Just like Saint Louis Sudbury School students, adults in our community enjoy learning, being curious, and connecting with others! During our summer break, Saint Louis Sudbury School staff, board, and volunteers celebrated the thinking and planning time we had away from the regular school day to take a fresh look on the upcoming school year. We are excited to kick off our 2025-2026 school year on Tuesday, September 2!
Here are some activities that we did this summer to help spark new ideas and support our entire learning community this school year:
* We attended the Alternative Education Resource Organization conference in New Hampshire and had incredible conversations with colleagues from Macomber Center, Embark Center for Self-Directed Education, Sudbury Valley School, Not Back to School Camp, and Play Mountain Place and heard talks from Pat Farenga and Peter Gray. Read our blog post on this experience!
* We talked with school and nonprofit organization colleagues at MAP St. Louis, Fort Worth Sudbury, Raritan Learning Cooperative, The Ethical Society of St. Louis, Bread and Roses Missouri, Tower Grove Farmers’ Market, River City Outdoors, Embark Center, The Clearwater School, MADE Makerspace, St. Louis Public Library, and Sudbury International. We can’t wait to talk with Saint Louis Sudbury School students and families about some potential activities and event ideas that came out of these conversations.
* We enjoyed meeting with Intersect Arts Center’s incredible staff to find new ways we can collaborate.
* We learned so much from Blue Mesa Creative and improved our google business profile, how we show up in searches, and backend elements of our web site.
* Sudbury staff member, Jennifer, talked with writer and podcaster Kerry McDonald and was featured in Kerry’s article on forbes.com.
* We met with St. Louis teaching artists and education entrepreneurs.
* We talked with new donors and received our largest individual cash gift in our school’s history!
* We spent time together with current families at park meetups, picnics, and a fun volunteer session at the St. Louis Area Foodbank.
* We joined the planning committee for Sudbury International’s new virtual book club! More details to come.
* We kept our garden at school thriving over the summer so we can continue to enjoy fresh veggies this fall. Sudbury families and staff worked together to water, weed, trim (our pumpkin vines are VERY happy), and harvest kale, basil, tomatoes, peppers, and more.
* We attended the Sudbury Schools Virtual Conference which was organized by The Open School in California. Over 50 attendees from 25 schools and 5 different countries participated! We had discussions about building community and traditions, how AI is changing education, supporting teens for life after Sudbury, neurodiversity and communication, democracy in our schools, accountability systems, attracting new families, and much more.
* We read and listened to many resources over the summer including: The End of Education As We Know It: Regenerative Learning for Complex Times by Ida Rose Florez; The Parent’s Handbook to Unschooling Yourself by Esther Jones; The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better by Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop; The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives by William Stixrud and Ned Johnson; the work of The Rithm Project; Joyful Learning by Kerry McDonald; and many more!
* We connected with new families who learned about us from our recent features with Children’s Education Alliance of Missouri, forbes.com, and St. Louis Magazine.
* We met with Saint Louis Sudbury School board members about financial sustainability, our bylaws, and what to prioritize this year.
* We kept in touch with current Saint Louis Sudbury School families and heard about some of the fun learning experiences their kids were having this summer including stringing guitars, going fishing, building dreamcatchers, attending an art program out of state, going on road trips, working, and more. Sudbury staff will check in with students the first week of school to see if they want to continue any of their summer projects or interests at Sudbury this fall.
Maybe that wasn’t much of a “real” break this summer… but we were grateful for a bit more time and space to reimagine the reimagining of education at Sudbury!
Children's Education Alliance of Missouri
We were excited to welcome Cici Tompkins, Director of Outreach at the Children’s Education Alliance of Missouri (CEAM) to our school for a wonderful visit! Be sure to read the blog post Cici wrote about her experience at Sudbury.
CEAM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports effective schools of all kinds and believes all Missouri students deserve access to a quality education, now. They support measures that will cultivate more quality education options by raising awareness and helping parents and others take action.
“In a city filled with traditional classrooms, Saint Louis Sudbury School offers a radically different model—one where students learn without mandatory curriculum, grades, tests, or homework. For many, especially those who are neurodivergent or haven’t thrived in conventional schools, this approach is not just different—it’s transformative.”
AERO Conference
Saint Louis Sudbury staff and board members attended the Alternative Education Resource Organization conference (AERO) in Manchester, New Hampshire June 27-29, 2025. Founded in 1989 by Jerry Mintz, AERO’s goal is to advance student-driven, learner-centered approaches to education.
We had a wonderful time learning, connecting, asking questions, and getting to know a wide range of alternative education organizations, researchers, students, and parents. Some conference highlights included:
* Talking with colleagues at Macomber Center, Embark Center, Sudbury Valley School, and Play Mountain Place in between sessions and at meals
* Hearing Pat Farenga speak about “Schooling as Social Ritual: Reclaiming Public Spaces for Learning and Friendship
* Unschooler Mason Ember sharing his trailer for a new documentary about the lives of homeschooled teens
* Getting a better sense of how sociocracy works at Embark Center
* Hearing from Macomber Center staff about how they started their school from scratch and how they support young people interested in college
* Hearing Peter Gray share his research and insights about “How Restrictions on Children’s Freedom Impair Their Mental Health: a 75-Year History of Childhood in America
* Hearing Mikel Matisoo discuss how democracy works at Sudbury Valley School
* Learning how Elizabeth Radday plans and implements personal interest projects with youth
* Discovering the Ashram School and rethinking what democracy is for
* And much more!
It was an inspiring and energizing experience and Sudbury staff and board have some new ideas and plans to help grow Saint Louis Sudbury School.
Bunny Visit
One of the most memorable and much loved moments at Saint Louis Sudbury School this school year was a bunny visit! Lauren of Hop and Harvest is a Holland Lop breeder and brought several baby bunnies to school. We learned about what they eat, their life cycle, behaviors, different breeds, how to take care of them, and much more. Plus, it was cuteness overload (some students cried at how sweet the bunnies were) and everyone felt so calm and happy during and after the visit. One student suggested that we have bunny visits ALL the time next year. A huge thank you to Lauren for sharing her knowledge, experience, and bunnies with us!
Graduation Ceremony
Saint Louis Sudbury School celebrated three graduates on May 31, 2025 at a local park. Staff member Jennifer Lin shared some remarks along with the help of students Veda and Hope (because Jennifer was losing her voice due to allergies!). Here is Jennifer’s speech.
”At many end of year gatherings, at many schools, awards are given out. They’re given to students for perfect attendance, most improved, best team player, best attitude, most helpful, outstanding athlete, and many more. As you can probably guess, we don’t do awards like that at Sudbury because we believe that young people are the ones who can determine their worth as they come to trust and respect themselves and their community each day at Sudbury. But for a fun exercise, I thought I would share some ideas for special shoutouts to Sudbury young people.
Those certificates of recognition might include students who:
Welcomed new people (parents included!) and helped them ease into a radically different view of what school can be
Listened to a friend who was stressed and struggling
Problem solved every day–with creativity and care
Collaborated with students and staff to create new rules or policies
Grew self-awareness as they discovered who they are
Developed a better understanding of how to “read the room” and make choices that reflect that situational awareness
Changed their ability to say yes to new things that seemed outside of their comfort zone
Played around with the ever changing dynamic of being independent and asking for help
Found the humor and joy in life
Found a personal purpose in tasks and responsibilities
Pursued their interests, large and small
Made countless decisions from the moment they signed in at school
Organized, facilitated, and planned activities and meetings
And, shared their wonderful view of life with the Sudbury community
These “achievements” don’t represent the “best” or the “most,” but they add up to living life, growing, and understanding how to be an aware human in a rapidly changing world (AI anyone?). These “achievements” are the secret sauce of what makes a Sudbury experience so extraordinary and so challenging.
Speaking of extraordinary, we are so excited to come together today, to celebrate three students who are graduating from Saint Louis Sudbury School. Cricket, Jamal, and Kenzie!
With a love for animals, art, music, games, ceramics, and more, Cricket has the kindest of hearts–looking out for others, caring for our school, and always being able to bring laughter and humor to life at Sudbury. She’s been a great friend to many at Sudbury and has been incredibly generous in gifting well-loved childhood toys and stuffies to Sudbury’s younger students. Cricket served on several committees at Sudbury and helped people adjust to the new Restoration Committee process this year. Cricket recently put a resume together, applied for jobs, and is now working at Andy’s Frozen Custard!
Jamal has seen Sudbury in its many different iterations over the years and was able to share his knowledge and experience with adults and students at Sudbury. I can honestly say that the school would not be functioning today if it had not been for his guidance, patience, and killer admin skills! As a student, Jamal led nearly every committee, learned how to communicate with parents in very challenging situations and how to facilitate conflicts among students. At Sudbury, Jamal developed his passion for music, learned how to produce music with Pro Tools software, and most importantly how to trust himself.
Kenzie’s first day at Sudbury was a Park Day. Jamal and I found him waiting in a tree. From that very first moment, he was off and running, living and breathing Self-Directed Education. At Sudbury, he was constantly exploring, curious, looking things up, researching, and learning about everything around him. His vast knowledge of video games, computers, music, and so much more was infectious for people around him. I think what most people will remember about Kenzie at Sudbury though is his humor and kindness. One moment he could be heard saying, “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the holy grail of autism,” and the next, “Being scared is a good thing because it means you’re smart. You have to be scared to be brave.”
Kenzie worked through the Sudbury diploma process over the last several months. He researched how to build a computer, what parts were needed, asked for help, gave a presentation requesting funds from School Meeting to pay for the project, shopped for the computer parts, built the computer, made videos on how he did it, and created a resume. One of our students recently turned on the newly built computer and researched hairless rabbits!
Often at high school graduation celebrations, there’s a lot of talk about how graduates are now ready to go out into the world as leaders, ready to make a difference in real life, and are finally ready to start living in the real world.
Well, I have a secret for you. Sudbury students have been leading themselves and their community, practicing real world skills, and making a difference from the very beginning of their experience at Sudbury. The real world doesn’t start at 18. It’s right now for all of our students.
Sudbury students are teachers and learners, advocates for themselves and friends, and humans who make a difference in all of our lives everyday.
Cricket, Jamal, and Kenzie. Congratulations for being you and for sharing your curiosity, kindness, humor, and knowledge with our community over the last few years. And congratulations to you and your family for taking the courageous leap to be in a challenging school environment where you are asked to manage your own time, figure out who you are, how to care for yourself and your community, pursue your interests, how to ask for help, how to be a friend, how to coexist with those we can’t be friends with, and importantly, how to trust yourself.
Your Sudbury community is here for you in the years to come. And always know that you are enough.
Cheers to our graduates!”
Hear from a Sudbury Graduate
What is the most valuable skill you learned at Saint Louis Sudbury School? One of Sudbury’s new graduates, Jamal, spoke at our celebration ceremony! Jamal’s family has organized a fundraiser for our school’s Tuition Assistance Program. Consider making a gift of any amount!
About 60% of our students receive tuition assistance. Our community is committed to making the challenging and unique Sudbury experience possible for young people in our region! Thank you for your support.
Diploma Project
Saint Louis Sudbury School student, Kenzie, built a computer as part of his diploma process. Watch this video of Kenzie explaining how he built the computer!
The project took a few months. Kenzie researched the building process, figured out what parts to buy, asked for help, priced out different options, brought his request to School Meeting, answered questions about his project from students and staff, went to Micro Center (more than once!), worked with an advisor on some parts of the build, and showed other students what he was doing during the process. We are so excited to have a working computer for everyone to use at school. Thank you Kenzie!
One of the first things a student looked up on the new computer… hairless rabbits.
Intentional vs. Habitual Use of Tech
Some Sudbury students, staff, and volunteers after a great conversation about personal tech use at school
Looking at photos and videos of a wild turkey we saw in the yard
A student giving a presentation about what he wanted to buy with School Meeting funds to build a computer for the school
““This is not just a school. It’s a community. What do we need? How can we work together to get things done?””
Students’ freedom to manage use of personal technology devices at Saint Louis Sudbury School is a big responsibility, as it is for any human inside and outside of school environments! At our school, we have content rules in place, but do not restrict the amount of time spent on personal devices currently. This has been an ongoing conversation and we have tried different approaches, rules, and policies over the years, some being more effective than others. What we have struggled with is coming to an agreement among School Meeting Members about why our community wants tech rules or policies and what are realistic ways to maintain any rules.
The possibility of changing our approach to personal device use at our school is on our radar again as we look to develop a more engaged community (with an eye on future growth!), but in a way where autonomy, trust, and respect can still thrive among all community members. And importantly, that we do not create feelings of shame, blame, and guilt around technology use.
Recently on an unusually chilly park day at Tower Grove Park, a small group of students, staff, and volunteers talked about intentional vs. habitual use of personal tech devices at Saint Louis Sudbury School. Here are some highlights from the discussion! Our group included students ages 9 to 17.
Sudbury students mentioned that habitual personal tech device sometimes causes them to feel mentally and physically awful, disappointed in themselves, and creates sleep disruptions. When intentionally using devices, people said that they felt accomplished, knowledgeable, calm, secure, could watch longer content, regulated, and found it easier to put the device away when they wanted to.
We talked about how seeing other students on personal devices frequently made them feel distracted, dysregulated, and bothered at all the noise—both background gaming sounds and people being loud out of excitement.
When asked WHY people are on their devices typically, students suggested that it was for fun, to pass time, because the person found something interesting, and because there was nothing else to do. A person in our group who is very familiar with the unique aspects of the Sudbury school model pointed out that sometimes boredom is a good thing and habitual device use doesn’t let that happen. All sorts of amazing things can happen when one is bored!
Our group chatted about how people felt when seeing someone very focused while looking at their personal tech device. We asked, “Do you feel okay about approaching that person and asking them if they want to do something?” Most students did not voice strong opinions in response to this question, but one mentioned that when they see their parent looking at their phone a lot, that they want to say, “Hey. I’m right here. I miss you.” And another said, “Sometimes it’s hard to see if people are okay if they’re on their phone all the time.”
We discussed why many schools throughout the country have been exploring this issue for years. Saint Louis Sudbury School students said that too much screen use can inhibit learning sometimes, that there are limits as to what humans can learn on a personal tech device, and that often young people are dealing with anxiety and depression from other things going on in their lives and using a phone or other personal device can be an escape in some ways. Also, gaming can be a place where people can feel like they’re in control and being in control lowers anxiety levels.
What are some alternatives to using personal tech devices all the time at Saint Louis Sudbury School? Students suggested that people could do things that they love like singing, making music, learning an instrument, drawing, playing board games, playing outside, baking, doing yoga, and much more.
Some of the Saint Louis Sudbury School teens shared how important it is to learn how to manage personal tech devices now so that they can handle it in adulthood.
Although many students in our conversation see that they enjoy using their personal tech devices more when it is intentional instead of habitual use, one person emphasized how a lot of usage of any kind can affect our school community. One student said, "It’s important that we develop a life outside of tech and learn how to be together. This is not just a school. It’s a community. What do we need? How can we work together to get things done?”
As we look at past and current methods and approaches that have already fostered community at Saint Louis Sudbury School and explore strategies we have yet to try, Sudbury students and staff look forward to beginning the process of creating an intentional tech use policy in the coming months. The young people at our school offer so much insight and thoughtfulness on this big issue—one that can stir up a lot of emotions and different viewpoints. Saint Louis Sudbury School students’ ability to problem solve, strategize, and empathize with each other continues to inspire our community!
#trustchildren #learningiseverywhere #stlsudbury
Watching The Gruffalo together
Watching a Zoom call with the Alliance for Self-Directed Education