Has anyone heard of Sudbury Valley schools? Peter Hartkamp started one in the Netherlands, and wrote a book about it. “Our current education systems do not tr

Has anyone heard of Sudbury Valley schools? Peter Hartkamp started one in the Netherlands, and wrote a book about it. “Our current education systems do not trust children to learn what they need to know. Governments believe that children must be coerced into learning what they prescribe as necessary for future life even though they do not and cannot know what that future will be like. Yet we do know that coercion produces anxiety and fear of failure and that this in turn inhibits learning and destroys confidence. We also know that creativity, innovation and empathy are not encouraged in such a climate even though above all else these are the survival qualities for coping with an uncertain future. In this short book Peter Hartkamp develops his arguments against coercive ‘education’ with a needle-sharp engineer’s logic. He invites us to imagine what schools would be like if they took the articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child seriously, a not unreasonable position as all states are signatories. I wholeheartedly and without reservation recommend this book to the many parents, students, teachers, employers and policy makers who know in their hearts that something is very wrong with the examination and testing factories that we are allowing our schools to become. It represents a beacon of hope that another way is possible.” [1] [1] http://hetgedwongenonderwijsvoorbij.nl/en/ http://hetgedwongenonderwijsvoorbij.nl/en/