The Putney School
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A map of The Putney School. |
The Putney School is an independent
alternative high school in
Putney, Vermont. Founded in
1935 by
Carmelita Hinton, the school is an experiment in
progressive education. In addition to strong college-preparatory academics and music and art, the school's campus is a 500 acre (2.0 km²) farm on which all of its students work.
The school's educational program has emphasized the value of labor, art, community, and scholarship for individual growth since its founding. It started as a summer labor camp in 1935 and opened as a boarding school in the fall following the first summer, with most of the campers staying on board to be part of the new student body.
All of the buildings on the school's campus were partially or completely built by Putney students and faculty, with the exception of the most recent addition, the Michael S. Currier Center for the Performing Arts (also a departure from Putney's customary white colonial-style architecture). Upon completion of the first dormitory (and the farm's first harvest), an event known as "Harvest Festival" was born. The Harvest Festival is still held annually and attracts over 3,000 people from Putney and other surrounding towns.
The
Boston Globe wrote of it: "The school's combination of a New England work ethic and a strong academic program, its pioneering of coeducation and community service and its emphasis on music and the arts have made it a model for other independent schools...Putney remains committed to the total community of work and schooling that goes far beyond the more limited pieces of its tradition adopted by other schools."
Graduates of The Putney School include
Tim Asch (anthropologist, filmmaker),
Errol Morris (filmmaker),
Lucy Shelton (soprano),
Tim Daly (actor),
Tea Leoni (actress),
Lee Hirsch (filmmaker),
Sally Mann (controversial photographer),
Carlos Buhler (mountaineer),
Felicity Huffman (actress) and
Izumi Mori (model).
* Cohen, Muriel. "Putney - A Vermont School that Dared and Succeeded."
The Boston Globe January 1,
1995: p. A42.
* Lloyd, Susan McIntosh.
The Putney School: A Progressive Experiment. Yale University Press, 1987. ISBN 0300037422.
** "Carmelita Chase Hinton and the Putney School." In
Founding Mothers and Others: Women Educational Leaders During the Progressive Era, ed. Alan R. Sadovnik and Susan F. Semel. Palgrave, 2002. ISBN 0-312-29502-2.
*
Putney School web site*
Putney School mission statement*
Putney School Admissions Video on SchoolFair.tv
