Democratic school


A Democratic School refers to an alternative school that meets the following criteria:
  • Classes are voluntary. Learning is self-directed and takes place without a curriculum.
  • The school is run to the greatest possible extent by a direct democracy in which students and teachers have an equal voice in decision-making.
  • Students are free to spend their time as they choose, as long as they do not violate the rules made by the school community.
Democratic Schools are places where the concept of democratic education is put into practice and provide an environment for autodidacticism.
The term was first used by the Democratic School of Hadera in 1987.

Definition

There is no common definition of a Democratic School. However, all democratic schools refrain from imposing any obligations or unrequested assessment on the learning process of their students, i.e. foster self-directed learning, and are governed democratically. As a rule, the governing body is the school meeting.
The European umbrella organisation EUDEC names three core characteristics of Democratic Schools:
  1. Firm foundations in a values culture of equality and shared responsibility;
  2. Collective decision-making where all members of the community, regardless of age or status, have an equal say over significant decisions such as school rules, curricula, projects, the hiring of staff and even budgetary matters;
  3. Self-directed discovery; Learners choose what they learn, when, how and with whom they learn it. Learning can happen inside or outside of the classroom, through play as well as conventional study. The key is that the learning is following the students’ intrinsic motivation and pursuing their interests.

    Typical features

  • No grades or externally determined assessment;
  • Age mix across the whole spectrum of the student body;
  • No general or compulsory curriculum;
  • Classes voluntary;
  • Self-regulation through democratic bodies such as the school meeting and the Dispute Committee; upholding human rights, especially the equality between teachers and students;
  • Positive attitude towards the heterogeneity of students;
  • Regularly convening school meeting as the school's highest authority;
  • Freedom of movement on the entire school grounds;
  • Enrollment of 15 to 150 students, in exceptional cases more;
  • Play regarded as positive in all age groups;

    School meeting

Most democratic schools have weekly school meetings open to all children and adults; some schools have no regular schedule of school meetings but call them whenever there is a need.
All kinds of matters concerning the school are decided together – from the hiring of new staff to the introduction or abolition of rules, and from finances to what will happen during the school day. Everyone, regardless of their age, has an equal vote. The meeting is usually chaired by a student; attendance is usually voluntary.
The school meeting is the highest decision-making body in the school.
Some democratic schools have founders or principals who reserve the right to have the final say on certain matters. Also, not every school meeting may decide on financial issues or safety rules.
Whereas in most schools, especially Sudbury Schools, decisions require a simple majority of those present, in some schools a qualified majority is required. Other schools such as Sociocratic Schools and some Agile Learning Centres strive to achieve consent.
In the school meeting, a student's vote counts as much as a teacher's.
The underlying principle of a school meeting is the idea that "those who are affected by the decision make the decision". Thus, parents at Sudbury Valley School have a say in deciding on school fees. However, parents have no vote on matters concerning school life.
Larger schools and Sudbury Schools often delegate the powers of the school meeting to committees, i.e. workgroups set up by the school meeting.

Classes

Classes at democratic schools are voluntary. At Sudbury Valley School, even attendance on the school premises is voluntary.
Preparation for diplomas varies greatly from country to country. Summerhill and the Freie Demokratische Schule Kapriole in Freiburg help their students prepare for nationally recognised qualifications so that the path to apprenticeship or university is open to them.
Sudbury schools have no curriculum at all. Classes play a smaller role here than in other schools. There is no subject that is considered so important that it is offered as standard. Courses are only set up either on the initiative of students or teachers who think someone might be interested in the subject.
In other Democratic Schools, most academic learning is not student-initiated, i.e. the school offers various courses on traditional school subjects in which students can, but do not have to, participate.
Usually, teachers offer other courses or projects on topics that interest them. This can be basically any topic.
Free play and informal learning play an important role in all schools.
When it comes to everyday school life and how freedom to learn is practiced, there are clear differences between the various schools.

History

Since the emergence of democratic state systems there have been schools and children's republics experimenting with student democracy. Among the better-known cases are Léonard Bourdon's boarding school for war orphans Société des jeunes Français, Heinrich Stephani's student jurisdiction in the German town of Gunzenhausen, Leo Tolstoy's peasant children's school in Yasnaya Polyana south of Moscow and the George Junior Republic in the State of New York. The oldest Democratic school still in existence is the boarding school Summerhill, located in Leiston. Summerhill was founded in Germany in 1921 by the Scottish educationalist A. S. Neill, then moved to England, and still exists today.
Summerhill strongly influenced the Sudbury Valley School, numerous alternative schools throughout the world and the Democratic School of Hadera, so that the vast majority of democratic schools existing today can be directly or indirectly traced back to Summerhill.
Independent of Summerhill, Kees Boeke developed his Consensus Democratic School Werkplaats Kindergemeenschap in Bilthoven, the Netherlands, in 1929, leading to the emergence of Sociocracy and Sociocratic Schools, and Janusz Korczak opened the grassroots democratic Warsaw orphanage Dom Sierot, where children could also attend school classes.
The Sudbury Valley School was founded in 1968 by Daniel and Hanna Greenberg, among others. Since then, at least 40 schools have been founded on the basis of the Sudbury Valley School concept, mostly in the United States. Daniel Greenberg's numerous publications about his school have reached a relatively wide audience. As a result, Sudbury schools represent the most widespread Democratic School model.
In the Western world, the 1968 generation founded numerous alternative schools with elements of direct democracy. In the United States, whose laws make it easier to establish alternative schools, it is estimated that hundreds of schools were founded during the 1970s and 1980s. At the same time, the anti-authoritarian movement in Germany and the progressive educational movement Éducation Nouvelle in France were discussing Neill's ideas. Subsequently, during the reform period under François Mitterrand, two democratic state schools, the Lycée experimental de Saint-Nazaire and the Lycée autogéré de Paris, were founded in 1982 and still exist today. The first official alternative school in Germany was the Demokratische Freie Schule Frankfurt. It was founded in 1975, existed illegally until 1986 and was subsequently legalised by the new red-green government of Hesse.
As early as 1972, students of a Berlin school for second-chance education occupied their school in protest against poor school building and learning conditions. After two evictions by the police and the strikes of teachers showing solidarity, most of the students and a quarter of the teachers were dismissed. Subsequently, some of the dismissed teachers and students founded the Schule für Erwachsenenbildung. In the beginning, the school organised itself with an equal delegate system of the two status groups, students and teachers. Later, a school meeting was appointed as the governing body, in which every student and every teacher has a vote. Since the foundation of the school, there has been no compulsory attendance.
In 1987 Yaacov Hecht founded the Democratic School of Hadera. It was the first Democratic School to use the term Democratic School. In 1993 the first International Democratic Education Conference took place here. Since then, the IDEC has been held annually at different Democratic Schools and has contributed significantly to not only the democratisation of alternative education schools, but also the founding of new Democratic Schools. Today, there are at least 200 Democratic Schools worldwide.
Most of these can be found in the United States, Japan, France, Germany and Israel. Relative to its population size, the Netherlands are also significant with 19 schools. Others are in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine and the UK.
By 1981, the Schule für Erwachsenenbildung had grown to an enrollment of approx. 800, making it most likely the largest democratic school of all time. However, the school has shrunk to about 200 students.
The International Democratic Education Conference has been held annually since 1993. The European Democratic Education Community was founded in 2008. In Israel, there is an Institute for Democratic Education and the company Education Cities. Both emerged from the environment of the Democratic School of Hadera and have committed themselves to support the democratisation and innovation of education, educational processes and schools. The first Democratic State Schools were probably the Lycée experimental de Saint-Nazaire and the Lycée autogéré de Paris. In the 1990s, Democratic State Schools also emerged in Israel.