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SHURE: A DEMOCRATIC UNIVERSITY IN TOKYO

By Yan LI

 

From the oldest continuously running democratic school Summerhill founded in 1921, till now, democratic education has developed into a global movement, from kindergarten to high school. There are a number of democratic schools at the pre-school, primary and intermediate levels but at the higher levels, there are less. I was then curious to know how are the principles of democratic education implemented at the university level?

Shure University in Tokyo is a 27-year- old college where students have the freedom to choose what and how they learn and where they use a democratic decision-making process among students and staff. Mr. Kageki Asakura is one of the founders of Shure University. We met at the First Asia Pacific Democratic Education Conference (APDEC), which was held in the Holistic School, Miaoli County in Taiwan from July 18 – 24, 2016. During this conference, keynote speeches in the morning were given by appointed speakers and after that, most time segments were open space where anyone can sign up and share their own experiences in workshops, discussions, and other formats.

During the keynotes, Mr. Kageki interpreted the speeches to the students who gathered together and listened intently. On the 22 nd , Japan Democratic School network held an Open Space about “Japanese School Refusal and the Democratic School Network Movement.” Apparently, school refusal in Japan is a huge issue in the field of education. Many democratic school students go through the process of school refusal. In the beginning, the students who went through this process themselves, explained what school refusal is, why the students refuse to go to school and how the democratic schools meet the student’s need.  They don’t really refuse school for economic or health reasons but for deeper reasons that question their sense of self, their values and identity.

One student shared her own story: at the state school she felt bored and was under pressure to perform because everything was measured by how one’s accomplishments compare with the others. There were expectations which she had to try and live up to. She refused to go to school.  At nineteen years old, she went to Shure University and spent one week trying it out. During that short experimental period, she realized what was taken away from her – that idea that it’s okay to pursue something you are interested in. That idea empowered her to alter her self- perception and turn her life around. From somebody who did not believe in herself and had a very low self-esteem, she became self-assured and motivated to pursue her own unique path in life (https://entirelyofpossibility.wordpress.com/2016/07/28/opening-up/). At the APDEC, she went on stage to express her idea of offering her photographs for sale at the fundraiser. She was active, confident and creative in front of the participants. In another open space, Shure students presented the Japanese tea ceremony, paper folding, self-designed stamps and so on which attracted a lot of participants. I was impressed by their kind, caring and calm smile and then began to gather more information about this democratic university.

In Shure University brochures, it says: “To live as I want. To get the world back to the self. To study, to express, to be reborn.” Shure Tokyo is the parent organization of Shure University, an non-profit organization founded by students in 1999 who wanted to continue their education. There are no qualifications necessary, no pre- defined curriculum, only freedom. In China, students are measured according to their academic performance at a college entrance examination. We judge students by the grades they get, not by who they are. We have a compulsory curriculum. If the students fail, they can’t get their degree.

“Accepted” is a 2006 comedy film made in the United States about a group of high school seniors who, after being rejected by all colleges to which they had applied, create their own college, the South Harmon Institute of Technology (https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Accepted_(film). The students decide what they study based on their own individual schedule, how to spend their tuition, how long it takes to finish the course. They don’t have traditional teachers, classrooms or library, however they find their creativity and passion for learning with a desire for self- growth. Ironically, true learning takes place in this fake college. The students don’t need society’s approval to tell them what to learn or how to learn. It’s about total self-acceptance. When I introduced this American film to my students in Psychology class, they began to feel inspired, but later they said it was just a movie and not real.

Reality

I was eager to see how the concept of democratic university works in real life. Not long after the conference, on August 4, 2016, I visited the Shure University in Tokyo. Located in a two-story building, including one room for teenage democratic students, Shure University put the dream of democratic education into practice. Although that day fell on their summer vacation, the staff and students of Shure University were busy preparing for the Shure University International Film Festival all the way until night time. It was to be held a few weeks after so as the students labored, Mr. Asakura showed me around the building and patiently answered my questions.

Philosophy

Shure is an ancient Greek word, which means a place where people can use their mind freely. Mr. Asakura and his previous democratic school students started Shure University, because the students didn’t want to go to the traditional university to further their study. They wanted to continue the practice of making democratic decisions about the way they learn, including the tuition they pay, the curriculum they cover and the years they spend in college. Before establishing the Shure University, Kageki had already been teaching at free schools for decades and taught sociology at the University.

In Shure University’s website, the philosophy behind their school is best embodied in the phrase “creating your own way of life.” Society usually expects people to graduate from high school and university, get a job and be a productive member of the community. Democratic education posits that this is not the only route to take. “Changing yourself to match society’s expectation is only one way to live. Another way is to create your own values through your own interests and experiences for the purpose of suiting your own lifestyle. How do you want to work? How do you want to spend your time? How do you want to build relationships with others? Students here try to create their own values with other students, staff members, advisers and other friends of Shure University.” (http://shureuniv.org/english)

Administration

Now, there are around forty students, four staff members and almost fifty professional advisers from various fields. In the end, the students in Shure University do not receive a degree. Why then do they choose to attend? For them, education is about true learning, and not merely a certificate. The tuition cost is higher than the state universities but below the private ones. Without recognition by the Japanese Ministry of Education and comparatively low tuitions, Shure University has no economic advantage to attract famous experts to teach here. However, there are still fifty professional advisers such as Serizawa Shunsuke, Hirata Oriza, Shin Sugo, Hau Yasuo, Ozawa Makiko, Ueno Chizuko. The university attracts the people that they do because the students are highly self-motivated and tend to excel in the things they do since they choose it themselves.

Referring to the advisers, Mr. Asakura said that “We need fifty of them because interest of students are so diverse.” Even though the school only has forty students, the interests are so broad, spanning philosophy, anthropology, music, law, drama, cinema, history, documentary and others. These also change over time so the university has to be ready to deal with the evolving interests. Sometimes, the adviser comes to the university to hold a workshop or a class while other times, the student can visit the adviser’s office to have a personal tutorial or consultation.

It is understandable how diverse the composition of experts and advisers are because there are many unique courses available in Shure including: Alternative Education, Academic History, School Truancy, Family Discourse, Life Discourse, Cultural History, Politics and Economics, World History Research Seminar, Creating Your Way of Life, Literary Discussion, Pop Music, Computer Science, Tokyo Cultural Activities, Live Theater, Modern and Fine Arts, as well as language classes such as English and Korean. Project-based classes are also available including Film, Drama, Music and How to Build and Race Solar Powered Cars (http://shureuniv.org/english).

Evaluation

There are unique personal courses and a number of group projects. Students here decide how many classes they have and how many years they attend. They explore their own path with other students, staff members, advisers and other friends of Shure University. The graduate is evaluated on individual and project-based performance. One of the Shure University students, Yui Sakamoto explained that there is a meeting each semester to discuss and reflect on the seminars and group projects, what they want to get during the present semester and what they got during the previous one. Each student has tutorial time when they talk about their individual plans and reflect on their own work. Each student makes a presentation around March including an evaluation of their own work while other members give a response or comment on the presentation. They don’t use numerals to evaluate anything or anyone. In a sense, according to Yui Sakamoto, this is more challenging so when she needs to get a deeper understanding, she has to ask questions to grasp what she wants. For her, the most important thing is “living her own life and making the kind of world that she wants.”

At the APDEC 2016, American psychologist Peter Gray, author of Free To Learn explained how he would evaluate an educational system based on two questions: 1) Are the students happy? and 2) Do they live satisfying lives and are productive in society? (https://entirelyofpossibility.wordpress.com/2016/07/28/at-the-roundtable/) From this perspective, the graduates of Shure University seem to fulfill these standards. The majority work at an NGO or take care of senior citizens. Almost none of them takes part in the commercial field. They become responsible, caring adults.

The next APDEC will be held in Tokyo at The National Olympic Youth Centre on August 1 – 7, 2017. People from the Shure University will actively be involved in organizing this major, international event. Joining it may be an ideal way to continue learning more about this exceptional university and about democratic education in general.

 

About the Author:

Donna (Yan LI) is a Educational Psychology Lecturer at the School of Communications, Tianjin Foreign Studies University. As much as she possibly can, she wants to promote the ideas of democratic education and hopes to start a Democratic School in mainland China someday.

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Along The Way To Accreditation In A Progressive Education

By Karen M. Giuffre', M.Ed. Founding Director, Voyagers Community School

Voyagers’ Community School in Eatontown, New Jersey, is proud to announce that we have been recommended for accreditation by the Middle States Association visiting team! Our Prekindergarten through High School program offers “Traditional academics in non-traditional ways” based on a constructivist philosophy.

For those of us in the progressive education field, the challenge of explaining and often defending our approach has become part of an ongoing dialogue that reaches well beyond the classroom. Although we know, as professionals who work closely with children everyday, that our pedagogy is successful, there are times when we are called to prove ourselves by parents, students, educators, community leaders and others. Sometimes the call comes from collaborative colleagues around a table asking,”How do we know?” About three years ago, Voyagers’ Community School committed to taking a good look at itself through the eyes of Middle States Association (MSA). We decided to seek accreditation through a rigorous process set forth by an impartial entity.


Through our first ten years, we measured success by looking at our process and ensuing outcomes. We were certain of our effectiveness. Then came a time when we decided to prove it to the naysayers, and to allay the fears often expressed by unknowing prospective students, parents and grandparents. We thought, “Accreditation could help “prove” that our approach is valid.” It was a risk because the opposite could be found and revealed, or worse yet we could find ourselves shifting and changing to meet the standards expected by MSA.


When seeking accreditation, there are many things to consider. First, you must choose an accrediting agency. Our school chose to accredit through Middle States Association because they purport to assure that a school holds itself to its mission, vision, beliefs and goals in daily decisions; remains committed to continuous improvement in student learning and to its capacity to produce the levels of learning desired and expected by its community; and operates in a collegial and collaborative way with all of its stakeholders. Given these standards among many more we felt no pressure to change, instead we understood the challenge, to narrate for a visiting team and for the larger organization the who, why, where, what and how at Voyagers’.


To be clear, we are, with 65 students, quite possibly among the smallest schools being considered for accreditation by MSA. Also, being open for 13 years we are most likely among the younger schools to be considered. Being an amalgam of various approaches including holistic, democratic, progressive and reggio inspired wasn't in our favor either. More commonplace alternative approaches accredited by MSA seemed to include Montessori, Waldorf and Friends schools, all grown from an underlying, longstanding and clearly defined philosophy. While making our accreditation choices we were well aware that we were part of what, by many, is considered a fringe movement in education, albeit known among our colleagues to have deep traditional roots. Despite these probable reasons to retreat from the painstaking process of accreditation we moved forward in inimitable Voyagers’ fashion.


Over the years since we first expressed our interest in accreditation we have committed an obscene number of hours to organizing, examining our work, and peeling back the onion to see clearly who we are, what we do and how we tell our story. Some 300 self-study pages later, we are proud to have secured an accreditation recommendation without compromising our philosophical foundations and underpinnings or changing what we do in any way. It was, at times, difficult to fit our long-winded answers into the boxes provided, mostly because telling our story required out of the box explanations. We often slightly, and sometimes not so slightly, altered the format provided by MSA. In doing so, we offered all the information requested and more. We provided a good sense of who we are. This became clear when the visiting team saw our school in action and had fewer or quite different questions than we anticipated.


Since the purpose of the self study was to benefit the school, we made the MSA format and approach to gathering data fit as best we could. We organized our answers to question after question in a way that made sense to MSA while engaging in an examination of ourselves and our work. In the last two years of our self study no less than 20 people, working in collaborative teams, searched for evidence and composed responses to groups of questions. Often larger groups and sometimes everyone would come together to take a look at the work in its entirety. We realized, on paper we looked more traditional, this stirred up concern. Many times during staff meetings and board meetings we considered whether the process was changing our approach. Throughout, we were lead by our resolve to tell our story so that MSA could hold it up to their light and have a good look, but also so that we could digest it and connect all of our moving parts into one whole conglomerate.


In a small private, nonprofit school who has the time for the daily routines let alone the demands of accreditation? Composing a self study, which requires more than cursory input from all community members, teachers, students, parents, board members, etc, is not for the faint of heart. In our case, we assigned three coordinators, composed a steering committee of six and created about 25 subcommittees. Teachers, administrators and board members spent an inordinate number of hours looking at everyday practice, current and archived documents, responses from surveys and founding and planning documents to answer the questions MSA posed. During the closing months, at least 4 people read and reread sections and 3 people read the document in its entirety, in many cases, asking committees to return to their work. Just moments before releasing the document to the visiting team we were editing and adding more data.


What follows, the visit, is harrowing no matter how confident you are. It's like baring your foibles to your mother or father in law. In our case, a committee of four visitors, none from a progressive school and one from the MSA office, which is unusual, spent three days in our school. With notepads and clipboards in hand they held up in an office with our 26, 2 inch binders. They wandered from class to class and corner to corner of our building with obvious purpose. They followed our students outdoors to the arboretum and our playground areas and through a fire drill. They talked to countless people including the owner of our janitorial company and our board president. They verified our data through observation and questioning and assessed our contribution to the education of a community of children and their representatives.


Every individual who participated in our accreditation efforts from start to finish poured their hearts into the process, often following long days in the classroom and at desks. Our work spilled over into staff meetings and development days that would have otherwise been spent on other pressing matters. Gaining accreditation is quite the endeavor. We took on, as a small school, what much larger schools hesitate to consider. Significant in this process is the financial commitment. Beyond paying for extra staff hours, which is the greatest and most constant drain on an operating budget, there are fees to an outside survey companies, accountants and bookkeepers, and in our case an attorney who was asked to review an existing document for clarification. Of course there are the application fees to MSA throughout the process and then the cost of hosting a visiting team for three days and nights. For almost a decade, our understanding of the monetary commitment and the years of consistent effort necessary for accreditation, outweighed the anticipated benefits, especially when compared to what else the school needed in its early years. Among responsible and realistic reasons for pursuing accreditation is the prominence of boosting enrollment. Early in the process this was the only way to grapple with the related costs.


The Middle States Association Visiting Team has recommended us for accreditation with accolades. This brought tears to the eyes of many and was cause for celebration. However, we are only in the home stretch. The report generated by the visiting team alongside our self study will be reviewed by MSA staff and several of their committees before a final decision is made in the spring of 2017.


At this juncture we have already benefitted in ways we never anticipated. We now know and have memorialized for others what we do, why we do it, how we do it and how and why it works, without a shadow of a doubt. We also know where we need to improve and we have action plans and committees in place. There are benefits to the self study process even if accreditation is not the outcome. We have set larger goals and created the framework necessary to reach our goals, particularly those related to student achievement and organizational strength. Accreditation is an ongoing process, we will be held accountable to each other and to Middle States Association for our progress. There was a time when we might have bristled at the notion of some outside entity “snooping around” but now we realize the overarching benefit and value of accreditation.


We are proud to have exposed our constructivist methods and practices to those representing a well respected accreditation agency, without wavering from our founding philosophy, adjusting our history or changing who we are. We look forward to the end goal which is accreditation, but we are basking in the knowledge that we are changing the world with another ripple in a big pond. This process helped us accurately assess how we function. We can now with certainty make strategic improvements for our future.


We welcome others who are invested and interested in progressive education to contact us about a visit or professional development opportunities at Voyagers’ Community School.

 

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Nepal Diary

After I left Finland I flew back to England and transferred to a flight to Delhi, India, and there to a flight to Katmandu, Nepal, a very arduous day of travel. I finally was going to get to visit the Sri Aurobindo Yoga Mandir Ashram/orphanage. It is one of the most amazing and unique programs I have ever seen, and I’ve seen hundreds. We’ve been helping them in any way we could since 2001 when I met the founder, Chandra Mani Bhusal, known as Ramchandra, when he was gathering support for the Ashram in New York City. Before committing to help them I had a member of our organization, who happened to be in Nepal at the time, do an on site visit. With her recommendation, we jumped in. Since that time I have met Ramchandra and his students many times, mostly at the IDEC in places such as India, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and the one we hosted in New York. But this is the first time I have been here myself. They now care for 110 children at this site, 60 at a farming site they have in Terai. A few of their graduates are developing a site in Gulmi for trekkers to support the Ashram. Despite the fact that nobody pays for these orphaned children, it is 70% self-supporting through agriculture, dairy farming, selling organic food and milk at local markets, making incense, essential oils and pashmina, milling flour, hosting tourists to teach them meditation and yoga, etc. They do this primarily on only 2 1/2 acres toward the hills on the outskirts of Katmandu. We even got a grant for them years ago so they could buy some of this land. When the earthquake hit, many of their buildings were damaged. They’ve had to scramble to survive. AERO members raised $10,000 to help with repairs but they will need hundreds of thousands. Construction goes slowly here, as they are able. The earthquake stopped construction of a big new building that had started. They were going to host the IDEC here in 2018 but because of the damage that was just postponed to 2020.
 
 
Those of you who went to the AERO conference two years ago met Ramchandra and heard him tell his incredible story. He ran away from Nepal at the age of 12 to India, seeking a better life. He educated himself there, finally living at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondecherry. Sri Aurobindo has been described as a Indian John Dewey. He taught about experiential learning, spiritually and all religions.
 
After 20 years Ramchandra returned to Nepal. He was now 32. He saw the great poverty there and determined to build an orphanage. He found his family again and the first person to help him was his 12 year old sister, Kamala, whom he had just met for the first time. He promised to give her a good education.
 
Eventually they bought the land where the current Ashram is located. 
 
On the first day Ramchandra took me on a tour of the facilities. There are about 8 on the site, as well as agriculture on every possible foot of land. The buildings are surprisingly substantial concrete buildings. Nevertheless many were damaged by the earthquake, especially where they were engaged in new construction. Amazingly, when it hit all the children and adults happened to be outside or many would have been injured or killed. See the story dictated to me by one of the classes.
 
At the Ashram I met several former students I had originally met at various IDECs. Two of them are now university educated and currently teaching at the Ashram school. They had come as three and four year old orphans. The Ashram typically finds a way to send its students to college and university, wheeling and dealing to get them in. They were very disappointed that the Finish embassy turned down their visas to come to this year’s IDEC, although funds had been raised for them.
 
On one day I went with a group to sell their produce at an organic market in Katmandu. Going into Katmandu is a bone-shaking, dusty, hair-raising experience. People drive on the left and at random other sides. Traffic lights are a suggestion, often not followed. Roads are full of giant potholes. The streets are crammed with every imaginable kind of vehicle, but innumerable motorbikes. The ten mile trip from the airport took 1 1/2 hours! The Ashram has a small truck in which it brings milk to Katmandu daily, and once a week goes to the market.  Susan Sarandon helped buy that truck. They did have a bus, donated to them by India, but it no longer works or is repairable. They need a new one.
 
There is so much more to tell about: Healthy food and daily meditation for the community, as well as what goes on at the agricultural land in Terai, where 60 children also live. The Gulmi land in the mountains. is being developed for tourism to support the Ashram. Fifteen graduates are organizing it.
 
Part of their 2 1/2 acres of Katmandu land consists of a tract that they purchased permanent rights to use 15 years ago. They farm this land and have also built their cow shed on it. The dairy is one of their most important sources of income. The original one and the older students dorms were destroyed in the earthquake. This was the King’s land. The tenant who had it sold the permanent rights to it to Ramchandra  but now wants to get it back since its value has greatly increased. Of course he has no right to this, having sold his rights to the Ashram many years ago. But now the former King’s land will soon revert to the tenants. The former tenant’s name will appear there. He is supposed to sign over the ownership within 35 days. But he said he will refuse to do so and apparently has somehow got the ear of the land minister. So they are trying to steal this land from the orphans. This process will be watched  by our members and readers around the world. A hearing was scheduled for the 26th  of June. By that time I will be back in NY. They may try to postpone that hearing. Some of my time there consisted of communicating with the American Consulate to see if they could help in the situation. We’ll keep you informed.
 
The Ashram is well set up for a small number of tourists, which helps in their support. I saw several groups come and go while I was there. I think the cost is only $15 a day. I arranged for people from LEAPNow, a gap-year program and AERO member, to go there and they were thrilled to be there. Some stayed on to intern. Other groups have returned. If you ever have the chance you should visit the Ashram.
 
Ramchandra
 
 
 
 
 
The children doing their chores
 
Rishi teaches a class of 2nd and 3rd graders
 
Ramchandra leads a meditation
 
Staff members feeding the children
 
Construction temporarily halted due to the earthquake
 
Earthquake Damage
 
 
The ashram's school building, K-9 (Through 10th and graduation next year)
 
Ramchandra and the ashram's garden
 
Preparing to go to the organic market in Kathmandu
 
Arrive at the organic market
 
Setting up at the market
Setting up at the market
 
At the market
 
 
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One Final Adventure-to the Hospital!

I caught some kind of stomach bug in Nepal which began to hit me as I flew from Katmandu to Delhi, India. I felt very tired on my layover in Delhi from 7 PM to 1:50 AM. Then I didn’t get much sleep on the 10 hour flight from Delki to London. Fortunately I had built in a rest day overnight in London.
 
I arrived  at 6:30 AM and went to a nearby Heathrow hotel. That’s when I really hit me. I had the runs all day. I was worried about getting dehydrated. I even called my doctor in New York by Skype who said I should get some Imodium and electrolytes and stay hydrated. But it was too late. I took a taxi to the nearest pharmacy and got those things. I felt sicker and sicker and the Imodium didn’t work at first. I decided to drag myself to the restaurant to get some soup to get some liquid in. I could barely finish it.
 
I took the elevator to my room, but as I started to get out I felt faint. The next thing I knew I had faited dead away for the first time in my life. I found myself on the floor against the wall with the soup also on the floor in front of me and a porter standing over me. It took me a while to get to my feet. The porter wanted to call the hospital. I resisted at first and went to my room. He came with me. Finally I agreed to see the paramedics. The first one came in, a very friendly and competent English man. He checked my blood pressure. It was an unbelievably low 87 over 56. How could I even be conscious? He checked blood sugar-it was OK. He gave me an electrocardiogram. Finally he started a fluid IV at my suggestion—all in the hotel room. The hotel didn’t have elevators big enough for a stretcher  and they were going to carry me on a special chair to the ambulence, but I said I could walk to the elevator, and I did. At the hospital they checked everything out. Blood pressure was going up. The Imodium had finally kicked in. Eventually they gave me another IV and the blood pressure came up to 113 over 67, acceptable. The guy who took out the IV and discharged me was Nepalese and very excited to hear I had just gone to Nepal. He actually comes from the area where the Ashram has much of its agricultural land, Terai. So I had to show him some of the pictures I had just taken in Nepal. I finally took a taxi back to the hotel at 4:30 AM with a note from the doctor that said I was OK to fly. And I’m writing this on the plane back to New York!