When my kids were young, I could see that they were learning through play. I was just happy that they were happy and loved being at school. Now that they are older they are very self conscious about not having taken formal educational classes. They feel dumb. They tell me they are dumb. I try to redirect them and remind them that they can learn at their own pace, and that there are plenty of resources out there for them to support them learning anything they want to know more about. I was hopeful that being in a Sudbury environment would help my kids feel more confident, and shield them from educational trauma. Now that they are teenagers, I feel like being at Sudbury has actually damaged them more than if they had attended a traditional school. I feel like Sudbury promised that the kids would get bored and come up with all sorts of neat things to do with their time. The reality is that never happened. My kids are miserable, and now I feel like we’re stuck staying with Sudbury whether we want to or not.

Hi all! My name is Ben, I'm a lifelong unschooler and filmmaker! My partner and I have been working on a documentary series about self-directed education, and we just released the first episode! It's about the unschooling program Flying Squads, an urban adventure program for teens. You can watch it here! We also visited a Sudbury turned democratic school, which will be one of our future episodes!

I appreciate Peter Gray's and other researchers' books and articles, but they focus on students who finished their education a long time ago.

But there weren't as many distractions back then, so the old research is not necessary applicable for the modern days. Why mid-10s? Because this is when social media (a great potential distractor from learning) actually took off.

My kid is going to a self directed school next year. We really like the idea for him. My kid would otherwise be lower elementary aged. He is interested in reading and math and we want to continue to support that at home. We read with him a lot and even practice sounding out words. He has a lot of comics (loud house, captain underpants) which he likes to flip through and im sure read in part. Is there anything else you recommend we do at home? For math, we use it in context but I worry that is the other concept that is easy to miss out on. I am considering buying a curriculum such as Beast Academy. I'm very curious on the thoughts from this community on that approach.

Edit: posted to soon, completed the post.

I am a 14m and my parents are thinking about transferring me from a public high school to a Sudbury school and I was just curious on how these schools work and if they have a future for me. And also what do I even need to graduate?

Avoid Florida colleges

I had a lot of trouble with UCF, which demanded that I write an exhaustive explanation of the Sudbury philosophy along with detailed paragraphs about how I learned basic things. I completed their request within all their specifications, sent it to the right place, tried contacting them multiple times, and was ghosted. Not a pleasant experience and it made me look like Sisyphus.

On top of this, FAU, the least prestigious college I applied to, rejected me. A representative from a different Florida college kept citing Florida laws about the required coursework I would need to complete before my application could be reviewed. I ended up getting rejected from five colleges in Florida. While not all of them asked me for any kind of coursework to review my application as that one college did, I believe those laws had something to do with the outright rejection from schools like FAU.

Accommodations for the SAT

To make a long story short, I didn't get accommodations for ADHD when I submitted all the required documents and I take ADHD medication. In their response letter, they said my ADHD was not visibly impacting my abilities in the classroom or during testing. This is hilarious because I don't get experience in the classroom... I go to a Sudbury school. My score before taking medication was drastically worse, but imagine if you didn't want to take stimulant medication and instead just wanted simple accommodations; oh well.

I'm not sure how it would've played out if I tried taking the ACT, but someone else would have to answer that.

Hi all! I'm Ben, I'm a 19 year old grown unschooler. I'm writing here because I attended Not Back To School Camp last year and it was a truly wonderful, and dare I say, life changing experience. It's a camp for self-directed learners with sessions in Oregon and Vermont. It brought a wonderful community of people and a new range of new experiences into my life! I would sincerely recommend it other self-directed learners. They're in the early bird state of sign-ups right now, so I would definitely check it out if you know someone who may be interested. Happy to answer any questions based on my personal experience : )

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/no-grades-no-teachers-inside-a-bothell-school-run-by-student-vote/

Are there any Sudbury or SDE schools/programs in the US that have a good community built up in the area for us unconventional, quirky, neurospicy, crunchy, unschooling types?!? Looking to transplant somewhere with a good strong alternative culture and a Sudbury/SDE home for our kiddos 4-16! Thanks 🙏🏼

https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/12ju2s9/til_about_sudbury_schools_no_teachers_classes_or/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Hi I'm having my first child due this summer. I'm also a research psychologist (social and political psychology) who will be a PhD candidate next year (assuming I pass the test) as well as a former educator (both in the united States and in Taiwan).

I've seen first hand the effects of education on the youth here. Fir example Taiwan has the longest school day in the world and the vast majority of students also attend cram school which culminates in roughly 12 hours a day of school. That's not even to mention the time spent working on home work. This has left most students incredibly sleep deprived, little to no exercise exposure, and with some of the highest rates of depression and anxiety in the world.

I've recently discovered Peter Gray's free to learn book. I'm still in the process of reading more research on the topic (and considering drafting research proposals centered on his theory) but find it on the whole very compelling. Specifically, from an anecdotal perspective, the argument for free play and "unschooling" (for lack of a better word I know the Sudbury Model is different from the so called unschooling model) resonates deeply with me.

Growing up, I excelled at school but was always frustrated by the impediments that come from school models, specifically being corraled into a unitary pace of learning. Additionally I was constantly frustrated by the lack of context behind the information. After transitioning to middle and highschool bullying set in which reinforced a negative and rebellious attitude towards school.

Later I had sworn off academics entirely. Ironically it was a choice made to join the US Marines that changed my perspective. Having made a choice to learn and work towards a goal that was entirely my own enabled me to learn information far quicker than I had believed. The rigid structure in the Marines also produced bullies, however the new found autonomy in terms of individual choice and purpose made these conditions more bearable. In the Marines I was eventually given the opportunity to attend community college courses after work hours which involved actual invention and discovery that was absent in public education. Eventually I transitioned from anti academics to graduate school and teaching.

However, the more I learn about the ways in which humans learn and the importance of play not even for children but for adults as well the more I'm convinced that the traditional school model is not only inefficient but detrimental as a whole.

This has led me to worrying about my soon to be born newborn. I don't want him or her to suffer from public schooling. Luckily, my wife is very open minded and progressive and is supportive of my view (having suffered herself from public schooling).

However, as I search, I can't seem to find anything available at all here in Taiwan. Education is a huge business here (and those cram schools even have political power). I see there's one in Okinawa though (physical quite close). Sometimes information can be difficult to find if you can't read Chinese though. So I was wondering if anyone here knew if any Sudbury schools or home school groups run on Sudbury Model maybe, existed?

Hi! I’m looking into alternate schooling for my kids. They are both currently enrolled in public school and the learning techniques are not at all meshing with the way my oldest learns.

So many questions -

If you have a child that transitioned from public to Sudbury school, how did they do?

On the flip side of that, how did transitioning from Sudbury back to public or from Sudbury to college go? Were your kids academically prepared? Or were the struggles with those types of academics just postponed?

I have found nothing but good reviews of the nearby Sudbury school. This makes me a bit apprehensive and makes me think that not all of them are real — or it’s just a cult and they have all drank the kool aid.

Thanks for hearing me out- I look forward to hearing your responses!

This sub is now public, meaning approval is no longer required to join. I'm also looking for a banner, so if anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Hi, I am making this post to let people know that this sub now has moderators. The last top moderator was inactive, so I got permission to take over the sub. In the coming days, I'd love to improve upon this sub. I want to find an appropriate banner and icon, change the color scheme, update the flair, add new rules, and more. I'm excited to try and get this sub active. I'd love to add more Sudbury students and have this place be a forum for anyone who is or was involved with a Sudbury school to talk about anything, but I'd also love it to be open to everyone who's interested.

Thanks.

I've been told by a Sudbury school student that the Sudbury Valley School's "Starting Kit" for sale at their website is "worthless", and Jerry Mintz's course on starting a Sudbury school is very expensive.

I'm often referred to the Agile Learning Centers' guide, but ALC is not really what I'm looking for.

Hello,
Ive been following democratic and all kinds of alternative schools for a while now. I really emphasize with the approach that the child is going to learn stuff he/she wants to learn.
But what about math? Is a 17 year old guy who discovered passion for engineering able to understand mathematical approach without having a rigid educational process? It would be best to hear some stories :)

school survey

i writing a research paper on about sudbury vs public school please take the time to take it

Hello fellow free school and sudbury students. I am posed to graduate this year and I started writing my thesis a little while ago I'm at a point where I have to decide how long I want it to be. I'm just curious how long other people made theirs. Our school is only 5 years old and have only had 1 graduate so I really don't have anything to go off of for reference.

I have always wondered about the finances of Sudbury schools--both for students and for those who started the school or work at the school. How many students does a school need for it to be viable? What is the typical student:staff ratio? How many students would like to attend but cannot due to financial constraints? If someone starts a Sudbury school, how much do they struggle just to stay afloat?

I teach biology for a small university and we homeschool our children. I have considered starting quitting my job to start a Sudbury school, but my biggest concern is that it could be all-consuming and not provide financial security. My wife's biggest concern is that she would be stuck with too many logistics and would not find the same relaxed atmosphere that she enjoys as a homeschooling mom, or that one of us would need extra employment just to keep the school open. I would love to hear any experiences or insights from this group.

I’m not sure if your guys school has the job of JC clerk. Basically it’s just sitting in in jc writing down everything hey happens in jc. Basically though I’m just a silent observer who gets to be on his phone mostly in reddit. Overall it is the best job.

So I go to a sudbury school and wanted to see how other sudbury schools handle their social media as in, do you have a committee for social or does a specific person run them or some other system? At my school we are trying to come up with a system for our social accounts and I am interested how other sudbury schools handle their's.

The second video in out One Idea at a Time series is out. It is a perspective on play by Mimsy Sadofsky, excerpted from a talk at Harvard.

Thoughts on Play