Essays
Editor's note: In early 1999, this series of op-ed pieces was published in the Metro-West Daily News.
The Notion that All Children Undergo the Same Developmental Processes at the Same Rate
published January 29, 1999
The MCAS tests, and the so-… Read more ›
Acquiring wisdom is the highest goal of education. To be wise is to have the ability to lead a good, useful, and productive life, both as an individual and as a member of a community. From earliest times, wisdom has been recognized as the finest… Read more ›
This has been reprinted by permission of Evelyn Hardesty. It appeared originally in the Newsletter of the Diablo Valley School, aDVerSaria, in January of 2004, and also appears on her website, www.hipmama.com.
I'm in the fourth grade. I trudge… Read more ›
Note: This is an edited transcript of a talk delivered at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia on February 9, 2001. In editing, the flavor of an oral presentation has been preserved.
My focus, as you might expect, is the concept behind… Read more ›
Bruce is a staff member of the Alpine Valley School, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. This article is reprinted, with permission, from the Journal of Alpine Valley School, volume 10, number 1, October 2003.
Often in JAVS you’ll find a comparison of Sudbury… Read more ›
Is there a way to avoid to exposure of children to violence? If there is, should it be a goal?
I believe the goal of education should be for children to know the world and to learn to understand it. To exclude knowledge of a portion of the real… Read more ›
“When God began to create heaven and earth, the universe was chaos and disorder, and darkness enveloped the void.”
Genesis 1:1
One day not long ago I was driving along, listening to the radio. I don’t remember what the subject was but the word “… Read more ›
Sometimes it is a wonder to me that I keep on working at the school. I am saying this not because I am bored with the sameness of the things that we encounter, or with the lack of new challenges that being in the same institution for over thirty… Read more ›
How do you parent a child who is having a school experience totally different from your own?1
I can't really refer to William as a child anymore, now that he is sixteen. We actually went test driving pickup trucks over this past weekend. He has… Read more ›
An Insider’s View of Student Directed Learning
I want to start with a bit of background on why I am making a presentation here.1 My name is Debra Sivia Sadofsky. I am a 39 year old professional in the high-tech industry. I work as an e-learning… Read more ›
We grow up making assumptions, which are derived from our culture. We build on these assumptions to form our view on how the world works. Many are self-correcting because of new information. But some of these assumptions are so obviously true, so… Read more ›
Note: Edited version of a talk given in Portland, OR on March 9, 1991.
It's very difficult to begin a discussion about Sudbury Valley School, because it takes a certain fundamental change in mindset to grasp what we're trying to do. We're not… Read more ›
The uniqueness of Sudbury schools is the value we place on choice rather than control. That is the new paradigm! Most adults associated with the Sudbury schools grew up in homes and schools where the adults who cared for and educated us decided what… Read more ›
Every year, word gets around that certain students in the school are receiving outside tutoring arranged by their parents in subjects that their parents think are important for them to know - subjects that the students are not pursuing on their own… Read more ›
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 ›
Note: This is an edited version of a talk presented to the 2002 Workshop for Staff of Sudbury Schools and for Startup Groups about to open new Sudbury Schools, held at Sudbury Valley School in July 2002.
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For a long time I've held that as soon as… Read more ›
During a School Meeting debate in the late spring of the year 2000, someone made an oft-repeated point: "If the people involved in this activity really cared, they would be here and promote their cause." It is a refrain that I have heard often from… Read more ›
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 paper covered with similar problems which she made for herself and then solved. She is obviously… Read more ›