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Archive of previous articles
February 2005
THE BRUTALITY OF SCHOOL: Jürg Jegge
CHICAGO HOPE
The Doctor Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School
HUT-BUILDING AT TAMARIK: Pat Edwards
KRAETZAE
I DON'T WANT TO BE A NARC
BONAVENTURE
REVIEW
A Really Good School
March 2005
ROOM 13: David Gribble
Room 13 is a pupil-run studio in a primary school in Scotland. It has exhibited at Tate Modern, but it is remarkable for much more than its art.
SUMMERHILL: POSSIBLY THE MOST INSPECTED SCHOOL IN THE WORLD: Matthew Appleton
A former Summerhill houseparent, writes about his impressions of the school.
BREAKING AN OATH: Maria Kopta
This account is by a young Austrian who was educated entirely by her parents, in Austria and Turkey. When she was considering a career, she took a placement in a school.
THE OTHER EXTREME
Have you ever wondered what it is really like at Eton? Some of the privileges are described here.
THE 365-DAY SCHOOL HOLIDAY
Ricardo Semmler runs a business in Brazil where everyone decides what work to do, when to do it and how much they will get paid. He has written a book about it called The Seven-day Week-end . Now they have started a school.
July 2005
JANUSZ KORCZAK: Joop Berding
An introduction to the work of the Polish educator, Janusz Korczak.
THE CHARTER OF THE MODERN SCHOOL
A translation of the charter of the Freinet movement in France.
SELIBA SA BOITHUTU
An account of a learning centre in Lesotho where students decide what, when, how and how much they need to learn.
ESSA
Up until this year England had no school students' organisation. This is a brief introduction to the recently founded English Secondary Students' Association.
BOOKS ON LINE
Lib Ed has recently discovered an Indian site with a small library of important downloadable books.
January 2006
CLUB-HOUSE DEMOCRACY: Leonard Turton
Leonard Turton describes his delightful and important work within a state school in Canada.
SELIBA SA BOITHUTU: THE IDEAS BEHIND IT: Gerard Mathot
Gerard Mathot describes how Seliba Sa Boithutu grew from his own schooling and his early experiences as a teacher and a trainer of teachers.
THE VALUE OF THE THINGS THEY LEARN: Martin Roberts
A new teacher at Sands School describes his impressions.
SAYING NO TO CERTIFICATES AND DEGREES
Shikshantar, an Indian instute for rethinking education and development, has published a number of comments on the undesirability of relying on certificates and degrees. We quote some extracts.
IDEC
IDEC stands for International Democratic Education Conference. It has been happening for twelve years now, and you ought to know about it.
June 2006
CHILDREN IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT: P. J. Lolichen
Children in southern India do their own research into access and transport, and demand action.
ETHICAL ISSUES IN CHILDREN'S RESEARCH
Adapted from reflections in the report by P. J. Lolichen
LEARNING WHAT WE LIKE, OR LEARNING WHAT WE CARE FOR?: Eric Nicolas Schneider
Eric Schneider detects a lack of ecological concern among democratic educators.
ONE REPORTER, TWO ARTICLES
Two versions of an article about Brooklyn Free School, which give very different impressions.
DOES KORCZAK HAVE A FUTURE?: Gérard Kahn
Janusz Korczak is remembered as a hero, but how can we make sure his message as an educator is not forgotten?
November 2006
BILINGUALISM: Christine Hélot
Why, when bilingualism is so highly valued, are immigrant languages ignored?
THE DIDENHEIM PROJECT: Christine Hélot and Andrea Young
An account of a school in Alsace where languages are taught in a different way.
AUSTRIA'S COOL SCHOOL ASSOCIATION
Austria's "Coole Schule" association is run by a fourteen-year-old who has already organised two national conferences
MOVEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT: THE YOUNG ARTISTS OF CIRCUS KAOS: Ruth Schleicher
THE CONSEQUENCES OF PREVENTING CHILDREN FROM WORKING
An open letter from Damodar Acharya, the Executive Director of the Indian organisation, The Concerned for Working Children (CWC).
February 2007
NAMING THE NEW TOTALITARIANISM: Michael Fielding
An examination of leadership, personalisation and high performance schooling
HOW WE ARE MAKING LEARNING BETTER: Sylvia Lim
A year-eight pupil at George Mitchell School in Leyton describes some of the innovations there
PRACTICAL ANARCHISM: U3A, THE UNLIKELY BAKUNISTS: Martyn Everett
The University of the Third Age, established to offer further education to the over forty-fives, is healthily anti-authoritarian
97% TO 3%
A model of an educational philosophy adapted, with permission, from a diagram by Lynne Smith
OPEN LEARNING: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WORK OF FALKO PESCHEL
Falko Peschel is an educational theorist who worked for four years in a primary school, putting his theories into practice. In his class, children really wanted to learn.
June 2007
FIGHTING BACK: Mark Curtis
A teacher at Bishops Park College, in Clacton, writes about the inspiration he has found there
DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION WITH FIVE-YEAR-OLDS: Jerry Mintz
A new experience for someone used to introducing democratic meetings to older groups
TWELVE REASONS NOT TO SET HOMEWORK: Leonard Turton
WE MUST NOT TAKE SIDES: Peter Staffa
A group of German teachers visit Israel and Palestine, as part of the Building Bridges programme
September 2007
ALEXANDER TUBELSKY (1940 – 2007)
This obituary for the great Russian teacher is translated from his school's website
SCHOOL NUMBER 734
An account of Tubelsky's school
RISINGHILL REVISITED
A new book is planned by ex-students of Michael Duane's celebrated school
GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE
Booroobin, a small Sudbury school in Australia, joins the list of free schools threatened by government action
BEATING THEM AT THEIR OWN GAME
Kapriole, a free school in Baden Württemberg, takes its first exams
January 2008
EDUCATION ACCORDING TO TOLSTOY
Extracts from Tolstoy's writing about his school at Yasnaya Polyana.
CHILDREN HOLD LOCAL GOVERNMENTS ACCOUNTABLE
CWC's report on the first public children's meetings in Karnataka.
SCHOOL COUNCILS – SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
The view of the research team.
SCHOOL COUNCILS – SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
The view of the project manager.
BRAIN RESEARCH AND LEARNING IN SCHOOL
An extract from the prospectus of the proposed Netzwerkschule in Berlin.
THE NASUWT AND STUDENT VOICE
Comments on the NASUWT's position statement in which it justifies its anxiety about current development of student voice in British schools.
May 2008 EMERGING PERSPECTIVES ON CHILDHOOD
Robin Alexander's keynote lecture at the conference on Childhood, Wellbeing and Primary Education organised by the General Teaching Council for England
CHILDREN'S RIGHTS IN THE UK
Extract from the NGO alternative report on the UK Implementation of the Convention on the rights of the Child
PLEASE LEARN TO WORK WITH US
The speech delivered by Danielle Souness, of Room 13, at the Artworks Conference in Tate Modern, when she was twelve years old
A NEWSLETTER FROM PALESTINE
The December newsletter from Hope Flowers School, in Bethlehem.
WHITE LION STREET FREE SCHOOL
Jenny Aster
An ex-pupil tells of her own experiences at the school and describes the effect it had on her life
AUSTRIAN SCHOOL STUDENTS SETTLE THE SCORE
Coole Schule , the Austrian association of school students, gives up on politics.
WHY DON'T STUDENTS IN DEMOCRATIC SCHOOLS DO MORE?
An email correspondence between Luke Flegg, an ex-pupil of Sands School, and Moe Zimmerman, staff member at the Tutorial School, New Mexico. |
