School choice

Classical or Democratic / Sudbury?

The difference between Classical and Democratic / Sudbury is mostly one axis: where the curriculum comes from. Classical sits firmly toward a fixed body of knowledge, set in advance; Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward it emerges from the children. They agree, more than most people expect, on who else is there and money and distance. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

Classical

A specified body of knowledge, taught in a deliberate order, on the argument that you cannot think critically about something you do not know. The trivium stages it: facts and memorisation while memory is easy, then logic, then rhetoric. Often Latin, usually history in chronological sequence, and always explicit instruction from the front.

What it asks of you

  • Comfort with memorisation and recitation, which are unfashionable and central here
  • Accepting a canon, and that choosing one is a value judgement however old it is
  • Homework, and a household that supports it
  • Checking which tradition a given school belongs to — the name covers a wide political range

Democratic / Sudbury

The most thoroughgoing position available. There is no curriculum and no timetable; children do what they choose all day, and lessons happen when a child asks for one. The school is run by a meeting in which every child and every staff member has one equal vote, including on rules and on staffing. The claim is that motivation cannot be manufactured and that a child left to find their own will find it.

What it asks of you

  • Genuine nerve, sustained over years, with no reassuring milestones
  • Accepting your child may not read until nine, and being able to live with that
  • Explaining the choice to family, and eventually to admissions systems
  • Fees, since almost none of these are state-funded
Side by side

Where they differ

Classical is the filled marker, Democratic / Sudbury the hollow one. Widest difference first.

L4Where the curriculum comes from
it emerges from the childrena fixed body of knowledge, set in advance

Classical sits firmly toward a fixed body of knowledge, set in advance; Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward it emerges from the children.

L1Who directs the day
the child chooses what to dotimetabled, and directed by adults

Classical sits firmly toward timetabled, and directed by adults; Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward the child chooses what to do.

L5What a teacher is
a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

Classical sits firmly toward an authority who instructs; Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward a guide who steps back.

L3Measuring it
no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

Classical sits toward graded and tested regularly; Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward no grades, no tests.

L2When formal academics start
when the child is ready, and late is fineearly, and ambitiously

Classical sits toward early, and ambitiously; Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward when the child is ready, and late is fine.

E1Mixed ages
classes of the same agemixed-age groups

Classical sits toward classes of the same age; Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward mixed-age groups.

V3What it is for
childhood is the pointit should set up university and a career

Classical sits toward it should set up university and a career; Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward childhood is the point.

E2Outdoors and the body
learning happens at a tableoutdoors and hands-on is the point

Classical sits toward learning happens at a table; Democratic / Sudbury sits toward outdoors and hands-on is the point.

E3Technology at school
kept out until latebuilt in from the start

Classical sits firmly toward kept out until late; Democratic / Sudbury sits a little toward built in from the start.

V1A view of the world
school should stay neutralschool should teach a view of the world

Classical sits toward school should teach a view of the world; Democratic / Sudbury sits between the two.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

  • Who else is there. Both sit a little toward a community that shares our values matters most.
  • Money and distance. Both sit a little toward we can pay, and we can travel.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing