Blog

When I was growing up, I cherished every opportunity not to go to school.  If I had a cold, I would play up the symptoms to get a day off. Snow days were manna from heaven. And so it was with my own children in public school. As parents with… Read more ›
At Sudbury Valley, we often celebrate weddings. Some are simple impromptu games, and others are elaborate ceremonies, like the one we had in mid-September outdoors on the back lawn, on a beautiful bright day. What I liked about this wedding was the… Read more ›
We’ve all been brought up on the old adage, “You can’t tell a book by its cover.” The point of this well-worn piece of ancient wisdom is simple: don’t judge the reality of a situation from its outward appearance. Even if you are put off (or… Read more ›
Welcome to the new school year. We are more excited than ever about starting school this year and about (okay, I admit it) the incredible quality of the student body. Yes, we have new and visiting students, and yes they may only make it better, but… Read more ›
My purpose in writing is to help parents who are thinking about Sudbury Valley School. Those parents who are attracted to this model for their children need to provide them with the support that will make their SVS experience most effective. They do… Read more ›
This year we had a three-week summer session at Sudbury Valley, open to those who were regular students during the school year. It is hard to explain how lovely it was. I don’t think there were more than 15 or 16 kids for any of the three weeks, and… Read more ›
This post was originally published in The Sudbury Valley School Journal, volume 30., number 4, March 2001. “When God began to create heaven and earth, the universe was chaos and disorder, and darkness enveloped the void.” (Genesis 1:1) One day I was… Read more ›
From the point of view of a brand new student, the school is an astonishing (if sometimes overwhelming) place. The freedom to manage one’s own time is generally the first aspect of the school noticed, and it is what attracts a new student first. The… Read more ›
In 1850 the noted French economist Frederic Bastiat wrote a famous essay with the same title, and with a very insightful point: lots of times there are situations where we have no trouble seeing their good side, but don’t think about another side,… Read more ›
With all the difficulties that beset us in our personal lives, work environments, and world affairs, it is easy to lose sight of the precious gift of liberty that we enjoy in this country. Recently, a sad event occurred that served as a sharp… Read more ›
I had an interesting discussion with a five year old SVS student who was irked by something a seven year old from a traditional school had said to him, namely, that she knew more than he did because she was older and already half way through second… Read more ›
This post originally appeared in The Sudbury Valley School Journal, volume 27, no. 5, May 1998. A young girl of nine or ten asked me to teach her math. I gave her some problems which she enjoyed doing. Next day she came to me with many sheets of… Read more ›
I was very amused when I heard that my children were "Playing School" at Sudbury Valley. I learned about this one morning when my daughter urgently needed to print out some "worksheets" before we left for school. God forbid, a teacher arrive at… Read more ›
Sometimes what you wish for has consequences that you wished would not bother you. A case in point is the way SVS students who enrolled when they were very young tend to grow up to be persistent -- and capable of getting what they want. So, quite… Read more ›
Private schools host Open Houses to attract new families. We started having them about 10 years ago - a little late to the game, because we had been using a host of other methods to spread the word and bring in new students. But we figured: everyone… Read more ›