Greetings
International Democratic Education Conference
30th July - 7th August 2005
News
The tradition of the annual international conferences of democratic education will be continued in Berlin in 2005. After Japan, Israel, New Zealand, the USA and India the conference is taking place once again, after a considerable interval, in Europe.
Two Berlin associations - Krätzä (the Spiel/Kultur Network's children's rights project) and the Schule für Erwachsenenbildung (School for Adult Education) - began their preparations in the spring of 2004. We hope to make the conference into a wonderful place to meet people. We want to strengthen connections between students and staff working in democratic education. As hosts we also want to make a contribution to the modernisation of our German school system. The goal of the Berlin IDEC is to pass on experience and, in addition, self-critically to investigate any problems and objections. We want to advertise the successes and the principles of democratic education and to develop them further.
It is no longer an impractical, Utopian notion that children and young people should decide for themselves what and how they learn, and participate in democratic decision-making about how their school should function.
Up until the actual opening of the IDEC in the summer of 2005 we will welcome suggestions or advice, and support in any form. We hope that our website, www.idec2005.org, which from now on will be kept up to date, will contribute to the success of the IDEC.
We send greetings to the world, and look forward to receiving guests from every continent.
The Steering Group
English version translated by David Gribble.