About SJSS
A School on The Cutting Edge of Education
South Jersey Sudbury School was founded in 2015 with the mission to provide South Jersey with the amazing, one-of-a-kind Sudbury Model, created by Sudbury Valley School in 1968. The Sudbury Model is different from most types of education in all the best ways. At our school, students K-12 are given complete freedom with how they spend their day in our mixed-age learning environment. This means when a student arrives at school each day, it is completely up to them to decide what to do; whatever interests them is what they will spend their time doing. It could be anything from editing a movie, coding their own custom video game, studying math, painting, drawing, writing a screenplay, building a fort outside, discussing philosophy, or just playing with their friends. The sky is the limit for how they seize the day!
At first glance, this concept may seem crazy, absurd, ridiculous, insane, unbelievable; think of any adjective, and there’s a good chance we’ve heard it. But in reality, this simple concept is truly the ideal way to learn. The kids at SJSS have no boundaries on their curiosity. Often, we hear stories from parents with kids in traditional schooling environments about how their child is naturally excited and has an appetite for learning, but their passion feels squandered in school. They aren’t allowed to branch out and explore their ever-growing interests and passions. Instead, they are forced to follow only the predetermined, restrictive curriculum. This often can lead to children believing that they don’t like learning, which is an absolute tragedy. Why is it that we have to accept this idea that learning is something to be forced upon our children and not something they naturally crave?
Why can’t our children wake up and be excited to go to school?
Since they’ve never been trained to suppress their natural desire to learn, they absolutely love it! Learning here is not a chore, it is a fun, playful, joyous experience. The kids here have such unsuppressed passion for what interests them, and they never feel ashamed for delving deep into a particular topic or skill because it’s “not in the curriculum.” They’re free to play, experiment, improvise, and grow without judgment. Kids at our school quite often get upset when summer break starts because they love school so much, and as much as that seems like an utterly made-up marketing anecdote, we are delighted to say it’s absolutely true!
At SJSS, these fantasies are a reality for our students.
But wait, there’s more!
If you thought this school couldn’t possibly sound any cooler, then think again, because it definitely does! While you may be able to think of a school that shares some of our core values, two essential concepts are completely unique to the Sudbury Model: School Meeting and Judicial Committee.
School Meeting
School Meeting is truly something to behold. It’s the main democratic function of our school, where students (K-12) and staff gather each week to discuss and vote on all management decisions and rules of the school. And here’s the real kicker, everyone has an equal say and, most importantly, vote. This means that a 5-year-old’s vote holds the same weight as that of a 19-year-old, or even a staff member, when voting on all school rules and motions. You may now be thinking, “This sounds crazy, why would you want a 5-year-old to have the same power as an adult? “ However, you’ll quickly learn that this seemingly crazy concept is one of the most powerful, unparalleled tools to teach our students communication, responsibility, problem solving, conflict resolution, leadership, compromise, and so much more.
Each week, students of all ages have the chance to create, discuss, and vote on ways to solve problems and better the school. Quite often, issues come up that don’t have an easy remedy, issues that require the students to collectively use their creativity and communication skills to find a solution. Granting this level of autonomy and power to our students at a young age is unbelievably empowering for them. It shows them that their opinion is valuable and worth being respected and heard.
This awards our students with a great sense of ownership over the school and its continued success, as well as unmatched levels of maturity, emotional intelligence, confidence, and communication skills; things that truly can’t be taught.
Judicial Committee
While School Meeting often gets much of the spotlight when talking about the Sudbury Model, JC is just as important to the functioning of our school. JC stands for Judicial Committee, and it’s responsible for enforcing the school’s rules created in School Meeting. JC is composed of a rotating panel of students and staff that meets daily to discuss cases where a rule has been broken. Every student and staff member is allowed to write someone up, and alternatively, be written up for any infringement of a rule. These cases can range from simple things like not cleaning up after yourself or not following our stop rule (our school’s main rule regarding basic consent), to at times more serious instances of rule-breaking that involve safety. JC will go through each case with the plaintiff and defendant, discussing what rule was broken and why. The person written up can then choose to accept responsibility for any rules broken. JC will then work with the defendant to find a way to help them not break the rule in the future. This process of hearing from both sides about a given scenario in a calm, respectful manner, where each person has a chance to speak and be heard, is truly powerful. In traditional schooling environments, students are regularly subjected to cruel and arbitrary punishments. Whether it’s being yelled at by the principal or being told to sit with your head down on your desk, it’s all completely unproductive when it comes to actually addressing any issues a student may or may not have. They ultimately only serve to make students more rebellious and resentful of the rules and the school itself. At SJSS, these archetypal patterns simply don’t exist, and it’s absolutely beautiful.
When you break a rule, which everyone, including staff, does, it’s not a principal or teacher yelling at you for domination- it’s your friends and peers helping you work through a situation in a kind and supportive way. In JC, it’s hardly ever, “How could you do this?”, it’s usually “How can we help you improve and be better in the future?” The whole cycle of resentment, shame, and rebellion that can develop in students in a traditional school is completely subverted. Here, not only are your equals enforcing the rules, but the rules themselves were ones that you voted on and approved of. And since JC rotates between everyone in the school, you’re also given the chance to serve on JC. This allows you to experience both sides of upholding the rules. At times, it’s quite amusing to see newer students come to the realization that they have nothing to rebel against, as everyone is equal when it comes to shaping the school and its rules. This also makes being written up feel like not such a big deal. The students learn that it’s completely normal and natural to make mistakes, and that going to JC is a great opportunity to learn and grow. Much like School Meeting, the benefits the students gain from JC are staggering. Learning to be self-reflective and emotionally mature at such a young age is truly a superpower, one many adults take years to be able to achieve, if ever. Once you see how our students navigate JC with such grace and honesty, you won’t believe why these skills aren’t emphasized more in traditional education.
So if you want your child to experience…
Being trusted with responsibility and independence
Being a self-directed, motivated, and passionate life-long learner
Being creative and unabashedly curious
Being emotionally intelligent and skilled at problem solving
Being skilled in communication and self-advocacy
Being happy at school
