A Dominie's Log

This is the origin story of one of education's most radical thinkers. A.S. Neill arrived at Gretna Green Village School in 1914 as a young Scottish schoolmaster armed with an uncomfortable conviction: that children are human beings deserving of respect, not empty vessels to be filled with rote learning and fear. What follows is his diary of that first year, documenting a quiet revolution. He discards the cane. He abandons the rigid timetable. He joins the children in their games, slides with them on icy streets, shares their sweets, and listens to their voices. The result is not chaos but something more radical: a school where children actually want to learn. Written with dry Scottish humor and fierce honesty, this memoir reads less like an educational treatise and more like a love letter to childhood autonomy. A century before 'education reform' became political theater, Neill proved that treating kids as people might be the most radical act in teaching. This is where Summerhill began.