An idea I've always had for a book is How Reading Summerhill Changed My Life. It would be a collection of the stories of all the wildly different people I've met over the years-from taxi drivers to chimney sweeps-who said they were never the same after reading Neill. It was certainly true for me, a lost college freshman who happened to stumble upon Summerhill in the unlikeliest of places, the bookstore at the last remaining all-male university in the U.S. It was definitely a bad business move on their part-I sat down in the aisle and read the book instead of buying it, and decided soon after to drop out at the end of the year. If seven-year-olds are capable of determining their own fate, why not me? P.S. I highly recommend the revised edition edited by Albert Lamb because it contains a lot more of Neill's writing than the earlier American version.

An extremely close second is all ten of John Holt's books, from How Children Fail in 1964 to Teach Your Own in 1981. I say all because John understood children as well as anyone and wrote about them with such unadorned clarity. Also because it's the best way to follow the considerable evolution of his thinking until his life was cut short by cancer at 62, at which point he found himself the philosophical leader of a homeschool movement gone viral.

Thank you for your ongoing support. With your help, we will make learner-centered alternatives available to everyone!

Sincerely,

Jerry Mintz

Executive Director

Alternative Education Resource Organization