The Children's Parliament

The parliament at Dom Sierot met regularly to debate policy — rules of conduct, allocation of shared resources, responses to conflicts affecting the community. Every child had a voice. Every child could propose legislation. Decisions were made by vote, and results were binding — not symbolically, as with modern student councils that produce recommendations adults may or may not implement, but actually. The children decided; the institution followed. Adults participated but did not control. Korczak himself could be outvoted, and was, on multiple occasions. When the parliament decided something he disagreed with, he accepted. This was not performance but institutional expression of conviction: that children are capable of self-governance, and that the exercise of self-governance is the mechanism through which the capacity for self-governance develops.