Educational Alternatives to Patronizing Schools

sligo | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Wednesday March 14, 2007 22:49 by Robert Hamm

Public Presentation of a film shot at the
International Democratic Education Conference 2005 in Berlin
Sligo, 28. 03. 2007 - Family Resource Centre, The Mall - 8 p. m.

Educational Alternatives to Patronizing Schools

The system of school education is built on the assumption that children need to be told what is best for them.

Yet numerous initiatives around the world are successfully proving that education can take a completely different shape. Since 1993 the International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) takes place annually. IDEC is dedicated to educational initiatives which are organized in a democratic way, where students decide what, when, how and with whom they will learn.

In 2005 IDEC took place in Berlin with more than 200 participants from 28 countries. A film was produced in which these people talk about their experiences and express their opinions.

Sudbury Valley School (Massachusetts):

“Whatever the time of day, and whatever their age, students are all doing what they want to do, with great intensity and concentration. Most often students are not concerned about whether learning is taking place. Doing what they choose to do is the common theme; learning is the by-product.
The school teems with activity. Adults and students of all ages mix freely. People can be found everywhere talking, reading and playing. Some may be in the photolab developing or printing pictures. Some may be in a dance class or building a bookshelf in the woodshop. There are almost always people making music of one kind or another, usually in several places. You might see someone studying French, biology, or algebra. People may be at computers, doing administrative work in the office, playing chess, rehearsing a show, or participating in role-playing games. People will be trading stickers and trading lunches. A group may be selling pizza that they made to raise money for new equipment. In the art room, people will be drawing; they might also be sewing, or painting, or working with clay, either on the wheel or by hand.
Always there are people playing happily and busily, indoors and outdoors, in all seasons and all weather. Always there are groups talking, and always there are individuals quietly reading here and there.”

Wednesday, 28. 03., 8 p. m.,
the film of IDEC 2005 will be presented in the
Family Resource Centre,
The Mall, Sligo.
It is approx. 35 min. long and there is ample opportunity for discussion afterwards.

In view of the fundamental simplicity of the statements presented in the film, the reality of schools seems hopelessly patronizing. While the constitution guarantees the right to home-educate children, this seems not a viable option for many families. However taking the ideas of home-education and transferring them on to a different level by organizing an educational network in which children are treated with trust, dignity, where intellectual freedom and unfettered interaction with other children and adults are guiding principles would allow for more happiness in the
life of children and adults.

A. S. Neill, Summerhill School (Leiston, England):

“Parents are slow in realising how unimportant the learning side of school is. Children, like adults, learn what they want to learn. All the prize-giving and marks and exams side-track proper personality development. Only pedants claim that learning from books is education.
Books are the least important apparatus in a school. All that any child needs is the three R’s; the rest should be tools and clay and sports and theatre and paint and freedom.
Most of the schoolwork that adolescents do is simply a waste of time, of energy, of patience.”

organized by Robert Hamm
for further information contact 071 9150428