By Debbie Ayala I recently had a conversation with someone about what role adults play or ought to play, in a Sudbury School. In most educational settings, adults are in charge. Adults take responsibility for the environment and education of children. If a child/student is wasting time or acting out, Read more…
By Jared Bean In my previous blog post, I wrote briefly about how in coercive schooling environments, students, while certainly being exposed to some valuable lessons and material, will also have ample opportunity to learn counterproductive and even harmful habits and attitudes as a consequence of participating in the system Read more…
By Beverli Haroldsen Once upon a wintertime, visions of baby chicks popped into the imagination of a sixteen-year-old student. These visions grew into ideas, which grew into conversations. Conversations transformed into plans which generated research and physical labor. The student spent hours researching chicken care and cleaning out an old Read more…
By Debbie Ayala One question I am frequently asked about Self Directed Education is how children/students will learn to do hard things if they are never pushed or asked to do things which they don’t want to do? As adults there are many things that need to be done that Read more…
By Megan Bean Back in February, I came across an interesting article titled “The Busy Trap.” In it, the author, Tim Kreidal, expresses his opinion on how everyone here in America seems to have this innate desire to be busy, and I wanted to share some of his insights, and Read more…
By Mark Cluff We say that Alpine Valley Academy is a Constitutional Council school. This means that we have a constitution that defines our purpose as a school, sets the school structure, and lays out the School Council member rights. The School Council is made up of every student and Read more…
By Jared Bean To those unfamiliar with Sudbury schools or Self-Directed Education, hearing that we do not formally teach subjects like math or reading might come as a shock. One might think that because we don’t offer crafted curriculums or employ seasoned educators who are expert in the latest and Read more…
By Beverli Haroldsen What is a typical day at AVA? At first glance, it doesn’t exist. Our days don’t fit in a tidy little package to be placed in a day planner. No master schedule stands as sentinel, passing down arbitrary time or content demands. Students really are free to choose Read more…
By Ryan Busenbark This past year has brought many challenges with the pandemic. I was bummed when the school year ended early and I’m sure many students shared that feeling. As a school community, we were able to get together in June for a fun water fight day. It was Read more…
By Debbie Ayala In 1968 Dr. George Land developed a test for NASA to find the most innovative and creative engineers and scientists. It worked and the test was so successful that Dr Land began to wonder how someone would acquire these skills (creativity and innovation). Are children born with Read more…