The David Gribble Archive : Talks

Four topics

Italy, 2002. Treviso, Trieste, Ferrara, Padua and Milan
Page 3

Firstly, respect and trust for children. This does not mean an assumed and condescending courtesy, it means a certainty that children are at least as concerned for the welfare and happiness of other people as adults are. It means not being afraid of children making their own decisions. It means valuing the opinions of a child as highly as you value your own.

Secondly, freedom of choice of activity. The most striking example of this is when all lessons are voluntary. If you have a history lesson timetabled for you, and you decide you would rather watch a video, or play cards, or go skateboarding, it is your right to do what you decide. In some of the organisations I have visited learning is an altogether individual business, and there are no group lessons at all. In others there is a regular timetable, but pupils attend only those courses that interest them.

Thirdly, equality of status of children and adults. First names for everybody, tu and not voi, equal voting power in any group where decisions are to be made by vote, no separate rooms for the staff where the children are not allowed to enter.

Fourthly, shared responsibility. Some people prefer the term "self-government," and perhaps the best description would be somewhere between the two. "Shared power" is another possibility. If you have power in a group, that means you also have responsibility. If the school buildings are yours, you are responsible for their upkeep and you must play an appropriate part, whatever your age. If there are social problems in the school, you cannot just leave it to someone else to find solutions. The responsibility for the effective running of the school is not taken over by the adults, but shared between all members of the community. There is often no head teacher. Children and staff together share in the power to appoint or dismiss teachers or even to change all basic elements in the organisation of the school.

And the last item on my list is democratic governance by children and staff together, without deference to any supposedly superior guide or system. The idea of democratic governance has already been discussed. The point of the second part of the sentence is that the voice of an authority figure, a Rudolf Steiner or a Krishna Murti, a religious leader or a prime minister, must never be accepted unquestioningly, or worse still referred back to as an infallible guide. The ultimate arbiters must always be the school community of children and adults.