The Putney School

Last updated

The Putney School
Drone shot of The Putney School.jpg
Location
The Putney School
418 Houghton Brook Road, Putney
,
VT

Information
Type Private independent co-educational boarding and day high school
Established1935
Founder Carmelita Hinton
DeanTarah Greenidge
Head of SchoolDaniel O'Brien
Faculty35 full-time, 24 part-time/adjunct
Secondary years taught9th through 12th grades
Enrollment221
Average class size12
Student to teacher ratio6:1
Classes offeredHumans in The Natural World, American Studies, Ceramics, Fiber Arts, Astronomy, Existentialism
Campus size500 acres (200 ha)
Campus typeRural
Color(s)Green, White
MascotElm Tree
RivalDublin School
Annual tuition$74,500
Feeder schoolsThe Grammar School
Website http://www.putneyschool.org/

The Putney School is an independent high school in Putney, Vermont. The school was founded in 1935 by Carmelita Hinton on the principles of the Progressive Education movement and the teachings of its principal exponent, John Dewey. It is a co-educational, college-preparatory boarding school, with a day-student component, 12 miles (19 km) outside Brattleboro, Vermont. Danny O'Brien became head of school in 2022. [1] The school enrolls approximately 225 students on a 500 acres (2.0 km2) hilltop campus with classrooms, dormitories, and a dairy farm on which its students work before graduating. [2]

Contents

Based on its founder's principles, [3] the school continues to emphasize academics, a work program, the arts, and physical activity. Its curriculum is intended to teach the value of labor, art, community, ethics, and scholarship for individual growth. [4] [5]

Campus

Animated panorama from the center of the quadrangle on the Putney campus. Putpan.gif
Animated panorama from the center of the quadrangle on the Putney campus.

The original buildings on Putney's campus were overhauled or constructed by Putney work camp attendees, students, and faculty in 1935. [6] The Currier Center is a departure from Putney's customary white, colonial-style architecture, instead using stone and concrete walls in an angular design. It is used for dance, music, movie-making and visual-art presentations. The Field House, which opened in October 2009, was designed as a "net zero-energy building". [7]

There are ten active dormitories on campus: Huseby, New Boys, Leonard's Keep (Keep), Noyes, White Cottage, John Rogers (JR), Hepper, Gund, Gray House, and Heights. A few faculty members live in each. [8]

Academic program

Then-Director Brian Morgan addresses the graduating Class of 2004. 04Putgrad.jpg
Then-Director Brian Morgan addresses the graduating Class of 2004.

In 1995, the Boston Globe described Putney as combining "a New England work ethic and a strong academic program." [9] It is a member of the Independent Curriculum Group and in 2009 received a 10-year accreditation review by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. [10]

Tuition

Tuition for the 2023-24 academic year is $74,500 for boarding students and $45,400 for day students. [11]

Notable alumni and faculty

Alumni

According to The Putney School 2008 Alumni Directory, alumni of The Putney School include (graduation date shown, where applicable): [12]

Faculty

Some Putney faculty members (subject taught in parentheses) had careers that extended beyond their teaching.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Putney, Vermont</span> Town in Vermont, United States

Putney is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,617 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goddard College</span> Private liberal arts college in Vermont, United States

Goddard College was a private college with three locations in the United States: Plainfield, Vermont; Port Townsend, Washington; and Seattle, Washington. The college offered undergraduate and graduate degree programs. With predecessor institutions dating to 1863, Goddard College was founded in 1938 as an experimental and non-traditional educational institution based on the idea that experience and education are intricately linked.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William H. Hinton</span> American China expert (1919–2004)

William Howard Hinton was an American intellectual, known for his work on communism in China. He authored the book Fanshen, published in 1966, a "documentary of revolution" which chronicled the land reform program of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the 1940s in Zhangzhuangcun, sometimes translated as Long Bow Village, a village in Shanxi Province in northern China. Sequels (Shenfan) followed the experience of the village during the 1950s and Cultural Revolution. Hinton wrote and lectured extensively to explain the Maoist approach and later to criticize Deng Xiaoping's market-orient reforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appleby College</span> Independent, co-ed, day/boarding school in Oakville, Ontario, Canada

Appleby College is an international independent school located in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, founded in 1911 by John Guest, a former Headmaster of the Preparatory School at Upper Canada College. Guest dreamed of establishing a small boarding school in the country, and did so with the support and financial assistance of his father-in-law, Sir Byron Edmund Walker, a Canadian businessman. Today, Appleby is a co-educational day and boarding university-preparatory school, with a curriculum based around the liberal arts. It is situated on Lake Ontario in Oakville, Ontario, roughly 50 kilometres west of Toronto. Students are drawn primarily from Oakville, Burlington and Mississauga, but boarding students come from other parts of Canada and throughout all continents of the world.

Carmelita Hinton was an American progressive educator. She is best known as the founder in 1935 of The Putney School, a progressive boarding school in Vermont.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Koch (skier)</span> American skier (born 1955)

William Conrad Koch is an American cross-country skier who competed at the international level. A native of Guilford, Vermont, he is a graduate of the nearby Putney School in Putney. In 1974, he became the first American to win a medal in international competition, placing third in the European junior championships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holderness School</span> Private high school in Holderness, New Hampshire, USA

The Holderness School is a private, coeducational college-preparatory school in Holderness, near Plymouth, New Hampshire in the United States. The student body of 300 is drawn from 22 U.S. states and 14 foreign countries. While Holderness operates primarily as a boarding school, it also enrolls 25 day students. John McVeigh is currently Holderness School's 10th Head of School (headmaster). McVeigh's predecessor was R. Phillip Peck, M.Ed. In the summer the campus is used as a site for various Gordon Research Conferences.

Eaglebrook School is an independent junior boarding and day school for boys in grades six through nine. It is located in Deerfield, Massachusetts, on the Pocumtuck Range near Deerfield Academy and sited on an 850-acre (3.4 km2) campus which is also preserved by the Deerfield Wildlife Trust. Eaglebrook School is accredited by the Association of Independent Schools in New England (AISNE).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Hinton</span> American nuclear physicist and supporter of Maoist China (1921–2010)

Joan Hinton was a nuclear physicist and one of the few women scientists who worked for the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. Dismayed at the use of the atomic bomb against the Japanese, she went to live and work in China, staying on after the establishment of the People's Republic of China after 1949. She and her husband Erwin (Sid) Engst participated in China's efforts at developing a socialist economy, working extensively in agriculture, and supported the policies of Mao Zedong. She lived on a dairy farm north of Beijing before her death on June 8, 2010.

Colorado Rocky Mountain School (CRMS) is a privately owned coeducational boarding and day school in Carbondale, Colorado. Founded in 1953, CRMS educates roughly 175 students in grades 9 through 12. The curriculum emphasizes rigorous college preparatory academics, exposure to visual and performing arts, educational experience in the wilderness, campus service crews, and required athletics. In 2020, school review website Niche ranked Colorado Rocky Mountain school as one of Colorado's best boarding schools and best high schools for the arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tilton School</span> School in Tilton, New Hampshire, United States

Tilton School is an independent, coeducational, college-preparatory school in Tilton, New Hampshire, serving students from 9th to 12th grade and postgraduate students. Founded in 1845, Tilton's student body in the 2021-22 academic year consisted of 61 day students and 129 boarding students. The typical student enrollment includes representation from 15-20 states and 10-15 countries.

Rockwell Rittenhouse Stephens was a journalist, author and ski instructor. He was an early member of the National Ski Patrol, joining in 1938, receiving member No. 74.

Windham College was a liberal arts college located in Putney, Vermont, on the campus of what is now Landmark College.

Fernando Gerassi was a Sephardic Jew born in Turkey. He was an accomplished artist who exhibited alongside Picasso before volunteering to fight in the Spanish Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carma Hinton</span> American filmmaker

Carma Hinton is a documentary filmmaker and Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Visual Culture and Chinese Studies at George Mason University. She worked with Richard Gordon in directing thirteen documentary films about China, including Morning Sun and The Gate of Heavenly Peace. She has also taught at Swarthmore College, Wellesley College, MIT, and Northeastern University and has lectured on Chinese culture, history, and film around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John H. Caldwell</span> Cross-country skier, coach, and author

John Homer Caldwell is a retired American nordic skier who competed in the 1952 Winter Olympics, then became a cross-country ski coach and authority on cross-country skiing. He wrote a series of books that helped popularize and develop understanding of recreational cross-country skiing in the United States. Consequently, Caldwell has been called the "father" and "guru" of Nordic skiing in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buxton School (Massachusetts)</span> College-preparatory school in Williamstown, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States

Buxton School is a private, coeducational, college preparatory, and boarding and day school for grades 9–12 located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, US. As of 2023, the school had a student body of 68 students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Rockwell</span> American cross-country skier

Martha Rockwell is a retired American cross-country skier and coach, who competed at the Winter Olympic Games in 1972 and 1976. She has been cited in the U.S. as a "pioneer" and a "legend" in women's cross-country skiing, having been the U.S. women's cross-country ski champion 18 times between 1969 and 1975 as part of the first U.S. national cross-country ski team for women.

Woodstock Country School (WCS), founded in 1945, was a small, progressive, co-educational preparatory boarding school initially located in the village of Woodstock, Vermont, and later on a 400-acre farm campus in the nearby hamlet of South Woodstock. WCS was "acknowledged as a leader in the progressive education movement" and in the 1960s "gained national recognition for its open curriculum."

References

  1. "Putney to Welcome New Head of School". The Putney School. Retrieved September 22, 2022.
  2. "Putney at a glance". Website. Putney School. Retrieved January 30, 2014.
  3. "Our 9 Fundamental Beliefs". The Putney School. Retrieved June 24, 2023.
  4. Barton, April (May 12, 2021). "Why one Vermont school is considered among the 50 most influential high schools". Burlington Free Press. Retrieved June 24, 2023.
  5. Feloni, Richard. "The billionaire founder of LinkedIn attended a progressive Vermont boarding school that skipped AP classes in favor of carpentry and blacksmithing". Business Insider. Retrieved June 24, 2023.
  6. Lloyd, Susan M. (1987). The Putney School, A Progressive Experiment. Yale University Press. pp. 21–3, 31. ISBN   0-300-03742-2.
  7. "Our Field House's Green Features". The Putney School. July 4, 2018. Retrieved November 6, 2020.
  8. "Campus Map". The Putney School. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
  9. Cohen, Muriel (January 1, 1995). "Putney - A Vermont School that Dared and Succeeded". The Boston Globe: A42.
  10. State Board of Education (May 19, 2015), Renewal of approval to The Putney School, Putney, VT to serve students in grades 9-12 (PDF), State of Vermont Agency of Education, retrieved November 11, 2015
  11. "Tuition and Financial Aid". The Putney School. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
  12. The Putney School 2008 Alumni Directory. Bloomington, Indiana: University Publishing Corporation. 2008.
  13. Robidoux, Carol (January 21, 2015). "Olympic Skiing Runs in Lebanon Lawyer's Family". Bar News. New Hampshire Bar Association.
  14. Poniewozik, James (April 29, 2010). "Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof". The 2010 TIME 100—Artists. TIME. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
  15. Sherwin, Adam (May 23, 2013). "World's most concise short story writer Lydia Davis wins Booker International Prize 2013" . Independent. Archived from the original on June 18, 2022. Retrieved May 23, 2013.
  16. "Class of 1964 Obituaries: William Barton Gray". HR 1964.org. Cambridge, MA: Harvard-Radcliffe Class of 1964. 1994. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  17. "Felicity Huffman, actress charged in college-admission bribery case, has Vermont ties". Burlington Free Press.
  18. Aspen (August 30, 2016). "Christopher Lehmann-Haupt '52". putneyschool.org.
  19. "Elm Lea Circle | Community | The Putney School". www.elmleacircle.com. Retrieved March 27, 2024.
  20. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Martha Rockwell Olympic Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020. Retrieved February 8, 2018.
  21. Walker, Shaun (November 24, 2013). "Arctic 30 captain re-evaluates protest methods after Russian jails Veteran Greenpeace skipper Peter Willcox was also captain of Rainbow Warrior – which was bombed by French agents in 1985". The Guardian. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
  22. Cuerdon, Don (Fall 2015). "Putney Post". Putney Post. p. 23. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
  23. Bloom, Paul (September 6, 2018). "What We Know About Art and the Mind". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved April 5, 2019.

Further reading

42°59′14″N72°33′14″W / 42.9873°N 72.5540°W / 42.9873; -72.5540