SVCS: November 2005 Meeting Text

Text of  our recent informational meeting

November 21, 2005, 7:00PM-8:00PM

Welcome, introduction

Good evening. I want to thank you for coming to our information meeting for Shenandoah Valley Community School, or SVCS. My name is Sarah Diener Beachy. I grew up in the Harrisonburg area where I was homeschooled, graduated from Eastern Mennonite University in 2002 with a teaching degree and taught special education in the public schools for three years. This year I am working to open Shenadoah Valley Community School.

Purpose, outline and length of meeting

The purpose of this meeting is to give you information about SVCS: what it is, how it came about, and what our hopes and dreams are for the school. This meeting will conclude by 8:00—I would be happy to continue to talk with you afterward. If you need to leave for any reason during the meeting, please feel free to do so. Restrooms are located just outside the doors where you entered.

If you haven't picked up an outline and would like one, please feel free to pick one. We also have postcards available with contact information for the school. During this meeting we'll talk about about the background and philosophy of our school, give you information about SVCS, give the answers to some frequently asked questions about this type of education, and then discuss what our next steps are in the school planning process. After my presentation I invite your questions and discussion about what you have heard tonight. I've planned about 40 minutes worth of material, and we will have about 20 minutes for your questions and discussion. If you have questions at any time as I'm speaking please don't hesitate to stop me and ask.

Background, assumptions, philosophy

Mission statement

I'd like to begin tonight by reading our mission statement and then highlighting a few parts: At Shenandoah Valley Community School we recognize and honor each individual’s intrinsic drive to learn, right to educational freedom, unique gifts, and responsibility to their community. We provide a setting where these traits can develop through noncoercive relationships, self-directed exploration, and participation in a democratic community.

This, I hope, gives you an idea of my core beliefs and hopes for SVCS. I do believe that everyone has an intrinsic drive to learn, that they do not need to be coerced or forced in that, and that the best place to develop one's gifts and talents is as an active participant in a community.

History and background for learner-centered schools

Before we get too far into this meeting I need to define some vocabulary. I will be referring to learner-centered education as the foundation for our school. Now there are many different schools that have this similar educational philosophy, and there are many different names for it. Some call themselves free schools; others may refer to "non-coercive," "democratic" or "self-directed" education. All of those terms play a role in our educational philosophy. I have chosen to use the term "learner-centered" but some of these other terms can apply just as well.

What is learner-centered education?

Learner-centered education means that each student has the freedom and responsibility to direct their own learning. Students are responsible for deciding what they need to learn and how and when they need to learn it. Students in learner-centered schools are also involved in deciding the policies and regulations of the school.

My own interest/research

My interest in learner-centered education came first of all out of my own educational experience. I was homeschooled by a method now often called unschooling—I was responsible for deciding what I wanted to learn and how and when I wanted to learn it. I had no textbooks, assignments, papers to write, tests, or classes. I grew up learning from my family, friends, reading, listening to the radio, and the freedom to explore to whatever level I liked. As I have gone through my life after what would have been high school—I never called it that—I have found the education I received to be an asset in all my endeavors including college, three years as a public school teacher, and making the decision to start a learner-centered school.

When I entered college the response I got from many people when describing my education was, "Wow, you must be really lucky, or really smart, to be able to succeed in college after never having gone to school!" I always felt that this was wrong, that I was not an exception, that I was successful because of my education, not in spite of it. I began to search for other people like me, places where people had had the same kind of education. In my research I slowly began to find schools around the country with the educational philosophy I grew up with—that people can learn, and learn well, without being forced. I contacted people at these schools and took a semester off from college in which I traveled around the country visiting these schools. I can't tell you how amazing it was to visit them, to talk to the people there who not only understood my educational philosophy, but believed in it so much that they had started schools to do this! I knew then that this was what I wanted to do, to start one of these schools, to share this kind of education with others. I believe I have come to the point in my life where I am ready to do this.

Summerhill - A. S. Neill

Learner-centered education is not a new approach. One of the older and more famous of the learner-centered schools is Summerhill. It was founded in 1921 and has been running continuously ever since. It is located in Summerhill, England and the founder, A.S. Neill wrote the book "Summerhill - A Radical Approach to Child Rearing." They are a democratic community in which all decisions are made through voting—every teacher and student has one vote. They are a boarding school, and through the years have developed quite a complex system of rules and self-government. Many other learner-centered schools have drawn on Summerhill's philosophies and practices.

Sudbury schools

In the US, the learner-centered Sudbury Valley School opened in 1968 in Framingham, Massachusetts and continues today. Their education philosophy is similar to that of Summerhill: the idea that everyone should be free to direct their own education as they see fit. The Sudbury Valley School has no regular classes, no bells, no textbooks, no teacher-led curriculum. Every student is free to design their own curriculum and structure their own learning as they see fit. All decisions about the school are made through the democratic process—again, each student and each teacher has one vote. Disagreements are handled through their school judicial system, in which all members of the school participate. Students spend their days doing whatever they find to be most valuable. They learn confidence, independence, compassion, and creativity.

There are many other schools that use the Sudbury model of education, or variants of it. Students from all backgrounds attend and perform well at these schools.

Numbers of schools around US and world today

Although many people are unfamiliar with learner-centered education, there are schools and organizations across the US and around the world that apply this approach. The Alternative Education Resource Organization has compiled a directory of over 12,000 learner-centered schools and programs, including more than 2,500 Montessori schools, over 100 Waldorf schools, 500 independent schools, and 700 home-based education groups. The Sudbury Valley School website lists 31 schools similar to their own model, and 8 which are in the process of starting. Worldwide, at least 30 countries have learner-centered schools. At the International Democratic Education Conference this past summer there were 240 participants from 28 countries. I myself am a member of an online discussion group about learner-centered education which includes participants from Russia, South Africa and Australia.

So as you can see, the learner-centered education movement has an historical depth of over 80 years and geographic breadth that spans the globe.

Rationale for learner-centered education

We've talked about the historical background of learner-centered education and my experience with it. You may also be interested to know that much of the current research into learning and education supports learner-centered education. I'll give you a few examples:

Learning theories/learning research

One fairly well known and widely practiced educational theory is constructivism: Constructivism says that students are active creators of meaning, and knowledge cannot be transmitted unchanged from one person to another. Students must be actively involved in creating meaning or learning will not happen. I believe that learner-centered education is the ultimate constructivist environment—students have complete freedom and responsibility to not only create their own meaning and knowledge but to determine what knowledge is worth creating.

Another educational theory is that of multiple intelligences: Howard Gardener and other researchers have recognized that intelligence is not a fixed thing and that different people need different experiences. This theory would say that schools should have a wide range of activities for students to engage in, and not assume that everyone can learn from books, or lecture, or sitting still. Learner-centered education allows every student to utilize the mode of learning that works best for them and does not place greater value on one intelligence over another.

Researchers have also found benefits in heterogeneous grouping—that is, having students of different levels learning together. They have found that students benefit most if they are in a setting with learners of a variety of levels, as long as their individual needs are met. Learner-centered education provides this by not segregating by age or grade and by allowing all students to learn at their own pace.

You may have heard of holistic or whole-child education: Children need to learn who they are as a person, they need to have relationships with other people, they need to develop emotional intelligence. We also know that in order for people to learn, they must feel safe, be emotionally healthy, and have their physical needs met. Learner-centered education allows students to satisfy their emotional and physical needs and live as whole people, not just as someone who must learn a particular set of intellectual skills.

Attention span: It goes without saying that learning takes attention. Children have widely varied attention spans. Learner-centered education allows students to divide their time as they wish: they may work on a single project for days without doing anything else, or they may move rapidly from one activity to another, or anywhere in between. Without time restrictions students can always have their attention engaged in a meaningful way.

What will SVCS be like?

Comparisons

One way for me to explain what SVCS will be like is to compare it with some other systems of education that you may be familiar with. I'll describe how SVCS compares and contrasts with contemporary public schools, Montessori schools, homeschooling or unschooling, and Sudbury schools.

Contemporary public school

SVCS likely sounds and will look quite different from most contemporary public schools, which may be the education system that is most familiar to most of you. These differences arise from the differences in our foundational assumptions about education and learning, and from the controls and regulations imposed on most public schools. In public schools, a great deal of time and energy is spent trying to get students to do what you as a teacher want them to do. This focus colors everything in the public education system. When this focus is absent as it will be in SVCS, the whole educational system changes radically.

Two of the (perhaps few) things that SVCS would share with public education are the valuing of diversity and the ideal of education for all—a zero reject system. Now, I believe that every child is different and there is no one education model that fits every child. As much as I believe that SVCS represents an ideal form of education, I also know that our school will not be the right place for every student. There are too many different kinds of people in the world for one system to fit them all—that's why we need a whole spectrum of educational choices. But, my ideal for SVCS is that we will be able to welcome all students with all their gifts and needs.

Montessori school

Many of you may be familiar with Montessori schools. Our school shares some similarities with the Montessori philosophy. We both believe in the value of individual choice, that children benefit from being in mixed-age groups, and that people learn best from their natural curiosity by exploring their environment. Some differences would include our emphasis on the students having control of their curriculum and on community decision-making.

Homeschool/unschool

SVCS will also share some philosophical similarities with homeschooling or unschooling. I think in homeschooling family relationships are necessarily one of the primary aspects. I would hope to continue that at SVCS. All of us are part of families and that does affect our educational choices and who we are. At SVCS brothers and sisters will be able to continue their relationships without being segregated by age. Parents and other family members will always be welcome at the school as well. At SVCS students will have the opportunity to learn from a greater range of people than are present in most homeschool settings, as well as opportunities to practice decision-making as a member of a community.

Sudbury/Summerhill

I spoke earlier about Summerhill and about Sudbury schools. SVCS is closer in philosophy to Sudbury schools than any other model of education I know of. We share the ideals of student choice, self-determination, community participation, and intrinsic motivation to learn. We are similar enough that I considered starting SVCS as a Sudbury school. However, there are a few things that will make SVCS different. I mentioned the emphasis at SVCS on continuing family relationships. Some Sudbury schools are very much a "world of children"; they believe that children are more truly free and able to make choices outside of the parent/child relationship. Whether that is so or not, all children are part of families and I believe that those relationships are natural and valuable, and would seek to continue them at SVCS.

One other point of difference between SVCS and Sudbury schools would be our handling of conflicts. Sudbury schools have a complex structure of committees and decision-making procedures, one of which is the judicial committee. The judicial committee is basically a jury of peers which arbitrates disputes and hands out punishments or fines for breaking rules. The Sudbury model sees the judicial committee as necessary to allow the youngest members of the school equal power and protection. I can see their point, but I think a system of rules and punishments, even when they are created and enforced by the students, is not always the best system for people to relate to one another. I have visited a school where they threw out their rule and punishment book, and within days their repeated problems ceased. I think that people can relate fairly and kindly to each other without fines and punishments. This is not to say SVCS will have no rules; we probably will agree that we want to have some. But I do not intend to start with a system of judicial law.

I make these points because my vision for SVCS is so close in practice to most Sudbury schools that it's easier to show the few differences than the many similarities.

Typical day

"Typical days" from schools visited

After hearing about learner-centered schools, the philosophy, and some of the things that they don't do that other schools do, people often want to know "What do you do all day?" After my time visiting learner-centered schools, I wrote a brief article about them. I'd like to read you the section called "Views from the Schools."

Typical day at SVCS

I envision our school being similar to the schools I just described, in that each person makes their own choices each day about what they want to do. Some of the schools I visited had a morning meeting where members could discuss their plans for that day—students could request classes, anyone could offer to teach a class on a topic of interest, and so on. I saw that working well and I plan to begin with that at SVCS. Other than that, daily activities would be up to each student. If you're trying to imagine what your child will do, think of their favorite thing to do during their free time. That will probably be what they will do at SVCS, at least initially.

What about college or a job?

We've talked about learner-centered education and what a learner-centered school might look like. Now let's look at students after they graduate. What about college or a job?

Facts about college acceptance

I don't know of any large formal studies on graduates of learner-centered education, but here's what I do know:

Stanford University's acceptance rate for homeschoolers is twice as high as for non-homeschoolers.

Similarly, Wheaton College in Illinois accepts 60-65% of homeschooled applicants; the acceptance rate for all applicants is under 50%.

Other colleges have acceptance rates of homeschoolers that are either the same or higher than other students. Our approach is similar enough to homeschooling that I expect these statistics are relevant.

Statistics on graduates of learner-centered schools are harder to find, but here are a few:

In 1990 (the most recent year I could find) 100% of the students at the Sudbury Valley School who applied to college were accepted, most to their first choice. In a different statistic, in the year 2000 about 80% of graduates chose to go to college.

From the evidence, students from learner-centered education are on at least equal footing with those from traditional schools, and often have higher college application and acceptance rates.

2005 top job skills

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers job outlook 2005 survey, the top 5 traits employers seek are communication skills, honesty/integrity, interpersonal skills, strong work ethic, and teamwork skills. Each of these is strengthened by learner-centered education.

  1. Communication skills: this is something that students in learner-centered schools develop in abundance. They can talk as much as they want to anyone they choose—compare that to a public school if you like—if they want to organize a game, work with someone on a project, propose a rule change for the school, they have to become a communication expert in order to convince others of their point of view. So the #1 sought-after job skill is clearly a major component of learner-centered education.
  2. Honesty/integrity. I believe that in a small, self-governing community such as SVCS honesty and integrity will flourish. When you are accountable to yourself for your learning, you have no way to blame anyone else for your choices. The responsibility is yours.
  3. Interpersonal skills. These develop out of necessity in a school like SVCS, just as communication skills do. Without imposed adult authority, students learn how to relate to people of all ages in a natural and unconstrained way. When I visited some of the learner-centered schools, I was always surprised at how quickly and happily I was welcomed by the students.
  4. Strong work ethic. I'd like to address this by reading an excerpt from The Sudbury Valley School Experience. This is from an essay called "What Children Don't Learn at SVS." The author is discussing how some children play, all day, every day at her school. (The material in this book is under copyright, so we can't reproduce it here. You can order the book from Sudbury Valley School Press in Framingham, MA. Ed.) That is what I would expect from graduates of learner-centered education. On a personal note, I remember when I first started college how shocked I was to hear people complain about the classwork they had to do. I had made the decision to come to college and I figured that if it was a lot of work, it was the choice I had made and why would I complain about it? Now, I learned pretty quickly to complain, but I still remember that initial shock—"Of course it's a lot of work! You chose this though; this is what you want, isn't it? Why would you complain?"
  5. Teamwork skills. Again, like communication skills and interpersonal skills, this is something that develops in abundance in learner-centered schools, and, I believe, is hindered in more restrictive school environments.

This type of school prepares students for life-long learning

The reason that students from learner-centered schools are successful in college or job seeking is that they are used to meeting challenges, figuring things out, and they have become experts in learning. In a learner-centered school, students must continually decide what they want to do and what they need in order to do that. College or a job is no different—if a student decides they want to go to college, they find out how to apply, what the requirements are, and what they need to do to meet them. For someone who is an expert at learning, as graduates of learner-centered schools are, applying for college or a job is just one more thing to figure out how to do. The skills a student learns in learner-centered education will serve them well in whatever they decide to do after they have finished school.

How will my child learn anything?

Stories from schools

People who hear about these schools sometimes say, "Well, it sounds wonderful in theory, but how will my child learn anything? What if all they want to do is play and aren't motivated to do anything beyond that?" I know many wonderful stories from learner-centered education that address that question. One was told to me in a school in Seattle: A 13 year old came to their school after being in several other schools, including one for children with learning disabilities, and all these schools tried unsuccessfully to teach him to read. He wasn't interested and didn't learn. At the learner-centered school he made friends with a group of students who spent a lot of time playing text-based computer games. Well, he didn't want to be left out and quickly learned to read the rapidly scrolling text.

I read another story in an interview with a parent that had children at a learner-centered school. Her son went on to a college that had a foreign language requirement, and he told his mother he was going to take Spanish. She said "You can't do that! You don't know what a noun or verb is." He said "Of course I do." She thought, "Well, maybe everybody in the world knows what nouns and verbs are," and said "But you certainly don't know about adverbs and pronouns!" He said "Yeah, I do." She said "How?" He said, "Well, looking things up in the dictionary when I was playing Scrabble." And he did. (Incidentally, I learned parts of speech from playing "Mad Libs" with a friend.)

These are both stories of incidental learning, and there are many others. There are also many instances of children deciding with no prompting, after years of play, that they are ready to move into the adult world and do what it takes to get there. There is a story on the website "Creating Learning Communities" about two boys in England who were homeschooled or unschooled. They spent their days playing, creating movie scenes with toy figures and playing computer games. Then when the older one was 14 1/2, he told his mother that for him childhood was over. He packed away his toys and both he and his brother decided that they wanted to get the English equivalent of the GED. They both began to spend their days studying and in about 2 years they had completed all the coursework, graduated, and began working.

The books published by the Sudbury Valley School contain numerous anecdotes about students deciding that they are ready to learn something—math, physics, photography, even one who wanted to learn how to do autopsies—and doing what it takes to learn it. I have never heard of an instance where students from learner-centered schools felt handicapped by lack of previous study. In the words of a 10-year-old from a learner-centered school in South Africa: "I told my granny I am going to school to learn to be a human being. Human beings can learn maths whenever they want."

Tie back to learning research

Another way to think about learner-centered education is to look at it in light of the learning research we discussed earlier: where is my child most likely to learn? The research would say in a setting that is engaging, in which they have control and can make meaningful choices, where they are in a mixed-ability group, and where they are engaged in meaningful, real-life activities. Learner-centered education provides these characteristics to a greater extent than any other form of education that I have seen.

Where are we in the process and where do we go from here?

So, where is SVCS right now, and where do we go from here? This is what I know at this point.

Building possibilities

We are still looking into possible locations. The best one we have found so far is a building owned by the Unitarian Universalists church on 33 west. It has one large room and two smaller rooms, restrooms, a small kitchen, and outdoor space. I am still in conversation with them to determine whether this will be a suitable location for the school and whether they want to rent it to us.

Costs, tuition

One question that people usually ask at some point is "What about tuition?" I do not know yet what tuition costs will be for SVCS. It depends on what other funding we can get, how many students we anticipate having, and other factors. I anticipate yearly tuition will be between $4,000 and $6,500 with tuition work-off options for parents who want to volunteer time at the school. If you look at other private schools in this area they have comparable tuition.

Opening date, ages, anticipated enrollment, enrollment process

Our projected opening date is the beginning of September, 2006. We would be in session 180 days, the same as the public schools with similar hours. We are enrolling elementary age students this first year with the possibility of expanding upward if there is enough demand. We plan to have enrollment forms available in January 2006. I anticipate we will need at least 8 students to open as a school, and I feel confident that we will exceed that. I don't foresee more than 20 students enrolling the first year. I think it will be good to start small and grow from a core group that is already established.

Flexible enrollment

Some people have asked about the possibility of flexible attendance, or whether they can enroll part-time. I am open to that possibility, but there would need to be a minimum commitment, and the parents would have to be registered as homeschoolers because of Virginia's school attendance laws. I have not yet worked out what the part-time options would be and what costs would be associated with them.

Possibilities for the future

As for the future, I expect the school to grow. I mentioned the possibility of expanding the age range upward—I have seen schools that have students ages 5-19, and they are wonderful, family-like communities. I loved seeing the teenage boys pick up the younger kids and carry them around, and the young kids were wild with laughter because they liked it so much. I would like to see that at SVCS.

I would like for SVCS to be in the position to accept any student regardless of their ability to pay. Some schools have sliding-scale tuition that slides all the way to $0, which I would like for SVCS.

I would like for SVCS to have partnerships with other community organizations. I would like students to be able to participate in mentorships or apprenticeships in the community. I would like us to be involved with people of all ages and circumstances, not just those within the school.

I would like SVCS to become a sustainable, self-governing organization, so that if I ever had to leave I would know that the school would continue without me.

Open question and answer session

I'd like to give some time for discussion and any other questions you may have. Does anyone have an unanswered question they'd like to ask?

Conclusion

Thanks for coming

Thank you all so much for coming tonight and participating in the discussion. I'm excited about the next steps for the school and I hope you'll choose to continue to be involved.

Direct to postcards and books

As you leave, please take the time to pick up a postcard or two. They have contact information for the school and you can pass them along to others who may be interested. We also have some books for you to look at for further reading, and an copy of several articles for you to take with you if you want to read more about learner-centered education.

Offer to answer any questions, reminder that we need to be out by 8:20

I'll be happy to talk with you personally and answer any other questions you may have.