○Reference for Education [3]

 ・A 12-year-old boy climbed to the top of a 23-meter beech tree on campus, and this was also allowed as part of the children's freedom. Anything can become a dangerous existence depending on how you look at it, such as rocky areas and streams. The real danger arises from surrounding them with a net of regulations. Breaking through regulations becomes a challenge in itself. If breaking regulations becomes the paramount proposition, then ensuring safety becomes neglected. Therefore, in this school, they decided to leave things to their natural course and be prepared for a little danger. Children are born with a self-defense instinct and do not do anything that would destroy themselves.

・The biggest accident that occurred at Sudbury Valley School was when an 8-year-old child slipped, fell, and bruised their shoulder.

・Regarding danger, the only regulation is at the edge of the pond. Ponds and marshes are public dangers, and you can't tell how deep they are just by looking at the water's surface. Once you drown, it's over. Therefore, by unanimous agreement at a school-wide meeting, access to the pond was completely prohibited. However, no fence is set up around the pond.

・The adults at Sudbury Valley School do not guide the children, do not divide them into groups, and do not provide any help like other schools do. They are told to do everything themselves. This is not laissez-faire, saying that adults should step back and let nature take its course, and then they don't need to do anything. School staff, parents, and other members must take great care not to interfere with the natural flowering of the children's abilities. Full self-restraint is necessary so as not to guide the flow of the children's development in the wrong direction or to construct obstacles in front of it.