Who am I?

Wordsmith, Educator, Nonprofit Admin

Bruce L. Smith

• B.A., English and History (Northwestern University)
• M.Ed., Curriculum & Instruction (University of Missouri-Columbia)
• Additional study in
  • Religion (University of Chicago)
  • Creative Writing (University of Colorado-Boulder)

After starting my career in the public schools of Columbia, Missouri, I began my involvement with  Sudbury schools in 1997. I then spent over 20 years staffing primarily at Alpine Valley School and Clearview Sudbury School, where my duties involved teaching and mentoring young people ages 5 to 19, as well as a great deal of administrative and promotional work. Later I co-founded Friends of Sudbury Schooling, a nonprofit to promote the visibility and viability of these schools. You can see/hear me talk about all this at Clearview Sudbury School and the Sudbury School of Atlanta, as well as interviews and panel discussions I did with Alpine Valley School, For the Love of Learning and Liberating Kids.

Aside from my work as an educator, I’ve taken on numerous freelance jobs over the years, writing on subjects from SAT prep and finding/naturalizing a foreign spouse to a Bach festival’s children’s programming. I’ve edited a novel, revised several people’s resumes, and written abstracts of technology-related magazine and newspaper articles. Writing and editing have also been a major part of my work at Sudbury schools. Several years ago, two of my children’s book manuscripts were very nearly published (a long story in itself).

On a personal level, I grew up in the Midwest—primarily Missouri, where I also spent most of my 20s. I lived in Illinois for two stretches, and spent my 30s and 40s in the Denver-Boulder area and Austin, Texas. Divorced since 2006, I’ve been a cat owner and frequent pet-sitter, counting my time with animals as one of the true blessings of my life. Gradually I’ve begun discovering the joys of heathy living, and thus I journal, meditate, and run on a (very nearly) daily basis. Spending time outdoors is important to me, and I prefer biking or walking over driving whenever feasible.

Musically inclined from a young age, I took several years of piano and trumpet lessons growing up. As an adult, my primary musical outlet has been choir. (I do still enjoy playing my digital piano, and wish I did so more often.) For eleven years I performed with the Ars Nova Singers, another of the joys of my life, for whom I continue to work as a remote editor.

Spiritually speaking, I’m never quite sure how to describe myself: a skeptical freethinker? An agnostic atheist with humanistic tendencies? A not-quite-card-carrying Zen Buddhist? Offsetting my disbelief in the supernatural, I also ascribe to Shakespeare’s notion that “there are more things in heaven and earth…than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Since the early 2000s I’ve been cultivating a steadily deepening Zen practice.

I welcome dialogue and collaboration. You are invited to comment on the posts in this blog and/or email me at friendsofsudburyschooling@gmail.com. I also maintain an active presence on Twitter.