About

My name is Michael Sappir. I am an Israeli living in Leipzig, Germany, where I study linguistics.  I am also a co-founder and alumnus of Sudbury Jerusalem, a Sudbury school in Israel, and currently Council Chairman of the European Democratic Education Community (EUDEC).

In 2001-2, at the age of 14, I was involved in starting Sudbury Jerusalem, Jerusalem’s first (and so far only) Sudbury school, which I then attended for four years as a student. I was (and am) the school’s first graduate.  Sudbury schooling (and democratic schooling in general) is an area I care about deeply, and since moving to Germany I have made myself available as a speaker about democratic education, giving talks for universities and school startup groups. You can read about some of my talks below.

In October 2007, I became involved in creating the European Democratic Education Community and organizing the EUDEC 2008 conference. The conference attracted nearly 400 participants from across Europe and around the world and injected the young organization with a great deal of vitality. I am currently a member of EUDEC’s Council, and the Council’s elected Chairman.

Since I began my studies in 2008, linguistics has become very central to me. My particular interests right now are the architecture of grammar, the structured connection between form and meaning, and cross-linguistic variation. I have written about why I like something as boring as grammar here: “Why Grammar?”. From April to December 2009 I was a research assistant in the “Hierarchy Effects in Kiranti and Broader Algic” research project. My work there was on the Algic languages (see Wikipedia) of indigenous North America and languages related by geographic nearness and similarity, particularly Karuk (Wikipedia). Some of my work on Karuk can be found on the Hierarchy Effects project wiki, and some is on my Linguistics page.

Other than democratic education and linguistics, my main areas of interest include civil rights and liberties, strategy and politics, the Internet, technology and game design.

Below are some of the talks and articles by/about me, regarding democratic education. Linguistics stuff (not much of it yet) will be on the Linguistics page.

Interviews

  • (January, 2009) Sandra Anusiewicz-Baer: “Powermentsch”, Familienmentsch [German]
  • (June 29, 2008) Simone Kosog: «Freiheit macht Kinder klug!», Tagesspiegel (also run in Potsdamer Neuste Nachrichten, see scan here: link) [German]
  • (August 3, 2005) Ole Schulz: «Industrielle Schulen ruinieren Schüler», taz [German]

Articles

Talks and appearances

2010

2009

  • (September 17) Discussion about Sudbury schools, Det frie Gymnasium, Copenhagen
  • (September 14) Open Q&A for parents, Den demokratiske skole, Roskilde, Denmark
  • (September 13,18) Workshops for staff, on Judicial Committee and staff selection and evaluation, Den Demokratiske Skole, Roskilde, Denmark
  • (August 7) Discussion about democratic education, national summer camp of the German Green Youth (Grüne Jugend), Burg Lutter
  • (August 1) Discussion about Sudbury schools, open session, EUDEC Annual Assembly 2009, Cieszyn, Poland
  • (February 9) «Unsere Kinder – die kleinen Forscher von heute, die großen Wissenschaftler von übermorgen?», for Freie Demokratische Schule NordWest e.V., Oldenburg (Oldb.)
  • (January 20) Presentation and discussion about Sudbury schooling, «Schule neu denken», Leipzig

2008

2005-7

  • (September, 2007) Tagung: Demokratische Grundschule, Univeristät Siegen, Siegen
  • (April 2006) “Self-Directed Education from the Perspective of a Student”, «Schule im Aufbruch», Universities of Freiburg and Leipzig (for Kapriole Freiburg and Freie Schule Leipzig)
  • (August 5, 2005) “Curiosity or Curriculum: a Provocation or a Contradiction?” (panel discussion), IDEC 2005, Berlin
  • (August 4, 2005) “Self-directed education: The perspectives of a Sudbury student”, IDEC 2005, Berlin

Miscellaneous

  • (August, 2008) Games Convention coverage for Gamer.co.il: 1 2 3 4 5 [Hebrew]
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