Young girl(Originally published in the AERO magazine, Education Revolution)

Jerry Mintz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A group of parents who were enrolled in our online school starters class (http://www.educationrevolution.org/course.html) have already opened a new school, mostly at this point for their own children and technically a home-school resource centre, but their intention is to grow into a full-fledged school, adding a "grade" per year. They have rented space in a church.

 

 

 

They asked me to do a consultation and demonstration of democratic process with their students. The challenge was that the oldest student is five years old!

As I drove over from Long Island I contemplated the situation. I had never tried democratic process with such a young group. Although I had confidence that the students would understand what we were doing and have ideas, I thought it might be necessary for me to come up with agenda items.

Upon my arrival the situation was a little chaotic, as they don't usually have all of their students and parents there at once.

Some kids were yelling. Mothers were fussing with food for later. The children were playing with a sandbox and toy trucks.

I talked with three of the students about what I planned to do. They seemed to understand it.

Finally we called the students together. They sat in small chairs around a low sectioned circular table. I sat at the table but the parents were sitting in a circle around it, “fishbowling.”

We started the meeting and I explained to the students, who ranged from 2 to 5 years old, that at the meeting we could “talk about good ideas for the school or problems in the school.”

At about that point I thought I'd have to give them suggestions or examples, but no sooner had I gotten the words out of my mouth describing the meeting when hands immediately shot up.

Derek, a 4 year old, wanted to talk about healthy food. We put that on the agenda.

Sofi, also 4, wanted to talk about school cleanup.

Skyler, 3 years old, wanted to talk about “fight suit armour” for the school.

Each item was discussed and several points of view expressed. In the discussion about healthy food, the effects of caffeine and chocolate were brought up, and it was passed that they should only be consumed in the morning, if at all. Derek wondered how we could get everyone to eat healthy food.

When cleanup was discussed, I asked them what would happen if someone didn't want to clean up, if that was a school rule.

One said, “One of the teachers or parents should talk to them.”

When I asked what would happen if the student still wouldn't help clean up, Derek said the student should be kicked out of the school! There was an immediate chorus of “No!” Everyone else felt that would be too drastic. It was finally suggested and passed unanimously that they couldn't play with toys until they cleaned up.

Skyler's item about the “fighting suit” was discussed. It would be a suit of armour, but of plastic and not metal. It was proposed and passed that Skyler and others would find out how much a suit would cost, to add to the school's costumes, and the result would be brought back to the meeting.

I was sure that this was about the end of the meeting demonstration. After all, they were all 5 or under and they had been focusing for a while. But when I asked if anyone else had something to bring up, one of the kids brought up the issue about going outside on cold days. Some thought it wasn't a good idea, but others said they liked going out when it was cold. It was finally passed that if you have a cold you couldn't go out in the cold.

The students then unanimously agreed that they would like to have a meeting like that once a week and we ended the meeting.

I had a long discussion with the parents (the students were also invited) to discuss what they had just seen. As I was, they were surprised by how quickly the kids grasped the idea, and how practical their ideas were. I pointed out that one of the by-products of this process was great growth in vocabulary. We discussed whether some kids might just be following others, but I pointed out that in the long run students learned the value of expressing their own opinion and voting their minds, and in fact, for the most part they had done that at this meeting. Many of the decisions were not unanimous. Virtually all of the students stayed through the whole meeting. Even the very youngest, if they went away for a few minutes, came back to the meeting. Thirty minutes in total.

After speaking with the parents I did a demonstration of “organic curriculum.” In that process the students simply brainstorm any question they would like to know the answer to, and nothing is considered too “silly.”

There were a number of questions like “How can you make a Christmas tree out of spaghetti?”

One of the questions was “How do you make a song?”

There were a total of a dozen or more questions. We voted on which ones had the most interest and began discussing them.

With the song question, it was clear that many students wanted to know how to write a song. Some played musical instruments and had a little idea that they could make their own melody. It was decided that the parents would be asked to bring someone in who could show the students how to write a song.

There was one question that had something to do with a video several of the students had seen at a library. The students seemed to understand what they were talking about, but I and the other parents could not understand it! In the end it will remain a mystery, a question that only the students could understand.. They tried not to show their disdain at our inability to understand them.

I was there for three hours. We videotaped most of the process and will be editing it. Overall, the parents seemed quite happy with the result, and as usual, I learned a lot.

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