The British current model of education has turned schools into exam factories and further education colleges and universities into skills factories for British industry. In their book, "From Exam Factories to Communities of Discovery: the Democratic Route," the authors offer an alternative way of thinking and talking about education, as well as practising it. Their contention is that the current diagnosis simply ignores the main threats to collective wellbeing, such as global warming, rising inequalities, unregulated financial markets and a feral mass media which systematically distorts information. People need to build communities of discovery where learners and educators work together democratically to discover new ways of addressing these threats. Learning has to become the central organising principle of all institutions, but government ministers and the Department for Education have to show that they too are capable of learning. In the communities of discovery, principled dissent by staff and students, far from being stifled, is positively encouraged as a means of improving institutions from within. Above all, introducing democracy into schools, colleges and universities is needed. It is not a subject to be taught. It has to be experienced as the most equitable and harmonious means of living, learning and working together.