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Hitler youth or democracy in schools? A new reform in secondary schools involving students evaluating their teachers has some fearing it will promote an environment of spying and paranoia. However, the idea is neither as dangerous nor as unconventional as some would imagine.

Article Excerpt
Over recent years there has been a lot of talk about the virtues of participation as part of a project to (re)build community. The policy community has even embraced youth participation, making it a central and popular part of contemporary political rhetoric. Youth participation is said to be able to build 'social capital' and to remedy social problems like urban decay, crime and unemployment.

A closer inspection of the official documents promoting the virtues of participation will quickly suggest that, as an idea, it is restricted to favouring increased involvement in activities seen to secure the movement of young people along that rickety and perilous pathway called 'adolescence'. Any serious attempt to promote young people's engagement with democracy that might, for example, involve cutting back on the exercise of 'adult authority' is oddly missing from the policy talk. In this context, it is refreshing to see Victorian Minister for Education, Lynne Kosky,...

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