Blue Ridge Discovery School

• What is a Sudbury-model or democratic school?
• Why total educational freedom?
• Doesn't a democratically run school lack structure?
• How do students learn the "basics" that other schools teach formally?
• If there are no grades or report cards how will the children and parents know how well the children have done?
• But my child is not motivated to learn. Won't he just waste his time at a democratic school?
• My child who is struggling might benefit from a democratic school, but what about my child who is doing well at school?
• If students are bored or lost, do you encourage them to find something to do?
• If a student chooses to ignore an important subject, won't he or she be at a disadvantage in later life?
• How do you know this really works?
• What age students can attend the school?

What is a Sudbury-model or democratic school?

Sudbury-model or democratic schools are schools modeled after Sudbury Valley School, founded in 1968 in Framingham, Massachusetts. There are about 20 schools based on this model in the U.S., Britain, Denmark, Israel, Australia and Canada. The model has two basic tenets: educational freedom and democratic governance. These are not just slogans but realities at Sudbury schools, where students are free to choose how to spend their time, and all decisions affecting the school community are made by majority vote of all those affected by the decision. back to top

Why total educational freedom?

Children are born with the instinctive ability and internal motivation to play with tools and ideas and explore relationships with other people in order to understand the world and find a meaningful place for themselves in it. In other words, all people are born students of life, and do not need to be coerced or manipulated into learning. Nor do they need a formal curriculum, any more than babies need a formal plan for learning how to talk. Their play, their conversation, their whole lives are perfectly suited to giving them the basic skills to survive in our complex, rapidly changing world. Curiosity and the desire to become successful adults are motivation enough for students to actively pursue special skills and interests that will lead to success in the job market and/or higher education. We believe that a preplanned curriculum interferes with students' own agenda for themselves. By pursuing their own interests, students are constantly engaged in activities they find challenging, stimulating, and therefore "educational" in the broadest sense. Research has shown that the bribery and punishments required to convince people to pursue learning tasks not of their own choosing actually damage internal motivation and discourage people from engaging in those same types of tasks when the bribe or punishment is not present. In other words, in the traditional school structure, with a predetermined curriculum, group conformity to the teacher's will, and grades to reward or punish performance, is, in the long run, devastating to one's natural ability and motivation to learn. back to top

Doesn't a democratically run school lack structure?

Not at all. Democracy, even in the hands of young people, is neither anarchy nor Lord-of-the-Flies tyranny. Democracy at a Sudbury-model school involves very strict rules of order and governance. The School Meeting is held weekly to make new rules or repeal old ones, to decide how the budget will be spent, to hire and fire staff, and even to charter corporations. Everyone, student or staff member (teacher) has the right to attend the meeting and use his/her powers of persuasion and the force of one’s vote to influence school policy. The meeting runs according to Robert's Rules of Order and students learn to amend motions, to lobby fellow voters, and to live with the decisions of the majority. In other words, students are learning about real life in a democracy, the conflicting needs of different interest groups, the tensions and balance between individual rights and community needs, the inextricable link between freedom and responsibility. Even in the enforcement of rules, democracy and the principles of due process prevail. Students have the right to a fair trial and the right to appeal, for example, and everyone is required to serve on the Judicial Committee for a small part of each year. The process can sometimes be time consuming and bureaucratic, as in any democracy, but is, after all, the only logical way to govern a school that aims to prepare students for citizenship in a democratic society. back to top

How do students learn the "basics" that other schools teach formally?

We trust that students will come across a need for and therefore an intrinsic reason to learn those skills that are truly basic to success in our society. Everyone needs reading and writing skills to email a friend or read the directions to a new gadget, and math skills to buy a soda or build a deck. Beyond these traditional "basics" there is a great deal of information that is useful in life. Why allergies make people sick, how insurance companies work, what a "defendant" is - these are examples of things we all probably need to know. But every alert human being will pick up such basic information through conversation, TV watching, reading, or first hand experience over the course of her/his life. On the other hand, many of the things taught in traditional schools -- John Quincy Adams, the air currents over the Sahara Desert, and the Pythagorean theorem, for example -- may or may not be "picked up" by students living their lives at a Sudbury-model school. If a student is interested in the specifics of a field, however, the possibilities are limitless. The school helps the student get access to information through the school library, the Internet, field trips, internships, and occasionally formal classes or tutorials taught by the staff or someone temporarily hired for that purpose. back to top

If there are no grades or report cards how will the children and parents know how well the children have done?

When we pursue activities we are truly interested in, we are the best judges of our accomplishments, because we set the goals, we know what we hope to achieve, and what results we consider acceptable. When we are becoming proficient in some area, we turn to the examples of those already accomplished in our chosen pursuit to determine what is an acceptable level of performance. To compare ourselves to these experts and learn from their example requires honest reflection and self-evaluation, two qualities which democratic schools foster. For the children to learn honest self-evaluation without self-reproach, the staff of the school is available to help them reflect on and improve their work in the pursuit of excellence. No grade needs to be attached to a child's work when an honest conversation between a child and mentor results in a deeper understanding for the child. These qualities grow naturally out of participation for an empowered and responsible member of a democratic community. It is these skills, as judged by each student, peers, teachers, and parents, which are the central requirements for graduation.

Parents are members of the School Assembly and are welcome to come and listen to the debate, argue their views, and vote their wishes. In these ways, parents can be more in touch with their child's experience and progress than in a conventional setting. However, the real answer to how parents will know how well their children are doing is the same at all democratic schools as everywhere. The only way to know how your child is doing is to talk together and spend time knowing one another. These are things which the freedom and empowerment found at a democratic school will make more interesting and more rewarding. back to top

But my child is not motivated to learn. Won't he just waste his time at a democratic school?

There are many reasons for a child to temporarily lose his natural motivation to learn. Experiences in traditional schools may leave students bored, rebellious, or afraid of failure. It may be that the child is motivated to learn, but has a different agenda from his school or his parents. He may be fascinated by video games, by friendship and social skills, by learning how to drive a car, or by developing a unique fashion image. At a democratic school all pursuits are valued not by the extent to which they conform to the adult agenda or prepare students directly for professional goals, but by the extent to which the student is interested in pursuing them. Interest means the mind is engaged, and students are necessarily learning to focus, to persist, and to trust their own ability to learn.

It is contrary to human nature to seek monotony. No one wants to be bored. Those students who come to the school wounded, "burnt out," and determined to do "nothing" inevitably, but sometimes very slowly, begin to see their lives as their own and embark on a powerful personal search for their own interests. Those whose passionate interests have been demeaned by others, or limited by the need to succeed in traditional school classes, feel the excitement of freedom to pursue their passions at a democratic school. Small children who are captivated at home by TV or video games often go through a period of fully immersing themselves in their obsession, only to find that the world beyond their particular interest is irresistibly fascinating and full of challenges. Kids who have been home schooled often seek adult reassurance first, then dive into social interaction, deliberately compensating for their inexperience as independent operators in the world of friendship, conflict, and cooperation. back to top

My child who is struggling might benefit from a democratic school, but what about my child who is doing well at school?

Students who are successful in school are often overly dependent on the expectations and approval of their teachers to learn. Getting good grades doesn't necessarily mean a student has a strong sense of personal direction or knows how to take initiative to pursue what is important to him or her. Students at democratic schools have the time and support to struggle with the questions of who they are, what they want in life and how they will achieve it. They have the opportunity to engage in learning that is vital to them personally, and to acquire essential skills such as thinking independently, structuring their time, creative problem-solving, accessing information and mobilizing resources. back to top

If students are bored or lost, do you encourage them to find something to do?

Nearly everyone will experience periods of boredom at the school. Especially in the first months of attendance, students who have been accustomed to having others determine how they spend their day go through a period of feeling adrift and occasionally seek adult help in finding "something to do." Facing boredom is one of the most important things a student at democratic schools would do, and staff are reluctant to interfere with that golden opportunity for the student to really begin asking hard questions like, "What is important to me? What do I like to do? Who am I really? Why can't I find something that interests me? What do I have to do to make X happen?" To move in with entertaining activities and suggestions is to defer these important stages in a student's transition to a truly self-directed, self-motivated adulthood. back to top

If a student chooses to ignore an important subject, won't he or she be at a disadvantage in later life?

Modern society is so diverse and fast-changing that there is no way to anticipate what knowledge a person may someday need. It is therefore inevitable that students of a democratic school will eventually find themselves in situations for which they are inadequately prepared. The same will hold true for graduates of traditional schools. The graduates of democratic schools, however, would have had the experience of being truly responsible for their educations. At these schools, students do not sit back and wait for someone to teach them. Instead, they decide what they need to know and then figure out a way to learn it. This is also how adults generally learn things, and it is more effective than trying to "stockpile" knowledge in the hope that someday some of it might be useful. (Sad to say, most of us who devoted months or years to studying long division, trigonometry, sentence diagrams, and Cliffs Notes could have spent that time more profitably.) back to top

How do you know this really works?

Sudbury Valley graduates have been proving that this model works for over 30 years. Students who have no grades, no class rank, and sometimes no formal classes at all go on to be admitted to good colleges and universities (on the merits of their personal presentation in writing and in person and, where required, their test scores), to be successful in their course work (sometimes having to "catch up" on certain subject matter, but having the resources and self-confidence to do so easily), and to move on to varied and interesting careers. Those who have chosen not to attend college (about 20%) have become successful artists, craftspeople, trades people, musicians and businesspeople. In addition, graduates of Sudbury-model democratic schools are articulate, responsible, open-minded adults who, having never seen their education as anyone's responsibility but their own, continue to engage life and learn new things for the rest of their lives. back to top

What age students can attend the school?

The school accepts students age 4 if they turn 5 before October 1, 2003 or by the student's fifth birthday. Maximum age is 19. back to top Mortgage Canada Rates

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* Source: Prairie Sage School (with adaptations). Reprinted with permission. Blue Ridge Discovery School Organizing Committee, 2002