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Connie Mann is the parent of three children — Melissa, 16, Joshua, 10, and Christianna, 41/2. They all attend Alpine School, a Sudbury-model school in Colorado. Connie also works two days a week as a volunteer staff member.
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Diane: What drew you out of the public school system to Alpine Valley?
Connie: When Melissa hit middle school, we started exploring. She was fine through elementary school, but in middle school she had problems coping — not with studies, but with the social aspects. The kids seemed to be more cliquish, and she was having a hard time.
We had been looking for other alternatives for quite a while, when someone passed the book ''Free at Last'' to us, which describes the Sudbury model. And my husband and I agreed that this was what we were looking for. We and a group of other parents tried to start a Sudbury model school in Las Cruces where we were living at the time, but it never got off the ground.
We then moved to Reno for a year. And when we realized that wasn't going to work out, my husband and I decided to make our next move based on the kids and the school. I went to visit a couple of places — one in Arizona and the one here in Colorado. We decided the one here was it, and we moved.
Diane: So, was your motivation basically your oldest daughter's discomfort with the school system?
Connie: Well, we had been exploring for some time. My husband Scott and I were not proponents of public schooling anyway — we just hadn't seen any private schools out there that fit what we believed. We parent in the same manner as Alpine School — not so much democratically, but in the sense that everyone in the family has a say and a part to play — so it fit for us.
Previously, I didn't know there was anything like this school out there, or we would have jumped at it much sooner. So it wasn't just Melissa, but that was a big impetus. We saw that she was struggling and often would be disappearing into her room after school with periods of depression. Joshua had to go to public school for the one year we were in Reno, and we could see that his spirit was being compromised. By then we knew about the Sudbury model and after seeing what was happening to Joshua, we made the commitment to move to Colorado and to enroll the kids in Alpine.
Diane: Has there been any difficult transitions for either you or the children?
Connie: People at the school said that might happen for Melissa. She was a little over thirteen when we moved here, and they said she might have some adjustments to make, since she was a teenager. But it absolutely didn't happen that way for her. She walked right in to the school, and by the second week she said this was home, and she was going to stay here as long as she could and then become a staff member. She still feels that way.
There wasn't any transition for Joshua, either. He had only the one year of public school in Reno, and he just walked right in to Alpine and felt comfortable. There weren't even boys his age here, and there still aren't. With this multi-age environment I see that as an attribute of the school, because he is friends with six- and seven-year-olds and friends with thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds. So, no, there really wasn't an adjustment period, and for us as parents, none at all. It was very comfortable.
Diane: What was it that created your desire to be a staff member?
Connie: It was kind of a natural progression. I was coming in and volunteering a lot to help with projects because, at the point in time when we first arrived it was just a fledging school. They needed as much help as they could get with fundraising and repairs — so I was around a lot. I attended many of the school meetings, as it was important for us to participate, and we made time for every function that the school had. After a while they asked me if I'd like to come in and volunteer as a staff member. I wasn't working and I loved it — I thought it would be great to be around the kids and to do whatever I could to help.
I went through their whole staff process. I'm not paid, I'm a volunteer at this point, and am now working about two days a week.
Diane: What would you say is the greatest benefit that you can see for this kind of school system?
Connie: My belief is that it's not so much book knowledge that is important in life. You can get that any time. Books are always there and there are always teachers to teach you. You can always find ways to learn. It is more important to discover who you are and what you're about — not just the gifts you have but how you want to be in the world and how things work. It is a very subtle realm that is not taught in public school. Public school doesn't teach how to communicate or how to be a part of a community and yet not lose your individuality. These are the things I see as important.
I have also observed that our school teaches kids to be flexible, to bounce back when they are faced with a challenge that might stop others. These kids are kind of like water — they just flow and if they reach a dam they stand back, reevaluate and reassess and find a way around or go another way. They never seem to find the way closed. For me, its a great hope for the future. This place promotes a special way of being and is especially a good way of honoring children. The kids are far more wise than we give them credit.
Diane: Have there been challenges along the way?
Connie: Sure. Even though most of the people involved believe in the philosophy of the school, there are still some who are fence sitters and some who have differing ideas and want to change things which would compromise the integrity of the school and the whole system. I have personally witnessed challenges like that. We've also had to find a new building to house the school. We were originally leasing space at a church and they wanted to take over the space so we had less than a year to find something. There has been that kind of challenge. Sometimes we are met with people who not only doubt what we are doing but who are angered by our uniqueness. We've met all these challenges, overcome them and it has made us stronger. I think we are a very cohesive community because of all that we've walked through.
Diane: What do you say to a parent that is considering a school like this?
Connie: I've been on several of the interviews where we talk to prospective parents, and every situation is unique. Many times it is the student that is requiring a change. Many students coming to the school haven't fit into the system and this is a last resort. It's hard sometimes because most of the questions a parent asks are academic such as ''How can you guarantee me that by the time my child leaves here they will be a functioning adult?'' But how can you say that anyway? Even if they go to a public school system you can't guarantee anything. So my approach is not a pat one — I go by the feeling I get from the parents and respond that way.
I have no reservations about the school and I am very positive about it. I have a real passion and conviction and this seems to come through when I'm speaking to others about what we are doing here. I encourage parents to look at things differently and to be open to the possibility that learning can happen in a different way other than what they are used to. Even research shows that kids are learning all the time. They are willing to learn and are excited to learn when we don't force feed them. I was just reading something today where the author compared the education received in public school to shoving liver and spinach down a kids throat day after day. How many kids would stomach that without having some kind of crisis.
Diane: The research I've been doing on this approach makes me wish I could repeat my schooling in this type of environment. It must be fun for you here.
Connie: Yes. You get the feeling vicariously of what it must be like to be here all your school life and be in an environment like this. It's great!
Diane: Are the kids protected? When I read ''Free At Last'' they talked about kids being on an open campus, coming and going as they wished, and for some reason I was thinking about the bad stuff that can happen to kids.
Connie: I know there is a lot of concern from parents about this — but even though it is an open campus there is a sense of everyone watching out for each other. Not just the staff, but I see it happening with students themselves. The kids themselves watch out for each other. So if an older kid sees a younger one climbing on the trash dumpster for instance, the older kid tells the younger one, ''I don't think you should be climbing on the trash dumbster.'' Usually the younger kid gets off and most of the time complies much more graciously than they would with an adult. But these kinds of things don't happen very often. There is an intuitive part that seems to be present in these kids. They are open and they get a sense of what doesn't feel comfortable or safe. And, they don't just wander off. They are very involved with each other and what is happening here. One time there were two kids that weren't answering our calls, so the staff took off and looked in parks and things -but they were hiding in a theater on campus. They hadn't taken off after all. So yes, parents have questions about safety and I understand that and I hear that, but it is part of trusting the child. And, it really is a community where people watch out for each other.
Diane: Do you have rivalries between students as you normally find in public school?
Connie: Sometimes there are things that go on of this nature and it ends up with the Judicial Committee. But even then, it's different here. In public school you are with your peer group and kids your own age. This system seems to set up tremendous competition between students. There is always someone who is ''better than'' someone else. Here, there isn't that sort of thing because we have a multiage campus and children of all ages are together.
Of course there are instances where people get upset at each other or bug each other, and sometimes with the teenagers there is boyfriend-girlfriend stuff.
Diane: Any cliques or gangs here?
Connie: No. Nothing like that is here. There are definitely people who hang out together — but it is not exclusive. Some of the little boys might get written up more because they disturb people or are noisy or like to jump around. So other kids will say to them, ''yeah you can play with us...'' but if they get into that activity and something disturbs the group, the other kids say, '' ...if you want to continue playing, knock it off.''
Diane: So they are self regulating?
Connie: Yes. It's not miraculous — it's a natural thing that would happen if we'd let it happen. They take care of it, and the Judicial Committee is there if they don't. That's what happens on a daily basis every day at 11:00 a.m. If someone can't get something resolved for themselves they are encouraged to write it up and present it to the judicial committee comprised of a staff member, an older student, middle student and a younger student. You learn so much by sitting in on these sessions. Kids are so fair. When somebody does something — for example if it is the 7th or 8th time a kid has done something with the same law — the kids are still very fair and reasonable even if they have been the one that had been bothered by the person.
Diane: How many Sudbury schools are there?
Connie: Compared to how many public schools there are — very few. They are worldwide now, however — the Sudbury site has a listing of all the schools. There are ones in Israel and Australia, and there are quite a number in the States, but not every state has one. California has several, but Alpine is the only one in Colorado. It's surprising to me that there aren't more. I think that it is something that might catch on when more people see that the other systems aren't working.
Diane: And that there is something they can do about it! Thanks, Connie
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