Tagged:
Learning
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If I had to choose one topic to place at the very core of every child's educational experience, I would have no trouble identifying it: how to deal with failure. Yet this is a subject carefully avoided in traditional mainstream schools. On the… Read more ›
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We have a lot to muse about as we struggle to make ourselves comfortable in a world that seems to be mainly for people whose brains are more advanced than ours.
Who is we? Well, it is my generation, for sure. It is in no sense today's generation,… Read more ›
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The phrase “self-directed learning” is used in education circles all over the Internet, and it is often applied to Sudbury Valley. But the term is misleading, and is misapplied. Sudbury Valley has nothing to do with self-directed learning.
In the… Read more ›
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This question has clearly been answered by our society with a resounding “YES”. It is an accepted notion that all children should learn at the same pace, and stringent measures are taken to ensure that this is the case and that there be “no child… Read more ›
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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 a whole series of concerns parents talk about and worry about that are related to what looks like the random way… Read more ›
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Our family recently moved to Framingham to be closer to SVS, and during my long hours of packing I found a large plastic bin filled with my son Gavinʼs elementary school papers. These were papers from kindergarten through the middle of 5th grade,… Read more ›
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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 ›
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We were talking about birthdays, Audrey, Ben, Christine and I. All three children had just turned six and their birthday parties were recalled with much joy.
As a normally foolish adult I asked the kind of questions that kids consider really dumb.… Read more ›
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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 ›
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There is a stigma against people who are perceived to be “doing nothing". The greatest fear that most adults have, vis-a-vis children enrolled in Sudbury Valley, is that those children will do nothing. These fears arise from the failure to see… Read more ›
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Mimsy took the following photograph at school recently:
She gave the photo the title "Men at Work". At first sight, the title seems whimsical, though the photo itself is a perfect gem.
I couldn’t stop thinking: is there more than whimsy to… Read more ›
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Hanna: People who hear about the school often say: so everybody will just work on what’s easy for them. And my answer to them is: “Well, what’s wrong with that?” However, my observation is that it’s not true, that a lot of the kids work on whatever… Read more ›
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"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 ›
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Everybody sees that the notion that kids have to go to a building--to a school--and have to be taught stuff in person by a teacher who talks at them, has been flushed down the toilet.
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What is the justification for trying to guide children and tell them what they need to be successful adults? Does anyone have a right to interfere with their process of finding out who they are and what their purpose in life is?