Sudbury schools are very different from traditional schools. In Sudbury schools, everyone is allowed to do whatever they want – limited only by a strong school democracy, which maintains limits that protect the individual and the community.
Sudbury schooling is based on the twin concepts of trust and responsibility. The students, members of the school community, are trusted to manage their time and make their own decisions. At the same time, all members of the community are given full responsibility over their own lives, and an equal share in responsibility for the school as a whole, by means of the school’s democratic framework.
It can be difficult to understand Sudbury schools before you have spent some time in one. These schools have a lot of structure, but not of an obvious kind – especially if you are used to the academic achievement-oriented structures of traditional schooling. People visiting a Sudbury school for the first time often get the impression that it is “recess”. But Sudbury schools don’t have recess – students are always free to move around and engage in whatever activity they are interested in pursuing. Sports, free play, art, reading and academic studies are all examples of what these activities may be – but academic studies are rarely the most common. This free and unstructured activity is a result of the observation that given responsibility for their own time, people will seek out the activities they need most for their personal learning and development. This impression has been confirmed time and time again in the day-to-day life and personal development in these schools.
The structure of Sudbury schools is not specifically about academic learning, or even about learning as a whole. Instead, the school’s institutions concern themselves with administration, fair rule of law, and maintaining the personal liberties of the individual within the school. Most important of these institutions is the democratic School Meeting, where each member of the community (students and staff) has one vote and the right to participate. Sudbury schools’ School Meetings hire and fire staff, manage the school budget, and make School Law, which forms the basis for fair and equal resolution of day-to-day problems, as well as management of the school’s institutions. School Law may include a seemingly petty rule of thumb saying that if someone left their seat for less than ten minutes the seat is still “theirs”. But it may also include attendance requirements, basic rights of each individual (such as personal safety and the freedom of speech) and complex administrative regulations concerning the different institutions School Meeting has given authority. Most schools also have a Judicial Committee that deals with infractions in a structured way, providing due process and fair treatment to all without discrimination (which also means staff can be brought up no different than students; in fact, staff is often treated more strictly in Judicial Committee, due to their duty as elected and paid employees of the school.)
These institutions, along with the Sudbury name, and the philosophy and literature behind these schools, all come from Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, Massachusetts, which has served as an inspiration and model for all schools that call themselves Sudbury schools. There is, however, no central authority on these schools, and all schools that use the Sudbury name do so voluntarily and without consulting Sudbury Valley or any other school or institution.
Currently, most Sudbury schools are located in the United States, with several schools spread out across the rest of the developed world. Most of them are in the United States, but there are a few in Europe, and two in Israel.
Further reading
discuss-sudbury-model, a public mailing list for discussions about the Sudbury model, is one of the best places to get answers to questions about this type of school and the philosophy behind it.
For literature on Sudbury schooling, visit Sudbury Valley School Press’s online bookstore. For literature in German, visit Tologo Verlag.
Finally, the Sudbury Valley School website also has a selection of articles and book excerpts, videos, and discussions from the discuss-sudbury-model list.
“This free and unstructured activity is a result of the belief that given responsibility for their own time, people will seek out the activities they need most for their personal learning and development.”
You forgot only one problem that remains and increases in Sudbury schools. Peer pressure. In Sudbury schools, because “everyone” isn’t studying most of the time, those who “anyway” want to study earn an new level of disrespect. Oh, yay.
In “regular” schools people still have this problem but on a lower level. For they are all “forced” to learn, with no exceptions. This simple fact makes it easier for those who own the desire to study to be accepted in the community AND to act as their metaphysical heart begs them to.
Hello David,
That’s an interesting point, but I have a few comments.
First of all, what makes you say that this problem “remains and increases”? In my four years at Sudbury Jerusalem it was more of a phases thing, and correlated very closely with the influx of older new students; in other words, those who had already been there for a while were less prejudiced against academic pursuits. I wonder how it is in older schools, if they see more or less of this.
Second, I have to strongly disagree about traditional schools. In my experience in those schools (eight years) and in my contact with people who go/went to such, they are far more prejudiced against academic pursuits than what I experienced at SJ. Students who are good at academics, or even who simply show some intelligence and intellectualism, are routinely made into pariahs in traditional schools, called names and generally considered uncool. This is not despite the fact the students are forced to study, but because of it – the demand to study is seen as an imposed external force to be resisted; students who like studying are treated badly, just like those who cooperate with the authorities under an occupying totalitarian regime.
Finally, the huge advantage of a truly democratic school is that this kind of trend can be fought against, and that you still have the right to do whatever you want. In a traditional school, the “uncool” intellectual kids are basically doomed to either conform to peer pressure or to remain victims and social pariahs. Beside the fact that in a Sudbury school, bullies quickly get expelled, you also have a School Meeting where you can make rules that help you – or at least try.
Anyway, I remember the frustration of wanting to study and not being able to find quiet places at school to do so… So I see where you are coming from. But I don’t see that as a problem in the Sudbury model… If you look closely you’ll see that most of that peer pressure comes from people who spent a significant time at a regular school… Pay close attention to the preteens who have never been to a regular school, see if SJ made them more prejudiced than the people who went to other schools.
P.S.
Another though occurs to me: sometimes people who are not prejudiced against academic pursuits will more or less teasingly try to dissuade newer students from getting so worked up about studying… I can see how that might be annoying, but there are some people who come in with the attitude that the only worthy activity is studying, and that’s not exactly healthy or reasonable in itself… And some people try to remind those people that there are other interesting things you can do… I don’t see that so much as a problem, but I can imagine it would be a bit annoying when you’re the target of that kind of thing.
Hello David and Michael,
When you live in a society, and almost all of us live in a society, besides misanthropes and/or people that seclude themselves, peers and people around us in general, are always putting pressure on us for many and varied reasons. What is important is how able you are to resist this pressure, and how effective are societies’ (in our case schools) institutions to protect individuals. I think Sudbury model schools, even though they cannot change human nature, still they are excellent models of human organization being structured, as they are, in such a way as to protect individuals, if individuals wish so, and individual rights from group and/or individual pressure.
An amusing and colorful example of this is given by Daniel Greenberg in, “WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG…” – A true Story, included in chapter 35, “With Liberty and Justice for All,” in his instructive book, Free at Last – Sudbury Valley School.
“Will you help us to write a complaint?………….”
Chapter 35, “With Liberty and Justice for All,” from the book, Free at Last: The Sudbury Valley School, can be seen here: http://www.sudval.com/05_onepersononevote.html#02