The thought of children playing all day without anyone forcing them to sit at desks may conjure up images of a daycare. But because students at Sunset Sudbury are not told what to do and are certainly not entertained, they must constantly decide what to do with their time. Freedom is not as easy as […]

“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 The adults at Sunset Sudbury chose not to call themselves teachers because […]

Parents of younger children may wonder why an older child would want to play with a younger child, so when they hear about it their initial reaction may be fear and doubt. This is normal given mainstream education’s practice of age segregation. In the conventional schooling environment, it is not “cool” for older students to […]

Like at most other schools, bullying is taken very seriously at Sunset Sudbury. But unlike most other schools, the adults don’t automatically take care of it. Instead, we encourage students to use the student-led justice system. This is very empowering for the “bullied” student, who learns to take care of him or herself against any […]

Our law book contains all the rules of the community, as well as procedures for handling rule infractions. The rules are decided democratically by students and staff as the need for them arises. In general, the rules provide for the protection of individual rights while maintaining an atmosphere of safety and respect. Anyone in our […]

“We have a cultural notion that if children were not engineered, if we did not manipulate them, they would grow up as beasts in the field. This is the wildest fallacy in the world.” ~ Joseph Chilton Pearce This is many people’s initial reaction to hearing that children “rule” at Sunset Sudbury. The truth is […]