About IDE | Activities | Database | Schools | IDEC | Links | Forums Proposal for IDEC 2004 Proposal for the International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) To be held in Madras, India in December 2004 Dear Friends and Members of the IDEC Community, For the past ten years, IDEC has been moving around the globe, allowing different schools and organizations the opportunity to organize and plan a conference in their own country. In recent years, IDEC has not only been used to network and support individuals and groups already involved in democratic education but also as a means of conscious outreach to a larger community, including those involved in mainstream and conventional education systems. Hosting IDEC in India will create the possibility to start a network within India and will help raise awareness on a governmental level of the international growth and support of this movement and way of working with young people. The Indian sub-continent has a growing number of extremely unique and innovative educational programs, reaching into many different social and economic sections of Indian society. Mohandas K. Gandhi, Krishnamurti, Rabindranath Tagore and many others have been the inspiration not only within in India but spanning out into the rest of the world to help bring new perspectives on the ideas of learning and education. One of the aims of this gathering would be to bring the many varieties of educational options together and to support the people who are committed to working with children in democratic ways. This conference would also allow for more networking and organizing to occur not only within the Indian-subcontinent but throughout all the rest of Southeast Asia. Amukta Mahapatra has offered to be the main contact person and organizer for the IDEC to be held in India during the year 2004, with the support of Abacus School and Concern for Working Children (CWC). We are currently in contact with several other projects to see if they will be interested in assisting in some of the organizing work for the conference. So far we have heard from The Buddha Smiles and Mitraniketan who are interested in assisting with the planning. Because of India’s close proximity to Southeast Asia, this would be a wonderful opportunity to extend the invitation to other schools and projects in that part of the world. Jim Connor is currently doing outreach work in Thailand and other parts of Southeast Asia through The Whispering Seed and has offered to assist Amukta in organizing and networking for the conference to help bring representatives from that area. Within Thailand, there is an enormous movement of alternative models of education and children’s homes. We will work with the 3rd Global Community Gathering to be held in Thailand this February to network with projects in that region. We are also working on contacts with projects in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam, Korea, Japan and Africa that we are in contact with that would be interested in attending. The conference will be held in the city of Madras in southern India during January of 2004. The weather at this time of year is rather pleasant in this part of India and there are several projects in the area which people could visit. The length of conference will approximately 9 days, allowing time at the end of the conference as well as a few short trips during the conference to visit some of the local projects. We are currently looking at several options as a venue for the conference. We would like to set up the housing accommodation so that people can stay in households near the venue to help cut costs and allow people to experience more of the culture of India. Amukta is planning to organize a pre-IDEC meeting to be held in India prior to the January to help in the planning of the conference and to begin to create the network within India. More information regarding details of the conference will be sent out in the near future. Sincerely, Amukta Mahapatra & Jim Connor home