My Personal Understanding of Democratic Education
The idea of children having the freedom to do what they feel inclined to, all under the premise that they are receiving their education during that time....boy, that was a bizarre concept for me.
As strange a concept as it was, though, I was very intrigued by it, and in theory found it to be a marvelous approach to educating. One thing that really kept me thinking that the free school was going to work so well in educating people was my personal experiences with my nephew, Kristofer. What gave me confidence that this approach to education would succeed was those experiences I shared with Kristofer when we would be playing, or walking around the city... just hanging out. During those times we shared with each other, I would marvel at how much he (and I) would learn, just from being awake, and aware, and having someone to share thoughts and ideas with. Those discussions and hang-outs served as the building blocks of many lessons for the both of us.
From those times with Kris, and from sharing time with other children and knowing how humans interact, I inferred that the free school would most likely work in appropriately educating youth. My thought was that, if one kid can explore the world with a companion and learn naturally, then most, if not all, other kids can do the same.
I had confidence in this theory of a free school coming to life as something real and being a success. Though I did have some doubts as well.
What about all of those things that we are forced to learn in public school? Are those things not so important that we must learn them? Maybe it would be okay if some people knew those things, but not everybody. Right? Because I know I am horrible at math and have no inclination to pursue any further understanding, but some people love it...So yeah, the free school is the way to be! Let the kids learn what they want, and we'll have a nice balance of all sorts of differently skilled people.
I gave The Village my outright support. I spoke highly of it and represented the free school by wearing its t-shirts. When people inquired about the meaning of the school printed on my shirt, I would do my best to explain its essence, and shed light on the greatness of freeschooling. This was all before the school had come to be an actual facility where children went to school.
Once the school was actually formed, and there was a decent sized, but not large building that students and staff all shared, my feelings toward the free school became a little less concrete. I started to doubt that the way these kids were spending their time throughout the week was going to grant them much of a valuable education. I mean, in this school, staff and students make the rules. The kids have just as much voice as the staff, so when everyone votes on school rules, or weekly activities, or classes to take place in a semester's time, the kids are a huge part of the deciding process. And although I agreed with how things would work theoretically (in my own thought up free school utopia), I started to doubt freeschooling, or democratically educating youth, as a viable means of educating. It was just that, some of the decisions made that governed the day-to-day processes at The Village were not sitting well with me. The kids seemed to be tyrants! I just couldn't fathom how these people running amok and doing things that required eager and extreme amounts of energy could work as an effort to educate.
I did not lose faith completely in the school, however. I continued to watch as The Village grew, and I saw how rules constantly changed to accommodate a more functional learning environment. And what is still so remarkable to witness, as time goes on, is how eager the kids are to attend school. I've seen completed projects, and what students are working on at various times, and I see children reading and writing at younger ages than I have ever seen before. I meet kids who have incredible motor skills, large vocabularies, great leadership skills, ideas of what they want to be in our workforce and goals to get there, and more. And the things these kids accomplish and create are just remarkable.
The ways the school and students have developed over time is remarkable. Students have developed rules that work to ensure everyone's well being and good time. There are classes held at The Village that touch on subjects I was never educated in, and they are learning most of the things I learned in public school too, if they choose to. And the kids do not attend only to play, and be rowdy. In fact, much of a students time at The Village is spent focusing on academic work, and furthering personal wisdom or intelligence. The kids there love learning, and they do it at their own comfortable pace, all the while sharing a school with knowledgeable adults, and youth, who offer their assistance in any schooling the students could use help in.
It's amazing really, that I became such a skeptic of an approach to educating that gave children the reigns in guiding how, where, when, and what they learn. But time showed me that these kids are most definitely learning, and that they are by no means tyrants. All of their running and playing, and wildness was what seemed to be an incredible excitement that took them over when they were no longer being constrained by a desk and school bell every hour or so, and that behavior was only the school day's focal point for a short period in time. But ya know, I think that if I would have had the option to freeschool as a young person, I, too, would have leapt, run, and jumped as fast and often as I could down the school halls for the first week! I, too, would have gathered all of my schoolmates and played all the school instruments simultaneously in an effort to project a noise comparable to the feelings of joy we were having!
And to tell the truth, many of my initial judgments and reactions of The Village were based only on a small glimpse at the goings-on of the school in a small window in time. The school is such a delightful place to spend time. Being around that many kids at once as a young adult was a first for me as well, and was very overwhelming in itself. But as I've had the opportunity now to spend much more time at the Free School, I have found that in my own comparisons to children who attend public schools, these freeschooled kids seem so much more engaged, and just so smart. Obviously there are exceptions, as with most anything, but there does seem to be something different going on in these kids in comparison to public schoolers, and in a magnificent way.
I suppose my point in writing about The Village Free School is that democratic education looks a lot different than our conventional public school ways. And when I say different, I mean way different, at least in this instance. It took me a while to realize that what was going on was actually valuable, and really working in properly educating children. But it really does work. These kids are happy, and when they are not, there is a great community of people who attend the school willing to help that person find happiness again, in a real way. When a problem arises, there is the Justice Board, consisting of staff and students, who hear out whatever problematic issue is at hand, and through discussion, reflection, and analysis, real problems are solved to the degree that everyone walks away with a shared understanding, and feeling better than they had before the intervention took place. Just through this method of problem solving, so many lessons are learned and taken into adulthood by young people. Lessons in problem solving, diplomacy, empathy, respect, an understanding of healthy relationship, and great communication, to name a few. And this is only one aspect of how children learn at The Village Free School.
What's great is that The Village is not the only place that allows children to grow naturally. There are so many more democratic schools, and so many more people making efforts to either support existing schools, or create new ones. And what is even more amazing, is that every individual can play a role in democratizing education. Every adult, child, student, teacher, or average Joe can look at this methodology and say, "Yeah, that really does work, and that is the way we should be educating. Where the students have a say."
Check out The Village Free School here.
.
Posted in DemEd in Real LifePhilosophy of Education on Feb 04, 2010 - 02:08 AM
The concept of democratic education was not introduced to me until summer of 2004. I was aware of homeschooling, and slightly familiar with unschooling, but had never really pushed to find an understanding of either approach. But in 2004, The Village Free School, of Portland, OR, was undergoing its first stages of creation, and I was fortunate to be around for it. It is something I took a deep interest in.The idea of children having the freedom to do what they feel inclined to, all under the premise that they are receiving their education during that time....boy, that was a bizarre concept for me.
As strange a concept as it was, though, I was very intrigued by it, and in theory found it to be a marvelous approach to educating. One thing that really kept me thinking that the free school was going to work so well in educating people was my personal experiences with my nephew, Kristofer. What gave me confidence that this approach to education would succeed was those experiences I shared with Kristofer when we would be playing, or walking around the city... just hanging out. During those times we shared with each other, I would marvel at how much he (and I) would learn, just from being awake, and aware, and having someone to share thoughts and ideas with. Those discussions and hang-outs served as the building blocks of many lessons for the both of us.
From those times with Kris, and from sharing time with other children and knowing how humans interact, I inferred that the free school would most likely work in appropriately educating youth. My thought was that, if one kid can explore the world with a companion and learn naturally, then most, if not all, other kids can do the same.
I had confidence in this theory of a free school coming to life as something real and being a success. Though I did have some doubts as well.
What about all of those things that we are forced to learn in public school? Are those things not so important that we must learn them? Maybe it would be okay if some people knew those things, but not everybody. Right? Because I know I am horrible at math and have no inclination to pursue any further understanding, but some people love it...So yeah, the free school is the way to be! Let the kids learn what they want, and we'll have a nice balance of all sorts of differently skilled people.
I gave The Village my outright support. I spoke highly of it and represented the free school by wearing its t-shirts. When people inquired about the meaning of the school printed on my shirt, I would do my best to explain its essence, and shed light on the greatness of freeschooling. This was all before the school had come to be an actual facility where children went to school.
Once the school was actually formed, and there was a decent sized, but not large building that students and staff all shared, my feelings toward the free school became a little less concrete. I started to doubt that the way these kids were spending their time throughout the week was going to grant them much of a valuable education. I mean, in this school, staff and students make the rules. The kids have just as much voice as the staff, so when everyone votes on school rules, or weekly activities, or classes to take place in a semester's time, the kids are a huge part of the deciding process. And although I agreed with how things would work theoretically (in my own thought up free school utopia), I started to doubt freeschooling, or democratically educating youth, as a viable means of educating. It was just that, some of the decisions made that governed the day-to-day processes at The Village were not sitting well with me. The kids seemed to be tyrants! I just couldn't fathom how these people running amok and doing things that required eager and extreme amounts of energy could work as an effort to educate.
I did not lose faith completely in the school, however. I continued to watch as The Village grew, and I saw how rules constantly changed to accommodate a more functional learning environment. And what is still so remarkable to witness, as time goes on, is how eager the kids are to attend school. I've seen completed projects, and what students are working on at various times, and I see children reading and writing at younger ages than I have ever seen before. I meet kids who have incredible motor skills, large vocabularies, great leadership skills, ideas of what they want to be in our workforce and goals to get there, and more. And the things these kids accomplish and create are just remarkable.
The ways the school and students have developed over time is remarkable. Students have developed rules that work to ensure everyone's well being and good time. There are classes held at The Village that touch on subjects I was never educated in, and they are learning most of the things I learned in public school too, if they choose to. And the kids do not attend only to play, and be rowdy. In fact, much of a students time at The Village is spent focusing on academic work, and furthering personal wisdom or intelligence. The kids there love learning, and they do it at their own comfortable pace, all the while sharing a school with knowledgeable adults, and youth, who offer their assistance in any schooling the students could use help in.
It's amazing really, that I became such a skeptic of an approach to educating that gave children the reigns in guiding how, where, when, and what they learn. But time showed me that these kids are most definitely learning, and that they are by no means tyrants. All of their running and playing, and wildness was what seemed to be an incredible excitement that took them over when they were no longer being constrained by a desk and school bell every hour or so, and that behavior was only the school day's focal point for a short period in time. But ya know, I think that if I would have had the option to freeschool as a young person, I, too, would have leapt, run, and jumped as fast and often as I could down the school halls for the first week! I, too, would have gathered all of my schoolmates and played all the school instruments simultaneously in an effort to project a noise comparable to the feelings of joy we were having!
And to tell the truth, many of my initial judgments and reactions of The Village were based only on a small glimpse at the goings-on of the school in a small window in time. The school is such a delightful place to spend time. Being around that many kids at once as a young adult was a first for me as well, and was very overwhelming in itself. But as I've had the opportunity now to spend much more time at the Free School, I have found that in my own comparisons to children who attend public schools, these freeschooled kids seem so much more engaged, and just so smart. Obviously there are exceptions, as with most anything, but there does seem to be something different going on in these kids in comparison to public schoolers, and in a magnificent way.
I suppose my point in writing about The Village Free School is that democratic education looks a lot different than our conventional public school ways. And when I say different, I mean way different, at least in this instance. It took me a while to realize that what was going on was actually valuable, and really working in properly educating children. But it really does work. These kids are happy, and when they are not, there is a great community of people who attend the school willing to help that person find happiness again, in a real way. When a problem arises, there is the Justice Board, consisting of staff and students, who hear out whatever problematic issue is at hand, and through discussion, reflection, and analysis, real problems are solved to the degree that everyone walks away with a shared understanding, and feeling better than they had before the intervention took place. Just through this method of problem solving, so many lessons are learned and taken into adulthood by young people. Lessons in problem solving, diplomacy, empathy, respect, an understanding of healthy relationship, and great communication, to name a few. And this is only one aspect of how children learn at The Village Free School.
What's great is that The Village is not the only place that allows children to grow naturally. There are so many more democratic schools, and so many more people making efforts to either support existing schools, or create new ones. And what is even more amazing, is that every individual can play a role in democratizing education. Every adult, child, student, teacher, or average Joe can look at this methodology and say, "Yeah, that really does work, and that is the way we should be educating. Where the students have a say."
Check out The Village Free School here.
.
Tags for this entry:
critical thinking and analysis,
freedom,
self-directed learning,
democratic schooling,
village free school,
collaboration
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