I just got back from the 2008 International Democratic Education Conference in Vancouver, Canada, an annual gathering that is hosted in a different country each year and brings together educators, young people, and others dedicated to the practice of freedom and democracy in education. Democratic education unites the practice of education and learning with our societal commitment to human rights and democratic values such as freedom and responsibility, participation and collaboration, and equity and justice. In practice democratic education empowers young people to direct their own lives and learning within a collaborative educational community that gives all members a voice in decision-making. Read more on the practice of democratic education in a recent post from an insightful fellow IDEC 2008 attendee and good friend, Melia Dicker, on her blog “Reschool Yourself.”
Democratic education respects the human and civil right of young people to have a say in their lives and learning, a right that is affirmed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, especially Articles 5 and 12; unbelievably the United States is one of two countries in the world not to ratify this document. Beyond this inherent right, though, democratic education leads directly to a more vibrant, creative, and sustainable society, the essential challenge of our times as our planet faces new and devastating threats. Yaacov Hecht, the charismatic director of the Israeli Institute for Democratic Education and a leading educational thinker, explained during his presentation at IDEC 2008 that as each young person finds his or her uniqueness they become positive, powerful contributors to the improvement of society and the creation of a more sustainable world.
But what I really wanted to mention in this post are some of the amazing schools, programs, and people at the IDEC and in the international world of democratic education. In particular, I believe this IDEC highlighted one of the slight but significant changes in the democratic education movement over the past 5+ years; namely, the growing interest especially among young people (teens and twenty-somethings) and others to bring democratic education practices to students and schools in all socio-economic neighborhoods and in many ways, through starting new democratic schools but also through public school programs such as Fertile Grounds, personal learning efforts such as Reschool Yourself, and non-profit advocacy work, such as the growing number of Institutes for Democratic Education and Democratic Education Communities around the world.
These people and efforts inspire me every day and give hope to the serious possibility we have to collaborate internationally and work towards giving all young people a chance to find their uniqueness and work to create a better world.
So, here are just some of these excellent projects and people:
- Windsor House School, North Vancouver, British Columbia
- Helen Hughes and the Society for the Advancement of Non-Coercive Education (SANE)
- Adam Fletcher, Free Child, Sound Out, Common Action
- Melia Dicker, Reschool Yourself
- John Harris Loflin’s paper, “A History of Democratic Education in American Public Schools“
- The European Democratic Education Community
- The Village Free School folks from Portland, Oregon
- Jonah Canner, Fertile Grounds Project, New York City
- Yael Biber Aviad, Mendel Leadership Institute – Mandel School for Educational Leadership fellow, Israel
- Laura Stine, Northwest Institute for Democratic Education, Oregon
- The Odyssey Program at Thomas Haney Secondary School in British Columbia
- Tae Wook Ha and the Korean alternative schools (Korea will host IDEC 2009!)
- Femka and Hope Flowers School in Bethlehem
…and so many more.
So, with all these projects and people thinking along similar lines, now is truly the time to act and get to work. Let’s make connections, collaborate, and advance democratic education around the world!