Putney: Search for the Complete Education

One of the greatest incentives for educators has always been the opportunity to shape the world through its future leaders and citizens. But education also carries with it a responsibility to prepare a child to live in and accept, to some extent, the world as he finds it. The secondary boarding school is a potential utopia as well as a vital part of our formal educational system. These two aspects are at times opposed to one another.

When Mrs. Carmelita Hinton founded the Putney School in 1935, she was attempting to utilize in education some of John Dewey's ideas, particularly those concerning the interaction of community and individual life. Putney has always been conscious of itself as a community and has striven to be an ideal community. The values of the individual are instilled, not by personal coercion, but by the example of the community. The values, it is hoped, will last after the individual has left Putney, so that he can be in a position to improve the quality of his new environment.

Mrs. Hinton had no new philosophy of life which she hoped to indoctrinate into the students. Putney was to be a college preparatory school which was "progressive" only insofar as it was willing to experiment, to try out new techniques and methods of education. Some of these represented a radical departure from the traditional New England Academies, particularly the novelty of co-education in a boarding school (which had actually existed for some time in the Friends' schools the school were those for which "civilized men" had worked "for centuries."

Mrs. Hinton's Good Life

A certain amount of selectivity is implicit in these aims. Mrs. Hinton had a definite conception of the "good life", and believed firmly that the best way to prepare for it was to live it. The life at Putney is influenced most strongly by her vision of the good life: one close to nature, which benefited from the cultural achievements of mankind, but which escaped, almost categorically, from the materialistic side of modern civilization. The setting of Putney, in southern Vermont, and the dominating personal force which Mrs. Hinton exerted over the school in her twenty years as its director transferred the emphasis of the school from college preparation to actually leading the life and applying the standards which formed her ideal.

The curriculum at Putney, then, goes far beyond the usual academic and athletic program of secondary school. Putney seeks to bring out all of the best qualities of the student, and endeavors to supply as complete an educational experience as possible without regimenting every minute into planned activity.

Great stress is laid upon the creative arts, and music plays a particularly large role in every student's life. Courses are offered in art, drama, dance, shop, and music, and individual performances and work are strongly encouraged. Three evenings a week are devoted to various extra-curricular activities, of which the arts form a major share. The entire school has one evening each week of choral singing, and performances, both small and ambitious, are frequent.

The value, and even necessity, of the arts is accepted as axiomatic, and serves as a clear example of the way in which Putney uses the community as an instrument of persuasion and education. Jazz was for a long while virtually non-existent, not because of any ban, but because the prevailing school opinion looked down upon it as a lower art form, if an art at all. But despite any opposition, there is hardly a single alumnus for whom classical music is not an important part of life. Music has been important principally because of the school's dynamic musical director, Mr. Norwood Hinkle, who is a disciple of Dr. Davison. The other arts are also being strongly encouraged.

The athletic program is affected partly by special circumstances, partly by lack of funds and facilities. Skiing has always been the big sport, and is bigger than ever today. It is the only sport which the school goes all the way in supporting. The small size of the student body (96 boys) and the deliberate curbing of a competitive "old school" spirit dictate a rather half-hearted athletic showing. The school has always had financial problems, and still has no real gymnasium, almost no equipment, and inadequate playing fields.

Sports are not a major element at Putney for two reasons: first of all the school dislikes competition in all forms, and dislikes especially the idea of the "big game." In the second place, there is the extensive work program.

The full life includes manual labor, and three afternoons a week in the fall and spring are devoted to outdoor work. The school could not run if the students did not do this work--the entire outdoor paid staff consists of seven men--which consists of the maintenance of the entire school, including the running of a large farm with a herd of about eighty head.

In return, the students gain the experience of various different skills, and an acquaintance, at least, with some types of work they are not likely to encounter later in life. Many students find working on the farm, for example, among the most rewarding experiences Putney has to offer. The farm used to be a more integral part of the school than it is now, but those who work on it still have a chance to become familiar with some aspects of the problem of agriculture today.

The outdoor work program is extended by the household jobs, in which the student has a half-hour job, to be performed each day, such as waiting on table, kitchen work, or cleaning classrooms.

In all activities--classes, work and household jobs, evening activity groups, and skiing--boys and girls take part togehter. Co-education is the most famous and controversial feature of Putney; it is also one of the most successful and realistic of the school's policies. Putney provides a more normal situation than does the traditional academy without creating any problems which would not arise in an ordinary community. Despite the popular stories concerning "free love", what Mrs. Hinton termed "boy-girl" problems are actually minor, with very little proctoring, and even less promiscuity.

Academically, Putney is prevented from any major experimentation by the increasing demands of preparing for, and getting into college. In the hope that work will be done for its own sake, rather than because of competitive ambitions, marks are kept only for college records, and are not revealed to the student, who is only told if he is failing or non-certifying; written reports are given three times a year. This system does eliminate personal competition, but students are perfectly aware that they are being marked, and that college depends upon those marks.

The curriculum is largely determined by college demands. Recently, efforts have been made to enable students to take advantage of the advanced standing programs at Harvard and other colleges. Classes are held in small discussion groups, with constant insistence on self-expression. There are few formal examinations, but frequent critical essays are required in all course. Projects and several long papers allow college-level work in the last year.

Skepticism and Responsibility

Religiously, Putney is a secular school. There is no chapel. On Sunday evening a speaker discusses questions dealing with religion, ethics, or philosophy, but there is little mention of formal religion or God. Skepticism prevails, and faith is not considered a part of life by most of the student body.

Students are given wide responsibility in directing projects, crews, and dormitory government. Except for administrative and academic decisions, all school problems, including those of discipline, are handled by a community council, composed of students, faculty, and staff, and presided over by a student.

Nevertheless, the force which in the final analysis guides every life at Putney is the pressure of the community. The major paradox which the school faces is that any encouragement to think and act as an individual is balanced and sometimes negated by the ever-present collective opinion, with its subtle demand to conform. Although the problem of conformity is probably far smaller at Putney than at most schools, it is still not eliminated.

An even greater problem is the adjustment of the student to "life", or rather, the world outside of Putney. Mrs. Hinton retired three years ago, and was succeeded by H. Benson Rockwell; it is still too early to tell whether he will mitigate the pure idealism which shaped the school in its first two decades. But the early Putney will, in any case, be remembered as a very special, and in some ways unreal experience. It is only unreal because the world does not change easily, and Putney's standards of a complete life are higher than those of most communities. The Putney graduate, who has given little though to the transition, very often finds it difficult to cope with what he considers the mediocrity of life. It is the necessary price to be paid for having been shown the possibilities of one "better world."