Homer Lane

Homer Lane Tyrrel (* 1875, † September 5, 1925 in Neuilly -sur -Seine ) was an American- British educator and social reformer. He is best known for the reasoning of the "Little Commonwealth ", an existing 1913-1918 reformatory for juvenile offenders in the English Dorset.

Life and work

Lane originally came from the United States, where he had made by the board of several educational institutions (including participation in the George Junior Republic) a name. At first he had given as a craft teacher Swedish " Sloyd " lessons. Sloyd means literally " hand craft " and refers to the work with natural materials such as wood and textiles. In this way, children should develop through dealing with the material of respect for artisanal ways of working. The U.S. " Sloyd " movement, who came Lane, had set itself the goal of making the manual labor as opposed to the desk learning the foundation of elementary education.

In "Little Commonwealth " Lane was commissioned by a group of interested penal reformers, led by the Earl of Sandwich, the opportunity to carry out his experiments on their own. The educational institution was newly established on a farm with different buildings that were gradually colonized by children and youth groups. More buildings were built by the citizens of this "republic" itself. The children and adolescents were either orphans or were sent by their parents, who were unable to cope with them. Many of them had abzuleisten suspended sentences. The older children given the fate of the community in weekly meetings. Lane called this " self -government " and Alexander Sutherland Neill took over the term of him later. In meetings, the children and young people made ​​their own laws and elected officials such as judges and treasurer.

Lanes therapeutic methods considered in the light of this basic pattern, however, he reached a, this happened often in the form of paradoxical sanctions. Thus, the self-government punishing lawbreakers with holiday, came up for the cost of which the Community, or Lane called for a boy who had smashed all the crockery on, now even to smash his clock.

The "Little Commonwealth " existed from 1913 to 1918, when a scandal led to its closure:

This was written by Neill later about events whose actual sequence never came to light. The report of the Commission of Inquiry, was the biographer Homer Lanes, never released, despite repeated calls from David Wills and - as the supervisory authority in 1975 announced - were destroyed later.

Homer Lane later worked with adults in London. Ill with typhoid fever and pneumonia Lane died of heart failure on September 5, 1925 at the American Hospital in Paris Neuilly -sur -Seine.

Writings (selection )

• Talks to Parents and Teachers (1928 )