Spring Valley Schools Volume 12 Issue 3
Summer 2009

Summer Sesion Learning without Classes Who or What Is Your Favorite Teacher? Same Difference Picture Gallery

Summer Session at Spring Valley School
Monday– Friday 7:45-4:30
$100.00/week for SVS Members $125/week for Non-SVS Members
Part-time is $25.00/day
Notification and paperwork required before attendance
Call 727-781-1234 for details and ask for Kelly

A Tribute to 2008/2009
By: Kimberly

For me, this school year started off with drama and a tragedy; however, I ended this year gaining a lot of knowledge, respect and happiness. In a lifetime, people grow so much; yet, I doubt any year will make such a big impact on my life as this one did. I became more mature, I gained more confidence, and I also found the long lost faith in myself. In the
beginning of this year, I was trying to work through a loss. And at the end of this year, I learned the importance of uniting as a community.

This year has made such an impact on my everyday life. I believe I will carry these memories with me and eventually tell my grandchildren about the way I learned at age fifteen. I learned that my life is in my hands even though sometimes it’s hard. I have the strength now to believe in myself and make it through those hard times. I know I can only speak for myself, but I am sure that this was a year that everyone will remember for a long time. We had so
many great opportunities this year, such as meeting many new people and learning about other cultures. I also believe that all the students who are returning will come back to a better environment since the changes we’ve made this year encourage students and staff as well as parents to be more welcoming to new families. Even though we will be gaining more students
our community will not fall apart, it will only grow stronger.

I am also proud to say that after several meetings the whole school reaffirmed what is important in our school day, respect and safety. These principles are the foundation of the school. If we, as a community, don’t uphold these two simple principles, the consequence will end up being that the school can’t give us the freedom we all desire. I believe that there
will always be improvements and more strength in our school life, as we all decide to pull on the same side of the rope and not against each other.
All in all, for me this year was one of the most amazing years. It made me so much stronger and gave me so many lessons that I will always carry with me throughout the long road that will take me through life. I also want to take these last lines to thank Spring Valley for excepting me for me, teaching me to believe in myself and encouraging me to follow my dreams.

Learning Without Classes
By: Diane - Parent and Staff

As a mother of three children who attend Spring Valley School, I often get asked by curious friends and family members, what my children are learning in school this year.This is a tough question to answer, because they attend a school without a mandated curriculum. At Spring Valley, my children are free to pursue whatever interests or passions they may have. Basically, the school provides a nurturing, democratic environment, where they are free to live their lives and learn in an organic fashion. Whenever they have an interest or a need for something in their lives, they seek it out and learn it or master it in a way that suits them best.

This is the way I learn now as an adult. Ever since I left college, I have acquired many skills and learned information that I use in my everyday life, through watching, discussing, reading, researching on the internet and/or seeking out someone more expert than me to ask questions, just to name a f ew. In the last 18 years, I have never taken a class; nor have I needed one to
learn or do what I need or want. And I never get asked by other adults what I am learning this year in my adult life. And if I was asked, it would be difficult to answer in a concrete, measurable way. This is not to say that I wouldn’t take a class if I felt that it was the best way to get what I needed or wanted. Just as some students at Spring Valley request classes in certain areas
when they feel it is the best way to get what they want. It is through my own experience as an adult, learning about myself and the world I live in without a structured schooling environment that allows me to appreciate, understand, and desire for my own children the beautiful simplicity, that life is learning, which is the Sudbury Model.

Who or What Is Your Favorite Teacher?

Same Difference
By: Ellie

No matter what school you send your children to there will always be the dreaded stages of life that no person would want to go back in time for. The beginning years, pre-teen jitters, and adolescent hurdles come full swing just as they would in a“normal” school. Sure, Spring Valley isn’t your typical schooling, but if I were in public school or not, life still plops all the lessons needed to coexist and find our way into our hands. The over whelming part of those lessons is the fact that people are gaining life experience every second. Each one of those seconds is seen differently through the eyes of every person on this planet. That’s over six billion different ways of looking at the world you and I see every day. For such a small school, Spring
Valley has helped me allow myself to see the world in all it’s confusion. You may be thinking somewhere a long the lines of, why would I want to feel like a speck of dirt when I’m trying to build a life. Believe me, those same thoughts are always circulating in my head but eventually my doubts find my ear and exit. Lugging around the weight that doubt and fear have on
my heart simply reminds me to pick my battles. There are many other routes I can go. I have my time. After all, the only person in this world I can control is me.

There is more than one way to do just about everything. That sentence is the slingshot that sends my thoughts, feelings, and common sense into a brutal collision with every boundary in every aspect of my life, from the laws of society to questioning the meaning of existence. Searching for the limitless answers to whatever question comes about is where my own confusion
builds crossroads. Making unhealthy choices along the way, I have been down to very low parts of myself. I remember thinking that maybe if I let the world’s walls crash down around me the truth would just appear. Little did I want to acknowledge that my choice to just let go was the quickest route to feeling more out of touch with my own truth, my own existence. It hit me that every person has felt this way. Whether it was down a dangerous path, or it simply came to them in a dream, everyone knows what it’s like to feel so lost without the desire to create a path back home. All the hidden lessons in life seem more like weights on my choices instead of bubbly ideas floating over my head. These lessons aren’t so hidden if you truly open your heart to learning about yourself. No matter how many people tell you how
difficult it is to be honest with yourself, there is no preparation., no how-to manual, and definitely no rule book. That crazy concept of free will is pure responsibility. The practice of dissecting uneasy situations and seeing that I have been repeating a same mistake in different ways has become the most complicated yet efficient way of taking full responsibility for my choices. As many people have probably experienced, every action bares a consequence, with that being said there is always something new or mirrored back to learn about myself from every action, reaction, response, or indecision.
As my fourth year at Spring Valley comes to an end, I can say that I am ready to create progress by choice. This fear I have created about what “growing up” truly entails is slowly molding into a confidence. This motivation empowers me to keep my imagination and expanding opinions an active ingredient in creating happiness.

Picture Gallery