Death of a Democratic School in A Culture of Greed and Mistrust

Guest post by Shella R. Zelenz, M.A.Ed., Ed.D. Candidate

Iniabi = Osage for "The sun on which all life depends"

We will not be able to transform our education system if we remain comfortable. How can we? We can’t possibly be comfortable with genocide in Africa, slave labor practices in China, and other similar humanitarian abuses. Especially when we become aware that the only reason this occurs, is a direct result of the current consumerism-focused educational system that has now  reached a crisis point. I no longer wish to hear other ways to tweak the current system to make people happy.

The system itself needs redesign and repurposed. No one is happy in this current paradigm. Even those who "succeed" according to the current educational system spend their entire lives in fear of losing what they have and are willing to abuse others to maintain their lifestyles. I'm seeking education with a TRUE purpose. Our kids deserve it. Our future needs it. We can no longer continue down the path our founding educational systems designed. A consumer focused education which perpetuates the continuous need to produce more and purchase more despite the environmental and cultural ramifications.

To respond to the need for something truly different, I developed a model for a school that had the potential to offer an entirely new way to educate. Education with a purpose designed to change the world. Education with a purpose to change the way we interact with one another. Education with a purpose to change the current destructive models into self-sustaining practices, reversing the damage done by those who did not know any better.

I began this school with the intent to create a non-coercive, democratic middle-school similar to Summerhill in England and the Sudbury Valley School in the United States. However, there were additional factors which made it more unique. This school was to be eco-sustainably built and maintained, off-grid, and the students were responsible for the growing of the food (organic farming), cooking, and maintenance of their "village." Adults were present and participating, but the purpose was to teach self-sustaining ways of living.

Students were responsible for the governance of their school. Students would spend a semester living in various on-campus “continents.” These spaces reflected the cultural identities of those who inhabited the continent represented. They had to research everything they could and recreate that lifestyle. The foods they grew were relevant to that continent. What they chose to study and do with what they discovered regarding their continents was left up to them. Projects were designed by the students and facilitated by adults, which would inevitably integrate all factors deemed essential to learning (math, language, reading, writing, music, arts, science, history, ethics, and government). The goal was to have the students obtain a deeper understanding of the world that they lived in. Each semester, they would move to another continent.

Upon completion of their “tour around the world,” they would then begin the apprentice program, designed for students 16 years and older. The apprentice program was significantly different in that the students chose a one-on-one personal mentor to further their studies. They would identify an area that interested them, most likely with a global perspective after having studied the continents so intently for a few years. From that interest, they would select various internship possibilities where they could spend time learning hands-on skills with already established organizations that either pursued that type of concept or that would help deepen the understanding of the problem faced. The mentors would then help the student to design their own business plan. Partnerships with the local Better Business Bureaus were made and they had generously offered to teach courses on business establishment. Our goal was to walk the student through the process of literally launching their own business which resonated deeply with their own beliefs.

Unfortunately, these goals were never met. It seems the community was not ready for such a school. There are numerous factors which led to the eventual closing of the Iniabi Free School. Factors such as my not being a native Texan, not having strong connections to the community prior to launching, and not having sufficient funding. All of these factors contributed to the realization of what the purpose of the school truly meant, and what obstacles society deeply faces to overcome them. All of this despite the drastic progress accomplished with the few students we did have.

Here is what I learned throughout pursuing this school in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex:

1. Parents did not trust their students to succeed and only wanted to know if they could get into college.
2. Businesses were intrigued with what I was doing, but were very uncomfortable when told that the educational system they currently entrust their children to is contributing to their own demise.
3. Adults do not trust children to make intelligent decisions with regard to their own education and well being.
4. No one wanted to pay for it, but they wanted their kids to be in it. Some would pay a reduced tuition, but refused to volunteer their time to compensate the difference, even though they saw how much their child loved it and was making progress never before seen in the public schools.
5. Staff were not interested in working for free (due to lack of funding, not lack of intent to pay).
6. Grants for such a unique model were non-existent.
7. The lack of focus on the test made it highly unsupported by financial institutions.
8. No one (not even the staff) truly and deeply understood the ramifications of such a model.

If we look at the points above, we see a common theme - trust and money. The purpose of education is about money. When we start acting ethically, we don't know how to do it because it doesn't appear to align with the current beliefs about money. In fact, I had an African American woman recently tell me that removing money won't change racism. She believes that those who participate in racism only do so because of their own personal beliefs. I disagree. I believe money is why they believe what they believe. In fact, I can prove so by using her as an example. She is from Africa. However, she uses cell phones, has a diamond on her wedding band, and drives a car which uses oil. If she does not believe that she is contributing to the genocide in Africa, then she misses the point that money has driven her to participate in racism unintentionally. Whether the abuse of other cultures is conscious or not, these practices need to be addressed.

The aim of the school was to produce self-sufficient entrepreneurs who created new kinds of businesses. Businesses that did not trample the earth, destroy cultures, and were conscious in their practices. Businesses that behaved ethically. Unfortunately, it seems such goals are not in alignment with the current climate and focus of what our society values. When that changes, I have a school just waiting to re-launch.
Author Background
Shella has taught music for 16 years. It wasn't until her oldest son had challenges in school that she ventured into the public school classroom. This is where she discovered what created his challenges. It wasn't her son, it was the education system itself. Her own resistance to the system as a teacher inspired further inquiry into why things are the done the way they are. As such, she pursued her doctorate in educational leadership and change. Her research in that program is what led to the school that she endeavored to start in Texas. Her goal wasn't just to make school more enjoyable for kids, nor was it just to "save" the inner-city youth which her school was designed for. Her mission was to create an entirely different purpose for school. A purpose that would offer societal and systemic change which she feels is critical at this juncture in history. Her research delved into the worlds of virtual classrooms, unschooling and democratic education systems. However, it was not limited to school structures and practices. Her research included anthropological aspects which affect various cultures in the current school models and how their resistance to it may be genetically encoded to protect their futures.

This may appear contradictory to contemporary thought and practice in education, but that is because current thought is pursued through the eyes of the historically designed school structure. The purpose of education in America was to create workers who would contribute to society and be good consumers. We have accomplished this. What was neglected, and is glaringly obvious at this point in history, is that such perpetuation of understanding is what is leading to the destruction of our earth and of cultures globally. Education can no longer focus on the "dominate and conquer" mentality. It is time that education focuses on the holistic world-view of sustenance for all, not just the elite. More on her research can be found at http://zelenz.com.

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Children can educate themselves without the control of adults

From Psychology Today article

The Sudbury Valley School has, for the past forty years, been the best-kept secret in American education. Most students of education have never heard of it. Professors of education ignore it, not out of malice but because they cannot absorb it into their framework of educational thought. The Sudbury Valley model of education is not a variation of standard education. It is not a progressive version of traditional schooling. It is not a Montessori school or a Dewey school or a Piagetian constructivist school. It is something entirely different. To understand the school one has to begin with a completely different mindset from that which dominates current educational thinking. One has to begin with the thought: Adults do not control children's education; children educate themselves.

But the secret is getting out, spread largely by students and others who have experienced the Sudbury Valley School directly. Today at least two dozen schools throughout the world are modeled after Sudbury Valley. I predict that fifty years from now, if not sooner, the Sudbury Valley model will be featured in every standard textbook of education and will be adopted by many public school systems. In fifty years, I predict, today's approach to education will be seen by many if not most educators as a barbaric remnant of the past. People will wonder why the world took so long to come to grips with such a simple and self-evident idea as that upon which the Sudbury Valley School is founded: Children educate themselves; we don't have to do it for them.

No staff members at the school have tenure. All are on one-year contracts, which must be renewed each year through a secret-ballot election. As the student voters outnumber the staff by a factor of 20 to 1, the staff who survive this process and are re-elected year after year are those who are admired by the students.

Students are free, all day, every day, to do what they wish at the school, as long as they don't violate any of the school's rules. The rules, all made by the School Meeting, have to do with protecting the school and protecting students' opportunities to pursue their own interests unhindered by others.

None of the school's rules have to do with learning. The school gives no tests. It does not evaluate or grade students' progress.[1] There is no curriculum and no attempt to motivate students to learn. Courses occur only when students take the initiative to organize them, and they last only as long as the students want them. Many students at the school never join a course, and the school sees no problem with that. The staff members at the school do not consider themselves to be teachers. They are, instead, adult members of the community who provide a wide variety of services, including some teaching. Most of their "teaching" is of the same variety as can be found in any human setting; it involves answering sincere questions and presenting ideas in the context of real conversations.

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Hey Teacher! Leave Us Kids Alone!!!- There’s A School for That!

Editor's note: This Martin Luther King Day, I write a post Dr. King would certainly stand behind, “Freedom as a way of learning.” Last year's Martin Luther King Day tribute was When "Free at Last," Means Escaping the Boring Prison of School.

I’ve become interested in unschooling lately prompted in part after reading blogs, stories, websites and discussion sites of unschoolers who in many cases share characteristics of being happy, passionate, joyful, successful, smart, enjoy learning and love the way they grew up. In short unschooling is the idea that to live is to learn and learning is driven by interest. In long visit the unschooled website, Unschooled 101 from Idzie Desmarais’s blog or read the Unschooled blog of Kate Fridkis who contributes here.

When you spend some time reading about unschooling, you’ll quickly realize that it does seem to take a great deal of involvement and dedication on the part of the child’s family. From what I understand thus far, there generally has to be an adult that doesn’t have a typical 9 - 5 job that would take them from the home, at least until the child is about 16 in many states. Many of my parent friends love the idea, but because of their current reality, this is not a practical option, even if they wanted to raise their child in such a way.

What can they do???

Though at first glance, the idea seems to contradict itself, I wondered if there was some sort of unschool school for parents who believe in this way of raising their children, but just don’t have the ability to do it.

What I found is...
Good news: There are many schools that incorporate unschooling principles but...
Bad news: It seems they are all private. (Unless I’m missing something)

Like most Americans I was raised believing what I read in the outdated, dull and biased textbooks I was forced to consume and then regurgitate. I thought we were the luckiest nation in the world because our citizens had a right to receive an education. What I didn’t realize was receiving an education isn’t a right. It is compulsory and as The Circle School’s Jim Rietmulder so eloquently explains, the reality of what we are doing in school goes against our nation’s principals of the pursuit of freedom, liberty, and happiness. Talk to most any teen in a traditional school setting. Those who haven’t been brainwashed or drugged into compliance, will remind you that, like me and many others, they want to escape the boring prison of school.

So what does a parent who can’t unschool do? They can send their children to unschool school. This does seem to require money, though I think if students aren’t taking up a seat in public school, those families should get tax breaks. But back to reality, the good news is many are less expensive than traditional private schools. In fact in the U.S.’s most well know such institution, tuition is as low as $7000. There is also financial aid in some cases. I’ve also heard of parents being able to have insurance chip in if they can convince these companies it’s a cure for ADD/ADHD - which it is!

The model is called democratic education. If like me, you’ve never hear of this, you might be thinking, wait! Isn’t that what we already have in America? We have a democracy that gives everyone an education, don’t we? Well, some would say our education system is not democratic at all. In fact to the contrary, some would say it is actually a War On Kids. Unlike our industrial model of schooling, a democratic education is one that as Jim Rietmulder explained enables children to enjoy the pursuit of freedom, liberty, and happiness. John Taylor Gatto explains it this way, “The secret of American schooling is not that it doesn't teach the way children learn. It's that it isn't supposed to teach about being a strong, self-directed man or woman.” Traditional education is indeed exactly the antithesis of the American ideals.

A democratic education on the other hand is a theory of learning and school governance in which students and staff participate freely and equally in a school democracy. In a democratic school, there is typically shared decision-making among students and staff on matters concerning living, working, and learning together. At such schools students individually decide what to do with their time, and learn as a by-product of ordinary experience rather than through classes or a standard curriculum.Students are given complete responsibility for their own education and the school is run by a direct democracy in which students and staff have an equal vote.(Wikipedia).

This type of education is said to have started with the Summerhill School in Suffolk, England founded by Alexander Sutherland Neill in 1921 . The belief at Summerhill is that the school should be made to fit the child, rather than the other way around. Here in the United States the Summerhill School was the inspiration for the Sudbury Valley School founded in 1968 in Framingham, Massachusetts. This school has been the inspiration for schools known as 'Sudbury schools.’ Here is a little background on each type of school.

Sudbury Valley School
Here is how the Sudbury Valley School website describes the experience. Students from preschool through high school age explore the world freely, at their own pace and in their own unique ways. They learn to think for themselves, and learn to use Information Age tools to unearth the knowledge they need from multiple sources. They develop the ability to make clear logical arguments, and deal with complex ethical issues. Through self-initiated activities, they pick up the basics; as they direct their lives, they take responsibility for outcomes, set priorities, allocate resources, and work with others in a vibrant community.

Trust and respect are the keys to the school’s success. Students enjoy total intellectual freedom, and unfettered interaction with other students and adults. Through being responsible for themselves and for the school’s operation, they gain the internal resources needed to lead effective lives.

Summerhill School
The Summerhill School website asks you to imagine a school...
Where kids have freedom to be themselves...>
Where success is not defined by academic achievement but by the child's own definition of success...>
Where the whole school deals democratically with issues, with each individual having an equal right to be heard...>
Where you can play all day if you want to...>
And there is time and space to sit and dream...>

...could there be such a school?

A.S. Neill's Summerhill >

Governance - A democratic community
The schools are governed on the model of a traditional New England Town Meeting. While there may variations from school to school, the description from the Sudbury website describes it this way.

The daily affairs of the school are managed by the weekly School Meeting, at which each student and staff member has one vote. Rules of behavior, use of facilities, expenditures, staff hiring, and all the routines of running an institution are determined by debate and vote at the School Meeting. At Sudbury Valley, students share fully the responsibility for effective operation of the school and for the quality of life at school.

Infractions of the rules are dealt with through the School Meeting's judicial system, in which all members of the school community participate. The fair administration of justice is a key feature of Sudbury Valley and contributes much to the students' confidence in the school.

Parents participate in setting school policies. Legally, the school is a non-profit corporation, and every parent becomes a voting member of the Assembly, as the corporate membership is called. The Assembly also includes students, staff, and other elected members. It meets at least once a year to decide all questions of broad operational and fiscal policy.

You can see an interactive peak into the meeting from Summerhill school here.

Here’s what Alumni are saying:

• Sudbury Alumni
• Summerhill Alumni
• Article from the Guardian
• Article from the New York Times

Here’s what parents are saying:

• Parent Testimonials - SummerHill
• Parent Testimonials - Sudbury Schools

Here is a list of Schools:

• Democratic schools
• Sudbury Schools: United States, Other Countries

Initiating, creating, doing, reflecting, freely associating, enjoying privacy—these are precisely what the structures of schooling are set up to prevent, on one pretext or another. John Taylor Gatto - The Underground History of American Education. It’s unfortunate that in a country that espouses the principals of the pursuit of freedom, liberty, and happiness, that schools that follow this principal can not be supported publicly.

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See what happens when kids & teachers are empowered to run a school on This American Life

Brooklyn Free School (BFS) was featured as part of the radio broadcast This American Life the weekend of, January 15-16, 2011, as part of their series titled "Kid Politics" - stories where kids are being handed adult sized decisions of all kinds. You can listen to the broadcast here. It is the third story (begins at 38.00 mins) featured in the three act series.

BFS is a grassroots movement formed in the early fall of 2003, offering a true
educational alternative to the traditional orthodoxy of education now dominant
in most public and private schools in New York City. The community is composed
entirely of parents, students, educators and others who believe that freedom and
democracy are not just textbook concepts, but a way of living and learning - for
our children as well as ourselves. BFS is dedicated to the belief that all
students must be free to develop naturally as human beings in a non-coercive
educational environment where they are empowered to make decisions affecting
their everyday lives and that of their community.

In January 2010, the school acquired its own building at 372 Clinton Avenue in
the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn. This 5-story brownstone has helped the
school grow in its scope and focus. For more information on this groundbreaking
educational option, you can call the school's director, Alan Berger at
718-499-2707 or visit their website at: www.brooklynfreeschool.org

The show will air in New York at WNYC 820 AM on Saturday, January 15 at noon,
WNYC 93.9 FM on Saturday, January 15 at 9:00 p.m. and Sunday, January 16 at 7
p.m. For other ways to listen outside New York City and in the future, visit:
www.thisamericanlife.org/listen

This American Life is a weekly public radio show broadcast on more than 500
stations to about 1.7 million listeners. It is produced by Chicago Public Media,
distributed by Public Radio International, and has won all of the major
broadcasting awards. It is also often the most popular podcast in the country,
with more than a half million people downloading each week.

You have read this article democracy schooling / DIY Learning / unschooling with the title democracy schooling. You can bookmark this page URL https://machining33.blogspot.com/2011/01/see-what-happens-when-kids-teachers-are.html. Thanks!