We Need to Talk

The prospects for a radical transformation of state schooling are incredibly limited. In the UK a National Curriculum holds teachers to the will of the state, and young people are still trapped in miserable authoritarian schools, the vast majority with very few choices open to them about what and how they learn. Examinations, timetables, uniforms, discipline- all these institutions define the school of today.

Another school is possible- a place where students and teachers could freely associate as equals; where young people could take an active role in defining the culture of the school by organising lessons, projects, clubs and events; where lessons are voluntary; where disputes are resolved by the community in a way that fosters understanding and growth; where important decisions are made by a democratic process involving students and teachers; where education is for life, not just for employment.

Propose this kind of school and you might be called crazy. In fact, many young people would argue against it, despite already denouncing their education as a miserable waste of time. If students decide they prefer an authoritarian education, they should be free to enrol in it. But the choice of an emancipatory education is not open to most children and their parents today. Our task should be to bring that alternative about.

With so little common knowledge about non-authoritarian education, then, it seems it is not time yet to put our bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels of the machine. The first thing we should do is to try to challenge its fundamental assumptions- to get people questioning the necessity of authoritarian schooling, and discussing what an alternative might look like. Start discussion groups, organise film screenings and debates. Do things which question authoritarian schooling, but most importantly do it in a voluntary, non-hierarchical way. Do not give people immediate answers. Provide them with situations in which they are free to question those assumptions. Let the end- a freeing education- be the means to creating one.

Any project that is student-run can do part of the work of de-legitimising school, because it will show that people learn and contribute without being forced, and when they do so, they enjoy it more.

We have a long way to go before we have de-legitimised this system and rallied enough people to create a better one, but we must start now. The future is not here yet- it is something we must create together, beginning small, by non-exclusive, open discussion.