International Democratic Education Conference

The IDEC is an annual get-together for those involved in non-coercive progressive education, such as at Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts, Summerhill School in Suffolk, England or The Democratic School in Hadera, Israel.

The first conference was held in Hadera in 1993. In June 1993 an international academic meeting in Jerusalem called "Education for Democracy in a Multi-cultural Society" garnered contributions mostly from academics and politicians, resulting in schoolteachers and students with little opportunity to contribute. A group from the Jerusalem meeting was invited over to the Democratic School of Hadera for two days of interaction. The discussions led to an annual 'Hadera Conference' as it was called for the first 4 years. The second conference was held at Sands School and the third at WUK in Vienna. The 1996 fourth International Conference of Democratic Schools was held back in Hadera.