Sunset Sudbury Communtiy Lending Library
Sunset Sudbury School is proud to announce its new community lending library. We have books on Creativity & Culture, Learning, Parenting, and of course the Sudbury philosophy. Whatever your education philosophy, you’ll find some interesting reads. Here are just a few.
Rethinking the old paradigm…
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
- Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv
- College Without High School: A Teenager’s Guide to Skipping High School and Going to College by Blake Boles
Education classics…
- Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto
- How Children Learn by John Holt
Attachment parenting gems…
- Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves: Transforming parent-child relationships from reaction and struggle to freedom, power and joy by Naomi Aldort
- Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason by Alfie Kohn
Check out our complete library here… http://www.gurulib.com/sunsetsudbury
Please contact us at info@sunsetsudbury.org or call 954-404-7785 to come by and borrow one of our books. Thank you to all who donated the many education and attachment parenting books!
Sunset Sudbury: The Children’s Imagination
Ever wonder what might be your child’s ideal school? Well, I got a little glimpse today when three students came running up to me today very excited to tell me all about their “magic school”. They insisted I write this down so they wouldn’t forget.
The Magic School has…
- fairies with pixie dust for flying and a magic glowing flower,
- sharks that help you swim and don’t bite if you don’t bother them,
- water fountains and real mermaids,
- bounce houses and water slides,
- stars that glow,
- a real-life Rapunzel,
- rainbows, snow, reindeer, and a beach,
- new markers (and you get to keep them),
- it’s in Colorado,
- only kids can go, but parents can pick them up,
- gifts that don’t run out,
- squirrels that don’t bite,
- flowers you can climb on,
- shots from the doctor don’t hurt,
- Rapunzel can sing out splinters with her magic song,
- Santa Claus is there,
- invisible gold rocks that you trip over and then the fairies make you fly,
- there’s a lot of things…
The independent learning environment at Sunset Sudbury allows the children to be as creative as possible and to have such wonderful imaginations, like the “Magic School.” Contact us if you are interested in learning more about our self directed learning school in Broward County.
Five Reasons to Enroll your Child in Sunset Sudbury School
- Every student is honored at Sunset Sudbury School - In a traditional school, the principal and the teachers have more power than students. The students are the lowest entities in the school. Students are ranked and valued, and devalued, based on academic and social measures interpreted by administrators. At Sunset Sudbury School, all students are treated with respect. The democratic school community – consisting of both students and adult staff members – determines the rules of the school community and the expectations for the community members. Every student’s opinion and individuality is honored through the democratic voting process for all decision-making at Sunset Sudbury School.
- Sunset Sudbury School students want to go to school - Students enjoy their school community and flourish in it. The students arrive excited to start their day and leave reluctantly when their parents pick them up in the afternoon. School holidays are met with ‘boos’ and ‘sighs’ rather than excitement or relief. One family of a young elementary school student shared a weekend conversation.
- All activities are determined by the students – At Sunset Sudbury School, all activities are valued equally. Whether a student chooses to explore bugs, watercolors, algebra, video games or world history, the activity is respected because the student chose to do it. This allows a student to thoroughly study and explore a topic until they choose another adventure.
- Sudbury students are self-motivated – Just like when they were 3 or 4 years old, Sunset Sudbury students are eager to learn new things. Traditional schools train kids to sit back and wait for the teacher’s instruction. Sunset Sudbury students have a natural curiosity and interest in new things. Therefore, they are continually trying experimenting, learning new skills and asking deeper questions.
- Age-mixing versus separation by age. - Image a 7-year-old demonstrating the reaction of baking soda and vinegar to a group of 5-year-olds with his self-made volcano. The 9-year-old jumps in to explain when to add more vinegar. The students of all ages work together. When the students work and play together, students with small hands or less dexterity still get the fun and excitement of more detailed experiments.
Open House this Sunday – Come see our new look!
Sunset Sudbury School is growing up! Come check out our new look and learn more about Summer Camp.
You are invited to our Open House this Sunday!
If you have visited us before, you’ll want to come back to see all the changes at our school. We have been busy remodeling the art room, expanding the computer area, creating a new comfy reading space, filling the new rec room with games and musical instruments, and welcoming two new staff-in-training. We also have several on-going outdoor projects, including a new basketball hoop and a new garden. All of this will be ready just in time for Summer Camp, which starts June 13th.
What: Open House
When: Sunday, May15 3:00 to 5:00pm
Where: 4200 NW 66th Ave, Davie, FL 33024 (click for directions)
Why: Come see our new look and learn more about summer camp
Who: All parents and their children
Whether you’re interested in registering for summer camp, enrolling for fall, or just curious to see our new look, please join us this coming Sunday. Please help us spread the word!
Why Self Directed Learning Schools are Better for K-12 students
It is our nature to be curious. Look at very young children, they are unstoppable! And I have never seen a bored newborn! It seems that when children are allowed to pursue their own interests and master their environment, which is when real learning begins. They are born with the ability to focus on and follow their own internal agendas. This was not valued in the industrial-era, and rightly so. But we are in a new era now and the game has changed.
Why are schools failing? Or you can ask why are so many students failing? I think the answer lies in asking one more question: Why are we trying to educate children that live in the information age in an industrial-era school system? The entire public school system was created by and for the industrial age. In order to exist in a functioning industrial society there needed to be immense standardization and acceptance by the students that all the “training” they were enduring was required by the industrial society in order to function effectively.
During the dawn of the post-industrial era, many children began to realize that the outdated techniques of imparting information as well as the information itself did not apply to their needs or the current social structure. This realization has been more intuitive than analytical, but it is nonetheless widespread. As a result, industrial era schools rapidly have been losing their ability to succeed at all in forcing a standard level of competence on everyone in the limited industrial subjects, no matter how many variations they introduced in the process.
“An effective education in the information age must be entirely free of the tyranny of segmented time.” Children in the information age must learn the exact opposite way they had to learn in the still present industrial schools. They must be allowed complete freedom to become self-directed people. The present society including the business world demands it.
If you are looking for alternative schooling in South Florida, look into enrolling your child at Sunset Sudbury, Florida’s fir Sudbury Model School. Contact Us for more information.
Seeking new staff member
Sunset Sudbury School seeks a part-time staff person to work with students ages 4-18 in its self-directed democratic program. This is not a traditional teaching position, and we are not looking for traditional teachers. During our start-up phase, compensation will be provided in the form of tuition waivers. Staff members are expected to work 2-3 days per week with flexible hours.
Sunset Sudbury School opened its doors as a non-profit, private school last August. We are located in Davie, Florida and currently have 10 students enrolled. At Sunset Sudbury School, students explore the world freely, at their own pace and in their own unique ways. They learn to think for themselves, and acquire the knowledge they need from multiple sources, including nature, books, technology, and people. Trust and respect are the keys to the school’s success. Students enjoy total intellectual freedom, and unfettered interaction with other students and adults. Through being responsible for themselves and for the school’s operation, they gain the internal resources needed to lead effective lives.
Being a successful staff person at Sunset Sudbury School requires an ability to honor the choices of others even when those choices are not those you would make, and an ability to trust in the school’s peer-based judicial system to adequately resolve conflicts and rule infractions. Staff at Sunset Sudbury School do not create activities for students to pursue and do not have the authority to unilaterally establish or enforce rules. Instead, staff at Sunset Sudbury School are available as facilitators and friends as students pursue their own interests.
Required Qualifications:
- Belief in the natural impulse of children (and adults!) to strive for personal growth; commitment to one’s own personal growth
- Must be extremely reliable and safety-conscious
- Possess high levels of professionalism, personal maturity, and authenticity
- Excellent communication and literacy skills, must be able to interact effectively and respectfully with children and adults from a wide variety of backgrounds
- Be an interested, interesting, engaged, and passionate person
- Strong self-management skills, including high levels of initiative and ability to authentically and effectively prioritize, including the ability to decline requests from children when appropriate
- Ability to maintain confidentiality of student and family data, as well as to keep a constant eye out for the protection of student privacy in less formal ways
- Ability to pass required background checks
- General ability to physically participate in the school’s program
Please send your resume and letter of interest to michelle@sunsetsudbury.org. Thank you for your interest.
More Bones
February Announcements
Renovation of 4202 - We have been working hard. We have emptied out our extra space at 4202. A big thank you to the garage sale team. Here are some items we could use: Sofas, beanbag chairs, bookshelves, musical instruments, Wii, Xbox, Area Rug, Paint, Etc. It would be ideal if anyone has or knows somebody that has the listed items. However, you could also help by keeping an eye on Freecycle, local yard sales and the free section of Craigslist.
Garage Sale and Craigslist - We had a blowout yard sale last week. Our volunteer parent extraordinaire, Deborah Cunningham, was here from dawn til dusk. Not to mention the weeks before the yard sale Deborah posted and sold many items on craigslist.
Orange Blossom Festival- Come out and visit our booth at the annual Orange Blossom Festival.
Volunteer Happenings
A volunteer is working on applying for WholeFoods 5% day. They accept non-profit applications 4 times a year and the next quarter is coming up. We have to submit our application by Friday February 18th.
On Sunday March 27th we are hoping to have a special open house to kick off Summer Camp registration. A volunteer is checking with major grocery store chains and the giant bulk superstores for food donations for a possible summer style cook out.
There is a special Festival every year in Davie called the Orange Blossom Festival and it will be held Saturday Feb 26 through Sunday Feb 27. 4 volunteers will each take a 4 hour shift with the staff members . We are planning to have School literature, a computer with our NBC segment playing and a craft for kids to do for a donation.
We also have a volunteer that will be putting up much needed shelving in toy room at school.
Blake
My 6 year old pulls a face and insists that 5 more minutes of play won’t make him too sleepy to wake up in the morning. I pretend to grudgingly give in. His “play” is learning about how a laser works. He takes his chalkboard and writes a question. He then flips through his encyclopedia and looks under “L” for info. “Not enough facts”, he says tersely, and goes to his computer to google for more answers. A full 15 minutes later he is drawing a sketch of a laser saber, determining that reflective surfaces, a stable energy source and a method of intensifying and focusing the light would be necessary to “create the Star Wars effect”. “How many reflective surfaces do I need?” I shrug. “What are the shapes and material that I would need mommy? – wait, I will look it up”. He flips through various books in his room, geometry, a pre-school book of shapes, and a physics book. He looks at the illustrations, picks out the words that he can read and writes his findings on his chalkboard, asking for help to spell “intensify”. He then yawns and demands a story.
Is this learning? It depends on who you ask. Blake attends Sunset Sudbury School where his interest in physics, biology and art is not only encouraged, it is indulged. He spends his school day asking questions, exploring a garden and flipping through books. His learning is effortless, organic and spontaneous. Since Blake has started the school, his appetite for knowledge has exploded. Why? I believe it is because he has learned that curiosity is his right and that it is a necessary part of his “job” as a child. His “job” is not to fill out paperwork (worksheets), or sit at a desk and be spoon-fed what he ought to think and believe. His job, as an individual growing into an adult is to attempt to make sense of the world around him, asking questions and exploring the wealth of resource around him. When at home, Blake has become not only more comfortable with learning as it is now, in his mind, free of judgement, but he has become an active recorder of his own acquisition of new knowledge. He has also learned to respect the way his unique learning style. “I do my times tables with pictures”, he tells me. “Some people do, some people don’t. I like it that my school doesn’t say I should know something if I don’t. I just have to learn it right?” It is my joy, and my privilege to send my son to a school that allows his young mind the freedom that it requires to develop a thirst for knowledge and the confidence seek answers to his questions, using his own methods. Is my child learning every day? – yes, but not just 6 hours per day, it is continual. Has his reading improved? Immeasurably, both in confidence and in speed. Why? He learns all day in a judgement-free environment, so his ability to analyze and solve problems is unhindered by negative labeling. He has the emotional strength to tackle a difficult word or life problem without feeling like, as he said “someone will write a big red number that says you’re dumb on your paper and make your mommy sign it.” Ranging from reading to conceptual math, Blake now picks up books and teaches himself, summoning mommy for limited help and then pushing me away because “I am my own teacher”. I believe Sunset Sudbury’s model can work for any child – what is required is the courage to raise not accountants, publicists or senators, we must seek to raise human beings first, and careerists second. My son will grow to determine his state of being, his method of learning and eventually his career. He will see himself as the direct actor in determining what he believes and what path his life will take. This, to me, is the most important part of my child’s lifelong learning experience.
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