Published: May 2022 (3 years ago) in issue Nº 394
Keywords: Education, The Learning Community (TLC) and Summerhill School
Project Summerhill

1 From left: Maisie, Manu, Chandni, Mohini, Lea
So interested, in fact, that a group of them are hoping to visit Summerhill this August, when Summerhill will be celebrating its hundredth anniversary by putting on a ‘Festival of Childhood’, inviting youth and teachers in progressive education from all over the world to share their experiences.
“We would like to go there to represent TLC and Integral Education,” says Mohini. “But we would also like to learn what other progressive places are doing, and then try to make TLC better on the basis of that.” “We want to learn new information and skills, and understand the different ways in which schools run themselves democratically,” says Chandni.
“One of the things we are looking for is how Summerhill works with democracy,” says Mohini. “We have community gatherings twice a week in TLC and one of our biggest problems is how to follow through on decisions we take there. If you swear at somebody, it is seriously not okay and something has to happen, but what? We may suggest something, but what happens if that doesn’t happen?”
One of the things that impresses them about Summerhill is the willingness of that community to call a community meeting whenever one is necessary, not to wait until a set time in the week. “If a problem comes up, they try to deal with it immediately.”
How will they present TLC at the Festival?
“We’ll say that TLC is a school where you need a lot of drive and self-motivation and TLC builds this, and once you have that you can do anything,” continues Mohini. “We learn a lot at TLC. We’ll be presenting some of our projects, because we don’t spend our time just climbing trees, as some people in Auroville seem to think!” They will also show and answer questions on the award-winning film about TLC made by Alessandra Silver.
One of the projects they will be presenting at the Festival is their newspaper, with which Mohini, Chandni and Clara of the Summerhill group are involved. Recently the young editors took on their most challenging topic yet: trying to understand dissensions around the Crown. To do this, they delved into the history of the Galaxy concept and the Master Plan, and attended all the meetings called by different groups, even interviewing the Secretary.
What did they learn?
“People were very quick to judge. We felt they needed to look at problems less from their own perspective and do more research on the subject before they give their opinion on it,” concludes Mohini. “We did research, we went into all the details, while many others were just repeating what they heard from someone else as their opinion.”
Now they are in the process of fundraising for the Summerhill trip. How are they raising the money?
“Originally, we made wooden boxes in Fertile as a gift for those who made a donation,” says Chandni. Now they are making sunflower brooches, instead because “it’s super difficult to make a lot of boxes. We made thirty so far and it took us two or three months!”
They also organized a fundraising event on Wednesday, April 13, which involved dinner, live music, and an auction where children and parents offered their skills and products. They raised Rs 75,000. They have also applied to the Project Coordination Group for financial help, and “I’ve written something about the whole thing, about Summerhill being a democratic school, and we put it on Auronet and in the News and Notes and on Instagram,” adds Manu. ”We’re already getting quite a lot of donations through Instagram.”
Are they at all overawed by the challenge of raising the money and travelling to the U.K.?
Not at all. They seem confident that they will raise the funding (they have already raised over two lakh rupees of the 6-7 lakhs they will need). And “It’s the first time that we will go out of India as a group of TLC kids. We’re really looking forward to it!” enthuses Chandni.
If you would like more information about TLC’s Project Summerhill, please contact: mohini@auroville.org.in