The public school debate with Andrew Leigh will have open comments after it concludes at the end of the week. We decided to do this because commenters would jump ahead of us to issues that will be dealt with later in the two Andrews discussion.

We are probably mixing different media in a way that won’t work - a blog without comments is not really a blog - but thought it was worth a try.

I was going to post a comment on one of your last two blogs about public education, but the comments are closed, whereas this post is older but the comments are still open - what’s going on?

Thanks, but …. I am not a teacher.

I am a parent of 5 sons. I’ve just celebrated my 30th wedding anniversary. I do have a background chiefly in middle management.

Along with others, far wiser people, I was a Founder, and subsequently an annually elected Staff in a human rights and responsibilities based, participatory democratic school and subsequently self-funded Democratic Centre of Learning. Like others I wanted something better than the State system or other schools offered for my children and others who chose it.

It was a community based school that we built from the ground up, that we resourced, provided a campus for, financed, guaranteed loans, built driveways, rock walled gardens, almost rebuilt a farmhouse as an interim school house, replumbed, rewired, restumped, painted it, installed a library, kitchen, waterless composting toilets, and staffed it - only for the Queensland Labor Government to close it down because we wouldn’t accept their dictates about curricula based on their model of central direction, control, drill and testing. Most staff contributed their time, by choice. Students were achieving incredible outcomes. The School was achieving its democratic Constitutional objectives.

The people then proved they could operate a self-funded Democratic Centre of Learning where parents offered and accepted full responsibility for the education of their children, and they were thriving and learning. It stopped operating only on legal advice when the Queensland Minister for Education threatened criminal action and fines against Directors of the parent not for profit company. It suspended its operation in July 2006, once again interrupting students’ learning.

4 months later I was charged by Summons with a criminal offence of operating an unaccredited non-state school. Despite specialist criminal lawyer’s requests, and being on bail for 7 months, keeping a cloud over my head, and designed to instill fear, the government didn’t produce any evidence and dropped the charge in June 2007.

No-one should wonder why I am critical of government, their intolerable, unwarranted intrusions, and the coercive effects that come with government money. Our school was succeeding. It was our school, we owned it, not government. We sacrificed so much to create and maintain it. Its principles accorded with the democratic and human rights beliefs and values of those families who enrolled their student children and paid reasonable, affordable fees. It was achieving things with young people, and enviromentally on a chemical free organic campus with the aim of sustainability, that other schools could only dream about - because of the nature of mainstream schools, and because teaching is a heavily unionised “mass profession” (even though there are many good teachers out there trying hard in the face of much adversity and restrictions).

Our Graduates are all independent. they did go onto either further education or worked or established their own enterprises. They contributed to Australia’s social capital.

We intend and are working towards re-establishing our self-funded Democratic Centre of Learning, preferably with government accreditation. Interestingly, in countries where people have established rights, schools like ours succeed, simply because they are self-funded, self-managing stable and relatively free of government interference. But our government is in denial about that, not accepting what they can’t control or is beyond their party political policies. We need freedom and liberty to prevail.

“I’m going to take a hard line against those who use bad language, abuse other commenters, digress too far from the thread’s subject, ramble, or engage in prolonged debates.“