Meet a Beach School Student: Christian

by Kristin Simpson

At almost seventeen, Christian Henderson is The Beach School's oldest student. He has attended the school since November 2003. Prior to enrolling, he attended a public high school. I recently spoke to him about his experience at The Beach School, and the following is some of what he had to say.

There are many things Christian enjoys about the school. One of its most important aspects for him is the freedom he experiences there. He says he likes the way the school is structured. In particular, he refers to the weekly School Meeting where all students and staff have an equal say in the day-to-day running of the school, and to the Judicial Committee (or 'JC') which resolves conflicts and on which every school member serves in turn. Christian feels that through these bodies "every person in the school is shown as equal."

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Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence

Book Reviewer: John K. Burton, M.D.

Review reprinted from AACAP TELEVISION AND MEDIA COMMITTEE CHILDREN'S MEDIA REVIEW

In his latest book, Killing Monsters, author Gerard Jones puts forth the thesis that violence in entertainment may actually be good for kids. Jones's down-to-earth style seems to gently reassure the reader, but his message is clear; if we are to understand the role of media violence in the emotional lives of children and adolescents, we must look beyond the research that reduces heterogeneous groups of individuals to population-based statistics. Such research, according to Jones, links violent behavior to violent images and wrongly implies a simplistic, cause-effect relationship. The reality, as Jones thoughtfully describes, is as complex as the emotional lives of each individual child who views such images.

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Video Games at The Beach School

by Kristin Simpson

At The Beach School, students are trusted with their own educations. This means that they are given the time and the space to figure out their place in the world, within a safe environment. What is 'safe' and what is not is obviously a subjective decision, but the idea of the school is not to lock the world outside. And it is the school community, the staff but also the students, who decide together what constitutes 'safe'. The School Meeting, where students vastly outnumber staff, has voted on safe ways to handle kitchen knives, what to do in case of fire (a plan which was subsequently approved by the local fire inspector), and how to balance freedom with safety when making off-campus excursions. By giving the students the power to make these kinds decisions, a Sudbury education empowers them by telling them that they are capable of making such decisions. But in doing so, a Sudbury education also lays a burden of responsibility upon them to make good decisions-not necessarily the decisions that others would make on their behalf, but decisions that will make them feel secure and fulfilled.

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