Books
The Sudbury Valley School Press produces their own materials that extensively discuss the school’s philosophy, operation and history. Here is a list of some of their books to get more familiar with the model. These publications are available for sale from Sunset Sudbury School.
The Sudbury Valley Experience explains how Sudbury Schools work. For over thirty years, founders, staff, students and parents have written about this exhilarating new way of schooling children. This publication shares the best articles on the concepts and experiences that make up a Sudbury School. It is an excellent introduction to this model of education.
Reflections on the Sudbury School Concept is a collection of essays exploring new facets of the philosophy and practices common to Sudbury schools. In addition, there is a wealth of published material explaining the fundamental ideas upon which the Sudbury model is based.
Kingdom of Childhood: Growing Up at Sudbury Valley School Based on extensive interviews of former students, this book reveals lives rich with joys and disappointmensts, successes and failures, challenges and dreams. The book is a tribute to the beauty of the human spirit when it is nurtured with respect and sustained with freedom.
Free at Last describes a school bursting with excitement as life at Sudbury valley school is revealed. It is full of stories that illustrate the unique culture and features of the original school model.
A Crearer View: New Insights into the Sudbury School Model To celebrate the Sudbury Valley School’s 30th anniversary, a series of six talks was presented showing how the people who struggled to implement this new educational model deepened their understanding of topics such as play, conversation, and democracy. The talks were collected in this wonderful book, which packs a big punch in a little volume. Particularly valuable for parents considering Sudbury education for their children.
Legacy of Trust: Life after the Sudbury Valley School Experience An earlier study examined the personal and professional history of former students, and includes much anecdotal information about their lives after they left the school.
The Pursuit of Happiness: The Lives of Sudbury Valley Alumni What does the pursuit of happiness mean to Sudbury Valley graduates? This book examins the lives of over a hundred alumni. They reveal themsleves as a fascinating collection of people spanning a huge variety of lifestyles an aspirations and sharing a common set o0f basic values.
Below is a list of books that discuss the concerns for the current public education system.
Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track by Russell L. Ackoff and Daniel Greenberg In the age of the Internet, we educate people much as we did during the Industrial Revolution. We educate them for a world that no longer exists, instilling values antithetical to those of a free, 21st century democracy. Worst of all, too many schools extinguish the very creativity and joy they ought to nourish. In Turning Learning Right Side Up, legendary systems scientist Dr. Russell Ackoff and “in-the-trenches” education innovator Daniel Greenberg offer a radically new path forward. In the year’s most provocative conversation, they take on the very deepest questions about education: What should be its true purpose? Do classrooms make sense anymore? What should individuals contribute to their own education? Are yesterday’s distinctions between subjects–and between the arts and sciences–still meaningful? What would the ideal lifelong education look like–at K-12, in universities, in the workplace, and beyond?
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling The author, John Gatto, has been a teacher for 30 years and is a recipient of the New York State Teacher of the Year award. In his award winning book, he contends that students of our traditional education system are more programmed to conform to economic and social norms rather than really taught to think.
A Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting by Hara Estroff Marano With a chapter on Sudbury schools, A Nation of Wimps explores the growing evidence that childrearing in America has taken a bewildering turn. Armed with hyperconcern and microscrutiny, parents are going to ludicrous lengths to take the lumps and bumps out of life for their children today. However well-intentioned, their efforts have the net effect of making kids more fragile. The ultimate irony is, in a flat world you don’t make kids competitive by pushing them to be perfect but by allowing them to become passionate about something that compels their interest. Includes a chapter on Sudbury Valley.