Not pitchers, but still not human

I have just come across two illustrations of the way children are generally ignored in discussions of education.
The first was in the draft of a book, in which the phrase "democratic education" was used to mean education in which the teachers had an equal voice with the head teachers and the government and all the layers in between. And what about the children?
The second was in an article by Neal Lawson in the Guardian on Feb 24. It was promisingly headed "Our children need more than just higher grades," and included the paragraph, "Education is more than churning out more efficient workers. It's not just what job we want but what kind of world we want to create. Children need the skills not just to play the game but the knowledge to change the rules."
So far so good. But then, "We should be debating how we can improve our schools through the participation of parents and the wider community." And what about the children?
Perhaps children are no longer seen as pitchers to be filled, but it seems as if they are still seen as animals to be trained. "Democratic education" means education in which children have an equal voice with adults. We should be debating how we can improve our schools through the participation of children.