Let's start with a brain snack.

• When people help plan and prepare meals, they're more likely to eat them (or at least try them).
• When people contribute toward the cost of a new toy or gadget, they're more likely to take good care of it.
• When people are responsible for paying a portion of their college tuition (or costs for a class, activity, New Year's Eve party, you name it), they're less likely to skip out or goof off.

See the pattern? Got a guess where it's heading next?

• When students have a role in determining the way their classrooms are run, they're more likely to buy into the structure, respect the policies and procedures, and—if they do have grievances—air complaints in an appropriate manner that will allow them to seek change proactively rather than misbehaving, acting out, or being disrespectful.

Whew. Sounds like a mouthful, but hey, that's the price of student investment, and this here is the idea behind the democratic classroom.

A definition, you ask? Here we go: a democratic classroom is a place where students are regularly involved in decision-making processes with regard to the classroom learning environment. Those decisions can include creating classroom rules and expectations, determining student and teacher responsibilities, and—in some cases—setting the goals and objectives of the class, deciding on the content to be covered, and coming up with methods of assessment.

Next thing you know they'll be writing their own Declaration of Independence and finger-painting it on the walls of the classroom.

Pro Tip #1: Cut the classroom management.

Let's be clear.

No one is saying that if you take twenty minutes at the beginning of class to establish a few quick rules, there will be nothing but blue skies and smooth sailing for the rest of the school year. Establishing a truly democratic classroom takes more than one class period.

Still, proponents argue that if you (and your students) put in the work on the front end, there will be great benefits to reap throughout the year: greater student cooperation and engagement, improvements in your students' critical thinking abilities and interpersonal communication skills, and (here's the kicker) a decreased workload for you.

Wait—what?

Yep. A decreased workload.

Sure, the extent to which a classroom can be designed and managed via democracy generally increases along with student age, so you won't be asking Kindergarteners to come up with rules about preventing plagiarism. But the ultimate idea is that students who are engaged and invested are more likely to contribute to a positive learning environment and less likely to require "management" by a classroom teacher.

Don't believe us? Well, that's what official-sounding studies are for. According to the Johns Hopkins School of Education's definition of the democratic classroom, when students are "in a democratic environment in which they help to establish their own rules, take responsibility for their own behavior, and are strongly motivated to learn they do not need a manager."

Additionally, a 2003 study involving middle school teachers and students in Washington state indicated that "teachers can have a more positive influence on student achievement when they allow students to have a voice in classroom decisions" (source).

Sounds great, right? But how do you get started? In the words of Steven Tyler (the words right before the hook, that is), like this!

Pro Tip #2: Take time to make time.

One of the biggest barriers to instituting any kind of change (e.g., moving from an authoritarian classroom to a democratic one) is finding the time to do it. To establish a democratic classroom, you'll need to devote some time—regularly—to holding class meetings with students so that there is a consistent forum in which all voices can be heard.

Just like the town hall meeting, the jury, or the comments section below the actual article, class meetings are one of the cornerstones of the democratic classroom—and sometimes total nonsense (just saying). So if you're going down this road, you'll need to find a place for them.

If you teach in an elementary school, you probably have one group of students for most of the day. In that case, you can use morning meetings as a regular way to start your days. By grouping up every morning and talking about what the day has in store, and by incorporating rituals such as greetings and sharing time, you'll begin to create a classroom culture based on mutual respect and shared goals. You can also use these morning meetings to establish basic classroom rules and expectations, as well as to talk about how things are going and how they could be improved.

If you teach in a middle or high school, you probably see several separate groups of students throughout the day, so morning meetings aren't necessarily an option. Or, even if they are—with a homeroom or an advisory, say—you'll still have other groups of students you need to work with to institute the democratic classroom model in every period of every day.

The beginning of the school year is a great time for this. Instead of diving right into analyzing Beowulf, solving for x, or classifying insects by genus and species, you could use the first week of classes to establish rules and expectations in each period.

We know what you're thinking. "A whole week of class meetings? We'll get behind!" But let's think that through:

• Teachers typically use the first day of classes to lay down ground rules, plod through sections of the school handbook, and explain homework and grading policies and the like anyway.
• The first week of school represents a transition for everyone—new schedules and classrooms, new teachers, new students, new books, new assignments, and, you guessed, it, new takes on democracy.
• The early weeks also require establishing classroom dynamics, getting to know one another, and learning how things function so that the days and weeks flow more naturally. See what we're getting at?

So even when you go straight to your content, you're not really going straight to your content. It takes students (and teachers) a bit of time to settle into the schedule before the actual focusing kicks in. In truth, a week's worth of class meetings to collaboratively work through all that extraneous stuff—rules and policies and goals and expectations—could actually save you time. Especially since it's not all that extraneous, when you really think about it.

So…What Do We Actually Do in Classroom Meetings?

That's up to you. The initial meetings will, of course, focus on creating the rules and agreements that will be the basis of your democratic classroom. If you're a tabula rasa sorta teacher, your blank slate may include discussing the elements of democracy and whether or not schools and classrooms should be democratic. Need an illustration? Here's a convenient little vignette in Sheryl MacMath's research paper, "Implementing a Democratic Pedagogy in the Classroom."

From there, assuming students come around to the idea that a democratic classroom is a good idea, they proceed to create rules and expectations for students and class procedures such as the time and structure of class meetings.

Not into the blank-slate thing? No worries. Other educators, such as university prof J'Anne Ellsworth, present their students with a basic document and work from there. As Ellsworth puts it, "at the beginning of the course, I provide a syllabus that includes university requirements. Students examine the document and write personal course expectations. At the second class meeting, we share expectations and make alterations to the document, taking changes and perspectives into account. Finally, we sign the amended syllabus to show mutual agreement with changes." Sounds legit.

There are tons of ways to start forging democracy and set the ground rules of your class's chosen system. It's up to you to decide which approach will work best in your classroom.

The Declaration Is Signed…

Once you've established the rules and expectations for your classroom (and any other basic policies, procedures, goals, objectives, and the like), future classroom meetings can focus on maintenance and new ideas.

A good basic format for a classroom meeting is strikingly similar to the basic format of most organizational meetings, which generally include a limited time for announcements, followed by old business, and wrapping up with—believe it or not—new business.

We know, so original.

Students can help to set the agenda for meetings (sound spooky? Don't worry, they get better at it over time). Once classroom meetings become a regular part of your structure, it'll almost seem like they're organizing themselves.

As SUNY Cortland's explanation of a democratic classroom environment suggests, class meetings can "deal with problems (cutting in lunch line, put-downs, homework problems) or help to plan upcoming events (the day, a field trip, a cooperative activity, the next unit)." Your classroom needs will dictate the content of your meetings, and talking about those events in advance will help them go off without a hitch.

Beyond Rules and Management

We know, what could be beyond those things? But you better believe you can always find ways to take your democratic classroom further. So to wrap you up and get you thinking about how to include student choice in curriculum and content (among other things), here are some articles about democratic education:

• "What is Democratic Education?" from YES! Magazine, March 9, 2011.
• "What is Democratic Education?" (déjà vu, anyone?) from the Institute for Democratic Education in America (IDEA).
• One more time: "What is Democratic Education?," this time an interview with educator Chris Mercogliano.

The titles may not be so unique, but hey, the great thing about democratic education is that it always will be. From one set of students to another, and even one class period to the next, there are always new places to explore with a democratic classroom. Just like regular democracy, right?

Georgie Washington would sure be proud.