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Resources
Collection
Life in a Democratic School
Sudbury Valley School is not governed by adults for children, but by a community of equals. This section describes what that looks like in practice: School Meeting, the Judicial Committee, shared responsibility, and the everyday work of living together democratically. These essays show how structure and freedom coexist — and how accountability, fairness, and respect are learned by doing, not by instruction.
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“Do What You Wish”: The Sudbury Valley School and the Neverending Story of Learning
“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,…
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A School for Today
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…
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A Tour De Force
In the car on the way home from the Maynard Fine Arts Theater on Saturday, January 26, Danny and I were elated. We had just…
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All ages welcome
As a new staff member, working at this school has been a wonderful learning experience. It has allowed me to notice certain patterns and common…
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All Day, Every Day
Our son recently spent two weeks visiting his grandmother in Paris by himself. It was a wonderful adventure that allowed him to explore his independence…
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Celebrating Fairhaven at 20
Twenty years ago a Sudbury type school was established in the state of Maryland. Its group of founders, with help, bought twelve acres in a…
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Children Come First
An interview of Mimsy Sadofsky, by Daria Brezinski for her weekly radio show. This interview succinctly describes most of the important aspects of the school…
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Democratic Schooling: What Harvard Won’t Teach You
A talk given at the Harvard Graduate School of Education by Mimsy Sadofsky, an SVS staff member, and Anna Rossetti, an SVS student, (at the…
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Elements of a Fair Judicial System
Its judicial procedure is a community’s way of dealing with . . . the tension between the individual’s desires and the community’s needs.
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Free at Last
Our best-selling description of the school is bursting with the excitement of life at Sudbury Valley.
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Is SVS Intentionally LGBTQ Friendly?
A few months ago, my kids were planning a big sleepover of SVS students at our house. Besides the usual suspects, there was one new…
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Let’s Make a Deal
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…
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Let’s Design a School
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…
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Long Overdue
“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” – the three cornerstones of this country, and the reason it was founded in the first place. These were the…
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Modeling the School’s Core Values: The Most Important Function of Sudbury Valley’s Staff
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…
Is Sudbury Valley Right For You?
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