Creating A Democratic School

Creating a Democratic School

April 26 , 2007

Introduction

The current educational set up is based on a curriculum that is centered on adults and their feelings towards educating their young 's or the younger generation . Most often , their sentiments , aspirations and aims do not coincide with what the younger generation wants or feels like doing by creating or providing a curriculum which , though sometimes child centered , muzzle with the individual freedom of the young learners

There is a need to change the present set up of the school in to

br effectively respond to the demands of globalization by giving back to the learners and to their parents the needed voice regarding the things they want to learn or do in school

Deborah Meier (2005 ) opined that the changes in school structures should be pursued by a convinced and involved faculty who believes that there is a need to change the system although being involved is not an easy task but a very taxing one . The Herculean task involves changing an embedded lifetime habit on the way schools should be run and the way parents and students expect education to be delivered . This task should be performed by all the participants in a climate of self-governance According to Garrison (2003 ) John Dewey defined education in a technical sense as the reconstruction or reorganization of experience which adds to the meaning of experience and which increases the ability to direct the course of subsequent experience (p . 527

This will examine how to create a democratic school and the factors involved in it as well as the modalities of its existence

Components of a Democratic School

Democracy

As the central tenet of social and political relations , democracy is American 's basis of self governance (Beane Apple , 2002 . As a tool of measuring wisdom and the worth of social policies as well as any shift in the current paradigm , democracy is the ethical anchor that holds the system of government in place . According to Beane and Apple (2002 ) it is through democracy ' that Americans measure their political progress and trade status with the other countries

People were taught that democracy is working in various ways of political governance 's social dimensions involving the consent of the people and the equal opportunities given to them . Beane and Apple (2002 br

6-7 ) added that [l]ess explicitly taught were the conditions on which a democracy depends , the foundations of democratic way of life The stated conditions and extensions even extend to education , to wit [t]he open flow of ideas , regardless of their popularity , that enable people to be as fully informed as possible [f]aith in the individual and collective capacity of people to create possibilities for resolving problems [t]he use of critical reflection and analysis to evaluate ideas , problems , and policies [c]oncern for the welfare of others and the common good ' [c]oncern for the dignity and rights of individuals and minorities [a]n understanding that democracy is not so much an `ideal ' to be pursued as...