When it comes to the Winter Olympics, I’m mostly interested in figure skating events. But when I saw that Team USA luger Ansel Haugsjaa is an alumnus of one of the schools I’ve been planning to feature, I was excited. Earlier this week, he and his doubles partner surprised the luge world by taking the top spot in the first of two runs—setting a track record in the process—before ultimately landing in sixth place overall. Reading his story, it seemed like this would be the perfect week to feature Sudbury Valley School.
Sudbury Valley in Framingham, Massachusetts, is not like most schools. Opened in 1960, it is a fully democratic, self-governing school where students essentially run everything. The rules, the schedule, the hiring of staff, and even which holidays to take—all of it goes through the school meeting, a governing body that includes every student and staff member.
While it sounds a bit crazy to outsiders, it’s a way of life for Francesca Matisoo. She attended Sudbury Valley from 1992 until she graduated in 2007. Her father has been on staff since 1988. Her husband, brother, and sister-in-law are alumni. And both her kids, now six and nine, attend. “I totally drank the Kool-Aid,” she says.
The school serves about 60 students ages 4 to 19, and every one of them has an equal vote. The school meeting is the main governing body, but there are smaller committees and corporations that manage specific things, such as the library, arts and crafts, and music equipment. “And then we have a judicial committee for managing disputes between school meeting members,” Francesca says. “That is a mandatory service. So it’s one month of service for every age group. So every month there’s one student from each age group that represents sort of a jury of their peers.”
There’s no set curriculum and no required subjects. To comply with compulsory education laws, students must be there for a minimum of five hours a day, but they can choose which five hours between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
A day might start with a student finding their friend group and then negotiating how to spend the morning. Maybe it’s sewing. Maybe it’s a computer game. Maybe it’s heading outside. “Because everything is completely self-governed, there’s not really a typical day,” notes Francesca. “Although I would say for most people, their day includes finding their friends and sort of figuring out what everybody’s up to and kind of really checking in with yourself and seeing how and where you want to spend your time in that moment.”
Sudbury Valley has an open campus policy that operates through a certification process. Under the age of eight, they can only leave campus with a parent. Between 8 and 13, they must be certified in the open campus policy. They must have a buddy and a charged cell phone with the school’s number saved, and there are rules about where they’re allowed to go. From 13 on, certification and sign-out are still required, but students are largely free to come and go.
Francesca says they have certification processes on “pretty much everything that we do,” which is central to how the school functions. “I think of the certification processes as one of the ways that we are able to have so many different ages in one building and treat them all the same,” she explains. “Because of the fact that everybody has read and understood the rules and knows what the repercussions are, everything is very, very clear and upfront.”
As for academics, kids take the lead, and adults are there for support. For example, if a student decides they want to prep for the SAT, they find a staff member who can help them make a plan. According to Francesca, there are opportunities to learn anything they’re interested in. “For a kid who’s really interested in something and wants more resources for that particular interest, one of the things that they would probably do is go to the school meeting and create a corporation,” she says.
They also bring in outside experts when it makes sense. They’ve had classes in karate, driver’s ed, dance, and different musical instruments. There have also been woodworking and hairdressing corporations when there was enough interest. “The corporations sort of come and go as there’s need within the community,” she says. “We’d really be open to pretty much whatever if there was a need within the community and if there was really interest within the kids.”
Sudbury-model schools exist throughout the US and internationally, in Ireland, England, Spain, Japan, and elsewhere, though there’s no central registry tracking them all. Francesca would like more cohesion, as it would be a valuable resource for families interested in the model.
It’s probably not a surprise to say the school has skeptics. Francesca says she’s been dealing with that for as long as she’s been involved with the school, so she faces it head-on: “People are like, ‘there’s no way that that works, there’s no way that that’s a school, there’s no way that kids learn anything.’ And I’m sort of like, okay, well you’re literally having a conversation with somebody who went there, so you tell me.”
For anyone genuinely curious, she points them to the school’s website, published materials, and open houses. She recommends they read on their own and then come back to her with any questions. If they’re still interested, she encourages them to come for a visit. “I think this philosophy is very challenging to grasp on paper. And when you sort of see the interactions between students and staff and get to experience the community, that’s when things sort of click a little bit more.”
Francesca realizes Sudbury Valley may not work for everyone, and she doesn’t push parents who aren’t on board to change their minds. “Realistically, if it’s not a good fit for your family, it’s not a good fit for your family. Whether your child would benefit from it or not is no longer the question, because you have to be able to trust your kid to be here and govern themselves all day long,” she says.
Looking at the big picture, Francesca notes how odd society’s approach to education is. “I’ve never really understood how there’s this one-size-fits-all philosophy for education in a world where literally nothing is one-size-fits-all,” she says. For a long time, she adds, people have been considered crazy for pursuing alternative educational models for their kids. But she thinks that’s changing as families increasingly take advantage of new learning opportunities.