Sudbury Valley School

The Sudbury Valley School is a democratic school. It is located in Framingham, Massachusetts, and was founded in 1968 by Daniel Greenberg, founder Mimsy Sadofsky and others.

Each of the approximately 200 pupils aged four to 19 years can decide for themselves what, when and how he learns and what he spends his time. Teaching courses in the traditional sense come about only if specifically requested by students.

The school is not divided into grade levels or ages. Students are not rated.

The Sudbury Valley School is passed through a weekly school assembly ( School Meeting). In it, every student and every staff member has one vote. The school assembly also about who is allowed to work as an employee at the school for the next school year will decide. For complaints about violations of school rules, the majority occupied with students Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction.

In the annual school assembly next to students and school staff also have the parents of the student vote. The School Assembly approves the annual budget submitted by the school meeting and decide on the award of degrees and on amendments.

The Sudbury Valley School is a model for now more than 30 similar schools, the " Sudbury schools " call themselves and work on the Sudbury model. Most of them are located in the United States, others in Canada, Israel, Denmark, Belgium, Japan, Finland and Australia. In Germany there since the school year 2007/2008 the " New School Hamburg ", which among other things is refers to the Sudbury Valley School. The pop singer Nena was a driving force behind the foundation. 80 students can already attend the school in Hamburg.

The Iederwijs schools in the Netherlands is also geared toward the Sudbury Valley School.