[slg]

Do you have any evidence for what you are suggesting? A simple Google search reveals several questionable looking sites repeating the lack of dyslexia in Sudbury Schools, but there is never a source cited for this factoid. This sounds like a bunch of new age pseudoscience.

[DiThi]

The sources are books published by Sudbury Valley Press. I don't have any source other than that one. However this fact hasn't been disputed by neither former students or outsiders, from SVS or other schools of the same model; so I'm very inclined to believe them.

Note that dyslexia seem to affect about 10% of the population independently of culture, wealth or social status, so it's more striking that there was not a single former student that said "I had/have dyslexia" or similar.

[slg]

The fact that this claim hasn't been verified by an external source makes me rather dubious. Most people with dyslexia are diagnosed when they fall behind their peers in learning to read. In a learning environment in which students have no real peers there is no measuring stick to fall behind. Any student who struggles learning to read is probably categorized as "learning at their own pace" rather than being diagnosed with dyslexia. That doesn't mean the student doesn't have a problem. The school is probably just unintentionally masking the issue with their teaching style.

I would be curious to see someone test a collection of adults who graduated from the school and to see whether they show signs of dyslexia.

[DiThi]

Fair enough. I don't see this "masking" as an issue, though. I'm curious too about signs of dyslexia in adulthood. I would bet that adult SVS dyslexics exist but are better adapted around the issue.

[slg]

It is certainly possible that those adult dyslexics are better at handling their disorder. That would be a pretty strong point in support of the Sudbury Valley School. However that is not the point the school or you made. You both made a harder to believe claim that none of their students even had the disorder which strains credibility and makes me doubt the first point.

[DiThi]

I've never claimed they didn't have dyslexia. I said they weren't diagnosed. And that they all have good SAT scores, without the need to diagnose and treat such learning disabilities.