Democratic School, Hadera. Flickr/Naaman Saar Stavy. Some rights reserved.Imagine yourself in your classroom, hearing a teacher repeat the same subject once again, even having to ask for permission to go to the bathroom. Now, imagine yourself free of all of it, in a school where you can make collective decisions, where you have the same power as your teacher or mentor, and most of all, where you need to ask yourself: where do I want to invest my time?
Democratic schools are the new great thing; they hear the student; the student even becomes the teacher. Yaacov Hecht, an Israeli educator and promoter of this philosophy, spoke yesterday at the World Forum for Democracy, about the benefits of this concept, and exposed the disadvantages of traditional schools. Just next to him was the President of Paris 1-Sorbonne, Georges Haddad. In this context, you could clearly see the contrast of ideologies, even in the way of presenting themselves. While Haddad had a prepared speech, Hecht had to ask for a microphone so he could walk around the hemicycle and feel more connected with his audience -- and by doing that, he captivated the room.
