Democratic Education is a worldwide movement towards greater decision-making power for students in the running of their own schools. There is no generally agreed definition of the term, but at the IDEC (International Democratic Education Conference) in 2005 the participants agreed on the following statement:
“We believe that, in any educational setting, young people have the right:
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- 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 organisations – in particular their schools – are run, and which rules and sanctions, if any, are necessary.”
The International Democratic Education Network (IDEN), is open to any school that upholds such ideals as these:
- respect and trust for children
- equality of status of children and adults
- shared responsibility
- freedom of choice of activity
- democratic governance by children and staff together, without reference to any supposedly superior guide or system
The European Democratic Education Community offers a briefer statement:
"There are two pillars of democratic education:
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- self-determined learning
- a learning community based on equality and mutual respect."
Read more about Democratic Education: History, Variety, Theory, Scholars
Famous quotes containing the words democratic and/or education:
“Follow me if I advance
Kill me if I retreat
Avenge me if I die.”
—Mary Matalin, U.S. Republican political advisor, author, and James Carville b. 1946, U.S. Democratic political advisor, author. All’s Fair: Love, War, and Running for President, epigraph (from a Vietnamese battle cry)
“It’s fairly obvious that American education is a cultural flop. Americans are not a well-educated people culturally, and their vocational education often has to be learned all over again after they leave school and college. On the other hand, they have open quick minds and if their education has little sharp positive value, it has not the stultifying effects of a more rigid training.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)