Edited by Mimsy Sadofsky and Daniel Greenberg

#104, paperback, 1999, 353 pages

“What do kids learn at a Sudbury school? Are there any guaranties? I actually think that there are, and I think the things that can be (almost) guaranteed are the most important things of all in an explosively changing world. A student learns to concentrate. A student gets constant opportunities to make ethical judgments. A student learns to be treated with total respect. A student learns to appreciate the outdoors. A student learns to be self­-reliant. A student learns to be self-confident. A student learns what it means to set a goal and reach for it, to re-assess, to reach again, to achieve the goal, or to fail miserably, and to pick him or herself up and do it all over again, with the same or a different goal. A kid learns life skills. Real life skills. The skills that it takes to be successful at marriage, at child rearing, at friendship, as well as at work.”

How do Sudbury Schools work? For over thirty years, founders, staff, students and parents have written about this exhilarating new way of schooling children. Many excellent articles on the concepts and experiences that make up a Sudbury School have been collected in two books, this one and The Sudbury Valley School Experience, which together provide a solid introduction to this model of education.

Sample Chapters:

Bells
By Martha Hurwitz

 

Uncommon Sense
By Alan White

 

Is Sudbury Valley a School?
By Daniel Greenberg

 

How it Feels to Send Your Child to a "Free" School
By Mimsy Sadofsky

 

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Parents, Children, and Staff
By Hanna Greenberg

 

Is Sudbury Valley School "Anti-Intellectual"?
By Daniel Greenberg