Primary Source Analysis: AS Neill’s Letter to Dora RussellLaura McInerney – ELPA 9462 – Historical Study Project

Primary Source Analysis: AS Neill’s Letter to Dora Russell

The UK Progressive School movement began in the 1920s in reaction to

severe Victorian principles of schooling and to counteract them

using techniques based on Freud’s writing. With the expressed

purpose of giving students a more relaxed developmental experience

many news articles labelled them the “Do-As-You-Please” Schools1.

The primary source included here is a letter from AS Neill - the

founder of Summerhill School - to Dora Russell, the co-founder of

Beacon Hill School. The letter was sent in the Spring of 1944

shortly after the closure of Beacon Hill and it was retrieved from

Dora Winifred Russell Archives (1906 – 1986) digitally held by the

International Institute of Social History. Russell’s letters are

archived in alphabetical order of correspondent; only 3 letters with

AS Neill are in the archive. None of the letters in Russell’s

archive are in AS Neill’s published correspondence2.

The 1944 letter highlights several themes common across the three

schools I am studying in my project3. These themes are: the role of

romantic relationships, financial problems, staffing problems,

compromises of the progressive ethos and the role of journalism in

spreading the progressive message. The relevant sections for each

theme have been highlighted on the source.

Interpretations & Themes in the Source

1 Unknown author, “A Do-As-You-Please School” The Daily News [Colombo, Ceylon] 21 April 1931, in the Dora Winifred Russell paper 1906 – 1986, #13-9, Inventory 656, International Institute of Social History. Retrieved online 16 September 2012.2 Croall, J. (1983) All the best, Neill: Letters from Summerhill, London: The Trinity Press3 The three schools of the project are Beacon Hill (founded by Dora & Bertrand Russell), Summerhill (founded by AS Neill) and Malting House (founded by Geoffrey Pyke & Susan Isaacs)

1. The Importance of relationships

Neill’s wife was dying from a stroke when he wrote this letter. The

manner in which he describes her is somewhat shocking. Similar

bluntness about her death is apparent in his autobiography. In fact,

in all of Neill’s writing the school seems of far more importance

than his personal relationships. This contrasts with Beacon Hill

where the co-founders’ divorce caused many problems4 and at Malting

House where an affair between the founder and headmistress

potentially caused the headmistresses resignation5. On a

psychoanalytic historical reading6 it appears that in all three

cases the adults were using the schools to meet their desire for

nurturing relationships they were unable to create within their

adult romantic lives.

2. Financial Problems

Though relationships are important in the history of the schools,

the eventual reason for Beacon Hill and Malting Hill closures were

financial7. In the 1944 letter, Neill describes the financial

problems he is facing and notes that without capital he cannot

expand intake even though the school is popular. Neill continuously

wrote books about Summerhill to bring in extra capital for the

school, and he describes in another letter to Russell how he

downsized location when required to cushion financial losses8.

Without a similar publishing revenue stream Beacon Hill was badly

hit by WWII when the school premises were taken over as a military

4 Russell, Dora, and Countess Russell. The tamarisk tree: my quest for liberty and love. Vol. 1. Putnam, 1975.5 Graham, Philip. Susan Isaacs: A Life Freeing the Minds of Children: A Life Freeing the Minds of Children. Karnac Books, 2008.6 Cocks, Geoffrey Ed, and Travis L. Crosby. Psycho/history: Readings in the method of psychology, psychoanalysis, and history. Yale University Press, 1987.7Russell, Dora, and Countess Russell. The tamarisk tree: my quest for liberty and love. Vol. 1. Putnam, 1975.8 Neill, AS. Letter to Dora Russell, 18 April 1932. Dora Winifred Russell Papers 1906 – 1986, #17-100, Inventory 71, International Institute of Social History. Retrieved online September 25 2012.

base and Russell could not claim compensation as she was only

renting – and did not own – the school property. Malting House

closed when the founder lost all his money in the 1929 stock crash.

3. Staffing Problems

All three progressive schools struggled to find ‘good’ staff, but as

Neill’s letter shows it is difficult to know to what extent the

demanding ideals of the founders were the problem. Neill’s school

demanded people with patience and an openness to non-traditional

atmospheres yet here he laments ‘hopeless idealists’ and desires

someone with pragmatism – a difficult blend to find. Neill’s

suggestion that “Newman had to leave to have her brat” also suggests

she was not able to stay at school while still teaching, however

Dora Russell was the mother of three children, and the third was

only an infant when Russell’s husband left her to run the school

alone, suggesting that it was possible for women to teach when

tending to children and perhaps suggesting that Summerhill was not

amenable, rather than unable, to provide such an arrangement.

4. Journalism and Publications

All three sets of school leaders published extensively about their

experiences, initially in magazines and later in books. AS Neill’s

work became most widely spread in the 1960s, but all three wrote for

(and advertised) in The New Humanist, The New Statesman and Nature

magazine9. In doing so the schools became famous within left-wing

‘middle-to-upper’ class circles which significantly affected intake.

9 Advertisements & articles from these magazines are in the ISSH archive for Dora Russell, are published in AS Neill’s correspondence (Croall, ibid) and are republished in Graham’s autobiography of Susan Isaacs (Ibid).

5. Oceans of Compromise

When AS Neill says that progressive schools have become a

‘compromise’ it appears that he is talking about the fact that so

many of the schools from the 1920s have either closed or had changed

their philosophy to become more ‘mainstream’. In order to keep

financially stable and ensure adequate staffing most ‘gave up’ on

the Freudian idea.

Synthesis – What parallels can be drawn with US Education?

Although these schools are from a different period than that covered

by the class so far, and from a different country, there is an

important synthesis.

First: Finance is an important driver of change. Though

“progressivism” is considered correct it is foregone when its

founders could no longer fund it. In the US decisions regarding, for

example, gender integration often occur because the alternative was

unaffordable. Even if education leaders felt it more morally

appropriate to have separate sex schools, the lack of money

available meant such segregation did not occur. When considering the

history of schools it is therefore critical to carefully judge

whether money funds ideology, or if it works the other way around.

Secondly: If relationships are so important in the creation of

progressive schools, why are they missing from the histories of

education presented by Joel Spring, Tyack & Hansott, and James

Anderson? In fact, a quick glance at the leading educationalists in

their stories would suggest relationships are vastly important:

- Horace Mann’s second wife was Mary Taylor Peabody, a teacher

who was greatly respected in Massachusetts, advised him on all

aspects of policy and was possibly more an inspiration for his

working in education over law (as opposed to the riots!)10

- Thomas Jefferson had a long-term affair and children with

Sally Hemmings, one of his slaves, as proven by DNA testing in

199811. Was this important in his views regarding equality?

- Booker T. Washington’s wife, Olivia A. Davidson, was a co-

founder of Tuskagee College. She trained at Hampton, then at a

Normal School, was a teacher and an honors student12.

- W.E.B. Du Bois had continual affairs throughout his life all

with highly ‘academic’ and celebrate women some of whom were

white. He had very little to do with his wife and daughter.13

Conclusion

The AS Neill letter is therefore a useful example of the problems

and strategies for success seen in the Progressive School movement

as the schools ambled towards closure or compromise. But more

importantly the letter shows us the importance of human interactions

and how the people in the history of educations had friendships,

romantic relationships and opinions about the people they worked

with. Often in history these relationships are missed out – as is

evidenced by the absence of the women discussed above in US

education history – but these relationships are important and can

help us understand people’s motives in a new and illuminating way.

The “wives’ tale” may yet be a missing piece in the history puzzle

10 Marshall, Megan. The Peabody Sisters: Three women who ignited American romanticism. Mariner Books, 2006.11Smith D. & Wade N. “DNA Test Finds Evidence of Jefferson Child By Slave” The New York Times November 01 1998. Retrieved 31 October 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/01/us/dna-test-finds-evidence-of-jefferson-child-by-slave.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm12 Darlene Clark Hine Black Women in America an Historical Encyclopedia Volumes 1 and 2 (Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Publishing, 1993). 13 Lewis, David Levering. WEB Du Bois, 1868-1919: Biography of a Race. Vol. 1. Holt Paperbacks, 1994.

that will help us understand how we got from no schooling at all to

where we are right now.

Biblography

Analysed primary source is:

Neill, A.S, Letter to Dora Russell. April 27, 1944. Dora Winifred Russell Papers 1906-1986, #17-102, Inventory 71, International Institute of Social History. Retrieved online September 25 2012.

Additional materials:Cocks, Geoffrey Ed, and Travis L. Crosby. Psycho/history: Readings in the method of psychology, psychoanalysis, and history. Yale University Press, 1987.Croall, J. (1983) All the best, Neill: Letters from Summerhill, London: The Trinity PressGraham, Philip. Susan Isaacs: A Life Freeing the Minds of Children: A Life Freeing the Minds of Children. Karnac Books, 2008.Hine, Darlene Clark Black Women in America an Historical Encyclopedia Volumes 1 and 2 (Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Publishing, 1993). Lewis, David Levering. WEB Du Bois, 1868-1919: Biography of a Race. Vol. 1. Holt Paperbacks, 1994.Marshall, Megan. The Peabody Sisters: Three women who ignited American romanticism. Mariner Books, 2006.Neill, AS. Letter to Dora Russell, 18 April 1932. Dora Winifred Russell Papers 1906 – 1986, #17-100, Inventory 71, International Institute of Social History. Retrieved online September 25 2012.Russell, Dora, and Countess Russell. The tamarisk tree: my quest for liberty and love. Vol. 1. Putnam, 1975.Smith D. & Wade N. “DNA Test Finds Evidence of Jefferson Child By Slave” The New York Times November 01 1998. Retrieved 31 October 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/01/us/dna-test-finds-evidence-of-jefferson-child-by-slave.html?pagewanted=all&src=pmUnknown author, “A Do-As-You-Please School” The Daily News [Colombo, Ceylon] 21 April 1931, in the Dora Winifred Russell paper 1906 – 1986, #13-9, Inventory 656, International Institute of Social History. Retrieved online 16 September 2012.