Next Open House: Saturday, Oct 24, 1pm – 4pm RSVP today
Resources
Collection
How Children Learn
Children are born learners. When given time, space, and freedom, they explore the world with intensity, curiosity, and purpose. This section focuses on what learning looks like in the absence of coercion — how skills develop through play, interest, experimentation, and real engagement with others. These essays challenge familiar assumptions about teaching and reveal learning as a natural, lifelong process.
-
“It’s a Great School, But Not for MY Kid!” “Really?”
As they decide whether or not to send their children here, or as they fret about their children while they are enrolled here, there are…
-
“Just Walk Away”, A Conversation
Mimsy: Yesterday I was talking to a professor of philosophy and his daughter, who’s about 13 or 14, and she said, “The stuff that you…
-
“What Grade Are You In?” The Folly of Separating Children by Age
School’s a place for kids to learn. Everybody agrees to that. That’s why they exist. Well, but kids learn all the time; it’s part of…
-
“What’s So Important About Classroom Material?”, A Conversation
Dan: One thing I can’t understand is how people have confidence in the material that’s being taught in classrooms, whether it’s elementary school, middle school,…
-
“Don’t You See I Don’t Have Time for This?”
[reprinted from The School Bull, Informal News about The Clearwater School] Feel in it Even swim in it And music noits Fill my bain This…
-
“I Want To Be the Age I Am Right Now!”
I realized that one of the kids in school who had been here for many years was about to turn eleven. (How dare she get…
-
“Kids Don’t Learn Anything at SVS”
The over-riding fear that parents express when they approach this model of education is that kids aren’t learning anything. Of course, when confronted, they will…
-
21st Century Children and the Cyberworld: The Mind Transformed
What kids are doing in the 21st century – and they are practically born with it now – is right off the bat, linking into…
-
A “Simple” Walk in the Woods
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…
-
A Lecture on Play
Play – the activity central to people in their most accelerated learning mode – . . . is the most effective instrument for learning.
-
A Matter of Priorities
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…
-
A Music Corp Reinstated: The Nascent Voyage
On May 9th at noon the SVS Music Corp gave its first concert since it was disbanded three years ago. I was part and parcel…
-
A Place to Grow
The school was first conceived half a century ago, in the Fall of 1965. In so many ways, it was a different world back then. Talking to young people about life in those days is like relating stories about some distant far-gone period in the history of mankind. No laptops? No smartphones? No worldwide web?
-
A Scientist at Heart
“I attend the Sudbury Valley School. . . It is based on the idea that humans are innately curious, and that, when left in charge…
-
A Spa for the Soul
One of our particularly lovely and fascinating bankers was visiting recently. It was not her first time, but being here makes most people, if they…
-
A Sudbury Valley School Glossary
When talking about the school, we all find others confused about what we believe, and about what we do. As with most confusion, much of…
Is Sudbury Valley Right For You?
Have more questions? Interested in visiting the campus? We’d love to hear from you.