I get it, but what about ...

Also see http://sudburyschoolofatlanta.org/ssa-education/questions/ which also inspired some of the below text.

... reading?

Children learn to read in a variety of ways at their own timing. Some learn at age 4 and others learn when they are 9. When they learn, they learn quickly. By letting them find their own way, their joy of reading is undiminished.

We live in a literate society, in which reading and writing are necessary skills. Children are highly motivated to acquire these skills as they are fundamental to simply getting around, let alone to serving any specialized needs.

Peter Gray’s “Children Teach Themselves to Read” is an excellent article for gaining a proper perspective on children learning to read on their own. Of particular note is the point that late readers are not distinguishable from early readers within a couple of years of common reading ability.

... math?

Much like reading, basic arithmetic is a useful skill that children pick up easily as they need it. They use numbers in daily life, such as when dealing with money, dividing things up, deciding how long a turn should be, etc., and they get a natural feeling for their use.

The more advanced mathematics are not picked up naturally, but they are easily learned when there is need. There is ample evidence of this in the history of Sudbury schools. For example, college entrance tests require some mathematical knowledge which Sudbury students pick up with a few weeks of dedicated effort.

Our model also has the additional feature that none of our students learn to fear or hate mathematics. Instead, they see it as a tool that they can master just as they can master any other skill that they may need or want.

... getting into college?

The admissions processes of colleges vary and student experience will vary as well, but the experience to date is that students who wish to go to college do not have problems. If there are tests that need taking, they prepare for them. If there are prerequisites that they can fill, they do so. If not, they negotiate their way around them quite skillfully and with a high success rate.

As with most roles in society, being accepted is more a matter of personality and clarity of thought rather than a simple list of skills. Our students can easily talk with adults. They are able to express themselves with focus and coherence derived from years of negotiating complex and ever-changing needs and pressures within their schools. This is an impressive marker of maturity to those who serve on admissions boards.

Once admitted, they also do not have any particular problems with their chosen courses of study. While they may have never taken a formal class before, they are well-equipped to learn what they need to learn in order to succeed at college. They have spent their educations up to this point creating and achieving goals using the resources around them. It is just the same in college. They work hard, as they have chosen to be there, and they are unafraid to use professors and other resources to master the material. The initiative and savvy of Sudbury students make them ideal college students.

They are also not overly distracted by the social scene at college. They have have had many years of socializing freely and the move to a college dorm is not the overwhelming novelty for them that it can be for students who have been sheltered from choice and risk. For Sudbury students, college is a place to learn academic material and receive credentials that they believe will be of use to them in their chosen path in life. Thus, they work hard.

The experience recounted here is mostly derived from the stories of the nearly 50 year old Sudbury Valley School. They have reported, after conducting extensive alumni studies, that of the over 80% of their graduates who choose to pursue higher education, almost all get into their first choice of schools. For those who do not pursue a college education, the choice is a self-interested one that allows them to go directly into the field of their choosing.

As for A&I, of our two graduates thus far, one is studying photography at the college of his choice - which he was accepted to without a diploma or SAT scores - and the other is a professional pastry chef at a high end restaurant

• his dream job that he apprenticed for while attending A&I.

... screen time?

It is quite possible that your child will spend all day on the computer at times - and that’s okay! With all of the negative media attention surrounding screen time, it is not surprising that many parents are concerned about this. We at Arts & Ideas recognize that computers are the most important tools of modern society and that there are many proven, studied advantages to playing with them regularly. Furthermore, computers and gaming are very social activities at our school in which students engage with each other, learn from each other, and problem-solve together.

We also find that with everything going on at our school, it is nearly impossible for any one child to do only one thing, all day, every day, forever. We see even the screen-obsessed kids (the ones learning to code a new Minecraft mod, or spending hours working on a tiny animation detail of a new video), take breaks to challenge themselves to go out of their comfort zone by climbing a tree or playing a game of soccer. When kids feel comfortable in their safe space - whether that be near a screen or not - they gain the confidence in themselves and bravery to try something new.

... exposure? How do students know what they don’t know?

We live in the information age, where knowledge is available at your fingertips. In this context, and especially at a Sudbury school, where conversation flows freely and without time limits, it would be an enormously difficult task not to be exposed to all kinds of topics and information. Because students are free to explore and interact with other students and adults of all ages with all different backgrounds, they are naturally exposed to a wide variety of topics. Students follow their curiosity and interest, which is not limited to a set curriculum. Have you ever met a young child that does not like asking questions? At A&I, this curiosity is not squashed when the child enrolls at school. Instead it is encouraged and allowed to blossom into all kinds of information exploring and gathering. It is unsurprising then that when we do hear from parents on the matter of exposure, the question is almost always “How did my son/daughter know that?”

... supplementary instruction?

Some people immediately see the social value of our school and think they can fill the perceived academic void by having their child follow an online curriculum at home, by visiting a weekly tutor, or by engaging in nightly homeschool-esque lessons with the parent. These kinds of activities are fine, if and only if it is truly your child’s choice to engage in them.

However, any type of academics or extracurricular activity that is forced upon your child is contrary to our school’s philosophy and will undermine their experience at school. Insistence on supplementary activities sends a mixed-message to your child that school is for playing/socializing and the “real” learning takes place at home.

Instead of learning confidence and independence, they learn that they need others to teach them. Even worse, they learn that they are not capable of deciding what they need to be taught.

And they also have to reconcile what the parents say (“We trust you”), with the lack of trust inherent in dictating what the child ought to be interested in. This is an extremely difficult place for a child to be put in and ultimately ends up severely damaging their trust in themselves and renders their Sudbury school experience an unfulfilled promise.

This confusion of educational purpose not only adversely affects the individual child but the entire school community. The one child who perceives his/her learning experience at school as either an impossible task at best, or a lie at worst, will naturally influence peers with that attitude.

It is the job of the parent to support their child at a Sudbury school by consistently delivering the message that what the child chooses to engage in at school is important, valuable, real learning, and enough. Perhaps even more importantly, the job of a parent is to just enjoy their time with their child and let them know that their future is theirs to make.

... structure? My kid needs structure.

Structure is important, and Sudbury Schools provide the time and space for students to develop their own structure, beginning with how they will structure their day to how they will structure their lives. What do kids do when they get together without adults? They create structure! They make up games with complicated rules and create structure for themselves.

They also break up those structures. They are engines of chaos as well as order, creating organization out of disorder and creating chaos of order. It is a messy process, but that is how they acquire a full command of their environment as well as their place in it.

Our students have the ability to come to School Meeting to create structure for the whole school by deciding rules and procedures. These governing bodies and processes are detailed in Our Structure. At other schools, students must follow structure that may or may not have meaning for them, and often have little or any chance to change that structure, whereas at A&I the rules and the structures are created by students for students.

... teachers? What do the teachers do?

“What I have learned, very slowly and painfully over the years, is that children make vital decisions for themselves in ways that no adults could have anticipated or even imagined.” ~ Hanna Greenberg, founder of Sudbury Valley School, in The Art of Doing Nothing

We have no teachers. The adults employed by the school are staff and are responsible for the administration and upkeep of the school as delegated to them by School Meeting. Staff are community elders, subject matter experts, janitors, advocates, curious students, and responsible School Meeting Members. Elected positions for staff have them managing finances, administering the admissions process, tracking attendance, communicating with parents, planning PR events, cleaning and maintaining the property, and everything that it takes to run a school. Students may also serve in many of these roles.

As students and staff have equal standing in an institutional sense, relationships between students and staff tend to be collegial. As in any community, staff and students will develop closer relationships with those they have affinity for and will naturally influence each other’s interests and activities. Staff do not artificially seize “teachable moments” as is often discussed in conventional educational models, but, like anyone, are certainly apt to expound on topics they feel passionately about if a student brings it up.

As adults in the current culture, staff must constantly fight against unneeded intervention. Our students explorations inevitably lead them to push past their comfort zone. Emotions flare up and it can be very hard not to rush in and try to resolve the situation. Just as we would not intervene in adult conflicts without due cause, we do not intervene in student conflicts without due cause. It is this, above all else, that a staff at a Sudbury school must be comfortable with.

... student evaluations?

Students are not evaluated at Arts & Ideas through standardized testing, report cards or assessments. By not imposing a system for evaluating students, we preserve natural curiosity, intrinsic motivation and confidence in ideas. If a child is always looking outside for approval or recognition, development of self-assessment habits and introspective skills are lost. We aim to preserve student privacy and value our school as a place to build authentic staff/student relationships. We view school as a place for students to practice autonomy and independence away from home in preparation for adulthood.

... bullying?

Bullying is uncommon at Sudbury schools, since students freely age-mix and choose their own activities. To address the rare occurrence of bullying, School Meeting has enacted multiple laws that may be called upon when needed.

... how do students know their choices?

All students and staff are considered resources in our school. Every day we each bring with us our diverse backgrounds, passions, great finds, stories, and more, which infuses and influences the school culture. Beyond staff and students, we have books, computers, and community resources available. Children pick things up as adults do: through conversation, interactions and following what is interesting. The idea that we have to expose children to all of human learning before they are 18 is misguided and impossible. Aristotle said, “All men by nature desire knowledge.” You can’t stop the drive of children to acquire knowledge and achieve mastery in subjects they are passionate about, unless they equate learning with drudgery. This drive opens up the world of information to them. The issue in the information age is not how to get information, but how to use it well. Decades of Sudbury graduates provide real evidence that this approach works.