It sounds like the kind of school a child dreams about: Kids make the rules, and they decide what they want to learn and when.

It’s how Sarah Diener Beachy grew up, and it’s how she wants to teach other students.

Beachy, a 27-year-old who lives just outside Harrisonburg, is the founder of Shenandoah Valley Community School, which enters the scene as public-school alternatives continue to gain attention.

Beachy’s private school, which opens next month with three students, may be the most unorthodox of the local options.

The school, according to its written philosophy statement, is a "noncoercive educational community in which students are free to pursue their interests and direct their own learning."

Each morning, Beachy will meet with students and find out what they want to learn. Beachy, a former public school teacher, will teach or she’ll call on volunteers from the community to teach more specialized lessons.

"We believe everyone has an intrinsic desire to learn," said Beachy, who took a year off her studies at Eastern Mennonite University to visit other learner-centered schools.

Those schools and Beachy’s are based on a model founded at Sudbury Valley School, started in 1968 in Framingham, Mass.

There, students elect who will be on staff, and those staff members direct students’ learning. Students set rules and mete out punishment.

"The idea of the school is that you are not only responsible for your own education here, but you’re responsible for the whole community in conjunction with other people," Mimsy Sadofsky, one of the school’s founders, said in a 200 interview posted on the school’s Web site.

Proponents say the environment plays into children’s natural curiosity, which leads them to learn "the basics" such as reading and writing.

Beachy and her older brother initially attended public school, but after two weeks, Beachy’s mother, Rachel Diener, realized the structured environment wasn’t for them.

So she decided to homeschool them during a time when that kind of learning was foreign to most.

"I think that all children are very bright, especially if they’re encouraged to explore and pursue things they are interested in," said Diener, who at 53 lives in Grottoes. "If you try to make them learn things they’re not interested in, they become dull and bored."

Living on a farm, everything became an opportunity to learn. At one point, she and her siblings set up a bird-raising business. To do it, they learned math to run the sales.

"I learned from my family, my friends," Beachy said.

She did well, scoring high enough on the SATs to get a scholarship to EMU.

She’s quick to point out, though, that tests aren’t the best way to evaluate students. Students at her school will be evaluated only if they or their parents ask.

And because the school does not use test scores, it has not been accredited by any organization. The state does not oversee private schools.

Some parents have expressed interest, Beachy said.

Harrisonburg resident Greg Stewart said the way his 5-year-old son, Owen, learns is similar to the school’s philosophy.

"We would see things he was interested in and run from there," said Stewart, 37. For instance, when Owen wanted to learn to ride a bike, his parents also taught him about its mechanics and physics.

"I like the idea that instead of having a set structure, the students can enter into it from their own personal way," said Stewart, who was educated in public schools.

Some parents have expressed interest but want to see how the first year goes, Beachy said.

"It’s the first year that’s the hardest," she said.

She hopes the school will become a fixture among an ever-growing menu of educational options in the region.

"People should learn in different ways," she said, "and there should be many options."

Contact Brad Jenkins at 574-6281 or bjenkins@dnronline.com