Lessons from Sudbury, part 1

As Sudbury parents, you may wonder about what your child does at school.  You know they are learning, but what are they learning?  As Sudbury staff, we have the opportunity to see your children learn and grow hour-by-hour in an empowering environment.  I wanted to share a recent event that demonstrates some amazing life skills that are emerging.  The names have been changed for the sake of anonymity.   

Brandon was playing a game today, something like tag with the other students.  Suddenly, he came stomping into the hallway saying, "Molly keeps changing the rules of the game.  We already did the rules.  I'm frustrated."

"Then you should tell Molly how that makes you feel," I said.

"But I don't want to hurt her feelings.  Will you come with me to tell her?" he said.

"I wasn't there Brandon.  You need to tell Molly how you feel.  I know you can do it."

Brandon did not.  Brandon entertained himself for a while.

Two hours later, Brandon was playing a similar game with other students.  Brandon was frustrated again because rules were being changed and his shirt got pulled.  Instead of coming to a staff member, Brandon said,

"I don't like when the rules change and I don't want my shirt to get pulled.  I will only play if the rules stay the same and no one pulls my shirt."

The other students thought about what Brandon said and unanimously responded, "OK!"  The game continued and all students were happy and included.  

Brandon spoke up for himself today.  Perhaps it was the first time Brandon ever spoke up for himself.  He did not receive a sticker or a reward for his effort.  He did not get an "A+" for personal development.  No adult intervened on Brandon's behalf and no one patted him on the back.  He found confidence in his own ability to speak up for himself.  

What is that lesson worth to a student or to any person's life?  We cannot possibly quantify it but we are proud to create the environment that enables such moments to happen.    

-Dave Soleil              

Trust The Process

At the Sudbury School of Atlanta, we talk a lot about "trusting the process."  Give a child the freedom to learn and they will find their own best path to learning.  That is a core belief at SSA, but as a parent this can be difficult.  You may ask:

How do I know that what my child is doing is valuable?  

What is my child getting out of this experience?  

How can I trust the process if I can't see the process?

As a leadership education consultant, the focus of my work is always on the process of how teams accomplish goals and ways that teams can create a more effective process.  I always tell clients that we must trust our process in order to trust our product.

However, when I work with "high achieving" teens at leadership programs, they are focused solely on the end product and they ignore the process.  They always want to give me the "right answer."  They tell me what they think I want to hear rather than telling me what they think.  The reason is that we have conditioned them with extrinsic motivations, i.e. carrots and sticks.  In traditional schools, these take the form of grades, tests, candy rewards, sticker rewards, honor rolls, honors classes, AP classes, messages of "be the best in the class," or "get good grades," and then we assign even greater extrinsic motivations with honors in Latin like, Magna Cum Laude or Summa Cum Laude.  The literal translations are unimportant because the meaning and the intent are the same.  They are extrinsic motivators to get students to get more "right" answers.  These are not motivators of learning, they are motivators of playing the game of memorizing answers and spitting them out of our short term memory until the reward has been won.

Is this hyper-competitive environment where students are trying to best each other with right answers for teacher appreciation the most effective path to life-long learning?  Independent thinking?  Good decision making?  Definitely not, because the focus is on what you win and not what you learn and how you learn and why you learn and for whom you learn.

Independent thinking is not about selfish thinking.  Good decision making is not about "playing the game."  Learning is not about memorizing.  Being a life-long learner is not about pleasing someone else with right answers just so you get a reward.    

Step outside a competitive reward-driven environment and you will find that when you learn something, you don't do it to win or to beat someone else.  You do it because you are curious and it is satisfying to your mind, body and soul.  That is intrinsic motivation.  That is the motivation and self-knowledge we cultivate at Sudbury.  Having no tests, no grades and no rewards is intentional because we want students to learn for themselves and follow their own passions.  We want students to engage in learning because it satisfies an inner desire rather than an outer reward.    

So, what is the process to trust?  

Your student is learning how to learn.  

At SSA, your student is thinking independently every day.  We don't tell them what to think or what to do to "learn more."  They are constructing meaning every minute of every day in creating, reading, writing, playing and interacting with others.  We take our responsibility seriously not to interrupt or interfere with their learning process.  We understand that the most "teachable moments" happen when a student makes a discovery themselves and creates new meaning for themselves.  That is an incredibly powerful experience that can only happen when students are given the freedom to think and make choices without outside influence.

We also understand that the learning process has a "learning curve."  At SSA, students have the freedom to fail without judgment.  Failures are a necessary part of the learning process and we support students regardless of their failure or success.  Experiencing failures that come out of our own choices demonstrate to us the most effective way forward as a person.  When a child falls off a bicycle, we don't punish them for falling.  We pick them up, give them words of encouragement and invite them to get back on the bicycle.  It is only when we fall to one side or the other that we learn how to balance.  SSA treats learning the same way.  If a child makes mistakes, we give them words of encouragement and invite them to get back on whatever proverbial bicycle they have chosen to ride.  

Learning how to learn is one of the most valuable skills a person can have throughout life.  It is the challenging two-wheeled vehicle that carries us through life pursuits, careers, research, entrepreneurship, leadership, hobbies and personal fulfillment.

And much like balancing on a bicycle, we cannot give it to a child.  They must discover it for themselves.  We trust that if we give a child encouragement and continue to invite them back onto the bicycle that they will find success.

Herbert Simon, Nobel Laureate, professor at Carnegie Mellon and father of the field of Cognitive Science, said:

"Learning results from what the student does and thinks 

and only from what the student does and thinks."  

The freedom to "do and think" is the critical process a Sudbury environment provides and protects.  Trust it.  Encourage it.  There is no more powerful path to learning.

-Dave Soleil

Ask Linda: Do Homeschooling and Sudbury Mix?

Ask Linda is a new series of articles from the Sudbury School of Atlanta where SSA founder and unschooling mom, Linda Levine, answers parent questions about the Sudbury model, transitioning to Sudbury from different educational models and other common questions.  If you have a question for Linda, just email us!   

Q: My homeschooled child is using a specific curriculum at home. How will that fit in with the Sudbury Experience?

All self-chosen pursuits are valued and respected.  What families choose to do in their own homes is, of course, their choice. If there is something that a student has been learning about at home, that s/he would genuinely like to pursue further while at the Sudbury School, the staff will be pleased to discuss any topic of interest with the student/s, provide (or recommend) books on the subject, help the student find interesting websites, videos, DVDs, hands-on materials, etc, related to the subject, and, to the extent possible, arrange for the student to meet with an "expert" or professional in the subject. There is a process through which classes or lessons in a given topic can be requested by students, as well.

We strongly recommend/encourage parents to NOT send curriculum-based "work" with students, but to instead *ask* if the student has anything in particular they want to bring to the Sudbury School for the day, and to respect their child's answer.  If they really are self-directed to work on homeschool "work" they will choose to bring it! If they choose to bring a favorite toy, game, hobby-related materials, or something else that is meaningful to them that day, that is equally valuable, and will contribute just as well to the child's learning experiences! 

The most common/typical time-frame for a Sudbury student (or a homeschooled student) to choose to pursue formal academic studies, if s/he chooses to learn in that manner at all, is when s/he is in her/his teens, and wanting to prepare for college - if attending college is the student's goal.

Here is a link to the first in a series of talks given by alumni of the original Sudbury Valley School, about their experiences at SVS, and what they went on to do after they graduated:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csAiJgvajYo

"My ADD Child Would Play With Legos All Day"

In a recent conversation with a parent about our school, the parent commented that "My ADHD child would just play with legos all day."

I found this to be a profound and curious statement, particularly because it was the parent's reason why they would not choose a Sudbury School.  Wanting to learn a little more about ADHD, I went on WebMD to look up symptoms.  Here is the very first symptom that WebMD lists:

"Inattention may not become apparent until a child enters the challenging environment of school."

I think it is telling that the very first symptom of ADHD specifically mentions "school" and that school is a "challenging environment."  A recent survey in the UK found that more than 40% of teachers believe students are turned off to reading for pleasure by the time they finish primary school and 94% said kids prefer the internet to books.   

Let's look at the further description of symptoms of ADHD:

"difficulty paying attention to details and tendency to make careless mistakes in school or other activities."

There's that word again!  "School."  There's another telling word in there.  "Careless."

How many medical conditions are you aware of where key symptoms are location specific?  And when did making "careless mistakes" become a medical issue that needs to be medicated?

Here are a few more interesting symptoms:

-Difficulty finishing schoolwork
-Procrastination
-Failure to complete tasks such as homework  

I am not here to say that ADHD does not exist.  It does.  However, we must acknowledge that the environment that surrounds a child and the treatment they receive has a tremendous influence on their behavior.

Think if adults were required to participate in a traditional school environment where they had to:

-Pay attention to a teacher and try to learn what was taught for 6 hours;
-Have no freedom or choice as to what is taught, how it is taught or its relevance to your life;
-Have no freedom to move around or even go to the bathroom without permission;
-Be punished if you are late;
-Be punished if you talk;
-Be punished if you don't continue to work on the subjects at home after school.

I believe most adults would not like to be in such an environment.  So why do we subject our students to it?

Back to the parent of a child with ADHD who said they would play with Legos all day.

How can it be that a child who has been professionally diagnosed with a condition characterized by inattention engages in a focused, attentive activity "all day?"  

Boston University Psychology Professor Peter Gray has conducted a qualitative study on students diagnosed with ADHD.  Among his conclusions were that most students who were medicated for ADHD in traditional schools were taken off medications when they were removed from traditional schools.  Also, many ADHD children have a high need for self-direction and many "hyper-focus" on tasks that interest them.  Gray demonstrates for us that changing the environment, changes behavior.  Given a self-directed learning environment, students with ADHD thrive.  

As well, Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences provides more insight for us into our young Lego-maniac.  A spatial learner who engages in extended spatial learning is not wasting time.  They are thriving in the act of learning and exploration that fits them best.  Is this not the sort of individualized learning suited exactly to the person's strengths that we hope and wish for our kids?

At the most basic level of how we treat people, if we do not respect students as whole persons capable of making decisions and having valid emotions, then they react in the many ways that people react when they are not respected, not heard and not valued as thinking, living, breathing persons.  Things like procrastination, a careless attitude, and difficulty finishing work are commonplace if not blatantly intentional.

At Sudbury, we respect students and the choices they make.  We empower them to learn what interests them and they thrive because of it.  If your student is "having trouble" at school, begin with a few questions about the environment they are in before you take them to the doctor:

-Do they have any choice at school to learn what interests them?
-Do they have freedom to move, explore and make decisions about their learning?
-Are they respected as a decision-making person or are they expected to be obedient without question?

The answers to those questions will reveal much about your school and even more about your child's reaction to that environment.  It will also help put into perspective the types of environments that support your child or frustrate them.

So should we let students play with Legos all day?  Or should we medicate away students' strengths, instincts and desires?

I say, pass the Legos.

-Dave Soleil

What If a Bird Went to Flying School?

We all know how birds learn to fly.  The mother and daddy bird feed and care for their young until they are developed enough to push them out of the nest.  Birds fly by nature and discover their wings in the space between the nest and the ground.  But what if we ignored the nature of birds and flight?  What if a bird went to flying school?

In flying school, birds would be gently eased from their nest onto a high platform where a teacher would show them wing shapes and colors.  They would learn to count feathers and sing songs about how much fun it is to fly.  At the end of the term, the young birds would take an elevator down to the next platform where they would learn about different types of trees and nests.  They would hear stories about heroic birds that flew long distances.  They would take important tests about "flying comprehension" that would allow them to descend to the next platform where they would learn the history of flying in different countries and they would see books with birds from around the world.  They might even get to visit the local Museum of Flying.  On the next level, they get to use computers to write about flying and watch videos of birds flying.  Then, finally, after passing many tests on trees, nests, bird history, and flying comprehension, they are released at ground level where they would attend a graduation recognizing that they now know how to fly.

Of course, birds don't learn to fly that way, nor would they.  Why?  Because it ignores the nature of birds and the nature of flight.

So, what about the nature of people and the nature of learning?  People are curious by nature.  Give them the freedom to explore and they will explore.  We do not need someone to tell us how to be curious or what to be curious about or to teach us curiosity.  It is part of our nature.

On learning, I am continually inspired by a quote from Herbert Simon, one of the founders of the field of Cognitive Science, a Nobel Laureate, and professor at Carnegie Mellon.  He said,

"Learning results from what the student does and thinks and only from what the student does and thinks."

Learning happens with the student, not with the teacher and not even with the presence of a teacher.  Technology has come to a point where content is no longer a scarcity possessed only by teachers.  It is abundant and freely available to all through a multitude of books, resources, and the internet.

If we want to produce students who are independent thinkers, we must give them the freedom to think... independently.  If we want to produce students who are life-long learners, we must give them the freedom to learn, to struggle, to fail and to try again.  Metaphorically, we must push them out of the nest and allow them to fall in order for them to discover their wings and fly.

This is why the Sudbury School of Atlanta is such a deep and special experience.  We recognize the nature of people and the nature of learning and we create our school accordingly.

At the Sudbury School of Atlanta, we do not teach your young bird to fly.  We are the space between the nest and the ground where they will discover their wings.

-Dave

Is the ability to actually do basic math needed today?

I was talking with a young man this past week who is about to graduate with his Ph.D. in Engineering from a top-ranked university.

We were discussing his job offer from a very well-known technology company and talking about the vacation time that came with the position. He said, "160 hours, how many weeks is that?" and as I did the math in my head, he whipped out his smart phone, opened the calculator app, entered "160/40" and about a split second after me, said "4."

Now, this may be appalling to some, shouldn't this student about to graduate with a Ph.D. in Engineering just do the simple math in his head?

I argue that no, he shouldn't.  Why?  Because the amount of knowledge in the world is increasing at an amazing rate and no one can keep all the knowledge in their own specialized field in their head at once, not to mention all the other information some might say is "critical" to know.

This young man is growing up as a digital native in the information age and he is doing what it takes to survive and thrive in this age.  He knows what knowledge and skills are worth keeping in his head, what is critical to his daily life and daily work tasks, when to use his resources, how to use them, and when it is faster to use something other than his brain.  It is very likely that simple math is not something he needs to use every day in his life or in his work so he has gotten rusty at it as he doesn't use it often...just like most of us and spell check.  For him, there is much more critical information and critical skills that he does need on a regular basis.   So he lets that critical information stay in his brain and uses his available resources, a smart phone--where less critical information is literally a few clicks away, on the rare occasions when he needs it.

Remember, it was not that long ago that most business people didn't know how to type.  It was not worth knowing how to do because secretaries would do it for them, based on longhand notes or spoken diction.  Kids today are born into a a world with spellcheckers, calculators, and google, and more disruptive technologies are on their way.  The job skills of today are very different than they were a generation ago, and will likely change again by the time today's kindergarteners are ready to graduate from high school.

What will endure as critical skills for adults in the future?  The ability to be self-directed learners who are motivated to learn what they need, when they need it AND know when to "delegate" to technology because it is more efficient.

Sudbury School of Atlanta blog

This is the official blog for the Sudbury School of Atlanta.  Welcome!