Sudbury Valley School - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Sudbury Valley School was founded in 1968 in Framingham, Massachusetts

Framingham, Massachusetts

Framingham is a New England town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 68,318 as of the United States 2010 Census. -History:...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. There are now over 30 schools based on the Sudbury Model

Sudbury school

A Sudbury school is a school that practices a form of democratic education in which students individually decide what to do with their time, and learn as a by-product of ordinary experience rather than adopting a descriptive educational syllabus or standardized instruction by classes following a...

in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

and Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. The model has two basic tenets: education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

al freedom and democratic governance. It is a private school

Private school

Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...

, attended by children from the ages of 4 to 19.

Sudbury Valley School practice a form of democratic education

Democratic education

Democratic education is a theory of learning and school governance in which students and staff participate freely and equally in a school democracy...

in which students individually decide what to do with their time, and learn as a by-product of ordinary experience rather than through classes or a standard curriculum. Students are given complete responsibility for their own education and the school is run by a direct democracy

Direct democracy

Direct democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...

in which students and staff are equals.

Educational philosophy

Certain facets of the Sudbury model separate it from other schools that refer to themselves as "democratic schools

Democratic education

Democratic education is a theory of learning and school governance in which students and staff participate freely and equally in a school democracy...

" or "anarchistic free schools." The following features apply to the Sudbury Valley School:

De-emphasis of class
Class (education)
A class in education has a variety of related meanings.It can be the group of students which attends a specific course or lesson at a university, school or other educational institution, see Form ....

es: classes arise only when an individual creates them, and staff are not expected to offer classes as any sort of curriculum
Curriculum
See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...

— most democratic schools offer at least some basic curricula. Sudbury schools' attitude on classes stems from the belief that every individual learns what they need to know through life and that there is no need to try and design a curriculum that will prepare a young person for adult life, thus protecting one of the rights of the students in this school, the right of self determination
Self-Determination Theory
Self-determination theory is a macro theory of human motivation and personality, concerning people's inherent growth tendencies and their innate psychological needs. It is concerned with the motivation behind the choices that people make without any external influence and interference...

.
Age mixing: students are not separated into age-groups of any kind and allowed to mix freely, interacting with those younger and older than themselves; free age-mixing is emphasized as a powerful tool for learning and development in all ages.
Autonomous democracy: another prominent difference is the limitation — or total absence — of parental involvement in the administration of Sudbury schools; Sudbury schools are run by a democratic School Meeting where the students and staff participate exclusively and equally. Members of these schools learn democracy by experience, and enjoy the rights of individuals and the three freedoms that constitute personal responsibility — freedom of choice, freedom of action, freedom to bear the results of action. Remarkably, the democratic School Meeting of a Sudbury school is also the sole authority on hiring and firing of staff. These facets also separate these schools from most others.
Order and discipline: is achieved by a dual approach based on a free and democratic framework: a combination of popularly-based authority, when rules and regulations are made by the community as a whole, fairly and democratically passed by the entire school community, supervised by a good judicial system for enforcing these laws -- due process of law -- and developing internal discipline in the members of the community by enhancing their ability to bear responsibility and self-sufficiency.

Values education: Sudbury schools choose to recognize that students are personally responsible for their acts, in opposition to virtually all schools today that deny it. The denial is threefold: schools do not permit students to choose their course of action fully; they do not permit students to embark on the course, once chosen; and they do not permit students to suffer the consequences of the course, once taken. Freedom of choice, freedom of action, freedom to bear the results of action—these are the three great freedoms that constitute personal responsibility. Sudbury schools claim that "Ethics
Value (ethics)
In ethics, value is a property of objects, including physical objects as well as abstract objects , representing their degree of importance....

" is a course taught by life experience. They adduce that the essential ingredient for acquiring values—and for moral action—is personal responsibility
Accountability
Accountability is a concept in ethics and governance with several meanings. It is often used synonymously with such concepts as responsibility, answerability, blameworthiness, liability, and other terms associated with the expectation of account-giving...

, that schools will become involved in the teaching of morals when they become communities of people who fully respect each others' right to make choices, and that the only way the schools can become meaningful purveyors of ethical values is if they provide students and adults with real-life experiences that are bearers of moral import. 'The Moral Behavior of Children and Adolescents at a Democratic School' study examined moral discourse, reflection, and development in a school community with a process similar to that described by Lawrence Kohlberg
Lawrence Kohlberg
Lawrence Kohlberg was a Jewish American psychologist born in Bronxville, New York, who served as a professor at the University of Chicago, as well as Harvard University. Having specialized in research on moral education and reasoning, he is best known for his theory of stages of moral development...

. Data were drawn from an extensive set of field notes made in an ethnographic study at Sudbury Valley School (an ungraded, democratically structured school in Framingham, MA), where students, ranging in age from 4 to 19, are free to choose their own activities and companions. Vignettes were analyzed using grounded theory approach to qualitative analysis, and themes were developed from an analysis of observations of meetings. Each theme describes a participation level that students assume in the process and that provide opportunities for them to develop and deepen understanding of the balance of personal rights and responsibilities within a community. The study adds to the understanding of education and child development by describing a school that differs significantly in its practice from the wider educational community and by validating Kohlberg's thesis about developing moral reasoning.
Evaluation: Sudbury schools do not perform and do not offer evaluations, assessments, or recommendations, asserting that they do not rate people, and that school is not a judge; comparing students to each other, or to some standard that has been set is for them a violation of the student's right to privacy and to self-determination
Self-Determination Theory
Self-determination theory is a macro theory of human motivation and personality, concerning people's inherent growth tendencies and their innate psychological needs. It is concerned with the motivation behind the choices that people make without any external influence and interference...

. Students decide for themselves how to measure their progress as self-starting learners
Self-regulated learning
The term self-regulated can be used to describe learning that is guided by metacognition , strategic action , and motivation to learn...

as a process of self-evaluation: real life-long learning and the proper educational evaluation for the 21st Century, they adduce. According to Sudbury schools, this policy does not cause harm to their students as they move on to life outside the school. However, they admit it makes the process more difficult, but that such hardship is part of the students learning to make their own way, set their own standards and meet their own goals. The no-grading and no-rating policy helps to create an atmosphere free of competition among students or battles for adult approval, and encourages a positive co-operative environment amongst the student body.
The role of adults: the school is organized to allow freedom from adult interference in the daily lives of students. As long as children do no harm to others, they can do whatever they want with their time in school. The adults in other schools plan a curriculum of study, teach the students the material and then test and grade their learning. The adults at Sudbury schools are "the guardians of the children's freedom to pursue their own interests and to learn what they wish," creating and maintaining a nurturing environment, in which children feel that they are cared for, and that does not rob children of their time to explore and discover their inner selves. They also are there to answer questions and to impart specific skills or knowledge when asked to by students.
Diplomas: The Sudbury Valley School is fully accredited to award a High School Diploma; though within the community of Sudbury schools and within Sudbury Valley itself, it is a matter of some controversy, given the stance against evaluation. Each student seeking a diploma writes on the topic of how they have prepared themselves for adulthood and entering the community at large. The thesis is reviewed, along with a copy of the students' judicial record and attendance record, by three staff members from other Sudbury schools, who meet with the student seeking a diploma and decide whether or not the standards for receiving a diploma have been met.
Pluralism: The Sudbury Valley School does not espouse nor endorse any political tenet. They are not tied to any political or economic movements, except for its commitment to let children be autonomous within the school. Unlike virtually all other schools, Sudbury Valley does not encourage involvement by its students in particular causes or social movements, relying on the free market of ideas to lead students towards actions and movements that they respond to.
Subtleties of a democratic school: Certain nuances in the operation of Sudbury Valley School emerged during the years it has been in existence, which are essential in defining it. Political neutrality, Sudbury Valley School is apolitical. This is a school in which they consciously do not pay attention to the political views of the people who seek to become members of the community. The school practices the idea that people of divergent political and social views can work together in a common enterprise where they have common goals other than politics. The existence of rules of order, official meetings of any group in this school operate according to some set of explicit, formal procedures. The chief function of rules of order is to protect all views and to give them as detached and thorough an airing as possible enabling for decision making. The rule of law
Rule of law
The rule of law, sometimes called supremacy of law, is a legal maxim that says that governmental decisions should be made by applying known principles or laws with minimal discretion in their application...

, is generally acknowledged to be a cornerstone of orderly, organized society. There is no opening for arbitrary or capricious authority to step in. Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...

, this is the idea that everybody, every member of the school, student and staff, has a vote. Protecting the Rights of individuals
Individual rights
Group rights are rights held by a group rather than by its members separately, or rights held only by individuals within the specified group; in contrast, individual rights are rights held by individual people regardless of their group membership or lack thereof...

, this school has a strong tradition that there exist rights belonging to every individual member of the school community, and that these have to be protected in every way possible, for example the right of privacy. It is a subtle concept where the line is drawn between community interest and private interest.

Facilities

Following the educational philosophy, the school facilities are somewhat different from most schools. There are no traditional classrooms and no traditional classes, although children are free to request instruction on any subject or talk to any staff member about an interest.

Staff

There is no tenure at Sudbury Valley School. The School Meeting, with each participant receiving one vote, hires staff, as part of its duties in running the school. Every year, in the Spring, elections are held for next year's staff. Anyone who wants to serve has to place their names in nomination. The School Meeting debates the school's staff needs, and discusses each candidate in turn. There is an election with secret paper ballots which is open to all students and staff. Staff are not chosen solely through this election; rather, staff candidates must meet a threshold of support in the election in order to be hired, but they are hired at a School Meeting.

Daniel Greenberg
Daniel Greenberg (educator)
Daniel A. Greenberg , one of the founders of the Sudbury Valley School, has published several books on the Sudbury model of school organization, and has been described by Sudbury Valley School trustee Peter Grey as the "principal philosopher" among its founders...

, founder
Hanna Greenberg, founder
Mimsy Sadofsky, founder
Joan Rubin, founder
Mach Bell
Scott David Gray
Mikel Matisoo
Denise Geddes
Kelly Gilsenan
Kristin Wilson

The Arts and Crafts Corporation also currently employs a part-time pottery instructor.

Curriculum

The school has no required academic activities, and no academic expectations for completion of one's time at the school. Students are free to spend their time as they wish.

Alumni

Sudbury Valley School has published two studies of their alumni over the past forty years. They have learned, among other things, that about 80% of their students have graduated from college, and that they have gone on to become successful in many areas of life. There have, as yet, been no formal studies of graduates of other Sudbury schools, but anecdotally, they seem to have similar results.

External links

Documentary including Sudbury Valley School, 2009, 30 minutes, www.teachers.tv

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