Growing democracy

From preschool on up children learn to walk in lines, raise their hands to speak, sit where they are told and most importantly that what the teacher says goes — not exactly a democratic environment.

For students, school is more of a dictatorship, and questioning their leaders is not something that is readily encouraged.

But a handful of schools nationwide have made efforts to create schools that mirror democracy, where students have a strong voice and can see and make change.

In 2001 the First Amendment Center in Washington, D.C., and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum and Development launched a project that would turn a handful of public and private schools nationwide into laboratories of democracy.

In its first year four of the 11 schools chosen were in Utah.

Molly McCloskey, project director in Washington for First Amendment Schools, said each school was given a three-year $36,000 grant to implement the First Amendment model, which meant teaching students the process of change in a democratic system and giving them a voice.

Those schools are now in the third year of the grants and have established sustainable programs that familiarize and involve students with government, citizenship and democratic responsibility.

She said democracy is an ongoing 200-plus years experiment in this country. The United States is the oldest functioning democracy in the world, and in order for it to be strong people need to participate.

The best place to teach principles of democracy is in the schools, project organizers believe.

Beverly Ashby, principal of Butler Middle School in Jordan School District, said the school system is often a top-down leadership system.

"But then when they turn 18 we magically expect them to want to vote and participate in a democracy and in their communities when they have never really been taught to participate responsibly," Ashby said.

Butler, one of the initial 11 First Amendment Schools, has taken aim at giving students a voice in the school system, finding ways to help them use their rights with respect and responsibility.

First the school created a student senate with representatives from each fourth-period class. The senators represent their small group of constituents on concerns brought to them each week.

Students kick around issues like lunchroom line efficiency, clocks in the hall, posting bell schedules and other student issues — problems Ashby said she hadn't even thought of.

More importantly, Ashby said, they see and make changes while learning who runs what, what is needed for change and how the system works.