IDEC

- a report by Moe Zimmerberg:

Here's a summary of the IDEC 2009 for the record books:
Historians will debate for millennium (at great institutional expense, I might add) about whether this was or was not an official IDEC, I leave it to them. It was the 2009 gathering of Democratic Educators, Students, Parents and NGO's, it was in Korea, and... it was great.

The International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) was launched in 1993 when several Democratic School staff and students, dissatisfied with a conference they were attending in Jerusalem, absconded to Hadera, home of the first Democratic School in Israel, for a few days of earnest discussion and networking. Since then the conference has been held in 14 different countries. For people like us, workers in a small, isolated Democratic School, hidden in the mountains of a profoundly ethnocentric country. The opportunity to get out town and meet with others from different democratic schools is incredible. We go abroad and connect with the coolest people in each country. People who enjoy children and are working to move their societies in a more non-authoritarian direction.

Japan was our first stop, and I had no sooner settled in when I got an email informing me that the conference had been officially canceled. I knew if people showed up, we'd have a good time no matter how small. It was a matter of quality versus quantity. We had our tickets so we decided to go anyway.

The first 4 days in Korea were spent at the Gil School. Banji very generously donated her space to the IDEC travelers, as well as the organizing committee. Originally, only a few of us were going to stay there, but with the last minute organizational changes, it became THE IDEC location for those 4 days. Many thanks to Banji and the Gil School for hosting us and allowing us to all gather in the same place.

The building had been only recently built. It was designed specifically to be an alternative school. For those of us who adopted buildings, or (shudder) previous school buildings (like Windsor House) it sets the mind spinning with the possibilities, "What if I could design a democratic school building? What would it look like?"

We were well taken care of: Picked up at the airport, walked around the neighborhood to orient ourselves and fed free lunches and tea at the local Buddhist Temple. We were also taken to some local markets in downtown Seoul, Dongdemun and Namdemun. Which, by the way, had incredible food.

During these 4 days we got to know the Korean organizers and shared with each other about our schools and the developments of Democratic Education around the world. It's exciting to be part of a rapidly expanding global movement, and especially because the people in it are so nice and so much fun.

The other thing we did was visit 4 alternative schools in the Seoul area. The Mindule School started as a drop-in center for drop-outs (school refusers) and continues to be a resource for homeschoolers. The Haja Center has focused on media and the performing arts. We were treated to a performance of Brazilian music which so impressed your author that I had to cut out during the Q and A to grab the musicians for a jam session. Music is a form of communication that needs no translation and builds wonderful bonds of connection across cultures.

The next day we visited the Gwang Myung YMCA Byeopssi School, which had a beautiful space especially the bountiful garden and outdoor grove for the older students, and the San Children's School for a Delicious lunch and a rousing performance of traditional Korean percussion.

We split up for dinner and shopping before returning to the Gil School to clean up inpreparation for the next 3 days of our adventure: The IDEC camp at the Jeonin School in Chuncheon City.

Jeonin School is a boarding school; they hosted the international participants, the organizers, as well as students and teachers and parents from the Korean alternative school networks. I think around 100 of us were fed and housed. One night we were treated to what they called a "meat party," renowned Korean barbecue.

We had a chance to make presentations about our schools, including our graduate's (Maya - we're so proud of her) workshop on Teacher evaluation. All the teachers had to leave the room while Maya helped the Korean students through an evaluation of some of their teachers. A first for most of them! We also had a workshop on traditional Korean percussion. The San Children's School students taught us how to play the instruments. This workshop was so popular that we split into 2 groups and performed for each other after learning a few songs.

The formal sessions were all about the "cancellation" of IDEC 2009, the reasons, the feelings, the global implications, even the IDEC meeting ended being about whether or not to make the 2011 IDEC in Korea to make up for the cancellation.

Two comments stand out for me: Silbi (you may remember him from India, Australia, and Vancouver with his guitar) made a analogy to the virus by saying that democratic education is like a virus and the virus is strong and spreading. Also a parent, who is an acupuncturist, suggested that we have to believe that we can heal ourselves. To which I added that believing we can heal ourselves is the same thing as believing we can educate ourselves.

We also made IDEC history by adding international video conferencing to 2 of the sessions. It took us a while to work out all the technical bugs but it was great, especially during the IDEC meeting, to have the comments from the previous IDEC organizers in Australia, Israel and England.

The students who organized for the 2009 conference really felt like the "rug was pulled out from under them" by the cancellation and wanted to have the chance to do a full-on IDEC in 2011. Unfortunately they didn't have enough support from other Korean organizations that night to commit. They needed some time to pull together a coalition, so we decided that we couldn't make a decision that night and it had to go to email among the previous organizers but only if they were fully aware of how the organizers felt. Here's a copy of our decision:

<<The decision (for where to have the IDEC 2011) will be attempted on the listserve, by December, by former IDEC organizers, based on written or video application, after fully experiencing the IDEC 2009 youth group's feelings. If a decision cannot be made by then, it will go to the 2010 IDEC in Israel in April.>>

Thanks to the Jeonin School for hosting so many of us.

After spending all this time together, the international travelers were enjoying each other so much that when the Gandhi school offered to host us for a few days we jumped at the offer. They were so nice to us. They picked us up from the Jeonin School and drove us everywhere we needed to go. They fed us, housed us, and even threw a party for us!

The most fascinating thing was the visit to the ancient city of Andung. Some of the students of the Gandhi School had a grandmother who actually lived in a house in this cultural museum and was a descendant of the Prime Minister of Korea some 500 years ago (That's one step down from the king). They've hosted the Queen of England, Bushes one and two and now, the foreign participants of IDEC. Needless to say we were treated very well with guides and food and gifts. What a wonderful day!

The following morning we participated in a ceremony for a new building at the Gandhi School, complete with offerings and rice wine thrown to the 4 directions and a feast at the end. We also got to see the traditional percussion we had learned in its context and so were able to understand it better.

I'm going to call this the end of the IDEC 2009. From here we split up and regrouped into smaller units and mostly toured around Korea. Lets call it 10 days of workshops, presentations, meetings, school visits, and cultural field trips. Sounds like an IDEC to me.

Moe Zimmerberg
The Tutorial School
Santa Fe, New Mexico