To most of us, school means classes, teachers, schedules, grades, and tests. But for the children at Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts, school is very different.
Firstly, there are no lessons. All the children, aged between 4 and 19, do whatever they want. There are no teachers, only “staff members (職員)”. The idea behind this is that you do not need to make children learn, because children want to learn anyway. “You do not need to say to a three-year-old. ‘Go explore your environment.’ You can’t stop them!” says Daniel Greenberg, a founder of the school. “But if you make children do what you want all day, they will lose all taste for learning.”
At Sudbury Valley School, you will allow children to talk, read, paint, cook, work on computers, study French, play the piano, climb trees, or just run around. Two boys spent three years just fishing!
The other way that Sudbury Valley School is different is that the children can decide the rules. Every week, there is a school meeting where both children and staff have one vote each — even the four-year-olds. They decide the school rules, how to spend the school budget(預(yù)算), and even which staff they want and do not want any more.
When the school first opened in 1968, people said it would never work. But today, the school has 200 students, and 80% of its students go on to college. Even the two boys who went fishing all time have successful careers today. One of them is a musician and the other is a computer scientist.
小題1:What does the school believe?
A.Teachers cannot teach children well. |
B.Children learn best when they do what they want to do. |
C.Learning is for adults — children should only play. |
D.Children should only learn about one thing at a time. |
小題2:What does Daniel Greenberg say about three-year-olds?
A.They love learning. |
B.They are very naughty. |
C.They want to be outside all the time. |
D.They are too young to learn anything. |
小題3:What happens to the children after they leave this school?
A.They do the same things as children from other schools. |
B.They have problems getting into college or getting a job. |
C.They usually do very unusual jobs. |
D.They are not successful in their business. |
小題4:What is the main topic of the article?
A.Children’s hobbies | B.Education in the US |
C.A school without rules | D.An unusual school |