Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-10-30
THE O'NEILL PLAN
By H. AddingtOn Bruce

by Mr.. G. w. Washburne, of Winnetka,
Illinois, in his recent report on educa-
tional innovations in Europe, nOneAis more
astonishing than Mr.. Washburne's account of
the O'Neil plan for educating young children,
This plan is one of complete freedom from
academic discipline Its inventor, oddly
enough, is man who used to be school
master discipGnarian of the old type, strict
ly insisting on order and resorting promptly
to the rod to enforce his decrees./
day came when he realized that this pol
icy hampered rather than helped the little
ones in his charge. On his appointment as
principal of school district in England, he
reacted to the opposite extreme.
He permitted the children of the school to
do virtually what they pleased. He pre-
scribed no study courses. He would not pun
ish He made rules of no sort And, &C
cording to Mr.. Washburne, when parents
protested to him that their children were for
getting how to read and write, he made re-
Spouse:
"These children are going from school into
the cotton mills of Kearsley. Let's give them
taste of life before they have to become
machines. Let's stimulate their magma
tions, their interests, now while they are
young, instead of suppressing them and cram
ming facts down unwilling threats.
"They will soon Or late want to read and
write. Their reaction from it now is natural
reading and writing have been forced on
them. Give me time-give them time. 1t
is natural for them to want knowledge. If
we give them freedom, they will come to us
for ability to gain what they want"
Parents and school board authorities were
skeptical, but O'Neill was given opportunity
to proceed with his experimenting. With the
cooperation of his wife he labored not to
compel children to learn but to inspire them
with alonging to learn. He did, however,
make one concession to the school board,
working out a general study plan for the
school.
y His teachers, Mr.. Washburne reports, give
on an average only two and half hours a
week of class instruction. And this is de-
voted mostly, not to an imparting of knowl-
edge, but to a stimulating of the children's
interest in some subject.
Study of that subject follows each class
period-so long as the ~children's interest in
the subject remains keen. When it has
waned in the majority, another class period
follows perhaps on different subject
Everything depends on the chidren's re-
Spouse. They study or not at will.
And how does this extraordinary plan
work? Let Mr.. Washburne answer, as he
does in the report he has drawn up, from
personal observation for the United States
Bureau of Education:
For the most part the children go and
come as tney please, Work on WnaC interests
them, and follow their own impulses. Yet
they are learning.
Some of the older ones are writing verse.
Others are doing good work in art. All of
them can read and write well. All Of them
know the most important elements Of arth-
metic. They concentrate admirably on the
work they choose to do.
'To an ordinary teacher the school would
seem seriously undisciplined. Yet there
was almost no rough house. and there was
much serious work. The children them
selves are natural, affectionate, and self
possessed. They are self-reliant and CO.
operative.'
Can it be that Principal O'Neill has work
ed out pia3 for the most effective education
of children? Mr.. Washburne clearly is more
inclined to praise than to criticize what he
saw in the Kearsley school The same holds
true with regard to other schools of free
dom" visited by him. Of this more again.
Copyright, 1929