Democratic schools - a new revolution in education?

Image source: http://startl.org/blog/2012/07/16/supporting-the-education-revolution/

“All the time you are in school, you learn through experience how to live in a dictatorship.”  

Grace Llewellyn

In continuation of my previous post about academic freedom, I would like to write about the freedom of students to choose what they want to learn. We have to admit that students do not study efficiently at schools which can in fact be associated with “aquariums”, where everybody is fed with the same “seeds” of knowledge. Probably, it is better to put students in the open ocean of knowledge and let them find their own flow which will finally lead them to their future profession. Instead of controlling the process of knowledge acquisition, teachers may provide students with some necessary “tools” and observe them learning what they are really interested in and create the environment of democratic education.

First, it is important to understand what the democratic education is. Democratic education is “education where students are actually empowered to make decisions about their own education and if they are in their own school”(Ricci and Hill, 2007, p. 63). One of such models of education in school was created by a junior student who was simply bored and unhappy at his ordinary school and decided to change something in this system. Thus, he was able to initiate  “The Independent project”, where a small group of High school students became their own teachers: they designed their own curriculum, guided each other through the process of learning, decided how to better present their projects to peers. Real teachers at the same time were given the roles of advisors, but the whole responsibility for learning was given to students themselves.

Image source: http://www.wanderrgirl.com/2013/02/the-independent-project-rethinking-education-reform/

You may wonder then what these students could learn by themselves, since most of them could simply procrastinate and do nothing. But these students were at more advantageous position than all other students at ordinary school: they learned what they truly wanted to learn and thus were really passionate about their interests. Moreover, they realized the responsibility to defend their ideas in front of their peers and get valuable feedback on their achievements (you can watch this video to be better convinced). It is not the same as you learn something merely for grades and then forget it. They were driven by their interests and thus contributed much of their efforts and passion to completing these projects.

The most incredible about this idea of creating democratic education at schools was that students were finally given freedom of choice, speech and ideas. As Agatha Christie once noted: “I suppose it is because nearly all children go to school nowadays, and have things arranged for them, that they seem so forlornly unable to produce their own ideas.” Well, I believe it is true. Students assigned to the Independent project were given a chance to express their ideas, defend them and understand other notions. They could already perceive themselves as independent adults who are responsible for their own future. Nevertheless, I admit that this type of education is probably more suitable for High school. However, children from Sudbury Valley schools wouldn’t agree with me on that. (If you want, you can learn more about another incredible school where students of all ages are given almost absolute freedom in their learning).  

To conclude, democratic school is a new approach of looking at education of students. Even though it is hard to believe that students can organize their own studying process, this type of education has to be analyzed more deeply. I believe that this approach of education cannot only motivate students to learn, but also help them to determine their interests and be better prepared for the choice of the future profession. And I would like to finish this post by an interesting quote of Buckminster Fuller: “None of the world's problems will have a solution until the world's individuals become thoroughly self-educated”. I couldn't agree more!

References:

Ricci, C., & Hill, L. (2007). Apprenticeships: When schooling means more than doing.  Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Learning, Volume 1, Issue 1, pp. 66 - 78