This page includes both a Movies and a Videos section.
Movies
School Circles
School Circles is an independent documentary that explores the practice of democratic schools in the Netherlands. The film shows students, teachers and staff members coming together to dialogue, discuss proposals, mediate conflicts and make decisions about their school life.
These schools not only challenge the mainstream education, but also democracy as we know it. They put into practice Sociocracy, a method for collective organisation based on a systems perspective, in which the decisions are made by integrating all the voices through consent.
School Circles connects the theory of sociocracy to its practice within schools, taking us to new possibilities of organising ourselves and our communities.
SUVEMAE – PIONEER OF POSSIBILITY
How a democratic ‘school in a school’ in Tallinn could pave the way for transforming public education in Europe: Suvemae is a democratic-school within a public school! The movie was first screened in August 2023 at the EUDEC 2023 Conference (Sofia, Bulgaria).
FREISTUNDE – Doing Nothing All Day
Synopsis Leeds International Filmfestival Catalogue:
Margaret Hentze and Yuval Tzafrirs’ eye opening documentary interrogates conventional approaches to education, comparing them with ideas of self-determination and democratic schooling: classes where the children determine both the curriculum and the rules and regulations themselves. Gathering Super8 clips by everyone from filmmakers to preschoolers, Doing Nothing All Day also follows a young mother’s search for the ideal school for her son. She discovers the tradition of democratic schools and speaks with scientists and protagonists of the democratic education movement in Germany, England and Israel.
Alphabet
Synopsis:This tribute to the human imagination takes the form of an indictment of hierarchical education systems aimed at competition and quantifiable results. This documentary essay quotes education expert Sir Ken Robinson at the start: “I believe that we systematically destroy this capacity for imagination in our children and in ourselves.” The film identifies similar complaints from China to France.
Albany Free School
Former EUDEC Council Member Ramin Farhangi’s TEDx Talk – Why I created a school where children do what they want.
Being and Becoming
Being and Becoming explores, for the first time on the big screen, the concept and ultimately the choice of not schooling children, but of trusting and letting them learn freely what they are truly passionate about. The filmmaker’s journey of discovery takes us through the US, Germany (where it’s illegal not to go to school), France and the UK. This film is a quest for truth about the innate desire to learn. (99 minutes)
Schools of Trust
Schools of Trust website: http://www.schoolsoftrust.com/
Trailer with English Subtitles
Summerhill (A children’s Drama):
The drama is composed of four 30 minute episodes about the true life story of the famous Summerhill democratic boarding school and its battle with OFSTED (the school inspectors) in 1999. The series was largely shot at the real Summerhill school in Suffolk and many of the school’s pupils took part either in main roles or as background artists.
Imagine a School – Summerhill:
Documentary: The students of England’s only free school defend themselves before Parliament against an impending closure. Featuring actors Rebecca De Mornay, Orson Bean and Tom Conti.
Videos
Babies on the Brink
About the natural learning attitude of people.
Showing that learning can take place without fear, and that learning starts from the beginning many times. So with every new skill you start all over again. And when it comes to safety it shows that we are never fully safe since you cannot be protected from the unknown.
Die Demokratische Schule in Kfar Saba (English with German Subtitles)
Do Schools Kill Creativity? | Sir Ken Robinson | TED Talks
Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.
Hackschooling makes me happy | Logan LaPlante | TEDxUniversityofNevada
When 13 year-old Logan LaPlante grows up, he wants to be happy and healthy. He discusses how hacking his education is helping him achieve this goal.
Sands School
Made by a Sands School student, this project records the experiences of students and staff in democratic education and explores the running of Sands School.
Sugata Mitra’s new experiments in self-teaching
Indian education scientist Sugata Mitra tackles one of the greatest problems of education — the best teachers and schools don’t exist where they’re needed most. In a series of real-life experiments from New Delhi to South Africa to Italy, he gave kids self-supervised access to the web and saw results that could revolutionize how we think about teaching.
Sudbury Valley Youtube Playlist
This is a series of videos which givs a glimpse into the life of the Sudbury Valley School founded in 1968 by Daniel Greenberg in Framingham, Massachusetts, United States. Enter a world of young people who are exuberant about their lives, and are fully in control of their education. We hope you will enjoy their spirit, their focus, and above all their intensity in pursuing their passions. The above video is the first in a series of vdieos. The full playlist can be found here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awOAmTaZ4XI&list=PL5ACC72C2C7100240
Sudbury Schulen 01 (English with German Subtitles)
GERMAN DESCRIPTION: Demokratische Schulen zeichnen sich dadurch aus, dass jeder Schüler selbst entscheiden darf, was er lernt, und jeder eine gleichwertige Stimme bei Entscheidungen hat, die das Zusammenleben in der Schule betreffen.
Die Demokratische Schule in Kfar Saba (Israel) ist mit 360 Schülern eine der größten der Welt. Daher könnte sie ein Modell für die grundlegende Veränderung von herkömmlichen Schulen sein, die viele Hundert Schüler umfassen.
Im Oktober 2007 hat Martin Wilke einen Tag in der Demokratischen Schule in Kfar Saba verbracht und den Schulalltag dokumentiert.
ENGLISCH DESCRIPTION: Democratic schools are characterized by the fact that each student must decide for themselves what they learn and everyone has an equal voice in decisions that affect life at the school. The Democratic School in Kfar Saba ( Israel ) is one of the largest in the world with 360 students. Therefore, it could be a model for the fundamental change from traditional schools that include many hundreds of students. In October 2007, Martin Wilke spent a day at the Democratic School in Kfar Saba and documented school life.
The Baby Human – Specificity of Motor Learning
Showing how young people protect them selfs from danger once they have learned the skill that is needed to estimate the danger. Showing that most children can be on their own without supervision as long as the immediate dangers they face are known to them.
The decline of play | Peter Gray | TEDxNavesink
In this talk, Dr. Peter Gray compellingly brings attention to the reality that over the past 60 years in the United States there has been a gradual but, overall dramatic decline in children’s freedom to play with other children, without adult direction. Over this same period, there has been a gradual but overall dramatic increase in anxiety, depression, feelings of helplessness, suicide, and narcissism in children and adolescents. Based on his own and others’ research, Dr. Gray documents why free play is essential for children’s healthy social and emotional development and outlines steps through which we can bring free play back to children’s lives.
Peter Gray – Self-Directed Learning Fundamentals
Democratizing Education – Rachel Roberts
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Video Clips and Speeches
Documentary Films:
Doing Nothing All Day (Freistunde)
Trailer
The participative documentary DOING NOTHING ALL DAY interrogates conventional approaches to education, comparing them with idesa of self-determination and democratic schooling: classes where the children determine both the curriculum and the rules and regulations themselves. Gathering Super8 clips by everyone from filmmakers to preschoolers, Doing Nothing All Day also follows a young mother’s search for the ideal school for her son. She descovers the tradition of democratic schools and speaks with scientists and protagonists of the democratic education movement in Germany, England and Israel.
https://doingnothingallday.com
Schools of Trust
Part 1
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlQub3UHPIo
Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjGyNev8re8
Schools of Trust is a german documentary film about democratic education. While travelling around the world to visit schools that apply democracy and self directed learning principles, the directors interviewed a number of students, teachers and researchers, such as: Gerald Hüther, Jesper Juul, Andrè Stern, Peter Gray und Manfred Spitzer.