People often ask if there is a problem with bullying at Sudbury Valley School given that all these kids of all different ages are mixed together in a seemingly haphazard and unordered way. I tell them that bullying is quite rare; to which they… Read more ›
Blog
What is the justification for trying to guide children and tell them what they need to be successful adults? Does anyone have a right to interfere with their process of finding out who they are and what their purpose in life is?
This is a confession: It took me many, many years to learn how not to pounce and use what are called "teaching moments" at home with my own children and here at school.
Like most people, I like to tell stories, to talk about things that I know and… Read more ›
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The question I pose in the title may seem outrageous: of course someone cares! Everyone cares, don’t they? When media outlets feature a story that is explicitly about some instance of child abuse, outrage is expressed on all sides. And certainly… Read more ›
Matt Wolf and Daniel Greenberg discuss pursuing interests and passions at Sudbury Valley. How do students find out what interests them in the first place? Are they missing out on important subjects by focusing on what they're interested … Read more ›
School's a place for kids to learn. Everybody agrees to that. That's why they exist. Well, but kids learn all the time; it's part of human nature to learn. People have known that forever. The opening sentence of one of the most famous books ever… Read more ›
One of the criticisms I hear from time to time about Sudbury Valley School is along the lines of, “Well, doing what you want all day and making democratic decisions about the way your community is run, that's all well and good, but when they get… Read more ›
Hanna: A question we hear all the time is: what is a typical day like at Sudbury Valley? What do kids do here?
Mikel: Over the years there have been a lot of kids at the school, and they all have different “typical” days, and there are 180 days a… Read more ›
I was talking to a friend of mine a while ago. He's a college professor at one of the local universities, and he was talking to me about the different educational backgrounds that the kids who came to that school experienced and how it affected them… Read more ›
Matt: Why no curriculum, if this is a place for people to become educated for life in the 21st century? Actually, have you even updated the curriculum in the half-century of this school's existence?
Dan: We didn't need to. “No curriculum” was… Read more ›
When we say that we are “bringing people up”, it can mean anything from bringing up a person in a conversation to bringing up our kids according to certain principles. At SVS, “bringing a person up” (i.e., filing a complaint against someone with… Read more ›
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… Read more ›
This spring, there's been quite a lot of talk, once again, about a book called Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding. Published in the ‘50's, it is a piece of fiction about what happens when a bunch of kids get stranded on an island, and it… Read more ›
Dan: Recently, a group of alumni on their own initiative decided to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sudbury Valley School, and invited all alumni from everywhere in the world to come and join them. Amazingly, almost 200 alumni came, of all… Read more ›
Dan: One thing I can't understand is how people have confidence in the material that's being taught in classrooms, whether it's elementary school, middle school, high school or college. They're taught from textbooks or from prepared notes. And… Read more ›