Bennington College is in Bennington, VT, less than an hour from Albany, NY. Nestled into the Green Mountain region, it is in a relatively remote location while being close enough to Boston and New York City for weekend excursions. It is also close enough to skiing and outdoor adventure venues, and within 90 minutes to the Adirondack Mountains. Enough about location, because that is the least of what Bennington has to offer.
Bennington started as a women’s college, but it went coed in 1969. Bennington’s mission is to teach by doing, to learn by practice. It is the basis of everything the school does. The traditional Bennington Graduation announcement since 1936 says it all:
“Bennington regards education as a sensual and ethical, no less than an intellectual, process. It seeks to liberate and nurture the individuality, the creative intelligence, and the ethical and aesthetic sensibility of its students, to the end that their richly varied natural endowments will be directed toward self-fulfillment and toward constructive social purposes. We believe that these educational goals are best served by demanding of our students active participation in the planning of their own programs, and in the regulation of their own lives on campus. Student freedom is not the absence of restraint, however; it is rather the fullest possible substitution of habits of self-restraint for restraint imposed by others.”
Bennington is a place where each student designs his/her own educational path. There are no letter grades here, but narrative grading (which means your professors really KNOW you and your work). There are a few other schools that have this type of program (Hampshire College and the Johnston Center at U of Redlands to name two) which includes a “committee” that assists the student in their academic plan. The student is taught to self-direct their own studies.
Another AWESOMELY WONDERFUL aspect of Bennington’s academic structure is their 7 week Field Work Term. Students are required to do a FWT every year, and basically the world is your campus during that time. The FWT and Career Office assists each student in finding a job, an internship, a study abroad, or a service opportunity for a seven week period starting in January of each year. This term is complementary to one’s area of interest, and is necessary for graduation. What opportunity! I urge you to click on the Field Work Term link and check out the types of experiences that are available!
Bennington has students interested in a diverse range of fields, but artistic endeavors are well represented, from dance to art to theater. Bennington is an alternative setting with creativity galore. During parent weekend, there is Transvestite Night (a great performance venue!) If you are a student with diverse interests and an alternative intellectual mindset, I suggest you take a look at Bennington, and tell them Tam sent you!
