Make Your Voice Heard: Discover Democratic Education

In a society based on democracy, participation, and engagement, shouldn't education be democratic, participatory, and engaging? How can young people be creative, curious, and collaborative learners when their schooling boxes them in with testing and standardization? What does a more empowering, democratic education look like?

Check out this video by IDEA - the Institute for Democratic Education in America, and visit our website to learn more and get involved: http://www.democraticeducation.org

Remember: educational change starts with all of us - young people, teachers, parents, and more.

Make your voice heard!

IDEA: http://www.democraticeducation.org

- Shout out to our excellent video designers at Pure West (http://www.purewest.us) and to The Noise Revival Orchestra (http://www.thenoiserevival.com) for their pumping soundtrack!

- For more information about the statistics mentioned in the video, follow this link: http://www.democraticeducation.org/resources/idea_video_research/

Category:

Education

Tags:

• education
• school
• schooling
• learning
• youth
• students
• democracy
• democratic
• voice
• democratic education

[goodideafolks]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. @Lyokoking99: Wonderful that you were able to attend a Big Picture School and got to explore programming early!

@eirinorum, Thanks for the feedback on the music. We like the mood it sets but will take your input into account for future videos.

[gamp0001]

I love EVERYTHING in this video, until I get to the end, and the word democracy pops up. Unfortunately, our BS school system has taught us to LOVE the word democracy. We have forgotten its historical context. Democracy is MOB RULE. Associating this GREAT IDEA with the idea that a majority can or should decide against the will/rights of a minority undermines the whole concept of what this idea is all about. Just my $0.02

[goodideafolks]

Majority wins voting can be a problem. Especially when we stop listening to one another and thinking about ways to work with one another. We want democracy to be reclaimed as a word with power, depth, and nuance. It can mean a lot more than mob rule. The word isn't the problem - but what we sometimes call democracy certainly can be.

[melzio69]

I hate forced education. I don't want to learn the things I am forced to learn. I wish school was a place where you get to learn whatever you wanted to, have fun, and do whatever you wanted to do (e.g. pursue your passion). *sigh* oh the dream.

ftw = free/sudbury valley type schools for the future!!!

hip hip hooray!

[josephpark7777]

Democratic education is not the only answer, but the discpline is. We should change the paradigm of education first.

Is the education for stabile society or personal success. That should be answered first.

Who should initiate it, government or private institute? Otherwise we will never have an answer because both direction has its own good.

[SingajiCollege]

This is the best way of teaching our children to lead their lives. Not just score grades & settle in life, but to pursue their passion in life. Ultimately that is the purpose of Education!

[Silvertrimm]

So make my child learn math four times because your child couldnt learn it the first time wasn't fair enough, now because your child is still failing you need to do away with the whole system that even says pass or fail. Meet you in the streets soon.

[benbook1000]

This is true and I like the fact that you can have a say in what is going on. I give this a thumbs up!

[dafilip94]

Thank you so much. This video really shows how I feel about the education system of today. Today's system is just complete BS. This is exactly the kind of change i want to see in this world. I also find it amazing that others in the comments section really have similar opinions to mine about this topic.

[Lyokoking99]

@melzio69 I go to a school just like the one you're describing. It's called a Big Picture School. I felt that way in Middle School because I have wanted to be a game programmer since I was 8, and have been coding since I was 9. The trivial things in most schools was awful. At the school I go to I can learn the things colleges require for my credits, but in a relevant way. For Health I made a game simulating alcohol addiction. For physics credit I worked on modifying a physics engine for realism.

[turqoizehexagonsun]

@gamp0001 While it's called democratic education, what is in fact practiced at most democratic schools is closer to a consensus process.

If it were pure democracy, where minorities didn't have a voice, I would have to agree with you... But that's not the case. In most democratic schools I've visited, there is no majority, just many minorities called "Individuals"

[kellidor75]

@gamp0001 I agree with you. Democracy is mostly a mainstream label put on these really good education concepts.

[youteacher78]

@goodideafolks Hi, in the Netherlands we call it democratic eduction, but in fact most schools run a sociocratic meeting structure: decisions are made on a no-objection basis. Sociocracy originates from the Quakers and was popularized through the Dutch radical pacifist educator Kees Boeke who used it on his alternative school (were even the present queen took classes) from the 1930's up to the 1960's.