Democratic Schools

By Derry Hannam

The Forsoksgymnaset in Oslo (FGO), Norway

As far as I know the Forsoksgymnaset is the only school in the world that owes existence to the initiative of school students. In March 1966 three Oslo gymnasium students, Jon Lund Hansen, Ingrid Kviberg, and Knut Boe Kielland, were dissatisfied with what they felt to be the authoritarian atmospheres of their own schools. They wrote and distributed an appeal to all Oslo gymnasium students and teachers for the creation of a new type of school where «...pupils and teachers would have equal rights and together decide the necessary rules of the school and judge when the rules are broken». They also wrote to the government Minister, the City Council, and university professors education. Some of the officials listened and to cut a long story short the school opened in September 1967 with 140 students.

The executive authority of the school is the school council of 4 elected students, 3 elected teachers, the headteacher (who is paid the same salary as the other teachers and has limited powers) and 1 elected parent. The council also functions as a Judicial Committee «in the first instance». The legislature is the school general assembly of all students and teachers which lays down guidelines for the executive, which can delay but not veto assembly decisions. Assembly agendas are compiled by an elected Assembly Committee. Other committees are elected such as those for Information, Admissions, and Budget. Although in Norway teachers could (can?) only be appointed by the ministry it has a special arrangement with the FGO school council only to do so on their recommendation. When I last heard about the school the Assembly expected students to attend lessons, some of which take the form of «learning collectives», or else to follow monitored independent learning programmes. Although beyond the age of legally required compulsory attendance the school requires good attendance on the basis that it is not fair to disrupt the learning of others.

My contacts in the Norwegian ministry tell me that the FGO has had a significant impact on the Norwegian upper secondary school system over the years out of all proportion to its size and student numbers. I very much hope to visit the school for the first time next month. I have been very impressed by FGO students and teachers when I have met them in other countries.

Sands School, Ashburton, Devon, England

Sands School is a privately funded day school with about 60 students aged 11-18. It was founded in 1987 by a group of students and teachers from Dartington Hall School when that school was closed. It is in many ways more radically democratic than the internationally better known Summerhill School (sadly under threat of closure by the UK government and its inspectors). At Sands no decisions can be made by its governing body without the consent of the school meeting at which each student and staff member has one vote. This includes all financial decisions, hiring and firing of staff, admissions, fee levels, and ultimately decisions about the closure of the school and sale of the school buildings. Effectively each of the 60 students is a shareholder for the time that they attend the school.

The school meeting takes place weekly or more often in emergencies. It makes a minimum number of laws, mainly to forbid the presence of drugs or alcohol in the school, and to insist that smoking only occurs outside the building. These are taken very seriously and although individual offenses are discussed at great length the meeting will expel offenders permanently or for a period of time. Other antisocial behaviour such as bullying, which is very rare, is brought up at the meeting and appropriate action taken. On my visits to the school students have strongly emphasised how safe they feel in the school, in contrast to some of their previous experiences in other private and state schools.

At first the school meeting democratically decided that lessons should be compulsory with all students having some free time every day. After several years this was changed and lessons all became a matter of choice. In fact most students have a fairly full time-table of lessons except for those who have recently transferred from other schools where lesson attendance was compulsory (as is the case in all other English schools except for Summerhill). These newcomers seem to need a period of time to really believe that the freedom is real. This varies a great deal from a few days to up to a year. Virtually all students decide to work for examinations at 16 and 18.

Ex-students have been successful in many types of further study in universities and employment. Many tend to go into creative or caring professions and a good number start their own businesses.

The Democratic School of Hadera, Israel

This is a state-funded day school of 350 students aged from 4 to 19 years which also trains teachers. It was founded in 1987 by a group of parents and teachers in order to «...establish a scholastic framework based on respect for human rights without discrimination, including discrimination by age, using democracy as a tool to reach the goal of respecting individual rights within a social framework». (Quoted from the school prospectus, 1994) Conventional «separation of powers» are observed in the organisational structure. The legislative authority is the school parliament, which consists of all students (whatever their age), teachers, and any parents able to attend. It meets weekly and elects its own chairperson - in recent years always a student. The head teacher cannot veto a decision of the school parliament. The parliament has its own building large enough (just) for all members to assemble in a circle. Attendance is not compulsory and varies with the agenda.

There is a Judicial Authority made up of representatives from the elected discipline, appeals, and more recently, conciliation committees. The Executive Authority consists of the headteacher and representatives from the elected budget, teachers, student admission, special events, justice and constitution, and school trips committees. There is also a Comptrolling Authority which seems to function as a kind of ombudscommittee keeping an eye on the work of the Executive Committee and producing an annual report for the parliament.

School attendance is compulsory in Israel but once in the school students are free to negotiate their own time-table with their tutor. They can choose any combination of time-tabled courses, lessons negotiated with a particular teacher by individuals or groups of any age-mix to study anything that that they are interested in, or private study in the twelve subject «independent learning centres» in the school. These range from maths and physics rooms to philosophy or lego centres. Students also go off site to other institutions, internships or work-experiences.
Hadera students impress me very much both by their intellectual sharpness and their intelligent commitment to the values of the school. I have met them at international conferences where they have been excellent speakers and on a one-week visit to the school. Those students who choose to take the Israeli 19+ university entrance examination, Bagrut, are usually successful. The school is amazingly popular with parents who try to gain admission from all over Israel. The waiting list is so long that when it reached 2500 (for 30 places per year!) the list was closed. The school parliament has decided not to allow the school to become any larger so when it became a «state school of the year» in 1995 the head teacher was given time off to try to set up similar schools in other parts of the country.
It supports and works with a Palestinian school in Bethlehem.

Sudbury Valley School, Framingham, Massachusetts

This is a private fee-paying day school of some 250 students aged 5 to 20 years. It was founded by a group of parents including its principle educational thinker, Dan Greenberg, in 1968 and is situated in beautiful New England woodland about 50 miles from Boston. It has a totally democratic structure not unlike Hadera»s on which it has had a considerable influence. All students and staff (though not parents) are members of the school Assembly, which resembles a traditional New England Town Meeting. The Assembly has an elected chairperson, always a student, and deals with most of the school»s decision making including the creation of the many school laws. Attendance is not compulsory. Teachers are appointed by the Assembly and it also reviews and renews their contracts annually. Most teacher contracts are renewed but even the most long-serving staff have no security of tenure beyond their annual contracts.

There is a judicial committee or JC which deals with infringements of the laws. Anyone can «bring up» anyone else though the JC is likely to impose a penalty on the accuser if it feels that its time is being wasted. It sits daily and unlike Hadera its members are not elected as every member of the school is expected to take turns in serving on it. This was compared to «jury service» by students that I spoke to on a recent visit. The JC is chaired by two older students called «JC clerks» and is made up of 6 students of all ages and 1 teacher. It is a very important institution in the school and several of the students that I interviewed who had previously attended large state schools said it was the main reason the school was such a happy and peaceful place with no violence or bullying - in contrast to their previous schools! The JC can impose penalties, including extra days JC service, but serious cases that might involve exclusion from the school are heard by the full assembly sitting as a court.

Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about Sudbury Valley School is that there are no time-tabled lessons at all. Lessons are only organised at the request of individuals or groups of students. Students are free to organise their days entirely as they choose as long as they do not interfere with the rights of others. The good facilities of the school are organised by «corporations» of students and staff interested in that subject or activity. For example the music rooms and instruments are controlled by the «music corporation». Before using a facility a member of the school has to be «certified» by a member of that corporation. As a visitor a 10 year-old boy who was a member of the «music corporation» certified me to use the music room after checking out that I knew how to play a piano with reasonable care of the instrument! It is immediately obvious to the visitor that the facilities of the school are all in good condition and well cared for - including the very large library of books.

The school aims for self-reliance, personal responsibility, creativity, joy in learning, intellectual equality (that is no subject more important than another), moral sensitivity, and a deep awareness of democratic values and respect for human rights. Much formal studying takes place at home. In school much time is spent «...just hanging out and talking..». as one student described it to me. The school sees conversation between young people as a vital part of learning, often suppressed in normal schools. In the USA there is no national university entrance examination at 19 - each secondary school devises its own form of graduation. At Sudbury Valley this consists of a presentation/paper/thesis that each student has to deliver to a full assembly to which parents are invited in which they must demonstrate that they are ready to leave school and take their place in adult society. These are taken very seriously by the student and the assembly.

Considerable work has been done to follow up what happens to ex-students after they leave the school. They are overwhelmingly successful in their lives often gaining places in the best universities or starting their own businesses. Many go into creative and artistic or caring professions. Some have become successful academics - in fact the youngest ever professor of mathematics in a US university was a Sudbury Valley student. What they have in common is a clear idea of what they want to do and why they want to do it. Their education has enabled them to develop their own purposes and their own resources - they have had no choice in this as so little has been imposed on them by the school.