Research Seminar: by Maryam Vahid

A child is a person- an introduction to Sudbury Valley School

The school was founded in 1968, by a small group of people who searched for a year all over the United States for a school that met their requirements, and didn't succeed. They established the school based on "the apparently revolutionary idea that a child is a person, worthy of full respect as a human being. These are simple words with devastatingly complex consequences, chief of which is that the child's agenda for its own life is as important as anyone else's agenda - parents, family, friends, or even the community."

During the past few years, I brought up the idea of the Sudbury model in conversation with variety of people. These series of casual and serious discussions convinced me that the statement "a child is a person" is indeed revolutionary. Some people agree with the phrase, but don't comply with its consequences. Some people don't even agree: they consider a child as a person to be. They also revealed that the school is not known in large, and very often there is a great resistance towards Sudbury philosophy and practice. There are also several misunderstandings and misconceptions about their model.

This seminar is a collage of what Sudbury schools have stated about themselves and how they addressed the critics against them. Hopefully, this will answer some of the questions about this type of education.