My school goes on as usual. Finances so bad that I am having to go
back and take in real problem children who can pay enough to keep
the school going, thieves etc. That makes me sad, for I had almost
given up that kind of pupil. I had many years of having my money and
tools and clothes stolen by young crooks, and to begin all that again
makes me tired and hopeless. However I'll see what Vegeto-Therapy
will do for young crooks.
I often think how lucky you were to get away from Europe. Oslo
that seemed so peaceful is now getting towards the danger centre. It is
not easy in England for those who supported Communism. The Party
of course has it own line which each member accepts without thought,
but the many Left Wing people who looked to Russia as to a new
world, are very depressed now. Left papers like the New Statesman now
say more bitter things about Russia than the old Conservative ones say.
But I won't discuss politics: I want to forget them and get on with
life's work. Write again soon and SAY WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!
Summerhill School
Leiston, Suffolk
My dear Reich,
•••April 10, 1940I have interesting news about your books. Herbert Read, a
well known writer on art and philosophy, is a director of Kegan Paul
and Co, the best psychology and medical publishers in England. He
read my Problem Teacher* and wrote asking me if your Kampf der
Jugendt was to be published in English as I had hoped in my book.
I wrote to him and told him not yet, and he replied that he was inter
ested in what I had written about Reich and if I could lend him a few
- The Problem Teacher (London: Herbert Jenkins, 1940 ). Describes the prob
lem teacher as one who hates the child in himself and loves the hateful disciplines
that rob the child of freedom and happiness. Children, Neill writes, must be en
trusted only to those who believe in life; the problem teacher believes in subject
matter.
t Der Sexuelle Kampf der Jugend (Berlin: Verlag fUr Sexual-Politik, 1932) (The
Sexual Struggle of Youth). Addressing himself primarily to the young, Reich dis
cusses the processes of maturation and the socio-political purposes of sex repres
sion. He sees social revolution as a prerequisite to sexual liberation. This work
was never published in English.