as far as i know, you can do nothing at any school and still get a real degree

From the Hudson Valley Sudbury School FAQs (via Mefi):

Where will the school be located?

We are in the process of building our permanent building on our land which is located on 67 acres in Woodstock.

Does the school offer a high school diploma?

Students who wish a diploma must prepare and defend a thesis. The thesis must explain how the student has taken responsibility for preparing him/her self to be an effective adult in the larger community. Experience at other Sudbury schools throughout the country have shown that this diploma is acceptable for entry into college.

How do students get into college?

Largely through the interview process. The students demonstrate their maturity, their ability to express themselves, their persistence and their passion. They are exceptionally clear about their desires. Most colleges are looking for those students who stand out and Sudbury students are definitely unique. Some students choose to study for and take the SATs.

Do you have any real teachers?

The teachers, or staff members as we refer to them, are not necessarily certified. The qualifications for staff members at the school are life experience, the ability to work with kids of all ages, sharing their knowledge and areas of expertise, the ability to model healthy and appropriate behavior, mentor students, and of course, to understand and commit to the philosophy of the school. We believe that the ability to successfully work with students of all ages is of utmost importance.

What happens if a student doesn't do anything?

It is actually impossible to do nothing. I think what most people are concerned about is students doing what looks like nothing; for example playing video games, playing magic cards, reading all day, etc. The truth is that everything the students do has value. Take video games for example; this "teaches" reading skills, social skills, the ability to concentrate and focus, and, depending on the game, history, strategy, math or science.

How does a student learn an "unusual" subject?

There is a good example of this in the Sudbury Valley School literature. It talks about a student that knew from an early age that he wanted to be a mortician. What they did was to help the student learn as much chemistry and biology as they could and then they found the student a mentor. The mentor was a pathologist in the area who agreed to allow the student to watch and learn - basically to act as an apprentice. By the age of 17 the student was helping perform autopsies. He was a mortician at age 21.

My child has been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD; what about him or her?

Experience at other Sudbury model schools indicates that this is not a problem. They find that when children are allowed to expend their excess energy through play, they can then focus. According to John Holt in "Learning All the Time", there has been research done by specialists in the area of learning disabilities that links so-called perceptual handicaps with stress. The research showed that when students with supposedly severe learning disabilities were put in a relatively stress free situation, their disabilities soon vanished.

Some of the things that bother me about this:
1. Woodstock.
2. Colleges don't give a shit about interviews.
3. the words "not necessarily" coupled with "certified"
4. "magic cards" in the same paragraph as "social skills"
5. kids knowing what morticians are at an early age
6. no one talking kids out of being morticians
7. commas outside quotation marks in a sentence addressing learning disabilities