Alumni Panel

On Friday, March 23rd, Fairhaven School hosted a panel featuring three alumni- Pallas Bane (class of 2008), Thor Jensen (class of 2005), and Erin Gregory ( who chose not to graduate and left in 2005.) The 2011-2012 school year is beginning to feel like “The Year of the Alumni,” as we have enrolled a record [...]

“The Art of Distraction”

Last week, the Opinion Pages of the New York Times printed a compelling article about creativity and education. Yet again, a thinker (in this case writer and filmmaker Hanif Kureishi)  has inadvertently argued for the efficacy of Fairhaven School! In an education world increasingly intent upon systematizing conformity (even by medicating young people), truly our [...]

Guest Post:“There’s More’n One Way to Skin a Cat”

Reprinted below is an article the Sudbury Valley School journal published last month. It captures so well the reality of growing up in the twenty-first century, we decided to post it here. Enjoy! “There’s More’n One Way to Skin a Cat”* by Mimsy Sadofsky We have a lot to muse about as we struggle to [...]

“Death Of A Doornail”

Last month, for the thirteenth year in a row, Fairhaven School’s Theatre Corporation staged a production. This year, they decided to host a dinner theater. Staff and students set up the room, and parents cooked the baked ziti and black beans. The mother of the murder “victim” baked bread from scratch! Our resident student pastry [...]

Fairhaven School Alumna Releases EP

Sometimes the news we hear from alumni is just lovely. This just in, from the email Inbox: Fairhaven School alumna Erin Umstead, class of 2005, has just released her first EP of music, “The Norway EP.” Please support her work, just another example of the interesting, creative lives our alumni continue to manifest. (Kudos also [...]

An Interesting Perspective On Standardized Testing

We often hear students and families consider public school, so from time to time we post or link to articles reminding readers that you often get what you pay for with schooling. This one comes from the Washington Post and is written by a guest and School Board member who took his District’s 10th grade [...]

What We Don’t Know: Uncertainty and Fairhaven School

(The following was presented by Fairhaven School staff member Mark McCaig at the 2011 Fairhaven Sudbury conference and then again last Friday for parents in the Chesapeake Room at Fairhaven School. The talk opens and closes with a video clip of former United States Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin reading a poem and answering questions posed [...]

Time Is On My Side

Last week in between cases in Fairhaven School’s JC (Judicial Committee), a student restated  Stephen Hawking’s theory that time stands still inside a black hole. “Although a watch would probably explode in there, if it didn’t, he thinks it would stop recording time.” The school year is back, and the best forum I know for [...]

CNN.com article features students from Sudbury Valley School

Below is a link to an article on CNN that features Sudbury Valley school staff and alumni. http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/03/unschooling.sudbury.education/index.html Be advised, like most articles about Sudbury schooling, an expert is quoted expressing concerns with the model, specifically the concern with “chaos” and how “the world is going to need things” from our students. Rest assured, our [...]

Lernen in Freiheit (Learning in Freedom)

This article about Sudbury Schools featuring Fairhaven School appeared in the March, 2011 edition of the German magazine Ubuntu. Click the pages below for full size images. The article can also be viewed on page 50 of http://issuu.com/sos-kinderdoerfer/docs/ubuntu-schule-3-11