“I wouldn’t say that there are particular types of kids that the school works for. I think that the kids make it work for themselves in different ways. The three of us all had different experiences and talked about it in different ways. We all did something different to have the school work for us in the way that we needed it to work. I also think that being here does allow you to open up particular kinds of creativity or to be more free-spirited.”
“What was interesting for me was that the staff at Sudbury Valley were some of the first grownups that I ever dealt with in my life in a real way. At home I was the oldest son, playing a role to a point. My father and my mother were on some kind of a pedestal to me and I dealt with them in a certain way, and they to me. We all played our family roles. In the public schools, more game-playing, role-playing; the teachers under their constrictions to do what their boss was telling them and keeping their disciplinary thing with us kids. At Sudbury Valley, it was the first time I ever dealt with grownup people the way you do when you get out of school, when you go and ask the boss for a job or deal with people in a real way. Certainly Mrs. Parra, our great cooking teacher who got me started in culinary, was the first older person I ever dealt with in a real way – I mean a real way. She was a salty old lady and great, you know? It opened my eyes. The generation gap gets broken down in this school in a way that you don’t find in the home or in the church or in any other institution that I’ve ever been. So even though the home is number one, Sudbury Valley School is right there too and they do interweave in a beautiful way.”
