The day after tomorrow is the first meeting of the “Meta School” Open House Working Group. I’ll be discussing the topic with Principal Yanagisawa of Kasei High School, APU President Deguchi, KMD Department Chair Inakage, iU President Nakamura, Chuo University Professor Okajima, Zero High School Principal Naito, and Mr. Sakuma of N High School, among others.
The book *Free at Last* by the founder of Sudbury Valley School. I had been reading the revised edition, but I learned that the Japanese translation of the first edition, published in 1996, was titled *“Meta School*“.
There are no “classes,” no “teachers,” and no “grade levels.”There are no “departments,” “schedules,” “bells,” or “grades.”
Founded in Massachusetts in 1968, the Sudbury Valley School is truly a “Meta School.”
The school’s core belief is that “human beings are naturally curious.”
Students decide for themselves what they want to learn.
They dismiss a standardized curriculum as nothing more than an attempt to control thought.
Students learn when they’re ready.
As a result, because the student body is age-mixed, they naturally teach and learn from one another.
They learn in the way they want to.
Sometimes, individual learning using books or computers is sufficient.When learning on one’s own proves difficult, a group forms, and a class is established. Sometimes, the children themselves serve as teachers to help others. There is also an apprenticeship system where students can study under professionals.
There is no grading.
Students set their own goals, as they themselves understand their progress best.
At the Sudbury School, all activities begin and end with the children’s curiosity.
The school provides learning resources. What matters is what the children want to take, not what the teachers want to give.
School operations—including setting rules and allocating budgets—are carried out through all-school assemblies that include the children, which is why it’s also called a “democratic school.”
Freedom is the key to teaching children responsibility.
What they learn here is how to become free and independent individuals.
See you at the Meta School WG!
https://lot.or.jp/wp/report/1361/