Tagged:

Younger children

Blog post |
It was warm outside. It was raining a lot and of course lots of kids were thrilled. Oh what fun it is to stand outside and let the pouring rain drench you! The mother in me wants to tell them to go inside and put on dry clothes, but the child in me… Read more ›
Blog post |
While I was reading Daniel Greenberg's essay (“Are 1000 Pictures Worth One Word?”) on why it has been so difficult to convey the SVS experience in film and pictures, I found myself thinking about the evolution of my own understanding about what… Read more ›
Blog post |
During the last Open House, in October of 2015, there was a remarkable interaction. It didn't surprise me, but it greatly pleased me. Unfortunately, I don't think the guests who were with me had enough context for what they saw to appreciate it.… Read more ›
Blog post |
I am often asked why I keep working at Sudbury Valley after so many years, doing the same things over and over and over. People wonder what sustains my interest in going camping at Nickerson State Park for five days, followed by an overnight at… Read more ›
Blog post |
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 came to me with many sheets of paper covered with similar problems which she made for herself and then solved. She is obviously… Read more ›
Blog post |
Last Spring, after a long stretch of cold gray days, we finally had a warm, sunny day. Virtually everyone at SVS was outside. I was eating my lunch at the picnic table and was idly watching the various activities all over. Kids were running, sunning… Read more ›
Blog post |
This post was written by our Office Manager, Jean Cote. Recently, I had the opportunity (privilege) to introduce a calculator in all its glory to a young, inquisitive student for (I don’t know it to be fact, but it seemed to be) her first time.… Read more ›
Blog post |
Aren’t they adorable, all those little munchkins, big munchkins, bigger than munchkins, playing in the snow? Isn’t it nice that the school has so many good sliding places? One can even slide right onto the middle of the pond—not usually an option,… Read more ›
Blog post |
When my oldest daughter, Sarah, was three and a half, we had a 20-minute drive home from her nursery school, a special place where I believed Sarah had the freedom to grow and learn without imposed academic structure. On each drive home I would ask… Read more ›
Blog post |
It’s much easier to explain why having a candy store at SVS is problematic than why, year after year, the School Meeting votes to keep it in operation. Think of how prospective parents feel when they walk into the main lounge on the way to the… Read more ›
Blog post |
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 ›
Blog post |
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 ›
Blog post |
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 ›
Blog post |
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 ›
Blog post |
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 ›