Democratic school

A democratic school refers to an alternative school that meets the following criteria:

Summerhill - oldest known Democratic School
  • Classes are voluntary. Learning is self-directed and takes place without a curriculum.
  • The school is run to the greatest possible extent by a direct democracy in which students and teachers have an equal voice in decision-making.
  • Students are free to spend their time as they choose, as long as they do not violate the rules made by the school community.

Democratic school are places where the concept of democratic education is put into practice and provide an environment for autodidacticism.[1]

The term was first used by the Democratic School of Hadera in 1987.[2]

  1. ^ "IDEC 2005 - Documentation". en.idec2005.org. IDEC - International Democratic Education Conference. 2005. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
  2. ^ Geller, Karl (2021). Geschichte der Demokratischen Schule (in German). Leipzig: tologo. pp. 180, 230–248, 71, 241, 38, 146, 149, 154, 155, 180. ISBN 978-3-937797-90-8.