Essays

In May of 1988, Norman Bauer, a Professor at SUNY Geneseo, asked for and got permission to come to Sudbury Valley School, to interview Daniel Greenberg, and basically get a look at the school. We were in our twentieth year at that point, and had… Read more ›

From the beginning, the word “trust” could be found in our literature here and there, pretty much casually—not with any great emphasis on it, certainly not with a whole essay about it. It was a kind of underlying characterization—there’s a lot of… Read more ›

“Mobility was a big part of what was different about the school from any other institution. Mobility and randomness together let you find the things you're interested in. You're not stuck anywhere . . . the whole day you're doing stuff you're… Read more ›

The largest industrial complex in the country today is the combined educational, medical, pharmaceutical industry that, as we’ll see, works together to provide tools to assist a ruling academic elite. I want to discuss the invention of new diseases… Read more ›

I. We often hear the question asked, “What does the staff at Sudbury Valley School do?” This is not a foolish question to ask about a school which proudly declares that the employees hired by the School Meeting are not designated “teachers”, and… Read more ›

Danny: I’m interested in finding out what’s going on now at Abundant Acres, David and Jen’s entrepreneurial enterprise. David: It’s a multi-layered thing. The outer, most obvious, layer is just creating an economically viable farm business that… Read more ›

Mimsy: This is a recording of an interview with Alli Harvey, who graduated in 2004, and we reproduced the actual recording here. She lives in Alaska, and comes to Massachusetts to visit her family here. At the time of this conversation,… Read more ›

Somewhat to my surprise, I have recently gained a new insight into a key element of what goes on here, in an area that I thought had been thoroughly analyzed from ever-so-many angles from the very first days of the school’s founding. It came… Read more ›

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… Read more ›

You could be forgiven for thinking that this is a silly question. After all, it’s fun to play, and what more of a reason does one need? But why is it fun? Why has Nature provided our species with an activity such as this that is fun, so that we’ll… Read more ›

As I write, I am looking outside at the beautiful campus in the morning sun. Children of all ages are all over – running, playing, calling each other, romping. Inside, voices can be heard from the adjacent rooms – and sometimes floating up from the… Read more ›

As Hanna tells the story, one day she and Mikel were chatting and casually looking out the window, when they spotted two of our youngest students walking down the road towards school, deep in an animated conversation. The scene prompted Mikel… Read more ›

Hanna: I am talking to Teddy Barnes, who is 17. He has been in school 2½ years and has served on the JC twice, the second time in October, 2017. Hanna: Teddy, have you ever been brought up? Teddy: I have—for littering, once which was an accident, of… Read more ›

The vast enterprise that has been created for the purpose of educating all of the nation’s youth is founded on a number of hypotheses. Together, they give the appearance of a powerful set of assumptions that cannot be reasonably challenged. They… Read more ›

The role of courses in learning has been on my mind a lot recently, largely due to conversations with various present and former School Meeting members. There is continuing pressure on the part of the outside educational community to make people at… Read more ›

“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… Read more ›

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… Read more ›

I am writing this on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Neue Schule Hamburg, to offer congratulations and a tiny bit of retrospection. I work at Sudbury Valley School, in the United States, and we are celebrating our 50th anniversary this year… Read more ›