skullaria wrote:
] "While Sudbury Valley gives children plenty of freedom to play
] and develop as individuals, it also requires them to
] participate in the community through school meetings, in which
] everyone votes on all decisions made at the school. The weekly
] meeting, says graduate Anna Rossetti, shows that, democracy
] can be painful. Youve got to listen to a lot of different
] crap before you get to a consensus. Students and staff
] sometimes spend hours hashing out every single issue. I knew a couple of people who went there -- it was the next (and last) stop down the line from my school[1] for well-off-enough kids that didn't mesh well with traditional schooling. It was a lovely concept of a place. Key points of that article ("Eighty-two percent of graduates interviewed pursued further study such as college or trade school after Sudbury Valley", "Eighty-six percent of those surveyed said their lives reflect their values.") are based on important point: graduates. As I understand it you decided and announce when you are done, and go through some sort of process. The kids who end up there because they just want to goof off don't necessarily graduate. I had a good friend who graduated from there. He did a post-graduate year at my school to develop a non-blank transcript so he could go to Brown. He definately seemed to have his head together regarding both ambition and keeping an eye on happiness. He was a particularly bright individual who really thrived in that environment -- but he had a very different kind of mind than most people I've met. I am inclined to believe that most of that was innate, not instilled by Sudbury Valley. Thanks. I haven't seen the name of that school in a while. [1] I graduated from the Cambridge School of Weston, http://www.csw.org/ | 
