Jump to content

Sudbury Valley School: Difference between revisions

Coordinates: 42°19′28″N 71°27′53″W / 42.32444°N 71.46472°W / 42.32444; -71.46472
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
m →Educational philosophy: point to merger discussion
reference correction
Line 25: Line 25:
==Educational philosophy==
==Educational philosophy==
{{Mergeto|Sudbury school|discuss=Talk:Sudbury school#Another merger proposal|date=October 2009}}
{{Mergeto|Sudbury school|discuss=Talk:Sudbury school#Another merger proposal|date=October 2009}}
Certain facets of the Sudbury model separate it from other schools that refer to themselves as "[[Democratic education|democratic schools]]" or "[[free school]]s." The following features apply to the Sudbury Valley School:<ref>Sadofsky, M. (2009) [http://www.sudval.com/05_essay.html "What it Takes to Create a Democratic School (What Does That Mean Anyway?)"].</ref>
Certain facets of the Sudbury model separate it from other schools that refer to themselves as "[[Democratic education|democratic schools]]" or "[[free school]]s." The following features apply to the Sudbury Valley School:<ref>Sadofsky, M. (2009) [http://www.sudval.com/essays/092009.shtml "What it Takes to Create a Democratic School (What Does That Mean Anyway?)"]. Retrieved October 3, 2009.</ref>
* '''De-emphasis of [[class (education)|class]]es:''' classes arise only when an individual creates them, and staff are not expected to offer classes as any sort of [[curriculum]] &mdash; 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 [[Self-determination theory|right of self determination]].<ref>Gray, Scott D. (1998) [http://sudval.org/archives/dsm2/0017.html "Teachers."]</ref>
* '''De-emphasis of [[class (education)|class]]es:''' classes arise only when an individual creates them, and staff are not expected to offer classes as any sort of [[curriculum]] &mdash; 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 [[Self-determination theory|right of self determination]].<ref>Gray, Scott D. (1998) [http://sudval.org/archives/dsm2/0017.html "Teachers."]</ref>
* '''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.
* '''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.

Revision as of 10:33, 3 November 2009

The Sudbury Valley School
Location
Map
2 Winch Street
Framingham, MA

United States
Information
Established1968
Faculty10
GradesK–12 (ungraded, ages 4+)
Number of students160–200
Campus size10 acres
Campus typesuburban
PhilosophySudbury
GovernanceSchool Meeting (democratic, vote by students and staff)
Websitehttp://www.sudval.org

The Sudbury Valley School was founded in 1968 in Framingham, Massachusetts[1], United States. There are now over 30 schools based on the Sudbury Model in the United States, Denmark, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany[2]. The model has two basic tenets: educational freedom and democratic governance. This is a private school, attended by children from the ages of 4 to 19.

Sudbury Valley School practice 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 through classes or a standard curriculum.[3] Students are given complete responsibility for their own education and the school is run by a direct 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" or "free schools." The following features apply to the Sudbury Valley School:[4]

  • De-emphasis of classes: classes arise only when an individual creates them, and staff are not expected to offer classes as any sort of curriculum — 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.[5]
  • 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.[6][7] 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; and developing internal discipline in the members of the community by enhancing their ability to bear responsibility and self-sufficiency.[8]
  • 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" is a course taught by life experience. They adduce that the absolutely essential ingredient for acquiring values—and for moral action is personal responsibility, 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.[9][10][11]
  • 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. Students decide for themselves how to measure their progress as self-starting learners as a process of self-evaluation: real life-long learning and the proper educational evaluation for the 21st Century, they adduce.[12] 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.[13]
  • 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.[14][15][16]
  • 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 to the standards for receiving a diploma have been met.[17]
  • 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.[18]

School institutions

School meeting

Students and staff are invited to participate in the running of the school via the School Meeting, with each participant receiving one vote. The meetings are conducted using Robert's Rules of Order. The School Meetings determine rules and regulations for all aspects of the school, including finances, new rules, and the election of staff. To keep the school running smoothly, it also creates Clerks, Committees, and School Corporations.

Clerks, committees, and corporations

Clerks are essentially administrative officers that handle tasks within the school, such as grounds maintenance or attendance records. Committees handle larger tasks, such as school aesthetics or rules violations; the membership of the Judicial Committee is described below, but all other standing committees in the school have open membership—any School Meeting Member (staff or student) may join any committee in the first ten days of October or the first ten days of January. School Corporations are the equivalent of departments or clubs at traditional schools—all School Meeting Members (students and staff) may be members of each corporation, and each corporation elects its own directors.[19][20]

The Judicial Committee

The Judicial Committee investigates allegations of school rules violations, holds a trial, determines a verdict, and imposes a sentence (much like the current judicial system in the United States).[21] If a verdict is appealed, the appeal is held in the weekly School Meeting. Students and staff alike may be called in front of the Judicial Committee.

School assembly

There is also an annually-held School Assembly, which is the broad policy-making arm of the school.[22] It consists of staff, students, and parents of students. Its main purpose is to approve the school budget submitted by the School Meeting. It also elects a Board of Trustees, which only exist in an advisory capacity.[23] Its purpose is to study questions posed to it by the Assembly and report back to the Assembly when it is ready to do so.

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.[24]

The main school building is a large Victorian-style mansion. There are many general purpose rooms, as well as specially designated rooms such as reading rooms, music rooms, etc. There are also several outbuildings, with facilities for woodworking and other activities. The 10-acre (40,000 m2) grounds house hills, woods, a traditional playground, and a large pond. Computers with internet access and video games are also accessible.

Staff

There is no tenure at Sudbury Valley School — they adduce it keeps them all on their toes and being effective with students. 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 at length, and discusses each candidate in turn. On election day, everyone at school, student and staff member, has a chance to vote by secret ballot. In spite of this, they assert the kind of commitment to an institution that Sudbury Valley's staff has is absolutely unique: a commitment to seeing Sudbury Valley flourish. The current staff have been involved professionally with the school for two to forty years.[25]

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.

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:[27]

  • 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: party affiliations, philosophy, class, about any of the features that separate political factions in society. The school does not endorse or support or involve itself with any local projects programs or activities that have a political agenda, while alternative schools and other democratic schools are virtually all identified with specific political movements. 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, that political and viewpoint ideas will naturally develop and be discussed by people among themselves, and that the 'law of the land' is fairest and most reasonable when it is pluralistic, and does not formally take sides in aesthetic or political choices.
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, as opposed to the most prevailing models of decision making in schools, the authoritarian model, and the one run as a continuing encounter group, including other democratic schools, which some of them operate without rules of order. Rules constitute the main protection for reason, intellect, objectivity, detachment, and minorities in a group context, as opposed to feeling and emotion. It is the existence of a clear, explicit procedure that protects and encourages people to introduce motions, thence coming to feel that there is access to the political process to all.
The Rule of Law is generally acknowledged to be a cornerstone of orderly, organized society. In this school, laws are always promulgated in writing, and careful records are kept of the body of precedents surrounding each rule. There is a simple process accessible to all members of the community. There is no opening, however small, for arbitrary or capricious authority to step in.[28]
The public schools remain one of the last bastions of autocratic rule in our society. There is in fact no rule of law, by and large the same as in alternative schools where power resides in the momentary whim of the majority at a given instant. They hold the unity of the community to be of prime value and to take precedence over everything else. So they will usually undermine any attempt to institute the rule of law, since that would tend to make an individual feel secure and protect him when he chooses to stand apart.
This is the idea that everybody, every member of the school, student and staff, has a vote.
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. Because of this right there is no intervention in the private affairs of students — intervention that characterizes other schools, including other democratic schools.
Protecting the rights of individuals is not an absolute concept; it's a much more subtle one where the line is drawn between community interest and private interest that involves a great deal of judgment. The idea of individual rights is absent from schools, because the rights of people in schools — other democratic schools included — are simply not respected, even if there is occasional lip service paid to this.

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[29], and that they have gone on to become successful in many areas of life[30]. There have, as yet, been no formal studies of graduates of other Sudbury schools, but anecdotally, they seem to have similar results.[31][32][33]

See also

References

  1. ^ Announcing a New School, [1], Daniel Greenberg, The Sudbury Valley School Press, 1973.
  2. ^ The Sudbury Valley School web page, [2].
  3. ^ "Sudbury Valley School: About Us". Retrieved 2009-02-28. Most often students are not concerned about whether learning is taking place. Doing what they choose to do is the common theme; learning is the by-product.
  4. ^ Sadofsky, M. (2009) "What it Takes to Create a Democratic School (What Does That Mean Anyway?)". Retrieved October 3, 2009.
  5. ^ Gray, Scott D. (1998) "Teachers."
  6. ^ Greenberg, D. (1992) "Democracy Must be Experienced to be Learned !" Education in America — A View from Sudbury Valley.
  7. ^ The Sudbury Valley School, "Underlying Ideas."
  8. ^ The Sudbury Valley School (1970), "Law and Order: Foundations of Discipline" The Crisis in American Education — An Analysis and a Proposal.(p. 49-55). Accessed 9 Jul 2009.
  9. ^ Greenberg, D. (1992), Education in America - A View from Sudbury Valley, "'Ethics' is a Course Taught By Life Experience." Retrieved July 24, 2009.
  10. ^ Greenberg, D. (1987) The Sudbury Valley School Experience "Back to Basics - Moral basics." Retrieved July 24, 2009.
  11. ^ Feldman, J. (2001) "The Moral Behavior of Children and Adolescents at a Democratic School." Pdf. This study examined moral discourse, reflection, and development in a school community with a process similar to that described by Lawrence Kohlberg. 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. Retrieved July 24, 2009.
  12. ^ Greenberg, D. (2000). "21st Century Schools," edited transcript of a talk delivered at the April 2000 International Conference on Learning in the 21st Century.
  13. ^ Greenberg, D. (1987). Chapter 20, "Evaluation," Free at Last — The Sudbury Valley School.
  14. ^ Greenberg, H. (1987), "The Silent Factor," The Sudbury Valley School Experience.
  15. ^ Greenberg, H. (1987), "The Art of Doing Nothing," The Sudbury Valley School Experience.
  16. ^ Mitra, S. (2007) Talks Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves (video – 20:59). Can Kids Teach Themselves? Sugata Mitra's "Hole in the Wall" and Minimally Invasive Education (MIE) experiments have shown that, in the absence of supervision or formal teaching, children can teach themselves and each other, if they're motivated by curiosity.
  17. ^ Greenberg, D. (2009) "The Significance of the Sudbury Valley School Diploma."
  18. ^ Gray, Scott D. (2005) "Some Facts."
  19. ^ The Sudbury Valley School Handbook
  20. ^ The Sudbury Valley School Management Manual
  21. ^ The Sudbury Valley School The Judicial System. Accessed 10 Aug 2006.
  22. ^ Scott David Gray: A Few Words on SVS Accessed 10 Aug 2006.
  23. ^ The Sudbury Valley School Handbook: How the School is Governed.
  24. ^ Hara Estroff Marano: Psychology Today Magazine: Education: Class Dismissed. May/Jun 2006.
  25. ^ Greenberg, D. (1987). Chapter 30, "The Staff ," Free at Last -- The Sudbury Valley School.
  26. ^ The Phoenix - Cellars by Starlight, Rock-and-roll dreams - Thundertrain return; John Powhida and the Rudds obsess, Brett Milano, 8 August 2003.
  27. ^ Greenberg, Daniel. (1987) The Sudbury Valley School Experience, "Subtleties of a Democratic School".
  28. ^ Gray, Scott D. (2001) "JC Etcetera."
  29. ^ Greenberg, Daniel (1992). Legacy of Trust: Life After the Sudbury Valley School Experience. United States: Sudbury Valley School Press. pp. 242–243. ISBN 1888947047. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  30. ^ Greenberg, Daniel (2005). The Pursuit of Happiness: The Lives of Sudbury Valley Alumni. United States: Sudbury Valley School Press. ISBN 188894725X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  31. ^ Greenberg, D. (1996) "OUTCOMES." Retrieved on 2009-03-19 (see with Explorer).
  32. ^ Greenberg, D. and Sadofsky, M. (1992) "Reflections of 'SVS Kids,'" "Legacy of Trust: Life After the Sudbury Valley School Experience."Retrieved on 2009-03-19.
  33. ^ Greenberg, D. and Sadofsky, M. (1992) "Some Final Thoughts," PART VI, CONCLUDING REMARKS, "Legacy of Trust: Life After the Sudbury Valley School Experience."Retrieved on 2009-03-19.

Additional reading

The Sudbury Valley School Press [3] is an active publishing house managed by the Sudbury Valley School from its campus. Their catalog includes dozens of books, videos and audio recordings about the school.

42°19′28″N 71°27′53″W / 42.32444°N 71.46472°W / 42.32444; -71.46472

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sudbury_Valley_School&oldid=323665840"