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The school will be open at 8:30 AM and close at 4:30PM. The students do not need to arrive at the school at any set time as long as they meet the minimum New York State attendance requirements (5 hours per day for ages 6 to 12 and 5� hours for ages 13 to 18). The school calendar will follow the conventional school year.
We are in the process of building our permanent building on our land which is located on 67 acres in Woodstock. see photos of the land
The school accepts students age 4 (if they turn 5 before 12/1/02) to age 19. Students under the age of 6 can attend part time as long as they attend at least 15 hours a week.
The initial funding for the school is coming from one of the founders. This initial funding will be paid for in the first year's budget. We are collecting donations and actively fundraising. If you would like to make a donation click here:
The tuition for the first child in a family will be $5,500. The tuition for the second child will be $3,000. The tuition for additional children within a family will be $2,000. We also have a financial aid policy. For more information on this call the school.
Initially, we are limiting the attendance to 65 students.
Students who wish a diploma must prepare and defend a thesis. The thesis must explain how the student has taken responsibility for preparing him/her self to be an effective adult in the larger community. Experience at other Sudbury schools throughout the country have shown that this diploma is acceptable for entry into college.
Largely through the interview process. The students demonstrate their maturity, their ability to express themselves, their persistence and their passion. They are exceptionally clear about their desires. Most colleges are looking for those students who stand out and Sudbury students are definitely unique. Some students choose to study for and take the SATs.
The teachers, or staff members as we refer to them, are not necessarily certified. The qualifications for staff members at the school are life experience, the ability to work with kids of all ages, sharing their knowledge and areas of expertise, the ability to model healthy and appropriate behavior, mentor students, and of course, to understand and commit to the philosophy of the school. We believe that the ability to successfully work with students of all ages is of utmost importance.
The staff is comprised of people with varied backgrounds and experiences. They share the common interest in making this school successful.
For the 2003-2004 school year, the Re-Opening Committee will choose the staff members. They will later be approved by the School Meeting. In subsequent years, the School Meeting (composed of students and staff) will choose the staff members.
Mostly by staying out of the way. This sounds like a flip answer, but it is the truth. Kids are driven to know how to live and succeed. They are all smart enough to know that being able to read, write and do basic math is necessary to succeed in our culture, and they are very motivated by this to learn. As adults, we have been indoctrinated in the belief that learning how to read, write and do basic math is difficult and that without teacher intervention these things can't happen. This really isn't true. Take reading as an example: a study done by Senator Kennedy's office showed that before compulsory education was introduced in Massachusetts around 1850, the state literacy rate was 98%. After compulsory education was introduced, the state literacy rate was never higher than 91%.
Who defines what is important? This model allows each student to decide what is important and focus on that. One of the most important aspects of the school model is that students realize that they are responsible for their own education and that education doesn't end after they leave high school or college. Students who have gone through the school have the ability and confidence to know that if they need to know something later in life, they can learn it.
It is actually impossible to do nothing. I think what most people are concerned about is students doing what looks like nothing; for example playing video games, playing magic cards, reading all day, etc. The truth is that everything the students do has value. Take video games for example; this "teaches" reading skills, social skills, the ability to concentrate and focus, and, depending on the game, history, strategy, math or science.
It is human nature to strive for accomplishment and this isn't done by only doing the easy things. It is done by constantly doing challenging things. The Sudbury school model actually makes it more likely that students will do difficult things than a traditional school. This is because there is no stigma attached to failure at a Sudbury school. One of the things that most of us learn at a traditional school is that failure can be embarrassing and that we shouldn't fail. The truth is that failure is the best way to learn and by not attaching a stigma to failure, the Sudbury model encourages students to try to do new, often difficult, things. It is true that older children that come into this model from a traditional school may need to first remember the joy of learning and they may need to remember how to learn. Once they "detox" from the traditional school, however, they also find that it is more interesting to challenge themselves than to do the same things over and over again.
There is a good example of this in the Sudbury Valley School literature. It talks about a student that knew from an early age that he wanted to be a mortician. What they did was to help the student learn as much chemistry and biology as they could and then they found the student a mentor. The mentor was a pathologist in the area who agreed to allow the student to watch and learn - basically to act as an apprentice. By the age of 17 the student was helping perform autopsies. He was a mortician at age 21.
The Sudbury model is much closer to the real world than traditional models. In the "real world" there is age mixing and there is no one to tell you what to do all the time. In the "real world" we are responsible for our own actions and our own accomplishments. So children learn about the real world every day at a Sudbury school.
In a traditional school there is a particular focus for each time frame and usually not the space to explore beyond that focus. In a Sudbury school, there are no limitations to where an investigation or an interest can take a student. Students can pursue an interest and follow related tangents leading to new ideas and topics and through this process, gain exposure to more and more possibilities. So in this way students are exposed to much more in a Sudbury school than they would be in a traditional school. In addition, through being more exposed they are more likely to find and pursue their particular interests and once a student determines their area of interest, they are more supported than in a traditional school.
Very well. Other Sudbury model schools believe that age mixing integral to their success. They find that young children ask older children to read to them. Older children explain things to younger children and take pride in being able to work with young children. It is not unlike a very large family.
When what a child is doing is important to them, children have a high standard of achievement when they evaluate their own progress. They know very well when they understand a task or a subject.
Parents are very important to the school. They are members of the School Assembly and, as such, have a voice and a vote over the school budget, the staff pay scale, the tuition and the basic school structure.
Any child who is able to be responsible for their own behavior and well being are welcome at the school. Interested parents of children with special needs are welcome to talk to us on an individual basis.
Experience at other Sudbury model schools indicates that this is not a problem. They find that when children are allowed to expend their excess energy through play, they can then focus. According to John Holt in "Learning All the Time", there has been research done by specialists in the area of learning disabilities that links so-called perceptual handicaps with stress. The research showed that when students with supposedly severe learning disabilities were put in a relatively stress free situation, their disabilities soon vanished.
We do not take into account any of a child's past educational experience -- good or bad. When a child enters a Sudbury school, the slate is wiped clean.
Yes. The rules are determined by the School Meeting, which is composed of the staff and the students. Generally rules are put in place to ensure the smooth operation of the school and to allow students to be able to pursue their educational goals without disturbance. The rules are enforced by the Judicial Council that is composed of 7 students and 1 staff member on a rotating basis.
This kind of school attracts children whose parents recognize that the traditional school system is not working for their children. So yes, parents of children who have had problems in traditional school are often interested in the school. However, 33 years of experience at the Sudbury Valley School has shown that "problem" children, such as children engaged in drug use, actually solve their problems through this system because they recover their lost self-esteem which is usually the root cause of these problems in the first place.
Through 35 years of experience at the Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Yes, we opened in September 2002 in a rental space. In October we became aware of fire code issues that needed fixing. The Assembly decided it was not worth the money and we should look elsewhere. Unable to find a permanent space for all of our school population, the Assembly decided to suspend our operation and focus on having our permanent building built on our own land as soon as possible.
There are two ways to keep up to date with the school status. You can check the web site for updates or you can join our email list. To join the email list, simply send an email to [email protected]. You will be automatically added to the list.
Contact Information
Phone:
845-679-1002
Fax:
845-679-1019
Email:
School Information
US Mail:
PO Box 159
West Hurley, NY 12491