A. S. Neill Quotes

15 Sourced Quotes

No one has the right to make a boy learn Latin, because learning is a matter for individual choice; but if in a Latin class, a boy fools all the time, the class should throw him out, because he interferes with the freedom of others.

A. S. Neill
If we have to have an exam at 11, let us make it one for humour, sincerity, imagination, character—and where is the examiner who could test such qualities.

A. S. Neill
I never once went to a prostitute, maybe because so many enthusiastic amateurs were around.

A. S. Neill
You cannot make children learn music or anything else without to some degree converting them into will-less adults. You fashion them into accepters of the status quo – a good thing for a society that needs obedient sitters at dreary desks, standers in shops, mechanical catchers of the 8:30 suburban train – a society, in short, that is carried on the shabby shoulders of the scared little man – the scared-to-death conformist.

A. S. Neill
A good teacher does not draw out; he gives out, and what he gives out is love. And by love I mean approval, or if you like, friendliness, good nature. The good teacher not only understands the child: he approves of the child.

A. S. Neill
A disturbing thought comes to me to-night. Democracy means rule by the majority... and the majority is always wrong. The only comfort I can find lies in the thought that the majority of to-day represents the opinions of the minority of yesterday. Democracy will always be twenty years behind its time.

A. S. Neill
My own criterion of success is the ability to work joyfully and to live positively.

A. S. Neill
Often... girls... who never go to lessons... spend much time with needlework, and some, later in life, take up dressmaking and designing. It is an absurd curriculum that makes a prospective dressmaker study quadratic equations or Boyle's Law.

A. S. Neill
Let us think of a bad school. I mean a school where children sit at desks and speak when they are spoken to.

A. S. Neill
There is never a problem child; there is only a problem parent

A. S. Neill
Take from others what you want, but never be a disciple of anyone.

A. S. Neill
The function of the child is to live his own life - not the life that his anxious parents think he should live.

A. S. Neill
A child is innately wise and realistic. If left to himself without adult suggestion of any kind, he will develop as far as he is capable of developing.

A. S. Neill
If a bull had intelligence he would not allow himself to be led to the shambles. If the Trade Unions had intelligence they would not allow their paid leaders to lead them to the altar.

A. S. Neill
If the emotions are free, the intellect will look after itself.

A. S. Neill