Younger children

This post was originally published in The Sudbury Valley School Journal, volume 30., number 4, March 2001. “When God began to create heaven and earth, the universe was chaos and disorder, and darkness enveloped the void.” (Genesis 1:1) One day I was… Read more ›

I had an interesting discussion with a five year old SVS student who was irked by something a seven year old from a traditional school had said to him, namely, that she knew more than he did because she was older and already half way through second… Read more ›

I often ask myself why I am so enamored of the December ritual of making gingerbread houses (and trees) at Sudbury Valley. It is a big deal! Everyone has to put a lot of work into it. Not everyone in the school, but a much wider cross-section than… Read more ›

Walking into our art room is usually fascinating. It seems that most young people love to do art in all sort of ways. They make things out of clay. They draw and paint and make amazing collages. And, they do many other things, like building… Read more ›

Sometimes when I’m explaining SVS to people who aren’t familiar with it, they’ll ask me how kids will be prepared for the real world if they can do whatever they want all day. It’s not easy to explain in words -- or at least not without a lot of… Read more ›

This week's post was written by Hanna Greenberg. Friday is my day off, but I had to see somebody at school, so I went there at about noon. I came upon a magnificent scene: two tables were set up for tie dying on a large patch of grass, and about a… Read more ›

When I was still a kid at SVS, Hanna, a staff member, would often ask me a question I never really knew how to answer. She'd ask, "Jesse, how did you develop such good language skills? You have such a large vocabulary, where did you learn it?" I… Read more ›

If you’ve never heard of Minecraft, I’m guessing you live under a rock. Or maybe just off the grid. Or more likely, you don’t spend much time around kids of any age. According to its maker, Mojang, Minecraft is “a game about breaking and placing… Read more ›