Philosophy

Evolutionarily Appropriate

Hudson Valley Sudbury School’s model is aligned with the deep evolutionary heritage of human beings. Boston College Professor of Evolutionary Psychology Peter Gray has been studying education from a biological and evolutionary perspective for fifty years.  He writes that “for hundreds of thousands of years, up until the time when agriculture was invented (a mere 10,000 years ago), we were all hunter-gatherers. Our human instincts, including all of the instinctive means by which we learn, came about in the context of that way of life.” Gray identifies key characteristics of childhood learning in hunter-gatherer tribes:

  • Hunter-gatherer children must learn an enormous amount in order to become successful adults.
  • The children learn all this without being formally taught.
  • The children are afforded enormous amounts of time to play and explore.
  • The children observe adults’ activities and incorporate those activities into their play.

Gray’s theory is that play developed as a behavior via natural selection to serve the purposes of education.  Our model aligns with this principle, harnessing the deep instinctual learning habits of children.  We provide our students with enormous amounts of time to play and explore, as well as a variety of models of effective adult behavior from which to draw inspiration.

In Ancestral Landscapes in Human Evolution, a group of researchers writes, “there is no doubt…that much harm can be done when evolved developmental patterns are abandoned altogether for  cultural reasons without exploration of the possibly damaging impacts these changes could have.” At HVSS, we avoid those potential harms by trusting that human beings are designed to learn and grow up into competent adulthood, and by offering the conditions to allow that process to unfold naturally rather than attempting to contrive it.

Integrated with Real Life

Instead of carving out discreet periods of time to study basic skills like spelling and math, our students acquire skills within the context of their passions and responsibilities.  Every one of them has interests, and – whatever they are – pursuing them at a high level requires the development of “hard” skills related to:

  • Literacy
  • Critical thinking
  • Research

to name a few, as well as “soft” skills like:

  • Patience
  • Perseverance
  • Confidence

Engaging with the democratic processes at school engenders interpersonal skills like:

  • Listening & empathy
  • Negotiation & compromise
  • Articulation & communication

Often these skills are acquired as byproducts, via processes resembling osmosis, while students single-mindedly pursue their interests, manage the school, and share resources.

Individualized

We all know everyone is different – so why does conventional education treat us as if we’re all the same?! We all have our own needs, proclivities, interests, and challenges – and our own genius, or calling. The program at Hudson Valley Sudbury School meets each student precisely where they are, and stays right with them as they mature and grow.