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“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” – the three cornerstones of this country, and the reason it was founded in the first place. These were the “unalienable rights” that our founders declared belonged to every person – rights that could not be compromised, in a society ruled by a government whose primary purpose was […]
The Circumstance that Drives Evolution The key factor that enables evolution to take place is the uniqueness of each individual in every species, which in turn guarantees a wide variation in the nature and characteristics of the individuals making up the species’ population. Without variation, there can be no change, and without change, there can […]
Lisa Dolliver, a professional ceramicist (and also a professional musician), has been teaching kids all things pottery for quite a few years here. She is an amazing inspiration and teacher. I always wish I could spend every minute she is in school in the art room, but I am somehow not imaginative enough, and of […]
Sudbury Valley School Experience, pp. 121-136 For a long time I had the strong conviction that age mixing, which is one of the most obvious features of Sudbury Valley, is among the most important educational components of the school (as well as being required by its democratic principles). But whenever I tried to explain it, […]
I offer these thoughts as one who has and continues to work with young people and their families for over 35 years. I have been so intrigued by the SVS Model, that I had to experience it in person. Sudbury Valley School is not really a school. It is a living organism with the heart […]
It was Valentine’s Day. There had been something afoot for quite a few days, and there were lots of valentines – simple but perfect (Cori and her friends at work) – made for people to write inside. Pink, white, lavender and red papers were involved and there wasn’t even a whiff of commerce! How do […]
The great Greek historian and traveler Herodotus includes the following conversation with the queen of Persia in his histories. He is trying to explain how things are in the Greek democracies of the 5th century BC. Persian queen, Atossa, asked him, “Who are the Greeks?” “I am a Greek,” Herodotus answered. “When you look at […]
Sudbury Valley nay-sayers often point to the lack of grades and high school grade point averages as one of the great risks of sending your child to SVS. As I understand the argument, a good grade point average is necessary to get into the best colleges. Getting into the best colleges theoretically translates into better […]
[reprinted from The School Bull, Informal News about The Clearwater School] Feel in it Even swim in it And music noits Fill my bain This is the poem my son wrote to accompany a three-foot tall, three-dimensional art project he created while listening to music. This was the kindergarten project I had dreamed of, an […]
For many centuries, philosophers and scientists have been debating human knowledge: its nature, limits and origin. On this last point, we still are trying to understand how much the human being is born knowing and how much he discovers throughout his life. From the moment that we assume the position of those who defend that […]
It started with the 12-year-old girl down the street who told my daughter she would never get into college. I am sure many of our friends, who were devoting untold hours to ensure that their children excelled in public school, wanted to say the same thing to us. But they held their tongues. During our […]
During the Fall of 2017, Sudbury Valley hosted three guests from a school in Copenhagen called “Den Demokratiske Skole” which was inspired by SVS. Rikke Faxoe founded and was staff at the school for its seven years, until it closed in 2015. Rikke is keeping her dream alive, working to find a way to start […]
There is not a lot of talk these days about happiness. It’s considered more of an accidental condition than a fundamentally required, or expected, one. Company human resource officials don’t start their interviews with prospective employees by saying, “Are you the kind of person who values happiness in your life?” Educators don’t declare their primary goal […]
What do SVS students have in common? What are the distinguishing features of this vibrant collection of people whose energy strikes you the moment you encounter them? For a long time I have been trying to articulate the answers to these questions. Here is what I have concluded: They know what to do. They do […]
All through this past winter kids at school spent time outdoors when they could (usually), playing basketball, taking walks, climbing on the rocks, or using the swings and the slide. After the pond froze and was safe to walk on, many of them were on the pond, or careening down the slope on their sleds, […]
This is a tough question. SVS lacks the more traditional ways of bench marking a child’s progress through school. There are no parent-teacher conferences, no grades, no MCAS scores, no curriculum, no classes and no grade point averages. There is no homework nor textbooks that might give parents a hint of what is being “learned”. All […]
Have more questions? Interested in visiting the campus? We’d love to hear from you.
