Students and Adults as Peers

In the traditional school model, teachers are authority figures. They have control over the child's education. They have control over the classroom. They have the power to discipline and the power to reward.

This model is simply contradictory to a democratic education. If we believe that all people have the ability to control the decisions to affect their lives, then we must believe that students are capable of controlling their own education.

In the democratic model, adults have no authority over students. There is no assumption that adults hold all knowledge (indeed, children are just as capable of dispensing information to others). Learning is student-facilitated and student-directed.

To live in a democratic society, we must rethink how teachers and students relate to each other.