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== History ==
== History ==


The history of democratic education spans from at least the 1600s. While it is associated with a number of individuals, there has been no central figure, establishment, or nation that advocated democratic education.<ref>Provenzo, E.F. Jr. (ed) (2008) ''Encyclopedia of the Social and Cultural Foundations of Education''. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. p 238.</ref>
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====John Locke====

⚫
[[John Locke]], an English philosopher, published [http://www.bartleby.com/37/1 Some Thoughts Concerning Education] in 1693. In describing the teaching of children, he declares, “None of the things they are to learn, should ever be made a burthen to them, or impos'd on them as a task. Whatever is so propos'd, presently becomes irksome; the mind takes an aversion to it, though before it were a thing of delight or indifferency. Let a child but be order'd to whip his top at a certain time every day, whether he has or has not a mind to it; let this be but requir'd of him as a duty, wherein he must spend so many hours morning and afternoon, and see whether he will not soon be weary of any play at this rate.”<ref>Locke, John (1692) Some Thoughts Concerning Education, para 73.1.</ref>
=== Early history ===
Locke gives one reason for punishing a child – “But yet there is one, and but one fault, for which, I think, children should be beaten, and that is, obstinacy or rebellion. And in this too, I would have it order’d so, if it can be, that the shame of the whipping, and not the pain, should be the greatest part of the punishment.” <ref>ibid, para 78</ref> Otherwise, he believes it should be avoided as far as possible. “Beating them, and all other sorts of slavish and corporal punishments,” he says. “are not the discipline fit to be used in the education of those we would have wise, good, and ingenuous men; and therefore very rarely to be apply’d, and that only in great occasions, and cases of extremity.”.<ref>ibid, para 52</ref> There are other comments relevant to the development of democratic education, for instance, “Few years require but few laws,”<ref>Ibid, para 65</ref> “It will perhaps be wonder’d, that I mention reasoning with children; and yet I cannot but think that the true way of dealing with them. They understand it as early as they do language; and, if I misobserve not, they love to be treated as rational creatures, sooner than is imagin’d,”<ref>Ibid, para 81</ref> and “A father will do well, as his son grows up, and is capable of it, to talk familiarly with him; nay, ask his advice, and consult with him about those things wherein he has any knowledge or understanding.”<ref>Ibid, para 95</ref>
⚫
The roots of democratic education may begin with [[John Locke]], an English philosopher. In 1693 he published ''[http://www.bartleby.com/37/1 Some Thoughts Concerning Education]''. In describing the teaching of children, he declares, “None of the things they are to learn, should ever be made a burthen to them, or impos'd on them as a task. Whatever is so propos'd, presently becomes irksome; the mind takes an aversion to it, though before it were a thing of delight or indifferency. Let a child but be order'd to whip his top at a certain time every day, whether he has or has not a mind to it; let this be but requir'd of him as a duty, wherein he must spend so many hours morning and afternoon, and see whether he will not soon be weary of any play at this rate.”<ref>Locke, John (1692) Some Thoughts Concerning Education, para 73.1.</ref>


====Jean-Jacques Rousseau====
[[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]’s book of advice on education, [[Émile]],was first published in 1762. Émile, the imaginary pupil he uses for illustration, was only to learn what he could appreciate as useful.<ref>Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1904), Emile ou l’éducation, Garnier Frères, Paris, p 197: “. . si nous trouvons que ce travail n’est bon à rien, nous ne le reprendrons plus.”</ref> He was to enjoy his lessons, and learn to rely on his own judgement and experience. “The tutor must not lay down precepts, he must let them be discovered,”<ref>Ibid p 22 “Il ne doit pas donner des préceptes, il doit les faire trouver.”</ref> wrote Rousseau, and urged him not make Émile learn science, but let him discover it.<ref>Ibid, p 173: “Qu’il n’apprenne pas la science, qu’il l’invente”</ref> He also said that we should not substitute books for personal experience because this does not teach us to reason; it teaches us to use other people’s reasoning; it teaches us to believe a great deal but never to know anything.<ref>Ibid, p 121 “Substituer des livres à tout cela, ce n’est pas nous apprendre a nous servir de la raison d’autrui; c’est nous apprendre à beaucoup croire, et à ne jamais rien savoir</ref>
[[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]’s book of advice on education, [[Émile]],was first published in 1762. Émile, the imaginary pupil he uses for illustration, was only to learn what he could appreciate as useful.<ref>Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1904), Emile ou l’éducation, Garnier Frères, Paris, p 197: “. . si nous trouvons que ce travail n’est bon à rien, nous ne le reprendrons plus.”</ref> He was to enjoy his lessons, and learn to rely on his own judgement and experience. “The tutor must not lay down precepts, he must let them be discovered,”<ref>Ibid p 22 “Il ne doit pas donner des préceptes, il doit les faire trouver.”</ref> wrote Rousseau, and urged him not make Émile learn science, but let him discover it.<ref>Ibid, p 173: “Qu’il n’apprenne pas la science, qu’il l’invente”</ref> He also said that we should not substitute books for personal experience because this does not teach us to reason; it teaches us to use other people’s reasoning; it teaches us to believe a great deal but never to know anything.<ref>Ibid, p 121 “Substituer des livres à tout cela, ce n’est pas nous apprendre a nous servir de la raison d’autrui; c’est nous apprendre à beaucoup croire, et à ne jamais rien savoir</ref>
Rousseau, however, also advises a tutor to “Use force with children, and reason with men,”<ref>Ibid, p. 74 “Employez la force avec les enfants et la raison avec les hommes”</ref> and insists that although Émile must do whatever he wants, his tutor must make sure that he only wants to do what the tutor wants him to do.<ref>Ibid. p 114: “Sans doute il ne doit faire que ce qu’il veut, mais il ne doit vouloir que ce que vous voulez qu’il fasse.”</ref>


====Leo Tolstoy and Yasnaya Polyana====
=== 19th century ===
⚫
Locke and Rousseau were concerned only with the education of the children of the wealthy, but [[Leo Tolstoy]] set up a school for peasant children. This was on his own estate at [[Yasnaya Polyana]], Russia, in the late 19th century. He tells us that the school evolved freely from principles introduced by teachers and pupils; that in spite of the preponderating influence of the teacher, the pupil had always had the right not to come to school, or, having come, not to listen to the teacher, and that the teacher had the right not to admit a pupil, and was able to use all the influence he could muster to win over the community, where the children were always in the majority.<ref>Tolstoy, Leo, in The School at Yasnaya Polyana in Tolstoy on Education , translated by Leo Wiener (1967), University of Chicago Press, p 233</ref>
Tolstoy insisted that only in the absence of force and compulsion could natural relations be maintained between teacher and pupils. The teacher defined the limits of freedom in the classroom by his knowledge and capacity to manage. And the pupils, Tolstoy wrote, should be treated as reasoning and reasonable beings; only then would they find out that order was essential and that self-government was necessary to preserve it. If pupils were really interested in what was being taught, he declared, disorder would rarely occur, and when it did, the interested students would compel the disorderly ones to pay attention.
“When Tolstoy purposely left the room in the middle of a lesson to test the behaviour of his students, they did not break into an uproar as he had observed was the case in similar circumstances in classrooms he visited abroad. When he left, the students were enjoying complete freedom, and hence they behaved as though he were still in the room. They corrected or praised each other's work, and some-times they grew entirely quiet. Such results, he explained, were natural in a school where the pupils were not obliged to attend, to remain, or to pay attention.”<ref>http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/smmnsej/tolstoy/chap4.htm.</ref>


⚫
While Locke and Rousseau were concerned only with the education of the children of the wealthy, in the 19th century [[Leo Tolstoy]] set up a school for peasant children. This was on his own estate at [[Yasnaya Polyana]], Russia, in the late 19th century. He tells us that the school evolved freely from principles introduced by teachers and pupils; that in spite of the preponderating influence of the teacher, the pupil had always had the right not to come to school, or, having come, not to listen to the teacher, and that the teacher had the right not to admit a pupil, and was able to use all the influence he could muster to win over the community, where the children were always in the majority.<ref>Tolstoy, Leo, in The School at Yasnaya Polyana in Tolstoy on Education , translated by Leo Wiener (1967), University of Chicago Press, p 233</ref><ref>http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/smmnsej/tolstoy/chap4.htm.</ref>
====Janusz Korczak====

⚫
In 1912 [[Janusz Korczak]] founded Dom Sierot, the Jewish orphanage in [[Warsaw]], which was run on democratic lines until 1940, when he accompanied all his charges to the gas-chambers of the [[Treblinka extermination camp]].<ref>http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Korczak.html</ref> In the orphanage he formed a kind of republic for children with its own parliament and court.<ref>Korczak, Janusz (1991), Von Kindern und anderen Vorbildern, Güterslohe Verlagshaus (translated from the Polish), p.78</ref>
=== 20th century ===
The school parliament established a list of punishments, going from 100 (the mildest) to 1000 (expulsion from the orphanage). In the first two years there was only one person sentenced to number 1000, and otherwise only two as severely sentenced as number 600, which merely entailed a public admission on the noticeboard. Korczak wrote, “The judges are children themselves, and they know how difficult it is never to do anything wrong, and they also know that everyone can become better, as long as he wants to and seriously tries.”<ref>Korczak, Janusz (1979) Von Kindern und anderen Vorbildern, Güterslohe Verlagshaus, pp 82-83</ref>

Korczak’s influence is spread by associations in many different countries, for instance Poland,<ref>http://www.pskorczak.org.pl</ref> Canada,<ref>http://www.januszkorczak.ca</ref> and the Netherlands.<ref>http://www.korczak.nl</ref>
⚫
====Dom Sierot====
⚫
In 1912 [[Janusz Korczak]] founded Dom Sierot, the Jewish orphanage in [[Warsaw]], which was run on democratic lines until 1940, when he accompanied all his charges to the gas-chambers of the [[Treblinka extermination camp]].<ref>http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Korczak.html</ref><ref>Korczak, Janusz (1991), Von Kindern und anderen Vorbildern, Güterslohe Verlagshaus (translated from the Polish), p.78</ref><ref>Korczak, Janusz (1979) Von Kindern und anderen Vorbildern, Güterslohe Verlagshaus, pp 82-83</ref>


====Summerhill====
====Summerhill====
The oldest democratic school that still exists is [[Summerhill]], currently based in [[Suffolk, England]] but founded in Germany in 1921. A boarding school for children up to the age of 16, it became notorious for voluntary class attendance, nude bathing and permitting smoking; its effective self-government by a weekly school meeting of staff and students was largely ignored. [[A. S. Neill]], its Scottish founder, wrote many {{citation needed span|text=influential|date=October 2012}} books, including The Problem Child (1926). The Problem Parent (1932), That Dreadful School (1937) and Hearts Not Heads in the School (1945) , all published by Herbert Jenkins, and Summerhill, a Radical Approach to Child-rearing (1960) published by Hart Publishing. He also gave the inspiration for many modern democratic schools, for instance [[Tamariki School]], in New Zealand, founded in 1967, and [http://www.kinokuni.ac.jp/page003.html/ Kinokuni], a children’s village in Japan, founded in 1992.
The oldest democratic school that still exists is [[Summerhill]], currently based in [[Suffolk, England]] but founded in Germany in 1921. A boarding school for children up to the age of 16, it features voluntary class attendance, nude bathing and permits smoking; its effective self-government by a weekly school meeting of staff and students was largely ignored. [[A. S. Neill]], its Scottish founder, wrote several books, including ''The Problem Child'' (1926), ''The Problem Parent'' (1932), ''That Dreadful School'' (1937) and ''Hearts Not Heads in the School'' (1945), all published by Herbert Jenkins. ''Summerhill, a Radical Approach to Child-rearing'' (1960) was published by Hart Publishing.


====Dartington Hall School====
====Dartington Hall School====
[[Dartington Hall School]], another progressive boarding school in the UK, which ran from 1926 – 1987, was founded with negative principles. It was to have “no corporal punishment, indeed no punishment at all; no prefects; no uniforms; no Officers’ Training Corps; no segregation of the sexes; no compulsory games, compulsory religion or compulsory anything else, no more Latin, no more Greek; no competition; no [[jingoism]].”<ref>Young, Michael (1982), The Elmhirsts of Dartington, Routledge and Kegan Paul, p. 131</ref> W. B. Curry was headmaster of the school from 1931-1957, and wrote two books about it, The School, published by The Bodley Head in 1934 and Education for Sanity, published by Heinemann in 1947. It was characterised by a generally voluntary formal academic programme which students could join into as they wished, school meetings which had various degrees of power at different periods of its history<ref>Gribble, David (1987) ed. That’s All, Folks, Dartington Hall School Remembered, reminiscences and reflections of former pupils, West Aish Publishing, ISBN 0951273507</ref> and a relationship between staff and students that served as an inspiration for [[Sands School]], founded in 1987 immediately the Dartington school closed.
[[Dartington Hall School]], another progressive boarding school in the UK, which ran from 1926 – 1987, was founded with negative principles. It was to have “no corporal punishment, indeed no punishment at all; no prefects; no uniforms; no Officers’ Training Corps; no segregation of the sexes; no compulsory games, compulsory religion or compulsory anything else, no more Latin, no more Greek; no competition; no [[jingoism]].”<ref>Young, Michael (1982), The Elmhirsts of Dartington, Routledge and Kegan Paul, p. 131</ref> W. B. Curry was headmaster of the school from 1931-1957, and wrote two books about it, The School, published by The Bodley Head in 1934 and Education for Sanity, published by Heinemann in 1947. It was characterised by a generally voluntary formal academic programme which students could join into as they wished, school meetings which had various degrees of power at different periods of its history<ref>Gribble, David (1987) ed. That’s All, Folks, Dartington Hall School Remembered, reminiscences and reflections of former pupils, West Aish Publishing, ISBN 0951273507</ref> and a relationship between staff and students that served as an inspiration for [[Sands School]], founded in 1987 immediately the Dartington school closed.<ref>Smith, Jenifer (1989) An Exploration of Teaching in Action, University of Southampton Department of Education</ref>
“At Dartington adults did not seem to have to maintain any kind of superior position towards children or amongst themselves. Nor did they indulge in the kind of chumminess and selfdissonant behaviour which actually implies a condescension towards children. Adults treated children with genuine courtesy. They treated them as other people.”<ref>Smith, Jenifer (1989) An Exploration of Teaching in Action, University of Southampton Department of Education</ref>


====Sudbury Valley School====
====Sudbury Valley School====
[[Sudbury Valley School]], a democratic school founded in [[Framingham, Massachusetts]] in 1968, has been the model for dozens of [[Sudbury schools]] around the world. “Sudbury Valley School is a place where people decide for themselves how to spend their days. Here, students of all ages determine what they will do, as well as when, how, and where they will do it. This freedom is at the heart of the school; it belongs to the students as their right, not to be violated.<ref>http://www.sudval.com</ref>”
[[Sudbury Valley School]], a democratic school founded in [[Framingham, Massachusetts]] in 1968, has been the model for dozens of [[Sudbury schools]] around the world. “Sudbury Valley School is a place where people decide for themselves how to spend their days. Here, students of all ages determine what they will do, as well as when, how, and where they will do it. This freedom is at the heart of the school; it belongs to the students as their right, not to be violated."<ref>http://www.sudval.com</ref> “The school is governed on the model of a traditional New England Town Meeting. The business of the school is managed by the weekly School Meeting, at which each student and staff member has one vote. Rules of behavior, use of facilities, expenditures, staff hiring, and all the routines of running an institution are determined by debate and vote at the School Meeting.”<ref>http://www.sudval.com/01_abou_05.html</ref>

“The school is governed on the model of a traditional New England Town
Meeting. The business of the school is managed by the weekly School Meeting, at which each student and staff member has one vote. Rules of behavior, use of facilities, expenditures, staff hiring, and all the routines of running an institution are determined by debate and vote at the School Meeting.”<ref>http://www.sudval.com/01_abou_05.html</ref>
[[Daniel Greenberg (educator)|Daniel Greenberg]], one of the founders of the school, has written many books about it.<ref>Greenberg, Daniel, The Sudbury Valley School Experience (1985), Free at Last (1987), Legacy of Trust (1992), Kingdom of Childhood (1994) (with Mimsy Sadofsky, with interviews by Hanna Greenberg) and The Pursuit of Happiness (2005), (with Mimsy Sadofsky and Jason Lempka), all published by the Sudbury Valley School Press</ref>
[[Daniel Greenberg (educator)|Daniel Greenberg]], one of the founders of the school, has written many books about it.<ref>Greenberg, Daniel, The Sudbury Valley School Experience (1985), Free at Last (1987), Legacy of Trust (1992), Kingdom of Childhood (1994) (with Mimsy Sadofsky, with interviews by Hanna Greenberg) and The Pursuit of Happiness (2005), (with Mimsy Sadofsky and Jason Lempka), all published by the Sudbury Valley School Press</ref>


Revision as of 12:37, 26 October 2012

Democratic Education is a worldwide movement towards greater decision-making power for students in the running of their own schools. There is no generally agreed definition of the term, but at the IDEC (International Democratic Education Conference) in 2005[1] the participants agreed on the following statement:

“We believe that, in any educational setting, young people have the right:

  • to decide individually how, when, what, where and with whom they learn
  • to have an equal share in the decision-making as to how their organisations – in particular their schools – are run, and which rules and sanctions, if any, are necessary.”

IDEN, the International Democratic Education Network, is open to any school that upholds such ideals as these:

  • respect and trust for children
  • equality of status of children and adults
  • shared responsibility
  • freedom of choice of activity
  • democratic governance by children and staff together, without reference to any supposedly superior guide or system

This list is taken from the IDEN website, where there are other attempts at a definition of the term.

The European Democratic Education Community offers a briefer statement:

"There are two pillars of democratic education:

  • self-determined learning
  • a learning community based on equality and mutual respect."

History

The history of democratic education spans from at least the 1600s. While it is associated with a number of individuals, there has been no central figure, establishment, or nation that advocated democratic education.[2]

Early history

The roots of democratic education may begin with John Locke, an English philosopher. In 1693 he published Some Thoughts Concerning Education. In describing the teaching of children, he declares, “None of the things they are to learn, should ever be made a burthen to them, or impos'd on them as a task. Whatever is so propos'd, presently becomes irksome; the mind takes an aversion to it, though before it were a thing of delight or indifferency. Let a child but be order'd to whip his top at a certain time every day, whether he has or has not a mind to it; let this be but requir'd of him as a duty, wherein he must spend so many hours morning and afternoon, and see whether he will not soon be weary of any play at this rate.”[3]

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s book of advice on education, Émile,was first published in 1762. Émile, the imaginary pupil he uses for illustration, was only to learn what he could appreciate as useful.[4] He was to enjoy his lessons, and learn to rely on his own judgement and experience. “The tutor must not lay down precepts, he must let them be discovered,”[5] wrote Rousseau, and urged him not make Émile learn science, but let him discover it.[6] He also said that we should not substitute books for personal experience because this does not teach us to reason; it teaches us to use other people’s reasoning; it teaches us to believe a great deal but never to know anything.[7]

19th century

While Locke and Rousseau were concerned only with the education of the children of the wealthy, in the 19th century Leo Tolstoy set up a school for peasant children. This was on his own estate at Yasnaya Polyana, Russia, in the late 19th century. He tells us that the school evolved freely from principles introduced by teachers and pupils; that in spite of the preponderating influence of the teacher, the pupil had always had the right not to come to school, or, having come, not to listen to the teacher, and that the teacher had the right not to admit a pupil, and was able to use all the influence he could muster to win over the community, where the children were always in the majority.[8][9]

20th century

Dom Sierot

In 1912 Janusz Korczak founded Dom Sierot, the Jewish orphanage in Warsaw, which was run on democratic lines until 1940, when he accompanied all his charges to the gas-chambers of the Treblinka extermination camp.[10][11][12]

Summerhill

The oldest democratic school that still exists is Summerhill, currently based in Suffolk, England but founded in Germany in 1921. A boarding school for children up to the age of 16, it features voluntary class attendance, nude bathing and permits smoking; its effective self-government by a weekly school meeting of staff and students was largely ignored. A. S. Neill, its Scottish founder, wrote several books, including The Problem Child (1926), The Problem Parent (1932), That Dreadful School (1937) and Hearts Not Heads in the School (1945), all published by Herbert Jenkins. Summerhill, a Radical Approach to Child-rearing (1960) was published by Hart Publishing.

Dartington Hall School

Dartington Hall School, another progressive boarding school in the UK, which ran from 1926 – 1987, was founded with negative principles. It was to have “no corporal punishment, indeed no punishment at all; no prefects; no uniforms; no Officers’ Training Corps; no segregation of the sexes; no compulsory games, compulsory religion or compulsory anything else, no more Latin, no more Greek; no competition; no jingoism.”[13] W. B. Curry was headmaster of the school from 1931-1957, and wrote two books about it, The School, published by The Bodley Head in 1934 and Education for Sanity, published by Heinemann in 1947. It was characterised by a generally voluntary formal academic programme which students could join into as they wished, school meetings which had various degrees of power at different periods of its history[14] and a relationship between staff and students that served as an inspiration for Sands School, founded in 1987 immediately the Dartington school closed.[15]

Sudbury Valley School

Sudbury Valley School, a democratic school founded in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1968, has been the model for dozens of Sudbury schools around the world. “Sudbury Valley School is a place where people decide for themselves how to spend their days. Here, students of all ages determine what they will do, as well as when, how, and where they will do it. This freedom is at the heart of the school; it belongs to the students as their right, not to be violated."[16] “The school is governed on the model of a traditional New England Town Meeting. The business of the school is managed by the weekly School Meeting, at which each student and staff member has one vote. Rules of behavior, use of facilities, expenditures, staff hiring, and all the routines of running an institution are determined by debate and vote at the School Meeting.”[17]

Daniel Greenberg, one of the founders of the school, has written many books about it.[18]

The Pesta

The de:Pesta founded in Ecuador by de:Rebeca Wild and de:Mauricio Wild in 1977, started as a nursery school based largely on Montessori principles. It grew to a primary school in 1979 and added a secondary department ten years later. Families moved from Europe to Ecuador so their children could attend the school, and it eventually had almost 200 pupils. It was a day school with no fixed lessons, depending on a prepared environment to stimulate children’s learning.[19] Rebeca Wild’s books,[20] have had wide influence. Many Wild schools, as they are called, have been founded in Europe, particularly in Austria [21]

The Democratic School of Hadera

The Democratic School of Hadera, founded by Yaacov Hecht in Israel in 1987, has much in common with Sudbury Valley, but differs in two important respects: it is supported by public funds, unlike Sudbury, which charges fees,[22] and it offers a varied timetable of lessons and activities,[23] whereas Sudbury has no such arrangement. “There are no bells at Sudbury Valley. No ‘periods’. The time spent on any activity evolves from within each participant.[24]” The first IDEC (International Democratic Education Conference) was held at Hadera in 1993,[25] and there are now more than twenty democratic schools in Israel.[26] Yaacov Hecht also founded IDE, the Institute for Democratic Education, in Tel Aviv, and is developing the concept of Education Cities.[27]

AERO

AERO, the Alternative Education Resource Organization, was launched by Jerry Mintz in the USA in 1989. It now has 500 members and lists 12,000 alternatives on its website, not all of them democratic. There are annual AERO conferences and weekly news bulletins.

International groupings

The number of democratic schools around the world continues to grow, and since 1993 there has been an annual International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC), held in a different country each year. In 2008, the first EUDEC (European Democratic Education Conference) was held in Leipzig, Germany and let to the founding of the European Democratic Education Community. In 2012 the AAPAE , (Australasian Association for Progressive and Alternative Education) changed its name to ADEC, The Australasian Democratic Education Community.

Variety

Democratic education comes in many different forms. These are some of the areas in which democratic schools differ.

Curriculum

Sudbury schools have no timetable, on the grounds that forcing children to learn a fixed curriculum interferes with their natural desire to learn what interests them. Most other democratic schools offer voluntary courses, and many, such as Summerhill in the UK and the Kapriole in Freiburg, Germany, help interested students to prepare for national examinations so they gain qualifications for further study or future employment.

Administrative structure

Most democratic schools have weekly meetings open to all students and staff, where everyone present has an equal vote. Some, such as the SchülerInnenschule in Vienna, also involve parents. The power of these school meetings usually covers anything from the appointment or dismissal of staff and the creation or annulment of rules to general expenditure and the structure of the school day. At some schools all students are expected to attend these meetings, at others they are voluntary.[28] The main school meeting may also set up sub-committees to deal with particular issues, such as the Justice Committees found in all Sudbury schools, which deal with breaches of the school laws.

Rules and punishments

Sudbury Valley has a thick book of rules and a Justice Committee which may deal out punishments. Sands School started with only two rules (no drugs and no alcohol), and no punishments.

Finance

Many democratic schools depend on fees paid by parents, but some are supported by charitable foundations, such as Moo Baan Dek, a children’s village in Thailand for three hundred abused, orphaned or abandoned children, and Butterflies, an organisation for street and working children in New Delhi. Others, such as Windsor House School, in Canada, and all the Israeli democratic schools, are publicly funded.

Size

In the state of Tamil Nadu in India, every primary school now uses ABL (Activity Based Learning), a system derived from Montessori methods. That means that 37,500 schools, 120,000 teachers and five million schoolchildren are now involved.[29] In Lesotho there is only one democratic place of education, Seliba sa Boithutu, which can accommodate up to 100 students at any one time. Many democratic schools around the world are even smaller.[30]

Age Range

Age mixing is a deliberate policy in some democratic schools and many include very young children, the most extreme being Lumiar in Brazil, which gives its age range as 0 – 14. A few only cater for older students, for instance Nuestra Escuela in Puerto Rico, which takes students from 13 – 21 or Autorska Szkola Samorozwoju ASSA in Poland, which takes students aged 16 or over.

Location

Tokyo Shure is in premises built for offices. Booroobin is in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, north of Brisbane in Australia. The Butterflies organisation for street and working children in New Delhi has no classrooms: children who want to learn come to street educators at agreed meeting-points around the city.

Theory

There is no unified body of literature that spans multiple disciplines in academia on the subject of democratic education. However, there are a variety of spheres of theory that address various elements of democratic education. The goals of democratic education vary according to the participants, the location, and access to resources. Because of this, there is no one widely agreed upon definition.[31]

Political

As a curricular, administrative and social operation within schools, democratic education is essentially concerned with equipping people to make "real choices about fundamental aspects of their lives"[32] and happens within and for democracy.[33] It "is a process where teachers and students work collaboratively to reconstruct curriculum to include everyone."[34] In at least one conception, democratic education teaches students "to participate in consciously reproducing their society, and conscious social reproduction."[35] This role necessitates democratic education happening in a variety of settings and being taught by a variety of people, including "parents, teachers, public officials, and ordinary citizens." Because of this "democratic education begins not only with children who are to be taught but also with citizens who are to be their teachers."[36] Another definition is noted for its controversy because it views democratic education as "an education that democratizes learning itself."[37]

There are a variety of components involved in democratic education. One author identifies those elements as being a problem-solving curriculum, inclusivity and rights, equal participation in decision-making, and equal encouragement for success.[34] The Institute for Democratic Education identifies the principles of democratic education as,

The "strongest, political rationale" for democratic education is that it teaches "the virtues of democratic deliberation for the sake of future citizenship."[39] This type of education is often alluded to in the deliberative democracy literature as fulfilling the necessary and fundamental social and institutional changes necessary to develop a democracy that involves intensive participation in group decision making, negotiation, and social life of consequence.

The type of political socialization that takes place in democratic schools is strongly related to deliberative democracy theory. Claus Offe and Ulrich Preuss, two theorists of the political culture of deliberative democracies argue that in its cultural production deliberative democracy requires “an open-ended and continuous learning process in which the roles of both ‘teacher’ and ‘curriculum’ are missing. In other words, what is to be learned is a matter that we must settle in the process of learning itself."[40]

The political culture of a deliberative democracy and its institutions, they argue, would facilitate more “dialogical forms of making one’s voice heard” which would “be achieved within a framework of liberty, within which paternalism is replaced by autonomously adopted self-paternalism, and technocratic elitism by the competent and self-conscious judgment of citizens."[41]

Edward Portis offers a critique of what he terms ‘democratic education’ but his use of this term can be better understood as civic education. Portis contends, as many democratic education practitioners and theorists would, that a compulsory curriculum that claims to imbue in its students ‘democratic virtues’ actually does exactly the opposite. Portis argues that because politics and popular rule is rooted in the public deliberation of competing ideas and conceptions of social life, to pretend that certain values can be taught in the traditional sense—through mass compulsory education—subverts the democratic nature of the process. There is no such thing as a ‘proper’ education for democracy in this sense.[42]

Democratic education theorists of the sort whose work underpin democratic schools, rather than those who analyze something akin to civic education (see Gutmann, et al.) would fundamentally agree that democratic values cannot be taught in the traditional sense. If children are to ever learn how to be citizens of a democracy, they must participate in a democracy (see Greenberg 1992).[43] This argument conforms to the cognition-in-context research by Lave below.

In addition, this argument converges with various literatures concerning student voice, youth participation and other elements of youth empowerment.[44][45]

Cognitive

The 'practice theory' movement came at a time when there was also a renewed interest in child development and a refining of the theories of Jean Piaget, the foundational child psychologist. Although it is adduced that Piaget was mistaken. The experience of Sudbury model schools showing that a great variety can be found in the minds of children, against Piaget's theory of universal steps in comprehension and general patterns in the acquisition of knowledge: "No two kids ever take the same path. Few are remotely similar. Each child is so unique, so exceptional."[46]

Jean Lave was one of the first and most prominent social anthropologists to discuss cognition within the context of cultural settings presenting a firm argument against the functionalist psychology that many educationalists refer to implicitly. For Lave, learning is a process ungone by an actor within a specific context. The skills or knowledge learned in one process are not generalizable nor reliably transferred to other areas of human action. Her primary focus was on mathematics in context and mathematics education.

The broader implications reached by Lave and others who specialize in Situated learning are that beyond the argument that certain knowledge is necessary to be a member of society (a Durkheimian argument), knowledge learned in the context of a school is not reliably transferable to other contexts of practice.

Economic

Beyond the explicitly political implications, economic implications of democratic education converge with the emerging consensus on 21st century business and management priorities including increased collaboration, decentralized organization, and radical creativity.[47]

Scholars

  • Joseph Agassi - Israeli philosopher and proponent of democracy
  • Michael Apple - Social scientist, democratic education scholar, University of Wisconsin–Madison
  • Pierre Bourdieu - Anthropologist, social theorist, College de France
  • Émile Durkheim - Sociologist, functionalist education theorist
  • George Dennison - American writer, author
  • John Dewey - Social scientist, progressive education theorist, University of Chicago
  • Michel Foucault - Post-modern philosopher, University of California, Berkeley
  • Peter Gray - Psychologist, democratic education scholar, Boston College
  • Amy Gutmann - Political scientist, democratic education scholar, President of the University of Pennsylvania
  • Daniel A. Greenberg - One of the founders of the Sudbury Valley School.
  • John Holt - Critic of conventional education and proponent of home-schooling
  • Homer Lane - Democratic education pioneer, founder of the Ford Republic (1907–12) and the Little Commonwealth (1913–17)
  • A.S. Neill - Democratic education pioneer, founder of the Summerhill School
  • Claus Offe - Political Scientist, theorist of deliberative democratic culture, Hertie School of Governance
  • Karl Popper - Philosopher at the London School of Economics
  • Bertrand Russell - Philosopher, author of "On Education" and founder of Beacon House School

See also

References

  1. ^ Berlin IDEC
  2. ^ Provenzo, E.F. Jr. (ed) (2008) Encyclopedia of the Social and Cultural Foundations of Education. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. p 238.
  3. ^ Locke, John (1692) Some Thoughts Concerning Education, para 73.1.
  4. ^ Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1904), Emile ou l’éducation, Garnier Frères, Paris, p 197: “. . si nous trouvons que ce travail n’est bon à rien, nous ne le reprendrons plus.”
  5. ^ Ibid p 22 “Il ne doit pas donner des préceptes, il doit les faire trouver.”
  6. ^ Ibid, p 173: “Qu’il n’apprenne pas la science, qu’il l’invente”
  7. ^ Ibid, p 121 “Substituer des livres à tout cela, ce n’est pas nous apprendre a nous servir de la raison d’autrui; c’est nous apprendre à beaucoup croire, et à ne jamais rien savoir
  8. ^ Tolstoy, Leo, in The School at Yasnaya Polyana in Tolstoy on Education , translated by Leo Wiener (1967), University of Chicago Press, p 233
  9. ^ http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/smmnsej/tolstoy/chap4.htm.
  10. ^ http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Korczak.html
  11. ^ Korczak, Janusz (1991), Von Kindern und anderen Vorbildern, Güterslohe Verlagshaus (translated from the Polish), p.78
  12. ^ Korczak, Janusz (1979) Von Kindern und anderen Vorbildern, Güterslohe Verlagshaus, pp 82-83
  13. ^ Young, Michael (1982), The Elmhirsts of Dartington, Routledge and Kegan Paul, p. 131
  14. ^ Gribble, David (1987) ed. That’s All, Folks, Dartington Hall School Remembered, reminiscences and reflections of former pupils, West Aish Publishing, ISBN 0951273507
  15. ^ Smith, Jenifer (1989) An Exploration of Teaching in Action, University of Southampton Department of Education
  16. ^ http://www.sudval.com
  17. ^ http://www.sudval.com/01_abou_05.html
  18. ^ Greenberg, Daniel, The Sudbury Valley School Experience (1985), Free at Last (1987), Legacy of Trust (1992), Kingdom of Childhood (1994) (with Mimsy Sadofsky, with interviews by Hanna Greenberg) and The Pursuit of Happiness (2005), (with Mimsy Sadofsky and Jason Lempka), all published by the Sudbury Valley School Press
  19. ^ Gribble, David (1998) Real Education: Varieties of Freedom Libertarian Education, ISBN 0951399756, pp131-145
  20. ^ Erziehung zum Sein; Erfahrungsbericht über einer aktiven Schule (Education for Being, Report on Experience in an Active School) Arbor Verlag (1986) and Sein zum Erziehen: Mit Kindern leben lernen (Being for Education: Learning to Live with Children) Arbor Verlag (1990),
  21. ^ www.unsereschulen.at
  22. ^ http://www.sudval.com/03_admi_01.html
  23. ^ Hecht, Yaacov (2010) Democratic Education: A beginning of a Story, Innovation Culture, ISBN 978 097452529751995. pp 57-68
  24. ^ Greenberg, Daniel (1987), Free at Last, Sudbury Valley School Press, p 87
  25. ^ http://www.idenetwork.org
  26. ^ http://www.educationrevolution.org/blog/list-of-democratic-schools/
  27. ^ http://education-cities.com/
  28. ^ http://www.idenetwork.org/schools/democratic-schools-all.htm
  29. ^ http://www.ashanet.org/siliconvalley/asha20/pdfs/d2_abl_d3.pdf
  30. ^ http://www.educationrevolution.org/blog/list-of-democratic-schools
  31. ^ Williams-Boyd, P. (2003) Middle Grades Education: A Reference Handbook. ABC-CLIO. p 296.
  32. ^ Blacker, D.J. (2007) Democratic Education Stretched Thin: How Complexity Challenges a Liberal Ideal. SUNY Press. p 126.
  33. ^ Bridges, D. (1997) Education, Autonomy and Democratic Citizenship: Philosophy in a Changing World. Routledge. p 76.
  34. ^ a b English, L.D. (2002) Handbook of International Research in Mathematics Education. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. p 21.
  35. ^ Gutmann, A. (1987) Democratic Education. Princeton University Press. p 321.
  36. ^ Gutmann, A. (1987) p 99.
  37. ^ Gould, E. (2003) The University in a Corporate Culture. Yale University Press. p 224.
  38. ^ "Course for consultants on democratic processes", Institute for Democratic Education. Retrieved 1/13/09.
  39. ^ Curren, R. (2007) Philosophy of Education: An Anthology. Blackwell Publishing. p 163.
  40. ^ Offe, Claus and Ulrich Preuss. “Democratic Institutions and Moral Resources” “Political Theory Today.” David Held, ed. Cambridge: Polity, 1991, 168.
  41. ^ Offe, Claus and Ulrich Preuss. “Democratic Institutions and Moral Resources” “Political Theory Today.” David Held, ed. Cambridge: Polity, 1991, 170-1.
  42. ^ Portis, E. (2003) "Democratic Education and Political Participation," Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, Philadelphia, PA. Retrieved 1/15/09.
  43. ^ Greenberg, D. (1992), Education in America - A View from Sudbury Valley, "Democracy Must be Experienced to be Learned." Retrieved August 13, 2010.
  44. ^ Mendel-Reyes, M. (1998) "A Pedagogy for Citizenship: Service Learning and Democratic Education," New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 73, pp 31 - 38.
  45. ^ Sehr, D.T. (1997) Education for Public Democracy. SUNY Press. p 178.
  46. ^ Greenberg, D. (1987) "Learning," Free at Last — The Sudbury Valley School. Retrieved August 13, 2010.
  47. ^ Harvard Business Review, (http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/hamel/2009/02/25_stretch_goals_for_managemen.html)

External links

Further reading

  • Apple, M. (1993) Official Knowledge: Democratic Education in a Conservative Age. Routledge.
  • Bourdieu, Pierre. (1984) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. London: Routledge.
  • Bourdieu, Pierre and Jean-Claude Passeron. (1990) Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. Theory, Culture and Society Series. Sage.
  • Carlson, D. and Apple, M.W. (1998) Power, Knowledge, Pedagogy: The Meaning of Democratic Education in Unsettling Times. Westview Press.
  • Carr, W. and Hartnett, A. (1996) Education and the Struggle for Democracy: The politics of educational ideas. Open University Press.
  • Dennison, George. (1999) The Lives of Children: The Story of the First Street School. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers.
  • Dewey, John. (1997) Experience and Education. New York: Touchstone.
  • Durkheim, Émile. (2002) Moral Education. Mineola, NY: Dover.
  • Foucault, Michel. (1991) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Random House.
  • Gatto, John Taylor. (1992) Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Education. Philadelphia, PA: New Society.
  • Giroux, H. A. (1989) 'Schooling for Democracy: Critical pedagogy in the modern age. Routledge.
  • Gutmann, A. (1999) Democratic Education. Princeton University Press.
  • Habermas, Jürgen. (1997) "Popular Sovereignty as Procedure’ “Deliberative Democracy". Bohman, James and William Rehg, eds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Held, David. (2006) Models of Democracy. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
  • Kahn, Robert L. and Daniel Katz. (1978) The Social Psychology of Organizations. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
  • Kelly, A. V. (1995) Education and Democracy: Principles and practices. Paul Chapman Publishers.
  • Manin, Bernard. "On Legitimacy and Political Deliberation" Elly Stein and Jane Mansbridge, trans. Political Theory. Vol. 15, No. 3, Aug. 1987: 338-368.
  • Neill, A. S. (1995) Summerhill School: A New View of Childhood. Ed. Albert Lamb. New York: St. Martin's Griffin.
  • Sadofsky, Mimsy and Daniel Greenberg. (1994) Kingdom of Childhood: Growing up at Sudbury Valley School. Hanna Greenberg, interviewer. Framingham, MA: Sudbury Valley School Press.
  • Schutz, Aaron. (2010). Social Class, Social Action, and Education: The Failure of Progressive Democracy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. introduction
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