Northeast Association Democratic Education Conference Promotes Democracy in K-12 Schools

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Have you ever stopped to consider that while the United States is a democracy, our schools are not? Resolving this paradox is a main focus of the schools who met this weekend at Longview School in Brewster at the Northeast Association Democratic Education Conference [NADEC], an outgrowth of the International Democratic Education Conference that began in Israel in 1993. For three days, students, teachers, parents, and interested people from as far away as Ohio and Puerto Rico networked intensively regarding educational alternatives and democratic education, while getting the word out
that families have options other than public school. 

Mark Jacobs, director of Longview School and the principal conference organizer, pointed out the conflict inherent in having autocratic schools in a democratic society. “How can we expect our students to adequately learn about democracy when their schools are not democratic? The schools represented here this weekend demonstrate each and every day that when power is shared with students, they make intelligent, responsible decisions as they develop their ability to solve challenging problems.”

The conference opened on Friday evening with a program in which panelists from The Garden Road School, Housatonic Valley Waldorf School, Mizzentop Day School, The Randolph School, Tri-State Homeschoolers, and Longview School presented and fielded questions about their guiding philosophies. “Even though all of our schools have different approaches, we are united in our focus on putting children first and utilizing our smaller settings to make sure kids don’t fall through the cracks,” emphasized Jacobs.

The weekend conference included workshops, discussions and activities for all ages.  There was one well- attended panel delivered by former democratic school students in which they discussed the practicalities of life after democratic schools. These students explained how they were admitted into the colleges they are currently attending even though in some cases they lacked a traditional high school diploma.

Longview School, a K-12 state-chartered independent democratic school founded in 2011, hosted the NADEC conference in order to help promote and develop democratic education. More detailed information regarding Longview School can be found at www.longviewschool.org.