[hr-education] Petition for democratic school in Australia

Dear colleagues,

I have written to you in the past about The Booroobin Sudbury School, in
which social justice and rights underpin the learning community. We now
need the understanding of thinking people along with written, legal and
human rights support where possible.  We need signatures on our online
Petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/408446208

Our current students empowerment, understanding of their rights and their
independence can be seen on the first page of the school's web site
www.booroobinschool.com.au in their recent submission to the Queensland
Minister for Education.

The School was established as a participatory democracy, following 2 years
intensive work by parents, children, teachers and friends.  It commenced
as an approved Non-State School in 1996.

It remains the only democratic school in Australia - hopefully not for too
much longer.

Democracy in education is not new.  Many of the principles of informal and
natural learning are not new.  There has been much written over the last
2,000 years, but mostly over the last 300 years by philosophers,
scientists, thinkers and educators that supports democracy in learning.  
Schools such as Summerhill in England, although not fully democratic, and
the Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts have been in existence for 85
and 35 years respectively.

We believe that the values of freedom, responsibility, trust, respect,
equity, fairness and justice are essential and fundamental to democracy.  
These same values are in line with those that reflect how nations like
Australia were founded.

Allowing young people to be free and to integrate these values into their
lives, so they have the space and time and are free to find and be
themselves, to be curious and discover what they're interested in, to play
and to have fun, to learn the things they realise they need in order to
become responsible, effective adults, leads them to become independent,
self reliant, self initiating, self motivated, enterprising, and other
beneficial attributes that contribute to the social capital and life in
the 21st century.

It is a paradigm shift in Australian education to employ and struggle to
ensure that these values are the foundations for living, learning and
young people preparing themselves for life in a civil, open, democratic
society.  It is simply strange that we operate Schools autocratically,
with entrenched bureaucracies and impose, coerce and manipulate children
to do things they are not given the opportunity to have input into, that
affect them every day.  Further, these are counter to international
treaties and conventions, now largely overlooked in the western world
since the tragedy of 9/11.

Booroobin also operates with other objectives which complement an
educational democracy, such as the chemical free, organic management of
the natural, learning environment of our campus, and economic, social and
environmental sustainability.

Unfortunately, it is not easy for others to see the benefits of diverse
educational choices that incudes a democratic school.  The School has been
constantly reviewed, assessed and inspected by government with the
intention of the School being made to conform to conditions not wanted by
parents, students and staff.

We now need the understanding of thinking people along with written, legal
and human rights support where possible.  We need signatures on our online
Petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/408446208

Full details of the School can be seen on our web site, along with past
effects including the loss of our campus in
http://www.booroobinschool.com.au/news_2002.html#link2 and the current
threat to our future http://www.booroobinschool.com.au/schoolsfight.html.

The School will feature on ABC's 7.30 Report tonight.

Regards, Derek Sheppard
The Booroobin Sudbury School - a centre of learning
www.booroobinschool.com.au
Ph +61 07 5499 9944  Fax +61 07 3251 0470
Homestay boarding accommodation
Ph +61 07 5499 9943



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