As a college professor, I can attest to the fact that our secondary schools (both public and private) are not working. They are producing desensitized, passionless robots whose only ambitions involve participating in the vortex of the class system and increasing the wealth of corporate CEO's. Fortunately, the Sudbury Valley School offers a real alternative to all this madness.
Any serious educator who has the common sense of a slug (and that's about one percent, by the way) will tell you that the educational system as we know it is merely an indoctrination into the values of the ruling class. Much of the work that is forced on teachers is mind-numbing bookkeeping and measuring designed to further the careers of educators (and satisfy administrators) more than anyone else. What is refreshing about Sudbury is that they do away with all that and get down to the business of educating students.
Meaningful learning comes from the individual, and that's what the Sudbury model is all about. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 54 people found the following review helpful
By "creto"
Format:Paperback
As a college professor, I can attest to the fact that our secondary schools (both public and private) are not working. They are producing desensitized, passionless robots whose only ambitions involve participating in the vortex of the class system and increasing the wealth of corporate CEO's. Fortunately, the Sudbury Valley School offers a real alternative to all this madness.
Any serious educator who has the common sense of a slug (and that's about one percent, by the way) will tell you that the educational system as we know it is merely an indoctrination into the values of the ruling class. Much of the work that is forced on teachers is mind-numbing bookkeeping and measuring designed to further the careers of educators (and satisfy administrators) more than anyone else. What is refreshing about Sudbury is that they do away with all that and get down to the business of educating students.
Meaningful learning comes from the individual, and that's what the Sudbury model is all about. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Just under 200 pages this book is for the few brave souls who have kids and who like their kids and who believe that children are free spirits who if allowed to be around other kids who see the world as a classroom and life from birth to death as a learning experince, can and will benefit from.
We home schooled are son, and would have relished a Sudbury school had there been one in our area. This is a school that came about in 1968 in Framingham Massachusetts. Open to children ages 4-19. As the books notes "The school starts from a premise stated by Aristotle over 2000 years ago in his famous opening to the _Metaphysics_:Human beings are naturally curious".
The books explains how children at the school learn all the normal subjects and much more, but at their own pace. And they do learn. And I personally believe that the country needs more educational choices, including Sudbury and home schooling! Subjects covered are: Classes, Math, Fishing, Chemistry, Cooking, Play, how older and younger children teach others, The Honour System, Sports, how they deal with "troublemakers".
I am a big supporter of the idea of at least reading about choices other people are making and recommend this book to thinking people.
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book explains quite a bit about the Sudbury Valley School, it is not about people who want to work at a super market checkout nor is it about people who do not know how to read. This is about a school that essentially lets you unschool. As and unschooler I found it to be interesting and inspiring. This is a book about a school where you essentially can become anything you want to become. Traditional schools are about molding people, this is a school about learning and freedom. While searching for alternative education I actually visited a school that models itself on SVS, however it was a bit of a drive to get there and it was just getting off the ground so I chose to unschool instead.
"There can be no freedom without learning and learning without freedom is always in vain"-JFK
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
You have got to be kidding me...
This is just plain scary, putting impressionable kids into an environment that revolves around them, with no rules, no schedules, no structure, no adult "interference". Read more
Published on June 2, 2007 by lisam5305
5.0 out of 5 stars
LOVED this book!
This book is one of the most amazing books I've ever read, and it completely changed the way we homeschool our son! Read more
Published on April 8, 2007 by Heather Williams
4.0 out of 5 stars
Learn in school the way you learn in life
This book is about more than just another way to "do school". It poses a question and a challenge to all that we've come to believe about what education is. Read more
Published on March 1, 2007 by PF
1.0 out of 5 stars
I laughed when I read this book
My main objection to this book is that it is full of lies. The sudbury philosophy sounds great, but having enrolled in one, I have discovered that the dream of children having... Read more
Published on April 15, 2004
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is the way schools should be run
If you believe that kids need to be controlled, guided, and "exposed to new ideas," you won't like this book. Read more
Published on July 9, 2001 by Walter F. Thiessen Jr.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good introduction to the Sudbury Model
A remarkable example of walking one's talk. These people set out to do something in the late sixties based on ideals that most of us have long since compromised to the pressures... Read more
Published on April 27, 2001 by Alan Mitter-Burke
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best book on education and learning I have read.
As a former teacher frustrated with the mediocrity andlimitations of traditional public schools, I find this book to beexciting and refreshing, offering hope that at least someone... Read more
Published on January 9, 2001 by T. Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hope for the education crisis
Short vignettes of experiences and views from the Sudbury Valley School. Sudbury Valley is a school in Framingham, Mass. Read more
Published on October 12, 2000 by yo-tambien
5.0 out of 5 stars
Some chapters in German
I haven't read the whole book yet, but it seems to be great. OnSVS's webpages I found three free chapters and I found them soconvincing, that I started to translate them into... Read more
Published on July 1, 1999
1.0 out of 5 stars
what a waste of time..
I looked at SVS when I was going into high school. Its a great place to go if you want to spend the rest of your life climbing trees or working in a supermarket checkout. Read more
Published on January 30, 1999 by Jared Yaffe
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