MIAMI SUDBURY SCHOOL

A truly unique and powerful school experience

Doing school differently since 2018

alongside Sudbury model schools successfully empowering youth around the world for over half a century

OUR MISSION
STATEMENT

The Miami Sudbury School is a K-12 democracy where young people have human and civil rights. We give the time and space for young people to learn who they are, what they like, and how to achieve their goals while working authentically within a mixed-age community based on respect, responsibility, and self-direction.

We are an absolutely unique place where ages 5-18 are encouraged to play and literally help run the show, where the driving force is personal growth instead of forced academics.

Learn More

WE ARE

Miami's only K-12 with

No homework or testing

Students are not divided into grade levels and don't have to follow any kind of predetermined curriculum.

Learning by living & play

In mixed-age community learning happens in a natural, not forced way by self-chosen activity.

Success without stress

Students learn sooner than their peers what really matters and what's needed to succeed in college, business, and life.

WHAT IS A SUDBURY SCHOOL?

Sudbury schools are based on the model first applied in The Sudbury Valley school founded in 1968 in Massachusetts. They now operate in more than 20 countries and build on a 50-year history of success helping young people to learn through curiosity and community. They follow simple but powerful principles:

Trust children

and they learn to trust themselves

Give children choices

and they learn how to choose

Give children a voice

and they learn to speak for themselves

Treat children as capable people

and that is what they will become

Give children their time

and they learn how to use it

WHAT A
SCHOOL
DAY LOOKS
LIKE

At almost any time of day, you can walk into the room and find a free-flowing conversation, game, or project going on that anyone is welcome to join and that can cover almost any topic. Activities can change quickly throughout the day or students can get so involved that the activity can extend into the next day.

There are often meetings called by students to plan activities or to put together a budget request proposal. Learning through play while managing time, social interactions, meetings, and a direct democracy they have a valuable vote in are rare and precious features of a Sudbury school.

Since students can decide how to spend their time (constantly building their executive functioning muscles), it’s hard to generalize about what they do. Here are some common activities that might be observed: talking, reading, making art, playing games, playing sports, dancing, discussing, planning... and all the while learning.

When young people are allowed to follow their interests, they often surprise us all in what they become interested in. They may not even realize that by making choices of what to do all throughout their school day, their “typical day” is a robust preparation for the rest of their lives as confident, independent human beings capable of doing just about anything.

Watch a PechaKucha video on Sudbury

"PechaKucha" talks are like TED Talks condensed into 20 slides of 20 seconds each.

Miami Sudbury Co-Founder Christen Parker-Yarnal spoke at Miami's PechaKucha Night January 2022 on "Reimagining Education".

MEET THE STAFF

All of our Staff Members are experienced educators who have strong foundations in Sudbury model philosophy, child development, and youth empowerment

Christen Parker-Yarnal

Lead Staff, Admissions Coordinator,

Co-Founder

Nicholas Caro-Quintero

Full-time Staff

Alyssa Caro-Quintero

Full-time Staff

Testimonials

TESTIMONIALS

"I didn’t have a Sudbury education, but as an adult, I do what they’re doing here. As an adult, I’ve gone into two lucrative professions by teaching myself. I taught myself how to read and ended up becoming a head designer at a company that did touch screens for schools. I ended up going to Miami Dade schools and directing people with doctorates but I’m all self-taught. I’m now setting up a laboratory to do micropropogation for clean rooms for tissue culture of plants. All self-directed. At some point you realize you know what you want and then you find out the requirements.”

Dad of Miami Sudbury Student

"All the negativity at [public] school where they are all day and then at home with tutors and iReady... He was lacking things and was taking the rejections personally. He now comes home wanting to learn.”

Parent of an 8 year old Miami Sudbury Student

"He has a sense of belonging there. I can sense he feels safe. Thank you!”

Parent of 7 year old

I have enjoyed watching her grow, claim her voice, explore her interests, and make vital and substantive connections with other students and [staff].”

Parent of teenage student

"For people who say kids don’t have self-control. They do have self-control, but they don’t have the opportunity to practice self-control. I never learned self-control when I was forced to do things. I’ve seen that some other kids are able to tell themselves to stop. It’s not something you’re born with but something you have to learn. You have to challenge yourself. You’ll always have distractions from a co-worker or other distractions and that’s what the real world is. It’s all about self-control.”

14 year old student

"Something you learn naturally here are a lot of skills that you would learn as an adult - personal responsibility. In traditional school systems, kids are told what to do but then when they’re 18, they don’t really know what to do because suddenly no one’s telling them what to do. We work like a little city with a government and judicial system.”

13 year old student

"I went through “regular school” up to 9th grade. As I transitioned over to this way of doing school, I joined committees to start helping make decisions for school and have roles like maintenance coordinator and JC chair. It’s more beneficial for kids to be able to choose what they do instead of forcing them what to do. I excelled [at traditional school] but it didn’t mean I liked it or wanted to do it."

15 year old student

"...Imagine a school where you have the right to make your own schedule and learn anything you want! It's a breath of fresh air compared to traditional schooling where teachers make you raise your hand and read boring textbooks and do so much homework... Imagine a school where people get to hear your opinion and you have the right to change things for the better..."

12 year old student

"We create space and structure for young people to practice the lifelong skills of confidence, collaboration, and competence. Our students have the absolutely unique experience of human and civil rights in school they actually help operate. They learn through meaningful, productive enterprise and play for deep learning that cannot be replicated with workbooks and textbooks. They are tested by authentic community and personal growth opportunities, not arbitrary scantron tests. They practice the very skills that will be expected of them as adults while enjoying the gift of their childhood.”

Christen Parker-Yarnal, Co-founder

"I got to know The Miami Sudbury School while looking for innovative pedagogy in Miami on the internet. What really attracted me about the philosophy is its coherence between practice and principles. Many schools share the idea of the enormous importance of developing children's creativity, curiosity and imagination, but then follow a rigid curriculum where these skills are no longer promoted. You really believe in the children, in their spontaneous curiosity on how things work, in the idea that we only learn what playfully ignites our interest. Thus, the students should decide what they truly want to learn.”

Antonio Blessa, Staff 2019-2020

CONTACT US

Address

2700 SW 37th Ave

Miami, FL 33133

Contact

305-204-0746

welcome@miamisudburyschool.org

Tours

By appointment only