ClubHouse Democracy Week 3
You can’t mix up the movies!
This is a phrase that Leonard used in his presentation of Clubhouse Democracy to children in the Canadian state school he worked in for many years. Clubhouse Democracy is a key concept in our Design a School project. If you are starting here, I recommend you read the past two week’s blogs and listen to the podcasts.
We have already looked at the background- where the idea came from and why it was needed. Last week we looked at how to present the Clubhouse to children. We had to think about whether Leonard’s state school model or the Summerhill model of community would be more appropriate to our school.
This week we are looking at the metaphor of the movies as a way to help children understand how to live with their responsibility for their own behaviour in a democratic school.
Our vision, like Neill’s, is essentially optimistic. We believe that children are able to regulate their own behaviour in the right environment and with appropriate guidance.
Here are my questions:
- Can you give some examples of the different movies and how they work out?
- Why movies? What do you mean?
- Movies have a script. Is this like having a different script for different situations?
- Can the kids write their own script?
- Did children understand you when you said this? Sceptics might say that children need clear instructions not metaphors.
- Did the metaphor work at Summerhill?
- Is it a key concept we will need in our school ?
