A.S. Neill

Where does A.S.Neill stand in the history of education? Has he a right at all in those august annals?

Was he not, after all, against academic learning? against the conventional wisdom of morals? against adult authority? against sexual repression? against religion? Was A.S.Neill not merely wilful: wayward in his practice? a mountebank in his books?

Or may he have been a modern Socrates, seeking to release the young from the mind-set of their elders by the giving of 'freedom'? for which he was made to drink the hemlock of public obloquy for half a century.