Submitted by Bruce Smith (not verified) on February 17, 2008 - 21:25.
I will admit, I'm impressed that a conventional school would go even this far in granting students a voice in school management. However, it remains difficult to see this as more than a limited, if interesting, experiment.
Putting students and their teachers on the same advisory panel is nice, but having taught high school, I can assure you that teachers have scarcely more more power than students in conventional schools. An administration doling out bits of democracy hardly represents a radical change.
As evidenced by schools following the Sudbury model, real democracy in education has no arbitrary limits, and extends to all aspects of school governance, not simply those which school administrators find innocuous.
Bruce Smith, President
The Center for Advancing Sudbury Education
Toying with Democracy
Submitted by Bruce Smith (not verified) on February 17, 2008 - 21:25.
I will admit, I'm impressed that a conventional school would go even this far in granting students a voice in school management. However, it remains difficult to see this as more than a limited, if interesting, experiment.
Putting students and their teachers on the same advisory panel is nice, but having taught high school, I can assure you that teachers have scarcely more more power than students in conventional schools. An administration doling out bits of democracy hardly represents a radical change.
As evidenced by schools following the Sudbury model, real democracy in education has no arbitrary limits, and extends to all aspects of school governance, not simply those which school administrators find innocuous.
Bruce Smith, President
The Center for Advancing Sudbury Education