a lighter touch when handling children. Not everyone is so successful. Willie Russell, the playwright, likes to tell of the time when he had freshly graduated from teacher training college and had just begun work as a probationary teacher. This was in a rather tough area of Liverpool. On his first day at the school he was left to do playground duty on his own, rather a daunting experience for one so new to the job. Standing in the middle of the playground surrounded by milling children at morning break he turned to see one of the children throwing a stone at a school window. When the boy saw that he had been spotted by a teacher his face fell. This was at a time when the punishment for misbehaviour at most schools was a sound beating. Fortunately for this boy, Russell, fresh from training college with his idealism undimmed by grim reality, remembered the story about Neill. 'Ah-ha,' he said to himself, 'I know just what to do in this situation.' Stooping down he picked up a stone and propelled it through another window. Turning to smile triumphantly at the boy his satisfaction was suddenly shattered by the sound of dozens of windows being hit by flying stones. Unfortunately he had failed to take into account the difference between his situation and the one which Neill had faced, namely that he and the boy were not alone. All around him dozens of mischievous schoolboys had been only too glad to rush to emulate 'Sir'. It was at this point in his career that Russell decided that perhaps he was not quite cut out to be a teacher.

By hurling a stone at the window, Neill has probably put the boy in a new situation, a situation in which the boy watches someone else break a window and therefore break the rule. Instead of enjoying his own mischief which is in fact a revenge against his teachers, the boy had a chance of experiencing what others may feel about a broken window. Another important implication here for the boy can be that teachers are also humans and can also make mistakes or even run into mischief. But it is no big deal correcting the mistakes. Furthermore, there is no need to be an enemy of someone who is trying to help him correct himself, someone like a teacher.

Russell failed to take into account that, unlike Neill, he and the boy were not alone - with disastrous results! Deciding after this that he was not suited to teaching he left to take up playwriting. Most of his plays are very imaginative and funny. A bit like this story, in fact.

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