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Nothing disturbs visitors to Sudbury Valley School more than the sight of children of all ages playing freely all day long. The image contradicts every notion people have of what a school should be.
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SVS in the Era of COVID-19
Remote Learning: When Governor Baker announced on April 29th that schools would remain closed in the state of Massachusetts through the end of the school year, he also emphasized the importance of continuing and expanding “remote learning” for the duration of the school year. I found myself wondering two things: What exactly does “remote learning” […]
SVS: Empowering Kids to Meet the Real World
It’s amazing that anybody considers that what’s called “a school” in the traditional meaning of the term has anything to do with preparing children for adulthood. To the contrary: it doesn’t let them talk; doesn’t let them move; it squelches their creativity; it doesn’t let them control what they do with their time; and it […]
Dancing in the Rain
October 2, 2019 was a very rainy day, just the kind of day to stay indoors and be cozy. Not so at SVS. At least half of the student body was outside, either disregarding the rain altogether, or carrying out their activities as if it wasn’t wet outside. They used the swings, slid down […]
The Whole Is Not the Sum of Its Parts
People often say to me, “What you’re doing at Sudbury Valley School is really amazing. There are so many things that are wonderful about it. How can we incorporate some of the more important aspects of what you do into our school?” Usually these are teachers in the public school system, or in some traditional […]
The Link Between the One and the Many
One of the objections most frequently raised against Sudbury Valley School as an appropriate educational environment for children growing up in contemporary America is that the school, in focusing on self-knowledge, promotes the development of narcissistic adults who lack a sense of community. Sudbury Valley’s philosophy is seen as glorifying the individual at the expense […]
“Do What You Wish”: The Sudbury Valley School and the Neverending Story of Learning
“Do what you wish.” Readers, at least those of my generation, might remember this motto from Michael Ende’s book The Neverending Story1. The student Bastian, hero of this romantically tortuous coming-of-age novel, finds the call to do what he wants in a book that he first steals and then reads secretly, hiding in his school’s […]
Fairhaven’s First Podcast; an Interview with Hanna Greenberg
Hanna reads her blog, Celebrating Fairhaven At 20 posted June 18, 2018, in which she gives her perspective as a visitor at Fairhaven the day before the Interview took place. Mark: We’re here with Hanna Greenberg, who is a guest, and we’re going to talk about Sudbury Valley and Fairhaven School. My name is Mark McCaig. I’m one of the […]
All Day, Every Day
Our son recently spent two weeks visiting his grandmother in Paris by himself. It was a wonderful adventure that allowed him to explore his independence and experience the world in a new way. He had an amazing time and came back with a lot of great stories. One of these stories was about the strong […]
The Spiral Staircase
Ever since I started teaching music composition at a conservatory, I’ve been comparing the progress of the college students with the Sudbury Valley School kids I’ve observed in my time as a staff member. In each case, they are trying to work out whatever problem is in front of them, and move on to the […]
The Learning Disability Epidemic: Who Is Playing with our Minds?
Here’s a real puzzle: when I was growing up, there were no such things as “learning disabilities” in our classrooms. There were kids of all kinds of different abilities and interests, and we were just plain different from each other. Nobody said that a person who couldn’t do math or couldn’t read well had “a […]
“Kids Don’t Learn Anything at SVS”
The over-riding fear that parents express when they approach this model of education is that kids aren’t learning anything. Of course, when confronted, they will admit that kids do learn things all the time without the vaguest coercion, but it still doesn’t make them much happier. It is clear to them that it is not […]
Sudbury Valley and the Art of . . . Art Room Maintenance!
It’s no secret that doing art is usually a messy affair. People cut and paste, use liquid paints, clay and glazes, water colors and beads, make collages with images cut from magazines, and so on. At SVS, the art room is open to all our students, who range in age from four to nineteen. And […]
What Is “agency”?
On the radio a couple of weeks ago, I heard a man talking about educational reform, and what they consider progress made with young children’s education in Illinois in recent years. He talked about a goal, which he called “agency”. The word struck a chord. We do, indeed, all want our children to have […]
The Outsider/Insider View — a Peek into the Life of SVS
After so many years of learning about Sudbury schooling, and starting several similar schools in the Netherlands, as well as helping others in Europe start schools, I finally visited Sudbury Valley during its regular school year. I have been here before twice during Summer workshops, in 2005 and 2008. In those days I saw […]
Is SVS Intentionally LGBTQ Friendly?
A few months ago, my kids were planning a big sleepover of SVS students at our house. Besides the usual suspects, there was one new name. I immediately start asking what I thought were the key sleepover questions: Did they like frozen pizza? Were they vegan, vegetarian, Kosher or gluten free? However, most important to […]