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)

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!