The children I observed at Summerhill seemed to possess a remarkable clear and calm confidence way beyond their years. It was not a subtle thing. It affected how they moved and sat as well as how they expressed themselves verbally. I came to the conclusion that this was the result of feeling in control of their lives, having their own voice valued and being able to make their own mistakes in a safe environment.
With self confidence anything is achievable. Self motivated learning is many times more potent than that imposed upon you.
So the kids there that want to be rocket scientists study what they need to become rocket scientists. The ones that want to be carpenters study what they need to become carpenters. No more and no less study than necessary to persue their self determined destiny.
I found that highly disconcerting at first. As someone who identified with high academic achievement, the idea that you would voluntarily not want to achieve A grades in all subjects seemed crazy. It was an unsettling moment when I walked away realising that I was the crazy one and had been suckered into the needlessly competitive system of academic achievement that succeeds by satisfying its own internal logic and dismissing other approaches.
Left to their own devices and free of rules imposed on them, as opposed to those self determined, these humans decide that their own time should be mostly filled with... play and just enough study to fulfil what they feel drawn to as a purpose in life.
Being given the time and space and quiet to be able to see what your purpose in life is is the greatest gift that any school can bestow on a child. Because when you have purpose, everything else falls into line behind it.
A further note. These Meetings are not just pupils councils guided by adults - they are raw democracy. It's also where a lot of the learning happens I believe, which is probably why they form such a central part of the school. They teach rhetoric in the most hands on way imaginable. They teach morals. They teach you how to relate socially. And things like public speaking naturally fall out of the meeting process too.
When it's easier to self teach than ever before I feel we need more schools like Summerhill and the poster's. Schools that allow us to read the 'what it is to be human' manual rather than the increasingly painfully outmoded systems we inherited from Victorians.