From the Resource Center For Redesigning Education, Ron Miller defines the Democratic Schools in America are:
1) engaged, relevant, socially responsible learning
2) cooperation within a supportive, caring community, not competition
3) accommodation to diverse learning styles
4) celebration of cultural diversity
5) a fair distribution of resources with more equality of school funding
6) a whole, real world approach to subject matter
The Small Schools of Europe started around the 1980’s, like the one in Hartford, England, which is modeled after, ‘ the family, not the factory’. The schools are community based and holistic, nurturing the children’s spiritual life as well as the mind. Small classes are maintained so that teachers can actually devote their time to teaching instead of crowd control. Each pupil is appreciated as an individual. The atmosphere is very much like an extended family. Mutual respect and manners are integral. Most of their teachers have never taught before and what they do in the classrooms is what they love.
The children develop remarkable self-confidence, a beneficial byproduct of most alternative schools. The children are outgoing and articulate, extraordinarily capable at voicing an opinion. Friendships here ignore differences of ages or generations. Academically children are served well. There is a great deal of autonomy.
In the United States, the Upitinas (up-at-Tina’s) School in Pennsylvania was the fertile garden for the evolution of the Association for Alternative Schools. This group organizes the myriad of alternative schools and school choices (including homeschoolers) with annual meetings to discuss immanent issues addressed by students, parents and teachers. There is equality among participants whether student or adult both in representation and presentation.
The Upitinas Educational Resource Center is a “place and a program of events designed to promote and foster learning for people who choose to have control over their own education and contemplation, sharing and searching. It is a resource for finding people, books, equipment, ideas and support for designing one’s on-going education.” The natural environment fosters movement, exploration and learning.
In business, whenever things become unmanageable, companies downsize, especially with the administrative and managerial personnel. In education when management problems exist, schools upsize and/or consolidate. The schools and the classrooms became larger and larger. Several years ago, in an attempt to regain control as well as humanize education in these large schools, the Schools-Within-Schools model emerged. Children are clustered into heterogeneous numbers of no more than 300 or 400 with the same teachers, same students and same administrative staff throughout the entire middle and/or high school years. For schools like the Reading School district in Pennsylvania, which has 5,000 students, the second largest high school on the east coast, this would make some aspects of the school culture manageable. Large numbers still congregate in halls and auditoriums and principals still do not know students except when they are behavior problems. Although this model has had some success, it still does not replace the humane, familial, nurturing, manageable environment of the small schools (meaning no more than 350 students), which researchers statistically prove provides a better environment for learning.
Some of these include; The proprietary schools like Summerhill in England or Stone Soup in Florida, which have no board of education have existed longest. Based on the Free School in the ghettos of New York, was Mary Leue’s Free School started in 1969 called the First Street School, in Albany, New York.
A well-publicized Democratic School is the Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts. The youths in this school have a curriculum designed by student interest- they decide what they will learn throughout the course of the school year. Children ages from 7 to 17 attend classes together. The natural setting complete with ponds, trees and acreage, sets the foundation for the natural learning inside. The children are encouraged to freely move about the facility throughout the day. Teachers are selected each year by the student body, not the administration. (It is an awesome sight to view teachers’ politicing for a position). On the outset, it appears chaotic. However, an internal and an external infrastructure maintain an invisible checks and balances system.
“Children are free. Their natural curiosity is the starting point for everything that happens at school. Students initiate their own activities. The staff, the plant and the equipment are there to answer their needs. Learning takes place in formal and informal settings, in large and small groups and individually. The dynamics among students of different ages, helping each other learn about everything from fractions to human relations, is one of the greatest strengths of the school. Natural differences are respected and encouraged. The learning that takes place outdoors is as vital as the learning that takes place indoors. Students share responsibility for their own environment and the quality of life at the school. The school is managed by the weekly School Meeting, where every student and staff member has a vote: an education here is an education in hands-on democracy”.