Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, Massachusetts

Hi all, On the eve of the school's 50th year, we wanted to offer our reflection on our one year experience at SVS. For reference, our kids are 9 and 7 and they both attended SVS during the 2016/17 school year. We have mixed feelings about SVS and it took us a great deal of thinking to come to this conclusion. We have decided to make our voice heard so other parents can hear our family's perspective. We are extremely grateful for the fact that this school was started in 1968 and, moreover, that its philosophy took hold, made roots and spread seeds all over the world. Our kids were both worried and excited to start last September. They were worried about whether they would manage to make new friends and excited to be free to make their own decisions about their education. It was not an easy task to find their freedom, but they came out stronger and more confident in their own capabilities, in the end. It was not easy for us either, but it was an amazing experience to go through the ups and downs of this process together with them and separate from them. We are also extremely disappointed with the fact that the staff at the school no longer seem to uphold and respect the school’s original philosophy. They are very inflexible in their thinking and adopt a cult-like attitude in their words and actions. They misuse the Judicial Committee's purpose to serve their own agendas, disempowering the kids and creating an environment where our kids felt scared to make a mistake for fear they would be reprimanded. Here are a few examples of some very disappointing staff interactions we or our kids experienced: A) When a unilateral decision from the staff was questioned by the students, and they asked if they could write a motion for the School Meeting to protest, they were told they could try, but that they would not succeed, because the staff in question, who was talking to them, was the head of the decision committee and the motion would not be approved. When they asked again the following day if the staff could reconsider their decision, they were point blank disrespected ("How can someone become stupid in 24 hours?"). B) Again, when the students did write a motion and presented it to the School Meeting, on a matter as benign as asking for their one week absence for a family trip that had been planned a year before, be considered excused, the staff objected and told them they were traveling too much (having travelled twice before the time in question), therefore, their absences should not be excused! The students' defense statements were disregarded as not relevant and the staff ensured that the motion was denied. C) When we brought up our challenges and concerns about the way our kids reported feeling at school, we were gaslighted and shamed into thinking it was our fault for not supporting the school's philosophy wholeheartedly. We do believe the school has amazing potential, but until the staff decides to start listening to input from students and parents, go back to its original philosophy of respecting everyone and considering all to be free and equal, we see the school going down on a dangerous path of student disempowerment and disrespect. Our kids felt just that and decided to leave the school after one year.