The Putney School Profiles

Putney Profiles

Joe Holland

Teaches Math and Coaches Rowing and X-C Skiing “It takes all kinds to make a Math department. We have math aficionados who reach way beyond where most high school students end their math studies. Some will go even further than Advanced Calculus and use our tutorial system to pursue, for example, Chaos Theory, Number Theory, and Linear Algebra. At the same time, we can give students who arrive at Putney never having made peace with abstractions and variables the foundation they need to succeed in a rigorous course of study.

“In the Math department, we teach problem-solving—and not just the kind where you take a piece of paper and go off into the corner and solve a bunch of rote exercises. In the way that art students must be able to articulate their ideas and intention for a particular piece, math students must be able to discuss problem-solving strategy with a partner, devise a cooperative solution, and present it to the class. Part of my job as a teacher is to show students that math can bring meaning and richness to life in general. Part of their job as students is to devise problem-solving strategies that they really and truly want to communicate and teach to each other.”

B.A. Dartmouth College.

M.E. Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth.

Inés Gómez-Ochoa

Directs the Music Program and teaches all vocal ensembles, Orchestra, Chamber Music, Music History, Theory, and Composition “For the most part, the deep interest in music that our music students have is part of a broad base of passion about academics, arts, the outdoors, work, and life. We don’t expect our music students to sacrifice other areas of interest for the sake of developing master-level performing skills. We explore music and acquire a taste for excellence. We set high standards—about enthusiasm and love for music and about the willingness to always do one’s best. Our standards are also about respect for other musicians, about risktaking, and about honoring one’s commitments.

“Yes, there is no question that some people are born with more musical talent than others. But even they need good teachers because there is a wealth of information about music that is not in anyone’s DNA. So, to a certain extent, talent can be created in anyone. It happens when a teacher demonstrates an intensity of devotion to music, imparts the practical and theoretical information that the student needs, sets the bar very high, and then makes sure that the student leaps over the bar. And there is a wonderful contagion that can happen in music. One accomplished musician (teacher or student) can infect others with a sense of how music can sound and then a magical moment happens and all of a sudden everyone is making real music together. Music at Putney is about how one’s own individual accomplishments bring forth the accomplishments of the community, of the musical ensemble. It is about enriching our mutual cultural life.”

Título de Profesor Superior de Música, Conservatorio Superior de Música “Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga,” Bilbao, Spain; Artist’s Diploma, Piano Performance (under Luiz de Moura Castro), Hartt School of Music at University of Hartford; M.A. Musicology, M.M. Choral Conducting, Indiana University in Bloomington.

Abijah Reed ’53

teaches Math and Woodworking.

His daughter, Leslie Frothingham, teaches Chemistry Pictured with Abijah Reed’s Grandson, Ian Frothingham ’09 When Abijah was a student at Putney, on a lark he memorized the first 200 digits to the right of the decimal point in pi.

Almost forty-four years after graduating, and after career stints at MIT, Polaroid, and IBM, Abijah returned to teach, numbers still sticking to him like metal shavings to a magnet. Abijah remains fascinated by math’s beauty and its ability to help solve practical, artistic, and theoretical problems. He collaborates with art and music teachers on projects involving the math of music and the art of math. He sings in the choir. Make no mistake, however; as much pleasure as Abijah takes from Putney and gives in return, he will always be a geek. He once counted every pea on his plate before eating them. He wears a pocket protector and a workman’s belt of “math tools.”

Leslie joined the Putney faculty after working for 12 years as molecular geneticist, teaching high school Biology in Trinidad, and home schooling her two children as she and her husband sailed with them around the world. Within her first few weeks at Putney Leslie knew that she was grateful to be here. “I was coaching Girls’ Soccer. I had many of the girls in my class (where they were great students) and then on the field (where they were great players). One day, after a very close loss to another team, the girls climbed on the minibus. I was feeling sad for them as I started the drive back to school. All of a sudden, a beautiful sound began to fill the bus. It was the girls singing in extraordinary harmony, making the most out of every second of their day, enjoying, even their loss.”

Abijah: B.S. Mechanical Engineering, M.I.T. Leslie: B.S. Molecular Biology, Guilford College.

Harry Bauld

Teaches English, coaches boxing, mentors Jazz musicians He has written for Boston Magazine, Yankee Magazine, New England Monthly, People Magazine, and many other national and regional publications. His poetry has been published in both the U.S. and the U.K. He is the author of On Writing the College Application Essay, HarperCollins 1987 (still in print).

“My major goal when teaching is to help students find pleasure on a deep level from literature—from reading it and from writing it. In class, when we read either canonic or contemporary literature we do so with an eye toward understanding what makes some writing live under the lens of close and repeated scrutiny. If I do my job well and open a bridge for the students to the worlds of the various authors, even when we read about a dead, depressed Danish aristocrat who spits out poems nobody understands, students learn to see that literature as being about them—about us. I also want them to see that literature continues, and that the continuation is in their hands.

“This is an arts-drenched, achievement-oriented, gorgeous setting that, by its nature, supports imaginative living. You have to do more here than teach English. I love to accompany student jazz singers on the piano; I also don’t mind regularly getting my butt whipped in chess by students; I teach boxing; I lead flyfishing expeditions. When assigning essays, poems, or stories to write, I say, ‘Don’t tell me something I already know! Make it real!’ When I teach boxing I say, ‘It’s not violence, it’s dance!’

B.A. Art History, Columbia College of Columbia University.

Pete Stickney & Margie Levine

Working with about 1/3 of the student body each semester, Pete Stickney (Farm Manager) and Margie Levine (Assistant Farm Manager) run Putney’s farm.

Their efforts provide the school with 15-20% of its food Margie: People ask me, “What does it matter if a student knows how to milk a cow or plant a carrot seed?” True, most of our students won’t become farmers. They may never grow a single vegetable once they leave here, but they will eat every day. By teaching them in the Farm Program we’re educating them in a “round ball” sort of way about the world and what they take from it. We’re giving them the satisfaction of eating vegetables that they have personally helped along. We’re giving them the opportunity to manage animals and to create bonds with, for example, calves that they see born and later might feed, groom, walk and, one day, milk. At the very least we’re creating educated consumers. When our graduates go to the grocery store, they know where food comes from and what it took to get it to the store.

Pete: It was never Carmelita Hinton’s idea that The Putney School would train farmers. Her idea was to give students an experience of real life that contributes to their sustenance. When we grow broccoli, we’re planting and harvesting on a level that matches the scale of a small, commercial operation. Dairy farming, too, is on that scale.

At 35 cows, our herd is more than big enough to provide the school with milk; we sell the excess. Students do virtually all of the cow tending. A few students are queasy, at first, about the smell in the barn. But, in the end, they learn that the smell is benign. And every year there is a handful of seniors who feel genuinely sad that the farming part of their life is probably about to end.

Margie: B.S. Elementary Education (certified teacher), Keene State College.

Pete: 6th generation Vermont dairy farmer.

Karla Baldwin

Drama Director and Academic Dean, has worked consistently at Putney with musical director, Rebecca Graber, and technical theatre director, Robert Olson “In Theatre at Putney, interests and passions merge. Theatre here immerses students in dance, drama, music, visual arts, athleticism, literature and history. It gives them philosophical and psychological awakenings. So studying Theatre here is not just about edging people out for the good roles. Yes, there are some great roles to be had. We do Shakespeare, Greek theatre, modern theatre, farces, comedy, tragedy, and musical comedy. But, here at Putney, studying Theatre involves appreciating the play, learning about its period and politics, moving one’s body, and supporting each other in the scary task of taking risks.

“My classes and auditions are open to every student on campus. Because of this, ‘risk-taking’ is a far more vital concept than ‘talent.’ A star soccer player may not believe that he has acting talent; he may know, though, that he is a risk-taker at heart, and from this he may understand that he can brave his way into exploring all of the possibilities of a role. I expect each one of my students to bring to rehearsal or class a measure of courage. Without it, why bother?”

B.A. Theatre (emphasis on Directing), Smith College.

Hans Estrin ’85

teaches Biology, Chemistry, and Ecology and coaches X-C Skiing A few years after Hans got his B. S. in Botany, he undertook two grand Thoreauvian experiments. He went into the countryside near Santa Fe every day for six weeks and drew plants silently.

Then, for three months, he camped near a beaver pond in central Vermont and drew plants for three or four hours a day, spending all of his non-drawing time thinking, writing, and filling out grad school applications. Hans is married to poet Zoe Parker, a graduate of Middlebury’s Breadloaf program. (Zoe teaches in Putney’s English department.) As much as most of the information in the above sentences might suggest to the contrary, Hans is an intensely practical man. He is one of the prime instigators of Putney’s current initiatives in sustainability and responsible land stewardship.

He is also an idealist, hoping that his science and sustainability lessons will inspire Putney graduates to work toward “a civilization worthy of the name.”

“Where does our food come from? Our fuel? Our housing? Looking for more sustainable methods of providing the food, fuel, and housing that everyone needs provides an abundance of science lessons. How can we husband the farm’s soil and the animals’ waste to reduce our dependence on commercial fertilizers? How should we handle the harvest to reduce our dependence on commercial seeds? What plants are hardiest in this climate and this soil? Can we create a biodiesel processor so that the tractors can be powered on post-cooking vegetable oil? What efficiency technologies can be introduced into new and hundred-year-old buildings on campus?

Can we design some of the technologies ourselves? The school’s faculty and its farm, food and plant staff constantly collaborate on ways to involve the students in making the campus more sustainable. Indeed, many of us hope to see Putney follow its progressive ideals all the way to becoming a leader in education for global sustainability.”

B.S. Botany, University of Vermont.

M.S., Field Naturalism, University of Vermont.

Brian D. Cohen

Printmaker and founder of the Bridge Press (publisher of limited edition artist’s books), teaches Art at Putney His work is held by collections at Harvard University, Mills College, Dartmouth College, Smith College, Wellesley College, Middlebury College, Swarthmore College, Brown University, Yale University, Stanford University, the University of Vermont, the Portland Art Museum, the New York Public Library, the Philadephia Museum of Art, the Library of Congress, and the United States Ambassador’s residence in Egypt.

“I believe that joy and attainment in the visual arts are not restricted to a few students labeled as talented. Talent is an often overused and misused word—it puts off more people than it encourages. The discipline of close observation, coherent interpretation, and personal expression can be learned by anyone at nearly any age. And these skills, these habits, this way of thinking can be taught and guided.

“My approach to teaching art involves learning by doing. Art is always observation (though not always of what is directly in front of you), interpretation, and expression, at any level and in any medium. I guide students in seeing through, or with, a medium to say what they want to say. I help them acquire and become familiar with the skills and language of drawing and printmaking. I keep what can be disjointed and overwhelming to a student simple and clear, and I remind them that what they are after, finally, is within their own experience, capability, and feeling.”

B.A. Haverford College.

M.F.A Painting, University of Washington in Seattle.

Clennon King ’78 Is Putney’s Major Gifts Officer and advisor to Putney’s students of color

Clennon spent 25 years, first as an assistant to Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, then as a TV reporter in Dallas, Atlanta, Miami and Jacksonville, and, finally as a writing teacher to at-risk kids in Jacksonville public schools, where his peers elected him “Teacher of the Year.”

“In so many ways, Putney is ‘holy ground’ to me. It is, after all, where my father—a civil rights attorney who represented Dr. King and scores of demonstrators—sent my brother, sister and me for safe haven and a solid education… and all on ‘his dime.’ It is holy because of the brilliance of the late Jeffrey Campbell—the African American preacher and English teacher who hand-picked me as managing editor of the school’s literary magazine, giving me my first break into journalism. And it’s holy because of Spanish teacher Emilia Bruce, who cared enough to give me a hard time when I deserved it and opened my eyes to the love of learning and the love of self.

“So, a quarter century later, when my own son, Crawford ’08, asked to come to Putney, and the school offered me a job to raise money for them, I thought ‘Yes.’ I thought, ‘Here’s a chance to pay tribute to Emilia, Jeff and Dad who supported me.’ So, with the help of the students of color, United Students was born—a support group where they huddle once a week, to plan events, celebrate their successes and share their challenges.

And that is why Putney is so sacred to me.”

B.A. Tulane.

Kalya Yannatos

is the director of Putney’s Dance program “Rather than dance with one company, during the bulk of my performing career I danced with many. At one point I was working with six companies simultaneously. This freelance approach suited my desire to challenge myself with a varied and wide-ranging repertoire. As a choreographer and head of the Human Arts Ensemble in New York, I continued in this manner, collaborating with poets, filmmakers, photographers, visual artists, and musicians from a variety of cultures. In addition to my career as a performer and choreographer, I have always taught at various professional studios and schools and I’ve facilitated workshops as an “artist in residence” in well over a hundred schools, community centers, and arts centers through the auspices of several arts and education foundations.

“At Putney, it’s lovely to see the possibilities for students in terms of the range of what the Dance program can offer them. We can assist dancers who are experienced as well as those who have only recently acquired a passion for dance.

We can also support those who just want to have a small taste of what it means to be empowered by more fully inhabiting their bodies in connection to the environment, the community, movement, music, and the moment. Putney supports this kind of multi-level/varied-interest learning. The challenge for us, as faculty members, is to tune in and find the best way to creatively guide each individual student in making discoveries that bring them closer to fulfilling their own, unique potential.”

Twenty-five years as a professional dancer, choreographer, and teacher in New York and Los Angeles.

A Vermont Arts Council juried artist.

Marie Clark-Derouault was born, raised, and educated in France.

Here she teaches French

“Teaching language in a progressive school is a bit of a paradox. Unless the language learning is “immersion style” (meaning that the entirety of a student’s experiences all day every day “happen” in the foreign language) there’s no denying that it requires a certain amount of memorization, and that runs against the ideals of progressive education. Of course, I can’t possibly arrange for anyone’s entire experience at Putney to happen in French; because of this, I’m glad that, prior to teaching here, I worked in a public school Special Ed program. Assisting excellent teachers there gave me exposure to hands-on learning strategies that I use here to help students memorize verb forms, nouns, and so on. If we’ve got to memorize, at least we can do it in ways that are fun and that play to students’ individual preferences and strengths.

“Perhaps my favorite aspect of working at Putney is meeting people—students or faculty—who are great models of personal growth and self actualization. The resources we have here are incredible. A lot of the faculty is very talented, gifted even. I am excited to see a renewed emphasis on languages and international awareness. Culturally it’s enriching. In terms of our school’s progressive goals, it can help students see the value of a more open, fair world. It also supports cognitive flexibility in students. As someone who speaks two languages regularly and fluently, I know that I have had thoughts that I could never have had if I didn’t speak two languages.

Learning to be truly multi-lingual can be transformative on a personal level.”

Licence d’ Anglais, (B.A. English Studies) Bordeaux University, France. Maitrise d’Anglais, (M. A. English Literature) Bordeaux University, France.

Jane Baker

Is the Technology Director at Putney Pictured with her son, Sam “What role should communication and computer technologies play at a school where the curriculum incorporates farm work and where emphasis is placed on tuning out media messages? My focus as Technology Director is on two primary objectives. First, I’d like every student on campus to be fluent in using the computer applications that can help them meet their academic and artistic goals here, where the curriculum is rigorous and expectations high. Second, I want all graduates to be prepared for life post-graduation. The world beyond Putney expects considerable digital and technological literacy from everyone.

“Although new technology always meets with resistance at first, I see the argument quite simply. We expect students to muck stalls in the barn but we would be shortchanging them if we sent them into the stall with no instruction and no shovel. Likewise, if we expect students to accomplish the extraordinary amount of academic and artistic work we require from them each trimester, it is our obligation to provide them with both the technological tools and instruction for their use.”

B.A. Drama, Hofstra University. M.S. Instructional Technology, West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

Lorne Johnson Teaches History

“One anecdote that I believe is emblematic of the attitude of our students to the expectations of the community comes from Marty Brennan-Sawyer, our Executive Chef. He was woken up one morning by a call from the morning cook, whose alarm had not gone off. It’s still before 7:00 am and breakfast is supposed to be under way, now! Crisis. As he races to the KDU (Kitchen-Dining Unit) Marty frantically plans for an instant breakfast of cold cereal served with profuse apologies.

But when he arrives he finds breakfast being served (not the planned menu, but breakfast just the same) and the dish crew functioning. ‘Go home, Marty!’ calls the student who is kitchen boss. ‘We’ve got it under control.’ Of course, they broke in through an unlocked window to pull it off.

“Those of us who stay at Putney rise pretty well to the challenge of living in a community. This is a great place for taking on responsibility—and for taking on enormously valuable academic, athletic, artistic, and work experiences. The student who does well here has some self-motivation and self-understanding intrinsically. To be honest, those qualities aren’t always immediately apparent in 14 year-olds, but often blossom once a child gets here. Our students learn to self-actualize intellectually, athletically, and artistically while experiencing the mythical life of the Jeffersonian yeoman farmer. The Putney experience really helps us to comprehend the world precisely because we have lived apart from it.”

A.B. Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard.

M.A. History (Modern European Social and Intellectual), University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Jim Taylor

is Putney’s Plant Manager Jim Taylor thought he might become a psychologist. At least that’s what he studied at Amherst. But after graduating he joined the Peace Corps. Returning to America, he got married and started a family. Faced with immediate financial pressures, he started a contracting business specializing in “green” constructions. In 1985, he joined the staff at Putney as Plant Manager.

Here he has pushed long and hard to make the campus as ecofriendly as possible. (Witness, for example, the windmills and solar panels around campus.) He has also put his four long-ago years studying psychology at Amherst to good use.

“I love working with the kids on the creation and implementation of green technologies. Students question everything—the science behind a particular technology, the bona fides of a particular reference work, even the dynamics of their own groups when they’re working together. Helping them sort things out and balance their curiosity with their resources is my favorite part of what I do here.

“I’ve experienced Putney both as an employee and as a parent.

My daughter and two sons spent their high school years here, and they had some brilliant teachers. Putney gave them an opportunity to try things like metal sculpture and woods crew and being the barn head—undertakings that they weren’t sure they wanted to form their entire lives around but knew they might not have the opportunity to dabble in during college or later. And, indeed, they didn’t become artists or woodsmen or farmers. One is in business, one is a teacher, and one is a college counselor. But all three think of Putney as the place where they made life-long friends and got their broadest and deepest experiences.”

A.B. Psychology, Amherst College.

Ben Freeman

is Putney’s Dean of Students Pictured with his wife, Jennie, son, Chip, and daughter, Sage.

“My job is to make sure that Putney’s residential life program serves the school’s mission—that it helps students develop an intellectual and moral foundation for life-long growth.

Certainly at Putney, where we stretch ourselves academically, artistically, and athletically (and find great pleasure in the stretching), we are able to inspire adolescents and shift attitudes. It helps in no small measure that the adults here genuinely enjoy being with the students. They make residential life feel safe, comfortable, and joyful.

“Of course, part of any Dean of Students’ job is to enforce the rules, which means that some days I’m far less joyful than the rest of the school community. But from the rule breakers as much as from the rule abiders I think I’ve come to understand some of the qualities of the ideal Putney student: He or she should be open to engaging fully in life. Ideally a new student intuits that there are valuable lessons in the work, outdoors, arts, academic, and residential aspects of life here. The ideal student is interested in learning not only what can be gained from community life but what can be given in return.

“Fortunately, the ideal student abounds here. Many become so passionate about the idea of a life fully lived that, by the time they graduate, they are eagerly teaching others about some thing or another they have come to love so much.”

B.A. Geology, Colby College.

M.A. Private School Leadership, Teacher’s College, Columbia University.

Emily Jones

is Putney School’s Director Pictured with her husband, Gordon, and daughter, Alice.

Emily started her teaching career at the Maru a Pula school in Gaborone, Botswana. After an interval in the United States (studying at Yale and teaching at the Taft School), she and her husband, Gordon, founded the American Pacific International School in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Immediately prior to coming to Putney, Emily headed the upper school at the Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon.

“In most cultures in most periods of history, adolescents have not been considered ‘children’ as they are now in the US. They have been working, contributing to their families and communities. I believe it’s a great gift to adolescents to allow them to be useful, to be genuinely needed. At Putney, students work alongside us on the farm, in the kitchen, and in the woods. Usually it’s a lot of fun; sometimes it’s also very hard. That is invaluable.

“I also believe that one of the best gifts that a parent can give their child is to put them in the company of smart adults who like teenagers. One of the aspects of Putney that most delights me is that the adults really want to spend time with the students. They want to learn with them and to work and play with them. Putney alumni tell me that they remember their years here as the single most pivotal, transformative time in their lives. It was a time when they felt respected and they learned to think, ask good questions, and participate fully.

That suggests that Putney is a far cry from the kind of school that teaches students how to quickly and correctly answer questions on a multiple choice test.”

A.B. History, Harvard University.

M.A. History (Emphasis on African History), Yale University.

James Wallace is the School’s Music Director.

“Music has always been a substantial part of Putney culture, beginning in the early decades when legendary music directors created a conservatory-like atmosphere and when Sing occupied 90 minutes of the school day instead of today’s 35. But today the School’s other academic, artistic, and activity offerings are far more demanding of students’ time. Given that and a host of other new constraints, what role can we realistically expect music education to play here? How should we apportion resources?

Should we support performance over composition? Classical music over jazz and popular? Should we stretch to respond to student interests or should we rein students in to study only what has long been a sort of Putney canon?

These would be uncomfortable questions at any school. They are especially so for a school like Putney that proudly remembers its golden age of music but that considers itself both progressive and responsive. I think that, for us, nostalgia can be a trap. Yes, surely we need to build on our legacy and push ourselves always to offer the best music education and performance opportunities we can to players who come to Putney with an already highly developed skill. But we also need to offer a broadening, inspiring music education to students with middle-level or beginning skills, or even with no skills at all. Any Putney students interested in any aspect of music should find themselves enjoying this program’s time, respect, resources, and support. To satisfy that obligation we have to be prepared to constantly re-examine and re-invent our relationship to our own legacy.”

B. Mus. Church Music and Organ Performance, Pacific Lutheran University.

M. Mus. Church Music, Pacific Lutheran University.

Advanced Studies Certificate in Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television, University of Southern California.

Janine Hamilton ’73 teaches Video, Drama, and Algebra, and is the mother of Xia Reyes ’11.

“I returned to Putney 35 years after my graduation and about 25 years into my teaching career largely so that my daughter could study here. I couldn’t think of a better placement for her in terms of the depth and breadth of experience available.

Being a dorm head caused me to reengage with my own memories of being a student here, like of nights staying up very late in the dorm with friends, laughing; sitting in a friend’s room talking while learning to put our hair in cornrows; and the near daily, crushing games of Buck Buck on the East Lawn.

Being at Putney is the sort of experience a person never wants to let go of. I am so glad to be back, where students want to do rather than just be taught. Even in Algebra, they are happy to discover the rules and the methods for themselves. I find that when my Algebra students take on the discovery process, they enjoy themselves and, more importantly, remember the discovery.

“I teach in three disciplines, one of them very disparate from the other two. Still, there is an ultimate question that I pose to students in Algebra, Video, and Drama. ‘Does it work?’

If they’ve really found their own way, if I haven’t gotten in the way of their own process of doing and discovery, they are usually able to critique their own work with real insight.”

B.A. Film Studies, Hunter College.

Michael Sardinas is the Assistant Director of Technology.

He and his wife Jessica are dorm parents.

“Before I came to Putney, some of my favorite life experiences had been working in educational technology, teaching horseback riding, doing woodland trail maintenance, and being an R.A. (Resident Assistant) in college. Now here I am, working in technology, helping in the horse program, taking kids camping, and living with 20 boys in a dorm.

I love when our dorm does something all together that is simple and spontaneous, like having a water fight. We’ve had midnight pancakes in my apartment. My wife and I and our four-year-old, Hannah, hang out in the common room with the guys. Hannah is too shy to talk to some of them, but she gets emotionally attached, just the same. One evening one of the boys burst into the common room and blurted out, ‘I just helped give birth to a baby cow!’ The next day Hannah got to go see the calf.

What other technology guy gets to work in a barn? What other father in Vermont gets to parent a preschooler in a house with kids from Japan, China, Mexico, and Korea—all of whom want to have fun with him and his wife and daughter? Sure, sometimes dorm life gets intense, and it’s times like that when I’m glad I’ve had a few years of experience with a child and her ups and downs. Because having been an R.A. is not really what prepared me to be a dorm parent. Having been a parent is.”

B.A. Computer Science, Marlboro College.

M.S. Internet Engineering, Marlboro College.

Dawn & Nathan Zweig

Dawn teaches Science (areas of special interest are Ecology, Environmental Studies, and Sustainability).

Nathan teaches English from a background in Philosophy and the History of Math & Science.

Dawn: “Before arriving at Putney we heard that teachers and students shared a drive to learn and build community and respect.

Now I know that it is true. For example, an administrator had a cherished pet llama that died. In the spirit of sustainability and education, she donated Bailey’s body to the Arts and Science programs. An Art teacher and I worked long into the night with over thirty students who volunteered their time. We skinned and dissected Bailey, and harvested his organs for study. Everyone was respectful and considerate; he was still beloved. We learned a great deal about anatomy, physiology, and conservation of resources. More importantly, we acquired a deeper reverence for the inexorable cycles of life and death.”

Nathan: “Life’s essential questions are reflected in the literature and science we study. But, at Putney, it is the students’ own experiences that serve as the cornerstone of their education.

I love watching kids in the throes of wonder. Putney provides an arena for students to ask meaningful and relevant questions, to be confounded, and to have the insights that constitute real moral and intellectual growth. Incidentally, through that process they realize that they are, in no small measure, their teachers’ intellectual companions. Other schools are ‘owned’ by the faculty, and students ‘attend.’ Not so here.”

Dawn: B.S. Biology, University of Maryland.

M.S. Environmental Studies, Antioch New England.

Nathan: B.A. Philosophy and History of Math & Science, St. John’s College.

M.A. Philosophy, Northern Illinois University.

Cathy Abbott and her husband, Mic Baisley

are zoologists who have expanded their interests during their years at Putney.

They have taken students to do field work (“a year’s worth of living in two weeks”) in Kenya and Nicaragua, mist-netting and banding songbirds, for example, or working on sustainability projects. Their backpacking trips with students build backcountry skills in wilderness settings. And every spring they and many students volunteer on a rainy night of the amphibians’ choice to help salamanders migrate to vernal ponds. The task involves headlamps, safety vests, and walkie-talkies. For a salamander, the intervention means that the long trek home will be interrupted not by an unceremonious squishing underneath the wheel of a car but by a friendly hand and some mild jostling as Cathy, Mic, or a student scampers with it across the road.

Cathy: “As students mature at Putney they come to represent an extraordinary mix of accomplishment and inventiveness in the sciences and arts and in general life skills. They ask good questions, analyze evidence, think critically on a variety of levels, care for each other and the animals and land on a very deep level, and really push themselves with physical and mental work.”

Mic: “I often work with students on alternative energy projects like photovoltaic panels or wind turbines. When I do, I teach the science related to the problem and to the solution. But equally importantly, I teach the kids how to do the physical labor of installing the green technologies. The hands-on work usually provokes an ‘Aha!’ moment. Students realize they have reliable new understandings and skill sets.”

Cathy: B.S. Zoology, University of Wisconsin.

M.S. Zoology, University of Maine.

Mic: B.S. Zoology, University of Maine.

Juan Rodríguez teaches 10th and 11th grade English.

“I feel like this school is a great find for me, personally.

I have studied and taught in some schools in which tradition is valued perhaps too highly, and change is looked upon with great suspicion because there’s ‘no need to change something that has worked so well for so long.’ While there is something inherently beautiful about many traditions, I am happy to be at a place that can perceive education as something organic, as well. At Putney, by the founder’s design, experiential learning co-exists with some traditional instruction, and creative means of assessment co-exist with some traditional means. The inclusion of experience and creativity in the founder’s vision has led us to develop internal processes for openly examining our curriculum and campus life. Remaining faithful to our core mission actually requires us to willingly consider change.

“For example, we’re continuing to diversify our faculty and student population. How can we meaningfully respond to the needs and expectations of community members from outside the dominant culture? A more conservative and tradition-driven school might try to help everyone conform to its way of life. At Putney we are actively looking to create a way of life that incorporates the perspectives and customs that new members bring. We hope to develop our cultural fluency so that we neither marginalize new members nor remain institutionally unenlightened by them.”

B.A. Philosophy (with a Minor in History), University of Texas at Austin.

Elisabeth Woutera Pasterkamp

is a member of history faculty, Director of the Work Program, and Director of Afternoon Activities.

“Lies” (pronounced “Leese”) teaches European History and is the director of the School’s Work and Afternoon Activities programs. For over more than thirty years, Lies has worn many other hats, most notably directing the Evening Activities program for fifteen years and serving as the faculty representative to the Board of Trustees for at least six terms.

“I came to Putney right after finishing college in the Netherlands. I intended to stay for a one-year internship.

But each morning I could see the light change on Mount Monadnock. I could run, bike and ski on the school’s magnificent trails. Somehow I couldn’t manage to leave either the community or the location.

“I started teaching European History after I finished my graduate studies at Dartmouth College in 1986. I love teaching the history of my continent and challenging the students to reach beyond their own experience both in space and in time. I base my course work on a mixture of primary resources and literature.

“I also love directing the Work Program and the Afternoon Activity Program. The students here really ‘get’ the value of work for the broader perspective it gives, as well as for the skills they learn and work experience they acquire. Part of what we do with the Work, Evening, and Afternoon Programs, is impart a real hands-on, experiential perspective.”

B.A. Economics and Geography, Vrije Universiteit, The Netherlands.

M.A. European Studies, Dartmouth College.

Advanced Studies, University of Amsterdam.

Jennifer Desmaisons is the School’s Director of College Counseling.

“Living on campus helps me in my role as college counselor.

By the time I start working formally with students during their junior year, I have interacted with most of them for a year or two. I may have been their dorm head or advisor, or shared meals in the KDU. We may have harmonized at Sing or been on a Long Spring trip together. By knowing students in different arenas, I am better able to guide them when they set out to identify aspects of themselves that they might not realize are important in the college selection and application process. Many students begin the process by thinking only in terms of academic strengths and potential majors. Much more powerful is when a student thinks about himself or herself as a whole person, with specific preferences, needs, and strengths that can be fully met at the appropriate college.

“Having spent eleven years working on the college side of college admissions, I am highly aware of what makes a student’s application rise to the top of the pile. But long before Putney students and I start discussing their application forms, we look at what the students, in their increasing maturity, know about themselves. We talk about what most inspires and motivates them, and I introduce them to information about the universe of colleges and about specific colleges within that universe. In many ways what I’m doing is helping them confidently take the reins of their own lives. There’s a wonderful ‘Aha!’ moment that happens for many students as they progress from feeling fearful and overwhelmed by the college process to feeling excited and optimistic.”

B.A. Human Ecology, College of the Atlantic.

Glenn Littledale ’76 is a member of the science faculty.

“The world is awash with in high school and college students who know the content of their science text books but can’t think their way out of a paper bag. That’s not what grad schools want, that’s not what labs want and that’s not what makes for an informed citizenry. In science teaching, we should spend considerable time allowing students to discover ideas themselves. This process trains students to ask the right questions and to figure out how to answer them. While time constraints won’t allow us to do that in the purest sense, discovery has to be much of what we teach, because discovery is what science is about.

“In a Putney science classroom you’ll find some students on track for Ph.Ds from Ivy League institutions, some students struggling to keep their nostrils above water, and most students somewhere in the middle. Often a teacher is preoccupied meeting the needs of the brilliant and the struggling. These are wonderful and rewarding students to teach, but we can’t ignore the middle. Here, with focused attention, that large group, who often specialize in not drawing attention to themselves, can’t help but reveal their thoughts. They may not realize that they are ready to take flight scientifically, but eventually they emerge. They learn to ask scientific questions independently and to structure the pursuit of satisfying answers. At Putney, we teach our students how to do science.

They won’t get stuck in paper bags.”

B. A. Physics (with Minor in Mathematics), Temple University.

M.Ed (Science and Math concentration), Temple University.

Emily Jones

is Putney School’s Director.

Emily started her teaching career at the Maru a Pula school in Gaborone, Botswana. After an interval in the United States (studying at Yale and teaching at the Taft School), she and her husband, Gordon, founded the American Pacific International School in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Immediately prior to coming to Putney, Emily headed the upper school at the Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon.

“In most cultures in most periods of history, adolescents have not been considered ‘children’ as they are now in the US. They have been working, contributing to their families and communities. I believe it’s a great gift to adolescents to allow them to be useful, to be genuinely needed. At Putney, students work alongside us on the farm, in the kitchen, and in the woods. Usually it’s a lot of fun; sometimes it’s also very hard. That is invaluable.

“I also believe that one of the best gifts that a parent can give their child is to put them in the company of smart adults who like teenagers. One of the aspects of Putney that most delights me is that the adults really want to spend time with the students. They want to learn with them and to work and play with them. Putney alumni tell me that they remember their years here as the single most pivotal, transformative time in their lives. It was a time when they felt respected and they learned to think, ask good questions, and participate fully.

That suggests that Putney is a far cry from the kind of school that teaches students how to quickly and correctly answer questions on a multiple choice test.”

A.B. History, Harvard University.

M.A. History (Emphasis on African History), Yale University.

The Putney School Elm Lea Farm 418 Houghton Brook Road Putney, Vermont, USA 05346 802.387.6219 www.putneyschool.org

Text: Rebecca Coffey • Photography: Gabriel Amadeus Cooney • Design: Good Design, LLC