Sudbury Graduates: Ready for Effective Adulthood

by Bruce Smith

category: Unschooling Alternatives

Published May 29, 2009 @ 07:21AM PT

Here at the end of the school year the caps of jubilant graduates, along with Spring, are in the air. As you might expect, the graduation process at Sudbury schools is strikingly and refreshingly unique. In this post, I'd like to share what a Sudbury diploma has to say about the purpose and possibilities of education.

First off, I should point out that there is considerable variation in how individual Sudbury schools graduate students. However, one near constant is a focus on the following thesis: diploma candidates must demonstrate that they have taken responsibility for preparing themselves to become effective adults in the larger community. A Sudbury diploma is not about accumulating academic credits; rather, it is about whether a student is truly ready to assume adult responsibilities.

Over several months, would-be Sudbury graduates must prepare a series of written and oral defenses of the above thesis. They work with advisers; they draft and revise; they receive feedback and answer challenging questions. Diploma candidates talk about skills they've mastered and lessons they've learned, about their next steps in life and the ways in which they've readied themselves for what lies ahead. Finally, some group of individuals—whether the entire school (including parents), or a smaller panel from a student's school or other schools—grills candidates and votes on whether the thesis defenses were successful. All in all, this is a far more demanding process than experienced by most students. Indeed, how many of us adults would enjoy defending our life choices in front of a critical panel?

Individual Sudbury schools are always tinkering with their diploma processes (constant innovation being one of the strengths of the model); indeed, controversy periodically erupts over whether even having a diploma process represents a sort of external assessment antithetical to the model. Yet nearly all Sudbury schools do have the sort of graduation requirement I'm describing, and I think it's because the importance of rites of passage persists even in modern times.

In traditional cultures, the rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood involves a period of separation, a time of physical and emotional trials. The youth who make it through these trials are then welcomed into the ranks of the adult members of the community. Sudbury schools put their diploma candidates through the trials of digging deep, tapping their reserves of courage, resourcefulness and persistence. As a result, our graduates possess integrity and strength of character; they know how to chart a course in life, how to get things done while being good to themselves and their community.

My current school had its sixth graduation ceremony last weekend; what a great opportunity it was to reflect on the kind of community you get when children are respected and trusted with both freedom and responsibility. More than mere communities, our schools are extended families, with all the benefits and general connectedness that come from having multiple siblings, aunts and uncles who know you very well (okay, sometimes too well) for many years.

The Sudbury diploma process underscores our balance as a demanding yet supportive environment that values both the needs of the individual and the welfare of the community. Thus our graduates end up teaching us valuable lessons about how to live deeply and authentically, face uncertainty with confidence, choose happiness and make dreams come true.

image by isabisa

(Note: If there's sufficient interest, I'll consider posting a follow-up with excerpts from actual thesis defenses. Approximately 1000 pages of thesis defenses are available for purchase here.)