Self-directed education is a tough concept for many people to grasp. It challenges the ways in which many of us were educated, and the ways many of our children continue to be educated, by flipping the entire idea of education as a top-down model of coercive schooling to a bottom-up model of individual agency and self-determination. My 2019 book, Unschooled: Raising Curious Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom, details the history and philosophy of non-coercive, self-directed education tied to one’s individual interests, goals, and life pursuits. 

One place that has become a beacon for parents and educators interested in the philosophy and practice of self-directed education is the Sudbury Valley School, that I write extensively about in Unschooled. Sudbury Valley was founded in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1968 and continues to flourish today more than 50 years later. It has also inspired the creation of dozens of democratic, Sudbury-model schools around the world, as well as various unschooling programs.

If you remember back to episode 39 in October, I interviewed Sudbury Valley School cofounder, Mimsy Sadofsky, and explained why my husband and I decided to send our children there instead of continuing with homeschooling.

But today I thought it would be interesting and insightful to hear from another parent, Nick Warren, who pulled his two children out of public school in 2021 and enrolled them at Sudbury Valley. Like us, Nick and his wife drive a long distance each way every day so that their kids can attend Sudbury Valley, but it’s totally worth it. We talk more about why that is in today’s show. 

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