RE: [Discuss-sudbury-model] Questions about Their Future

Hi, Michael.

> choosing not to make
> your child learn algebra is as much of an imposition in their
> life as is choosing to make them. I contend that, had my
> parents sent me to an SVS-model school, that decision would
> have been tantamount to a choice not to allow me to take
> calculus.

My response is that this is a false choice.

Many of our students at Sudbury Schools choose to take up mathematics of
all flavors, so saying our students never discover calculus or physics
or any science is factually not correct.

I guess I don't really understand how you can make a contention as to
what your life would be like had you gone to a Sudbury School since a)
you didn't, and are therefore not the same person you would be if you
had, and b)my impression is that you haven't really investigated the
model very much or visited any schools. - I hope I'm not stepping on
your toes by saying that, if I'm wrong please call me on it.

So I repeat: one cannot imagine what a Sudbury learner does by using a
conventionally-schooled person as a point of reference. This is the gap
that I cannot bridge by writing in email messages...

> I know as well as
> anyone the evils of forcing students to learn things

Based on what you are saying, I don't believe you are fully aware of the
damage forcing students to learn things does. I don't think anyone who
has really first-hand seen the difference between students in the two
environments could possibly believe that there is a circumstance wherein
learning one particular thing is important enough to outweigh the damage
that coercion does to the will and spark of young humans.

Joe Jackson
Received on Sun Feb 23 2003 - 23:41:31 EST