Free at Last: The Sudbury Valley School [Paperback]

Daniel Greenberg (Author), Michael Greenberg (Photographer), Andrew Brilliant (Photographer), Carol Palmer (Photographer)

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Sudbury Valley School Pr (June 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888947004
• ISBN-13: 978-1888947007
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #372,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sudbury Rocks!, September 3, 2001

By 

"creto" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Free at Last: The Sudbury Valley School (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.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome and wonderous learning, May 10, 2001

By 

MotherLodeBeth "MotherLodeBeth" (Sierras of California) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Free at Last: The Sudbury Valley School (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.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great statement of self-education and mutual respect., October 25, 1999

By 

Jason Gerber ([e-mail]) (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Free at Last: The Sudbury Valley School (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