Denis: How old are you?

Paula: I’m 21

D: Where are you from?

P: From Germany.

D: What is your connection to democratic education?

P: I went to a democratic school, the Freie Schule Leipzig, from 6 to 17 years old and am now a council member of EUDEC (European Democratic Education Community) and work in promoting democratic education as well as fostering a space for people engaged in democratic education.

D: How do you estimate your experience in democratic school from your today’s pov?

P: I look back on my experience in democratic education extremely positively. After I graduated the Freie Schule Leipzig, I went to do my A levels exam at a public school for 3 years and the difference was shocking and disappointing.
In my public school teachers preached that each one of us needed those 12 years of school and lessons to successfully pass the exams. Each time that happened I would sit in the back of the classroom, having learning reading and writing in third grade, starting to attend lessons for exam subjects only about a year or two before taking and passing the exams for the school degree that’s below the A levels and not ever having taken some classes at all in my life and yet getting perfect marks in it in my public school – in short, standing in full opposition to what my teachers claimed. 

The time I spent in my democratic school was amazing. Looking back, I think it taught me to listen to myself, to develop self-discipline, know how to spend my time when no one tells me what to do, how to be compassionate and how to value other people and community. I don’t know if that’s what everybody would experience but I think it fits to me.

Of course, it’s idealistic to say my time at the Freie Schule Leipzig was perfect or always happy, I think I spend some of the worst years of my life there, but a system can’t save you from trauma, illness or other bad things. But what a system can do, is not be additionally shitty or cause trauma, illness or other bad things and that’s exactly what the traditional school system is really good at. During a hard time in my life I went to the doctor and she told me I was having panic attacks because of school and then she told me that it’s very common to have this. At the time I was attending my democratic school, and I can tell you, I wasn’t having panic attacks because of school! Also when talking and getting to know students from my public school, it was so normalized to be miserable because of school.

I’m happy I could be miserable surrounded by freedom and a kind community and it has given me so much – it has given me a beautiful childhood to look back to, and to draw from and for that I’m so so grateful.

D: What do you think about democratic education compared to traditional?

P: I think I’ve somewhat already answered that in the other question. :’D This comparison is very entangled with my general experience of democratic education.
In short, I think traditional education is cruel, out-dated and unnecessary. To me, democratic education is worth pursuing and a good alternative to the regular school system.

D: What are pros and cons in democratic schools?

P: Pros are the freedom, self-direction, fun, time, students aren’t dehumanized and have a say in how the school works and what is done, what they do, teachers aren’t dehumanizers either, there is a community.

I know children of 8 at my democratic school that are more compassionate and apt at solving problems than most of the 18 year olds at my public school. Children and young people are being seen as humans and have agency, that is a beautiful thing which I think should be a given in society but sadly, it is not. Most people might deny this but it shows in their behavior, how they talk and treat children that they do not think children are humans like adults are humans. It’s accepted to say things to young people, one would never say to an adult.

Cons are that it’s not perfectly accessible. There are few school and since we live in a world that demands people to have degrees, parents might feel scared and like they are destroying the good future of their child when they send their children to a democratic school, as lessons are not mandatory and so they may not leave the school with a degree of any kind. In Germany it costs money to attend a democratic school as they cannot exist differently. This, at least in my school, also had the consequence that there were very few immigrants or people of color. I think it is more often the case that these families don’t have the money or the courage to risk their kid not getting the normal school degree. But I’m not sure If this is really why, it’s only my opinion based on what I’ve seen or read.

Another con can be that you feel lonely and separated from other people that have gone to regular school. At my public school, nobody cared I went to a democratic school (I suspect few of them even knew what it was) but I know of people that were made fun of or talked down to for it. By students but also by teachers.

Another thing is that you might end up not having a school degree. I think that can be seen as a con, because you might not be able to go to university or start a training in something else that you need to have a degree for but I also think it can be a pro, because you walk a path outside of the stream that everybody else follows blindly. It might not be as easy and it might take you longer than other people your age can go because of their degree but I think it teaches you a lot about yourself and what you really want to do. And I know people who have no degree and do amazing things now, it’s very possible in Germany. ( I don’t know that well about other countries).

D: Do you think democratic education for everyone?

P: I think right now democratic education is not for everyone. I think democratic schools should become accessible, ideally state funded and a legitimate alternative to the regular school system (and I think many people would consider it) but I don’t think it would be fitting for every person. I know people who decided themselves when they were children that they want to have marks in school, etc and switched to a public school. And they were happy there.

But I don’t think that has something to do with democratic education. I believe democratic education could be for everyone. Most of the times when democratic education does not work for a child it is because of their home life. Maybe their parents treat them very differently at home than they are treated in school, maybe their parents want them to study and attend lessons and then the child has to choose between lessons they might not want to go to and playing with their friends all day who do not have these expectations from home.

I think if we as a society changed the picture we have of children, actually I think the picture we have of humans in general. That humans need to be coersed to be good and functioning, that children need to be taught how to be human when they already are human, most people would be surprised what happens when you don’t try to make children but help them be themselves. They won’t explode. Human nature is a huge conversation and I don’t want to start it now but it is my feeling that children don’t have to go through the cruelty of school to be allowed to be human in our society. If we changed that I think democratic education could be a fit for most of everybody.