Yes agreed.
We lived on Dartington estate for 9 years till last autumn; daughters went to Park School there. No SATS exams. Lots of outdoor stuff.

Beautiful, and silent nights bar the owls, deer and younguns partying by the river.

My Mrs used to cook nice stuff for Schumacher students in the old refectory.

But not been financially viable for years, slowly selling bits off for housing. Or maybe it needs a boss who's not in it for the wonga.

Latest fella has pissed just about everyone off.

A rightly grumpy old music lecturer from the old college of Arts which shut down 12/14 years ago who I know posted this today about Dartington:

I posted recently about Dartington and the Schumacher College's closure. I asked: "Who cares?" A good friend objected saying there will be staff and students who do care.

That's undoubtedly the case. But my experience of Dartington and its various enterprises goes back to the late 1960s and if you review this history a clear pattern becomes apparent. Typically a good idea is seeded, grows to something interesting enough to attract real loyalty from those who come into contact with it. Eventually, however, the rug is pulled from under those devotees and the said enterprise closes. I remember this happening with Staverton Builders and there were a number of other cases. Dartington Hall School, of course, was lost due to becoming a tabloid scandal - which was a shame. In more recent times we have seen the end of the world famous Summer School of Music, now Schumacher College plus, of course, the worst eventuality of all, the College of Arts.

So what is it about Dartington? Well, that's a reasonable question: inappropriate appointees to powerful positions, mismanagement and so on. Is there something structurally wrong with the model? What typically happens is that there's anger, outrage and confusion, alternative plans and protests - none of which come to anything. So my question is: given the history of now defunct enterprises how long is one supposed to be tolerant, how long can false optimism be maintained? You get to the point where you really don't care. Well I have...