A New Paradigm in Education

Ok. I admit to being a flawed blogger. I write on a less that regular basis. My mind is filled with ideas and yet I seem to lack the time to put them down in my blog. Shame.

I just finished watching a wonderful video about our current Education Paradigm, and I think it is fully worth watching: http://wimp.com/educationparadigms/

This is triggering a lot for me. First and foremost, why do we treat children as miniature adults? How have we come to expect them to be just like us? What makes us believe that children must be educated in a factory-style system?

www.theRSA.org

The fundamental principle behind sociocracy (and for the matter, behind life) is that individuals are equivalent. Without equivalence, systems cannot be sustained forever. Equivalence simply refers to the fact that we have the right to be considered. If my neighbor decides to throw a large outdoor party without taking my objections into consideration, equivalence has been lost, and the system is broken. This will likely lead to conflict. Had equivalence been present, the friendly neighbor would have worked with me in an attempt to find common grounds through a creative solution.

Few people would argue that in the Education System, the principle of equivalence is largely absent. Take the teacher with her students, the principal with the teachers, the school district manager with the principals, the politicians with the managers, etc. Schools are run like a business. Order must be kept, and if a member does not fit, that member has to be shaped in or kept out. This can be overt or covert. In an overt way, we ask students to behave in certain ways, we demand that they respect their teachers even when certain teachers lack respect to their students (far from the majority). Covertly, this can be happening when teachers give a cold shoulder to the new recruit, who is way too motivated and brings in too much energy and ideas. Instead of admitting that the newcomer brings in a different perspective, it is easier to shut him out.

Let's imagine a different system altogether. One where the following four rules supersede everything else:

1. All members are equivalent (not equal, but of value and all deserving to be treated with dignity and consideration).
2. There is a place where important decisions are made, and there are representatives from all related areas present (called the circle).
3. The decisions that are made in the circle are made by consent, meaning that we work at integrating all the objections into the decisions.
4. Every position in the organisation is filled by consent election (an election based on argumentation rather than on campaigning and seduction).

How would this all come together? Rather simply. Given that the purpose of the education system is to educate, we have a wonderful opportunity to change things. We have a dedicated audience (the learners) and much resources to support their learning (staff, buildings, and money). Before we can teach children to treat each other as equivalent individuals, we must teach it to the authority, which in this case are the teachers, staff, and management. A series of 3-day workshops with these people would bring them to a place where they would experience what it truly means to be equivalent. Only practice can allow a person to grasp what equivalence is.

Once a school's management and staff (the hierarchy) have experienced collective decision-making in a system where equivalence is the norm, they will be able to teach those concepts to their students by treating them as such. Unless the staff has been able to live equivalence through experience, it will be very difficult to pass it down to the students.

In order to have a school which is fully organised in such a way would require two years. The first year to train the staff, the second to implement with the students.

What would the results look like? First and foremost, the climate would be one of respect for each other, staff towards staff and students, and students towards students and staff. There would be much less conflict with authority as the authority would feel legitimate. When there is equivalence, individuals no longer feel threatened by authority. We have learned to fear authority because people who possess it can hurt us. They can overpower us. But in a system of equivalence, authority is kept in line. It is naturally controlled by the rules and the elements of the system.

I dream of a sociocratic school. I would bet my house that students going through such a school would outperform others on just about every objective that our system has for them, and more. I bet staff and students would be happier, more productive, and healthier than in other institutions. I hope I get to make that wager one day...