Talk:List of democratic schools

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Should this article be considered for merging with Free school? --CharlesC 23:57, 7 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The list includes Marietta Johnson's School of Organic Education which was founded in 1907. That seems to contradict the claim that Summerhill is the oldest democratic school. Summerhill makes the claim that it is the world's oldest children's democracy because it gave children the power to make and enforce rules via the school meeting. I don't know what form of democracy is practiced at the Organic School. If Marietta Johnson's School of Organic Education is legitimately democratic then it should be recognized as preceding Summerhill.Donberg (talk) 04:00, 13 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The worldwide number should be way, way higher than the stated 70. Here in Israel alone I know there are 20-40, depending on who you ask. And the population in this country is pretty tiny (6 million). I know the democratic schools per capita ratio here is extremely high, but we can't possibly have about half of the world's democratic schools. Does anyone have a more updated number? Michael%Sappir 18:15, 6 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

70 is probably a bit low, but Israel has considerably more democratic schools than most countries, thanks to pioneering work of Israelis like Yakov Hecht. Britain has a population of around 60m, but very few democratic schools: Summerhill, Sands, St Christophers are the only ones I know of still extant. Mishagale 14:17, 10 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Are you sure that Summerhill receives government funds? As far as I know, they don't get any money from the government. 80.185.190.216 09:21, 13 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I was also surprised to read this. Summerhill's website speaks of "a 'free school' though this does not mean, alas, that it is state funded". The FAQ from the same site says "We receive no help financially from outside the school and must rely entirely upon our fees..." Bluewave 13:47, 5 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Summerhill does not recieve public funding, and never has, although some other Democratic Schools in other countries (Tamariki, Hadera [I think]) do. However, a recently founded charity, the A.S. Neill Summerhill Trust, does provide bursaries, funds permitting. The note about Sands is also incorrect. Private schools are accountable to the UK government, even if they recieve no public money. However, the standards for private schools are slightly different to state schools, for instance, the National Curriculum is only required in state schools. Mishagale 12:12, 23 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Tamariki definitely gets some funding. There are at least a few democratic charter schools (publically funded, operate under a charter which I think includes something similar to a "special character" elsewhere, and may use similar terminology) in the US, though the only one I can think of off the top of my head is Blue Mountain in Cottage Grove, OR. Brennen 19:19, 21 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The more I dig the more stupid shit I find on wikipedia...holy cow! And your even using Kozal as a source!!!! (Gibby 07:01, 5 February 2006 (UTC))

Any specific complaints about the article you'd like to see addressed, or is this more of a drive-by flame kind of thing? Brennen 19:19, 21 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

As a webmaster for the Democratic Education at

I suspect because it was easier at the time, and nothing had been written for democratic education yet. It certainly seems like a separate democratic article would be warranted, and I'd be glad to help. It would be cool if someone with a better big-picture grasp of the historical background & theoretical framework than me would frame the whole thing, but I'll eventually tackle it if I can scrape together the time. Brennen 19:19, 21 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Education programs are not enough Jeff. Democracy Must be Experienced to be Learned 80.178.205.228 14:55, 2 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"Democracy Must be Experienced to be Learned !" Education in America -- A View from Sudbury Valley, Daniel Greenberg (1992). 94.230.83.239 (talk) 17:25, 11 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

From the seven schools in Germany listed here, only three should be listed: Freie Schule Leipzig, Kapriole Freiburg and Netzwerk-Schule. Martinwilke1980 (talk) 20:24, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The number democratic schools in Germany has increased, so that there are at least 6 democratic schools now. With some schools on this list I really doubt that they are democratic schools. Martinwilke1980 (talk) 05:46, 18 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I guess for school entries which link to a relevant, well-sourced article, which should be most entries, which should be checked, no citation should be needed in this article. But the remaining citations should be checked and cleaned up. --Pipetricker (talk) 19:52, 15 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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It should NOT do so for two reasons:

• This article contains links to
  democratic schools
  .
• This article does not define what a 'democratic school' is, leaving the reading none the wiser.

If these two topics are to be a single article, then this article should be renamed to 'Democratic Schools' or 'Democratic School'. That article should first contain a definition of what a democratic school is then include a list of such schools.

180.24.226.38 (talk) 12:02, 23 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The New School in London, UK is a democratic school since 2019. This should be listed if a page can be created, think there are a number of sources that can be used:

• https://www.thenewschool.org.uk/
• https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/mar/13/a-community-of-equals-the-private-school-with-no-fees-set-up-by-a-south-london-teacher
• Brick by Brick (pbk non-fiction) by Cradle Community. https://www.hajarpress.com/books/brick-by-brick -- Rhagfyr (talk) 20:11, 19 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]