Little Commonwealth

From Anarchy In Action
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Little Commonwealth was a home for delinquent and non-delinquent youth, run by Homer Lane from 1913 to 1918 in Dorset, England.[1]

From Colin Ward, Anarchy in Action [2]:

Homer Lane was the man who, years in advance of his time, started a community of boys and girls, sent to him by the

courts, called the Little Commonwealth. He used to declare that 'Freedom cannot be given. It is taken by the child in discovery and invention.' True to this principle, says Howard Jones, 'he refused to impose upon the children a system of government copied from the institutions of the adult world. The self-governing structure of the Little Commonwealth was evolved by the children themselves, slowly and

painfully, to satisfy their own needs.'"