Math in progress

People who are new to the Sudbury model often have questions around academics. Some parents have concerns around particular subject areas, the most common one being, “But what if my child doesn’t want to learn math?” We usually talk about how basic math comes naturally through cooking, budgeting, games, etc. and point out that students who will “need” higher math (those who want to be engineers, etc.) presumably will seek it out because they are interested in it. Of course the school would support this interest but we would not prioritize it over other student pursuits.

Here is a TEDxManhattanBeach talk from a traditional math teacher who echoes this point of view based on his own teaching experiences:

One quote from the Globe article that struck me was, “The list is sure to bring back happy memories for this era’s overprotective parents, who had far more freedom than they will likely ever give to their children. According to a 2007 survey by the Children’s Society, some 43 percent of parents in Britain said kids shouldn’t go out alone with friends until they turn 14. In contrast, many of these parents roamed their neighbourhoods without an adult at the age of 10 or younger.”

When I was 4, I remember playing “running away” with my also-4-year-old best friend. We’d pack our knapsacks with stuffed animals and cookies, pile them in a red wagon tied behind a bike, and take off for a picnic at the park, a 5-minute walk away but out of earshot and mostly out of sight from our houses. “Have fun!” our parents would tell us, holding open the door as we ran outside. My 4-year-old, by contrast, has never been outside without adult supervision for more than about a couple of minutes (nor does she want to– she’s scared to be alone).

Everyone I know who has kids has similar memories of childhood freedom far beyond what our own children have experienced. While I hear much talk about childhood obesity and the need to be outside, I rarely hear discussion of what I think is one of the main obstacles to active outside play– parental fear. As I recall, even the well-known book Last Child in the Woods talks about the things families can do outside together these days, while the author tell of the solitary ravine adventures of his childhood.

For me, the point of the “running away” trips to the park was that we were running away– no parents allowed! We could giggle at our own jokes, roll down the hill until we felt sick, and scare ourselves with stories of the big bad wolf who lived in the hedge and was going to catch us. We did not play outside because it was healthy or enriching but because it was our space, where no one would tell us not to run or shout or make a mess. How sad it is that today adults must make a checklist of outdoor activities for kids, launched complete with a YouTube video and a website where you can earn virtual badges for each activity completed. The extensive list of parental safety tips on the 50 Things website includes, “Maintain constant contact and supervision of children whilst undertaking these activities” and “For the more challenging activities find an organised event to ensure the safest conditions for your child”. I guess this is better than nothing in an era when tree climbing and picking up snow, never mind throwing it, are banned from many school playgrounds on the grounds that they could be dangerous.

Wouldn’t it be great if all us parents could decide together to trust our kids with the freedom we had? If we could let them all outdoors and trust that there is safety in numbers? An interesting related resource is Free Range Kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry).

There are a lot of answers to this question (yes, students can choose how to spend their time; the activities students persist in are ones that challenge them and they are learning from; gaming at a Sudbury school is almost always very social, so many other skills are being learned at the same time; students can’t literally game all day, every day at school because they will have other responsibilities e.g. chores, JC, etc.). Parents who worry about gaming often admit that one of their fears is addiction. Here is blog post, Video Game Addiction: Does It Occur? If So, Why? by Peter Gray of Psychology Today who addresses this issue from a similar angle to the one we often take.

Although the authors go on to mention many ways of developing self-control, it is the “American” (i.e. less coercive) ones that caught my attention as a Sudbury proponent. “Effective approaches for building self-control combine fun with progressively increasing challenges. Rather than force activities onto an unwilling child, take advantage of his or her individual tendencies. When children develop self-control through their own pursuit of happiness, no parental hovering is required.” Sudbury students spend their days pursuing their interests to the fullest, challenging themselves and fulfilling their own goals. They do so as full members of a participatory democracy, with all the responsibility this entails. You could say self-control is a cornerstone of the Sudbury curriculum.

Here is my favourite quotation from this essay: “I want to end with the essence of what the school is about: that a child is no different than an adult in the respect that is due to them from the rest of us. And the easiest way to get into this paradigm, the easiest way to break out of all of these other preconceptions, is to keep reminding yourself of that simple fact. Every time you interact with a child, stop yourself for a second – you can train yourself to do this – and ask, ‘Would I behave this way to an adult?’ Would you walk up to an adult and say, ‘Haven’t you been sitting a little too long staring at the roof? Wouldn’t you like to read a book that I have for you?’”

I think one of the biggest stumbling blocks for the acceptance of democratic education as a viable schooling option is that it is so very different from what most of us have experienced. Even if the principles underlying democratic schools make sense to us, and we can imagine that they could work in practice, it can be hard to shake the nagging voice of fear of the unknown. School is school, we all know what it looks like, and doing something completely different than everyone else has ever done is just too risky.

Well, it was reassuring to me to find out that democratic schooling is part of an educational tradition and is practised at many institutions world-wide. This is probably not news to many of you. However, if you are new to democratic education and you are looking for reassurance that this is a credible idea, consider checking out these links. (This is by no means an exhaustive list of resources but it is a good starting point.) AERO is particularly good for showing the scope of alternative education options out there; IDEA (Institute for Democratic Education in America) has interesting contributions to the democratic education conversation; IDEC and IDEN (International Democratic Education Conference/ Network) give you an idea of the international scope of this movement.  Democratic education may not be mainstream (yet, we like to believe!) but it is an established practice.