Sudbury Valley School

The Sudbury Valley School
Location
2 Winch Street, Framingham, Massachusetts
United States
Information
Established 1968
Faculty 9
Age range 4+
Number of students 140–210
Campus size 10 acres (40,000 m2)
Campus type suburban
Philosophy Sudbury
Governance School Meeting (democratic, vote by students and staff)
Website http://www.sudburyvalley.org

The Sudbury Valley School was founded in 1968 by Daniel Greenberg in Framingham, Massachusetts, United States. There are over 50 schools that claim to be based on the Sudbury Model in the United States, Denmark, Israel, Japan, Belgium and Germany. The model has three basic tenets: educational freedom, democratic governance and personal responsibility. It is a private school, attended by children from the ages of 4 to 21+.

Facilities

There are no traditional classrooms and no traditional classes; instead children are free to explore any subject or talk to any staff member about an interest, as part of educating themselves.[1]

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.[2][3]

Government

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. The corporation is wholly owned and operated by the School Meeting, in which each student and each elected member of the staff has one vote.[4][5]

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.[4]


Alumni

Sudbury Valley School has published two studies of their alumni over the past forty years. There have, as yet, been no formal studies of graduates of other Sudbury schools, but anecdotally, they seem to have similar results.[6]

Officers of the Corporation

Officers of the Corporation are elected by the School Meeting, meeting as the corporation, at its annual meeting.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hara Estroff Marano: Psychology Today Magazine: Education: Class Dismissed. May/Jun 2006.
  2. ↑ The Sudbury Valley School Handbook. January 2012.
  3. ↑ Children Educate Themselves: Lessons from Sudbury Valley, Peter Gray, Psychology Today Freedom to Learn Blog, 2008
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 How the School is Governed, from the school's web page
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 The By-Laws of the Sudbury Valley School, Inc.
  6. ↑ Greenberg, D. (1996) "OUTCOMES." Retrieved on 2009-03-19 (see with Explorer).

Further reading

External links

Coordinates: 42°19′28″N 71°27′53″W / 42.32444°N 71.46472°W