Radical Then, Radical Now : Care and Education in Communities

The Child Care History Network, in association with Hilfield Friary, presents:

Radical Then, Radical Now : Care and Education in Communities

A conference to celebrate the centenary of the Little Commonwealth and Homer Lane, and to reflect on the future of residential therapeutic child care and education with a group of leading practitioners, academics, writers and thinkers.
The conference takes place on Saturday, November 9th, 2013 from 10.15 am to 4.45 pm at Hilfield Friary, Dorset DT2 7BE
The conference is preceded by the 5th Anniversary AGM of the Child Care History Network.
Delegates are invited to share the evocative spaces built and lived in by the child and adult citizens of one of the 20th Century’s best known and most influential experiments in child reclamation and education. Created in 1913, closed in 1918, in 1921 the Little Commonwealth farm and buildings became home to a radical new Anglican order of friars, created to serve the homeless and destitute, and still flourishing in an ever-evolving community as part of the world-wide Anglican Society of Saint Francis. The conference will be a day-long discussion of history, heritage, community, continuity, and the future of education in communities and residential therapeutic child care.

The speakers are :
Judith Stinton, "Round the Houses: A walking tour of the Little Commonwealth"
Michael Fielding, "Self-government, shared responsibility and the possibility of radical democratic education"
Albert Lamb, "The Rescue of Childhood: Homer Lane and A.S. Neill"
Brother Philip Bartholomew, SSF, St. Francis School, Hooke, and the place and role of Hilfield Friary and the Society of Saint Francis in community living, service, and education
Charles Sharpe, “Freedom cannot be given. It is taken by children and demands the privilege of conscious wrong-doing." Has Homer Lane's thesis space to be accommodated in the 21st century?
Emily Charkin, "Building and Learning: Exploring the fundamentals of radical education and child care"
John Diamond, 'the children of the dangerous and perishing classes'
David Gribble, "Similar ideas in dissimilar settings"
Booking forms and further details of the conference can be found at the CCHN website.
Fees (which include lunch) for the conference are £85 and £70 for members.


This news item first appeared on the goodenoughcaring home page on October 9th, 2013