Talk:The Beach School

School Update

The Beach School closed as a Sudbury Valley School in June 2008 and reopened (the same day) with a slightly different philosophy and policies in order to appeal to a wider set of parents and students. Suggested that the article should be updated to reflect this change. The reasons may have wider relevance to education/progressive education.

Updating edits (and pertinent discussion) are requested from those involved with the school. Thanks.--luke (talk) 16:29, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure the source of your information, but I don't think it is correct. The school closed at the end of the school year in June. There was certainly no re-opening the same day! There are plans by a couple of parents from the Beach School to try and open in the fall under the name The New Schoolhouse, but it's quite a different philosophy.

From Sudbury school "One central defining aspect is the non-compulsory nature of the model and the equal, nonjudgmental treatment of all activities". From the mailings I've seen from the new school, there is a lot of judgement around certain activities, and even banning of things such as sugar - which is about as far from Sudbury model as possible. The article also notes that "Another facet that often separates Sudbury model schools from other democratic schools is the limitation — or total absence — of parental involvement in the administration of Sudbury schools."; the new school seems to completely change this by giving all parents a vote at the school meeting - which is completely unheard of in a Sudbury school, and basically turns the school into one where the children control the day-to-day operation to being parent-controlled - which of course would lead to subtle coercion and manipulation of the students.

If this school does open in the fall, then it should be mentioned briefly in the article, anything before that would be a violation of WP:CRYSTAL. Though if the school is notable, the bulk of information about the school should go in a separate article under the name of the school. While the school is in the same facilities that the Beach School used, and has been passed the legal structure that was created to operate the old school, it's a lot more than a simple name change. Along with the significant change to philosophy and abandoning of the Sudbury model, there is also the loss of the majority of the parents, students, the entire board of directors, the founders, and anybody who had any involvement with the school prior to 2006.

It would seem a lot of the discussion here is well beyond the talk page of the article. I'd suggest that we continue this on my talk page - though I'm quite happy to respond here if preferred. Though I really don't check here that often. Nfitz (talk) 06:28, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi, Where to go from here.. Firstly, I hazard that it would substantially benefit the article (and the education project) if the sequence of events leading to closure as a Sudbury School could be explained in a matter-of-fact (NPOV) way, that all involved would agree is fair. What do you think? --luke (talk) 19:20, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

I don't see how the sequence of events is even notable. It closed - what else is there to say? All that I think there needs to be is a sentance along the lines of "Following the closure of the Beach School at the end of the 2007/2008 school year, the facilities and legal structures were passed to a small group of parents, who opened The New Schoolhouse with a different philosophy in September 2008". And then anything further should go in an article under the new name. Don't see the rush though - it took about 5 years before this article appeared - presumably a few more before another does. I have no interest in the other article, as I don't have enough understanding, or much interest of the philosophy behind it. Nfitz (talk) 04:57, 26 August 2008 (UTC)