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https://www.positive.news/society/democracy/why-children-are-being-given-a-say-in-how-their-school-is-run/>
"Democracy has always had its doubters. But there are worrying signs it’s
getting worse. Support for far-right movements is rising. Fewer citizens today
feel that getting involved in politics can change things. Young people may be
particularly disenchanted: the under-25s are less likely to vote than any other
age group. One recent survey even suggested that a third of 18-30 year-olds in
the UK would prefer an authoritarian system.
For Greg Sanderson, a former teacher and education policy adviser, restoring
trust begins in the classroom. UK schools are required to promote “British
values”, one of which is democracy. But telling kids “how cool democracy is”
probably won’t work, he says. What if they experience it first-hand?
School councils are a common way to enable what educators call “pupil voice” –
but often these are more tickbox than transformative, since the most confident
kids tend to represent the class while others have little say. In fact, only
two in five pupils surveyed in 2011 thought their school council listened to
them. “You have a mini-Westminster in your school, forgetting the fact that
Westminster sometimes doesn’t work that well,” Sanderson says.
Convinced that things could work differently, he founded Smart School Councils
(SSC), a charity, in 2014. Schools log onto a platform to find thousands of
discussion questions relating to issues at school or in the news, adapted to
every age group. Simple-to-use software allows pupils to run weekly meetings
around these questions, capture responses and share their findings, with
minimal teacher involvement. Crucially, class meetings can fit into 15 minutes,
and they allow even the youngest kids to participate: even five-year-olds
sometimes lead discussions.
Pupils can also propose ideas and form “action teams” to improve school life.
At Halling Primary School in Kent, southeast England, children’s suggestions
included “buddy benches” to help lonely kids find a playmate, the creation of
“houses” (divisions for competitions), new clubs, and repainting the
playground. These ideas were logged and presented to educators by the school’s
“communications team”, which consists of a group of year five and year six
pupils whose roles and responsibilities were also developed by SSC. “We try to
make every pupil’s voice heard,” explains Jess, a nine-year-old who even has a
job title: suggestion box leader and staff liaison officer.
All this is a far cry from the “real old-school” council at Halling Primary,
before it switched to SSC’s model three years ago, says assistant headteacher
Ellie Nott. “The meetings took place, but no real positive change happened.”
The new model has long-term benefits, in her view. “Children… realise that for
positive change to happen, they need to do something about it,” she says.
Knowing your voice matters could directly counter political apathy: “If you can
look back and say, ‘I had an idea when I was six, and somebody listened, and
then it happened’, that will stand children in good stead, hopefully, to vote
when they’re older, and maybe even go to a peaceful protest if that’s what they
want to do.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
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mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
