Is there anything more compelling than ironclad anecdotal evidence?

I have a friend who is very skeptical of the Sudbury philosophy. Her concern is that kids won't learn what they need to learn and she doesn't like the idea of an unstructured day.

She called me yesterday and said that she was talking to her husband and "of course I told him what I thought about it." Her husband said that his cousins had gone to a similar type of school in New Hampshire on a commune. Whether it was a sudbury school or not is debatable but his impression of it was that "they didn't have to do anything". I guess their father had no faith in formal education whatsoever and that's how they ended up on the commune.

What became of these cousins? One retired in his forties after starting his own computer company and making a boatload of cash. His sister became an actress and was nominated for an academy award this year.

Chew on that, o ye of little faith. :)