parents: friend or foe

No internet service for a week my friends but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy.

Right now there is some discussion about what role parents play in the Sudbury community. Usually the standard answer is come to potlucks and other outside events, serve on finance or fundraising community but as far as being in school: 15 minutes at drop off and 15 minutes at pick up and that's it. I guess when the school first started there were some parents who were just there all the time and really tried to take over the school. I don't really know all the details but my guess is that they had a competing vision that didn't really gibe with the philosophy. They wanted to offer classes and stuff like that and I guess there was such a battle that they actually closed the school and then reopened at its current site.

The core philosophy of the Sudbury Valley School does strike me as being anti-parent at times. I find most schools to be anti parent in one way or another- give us your money and your kids and leave us alone! It's like they see parents as getting in the way of their mission to educate. The Sudbury spin seems to be that because children are naturally dependent on their parents its impossible for them to become independent in the presence of a parent. And since the ultimate goal is independence having a parent at school is impossible.(I'm really simplifying here)

I disagree and here is why. I'm a Buddhist and one of the things that I believe is that we are all interdependent and we should never lose sight of that fact. Also, we are only parents to our own children so I don't think that should exclude us from being able to interact with other kids. I also think it sends a message of distrust of adults in general when you act like kids have to be protected from parents. I mean, true there are definitely some wack jobs out there and a parent who doesn't really believe in what Sudbury is doing could probably cause some mischief but there has got to be a middle ground. More on this in the coming days.