Rising Tide School/ Seeds of Sudbury
Seeds of Sudbury
Looking at the core values of Rising Tide School
Seeing children playing all day long, absorbed in video games, perhaps chatting casually for hours, sometimes having loud and fervent disagreements, cussing, using school resources in an unconventional manner—it’s not so strange that some people wonder if children at Sudbury schools are learning anything of value. What exactly is so great about playing video games all day? What do we hope to accomplish by letting our children seemingly let loose all the time? Are they really going to learn what they need to know to be happy and successful people in the real world? Reflecting deeply on this unusual approach to education, I see that the apparent chaos of Sudbury actually grows from seeds that have been carefully considered and planted—they are simply very different from those of most schools. Looking closely at these seeds--our core values--may help us understand what kind of education we are hoping to nurture at the Rising Tide School. As I dig around, looking for the values that inform the school, I find five that seem vital to me. They are the seeds of Inner Direction, Joy, Whole Person Integration, Authentic Relationships and Community.
Inner Direction is guidance that comes from within. What excites us most is seeing what children come up with from their inner resources. We are confident that following a strong sense of Inner Direction is the only way to navigate a satisfying life path that is just right for us. That is why we require no classes or activities. That is why we do not redirect children who are bored at school. Our highest value is to create a space where children can cultivate that voice within. We are convinced that our children’s desire to learn and excel is innate and only needs a safe environment in which to unfold. What gifts are inside our children, waiting to arise? With freedom, we can find out!
We are starting Rising Tide School because interacting with our children in this way brings us more Joy. Life is a gift to be lived now. We want our children to spend their childhood doing what brings them joy now, and we feel that spending childhood joyfully is the best way to prepare for adult life. At this point in history, we have almost unlimited options for careers and ways to contribute to the world. We hope that our children will always do work they love, starting right now in the work of childhood. We believe that listening to our Joy is the key to finding a satisfying path.
Each of us desires to use our minds, hands, hearts, and bodies to experience life. We want to be a Whole Person, free to explore the world in many different ways. We all feel best when we can balance and nurture all the different sides of ourselves. Our school is a place where social, relational, emotional, creative, artistic and physical processes are just as important as intellectual ones. This may appear as a lot of conversation, heated conflict, playing in the mud, reading alone or goofing off, and we see all of these activities as perfect ways to dive into the different aspects of ourselves. Being surrounded by people of all ages and nature is another way to feed our sense of Integration.
Because each member of the school community is free and equal, we can enter into Authentic Relationships based on mutual respect and sharing power. Adult staff can relate to children from genuine interest and concern, knowing they will not have to assess or judge a child’s learning path. Children can approach adults easily, knowing they will be respectfully heard. Children can be honest with each other, gradually learning skillful ways of working and playing together. Being ourselves, with all our feelings and needs, yet learning to connect with others is the key to creating satisfying relationships. With this tool within us, we have the potential to create a world that works for everybody—both at school and in the larger world.
Learning in Community amplifies the choices available to our children. It’s up to our students to figure out and create the kind of life they want to have, and the school community is a very rich place to start experimenting with making choices and seeing how they turn out. High access to adults and peers from different backgrounds as well as the physical resources of the school makes a whole new range of choices possible, as does the fact of being accountable to the community for one’s actions. Working and learning with or around others creates more energy for everybody and adds richness to our journeys.
If these are the seeds of Sudbury, then freedom is the fertile soil in which they grow. Although we don’t value freedom as an end in itself—there will always be some limits to our freedom, whether civic or school laws that affect us, or our sense of relationship to others-- without freedom we cannot live the other core values of the school. Without freedom to follow our own path, we can’t genuinely be ourselves and create our own satisfying and meaningful life. That is why our children need to be free to direct their own time and learn what they choose. They need to enter into relationships freely. And they need a way to ensure that freedom is available to everyone in the community and is used responsibly—at Rising Tide, through our democratic governance system.
Inviting our children to grow up and educate themselves in this way may bring surprises and create discomfort. Although our children may choose to do the things they would do in a more directive school, we may also find that our little sprout is the 5 year old whose passion is fart jokes, the 10 year old who is just learning to read, or the teenager who appears to be socializing rather than preparing for college. But if we can dig underneath these situations and see how our children are living the values of Inner Direction, Joy, Whole Person Integration, Authentic Relationships, and Community, we may find that they are learning exactly what they need to be healthy, happy, people who have something wonderful to contribute to the world. At Rising Tide, we are confident that our children will create their own paths to extraordinary outcomes and we are honored to create a nurturing container for their growth.
Abbe Vogels Rising Tide School May 2008
