As you may know, Summerhill School receives no support from the British government, and so has to charge fees. Because not everyone can afford these, and there are so few alternative educational establishments in Britain, the A.S. Neill Summerhill Trust exists to provide bursaries for children attending Summerhill, but funds are scarce. We (the Trust) are having a fundraising event in London on March 19th, both to raise money for bursaries and to celebrate both Summerhill’s recent positive Ofsted inspection report and the BBC drama about the school’s court battle with the British government.

More details in the flyer at this URL: http://mishagale.fastmail.fm/summerhill.pdf

Wikipedia has a good article on the school, which is run “the belief that the school should be made to fit the child.” If you’re curious about the BBC drama Misha references, there’s a little background posted at the school’s website.

More information…

From LA Cityzine:

…I think in the past 7 years many of us have forgotten what a good presidential speech sounds like. His calm demeanor, personal conversational tone and straightforward way of speaking, reminded me of what a great speech should look, sound, and feel like. Now that he is out of office he is doing even more, and he is doing it as a citizen, just like you and me. Whatever your political views may be, this is a great speech to listen to. It made me feel inspired to be an active citizen and motivated me to try and make a change in the problems I see around me day after day. If the speech does it’s job and you feel inspired, check out empowerchange.org they are a great place to help you get started.

Global Leapfrog Education

Volume 2, Number 1 – March 2006

(Submissions are due November 30, 2006)

Global Leapfrog Education (GLE), a new, open access journal, is devoted to exploring how, through education and human capital development, communities can transcend current problems and challenges by empowering themselves with the tools to invent their own futures. GLE publishes articles spanning a wide range of interests related to leapfrog education (viz. change, technologies, knowledge production and innovation, global youth leadership, and futures-oriented philosophies and theories of education).

GLE offers its authors:

• Timely peer review and publication
• Free online publication
• Web-based platform for comments and discussion
• Online manuscript submission and tracking
• International editorial review board

Scholars of all fields are invited to submit articles and reviews on topics in the following areas:

• Accelerating change and related technologies
• Knowledge production and innovation
• Global youth development and leadership
• Futures-oriented philosophies and theories of education

Articles considered for publication are normally between 8 and 25 pages in length. Detailed information regarding author guidelines and the submission process are available online at: http://www.leapfroginstitute.org/journal/index.php/gle/information/authors

Journal Web page: http://www.leapfroginstitute.org/journal

Editorial contacts:

• Arthur Harkins, University of Minnesota, harki001@umn.edu
• John Moravec, University of Minnesota, moravec@umn.edu