What is Democratic Education?

An Invitation

Contributions, so far

Sheerly Hecht

Ian Cunningham

Judy Cohen

John Harris Loflin

G. Sleddens

Democratic Education - What Is It All About?

Sheerly Hecht

It is about the human spirit. When not beaten or depressed, and sometimes even When it is, the human spirit is the most magnificent phenomenon on earth. And what is even more beautiful is that it differs from person to person. Democratic Education believes that each and every human being is new, never seen before, and owns special abilities that are not expendable. From this basic perception rises the question- What brings those qualities out? How can a child be raised to believe in his/her uniqueness and strength, so that even failure would not be considered as an obstacle but as an opportunity? Democratic Education answers this question with a question- Can a loved, respected child whose voice is being heard, grow up feeling stupid, dull or unnoticed? Probably not. We all need to declare our existence, our creation. When unnoticed, depressed or coerced, we all might become violent, cruel or even worse, indifferent.

In order for children to grow up strong, confident and ready to take initiative, three conditions must be fulfilled:

*The education system in which they grow must really believe that every one of them is special and brings to the world something that needs to be explored and revealed. It must invest all its resources in helping the child excel. Oh, and there are no preferred areas of excellence given in advance. *Every child must have a meaningful relationship with at least one of the adults around him/her - a relationship that will include mutual respect and dialog. Without dialog, the journey to the child's areas of strength is almost hopeless. *There must be the option to choose. Democratic Education sees the declaration of human rights as the ultimate guideline. It talks about the freedom of choice as a necessary condition in order to realize one's right to respect and other rights.. How does it work? Parliaments, elections, committees, etc. are all wonderful tools of democracy. But these are only tools. They should never replace the essence of democracy. That is why the "how" can be a tricky question. When given the option to choose their schedule, children make choices that vary and are impossible to predict. These choices are all legitimate and blessed (as long as they are not harmful to the child or the surrounding), and in order to implement them the child needs accompaniment and mentoring. That is the heart of Democratic Education. There can be a school in which there are a parliament, hard-working committees and elections, but if there isn't enough emphasis on personal relationships between each student and at least one adult, the democratic process becomes meaningless. When accompanied on his/her journey, the child learns how to use dialog in crises, in times of hard decisions, and also as a feedback for success. And then, even if the choice he made was to play baseball for 3 years, any other area, chosen in the future, will benefit from the learning process experienced by him now. Democratic Education, by its very essence, deals with searching, having doubts and asking questions. Therefore it is impossible to define it once and for all and then only deal with its implementation. But if we have to sum up and mention one thing that is essential in order to walk in that path, we would say that the interpersonal relationship and a system that supports it are the most vital parts of Democratic Education.

DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION - Draft notes towards defining the term

Professor Ian Cunningham HISTORY

For most of human history we have existed in hunter-gatherer bands. Such bands have typically not had the panoply of so-called democratic institutions and processes - for example courts, written laws, standing armies, voting to elect representatives, etc. Democratic education needs to be based on the more natural processes of living that we humans need rather than how democracy has evolved at the macro political level. Democratic education does not imply replicating national processes at the local level.

NATION STATES - CONTROL AND CENTRALISING Macro political processes have evolved more as a way of reducing the centralising and controlling tendencies that came with the agricultural revolution. Such tendencies promoted notions of ownership - of land, of people (in slavery), of women by men. While the development of democracy at the nation state level has reduced such tendencies in many parts of the world it has not addressed the general problems of centralised control by nation states. For instance many so called democratic countries have attempted to suppress democratic education.

DECISION MAKING An important facet of democratic education is to provide a voice for all in decision making. This means rejecting representative approaches that were established by nation states in order to exclude ordinary people. Democratic education is not about replicating nation state processes and structures. It has to be emancipatory and liberatory.

NOT SCHOOL Democratic education does not necessarily imply schooling. Schooling that imposes a content curriculum on learners cannot be democratic. Democratic processes can exist in communities that promote learning. Home educating may be democratic if young people are able to decide for themselves what, how, when and where they learn.

SMALL SCALE Democratic education implies small scale entities so that all participants can be involved. However small scale institutions are not democratic if they impose rules and a content curriculum on learners.

DEMOCRACY FOR ALL All people can engage in democratic learning processes - it is not restricted to young people or to one social class. Unfortunately colleges and universities rarely tolerate real democratic learning. However people learn all the time in their own communities, in their families and in their friendships. People self manage whether authorities like it or not. What is explicitly taught in the undemocratic classroom is not necessarily learned. And the biggest danger is that people learn dependency on others through the hidden curriculum of the classroom.

CLASSROOM Classrooms and lessons were developed to control learners and may have no place at all in democratic education. We know that learning in such modes tends to favour those from more favoured class backgrounds. Teaching has grown up as mainly a middleclass occupation and can be disconnected from the real needs of working class learners.

LANGUAGE The language of the classroom and formal education can exclude learners whose linguistic background is not based in that language. Democratic education must be grounded in a respect for and a response to the varying language backgrounds of learners. Even in seemingly culturally homogenous contexts, the language of families can vary greatly, especially where there are large social class differences.

RELATIONSHIPS Democratic education responds to the fact that we become ourselves through relationships. We are social beings. Democratic education is not individualistic and self-centred. We need social arrangements that provide the space for learners to work together in community.

RULES In formal democratic education needs no rules. However where institutions are established rules need to be agreed by all within the community of learners.

Professor Ian CunninghamSelf Managed Learning College31 Harrington Road, Brighton, BN1 6RFPhone (+44)(0) 1273 703691or 270995Fax 703693Mobile 07850 313814www.college.selfmanagedlearning.org

I see democratic education as a safe haven

By Judy Cohen

The world-renowned cellist Pablo Casals said: "What do we teach our children?

 . . . We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique . . . There has never been, and there will never be, another child like you

............You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything." I believe that this is the message of Democratic Education to our children.The work of our educators is to make this message clear to the child, and to help him/her in any way we can to realize and express his/her uniqueness and special capabilities. I see Democratic Education as a safe place

.........a place from which a child can look outwards and see our amazing world and what it has to offer, and go out to meet it unafraid.A place in which he/she can look inwards, and ask, "Who am I?What do I want to be?What do I want to learn?From my own experience and intuition, and supported by dialogue with others, what is the best way for me to learn, to grow, to realize my dreams?" This safe haven can enable every child, every individual, to express his/her hopes, ambitions, fears, desires, preferences, strengths and weaknesses.And these growing, confident individuals create together a democratic society - a society in which our very uniqueness, our diversity, is what binds us together as a community, as we interact, support each other, protect both the individual and the collective, maintain and safeguard human rights, in productive and supportive dialogue.

Democratic Education

By John Harris Loflin

What is Democratic Education?Perhaps a view of possibilities can continue a conversation about the definition.Currently, the definition seems to be bound by three general areas:

1.Democratic processes, classroom/school governance, civic education

All children, regardless of family economic status or future occupation, must acquire the skills, knowledge, and civic values needed to perpetuate American democracy. To meet these requirements, students should receive a type of education that actively engages them as citizens in their own schools and communities. Students can be highly involved in classroom decisions concerning class rules, curriculum, or assessment rubrics.Morning meetings, weekly class meetings, a classroom constitution, and a bill of rights and responsibilities are other examples.Involvement of students in democratic schools can go far beyond traditional student councils where participation in school decisions is limited to academic status and decisions concerning picnic menus or school dances. Globally, in many democratic schools, students help with school climate, school rules, scheduling, curriculum, budgeting, and hiring decisions.

2. Freedom to choose, learning without compulsion

 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 organizations--in particular their schools--are run, and which rules and sanctions, if any, are necessary. This was a resolution from the 2005 IDEC. This implies that students, who are presently not "able" to decide, are provided experiences to foster the progressive development from a more dependent "stage" to levels of self-directed learning with the of personal, social/cultural, economic, and political self-determination.

3.Aspects emphasize self-actualization, human rights, and environmental awareness

Democratic education views the purpose of learning as creating a developmental process, which accompanies people throughout their lifetime. Such a process promotes the multi-facet development of one's personality, encourages independence and authenticity, fosters respect for human rights, and increases social and environmental responsibility.

From: "A History of Democratic Education in American Public Schools: Discussions and recommendations concerning issues of democratic education in urban schools and civic engagement by urban students" p. 16. See http://learningalternatives.net/weblog/post/category/loflin-john/

John Harris Loflin Member Democratic Education Consortium Senior Fellow Black & Latino Policy Institute

The right response to our human evolution

G. Sleddens, Holand

Democratic Education is the right response to, or expression of, our human evolution.

As we evolve as a species, it becomes clear to us how some of us are growing and evolving beyond our indoctrination.

We have becomeaware that we are not what we think we are.As we are evolving beyond ourfear based control mechanisms, we are beginning to understand that we can, in our own consciousness, handle any fear or indoctrinated belief, and beginto trust our authenticity. We are learning to handle our mind by becomingmore present. The increase of Presence in more and more people, looks for away to express itself. And thus we look for ways to cooperate in a waythat takes our collective to a next level. We don't need to cooperate anylonger using models that are based on limited awareness likehierarchies.We now have come to the awareness (for the first time inhistory!)) that we are able to create life together, from Source, in themoment,beyond our "pain bodies", beyond our creativeness, beyond any ofour fears and limitations, and deliberately steer our attention tothe direct experience of love, trust, presence, intelligence andcreativity.

We begin to understand the importance that every unique viewpointcan to be heard so that we can evolve by multy dimensionalising viewpointsrather then getting stuck in an unmovable viewpoint.We have come to theunderstanding for the first time in history that the alternative to "beingreactive to old ideas" can actualy be overcome by an increase ofawareness. This creates the possibility for us as a species to evolvebeyond creativeness to response-ability. We say Yes! tolife.

Democratic Education is the answer to the natural evolution thatis going on in and around us. Children show us that they are muchmore able to understand and create from their natural intelligence. We letgo of our fears and adjust ourselves to the fast evolutionary steps thatthe world around us is taking. We can intuitively create the best possiblecircumstances for children to grow up in.We create the space andcircumstances for our children to grow up from the perspective that they arecompletely OK as they are.

Democratic Education gives us the opportunityto live from the direct experience that the evolution of life is depending onus, that we are the ones that can make the next step in our evolutionpossible. We can only do that from the present; here and now.Ourworld-wide crisis again makes it very clear to us that any fear basedstructure leads to violence, oppression, limitation , dullness andunhappiness.We now have the chance to create a change in the world thatis based on the increase of awareness. The ability to respond to life, tobe response-able, tremendously increases if our attention is less stuck inlimitations.So this way of participating in the world is as important forour children as it is for our selves. By acting on what we know and see tobe true, we can leap beyond our fears and become the deliberate expression ofawareness becoming aware of itself.

To share this knowing with others isthe greatest joy. We can already see what it means if we give children theopportunity to become beings that have the confidence that they are thesource of their life, and that they are able to create the future from theirauthentic self.It is truly evolutionary.