> Israeli School System

Israeli schools do not follow the principle of separating church and state, and as a result they’ve developed quite differently from the American school system. There are very few “private” schools in  Israel. Even religious or specialty academies, schools which would be considered private in the US, receive official recognition and government funding.

This leaves democratic schools in an unusual position. Many began fully private, operating in murky legal waters without government recognition. Only through a series of court cases have many of them won recognition and with it, partial or full funding. Thanks to these cases they have won funding without curricular control, making them one of the very few alternatives to the public system. For many parents this reason alone makes democratic schools attractive.

The current Israeli administration is conservative politically, and like the US, is moving towards greater standardized testing in education. For many years the “bagrut,” or matriculation exam, has dominated the last two years of high school for those wanting to enter a university. It seems that nearly all Israeli universities require it for entrance. This year the ministry began requiring reading and writing tests for all young children in Israeli schools. Democratic schools have so far complied by making the tests optional for students, but this approach may come under fire from the government in the near future.

We’ve seen several public schools and talked to many students and staff, and on the whole the problems seem similar to those in US public schools. Class sizes are often very large, with forty students not uncommon. Teaching positions often attract unmotivated teachers looking for a secure job and short days. Like the US, there is a striking disparity in funding and atmosphere between inner-city and suburban schools.

The public school curriculum is particularly focused on mathematics, with English, Hebrew and bible studies also receiving central emphasis. It’s also worth mentioning that high school students do not go directly to college – for men there is a mandatory three years of Army service, and two years for women.

> Kibbutzim

> Parliament

In most of the Israeli democratic schools, Parliament is a governing body for all students, staff and parents in the school community. Meetings are usually weekly (some meet less frequently) and are attended mostly by students, followed by staff, and rarely by parents. Generally, only those Parliament meetings discussing a critical school issue attract more than a handful of parents. In most schools, about a third to a tenth of the student body appears for an average Parliament meeting. Issues are posted and announced beforehand. In some schools, like Kedem, there is a sign-up board requiring each potential speaker or issue to receive ten signatures before going to Parliament.

Some schools, like Hadera, make Parliament a central part of the administration. A simple test is whether they have a law book, and how often it is used. Others, such as the Tefan school, have a Parliament that meets only every few months, and no one seems to be aware of an actual book recording decisions. The Adam School runs without any Parliament at all, because they focus on elementary age children and believe (as our experience has also shown) that formal Parliament meetings are too slow and bureaucratic for very young children.

For most schools, the Parliament runs much like its namesakes in western democracies. Committees control most of the actual decisions and meet more regularly than the full body. Executive and committee positions are filled by election each semester or each year. Some schools also use elections to fill the Judicial Committee, while others have rotating, mandatory service.

Parliament can be a key tool for students to test their abilities of persuasion, attempt to fashion the school according to their own visions, or to voice complaints. At the same time, it can become a popularity contest, and it must be checked by other institutions to avoid domination by the majority. For most schools, checks exist in the committee system, parental participation, and in the ability to appeal laws on the basis of fairness and human rights.

 > Conflict Resolution

The democratic schools we visited in Israel have well-defined procedures for dealing with problems in the school.  Some schools have two layers of conflict resolution, others have up to five layers.  The first layer for all schools is the most basic: when the people involved attempt to solve the issue on their own.  It is when this does not work that members of the school use additional systems or traditions to solve the problem.

One school, Kedem School in Arad, has what is called a "discussion table." This is a place that people can go to solve their problems in a calm setting and without a mediator or judge.  Another school, The Democratic School of Hod Hasharon, has a tradition of informal mediation, in which those having a problem can go find another person, perhaps an older child or staff member, to help them solve the issue.  Several other schools had similar informal ways in which to resolve conflicts.

When these approaches do not work, or if someone prefers to use a formal system to solve the issue, the two choices present at most schools are a formal Mediation and the Judicial Committee (Court).  The details of how the Mediations and Courts work are created by the committees of those names, which are composed of both students and staff.  At most schools, both systems require the school member to describe the problem on paper and submit it to the proper committee.  At some schools the Meditation and Judicial Committee meet every day, while at other schools it is less often.

The goal of a Mediation is to help the two parties to agree or to together decide on a plan of action.  When that does not happen, the problem can go to the Judicial Committee.  The Court usually involves a judge and/or a panel of students and staff who decide on the case and the consequence.  In general, Mediations are for problems that are not violations of any school laws, while the Judicial Committee is used when someone believes there has been a violation of school law.  This is flexible and only used as a guide.

The final layer of conflict resolution, present at some of the democratic schools in Israel, is an Appeals System.  If someone does not like the decision of the Judicial Committee, the case can be brought to the Appeals Court.  This court is composed of a completely different group of people from the Judicial Committee and can affirm or change the decisions of the Judicial Committee.

> Ideas for Traditional Schools

As we visit every variety of democratic and semi-democratic school, as well as several traditional schools, we've accumulated a list of ideas and projects to introduce democratic processes into traditional schools. At the same time, we've realized the dangers of trying to attach new concepts to a community that has not yet recognized a clear need for them. Nonetheless, here are a few tools that could be used as examples or as part of a process (such as vision mapping) in which a community considers the environment it wants to create.

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