I must disagree with Bill Richardson's conclusion as he writes below.
In the "end game" the enrolled student who has experienced the respect
and freedom of the sudbury model changes the parameters. S/he says.
' Now, please, will you the community tell me that you feel I have
used my time here to prepare myself for my time 'out there' (where
things may be different)?'
The community says, 'we'd prefer not to do that.'
The student says. 'isn't there some way you could?'
And the community says, 'OK, this is what we'll do. You tell us how
you've used your time while enrolled to so prepare. You give us the
chance to ask the questions your presentation provokes. And then
we'll give you our best conclusion. We'd prefer to not go through
this process, but if you insist, this is the best process we've been
able to develop at this time.'
So it is not that the community offers this 'deal' to the student. It
is the student, who for whatever reasons( internal or external to the
school), may insist on a quest for institutional endorsement.
Mike
On Mon, 17 Dec 2001 08:56:08 EST, you wrote:
>Dear Scott,
>
>Thank you very much. You wrote:
>
>> If the school does
>> enter into honest evaluation, it is dangerous for the school
>> community to let itself forget just how _alien_ to the very
>> heart of the school that kind of evaluation is.
>
>When the child arrives at the school door, having sucessfully passed their
>visiting week, the deal that is offered to them is: "We're OK and You're OK".
>It is a statement not that they are becoming something, it is a statement
>that they already are something. In that initial first deal, they are offered
>respect and freedom, not so that years later we can sit around and vote on
>the results of freedom, but because offering freedom is our only sane stance
>as we take up our part in a relationship with them. Offering freedom solves
>for us our part in our relationship with the child, moment by moment, every
>moment. The child understands this initial deal and its' sanity informs their
>life through all the early and middle and late years.
>
>And then the end game comes and the deal changes. There is a new deal. A new
>deal born of a grasping for outcomes, for results. The last deal offered to
>the child is: "If You're OK, then We're Ok." It's like we say to the child
>"prove to us that all this freedom has lead to something responsible and
>effective, so that we can be OK with it." It's like maybe we were never very
>sure ourselves? I mean, break down at the very end if you need too, but let's
>not ask the child to carry us.
>
>
>Warm Regards,
>Bill Richardson
>
>
>
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