Sudbury school

A Sudbury school is a type of school, usually for the K-12 age range, where students have complete responsibility for their own education, and the school is run by direct democracy in which students and staff are equals.[1] Students individually decide what to do with their time, and tend to learn as a by-product of ordinary experience rather than through coursework. There is no predetermined educational syllabus, prescriptive curriculum or standardized instruction. This is a form of democratic education.

While there is no accepted definition of a Sudbury school,[2] the intended culture within a Sudbury school has been described with such words as freedom, trust, respect, responsibility and democracy.

The name 'Sudbury' originates from the Sudbury Valley School, founded in 1968 in Framingham, Massachusetts, near Sudbury, Massachusetts. Though there are different understandings of what constitutes a Sudbury Model School, or body capable of creating an official definition, there are now more than 60 schools that identify themselves with Sudbury around the world.[3] Some, though not all, include "Sudbury" in their name. These schools operate as independent entities and are not formally associated in any way.[1]

Sudbury schools are based on the beliefs that 1) children already have the main behaviors needed in adulthood, and 2) having full democratic rights in childhood is the best preparation for life in a democracy.

Sudbury schools are defined by both their overall philosophy and their specific methodologies. A staff member at Cedarwood Sudbury School wrote that "a nearby alternative public school has a mission statement that sounds like Cedarwood's philosophy, but their school is completely different in practice."[4]

Underlying beliefs

Sudbury schools are based on:[5]

  1. The educational belief that children are extremely good at (and therefore do not need to be taught) the main behaviors they will need as adults, such as creativity, imagination, alertness, curiosity, thoughtfulness, responsibility and judgement. What children lack is experience, which can be gained if adults guide students in open ways.
  2. The sociopolitical belief that having full democratic rights in childhood is the best way to become an adult who is comfortable functioning within a democracy.

"The fundamental premises of the school are simple: that all people are curious by nature; that the most efficient, long-lasting, and profound learning takes place when started and pursued by the learner; that all people are creative if they are allowed to develop their unique talents; that age-mixing among students promotes growth in all members of the group; and that freedom is essential to the development of personal responsibility."[6]

School democracy

All aspects of governing a Sudbury School are determined by the weekly School Meeting, modeled after the traditional New England town meeting.[7] School Meeting passes, amends and repeals school rules, manages the school's budget, and decides on hiring and firing of staff. Each individual present — including students and staff — has an equal vote, and most decisions are made by simple majority[1][8]

School rules are normally compiled in a law book, updated repeatedly over time, which forms the school's code of law. Usually, there is a set procedure to handle complaints, and most of the schools follow guidelines that respect the idea of due process of law. There are usually rules requiring an investigation, a hearing, a trial, a sentence, and allowing for an appeal,[9] generally following the philosophy that students face the consequences of their own behavior.[10]

Learning

The Sudbury pedagogical philosophy may be summarised thus: Learning is a natural by-product of all human activity.[11] Learning is self-initiated and self-motivated.[12]

There are many ways to learn. Learning is a process you do, not a process that is done to you;[13] The presence and guidance of a teacher are not necessary.

The free exchange of ideas and free conversation and interplay between people provides broad exposure to areas that may prove relevant and interesting to students. Students of all ages mix; older students learn from younger students as well as vice versa. The presence of older students provides role models, both positive and negative, for younger students. The pervasiveness of play has led to a recurring observation by first-time visitors to a Sudbury school that the students appear to be in perpetual "recess".[11][14][15]

Implicitly and explicitly, students are given responsibility for their own education: The only person designing what a student will learn is the student himself. Exceptions are when a student asks for a particular class or arranges an apprenticeship. Sudbury schools do not compare or rank students — the school requires no tests, evaluations, or transcripts.

Kontol

Reading is treated the same as any other subject: Students learn to read when they choose, or simply by going about their lives.

"Only a few kids seek any help at all when they decide to learn. Each child seems to have their own method. Some learn from being read to, memorizing the stories and then ultimately reading them. Some learn from cereal boxes, others from game instructions, others from street signs. Some teach themselves letter sounds, others syllables, others whole words. To be honest, we rarely know how they do it, and they rarely tell us."[16]

Sudbury Valley School claims that all of their students have learned to read. While students learn to read at a wide variety of ages, there appears to be no drawback to learning to read later: No one who meets their older students could guess the age at which they first learned to read.[16][17]

Comparison with related models

The model differs in some ways from other types of democratic schools and free schools, but there are many similarities:

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Ellis, Arthur K. (2004). Exemplars of curriculum theory. Eye on Education. ISBN 1-930556-70-5.
  2. ↑ The 2002 Collection, Sudbury Valley School Press, pp5-14
  3. ↑ Sudbury Valley School web page
  4. ↑ The 2002 Collection, Sudbury Valley School Press, p5
  5. ↑ The Birth of a New Paradigm for Education by Dan Greenberg in The Sudbury Valley School Experience, 3rd ed. (Sudbury Valley School Press; Framingham, 1992), p. 81ff
  6. ↑ Mimsy Sadofsky; Daniel Greenberg (1994). The Kingdom of Childhood: Growing Up at Sudbury Valley School. The Sudbury Valley School Press. ISBN 978-1-888947-02-1. Retrieved 1 May 2013., p. xv
  7. ↑ "Students revel in free-for-all". Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Massachusetts). 1992-04-19.
  8. ↑ Rowe, Claudia (2002-02-20). "In Woodstock, a nonschool with nonteachers.(Hudson Valley Sudbury School, Woodstock, New York)". The New York Times.
  9. ↑ Feldman, Jay (2001). "The Moral Behavior of Children and Adolescents at a Democratic School" (PDF). Paper presented at 82nd American Educational Research Association Meeting. Seattle.
  10. ↑ Marano, Hara Estroff (2008). A Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting. Random House. p. 237. ISBN 0-7679-2403-7.
  11. 1 2 Holzman, Lois (1997). Schools for Growth: Radical Alternatives To Current Education Models. United Kingdom: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pp. 97–99. ISBN 0-8058-2357-3.
  12. ↑ Schugurensky, Daniel (2003). "Self-governed, Sudbury Valley School begins in Massachusetts in History of Education: Selected Moments of the 20th Century". Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
  13. ↑ Greenberg, D. (1987) The Sudbury Valley School Experience Back to Basics. Retrieved, December 27, 2009.
  14. ↑ Gray, Peter (2008-09-09). "Why We Should Stop Segregating Children by Age: Part I--The Value of Play in the Zone of Proximal Development". Psychology Today. Retrieved 2009-10-25..
  15. ↑ Gee, James Paul (2003). "Games, not school, are teaching kids to think," High Score Education, Wired Magazine. Retrieved 2010-7-10.
  16. 1 2 Daniel Greenberg (1 June 1995). Free at Last: The Sudbury Valley School Press. The Sudbury Valley School Press. ISBN 978-1-888947-00-7. Retrieved 1 May 2013., p34
  17. ↑ John Taylor Gatto (2000-2003) The Underground History of American Education - A Schoolteacher's Intimate Investigation Into The Problem Of Modern Schooling, Chapter Three - Eyeless In Gaza, The Sudbury Valley School. Retrieved, December 27, 2009.
  18. ↑ Peramas, Mary (Winter 2007). "The Sudbury School and Influences of Psychoanalytic Theory on Student-Controlled Education". Essays in Education 19: 119(15).
  19. ↑ Gray, Peter. "Nature's Powerful Tutors; The Educative Functions of Free Play". The National Honor Society in Psychology. Retrieved 2009-07-25.
  20. ↑ Gross, Steven J. (2004). Promises Kept. United States: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. p. 140. ISBN 0-87120-973-X.

External links

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