Community

Some people, who have only a passing knowledge about Sudbury Valley, are troubled and offended by the fact that our school relies on the rule of written law, rather than on guidelines or common sense. Some see our law-book, and presume that a… Read more ›

There is a myth out there, a false idea called the “real world”. “It’s not like that in the real world.” “When you get out there in the real world, you’ll see.” The idea fed to children and students is that they must do unpleasant things to prepare… Read more ›

We often hear people talk about Sudbury schools as "unschooling schools". Besides the fact that the actual phrase, to me, does not even make sense, I think the people who use it overlook a lot of dissimilarities that are important keystones as to… Read more ›

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 so old?) I said, “Oh, I wish you were still 7½ .” What I meant, of course, was that the years go by too fast, and we remember… Read more ›

I confess that I wasn't thinking about happiness in 1968, when my husband and I decided to send our children to the almost-open Sudbury Valley School. We had unfortunately noticed that public school seemed to cause our little son to feel… Read more ›

How can every person be above average? It sounds impossible, but it is a given in the community at Sudbury Valley. Living life with a measuring stick, watching to be certain that you are doing OK by others’ standards, and getting a thumbs up that… Read more ›

Take One by Daniel Greenberg If you happen to be sitting in the large front room called “the sewing room", you might notice that every day at 11:00 a.m., eight people walk into the adjacent book-lined “seminar room". What you are seeing… Read more ›

"Where do you work?" "At Sudbury Valley School." "What do you do?" "Nothing." Doing nothing at Sudbury Valley requires a great deal of energy and discipline, and many years of experience. I get better at it every year, and it amuses me to see how I… Read more ›

Somewhat to my surprise, I have recently gained a new insight into a key element of what goes on here, in an area that I thought had been thoroughly analyzed from ever-so-many angles from the very first days of the school’s founding. It came… Read more ›

People often ask if there is a problem with bullying at Sudbury Valley School given that all these kids of all different ages are mixed together in a seemingly haphazard and unordered way. I tell them that bullying is quite rare; to which they… Read more ›

One of the criticisms I hear from time to time about Sudbury Valley School is along the lines of, “Well, doing what you want all day and making democratic decisions about the way your community is run, that's all well and good, but when they get… Read more ›

People often say to me, “What you're doing at Sudbury Valley School is really amazing. There are so many things that are wonderful about it. How can we incorporate some of the more important aspects of what you do into our school?” Usually these… Read more ›

Ever since I started teaching music composition at a conservatory, I’ve been comparing the progress of the college students with the Sudbury Valley School kids I’ve observed in my time as a staff member. In each case, they are trying to work out… Read more ›

It’s no secret that doing art is usually a messy affair. People cut and paste, use liquid paints, clay and glazes, water colors and beads, make collages with images cut from magazines, and so on. At SVS, the art room is open to all our students,… Read more ›

After so many years of learning about Sudbury schooling, and starting several similar schools in the Netherlands, as well as helping others in Europe start schools, I finally visited Sudbury Valley during its regular school year. I have been… Read more ›