Things to get you thinking.....

Bit of Fun from Billy Connolly

2007-07-12T23:54:00.000-07:00

Billy Connolly’s 13 Things I Hate About People.

1. People who point at their wrist while asking for the time...I know where my watch is pal, where the $%#@ is yours? Do I point at my crotch when I ask where the toilet is?

2. People who are willing to get off their arse to search the entire room for the tv remote because they refuse to walk to the tv and change the channel manually.

3. When people say “Oh, you just want your have your cake and eat it too”.
%$#@ing right! What good is cake if you can’t eat it?

4. When people say “It’s always in the last place you look”. Of course it is. Why the would people keep looking after you’ve found it? Do people do this? Who and where are they?

5. When people say while watching a film “Did you see that?”. No tosser, I paid ten quid to come to the cinema and stare at the $#@$king floor.

6. People who ask “Can I ask a question?”. Didn’t really give me a choice there, did you sunshine?

7. When something is ‘new and improved!’. Which is it? If it’s new, then there has never been anything before it. If it’s an improvement, then there must have been something before it.

8. When people say “Life is short”. What the ? Life is the longest damn thing anyone ever #@!$ing does! What can you do that’s longer?

9. When you are waiting for the bus and someone says “Has the bus come yet?”. If the bus came would I be standing here, Knob Head?

10. People who say things like “My eyes aren’t what they used to be.”. So, what did they used to be? Ears? Wellington boots?

11. When you’re eating something and someone asks “Is that nice?”. No, it’s revolting. I always eat stuff I hate.

12. People who announce they are going to the toilet. Thanks, that’s an image I really didn’t need.

13. McDonalds staff who pretend they don’t understand you if you don’t insert the ‘Mc’ before every item you are ordering.... It has to be a McChicken burger, just a chicken burger gets blank looks....Well I’ll have a McStraw and jam it in your McEyes you #@!$ing McTosser!

The Inspirational Toilet.....

2007-07-09T15:21:00.000-07:00

When we were growing up, there were quotes that hung on the walls of the toilet. I always used to read them while doing my business and they've never left me -

People are just as happy as they make up their mind to be
Abraham Lincoln

What is a friend? I will tell you..... It is someone with whom you dare to be yourself.

Mum and Dad were truly inspirational people. For farmers, living out in the country, they really proved that it's not how much money you have, what kind of job you have that makes a difference, it's who you are and how you think. They were always kind and generous (and still are). They taught us that we could succeed in whatever we put our minds to. They let us sit in with adult conversations and surrounded us with people from all walks of life and social standing. They showed true courage and resilience in the face of adversity. And while I was often heard to complain about things growing up, I'm so thankful that I was lucky enough to have such wonderfully inspirational parents. I hope that my children will feel as I do when they look back on their childhood.

The following words were written on the tomb of an Anglican Bishop in the Crypts of Westminister Abbey:
When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country.
But it, too seemed immovable.
As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it.
And now, as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realize: If only I had changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family.
From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country and, who knows, I may have even changed the world. ~Unknown

A Quote I Really Like from Shen Shi'an

2007-04-30T14:58:00.000-07:00

The different degrees of compassionate empathy:

A : [Simply ignores her]
B : Hey! Look at her!
C : Do you think she needs help?
D : Oh! The poor thing! I hope someone will help her!
E : Maybe she hopes you are that someone!
F : Maybe you yourself can be that someone!
G : Maybe we should just try helping her now!
H : Maybe I should try helping first - while the rest of you discuss!
I : [Does not comment, and just goes forth to offer help]

Who are you?
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H or I?
Is it time to upgrade?

Polo Shirt To Pants!http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

2007-02-26T00:52:00.000-08:00

More sewing!

I was going to get rid of one of Ben's old polo shirts - he got it as a gift for his 21st - so that would make it 10 years old this year and he hardly wore it. So anyway, thought I would try to make some pants with it after a friend tipped me off to this T Shirt Surgery tutorial.

So here are the before and after pics. Liam loves them - check my blog about the boys to see him dancing his heart out! Ben thinks they look a little weird but he's no fashion expert! I think they'll be fine as pyjama pants and if Liam wants to wear them out - I'm fine with that too!

The waist band turned out a bit wonky - I only had really thin elastic so will have to hunt around for some thicker stuff - I think that would fix it up.

Before

After

Freecycle

2007-01-24T20:54:00.000-08:00

I recently joined Freecycle! I'm kicking myself that I put it off for so long - keep wondering what I've missed!! It's great and a wonderful way to recycle and reuse unwanted things.

You can check it out here - Freecycle.

The Freecycle Network™ is made up of many individual groups across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns.

This week I received my first lot of free stuff - a bag of ladies clothes! Ben was a bit dubious that they'd be any good but hey - nothing to lose when they are free! Turns out they are actually really nice and fit well! I also have a Sunbeam stainless steel kettle waiting to be picked up so looking forward to getting that!

So go check it out and see if there's a group near you!

Ewan on his Birth Day.....

2007-01-18T23:35:00.000-08:00

Sewing!

2007-01-14T05:43:00.000-08:00

I have been inspired by friends to start sewing! And part of that is to recycle clothing etc to make other things.

So my first project was a bag. I used the pattern on Here.

Super easy though did have a bit of trouble with sewing the shoulder strap together. I made it from some old stretch denim jeans and some other fabric I had here for the lining. It is a little small when it comes to fitting in water bottles, snacks, hats etc etc so will have to run up another one this week. Can't wait to start!!

How True!

2006-12-23T22:51:00.000-08:00

"Dont worry about what someone thinks about you,

they are too busy worrying about what you think of them"

Happiness Within

2006-12-20T12:43:00.000-08:00

I believe that the very purpose of life is to be happy. From the very core of our being, we desire contentment. In my own limited experience I have found that the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being. Cultivating a close, warmhearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease.

It helps remove whatever fears or insecurities we may have and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter. It is the principal source of success in life. Since we are not solely material creatures, it is a mistake to place all our hopes for happiness on external development alone. The key is to develop inner peace. ~ Dalai Lama

And another parenting related quote...

2006-12-18T23:03:00.000-08:00

"Children are not things to be molded, but people to be unfolded"

-- from the book "Different Children, Different Needs"

Quote for All the Parents Out There.......

2006-12-18T14:33:00.000-08:00

"Remember: you're not managing an inconvenience, you're raising a human being"

Kittie Frantz

The Price of Children

2006-09-26T21:47:00.000-07:00

Someone posted this on a forum that I visit - I love it!

The Price of Children
I have repeatedly seen the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way.
It's nice.

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140.00 for a middle income family.
Talk about price shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition.

But $160,140.00 isn't so bad if you break it down.
It translates into:

* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month, or
* $171.08 a week.
* That's a mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice is don't have children if you want to be "rich."
Actually, it is just the opposite.

What do you get for your $160,140.00?

* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles and flying kites.
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140.00, you never have to grow up. You get to:

* finger-paint,
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bug and
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to:

* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watch Saturday morning cartoons,
* go to Disney movies, and
* wish on stars.
* You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's day.

For a mere $24.24 a day, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for:

* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a Baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat in history to witness the:

* first step,
* first word,
* first bra,
* first date, and
* first time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal.
You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great grandchildren. You get an education in psychology,Nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God.
You have all the power to heal a boo-boos, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.
That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!!

Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren!!!!!!!
It's the best investment you'll ever make.

Call Me by My True Names by Thich Nhat Hanh

2006-09-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

This is a piece by Thich Nhat Hanh (a teacher, a writer and monk):

Call Me by My True Names
by Thich Nhat Hanh

In Plum Village, where I live in France, we receive many letters from the refugee camps in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, hundreds each week. It is very painful to read them, but we have to do it, we have to be in contact. We try our best to help, but the suffering is enormous, and sometimes we are discouraged. It is said that half the boat people die in the ocean. Only half arrive at the shores in Southeast Asia, and even then they may not be safe. There are many young girls, boat people, who are raped by sea pirates. Even though the United Nations and many countries try to help the government of Thailand prevent that kind of piracy, sea pirates continue to inflict much suffering on the refugees. One day we received a letter telling us about a young girl on a small boat who was raped by a Thai pirate. She was only twelve, and she jumped into the ocean and drowned herself.

When you first learn of something like that, you get angry at the pirate. You naturally take the side of the girl. As you look more deeply you will see it differently. If you take the side of the little girl, then it is easy. You only have to take a gun and shoot the pirate. But we cannot do that. In my meditation I saw that if I had been born in the village of the pirate and raised in the same conditions as he was, there is a great likelihood that I would become a pirate. I saw that many babies are born along the Gulf of Siam, hundreds every day, and if we educators, social workers, politicians, and others do not do something about the situation, in twenty-five years a number of them will become sea pirates. That is certain. If you or I were born today in those fishing villages, we may become sea pirates in twenty-five years. If you take a gun and shoot the pirate, all of us are to some extent responsible for this state of affairs.

After a long meditation, I wrote this poem. In it, there are three people: the twelve-year-old girl, the pirate, and me. Can we look at each other and recognize ourselves in each other? The tide of the poem is "Please Call Me by My True Names," because I have so many names. When I hear one of the of these names, I have to say, "Yes."

Call Me by My True Names

Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow
because even today I still arrive.

Look deeply: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
in order to fear and to hope.
The rhythm of my heart is the birth and
death of all that are alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river,
and I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in time
to eat the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily in the clear pond,
and I am also the grass-snake who, approaching in silence,
feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks,
and I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate,
and I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my hands,
and I am the man who has to pay his "debt of blood" to, my people,
dying slowly in a forced labor camp.

My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom in all walks of life.
My pain if like a river of tears, so full it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughs at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart can be left open,
the door of compassion.

Thich Nhat Hanh

2006-08-27T23:57:00.000-07:00

Have heard brilliant things about a relatively new book, Living the Good Life by Linda Cockburn.

Here's the gist of it -

Imagine not needing money. Not for bills - there are none. Not for food - you grow or make it all yourself. Not for transport - you have a bike.

Disillusioned with their lives, Linda Cockburn and Trevor Wittmer decide this is how to break the cycle of too much work and too little time for doing the things that are important, like spending time with their son, Caleb.

Their idea of living sustainably on a suburban block is simple and perfect. By drawing all their power from the sun, harvesting their water from the rain and growing enough produce to give them variety, they can do something positive for the environment and for themselves

For six months they take it to the extreme - and come up against a drought, an onslaught of fruit fly, and the demands of an unruly goat called Possum. But they also become fitter, healthier and happier, and delight in the simple pleasures of being reconnected with nature.

Join them on their journey - share their recipes and tips for how to live more sustainably and learn astounding facts on the state of the earth. This is a practical, fascinating and inspiring read that will have you looking afresh at your own backyard.

Am going to borrow a copy from a friend. You can find out more here if you're interested: http://www.lintrezza.com/book.html

Please Do Not Sponsor This Child

2006-08-27T23:51:00.000-07:00

Some interesting thoughts on sponsoring children through NPO. I have to say I agree with a lot of what's been said here.

Found here - http://www.newint.org/issue111/keynote.htm

Please do not sponsor this child

Sponsorship of Third World Children has now become a major fund-raiser for voluntary agencies; it is a sure-fire way to attract money. But it is not such a good way to spend it.
Peter Stalker argues that there are better ways to help.

ONE MILLION 'foster parents' in the West are now sponsoring children in the Third World - each giving around $20 a month - in what has become an extraordinary international exchange.

This is a very 'personal' form of giving - and from the outset the needs of the individual donor are taken into account. Advertisements for Save the Children in the US offer the prospective parent a long series of multiple choices. You check one box to choose the sex of your child and then another for their location or race. After this, as with most of the organisations, you get a child 'on approval' - with a photograph and a case history. If you accept, the process starts; you send your monthly aid and get letters from the child of your choice.

The appeal of all this is almost irresistible, and it is hardly surprising that this is one of the fastest-growing sources of money for voluntary agencies. The organisations concerned - like Foster Parents Plan and World Vision - are expanding rapidly. And even the relatively new British agency, Action Aid, now has 60,000 children on its books.

There can be no doubt about the good intentions of most of the donors. They wish to help identifiable individuals and hope to learn more about the places where their money is being used. It is a more attractive proposition than working through a conventional aid agency, which might fund a thousand projects from a central fund and appears much more impersonal.

Offering sponsorship is certainly an easier way to raise money. But is it a good way to spend it?

The most obvious disadvantage of such programmes is that they are expensive to run. The photographs, the monitoring of each family's progress and the translation of an endless flow of letters - all cost money. And that means that the people that you want to help will get less.

But most donors will be aware of this and probably accept it as the price of the service they are receiving. What they may not realise is that in almost every other way in which the donor is better off through a sponsorship scheme, the sponsored child or family is correspondingly worse off.

Take the instant appeal of helping one person. The children do of course exist as individuals. But they are also part of a family, a village or a school. My first contact with the sponsorship phenomenon was in a children's home in Colombia. Ten-year-old Jose wanted me to organise a foster parent for him. Most of his friends had sponsors and he hadn't. In the fiercely competitive world of childhood he was dependent on the charity of the more fortunate children - which meant that he only got the teddy bears when the ears had been pulled off.

Helping an individual is divisive - and is particularly damaging in societies which are already sharply divided in all sorts of ways: rich and poor, black and white, high caste or low caste, literate or illiterate.

Nor is trying to help an individual likely to succeed. Catapulting even one person out of poverty is a daunting task - especially on $20 a month. And while there will be some successes - and we quote one later in this issue - they will be few and far between. Most of the poor (harijan children in India for example) have the odds stacked against them. And unless you do something about changing the odds they will not stand much of a chance.

Another disadvantage of being in contact with just one person is that they are also in intimate contact with you. Manuel, the little boy on the front cover of this magazine, lives in a squalid slum on the edge of a Latin American city. The regular letters he gets from his sponsoring family give accounts of their interesting lives - of skiing holidays in Austria, for example. For the European family this correspondence might offer an interesting educational experience for their own children. What Manuel gets from it, apart from a vague feeling of inferiority, is much less clear.

Many donors would try to avoid being so insensitive in their letters. But, no matter how much care you take, things can be read into the letters, even when they are not the writer's mind. One of my most depressing experiences in Peru recently was talking to a sixteen-year-old girl who was living in the most appalling conditions of poverty and overcrowding. She honestly believed that some day her sponsor, who lived in Toronto, was going to invite her to go and live there. When I asked her for more details she was a lot less sure. One of the younger children in the house had run off with all the letters and lost them. Now she could not quite remember what had been said.

Creating this kind of empty aspiration is the other side of the 'educational' coin. The donor may gain but the foster child loses.

Not that the donor gains all that much. Few of the letters that he is likely to receive are going to be strong on information. Manuel's response to the skiing family was:

Dear foster parent,
I write to let you know that I am well. I'm getting ahead in my classes and hope to be a professional in the future to visit your country.
My parents are very grateful for your nice aid. Warm greetings from my dear brother Segundo. He likes to play marbles.
I say goodbye with much love,
Most of the letters come from small children so their limited content is not too surprising. But the letters are also censored as they pass through translation so that controversial items, such as criticisms of the aid agency or political comment are edited out.

Also edited out are appeals for more money. Giving to one person means that the sponsored children are correspondingly receiving from just one person who is clearly much richer than they are. Not surprisingly many of the recipients feel that they could put up a good case for more money.

Indeed sponsorship in general plays up the 'aid' side of development. Using outside aid to promote self-reliance is something of a contradiction, but one which many of the Western donor agencies manage to live with by keeping a low profile. The recipients can be so bound up with their own lives and the work of the project that they may not even be aware that there is much outside funding, let alone where it is coming from. Placing the weight of sponsorship on any project is bound to restrain the enthusiasm: there's nothing like writing a regular thank-you letter to keep you in your place.

But ironically the sponsors are giving money in this way precisely because they think it is more useful: there seems less likelihood that the money will go astray. And it is true that the sponsorship agencies maintain a small army of social workers who travel round keeping tabs on the families and looking at how the money is used.

But is this more reliable than simply making a grant say, to a Gandhian organisation in India?

Many sponsored programmes have now broadened to include the child's family as well. So Manuel's parents and his older brother must also be lined up for the photograph to be sent to their benefactor. If the child is very young the father will ahve to write the thank-you letter.
This is doubtful. Having so many supervisory staff is in itself a potential source of misuse. Favouritism between the social workers - who usually come from the local community - and certain families is not unknown - nor is dishonesty. Sponsorship agencies are no more open to abuse than other organisations, but there is no reason to suppose that they are any less so.

There is, however, a more significant consequence of building up a supervisory system. The agency becomes a local 'institution'. In sensitive situations - and that means almost everywhere in the Third World - this is no small disadvantage.

In fact, one of the greatest advantages that voluntary aid usually has over government aid is that it is lighter on its feet. Small groups can be funded here and there as the opportunities crop up. But the sponsorship agencies in many ways forego this advantage. They are rooted in one place and need to be on good terms with the local authorities if their system is to work. And this restricts the kinds of project that can be funded.

El Salvador is an extreme example. Most organisations feel that they can no longer carry out effective development work there - indeed many of the people involved in their projects have now been slaughtered by the military. Foster Parents Plan, however, has had no such problems and is proud of the fact that its programme is still running.

But if you need to be inoffensive to the powers-that-be, the chances of promoting constructive change are not high. And for any donor worried about getting value for money that should be a matter of some concern.

We quote the case of Chimbote in Peru later in this magazine. The families sponsored were often workers in the local fish canning factories and the exploitation there was a significant contribution to their children's poverty. More relevant than the welfare programmes that the sponsored families were getting might have been legal support to press for better working conditions. But that would have made them unpopular in certain quarters. Alleviating the problems of the poor is one thing. But solving them involves much more difficult choices.

Yet solutions are more and more what the sponsorship agencies claim to be offering. 'Community development' is the cover-all catch phrase. Housing programmes, irrigation schemes, health services or making handicrafts - these have now been moved to the centre of the publicity platform. And all, of course, are activities that any agency could become involved with. Yet like the word 'aid' itself, community development is an umbrella that can cover a multitude of intentions and effects. An irrigation ditch dug in one place can help a whole community grow more food. Dug in another it can so increase the value of the land that the poor can no longer afford to farm it - and have to join the ranks of the landless.

Everything depends on how the programme is designed and on the political consequence that it has; to say that you are involved in community development is not enough. The intended impact has to be carefully chosen - and the sponsorship agencies are not in a position to make the best choice.

Some sponsorship agencies would even claim that they are 'non-political', though in this context that would only mean that they have very little impact at all. But that might be better than nothing. And it is argued that there are people who give to sponsorship agencies who would give on no other terms. So no matter how defective the aid might be it could have some role to play. Sometimes there could be enough benefits to set against the negative impact of sponsorship: but there are too many cases where the best thing that the sponsorship could do is keep their $20.

What is certain is that there are better ways to help. The organisations without the sponsorship burdens have much sharper and more cost-effective operations. And they have no shortage of programmes that help children: in nutrition, in education or in health. You may get a less direct satisfaction - no letters, no thank-you's. But the people who do get the satisfaction are the people who matter.

Answers to Homeschooling Questions!

2006-05-09T02:30:00.000-07:00

Check out this link for some answers to common questions about Homeschooling.

http://www.illinoishouse.org/a06.htm

It sums up a few of the reasons why we are interested in trying out Homeschooling with our boys.

Democracy Begins at School

2006-05-09T02:07:00.000-07:00

DEMOCRACY BEGINS AT SCHOOL
A new world trend in education

Imagine, for a moment, that your children were given considerable freedom to choose what to learn, how to learn, and to some degree, even when to learn. What do you suppose would happen? Would they run amok? Would their academic performance whither as they romp into frivolous pursuits? Would they ever bother to learn anything worthwhile? Yet this seems to be one of the main objectives characterising a new and growing trend called ‘democratic education’.

On my first visit to a democratic primary school, I was immediately struck by how dissimilar it was to anything I remembered from my school days. In place of neatly ordered rows with children perched at their desks, I saw a rabble of children spread all over the classroom; some sitting alone at a table, appearing quietly engrossed in a text or activity, others were mobbing a teacher on the floor, scrambling to get as much information from her as they could. Each child appeared purposefully absorbed in their own project, some in small groups, some seemingly content with their own company.

This classroom had nothing of the formality and officiousness I recall from my own school experience. I was confronted by an unfamiliar absence of restraint; the teacher-pupil tension and uneasy control dynamic that would seem ordinary was missing. If anything, the teacher seemed more like a friend or an auntie than a figure of authority. To sum it up, the children were in a child-friendly environment.

I remember when teachers and grown-ups loomed large and intimidating, and when, at least face-to-face, we treated them with deference. The schoolchildren of yore were in a subordinate role - but here I was faced with poised, up-front kids who seemed mature and confident beyond their years. As a visitor, they treated me respectfully - but like a person, not like an ‘authority’.

In place of the stressed-out teachers struggling to maintain control of a class; these seemed to be having fun with their kids. Whereas I remember teachers having to herd pupils into every new activity, working hard to maintain their focus and attention; here I saw children in the active role, emphatically drawing the learning from their teacher. This novel approach to education came across as pleasurable and exciting.

World conference on democratic education
The ‘democratic’ approach to education is not an isolated experiment, limited to one or two schools here and there. In fact, the schools I visited belong to a dynamic and growing international network of democratically run schools. They form part of an evolving movement devoted to teaching children democratic values and responsibilities by immersing them in a democratic environment.

Last year (2002), an International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) was held in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was attended by around 200 teachers and school principals from ten countries. The IDEC conference is held annually (this year it will be held in New York), to facilitate the exchange of experience, research and development. Organisations such as IDEN (International Democratic Education Network) and ADSA (Australian Democratic Schools Association) provide an additional forum for discussion, debate, research and mutual support, through which this innovative and revolutionary method can continually be refined and perfected.

Definition of ‘democratic education’

Participants at the Christchurch conference took little time to agree upon a satisfactory definition of ‘democratic education’. They established that Article 26(2) of the International Declaration of Children’s Rights, which is directed toward freedom, tolerance and understanding, constitutes a working framework for the day-to-day practice in democratic learning environments. In a nutshell, this means that students are given a vote over curricular and administrative decisions that affect their lives. However, it was recognised and accepted that within this defining matrix there is a broad spectrum of variation. Some schools are almost totally non-directive with their pupils, while others offer a more conservative blend of direction and negotiation.

Democratic education in practice

These schools aim to promote the democratic values of egalitarianism, tolerance, pluralism, freedom, social and environmental responsibility, by modelling and living these values in the classroom. They contend that the best way to learn these values is by living them day-to-day from the earliest years. This is a bold move, since the schools most of us went to were anything but democratic institutions. We did as we were told, and we were punished, often physically, for infractions to the rules imposed on us. We were told what to learn, how to learn and when to learn, and denied significant choices until age 16.

In a democratic school, each child is given as much control as is feasible over his or her learning journey. Compulsion is replaced by self-determination, obedience by responsibility. Within certain limits, children self-regulate the schedule of their learning and have a significant voice in the choice of subject matter. In pre-school, for instance, a number of activities are simultaneously available at different work areas. Children move independently from one activity to another, remaining longest with what most arouses their fascination – although group activity is encouraged. What fuels each child’s progress is therefore not the teacher’s pressure, but his own natural interest, her thirst for discovery and mastery.

A fundamental principle is that children are more motivated to learn, and they learn better, to the extent that they have choice over how and what they learn.

Many democratic schools also give children a vote on any administrative decisions regarding the day-to-day running of the school which would impact them personally. ‘If they are to live in a free world,’ explains Olga Leontieva, Russian educator, ‘they must be educated as free persons’ (‘Education Revolution’, Summer 2002) Thus, democracy in education is not only about freedom. It is also about responsibility, and about providing a broad spectrum of social and civic education that includes - but is not limited to - academic subjects.

Democratic processes in the classrooms include voting, council meetings and the forming of committees. Debate and questioning are encouraged, in order to foster critical thinking.

The teacher-student relationship is unusually equal and non-authoritarian. Referred to by their first-names, teachers are viewed by pupils as older and knowledgable friends and guides. They are respected as partners in a collaborative education process. They are there to help, to inspire and to provide learning tools and opportunities rather than to direct or dictate. This dialogical relationship gives children more room to grow into self-motivated and self-responsible individuals. They work in pursuit of their own goals, rather than to please someone in authority.

Many democratic schools encourage parents to participate in classroom activities. This makes the school environment more familiar, and builds a sense of community. By taking part in their child’s education, parents can become close to their friends and teachers. Particularly for the younger kids, this measure reduces, even eliminates separation anxiety, by softening the boundary between school and home. To the child, the school feels much like an extended family, or village.

Learning processes in democratic schools are specially adaptive to each child’s unique learning style. Learning programmes are individually tailored, to suit even the more idiosyncratic minds. This flexibility and responsiveness to the individual enables every child to feel recognised and valued. It is not unusual to see children all working on something different. Yaacov Hecht, Israeli educator, is one of the leading lights of the democratic education movement. He maintains that every individual has a unique learning profile, so standardised methodology can do many students a disservice and limit or narrow the scope of their development. In this environment, children learn first-hand that they and all others have a unique and worthy contribution to make. Whereas many children who have difficulty fitting in risk being diagnosed or falling through the cracks, the democratic model insists on tuning-in to every child’s unique style of information processing, and reaching each child according to his or her proclivities, until he or she begins to thrive. This requires teachers to be particularly keen listeners and observers. It also requires them to be open-minded about the surprising diversity of keys that unlock the minds of each individual.

The object is to locate each child’s personal passion, and to harness this force to educational purposes. Driven by passion, a child’s thirst for learning is almost bottomless. What I saw in the classroom I visited was every child in hot pursuit of learning, and coercion was conspicuous by its absence. Instead of the teacher working hard to get the children to pay attention, they played a more passive role: that of being available to the volley of questions and calls for assistance. Thus the child’s immense reservoir of energy for play, creativity and exploration are co-opted in the service of learning.

This method implies a commitment to honour each child’s right to be playful. In fact, democratic educationists recognise that play is the engine of learning. They not only emphasise that learning can be fun, but also that learning should be fun. Playfulness is a product of evolution, because through play we develop and perfect essential skills. Play makes learning attractive, and assists memory retention, it is a rehearsal for new skills and dexterities. When children are enjoying learning for its own sake, rather than competing, or trying to live up to what adults expect of them, motivation ceases to be an issue. One democratic primary school had, until recently, a no homework policy. When some of the children heard about the idea of homework, they began to demand it. They actually wanted to carry on schooling at home! In response to pupils’ demands, this school has been handing out homework assignments ever since. I remember homework being a battleground, a particularly gloomy venture foisted upon us against our will.

Learning is most powerful when playful, personally relevant and meaningful to the child. So, almost anything that captures a child’s attention can be deftly turned into a learning opportunity. For example: one class’s fascination with a frog was transformed into a long-term study project covering biology and the rudiments of scientific observation. The Harry Potter craze was exploited in a number of creative ways. It provided fodder for lessons in character study, developing writing skills in various genres, even interpretive design and three dimensional visual-spatial skills, based on drawing or constructing models of buildings described in the books. A camping trip became the background for solving complex mathematical problems, such as calculating areas, and deducing the size of ground sheets needed to accommodate a number of tents.

The process of self-discovery is given paramount importance in democratic schools. Children are given much support to find and follow their hearts, their inner truth, and to give their unique gifts the fullest possible expression. They are not told who, what or how they should be - they are helped to trust and develop their own purpose and potential. The teacher’s role is to support this process by providing the opportunities and tools that are most appropriate to each child’s unfolding.

The faculties of reasoning and critical thinking are considered to be at least as important as the narrow focus on right or wrong answers to a problem. There are many instances in which democratic educators try to accommodate a number of ‘right’ answers, as a way of honouring each child’s developing thought process, and their unique perspectives.

Competition is de-emphasised or non-existent in democratic schools. Instead, they place a very strong emphasis on the development of emotional intelligence, relationship skills, conflict resolution skills, co-operation - the stuff of success in human relations that underpins all other successes in life. They devote substantial time and attention to helping children develop a secure emotional centre, and a strong sense of self-worth. Alongside academic subjects, children receive opportune instruction on appropriate assertiveness, negotiation, empathy and listening skills, and clear self-expression. Day-to-day social interactions, in the classroom or the playground, are sometimes turned into valuable lessons for healthy relating.

Discipline issues
In practice, it appears that bullying is less of a problem when children are given more choices, when they love what they are doing at school, and when they feel personally valued there. Nevertheless, democratic schools have come up with a number of innovative solutions for dealing with student conflicts, bullying or disruptive behaviour. Any persistent behavioural problems are discussed openly in the classroom. Students and the teacher take turns voicing their feelings, opinions, and creative solutions are derived through group consensus. Thus, the kinds of everyday conflicts ordinarily viewed as nuisances and interruptions, are made use of as experiential lessons about relationship.

In a school at Christchurch, New Zealand, students who quarrel request communal conflict resolution with the aid of an elected chairperson, who is another child in the class. The process is supervised and moderated by a teacher.

Group processes such as these short circuit conflict or bullying before it escalates. In place of punishment, blame or shame, they provide a healing process. ‘Bullies’ are supported in finding appropriate expression for their pain, and ‘victims’ are shown resources for self-assertion, setting boundaries, and asking for help. The object of such interventions is to help children grow in social sensitivity and responsibility.

How big is democratic education globally?
The influence of democracy in education has spread rapidly, far and wide. In Japan, what they call the ‘free school system’ now claims nearly one hundred schools. Some students, wishing to continue learning along democratic lines, have created their own university. Japanese research showing the success of ‘free schools’ has prompted a recommendation to government that state schools be democratised, in order to combat their massive problems of school refusal and bullying. These problems, which have been linked to the rigid, high-pressure and highly competitive culture of mainstream Japanese education, are far less present in the ‘free schools’.

There are at least 250 such schools or similar in the USA, where home-schooling is also common as a reaction against the regimentation and punitive nature of their regular school system.

Nowhere is democratic education more developed than in Israel. For Israeli educator Yaacov Hecht, this schooling system has profound social implications that stretch beyond the churning out of good academic performers. Having founded over twenty-two democratic schools in Israel, Hecht is now the head of the Israeli Institute for Democratic Education. He has established an Academic Department of Democratic Education in ‘Hakibbutzim College’ in Tel-Aviv, which conducts research and development, trains new teachers in democratic methods, and publishes four books a year in the field. What propels the visionary Yaacov Hecht is his conviction that the democratisation of schools will create individuals that are more self-directed, socially responsible, and more embracing of human diversity – a vital insurance for the future of humankind. In keeping with this larger social-ecological purpose, the Institute operates an ambitious project called ‘education for peace’ which currently includes a program to democratise over 100 regular public schools.

The Israeli and Japanese experiences suggest that the trend to make education more democratic and more child-centred, extends beyond the schools that call themselves ‘democratic’. Democratic education principles have been gradually penetrating many mainstream and alternative schools.

In England, there are dozens of schools that embrace principles of democratic education to varying degrees. The oldest one, ‘Summerhill’, has been operating successfully for over 80 years, and it serves as a model for a large number of schools worldwide.

As the trend toward more democratic education gathers momentum, more such schools have opened in New Zealand, Germany, Denmark, Russia, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Nepal and India.

Democratic Schools in Australia
There are a number of schools in Australia that incorporate elements of democratic education in varying but significant degrees. To the best of my knowledge, Sydney has four primary schools and two high-schools, with at least four more around NSW. Throughout the other states, there are roughly twenty more schools affiliated with the democratic education system.

What about the ‘bottom line’?

Even in the schools claiming the most democratic methods, there are limits to freedom of choice. As is every other school, they are required to equip children with a range of examinable, standard basic skills, as dictated by government. They differ by providing a greater variety of approaches to the learning of these skills.

So, what happens when children are given a vote on their educational lives? Can children, with some guidance, chart their own course for learning? Or would this experiment prove to be reckless, a failure, would it lead to chaos? In practice, democratic educators find that kids do not tend to take advantage of their freedoms in order to slack-off - they are hungry for learning. A recent study commissioned by David Blunkett, the English minister for education, looked at the academic results, exclusion data and attendance rates for 12 English democratic high-schools from a diverse range of socio-economic areas. A statistical analysis was run by ‘Ostfed’, the English school inspection service. On all these variables, Ostfed found that the democratic schools performed better than expected, compared to the national average. The overwhelming view of head-teachers and senior managers was that student participation in curriculum design benefited their self-esteem, motivation, sense of personal responsibility - for themselves and their school community - and this in turn enhanced their attainment. The study commented favourably on attendance levels and student motivation to learn.

In Japan, the ‘free school’ system has successfully controlled the epidemic problems of bullying and school refusal while maintaining a standard of academic performance.

Closer to home, when a Sydney democratic school that has been in operation for thirty years conducted an informal study of a number of its graduates, they found that almost all of them had progressed successfully through high school, had obtained UAI scores higher than 90, and hence been accepted into their chosen tertiary courses.

But democratic schools also address dimensions of achievement and human potential not measured by basic skills criteria and academic success. Perhaps Yaacov Hecht has a point, when he links this style of education to social evolution and world peace. Close by, a Palestinian refugee named Hussein Issa, dreamed of educating children non-traditionally, in the principles of Peace, Democracy and Tolerance. He formed a democratic school with Israeli Eyal Bloch, near Bethlehem. Children from these two otherwise antagonistic cultures were bussed weekly to shared grounds, where they learned each other’s language, prayers, customs, heard each others’ traditional songs, and forged deep bonds of friendship, through the vehicle of a co-operative agricultural project. They called it the Hope Flower Project. In a world that is riven by ethnic hatred, dictatorship and cataclysmic weaponry, one can hardly imagine a more vital educational emphasis.

Robin Grille is a Sydney-based psychologist. He has a private practice in individual psychotherapy and relationship counselling, and can be contacted on
(02) 9999 0035 or: interact@worldpacific.com.au

First published in Sydney's Child Magazine, April 2003'.

What Leunig Thinks of Babies in Day Care..........

2006-05-09T02:05:00.000-07:00