Email   Print

School for life

Children are curious by nature Hanna and Daniel Greenberg helped create a school with that idea at the heart of its radically new vision of education.

WHO? Hanna and Daniel Greenberg WHAT? Sudbury Valley School, a school without classrooms, subjects, tests or grades WHERE? Boston, United States WHEN? 1968 WHY? To promote innate curiosity and creativity

Hanna and Daniel Greenberg felt uneasy when it came time for their children to start school in the mid-1960’s. They didn’t trust conventional education. Their children would not have any say in what they would be taught, but would learn to be obedient. And it turned out the Greenbergs weren’t the only parents in Boston complaining about the worn-out principles of the education system. Together with a group of other parents, they conceived an alternative school where children would could grow with a sense of both individualism and responsibility. Thirty-five years later, the Sudbury Valley School is inspirational proof that freedom and trust provide the best ways of assuring that kids grow to become responsible adults. The school is now a model for 30 new schools in countries from Australia to Israel.

Two hundred kids between the ages of four and 18 spend weekdays on the school’s beautiful campus in the suburbs of Boston. How they spend their time is up to them. Does everyone play all day long? Yes, sometimes, Daniel Greenberg admits. “But there comes a time when they want to do math and they want to read. Because they see other children doing it. Because they realise that it will be helpful to them in life. There’s no point forcing children to learn because they have reached a certain age, but aren’t yet ready. That only takes a lot of energy and causes frustration.”

Blending ages is the secret weapon of the Sudbury Valley School. This approach means children help each other, which stimulates them enormously. “Students who leave the school and go to college may not have a list of grades because we don’t use them, but they do have self-confidence and a sense of responsibility,” Greenberg believes. And isn’t that what school is all about?

Sudbury Valley School, 2 Winch Street, Framingham, MA 01701, United States, telephone +1 508 877 3030, office@sudval.org, www.sudval.org.