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1) You copied the wrong definition for cooperative. It's "a farm, business, or other organization that is owned and run jointly by its members, who share the p

1) You copied the wrong definition for cooperative. It's "a farm, business, or other organization that is owned and run jointly by its members, who share the profits or benefits." 2) The article mentions John Dewey, but doesn't really get into who he is. I strongly recommend reading his book, "Democracy and Education". As a taste: "A democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. The extension in space of the number of individuals who participate in an interest so that each has to refer his own action to that of others, and to consider the action of others to give point and direction to his own, is equivalent to the breaking down of those barriers of class, race, and national territory which kept men from perceiving the full import of their activity." http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=DewDemo.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=7&division=div1 http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=DewDemo....

Guthur 12y ago
I left the farm/business one out intentionally because I thought it might bring some confusion. I still stand by my point; cooperative is a much less ambiguous term for this, and I think what John Dewey describes is one as well. Words are important and taken on face value people may extrapolate that it's the government type, democracy, that will bring better education. When in my opinion it's a cooperative environment, peer review, meaningful engagement and a sense of ownership. Edit: For me a democratic schooling would be voting for the teacher you would like to have; which will be the popularity contest most such competitions devolve to.
- saraid216 12y ago
  > Words are important and taken on face value people may extrapolate that it's the government type, democracy, that will bring better education. When in my opinion it's a cooperative environment, peer review, meaningful engagement and a sense of ownership. The problem here, I think, is that the notion of democracy is largely misunderstood. Many people are afraid of the term because it's been abused so badly. Your description of a "cooperative" isn't any different from a democracy. So the issue isn't which word is better. It's whether you want to improve all of society or just schools. > Edit: For me a democratic schooling would be voting for the teacher you would like to have; which will be the popularity contest most such competitions devolve to. I think that's a massive conflation of "democracy" with "election". There's a school near where I live where the teachers pitch classes and the students vote on which ones are offered for the quarter (might have the interval wrong). This is democratic to me.

Guthur 12y ago

I left the farm/business one out intentionally because I thought it might bring some confusion. I still stand by my point; cooperative is a much less ambiguous term for this, and I think what John Dewey describes is one as well. Words are important and taken on face value people may extrapolate that it's the government type, democracy, that will bring better education. When in my opinion it's a cooperative environment, peer review, meaningful engagement and a sense of ownership. Edit: For me a democratic schooling would be voting for the teacher you would like to have; which will be the popularity contest most such competitions devolve to.

saraid216 12y ago
> Words are important and taken on face value people may extrapolate that it's the government type, democracy, that will bring better education. When in my opinion it's a cooperative environment, peer review, meaningful engagement and a sense of ownership. The problem here, I think, is that the notion of democracy is largely misunderstood. Many people are afraid of the term because it's been abused so badly. Your description of a "cooperative" isn't any different from a democracy. So the issue isn't which word is better. It's whether you want to improve all of society or just schools. > Edit: For me a democratic schooling would be voting for the teacher you would like to have; which will be the popularity contest most such competitions devolve to. I think that's a massive conflation of "democracy" with "election". There's a school near where I live where the teachers pitch classes and the students vote on which ones are offered for the quarter (might have the interval wrong). This is democratic to me.