What is daily life like at a Sudbury school? That depends entirely on who you ask and what's going on in their lives! What follows is just one day, Tuesday, November 28, 2017, from the perspective of a staff member.
I pulled up to the school building at 8:45, seeing J at the lockbox beside the front door. He had just arrived, as well, and hadn't yet put in the code or gotten out the spare key, so he closed it back up and waited for me to get out of my car and unlock the door for him. We said hello, and he signed in, got a cup of water from the sink, and sat down on one of the couches in the main room with his journal.
I got out the binders of paperwork kept in the computer room and sat down at the art room table. Because both of our computers were down, I had had to take the November bills home the night before to pay using my home computer. I was able to pay gas, electric, and water online, so I three-hole-punched those sheets and put them away in the PAID section. I wasn't, however, able to put the rent in the mail because I had forgotten to grab a check. I made it out to our landlord, slipped it into an envelope, and attached it to the outside of the mail slot with a paperclip to be picked up by the mailman later. After administrative things were out of the way, I sat down on a different couch with my own journal for a little while.
Around 9:15, L arrived. She, as the Attendance Clerk, wanted to get started right away on her task--calculating attendance. When we first opened three months ago, I did all of the paperwork and administrative tasks. Now that the students have gotten more of a handle on Sudbury life, they've been picking up clerksmanships here and there. L still likes to have me double check her work, so I sat with her at the art room table. Besides, with the computers down, she still needed my phone for the time calculator app. I brought my Kindle with me but soon discovered that the e-book I borrowed from the library didn't actually hold my attention. C arrived and sat on one of the chairs in the art room after signing in, so I chatted with him until he wanted to watch something on his tablet.
I watched over L's shoulder for some time. She accurately converted times after noon to 24-hour time for easier calculation, subtracting the sign-in time from the sign-out time. Occasionally she became frustrated when finding that someone forgot to sign in or out. She called them over and had them try to remember what happened that day, noting down a likely account for them. A few times when someone couldn't remember, she sighed to herself and resigned to just give them the minimum 5 hours.
J went into the kitchen to fix himself a snack. A few minutes later, I heard a shout of alarm and the shattering of a plate. Rushing in, I found J holding his hand. It didn't appear to be bleeding, so he must have burnt it. I turned on the cold water and told him to put his hand under it while I cleaned up the shards of ceramic plate. While I swept, he cooled his hand in the water and ruminated on what happened, "I was getting the grilled cheese out [of the toaster oven], and I think I touched the top part." "Oh, the heating element. Yeah? Do you think it's okay?" I responded. He took a moment to assess, then responded, "Yeah." He turned off the water and got another plate to put his sandwich on.
I went back to the art room. L was finishing up one sheet, getting the weekly totals for each student. "Woah, C, you're up five hours this week!" I noted. "I am? I have five extra hours?" he replied. "Well, just for this week that we finished doing. We still have another week to do, so we haven't gotten the totals yet." "What? Why do you still have another week to do?" J asked from the doorway. L shrugged. "Lazy." She may have been feeling lazy weeks prior, but she was working hard this morning! She contemplated whether or not she wanted to start the next week or take a break. Finishing up won out, and she hunkered down with the calculator app and pen. J went into the computer room to see if there was anything he could do about fixing the computers.
At 11, when G still hadn't arrived, I messaged his dad to see if everything was okay. He replied that they were just running a bit late today and were walking out the door. J, L, and C contemplated a hiding game when G arrived. Half an hour later, when G's car pulled up, they darted into the supply room. L had taken the sign-in sheet with her to finish in the room, but when G realized he couldn't sign-in, he was flustered and near tears. It must have been a rough morning. He called through the door, and L replied that she would sign in for him. He said, "Okay," and sat down to pull dinosaurs out of his backpack. "I brought these dinosaurs because I wanted to add battle damage to them," he said, scribbling on one of them with a red crayon. "Oh, I see," I replied, watching as he began staging an epic battle. When he was finished, he showed me the scene. Aside from the warring group all posed mid-attack, there was also a collection of dinosaurs a little ways off posed naturally. "This is the peaceful group," he declared, indicating them.
L finished the attendance shortly after and brought it to me. She had gotten into a flow and completed that second week's page in about half the time it took her to do the first one! I logged the time on the Excel sheet on my phone and then wrote everyone's initials and attendance totals on the white board. Students are required to be in school for 5 hours a day, 186 days a school year. I multiply how many days we've been in session by five and compare it to each student's totals, giving them a positive or negative amount of time based on the minimum they need to have according to state. Some students are satisfied with their minimum time while others have been saving up extra time (the two hours a day extra that we're open) to have extended vacations. They gathered around to see their time after I had written it on the board. "What happened to putting it on the board in the art room?" C asked. The white board near sign-in is used for announcements and daily scheduling, so it gets erased daily. Last time we put the attendance hours on the board, they were erased the next day, so C suggested we put it on the white board in the art room so it stays longer. "Oh yeah," I remembered. I wrote the hours there, as well.
"I want to do some yoga," I said out loud. "Oh, yes!" L agreed. C had been doing yoga in the mornings, and I usually joined in when he did his. He had lost interest in it, though, it seemed, so I decided to start it back up myself. I waffled for a few moments between yoga and pilates before finally deciding to download a pilates app. I set up the first beginner level, and after a couple of positions, L joined in. It was a 13 minute long session, and the moves were, indeed, rather basic, but it was a good exercise for us. Afterwards we collapsed on the couch and drank some water.
"There are a lot of dirty dishes in the sink," L noted. "Yeah, it seems like people haven't been washing their dishes after they use them. Let's add that to tomorrow's School Meeting agenda." I retrieved the folder for School Meeting minutes and began to create the agenda.
1. Reminder from Holly (SM chair): Everyone needs to wash any dishes they use.
"Do you want me to add about the signing in and out, too?" I asked. "Yes, please."
2. Reminder from L (Attendance Clerk): Make sure you are signing in and out every time you leave or enter the school building.
"Oh! And we need to talk about the Ouija board," L prompted. "I thought you were going to buy that with your own money for yourself?" I asked. "Well, I decided that I wanted it for the school." "Oh, so you want me to put it on the agenda to get it for the school?" "Yeah." "And it was $15 on Amazon?" "Wait, let me use your phone to check again."
3. Proposal from L to buy an Ouija board with school money. $18 from Amazon.
"Would you be interested in reading?" L asked me when I was finished with the agenda. She and I had been taking turns reading Wonder by Raquel J. Palacio aloud. "Sure," I replied, and we sat down to read a few chapters. After a while, she decided to get herself some lunch. I turned my Kindle on, remembered that I didn't like the book I was reading, and sighed. I wanted to read more! "G, I want to read more, but I don't have a good book right now. Do you want to keep reading your Minecraft book with me?" "Hmm.. no, not right now," he replied. "Okay." I went to make my own lunch. G hesitated, then followed me into the kitchen. "You know, I think I want to change my mind about reading right now." "Okay. Let's do that." So he read a little to me while I ate my sandwich, then he cooked some ramen for himself and listened to me finish the chapter.
"Miss! Guess what!" J burst into the main room. At the beginning of school, I had asked him to just call me by my first name, but he still preferred to address me as Miss. "Hmm?" "I fixed the computer!" he beamed. "Woah! How did you do that?" "I don't know. I took off the side of the case, and there was a wire that was loose. So I reconnected it, and now it works!" "Huh! Well, okay then. Awesome!" I pulled out my journal to do some more writing as he headed back.
There was some scuffle coming from the computer room, and J returned to me. "Miss, I was using the computer, but L said I didn't sign in. So she signed in and got to use it." While the computers were working, they had created a rule in the School Handbook that students could use the computer for half an hour at a time after they signed their name on the computer sign up sheet. "Aha! She got you on a technicality," I lamented. "Yeah. It's like that story about the hen who's making the bread, except backwards a bit. She makes the bread even though no one helps her, but then she shares it with everyone. But I fixed the computer, and L took it from me!" I laughed, "True, but you'll get to use it after her time is up." "Yeah."
After L's turn on the computer, she came wandering into the main room and sat close by, curious about my writing. "I'm creating a safe space," I told her. She looked even more confused. "One of my friends told me that at her therapy, she learned how to create a safe space that's just in her heart and her mind. When she's feeling overwhelmed or upset, she can close her eyes and imagine her safe space so her heart and mind can become calm again. She said that your safe space is something personal, just for you, and that you have to create it when you're happy. So I'm creating mine now, and writing about it helps me be creative." "Oh! I see." She continued to sit with me while I wrote, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere, before going back into the computer room.
There was another scuffle, something about name calling and writing each other up, indicating that the agreed upon rules in the School Handbook had been violated. J and L were both filling out complaint forms. "Holly, when can we have a JC meeting?" came a voice from the art room. During a Judicial Committee meeting, a jury of peers (in our case, the entire school population of four students and one staff member) reviewed a violation of the rules and decided what should be done about it. "Uh, tomorrow?" I replied. "Why? Why can't we just have it now?" J asked. "Because you're both upset, and I want to give you time to calm down." "Well.. I'm the JC Clerk, and I say we're calling a JC meeting right now," L declared. "Alright," I sighed, and resigned myself to joining the group in the art room.
Apparently J had "called G a 'b-i-t-c-h,'" which was declared a violation of Norms and Expectations #2, "Be respectful." There was a discussion, and as a result, JC decided to propose a new rule to school meeting: "Offensive words can be said to inanimate objects but not to people." However, J had done this because L and G were annoying him. Frustrated, he went back to the computer. "J, now it's time for your complaint," I offered. "Come and tell us about it." "No, you don't care, anyway," came the response. "I do care, and I want to hear your story." "No, just throw out the complaint," J called. "J, I care, and I want to hear your story. Come tell us about what happened." But he wouldn't return. Sighing, we threw out the case. I contemplated what to do and decided to add another bullet to tomorrow's agenda,
5. Discussion topic from Holly: Is the JC process working for us?
(This was an on-going dispute that lasted a few more days before being completely resolved.)
I went to the kitchen to make myself some tea, and C followed me. "I think I should bring something else to entertain myself," he told me. "I've been watching Ben10 on my tablet all day today, but maybe I need something else." I nodded, pulling my mug from the microwave and adding the tea bag. "Yeah. Are you not in the middle of a book?" I asked, recalling his love of fantasy novels. "I am, but it's at home. It's in the Gameknight999 Minecraft series. Maybe I'll bring that tomorrow. Or maybe I'll draw," he mused. I smiled. "Sounds like a plan."
L and G emerged from the supply room with two long, slender, plastic poles that looked like they might be used in plumbing or something. "Can we.." L started hesitantly, "take these outside and joust?" I didn't know where they came from or any reason why we would keep them, so I agreed. "Sure? Stay away from the cars in the parking lot, of course," I reminded her. By the time they came back in, they had perfected some sort of JROTC-looking synchronized pole maneuvering dance. "It's called Quartet. How do you spell quartet?" she asked. "I'm not sure. You made it up, so I think you get to decide how it's spelled." "Alright, well, I'm going to spell it.. Q-A.. 'cause I know in English the 'q' and the 'u' are married, but since I'm making it up, they're getting a divorce. Q-A-U-R-T-T-E-T. Qaurttet."
Remarkably, for once, everyone's parents showed up around the same time, 3:45-ish, so in a flurry of activity, everyone left rather quickly. I gathered the trash and took it to my car to throw away at home.
What will tomorrow bring? Who knows! The students whims are leading them, but they are constantly learning. It's amazing to watch where their creativity takes them, and I'm so excited to be a part of their journey.
