Civics Board: Peer Justice at The Open School
At The Open School, we are all about treating children like adults—allowing them to make choices and granting them a high degree of responsibility. We are also a democracy, meaning power is distributed among everyone, including students. How does this translate to our justice system? The term “justice system” itself may sound strange in a […]
Does Freedom for Children Mean Unlimited Tech?
Children learn best when they are free to pursue their own interests for as much time as they want. This idea is the basis of Self-Directed Education—as described and practiced for over 100 years, going back to the founding of Summerhill School in 1921. The idea was expounded upon by Sudbury Valley School, originator of […]
A Virtual Self-Directed World
This is part four of a series called “A Journey of Self-Directed Education” written from a student’s perspective. Each post will discuss a different aspect of Self-Directed Education and how it can improve a child’s life. What does Self-Directed Education look like in a virtual setting? What are the kinds of things students are able […]
The Most Important Subject In School: Learning About Yourself
This is part three of a series called “A Journey of Self-Directed Education” written from a student’s perspective. Each post will discuss a different aspect of Self-Directed Education and how it can improve a child’s life. What if there was a school where students made their own personal curriculum? What would that look like and […]
What Are You Going to Do with All This Freedom?
This is part two of a series called “A Journey of Self-Directed Education” written from a student’s perspective. Each post will discuss a different aspect of Self-Directed Education and how it can improve a child’s life. “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” – Aristotle Wouldn’t it be beautiful to […]
Breaking Down the Unconventional Beliefs Created by Public Schools
This is part one of a series called “A Journey of Self-Directed Education” written from a student’s perspective. Each post will discuss a different aspect of Self-Directed Education and how it can improve a child’s life. I have been enrolled at The Open School for almost two years. Throughout my time here I’ve been in […]
A Story About Math and Self-Direction
We caught a great moment on campus last week. One of our students, Charlotte, was playing a game where she asked a staff member, Aaron, math questions and then checked the answer using a calculator. Through play, Charlotte was connecting the dots between concepts while experiencing what it felt like to be the questioner who […]
Why Sudbury Schools Don’t Offer Classes
It’s easy enough to find flaws in the conventional classroom. A teacher lecturing to a group of twenty or thirty students, each at a different level of understanding, is not a great model for learning. And signing kids up for a bunch of subjects they have no interest in is just going to be a […]
Are You Expecting Too Much?
It’s natural as parents to want our kids to have a better life than we had. We just know that with the right parenting recipe, we can steer our children toward greatness. This is the basic idea behind education as well. Even parents who opt out of the conventional educational model—with its set curriculum and […]
They Teach Themselves Math
During their journey through childhood, children encounter many things which they have to figure out in order to proceed. This includes reading, writing, and math, as well as how money works, how to measure ingredients, how to tie their shoes, and how to look up information online. I call these “basic skills”—the first of the […]
