0:00
Welcome to ANI in the air talking about Tuesday where I talk about something
0:06
about the school. Today I was gonna I'm going to talk about graduation, that
0:11
process. So when someone gets to be about the age of 18 in our school that is
0:21
around the time when they leave our school. We do have wiggle room in our
0:25
rules for people leaving slightly earlier and slightly later but those are
0:30
not the norm. Usually it's at age 18 and essentially there's two ways. One can
0:39
just what we call age out which is essentially you just don't come back. We
0:45
do have a little ceremony at the end of the year and people who choose that
0:50
route get just the same amount of ceremony time as those who do the thesis
0:57
process which I'll describe shortly. But these are people who feel quite
1:03
comfortable with what they've done and and don't feel the need to really kind
1:08
of capstone it and that's cool with us. Then there are others most of our
1:16
graduates have done this where we have this thesis process where basically
1:21
they're trying to address the question of you know what are they going to do
1:26
next why are they ready for it and how did the school help them do that and how
1:31
do they you know do they you know understand the school and so forth. So
1:36
it's kind of a bit of a past present and future reflection and you know the idea
1:43
is to just be able to sit down and you know work through writing up a piece
1:50
about this. It's done with some kind of advisory group you know at least one
2:02
staff and one student although it can be more and you know that that group is
2:08
there to help students do this. Most of our students have never had to do sort
2:16
of a big paper like that although they have of course been communicating all
2:23
sorts of ideas and notions throughout their time here just not kind of in a
2:27
more formal setting with a paper and then having to defend it in front of a
2:31
panel of outsiders basically. Once they've written their thesis it goes off
2:38
to a panel of three generally Sudbury staff members of other schools and then
2:47
there's a little defense of it where the panel can ask lots of questions and the
2:54
graduate then answers them and our process is one of getting feedback from
3:01
them as well as getting feedback throughout the process from the
3:04
advisory group. So you know there's a there's kind of a question as to what
3:09
this how this really fits in with Sudbury stuff. In general we don't really you
3:18
know support the idea of formal approval of stuff you know things things work
3:25
things don't work you know people interact with each other well or not
3:30
well they communicate their ideas well or not you know it's all natural
3:34
whatever works works and this is a bit different this is really kind of
3:39
structured. In part it is to help people you know our students take the next
3:46
steps being able to write up formal reports are useful in a variety of
3:52
different things that you know people might do such as going to a college or
4:00
you know working in a place that requires reports and so forth or you
4:09
know just being able to communicate online with people in a kind of a
4:13
in-depth fashion this this can all help that but I think even more than all that
4:19
the real value is just you know really sort of having that time and space to
4:28
really reflect on as well as plan on you know what was what has happened and what
4:35
will what is to come there's it's a it's a kind of a nice sort of way of saying
4:42
yeah I am I'm finishing this place and it's it's it's a formal process to to
4:48
help that make a reality it's you know some people can just get up one day and
4:55
be like see ya and not come back but I think a lot of people they need a
4:59
process they need something that says okay I'm working through the end of this
5:03
I'm taking these steps and that is you know basically what it's all about I've
5:16
certainly enjoyed my time being on the advising groups I don't really expect to
5:21
be on a panel um for other schools because most other schools it's actually
5:27
yes you pass or no you don't pass kind of thing and I I think that I'm not in
5:35
favor of that kind of system you know who are we to say whether someone's
5:39
ready or not I just think it's it's useful to have the feedback and you know
5:46
certainly when we do our practice panels I give pretty I try to give pretty good
5:52
strong feedback as well as when I'm working with a thesis student throughout
5:59
yeah so that's just kind of a little bit of insight into it as always you know
6:11
basically our diploma which is a road to both those who aged out and to those
6:15
complete thesis it's not accredited but it is something that our students are
6:21
proud of I think and that's always it's always fun to see what it is people
6:30
produce what they've been thinking about and that was it's an enjoyable process I
6:38
think for many all right well I think that's enough rambling of this for now
6:49
yeah all right well you all have a good one I'll see you when I see you