“No one has the right to make a boy learn Latin, because learning is a matter for individual choice; but if in a Latin class, a boy fools all the time, the class should throw him out, because he interferes with the freedom of others.”

— A.S. Neill , book Summerhill

Source: Summerhill (1960), p. 356

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Aug. 26, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "No one has the right to make a boy learn Latin, because learning is a matter for individual choice; but if in a Latin c…" by A.S. Neill?

A.S. Neill 8

Scottish educator and theorist 1883–1973

Related quotes

“When one asked him what boys should learn, "That," said he, "which they shall use when men."”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

Of Agesilaus the Great
Laconic Apophthegms

“Each of these Churches, including the Latin Church, has its own genius. The beauty is to learn from each other without destroying the uniqueness of each one.”

Bosco Puthur (1946) Indian bishop

Pope looks east for possible Church reforms https://www.ucanews.com/news/pope-looks-east-for-possible-church-reforms/69752 (22 November 2013)

“If the Romans had been obliged to learn Latin, they would never have found time to conquer the world.”

Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic

As quoted in The Medical Record No. 674 (6 October 1883); also in And I Quote : The Definitive Collection of Quotes, Sayings, and Jokes for the Contemporary Speechmaker (1992) by Ashton Applewhite, Tripp Evans and Andrew Frothingham, p. 447

“I was only a working-class boy from a Nationalist ghetto, but it is repression that creates the revolutionary spirit of freedom.”

Bobby Sands (1954–1981) Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army

Republican News http://larkspirit.com/hungerstrikes/bios/sands.html, (16 December 1978)
Other writings
Context: I was only a working-class boy from a Nationalist ghetto, but it is repression that creates the revolutionary spirit of freedom. I shall not settle until I achieve liberation of my country, until Ireland becomes a sovereign, independent socialist republic.

“Men and boys are learning all kinds of trades but how to make men of themselves.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Letter to Harrison Blake (20 May 1860); published in Familiar Letters (1865)
Context: Men and boys are learning all kinds of trades but how to make men of themselves. They learn to make houses; but they are not so well housed, they are not so contented in their houses, as the woodchucks in their holes. What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on? — If you cannot tolerate the planet that it is on? Grade the ground first. If a man believes and expects great things of himself, it makes no odds where you put him, or what you show him … he will be surrounded by grandeur. He is in the condition of a healthy and hungry man, who says to himself, — How sweet this crust is!