To most of us,school means classes,teachers,schedules,grades,and tests.But for the children at Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts,school is very different. Firstly,there are no lessons.All the children,aged between 4 and 19,do whatever they want.There are no teachers--only "staff members".The idea behind this is that you do not need to make children learn,because children want to learn anyway."You do not need to say to a three yearold,'Go explore your environment.'You can't stop them!" says Daniel Greenberg,a founder of the school."But if you make children do what you want all day,they will lose all taste for learning." At Sudbury Valley School,you will permit children to talk,read,paint,cook,work on computers,study French,play the piano,climb trees or just run around.Two boys spent three years just fishing! The other way that Sudbury Valley School is different is that the children can decide the rules.Every week,there is a school meeting where both children and staff have one vote each--even the fouryearolds.They decide the school rules,how to spend the school budget,and even which staff they want and do not want any more. When the school first opened in 1968,people said it would never work.But today,the school has 200 students,and 80%of its students go on to college. Even the two boys who went fishing all the time have successful careers today.One of them is a musician and the other is a computer scientist. Who has the most power in the school meetings?
The older children have more power than the younger children. A child has more power than an adult. The younger children have more power than the older children. Everybody has equal power.