To most of us, school means classes, teachers, schedules, grades and tests.But for the children at Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts, school is very different.
Firstly, there are no lessons.All the children, aged between 4 and 19, do whatever they want.There are no teachers, only “staff members”.The idea behind this is that you do not need to make children learn, because children want to learn anyway.“You do not need to say to a three-year-old, ‘Go explore your environment.’ You can’t stop them!”says Daniel Greenberg, a founder of the school.“But if you make children do what you want all day… they will lose all taste of learning.” At Sudbury Valley School, you will find children talking, reading, painting, cooking, working on computers, studying French, playing the piano, climbing trees, or just running around.Two boys spent three years just fishing!
The other way that Sudbury Valley School is different is that the children can decide the rules.Every week, there is a school meeting where both children and staff have one vote(投票)each-even the four-year-olds.They decide the school rules, how to spend the school money, and even which staff they want and do not want anymore.
When the school first opened in 1968, people said it would never work.But today, the school has 200 students, and 80% of its students go on to college.Even the two boys who went fishing all the time have successful careers today.One of them is a musician and the other is a computer scientist.