夏山學校展現的民主教育精神

Spirit of Democratic Education in Summerhill

本文分為兩部分，第一部份討論Summerhill影片。其次，探討Neill的主張，以及其作為民主教育範本的可能。
影片方面，雖然是有著戲劇化的情節與表現方式，但就其表達的教育理念而言，可以算是忠於夏山學校的創校理念及原則。
Neill的教育理念，若我們從有關教育哲學的書籍來看，將Neill的理念可以由二個領域來看。有些學者將它歸屬於存在主義理念，也有學者認為他在學生自由學習的想法上是現代盧騷教育觀的實現，雖然兩者都可以說對進步主義有影響，但我認為兩種說法都未能展現Neill理念的真髓，我認為Neill在夏山學校的實踐是展現出Dewey在《民主與教育》一書中提出的民主理想的小型樣本。民主制度著重溝通互動與多數決的精神，在夏山學校都展露無疑。在民主社會之中，著重個人興趣與多元的認知，也可以在夏山學校學生成長過中見到。這些都可以做為我的論辯之佐證。

In this paper, I will discuss A.S. Neill's educational thought based on his book of 1960 and Democracy and Education by John Dewey. When I saw the BBC's feature film on Summerhill which is mostly based on some real event happened in 1999 with dramatized story, I think it is necessary to study Neill's view in terms of philosophy of education. In general, there are two sayings about his educational thought. Some scholars like to put his thought in existentialism realm; others would think that Neill followed very close to Rousseau's educational practice. However, based on Neill's practice in Summerhill as an independent school for more than half of a century, I would argue that his concept on educational practice is trying to realize John Dewey's democratic ideal that was written in Democracy and Education.