Declaration of Educational Emancipation: Signatories
Declaration
We, the children, want to decide about our own learning. We demand a constitutional protection of the rights of children to freedom of education. We want a free choice of schools, subjects, exams and teachers. We want to have a free choice of goals, materials, methods, scope, place and pace of learning. We want to decide our own fate. We must end school slavery
See: Origin
Support
Adult: Science and Education
Primary support for the declaration comes from people who have a vast experience and deep understanding of education:
- Peter Gray: 50 years of experience and research in self-directed learning
- Tom Durrie: 60 years of opposition to compulsory schooling
- Piotr Wozniak: 40 years of work over efficient learning methods
- Peter Hartkamp: 15 years of battles with school inspectorate in courts (to ultimately open Sudbury School Amersfoort)
- Sifaan Zavahir: democratic educator credited with the discovery behind #clarifycompulsoryeducation
Organizations
- Koniec Przymusu Szkolnego is a Polish Facebook group set up to promote the declaration and help bring it to fruition
Children
- Jagna Malecka (b. 2009)
- Hanka Malecka (b. 2007)
Teens
- Julian Kwasniak (b. 2001): user of SuperMemo, founder of Koniec Przymusu Szkolnego
- Konrad Mróz (b. 2003)
- Space Lutterodt-Clottey: 15-year-old user of SuperMemo from London (blog), and his buddies Maheen Khan, Smeti Akhtar
- Kacper Wozniak: son of Piotr Wozniak (unrelated to Woz)
- Oleg Litwin: 19-year-old friend of Woz
- Uroš Lukić, 17-year-old user of SuperMemo from Serbia
- Kristiyan Gyorev, 15-year-old student from Bulgaria
- Nel Roszyk, 14-year old high school student from Poznan
- Oliwier Roszyk (b. 2003), brother of Nel
- Victor Chidozie Okporiaku (b. 2001), Nigerian student who plans to become an ophthalmologist
- Anshul Khandelwal (b. 2004), massive user of SuperMemo with great college plans
- Andrew Kolg (b. 2005), user of SuperMemo upset with the absurdity of the school system
- Zhuoran Yi, "Eksterordinaristo", 19-year-old, University of Queensland
Young generation
- Alexander Giorev: contributor to 100 bad habits learned at school
- Lukasz Mroz: user of SuperMemo
- Raj Thimmiah: user of SuperMemo (incremental blog)
- Davide Consalvo: college student
- Niko Lehtola: user of SuperMemo from Finland (see: Time is a metric of coercion or Adding value in SuperMemo)
- Dariusz Murakowski, PhD, who was the youngest user of incremental reading I knew by 2006 (son of Janusz Murakowski)
- Ayron Wohletz: user of SuperMemo from Colorado (see: inspiration)
- Kamila Ackermann (b. 1999) - daughter of Waldek Ackermann
- James Willy, student Newcastle University, programmer (LinkedIn)
- Zander Kasanjian, unschooler who wants others to enjoy the same privileges as himself
- Elijah Shervey: Neuroscience Student, B. of Adv Sci (Neuroscience)
- Guillem "Palace" Palau (born 2 weeks before SuperMemo) whose love of learning survived many years of unhappy schooling: author, blogger, YouTuber (see: personal page)
Parents
- Tytus Malecki: father of Hanka and Jagna, who subscribe to the declaration
- Miron Roszyk: father of Oliwier, Nel and Laura, who all subscribe to the declaration
- Waldemar Ackermann: father of Kamila and Ula. Woz's best friend from primary school
- Michal Swierek: father of Jasio, Stasio, and Franek (b. 2020), husband of Anna Wozniak (Woz family)
- Omar Ali: a Palestinian born in Sofia, educated in India and Bulgaria, and an unschooling father of Ibrahim (b. 2012) and Ali (b. 2014) (blog: Why we unschool)
- Je'anna L Clements: author of What If School Creates DYSlexia?
Teachers
- Gosia Malecka: mom of Hanka and Jagna
How to sign?
The fastest way to voice support is to join this Facebook group.
If you would like to be included in the original honorary list on the presented page, please write
Similar initiatives
(if yours is missing, please write)
World
- End school slavery (Twitter)
- Education consent
USA
Poland
- Koniec Przymusu Szkolnego (by Julian Kwasniak)
- School Strike SUSSEN (by Kacper Borys)
- Free Students movement (incl. Jaroslaw Kopec)
- Zniesc obowiazek szkolny (by Witold Zbijewski)(see also: Private group, 3.7K members on May 26, 2021)
- Protest Uczniowski (private group: 6.3K members on May 26, 2021)
- School sucks (by Christian Ostrowski (teacher))
- Szkola Minimalna (by Marcin Stiburski (teacher), 23K members on May 26, 2021)
- School strike
Difficulties
While discussing the declaration with parents, teachers and children, I realized that many are not even free to speak. One of the authors of the declaration, a teacher, requested anonymity. It might hurt his reputation at school. One of the moms flatly refused a permission to let her kid join the support. Even more, she kindly requested I do not discuss my ideas with her son any more. He is in trouble at school "well enough". For kids to tolerate the oppression, there must be unanimity in the adult world. If I question the limits on freedom, the kid will cling to the only ally he can find. I experienced that many times. This universal dislike of schooling was one of the reason for this initiative. It is not a healthy situation in society when we are not even free to talk freely about freedom!