Bennington College Library BENNINGTON VERMONT Bennington COLLEGE Announcement for the First Year 1932-1933 BENNI NGTON COLLEGE PUBLICATIONS, PUBLISHED .QUARTERLY BY BENNINGTON COLLEGE, BENNINGTON, VERMONT. VOLUME ONE (SERIES NUMBER NINE), AUGUST, 1932, NUMBER ONE. 20237 l BENNINGTON COLLEGE HE movement for Bennington College, initiated nine years ago, was Tdeveloped in a series of conferences attended by school and college heads, parents, and others interested in higher education. As a result of these meetings it gradually became clear that the trend of experimenta- tion in college education afforded a strategic opportunity for a new institution to translate into the college field the spirit and methods identified in the schools below by the term "progressive," and to create a curriculum especially adapted to the actual needs of women in the contemporary world. As stated in the resolutions of the earliest conference called for the purpose, "the new college will maintain a four-year course leading to the A.B. degree with standards at least equal to those of the best American colleges for women." At the outset two-thirds of a million dollars and a campus site were pledged. A charter was secured in 1925. During the intervening years gifts from two hundred thirty-four people have increased the assets to a million and a quarter dollars, a sum considered sufficient for making an actual beginning. The College site occupies one hundred forty acres on a plateau flanked by the Green Mountains and the Taconic Range, in the town of Bennington . near the southwestern corner of Vermont. It is seventeen miles from Williamstown, Massachusetts, four hours and a half by train from New York City and Boston, one hour and a half by train or motor from Albany where railroad connections to all parts of the country can be made. Four student houses, each of which is designed to accommodate twenty students, will provide living quarters for the eighty young women admitted as Freshmen and forming the student body for the first year (1932-1933). There is a faculty apartment in each student house. Eight additional student houses, similar in character to the four already built, will be completed by 1935. The full complement of twelve houses will accommodate two hun- dred forty students, the contemplated four-year enrolment. A Commons building consisting of dining and recreation rooms, art studios and a little theatre, infirmary, health and physical education center is a part of the present equipment. A large barn, once used as stables on the estate, has been remodeled into conference and classrooms, science laboratories, offices of administration, and the library. Another building on the site has been remodeled for use as music practice and instruction studios. Cricket Hill, an early American dwelling, will serve as guest house. The College athletic field with provisions for hockey, tennis, and other sports is located imme- diately west of the student houses. BEN NINGTON COLLEGE LIBRARY 5 BENNINGTON COLLEGE 4 ANNOUNCEMENT Aims Program for the Work of the First Year THE underlying ideas determining the choice and survival of the specific ITH two or three exceptions the student body during the first year teachmg devices and activities of the new College may be summarized W ( 1932-1933) will consist entirely of Freshmen. The program and the as follows: . faculty members announced below are for the first-year group of students ( 1) that education is a process continuing through life and persists most only. The college program as a whole is outlined in the booklet entitled effectively throu.ghout the important years of adulthood when one has The Educational Plan for Bennington College. acqmred the habtt of educating oneself ; (2) that a principal aim. of the College should be to accustom its stu- dents to. the habit of engaging voluntarily in learning rather than of sub- Registration mtttmg mvoluntanly at certam penods to formal instruction ; . (3). that such educational can be devel;ped most effec- The College does not require of all students a uniform group of studies self-dependence or any single subject of study either for entrance, for the first college year, tively if the student works at tasks whtch have meaning, significance or mterest to her ; ' or for graduation. Each Freshman's program of work, therefore, must be individually arranged. It will not be left, however, to her ungmded ( 4) that continuing education, self-initiated, is likely to take place most choice. The opening days of the college year (Tuesday through Saturday) surely where the studenthas attained expertness, or a sense of mastery in will be occupied mainly with a series of group meetings and individual inter- somefew fields of endunng mterest or use, rather than acquired smatterings views between students and members of the faculty and staff. These wtll be m a great many fields; designed to review the school record and experience, to make clear individual .(5) that external disciplines such as compulsory class attendance, com- needs, aptitudes, purposes, and interests, to explain the curriculum offerings petitive and pu?hcly-awarded grades and prizes, periodic written examina- of the first year with their i:elation to later college and adult work m the tion . on formalized blocks of knowledge, and numerical accumulation of fields of the student's choices. At the end of the week's conferences the stu- credits to earn degrees interfere seriously with real incentives and internal dent's program will be agreed upon between her and the faculty member dtsctphnes related to the student's own developing purposes and interests; designated as her counselor. (6) that direct experiences - planning, organizing, manipulating, con- structing, and investigating - in cooperation with book learning and the acquisition of knowledgeare va.luable means for developing permanent inter- The Counselor ests pursued wtthout the necessity of external compulsion ; Each student, from the beginning of her college career, will have an (7) that tools of learning, such as statistics, and the use of English, to individual counselor or advisor. In each case the faculty member in charge havemeamng as well. as to be most economically mastered, should as far as of the work selected tentatively as the field of the student's major interest posstble be conn.ected tmmedt~tely or in the process of learning with the ends (the trial major conference group described below) will serve in that capacity. or uses for which they are mstruments rather than acquired wholesale as Thus the student will necessarily be in regular and frequentcontact with her separate dtsctphnes related but vaguely to a possible distant use; counselor. Reports of accomplishment and difficulties in her other college (8) that .there is wide variationbetween persons and in the same person work will be made directly to the counselor. Through means of available at dtfferent ttmes as to the subjectsorproblems which, having meaning, will records and conferences with other staff members the counselor will accu- consequentlyengage the person in acttve learnmg which leads to understand- mulate the knowledge necessary for intelligent guidance regarding the stu- ing; that,ther.ef?re, programs of college work should at all points allow for dent's problems as they arise. The student-counselor relationship including m IVtdual ; in its range the student's entire program, methods of work and distribution (9) that intellectual development cannot and should not be isolated from of time, occupies a strategic place in the college plan. It replaces general the development of the whole perso.nality. and that as far as possible the faculty regulations with an individualized program aiming at continuity, general college arrangements, .espectally mdtvtdual guidance, should give correlation, and integration of work. The development of independent judg- proper wetght tophystcal, emotional, moral, and aesthetic as well as to intel- ment on the part of the student will be one of the principal aims of the lectual factors m personal growth; relationship. (10) that theCollege, jointly with other educational agencies, should accept responsibility for cultivating in its students by all available means attitudes of social responsibility, social participation and cooperation rather The Trial Major Conference Group than aloofness; that it should promote a sympathetic but objective and The Freshman's primary objective is to discover the field or fields of realistic. understandingof the world of our own day as well as a sense of human achievement in which she possesses a marked and sustained interest perspectivedenved from understanding of the past; an attitude of suspended combined with distinct ability. As an aid in this quest she is asked as part judgment towardsthe strange and the new, and tolerance towards persons and customs ahen to the student's own experience. BENNINGTON CoLLEGE 7 of registration to choose the field (arts, music, literature, social studies, science) where she wishes to try out her interest and to have her ability tested. The choice will automatically enroll her in what is called a trial major conference group. This is not so much enrolment for a course as an enlistment of one-fifth or more of her time for work, under guidance, in the field of her tentative choice. For purposes of convenience a trial major group is attached to each of the general introductory courses described below. In some cases it will consist of additional or special work in connection with the introductory course. In others it may be conducted quite independently of the introduc- \ tory course. Methods will include group work and individual ·conferences. In every case, however, the work will be intensive in character, the content \ will be designed for those who plan to go on to advanced work in the field, and a principal aim will be to accustom students as rapidly as possible to individual, informal instruction with less and less supervision.