IDEN News May 2004 InternationalDemocraticEducationNet Newsletter, May 2004 IDEC 2004 The dates and the venue for the Indian IDEC this year have now been settled. It will be held in Bhubaneshwar, south of Kolkata, and will run from the evening of Friday December 3rd to Sunday December 12th. People will be able to arrive from the Thursday evening onwards and leave on the Sunday or Monday. Amukta Mahapatra sends the following information. The closest international airport is Kolkata (known formerly as Calcutta). The journey on would take about an hour. Bhubaneshwar also has daily flights from Delhi & Mumbai (earlier called Bombay).The flight from either of these places would take about two hours. Trains are of course available and some of you might enjoy a day train from Kolkata that takes about 6 hrs. The accommodation available will range from the college hostel on site, to other hostels in nearby management & training institutes, to hotels to home stay with families. The website will have a form that will give you the rates (home stay will be free) & ask for your preference. The costs for the conference have not yet been calculated. Before, during and after the conference it will be possible to visit project sites where there is work being done with the village children & their communities, even in Delhi and other parts of the country. There is also a nearby forest and the largest brackish water lake in Asia where there are millions of migratory birds that fly in at that time of year. Bhubaneshwar in early December will have warm to hot days (25 -35 degrees Centigrade, 77 - 95 F). The early morning, evening & night temperatures are cooler,going down to 15 degrees C (59 F). Light, cotton clothing will be comfortable, with an extra shawl or sweater for late nights or early mornings, at times. Blankets and bed linen will be provided for participants at the accomodation. The website will be ready in a few days, when Amukta has had time for discussions with the team that she is putting together. There are many who want to help, including children of all ages. We will let you know as soon as the website is up. IDEC 2003 There were about 500 participants at the 2003 IDEC in Albany, New York, but only 470 got into the official list. They were mostly, of course, from the USA, but also from 23 other countries. Here are those countries, with the number of people who came from them:- Australia (6), Brazil (1), Canada (15), China (1), France (1), Germany (5), Guatemala (7), Hungary (2), India (10), Israel (7), Japan (11), Nepal (3), The Netherlands (5), New Zealand (3), Palestine (2), Poland (6), Russia (4), South Africa (3), Switzerland (2), Taiwan (5), Thailand (2), UK (4), Ukraine (11). The speakers were digitally recorded by Dan Peterson, and the recordings are on sale from www.educationrevolution.org/speeches.html. They are available on individual CDs, which can be ordered for $10 each, or an MP3 of 16 key speakers on two disks for $19.95. This includes presentations by Bill Ayers, Susan Ohanian, John Taylor Gatto, Dave Lehman, Yacov Hecht, Matt Hern, Michael and Susan Klonsky, Pat Montgomery, Rabbi Yehuda Fine, Zoe Readhead and others. Here are a few comments from people who attended the IDEC: I am still on cloud 9 from the conference. Everything so positive, sincere and loving. Seeing Zoe (Readhead, from Summerhill) again was super, just super. She made a wonderful presentation and the sustaining applause was a tribute to Neill, Summerhill, and the whole idea of participatory democracy. Herb Snitzer, USA I believe that this conference means so much to the reform of traditional education systems in both developed and developing countries. I have learned a lot about democratic education. I am sure that I will choose democratic education as the concentration of my PHD studies at U Mass Amherst which starts in this fall and try to start the first democratic school in China in the near future. Xiao, China It has been unbelievably wonderful to be surrounded by people doing similar things to Tamariki School in New Zealand and to know that I don't have to constantly explain to people who have no idea where I'm coming from. Diana Scullin, New Zealand What I heard and learned in Troy changed my way to think about education, to think about kids, because I got a sense for what it means to be free. Marco Ernesto Bigu Bichsel, Switzerland I think I'm heading for a breakdown as a result of the inspiration I got at IDEC: we're starting a group for "high school" age students - largely inspired by interactions with The New School input about IDEC at a conference I have just attended has inspired a diverse group in South Africa to start a movement towards Freedom in education in South Africa - more on this will follow when my feet touch ground I'm trying to write a book I was invited to help plan our local government's policy re home-education, and probably to train govt. officials who will be involved in home-ed. Sharon Caldwell, South Africa I will never forget the IDEC. Maybe I will never have another chance to go to an international conference like IDEC, where you can meet people that believe in self government with children, teenagers and adults in schools. Here in Brazil this is very rare. But, I hope I can save some money to travel again some day, because I think that this exchange of cultures was the most important thing. Marcel Noznica Penessor (Lumiar - Brazil) This conference opened to me and to Ibrahim (from Hope Flowers School, Bethlehem) a new learning opportunity which I believe has the source for a changing in our country and the future in our area. Mara List (Democratic School of Hadera, Israel) News from Booroobin The Booroobin appeal to the Governor of Queensland has failed, so the case is now going to the Queensland Supreme Court. In an email the school has detailed the decisions taken at the school meeting of students and staff on the first day of the new term: our aim is to have our accreditation restored, and when we do, to operate without government funding we will be known as The Booroobin Sudbury Democratic Centre of Learning - to be confirmed at the next School Meeting (because the legislation prohibits us from using the word "School", unless we are an accredited non-State School) the establishment of a Fundraising Corporation, with specific and immediate financial objectives and we discussed the legalities associated with Students not now attending an accredited School News from AERO AERO, the Alternative Education Resource Organization in New York, has survived its recent financial troubles and is continuing to publish its magazine, Education Revolution. Information about this can be found at www.educationrevolution.org Address The address for IDEN is now davidgribble@idenetwork.org If you would rather not receive newsletters like this, please let us know so we can take you off the list.