My children have been attending Sudbury HK for a few months. Sudbury is a self-directed community without any curriculum, and the staff there don’t have to conduct any lessons if no one requests. Some people may wonder, ‘Are the staff just idling there? They’ve got nothing to do!’
It is very difficult to tell specifically what the staff in Sudbury are doing. In mainstream schools, teachers perform lesson planning, teaching and marking. Students are expected to follow teachers’ instructions. However, Sudbury is different. It does not require students to fulfill teachers’ expectations. Instead, the teachers’ role is to assist the children to fulfill their needs, which we all know is very hard to do.
Sudbury provides a place of full respect for children, where children can be true to themselves without the need to please other people, while at the same time they learn how to get along with others and how to live in a group. The staff pay attention to the needs of every single child. Since children’s needs keep changing every moment, the staff also have to respond very differently case by case. What they actually do is so abstract that it is very difficult for others to understand. Due to confidentiality, real-life examples won’t be disclosed without the children’s consent. You may interpret it as companionship without judgement. It involves deep listening, empathy, noticing and responding to the needs of children, and sometimes supporting the parents. At the same time, they are also contemplating the future development of the Sudbury community.
I have been adopting the helping-mode parenting and I believe that I am aware of the needs of my children and have tried my best to respond to them. However, within a few months, the staff have already observed something about my children which I had never noticed before. I was so amazed when they discussed it with me (with consent of my children). Only people who love and care about the children wholeheartedly would be able to notice such details!
The staff in Sudbury provide children with a sense of security to explore freely. The children know that they would be able to access the staff for help when they need to. The acceptance and company of the staff is very precious. Under traditional parenting, many families could not offer such unconditional acceptance and may have caused a certain level of distress or even trauma to the children. Luckily, Sudbury can compensate for this by allowing the children to feel free, valued and loved.
Conflicts, accidents, and incidents happen in mainstream schools, and even if I take care of my children at home all day, I still can’t completely avoid them from getting hurt. Similarly, Sudbury is not a paradise, and it doesn’t need to be. There are conflicts, pushes and bumps, and sometimes children may get hurt. Sudbury is a microcosm of society, and what children encounter there is exactly what they will encounter in society in the future. It may be in a different form, but the nature is the same. The role of adults is not to prevent accidents from happening, which is impossible, but to give children the ability to handle accidents once they occur.
Sudbury provides a great environment for children to learn that when something happens, we are not to blame or punish one party, but to empathize with all parties and respond to everyone’s needs, seeking a win-win solution. The staff will also be aware of and take care of their own emotions and needs. The staff in Sudbury serve as excellent role models to teach the children to handle conflicts by empathizing with others while taking care of their own self. The children will adopt the same way when handling conflicts in the future, and contribute to the building of a more harmonious and loving society.
What the staff in Sudbury do is mostly intangible but yet the most valuable.
If I were to describe what the staff are doing, I would say that they are guarding the children’s hearts. If one loses, forgets, or closes one’s heart, what’s left in the meaning of life? I believe there’s no other mission of education more important than this.
I sincerely thank all the past, present and future staff in Sudbury HK for defending this beautiful fortress for the children with all their hearts.
Original article: “What actually is the Sudbury Staff doing?”