To explain the delay since my last post, I am honored to say that I have been involved with an incredible group of educators and democratic education supporters working to start a new effort to catalyze democratic educational change. It’s called IDEA: the Institute for Democratic Education in America, and you can learn more about it at our website:
IDEA is a national people-powered project designed to publicize and raise credibility for democratic education – education that reflects our democratic values, including freedom and responsibility, participation and collaboration, and equity and justice. Democratic education can be practiced in many ways and in many settings from individual classrooms to entire schools, from non-profit programs to after-school settings, and from early childhood to university levels and beyond.
Democratic education is based on the belief that all young people deserve the opportunity to have a voice in their own learning, to be respected and valued participants in a democratic community, and to gain the skills they need to build a more vibrant and just society.
IDEA’s strategy is to:
- Frame education in terms of democratic values and youth voice
- Build a dynamic community of democratic education practitioners and supporters, and
- Catalyze democratic education change by compiling resources and providing online and on-the-ground organizing to support educational change at the local, regional, national, and international levels.
I’ll be blogging from the IDEA website, along with a great group of IDEA bloggers, including teachers, parents, non-profit leaders, and more. Please visit the site, read the blogs, and add your comments.
We at IDEA welcome your feedback, and we will only be successful with your participation. Find us at www.democraticeducation.org, and write to me directly at dbennis (at) democraticeducation.org.
Onward!
Hey Jonas or Dana, Its Armen from project reach, the yoga teacher there. I was having a discussion with a fellow educator and I asked her a question that I want to ask you: Why is it that the government national, in No Child left Behind act, or even more locally here in New York City, closing so many schools that don’t perform well, where are all of these students supposed to go?
My friends response, was that we may have more private or charter schools in the future, so that the government can contract schools to other institutions, rather than being responsible for the immense expense of public education of the masses. What do you think?