"A Dominie Dismissed" by Alexander Sutherland Neill is a story from the early 1900's about a schoolteacher, called the Dominie, who gets fired because he teaches in a non-traditional manner by letting children play and have freedom instead of following the rules. The book follows the Dominie as he deals with being fired and coming back to the village as someone who takes care of cows, focusing on ideas about learning, being yourself, and power, mostly through watching what happens with the new teacher and how the children react to different ways of teaching. The story starts with the Dominie getting ready to leave his classroom, thinking about how he feels about his students and how sad he is to leave. He really likes some of the children, like Jim Jackson, and is concerned about how they will deal with a stricter teacher named Macdonald. The story remembers the differences between the Dominie's kind, free way of teaching and Macdonald's strict, rule-based way, which sets up the main problem in the book. The beginning is funny, emotional, and thoughtful as the Dominie deals with feeling lost, finding himself, and thinking about what he believes about education.
A Dominie Dismissed
By Alexander Sutherland Neill
A teacher's unique methods are challenged when he is dismissed and replaced by a strict disciplinarian, forcing him to question his beliefs about childhood education as he returns to the village in a new role.
Summary
About the AuthorAlexander Sutherland Neill was a Scottish educator and author known for his school, Summerhill, and its philosophy of freedom from adult coercion and community self-governance. Raised in Scotland, Neill taught at several schools before attending the University of Edinburgh in 1908–1912. He took two jobs in journalism before World War I, and taught at Gretna Green Village School in the second year of the war, writing his first book, A Dominie's Log (1915), as a diary of his life there as head teacher. He joined a Dresden school in 1921 and founded Summerhill on returning to England in 1924. Summerhill gained renown in the 1930s and then in the 1960s–1970s, due to progressive and counter-culture interest. Neill wrote 20 books. His top seller was the 1960 Summerhill, read widely in the free school movement from the 1960s.
Alexander Sutherland Neill was a Scottish educator and author known for his school, Summerhill, and its philosophy of freedom from adult coercion and community self-governance. Raised in Scotland, Neill taught at several schools before attending the University of Edinburgh in 1908–1912. He took two jobs in journalism before World War I, and taught at Gretna Green Village School in the second year of the war, writing his first book, A Dominie's Log (1915), as a diary of his life there as head teacher. He joined a Dresden school in 1921 and founded Summerhill on returning to England in 1924. Summerhill gained renown in the 1930s and then in the 1960s–1970s, due to progressive and counter-culture interest. Neill wrote 20 books. His top seller was the 1960 Summerhill, read widely in the free school movement from the 1960s.
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