Three Ongoing Experiments for Fundamental Social Change: The Seemingly Impossible is Possible

A five-year-old started saving his weekly allowance in order to go to a school called Summerhill. Why? A company grew exponentially without the boss making a single decision for two decades. How? A priest and his idealistic followers established a business that placed human value before profit. Did they succeed? 

This course introduces three successful, ground-breaking experiments:

1) Summerhill, a school that has been a children’s republic since 1921; 2) Semco, a company where workers have set their own hours and salaries, and hired their managers since the mid-1980s; and 3) Mondragon, a billion-dollar business owned by workers and customers since 1956. These experiments provide possible solutions to our frustrations with education and employment.

You may take this course as part of the following program:

What will I learn?

We will examine three key social experiments:

• The Summerhill School experiment: freedom to learn and not to learn
• The Semco experiment: upside-down management
• The Mondragon experiment: a worker-owned billion-dollar business complex

How will I learn?

• Lectures
• Discussion (may vary from class to class)
• Papers (applicable only to certificate students)

Who should take this course?

This course is for anyone who is interested in learning more about the philosophical nature and value of art.

How will I be evaluated?

(For certificate students only)

Your instructor will evaluate you based on an essay you will complete at the end of the course. You will receive a grade of “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory.”

Textbooks and learning materials

Suggested readings:

Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Childrearing by Alexander Sutherland Neill

Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace by Ricardo Semler

The Seven-Day Weekend: Changing the Way Work Works by Ricardo Semler

Making Mondragon: The Growth and Dynamics of the Worker Cooperative Complex by William Whyte

On Liberty by John Stuart Mill

The Limits of State Action by Wilhelm Von Humboldt

Some course materials may be available online.