Essays
Some Autobiographical Reflections1
I have zealously guarded my failing report cards from the 10th grade, which was to be my last year of secondary education in a traditional school. And I'll admit, I have a bit of pride in them still. One of them… Read more ›
I think the United States at the dawn of a new millennium has got itself into a very big pickle in the matter of education. To explain this pickle I'm going to set out two definitions and then tell two stories.
The word to be defined is student. The… Read more ›
The most fundamental educational lesson we hope our students will learn is that they are responsible for their own education, and in fact for their own lives. Actually internalizing this, and all that goes with it is the best lesson they can have… Read more ›
This paper is based on a talk delivered in October 2002 to a graduate course in the Education Department of Framingham State College.
Sudbury Valley School is, as we know, based on principles that are radically different from those underlying… Read more ›
From the transcript of an interview of Michael Greenberg conducted by Rhonda Goebel as part of a work entitled, Research on Manifestations of Critical Thinking in Children's Spontaneous Talk. The transcript has been only lightly edited, so as to… Read more ›
Every word in education is connected to some preconceived idea in people's minds. This means that every time we write or talk about Sudbury Valley School, we have to try to break these connections, and this is a very difficult task. The main problem… Read more ›
I enjoyed listening to the discussion at the Assembly evening last November in which a student panel provided information about School Corporations, the Judicial Committee, and how the School Meeting operates, among other subjects. What I enjoy the… Read more ›
I.
"There are three activities everybody does regardless of culture: make music, decorate things, and talk. Talking, making music, and decorating things are the three things that seem to be basically hardwired into the brains of everybody, that seem… Read more ›
Children Are People1
The Setting
My first memory of people being aware that there's some kind of a problem with education in this country dates back to 1956, when the Russians sent up the first earth-orbiting satellite. That event was really seminal… Read more ›
Note: Based on talks given at Framingham State College and in Halifax, Nova Scotia, during the 2001-2002 school year.
I. The Setting
I would like to begin by placing the whole question of schooling and education in a broader historical and cultural… Read more ›
Note: Talks delivered in Shimonoseki, Japan, on April 19, 1999 by Dan and Hanna Greenberg, as part of their Japanese tour. These talks were followed by a brief slide presentation of pictures of life at school, with commentary by Dan, and then by a… Read more ›
Thoughts of a Liberty Valley School Co-Founder about his Sudbury Valley School Education1
Founding a Sudbury School
Setting up a school means going through a year and a half of meetings, where you're trying to educate people to the model who don't… Read more ›
How it Became the Primal Force to Create and Drive the Modern World1
I.
I'd like to start by telling you how I got to this subject, because this helps understand how I got to the conclusions I drew. It all began in a history seminar. We were… Read more ›