Essays
The following is a speech (very slightly edited) delivered on June 29, 1993, to a public meeting sponsored by a group founding a school, Timpanogos Village, in Provo, Utah.
I’ve come here this evening to talk about the Sudbury Valley School. The… Read more ›
In general, play has gotten a bad press in Western society. It is considered to be the activity that is least useful economically, socially, even ethically. It is associated with laziness and shiftlessness. It is the antonym of “work”. At best, it… Read more ›
Having personally experienced both public schools and Sudbury Valley, I would like to express a few of the reasons why I think that Sudbury was the right choice for me, and why I think that the public schools are harming today’s youth.
I would start… Read more ›
This is an edited transcript of a talk given at Koonan University, near Kobe, Japan, to the psychology class of Professor Hage Daishin on April 29, 1999. It was delivered in English and translated consecutively into Japanese.
I would like to begin… Read more ›
It’s another snow day. I’m shoveling our sidewalk, while my husband is working on a talk about visual presentations of work, and I’m thinking about what he’s doing, what I’m doing, about what “work” is, and about Sudbury Valley.
If you’d look at my… Read more ›
Note: “In Appreciation of Liberty” was posted on the SVS blog (www.sudval.org) on June 9, 2014. It elicited several fascinating comments which, we felt, enriched the conversation, so we thought you might enjoy reading it as a “package”.
With all the… Read more ›
When visitors arrive at the Sudbury Valley School for the first time, they usually get the impression that they’ve come during “recess.” Everywhere children are playing and happily enjoying themselves in various ways. If they stay a while, they… Read more ›
Every one of us here this evening has something in common. We have all come here because we are thinking about a subject which is very much in the public eye and is very much a subject of controversy right now. In this country, at this moment, there… Read more ›
Some issues that have been crying for attention
This essay started with some thoughts I had about the concept of decentralization in the modern world. I was focussing on this because I had a feeling that decentralization is a key idea closely… Read more ›
There is a question which I dread and which I am invariably always asked. It is: “If you say that the children at SVS are supposed to be in charge of their lives at the school and do and learn what they want when and how they want, what then is that… Read more ›
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Not long ago, an article appeared in a major urban newspaper, which labeled Sudbury Valley as a “School with No Teachers.” Soon after, the newspaper that serves the Metro-West Boston region (in which Sudbury Valley is located) featured us in a big… Read more ›
Many parents in Hong Kong (and in other places) want their children to study at and graduate from a prestigious university.
While for some this is just a pipedream others start serious preparations shortly after the offspring is born. The most… Read more ›
The Hidden Power of Conversation
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We have always stressed the central role conversation plays in the way people learn – and, in particular, in the way students learn at Sudbury Valley. The students recognize this clearly, and often talk about the… Read more ›
During the school year 1997-98, as part of Sudbury Valley School’s Thirtieth Anniversary celebrations, a series of six talks was presented on the theme: What We Know Now That We Didn’t Know Thirty Years Ago. This is an edited version of the second… Read more ›
(edited from a presentation to the Cascade Valley School Assembly)
Over the years, we found that the parents who choose to send their children to Sudbury Valley School very few things in common. They don’t seem to come from the same socio-economic… Read more ›
This article originally appeared in the Sudbury Valley School NEWSLETTER, and it has since been published in The Sudbury Valley School Experience, 1992, Sudbury Valley School Press, Framingham, MA.
Have you ever noticed the uniqueness of the way… Read more ›
You “brought people up” and that’s kind of a funny thing. If an adult had asked me, I don’t know if I would have been able to explain “bringing people up.” What does that mean? [p.172] 1
The judicial committee was your tool for making people… Read more ›
Reprinted from The Sudbury Valley School NEWSLETTER; vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 3-6
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On at least four occasions during the past eight years, people have attempted to film documentaries of The Sudbury Valley School, for presentation to the public. Two of… Read more ›