"What would you have done?" he asked.
"Taken the prisoner's side," I said promptly, "I should have chucked
every pencil in the room at the judge and jury. Then I should have
pointed out that I refused to do the dirty work of the community."
"But where does the self-government come in there?" he protested.
"Chucking things at the jury is anarchy, pure anarchy."
"I know," I said simply. "But then anarchy is necessary in your
school. You don't mean to say that the children thought that throwing
a pencil was a great crime? What happened was that they projected
themselves on to you; unconsciously they said: 'The Mester thinks this
a crime and he would punish it severely.' They were trying to please
you. I say that anarchy is necessary if these children are to get free
from their dependence on you and their fear of you. So long as you
refuse to alter your old values you can't expect the kids to alter
their old values. Unless you become as a little child you cannot enter
the kingdom of--er--self-government."
I know that Mac's experiment will fail, and for this reason; he wants
his children to run the school themselves, but to run it according to
his ideas of government.
* * * * *
I think of an incident that happened when I was teaching in a school in
London. I had a drawing lesson, and the children made so much noise
that the teacher in the adjoining room came in and protested that she
couldn't make her voice heard. The noise in my room seemed to
increase . . . and the lady came in again. The noise increased.
Next day I went to my class.
"You made such a noise yesterday that the teacher next door had to stop
teaching. She rightly complained. Now I want to ask you what you are
going to do about it."
"You should keep us in order," said Findlay, a boy of eleven.
"I refuse," I said; "it isn't my job."
This raised a lively discussion; the majority seemed to agree with
Findlay.
"Anyway," I said doggedly, "I refuse to be your policeman," and I sat
down.
There was much talking, and then Joy got up.
"I think we ought to settle it by a meeting, and I propose Diana as
chairman."
The idea was hailed with delight, and Diana was elected chairman and
she took my desk seat and I went and sat down in her place.
Joy jumped up again.
"I propose that Mr. Neill be put out of the room."
The motion was carried.
"Righto!" I said, as I moved to the door, "I'll go up to the staff-room
and have a smoke. Send for me if you want me."
I smoked a cigarette in the staff-room, and as I threw the stump into
the grate Nancy came in.
"You can come down now."