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The Crisis in American Education (excerpts) |
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The Sudbury Valley School
PART I -- WHERE WE STAND TODAY
CHAPTER 1 -- The Problem
The educational institutions of this country are being challenged on every side with an intensity unparalleled in history.
There have been attacks before, by isolated individuals or groups. But the schools have always enjoyed the solid support of the great masses of people whom they served.
Today, the onslaught takes place on broad fronts, and the mass support is no longer evident.
A year ago many could still say the problems are elsewhere but not here. Now only those who choose not to see are still complacent. The mood has changed from "It can't happen here" to "How soon?"
Let us look at just a few examples of danger points in the school set-up.
The central purpose of our schools is to provide students with an education. For generations, the vast majority of students were satisfied clients of the system, accepting the services performed for them, and giving in return a fair degree of effort and obedience. Most educational reforms came not as a result of student protest, but as a result of the work of devoted teachers and administrators, who sought to improve even further an already excellent product.
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A Clearer View (excerpts) |
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By Daniel Greenberg
The Sudbury Valley School
Why Sudbury Valley School Doesn't Work for Everyone: Real Learning Disabilities
During our founding years, we thought that people would flock to the school. We thought we would be mobbed and we'd be turning people away at the door. We expected a cast of thousands. Who wouldn't want happy kids? More to the point, what kids wouldn't do everything in their power to gain their freedom? We expected, even if the parents weren't willing, that the kids would be knocking down the walls, making their parents' lives miserable. "Send us to Sudbury Valley, or we'll go on a hunger strike." We were very quickly disabused, and instead we underwent a long struggle to survive, to grow, to gain acceptance.
It's a fact that the whole idea of the school started spreading to other places only during our third decade. The question we were always asked in those first twenty years was, "If it's such a great idea, how come everybody isn't doing it? How come there are no other schools like this one?" I had an answer, but not in my heart. I didn't really know why. It took us a good two decades to become respectable in the educational community, to become accepted as a legitimate educational enterprise. We struggled to understand why it was so hard.
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Reflections on the Sudbury School Concept (excerpts) |
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Edited by Mimsy Sadofsky and Daniel Greenberg
The Sudbury Valley School
Day of the Eclipse By Sharon Kane
One day, in the middle of June, there was a much-heralded solar eclipse. When I walked into school that day, a few of my piano students asked to be rescheduled because of the eclipse. "You mean you want to miss your lesson today because of the eclipse?" I asked incredulously. "Yeah, we wanna watch it. Please, please, please?" "Well, alright, I can reschedule you later in the week. Sure. No problem."
I taught the early lessons and went on a coffee break. The kitchen was curiously quiet. I noticed a lot of activity on the porch and went to check it out. An unusually large number of students were congregating on the porch and around the four-square court. An easel was set up. Some kids were passing around framed Mylar films and were looking at the sun through them. I got hold of one and had a look. It was really exciting to see the moon moving on a path in front of the sun.
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By Daniel Greenberg
The Sudbury Valley School
And 'Rithmetic
Sitting before me were a dozen boys and girls, aged nine to twelve. A week earlier, they had asked me to teach them arithmetic. They wanted to learn to add, subtract, multiply, divide, and all the rest.
"You don't really want to do this," I said, when they first approached me.
"We do, we are sure we do," was their answer.
"You don't really," I persisted. "Your neighborhood friends, your parents, your relatives probably want you to, but you yourselves would much rather be playing or doing something else."
"We know what we want, and we want to learn arithmetic. Teach us, and we'll prove it. We'll do all the homework, and work as hard as we can."
I had to yield then, skeptically. I knew that arithmetic took six years to teach in regular schools, and I was sure their interest would flag after a few months. But I had no choice. They had pressed hard, and I was cornered.
I was in for a surprise.
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