PUB TYPE Guides Classroom Teacher (052) Speeches/Meeting

This paper suggests that for students to become accustomed to democratic habits of thought and conduct, they must continually practice them throughout the course of their school career. The daily interaction between the teacher and the pupil can influence the formation of attitudes and habits essential to democratic citizenship. For teachers, the challenge lies in conducting the classroom as democratically as possible within the parameters of the authority that the state exercises over students to meet this challenge, the teacher must practice democratic leadership in the classroom. For example, the teacher can involve students in devising classroom rules, perhaps in the form of writing and signing a classroom constitution and can provide students some choice in assignments related to particular purposes or subject matter. In a problem-or-issues-focused unit the teacher can allow for student discretion in the matter of selecting problems to study. If relations among students or between teachers an