The Democratic School of Hadera is a democratic school in Hadera, Israel. It was founded in 1987 by Yaacov Hecht. With around 380 students aged four to eighteen, it is the largest of the twenty-five Israeli democratic schools.
The school is governed by a weekly school parliament in which all students, teachers, parents and alumni have an equal vote. However, few parents and alumni participate in parliament meetings.
Students are free to decide if they want to attend classes or spend their time on other activities such as music, sports, art, computers, reading, talking, socializing, or doing nothing at all.
In 1993 the first International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) was held at the Democratic School of Hadera. In 1996 it was held again at that school.
Famous quotes containing the words democratic and/or school:
“One reason—perhaps the chief—of the virility of the Roosevelts is [their] very democratic spirit. They have never felt that because they were born in a good position they could put their hands in their pockets and succeed. They have felt, rather, that being born in a good position, there is no excuse for them if they did not do their duty by the community.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“I never went near the Wellesley College chapel in my four years there, but I am still amazed at the amount of Christian charity that school stuck us all with, a kind of glazed politeness in the face of boredom and stupidity. Tolerance, in the worst sense of the word.... How marvelous it would have been to go to a women’s college that encouraged impoliteness, that rewarded aggression, that encouraged argument.”
—Nora Ephron (b. 1941)