Brave New School
Contemplative/Progressive/Sudbury Valley Education
​models for our older children (13-18)
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We have taken the best practices from these tested and established programs to bring our children and families a more meaningful and deeper education.
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Contemplative Education
What does it mean to be contemplative?
Contemplation is defined by the notion of deep thinking and processing. This is accomplished with awareness and our core foundation lies in helping your child to grow their awareness of themselves and their world. Brave New School helps students develop their awareness, concentration, and insight through mindfulness and contemplative practices to teach peaceful living and compassionate action. We strive to use processes that illuminate the innate wisdom of human beings and cultivate a growing sense of peace and wonderment in everyday life.
We practice:
The exploration of wisdom traditions near and far as a means to understand the spirit
Poetry and storytelling as a means to explore the human condition
Movement arts as a means to explore and enhance one’s sense of physical connectedness and awareness
Silence and meditation as a means for reflection and inner awareness
Self-reflection and self-mastery techniques as a means to act with intention and thoughtfulness
Finding deep nature connection with sit spots in natural setting to promote deep connection to place and self.
Progressive Education
What does it mean to be progressive?
Our model supports transformative learning with individualized attention. We do this by empowering the learners with experiential learning and real world circumstances to have them use and develop real world skills. Brave New School promotes Social-Emotional Learning and critical thinking through experiential activities and creative expression in a collaborative, project-based curriculum.
We practice:
The development of intrinsic values over extrinsic punishment-reward systems
Teacher-Student collaboration in the learning process; ‘doing with’ instead of ‘doing to’
Social-Emotional Learning to meet a child’s social, emotional, and intellectual needs
A Project-Based curriculum with subjects overlapping, as they often naturally do
Creative expression and reflection as a tool to find meaning and internalize learning
Sudbury Valley Education
THE SUDBURY MODEL
We respect the ability of every student, regardless of age, to plan and carry out their daily activities. We do not encourage students to follow particular paths, nor do we provide assessments of their performance. Rules to protect individual liberty are made by all community members through the School Meeting, and the social order is protected by a peer judicial system.
WHY IT WORKS
Freedom is the essence of the Sudbury Valley experience. From it stem the intellectual ferment, the joy of creativity, and the emotional effervescence that permeate the community. Freedom enables the age-mixing, the mobility, and the wide-ranging conversations that are the key to striving for the highest level of excellence in every activity. Access to the entire world of human experience made possible by the digital age is the icing on the cake.
Democratic School Ideals
Democratic education provides students with choice and authority in the classroom, both individual and collective choice. Democratic education is concerned with the nature of relationships in the classroom. It aims to develop a commitment to the common good and to foster caring relationships.