In Design a School Week 1 we are going to Blog and Podcast about our reasons and motivations for doing this project Jason: Raspberries I guess my reasons for getting into democratic education are mostly negative. That means I don’t want to pass on my own experience of school. It certainly turned…
The Design a School as well our Summerhill Democratics consultancy are offered to kick start a new phrase: Activation Not Inspiration. Here are some Thoughts. Thoughts From Leonard Activation not Inspiration I’ve seen waves of inspiration, waves of media attention ( especially in the early 70’s), waves of joyful, inexperienced educational pilgrims…
The open classroom is back. I have my doubts about the phenomenon and want to see some evidence for the effectiveness of the trend.
This post looks at open classrooms. Don’t we need to think about the past before heading into an uncertain future? We’ve been here before.
Democratic schools should be at the forefront of evidence-based teaching. If teaching is better democratic school students have the most to win: they gain their freedom from the classroom!
Obedience is the bedrock of authoritarian systems: you do what you are told. In this post I put the case for bucking obedience and building a different world based on freedom. I Won’t Do What You Tell Me Conservatives tell us that in the past everyone just did what they were told and everything was…
I am feeling sad. La Cantonera was a beautiful project in the Canaries run by charismatic and committed school leaders. We were not working with them directly but they were friends. Now the government is pressuring to close the school down. The town hall tells them that the land their school is on does not…
Are you an Ape or an Ant? In my last post I said that I feel like an Ape, but social policy treats me like an Ant. In this post I want to extend that idea. But I warn you first that this might lead to some deep thoughts. Deep Thoughts I mentioned my concerns…
Family and kinship are a part of our mammal nature. How do they relate to our choices in education? Is it right for the state to work against our primal instincts.
“This is a much needed project. There is a wide gap between what people WANT our kind of schools to be and the reality. It is so important that people with on-the-ground experience keep the knowledge of real Summerhill ideals alive. Jason and Leonard have that experience.”
-Zoe Readhead,
Principal of Summerhill
