Report from the Associate Director
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A PUTNEY STUDENT petitions to
drop a year-long class in chemistry
at mid-semester arguing
that this class is irrelevant to his
plans to apply to art school and
is in fact interfering with an
educational program that would
promote his ambitions. Another
student asks to be excused from
some Saturday classes so that she
can rehearse and perform with a
student orchestra in Boston.
Another student petitions to
enroll in three classes in the arts,
arguing that this is where her
future and her heart lies. Yet
another asks that a tutorial proposal
be approved that will allow
her to prepare for the AP physics
exam. These are typical proposals
that students send to the
Educational Program Committee
(EPC). As you read these
examples, you may want to
think about which proposal you
would approve.
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 Judith Sheridan |
Since arriving at The Putney
School four years ago, and having
the responsibility to oversee
the EPC, there is rarely a simple
and unanimous decision. Almost
every student petition inspires a
discussion that causes a reconsideration
of what the group
feels is consistent with principles
of progressive education and
with the educational standards
we want to set for our students.
The EPC—consisting of
department chairs, two student
representatives and program
leaders—meets twice a month
to discuss new curricular
initiatives, proposed changes in
academic expectations, and to
approve student proposals for
exceptions to requirements, project
week, exhibitions, off-campus
study, tutorials and work term.
The charge of the group is to
safeguard the founding principles:
beliefs that promote an education
for life that include learning
in and out of the classroom.There
is a commitment to an expansive
education that incorporates traditional
academics, the arts,
work and physical exercise and
tends to eschew specialization.
Progressive education is often
dismissed as lacking academic
rigor in part because it is associated
with student centeredness
and choice, with individual
assessments and flexible programs,
which as one member of
the EPC often argues, means
“meeting our students where
they are.” On the other hand,
progressive education can also
be understood as more demanding
than traditional pedagogy,
requiring that students acquire a
meticulous command of skills and
a body of common information
that enables them to answer
authentic questions and accomplish
independent study in a
substantial and meaningful
manner. This approach is characterized
by another member of
the committee as “exercising
faculty responsibility to guide
student learning.” The former
notion of maximizing student
choice often leads to creative
and sometimes eccentric offerings
while the latter notion of
providing all students with a set
of tools and a common knowledge
base leads to a more prescribed
course of study. In the
end both approaches aspire to
promote engaged students who
know how to learn, who are
confident enough to question
received traditions and to discover
meaning on their own or in
collaboration with each other.
What often results from the
deliberations of the EPC is a
healthy balance between the
two approaches. Innovative
courses that I would argue
are offered in no other school
have been approved such as
Observation and Taxonomy,
which is designed to develop
observation skills in students by
combining science and the scientific
method with drawing
and writing, and Environmental
Studies, New England Farm,
which combines agricultural
ecology with agrarian history
and economics. At the same
time, student proposals that
include three art classes in one
semester have not been
approved; nor has the request
to drop year-long classes, even
if the student seems confident
that the course is extraneous.
There is a strong feeling among
the members of the EPC
that Putney graduates should
acquire a broad range of subjects
to prepare effectively for whatever
future course of study
they will choose as well as to
become informed citizens of
the world.
Judy Sheridan
jsheridan@putneyschool.org
When is a barn not just a barn? The Putney School’s cow barn
is an experiential classroom for learning agricultural ecology,
agrarian history and economics.
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