Argument for Real Democracy in Schools

Children go from being in a completely top-down system, where adults make every decision, to feeling like they have no real power to change anything when they leave school. So they end up thinking: What’s the point? I’ll just keep my head down, pass the exams, do what I’m told. Nothing in the system shows them that their voice actually matters.

This is one of the strongest arguments for real democracy in schools.

Right now, in wider society, so many people feel shut out of decision-making in politics, workplaces, national decisions. There’s growing division and disconnection everywhere you look.

If schools introduced genuine student voice and trust, not token gestures, but actual shared decision-making, young people would see, through real experience, not a civics lesson, that their voice can lead to actual change.

I’ve seen and recognise that some schools have student councils,and they can work really effectively, but most of the time these have no real power. Students notice that. They always know when it’s symbolic only.

Of course, there are limits. For example, in the UK state school system, you can’t negotiate the national curriculum. Fine. But there are huge areas where real agency is possible like for example aesthetics, behaviour systems, justice processes, budget priorities, community agreements, how time is used, how problems are solved. These are real and meaningful.

Schools could even model different democratic approaches not just copying Westminster but exploring proportional representation, consensus models, different governance structures. The form of democracy itself is a learning conversation.

If young people experience democracy for real, especially now they can vote at 16,  they’ll grow up believing they genuinely can change things. Instead of entering adulthood already disillusioned (“my vote doesn’t matter”), they’ll already have lived examples that their voice shapes community. That’s the whole point.

Ben Kestner