The Putney School
Encyclopedia
The Putney School is an independent high school
in Putney, Vermont
. It was founded in 1935 by Carmelita Hinton
. It is a co-educational, college-preparatory boarding school, with a day-student component, located 12 miles (19.3 km) outside of Brattleboro, Vermont
. Emily Jones is the director. The school enrolls approximately 225 students on a 500 acre-hilltop campus with classrooms, dormitories, and a dairy farm on which all of its students work before graduating.
The school emphasizes academics, a work program, the arts, and physical activity. The school's curriculum is intended to teach the value of labor, art, community, ethics, and scholarship for individual growth.
Most of the buildings on the school's campus were partially or completely built by Putney students and faculty, with the exception of the most recent additions, the Michael S. Currier Center and the Field House. This 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
", which means that it is expected that its net use of carbon energy over a year will equal zero. It does so by innovative design and construction features plus a field of solar panels.
The Boston Globe wrote: "The school's combination of a New England work ethic and a strong academic program, its pioneering of coeducation and community service and its emphasis on music and the arts have made it a model for other independent schools...Putney remains committed to the total community of work and schooling that goes far beyond the more limited pieces of its tradition adopted by other schools."
The school is a member of the Independent Curriculum Group and in 2009 had a 10 year accreditation review by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges
.
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
in Putney, Vermont
Putney, Vermont
Putney is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,634 at the 2000 census.On December 26, 1753 Col.Josiah Willard led a proprietors' petition for a Putney charter which was issued by Governor Benning Wentworth of the New Hampshire Grants under King George II of England...
. It was founded in 1935 by Carmelita Hinton
Carmelita Hinton
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.-Early life:...
. It is a co-educational, college-preparatory boarding school, with a day-student component, located 12 miles (19.3 km) outside of Brattleboro, Vermont
Brattleboro, Vermont
Brattleboro, originally Brattleborough, is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States, located in the southeast corner of the state, along the state line with New Hampshire. The population was 12,046 at the 2010 census...
. Emily Jones is the director. The school enrolls approximately 225 students on a 500 acre-hilltop campus with classrooms, dormitories, and a dairy farm on which all of its students work before graduating.
Most of the buildings on the school's campus were partially or completely built by Putney students and faculty, with the exception of the most recent additions, the Michael S. Currier Center and the Field House. This 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
Zero energy building
A zero-energy building, also known as a zero net energy building, Net-Zero Energy Building , or Net Zero Building, is a popular term to describe a building with zero net energy consumption and zero carbon emissions annually. Zero energy buildings can be independent from the energy grid supply...
", which means that it is expected that its net use of carbon energy over a year will equal zero. It does so by innovative design and construction features plus a field of solar panels.
The Boston Globe wrote: "The school's combination of a New England work ethic and a strong academic program, its pioneering of coeducation and community service and its emphasis on music and the arts have made it a model for other independent schools...Putney remains committed to the total community of work and schooling that goes far beyond the more limited pieces of its tradition adopted by other schools."
New England Association of Schools and Colleges
The New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc. is the U.S. regional accreditation association providing educational accreditation for all levels of education, from pre-kindergarten to the doctoral level, in the six-state New England region. It also provides accreditation for some...
.
Notable alumni
According to The Putney School 2008 Alumni Directory, students at The Putney School have included:- David AmramDavid AmramDavid Amram is an American composer, musician, conductor, and writer. As a classical composer and performer, his integration of jazz , ethnic and folk music has led him to work with the likes of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Willie Nelson, Langston...
'48 composer - Tim AschTim AschTimothy Asch , was a noted anthropologist, photographer, and ethnographic filmmaker. Along with John Marshall and Robert Gardner, Asch played an important role in the development of visual anthropology...
'51 anthropologist, filmmaker - Carlos BuhlerCarlos BuhlerCarlos Buhler is one of America's leading high altitude mountaineers. Buhler's specialty is high-standard mountaineering characterized by small teams, no oxygen, minimal gear and equipment, and relatively low amounts of funding; yielding first ascents of difficult routes in challenging...
'72 mountaineer - Dave Cole '96 sculptor
- Carlton CuseCarlton CuseCarlton Cuse is an AmericanEmmy Award winning screenwriter and producer, most famous as executive producer andscreenwriter for the American television series Lost for...
'77 television writer/executive- "LOST" - Tim Daly '74 actor
- Barnaby DorfmanBarnaby DorfmanBarnaby Dorfman is an American businessman. He is the founder and CEO of Foodista. His previous employment includes a role as chief product officer at kyte.tv, and executive positions at Peerflix.com and Amazon's A9.com....
'86 inventor, technology products - Mahdi ElMandjraMahdi ElMandjraMahdi Elmandjra is a Moroccan futurist, economist and sociologist.-Education:Elmandjra started his high-school education at Lycée Lyautey in 1944 where he got his Baccalaureat in 1948 . He then went to Putney School, Vermont, U.S.A. before joining Cornell University, Ithaca, New York where he...
'50 MoroccanMoroccoMorocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
futurist, economist and sociologist - Kai T. EriksonKai T. EriksonKai Theodor Erikson is an American sociologist, noted as an authority on the social consequences of catastrophic events. He served as the 76th president of the American Sociological Association....
'49 sociologist - David GriffithsDavid GriffithsDavid J. Griffiths is a U.S. physicist and educator. He has worked at Reed College since 1978, where he is currently the Howard Vollum Professor of Science. He is easily confused with the late physicist David J. Griffiths of Oregon State University.Griffiths is a graduate of The Putney School...
'60 physicist, teacher - Andrea GruberAndrea GruberAndrea Gruber is an award winning American dramatic soprano particularly admired for her interpretations of the works of Puccini, Verdi, and Wagner.-Early life and education:...
soprano - Lee HirschLee HirschLee Hirsch is a documentary filmmaker. Hirsch is a graduate of The Putney School in Vermont. He wrote and directed the documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony....
'90 filmmaker - Joan HintonJoan HintonJoan Hinton was a nuclear physicist and one of the few women who worked for the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. She lived in the People's Republic of China after 1949, where she and her husband Erwin Engst participated in China’s efforts at developing a socialist economy, working extensively in...
'39 atomic physicist, farmer in China - Jeffrey HollenderJeffrey HollenderJeffrey Hollender is an American businessperson, entrepreneur, author, and activist. He was well known for his roles as CEO, co-founder, and later Chief Inspired Protagonist and Executive Chairperson of Seventh Generation Inc., the country's largest distributor of non-toxic, all-natural cleaning,...
'73 CEO Seventh Generation Inc. - Reid HoffmanReid HoffmanReid G. Hoffman is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Hoffman is best known as the co-founder of LinkedIn, a social network used primarily for business connections and job searching.-Early education and career:...
'85 web entrepreneur, co-founder of LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a business-related social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. , LinkedIn reports more than 120 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories. The site is available in English, French,... - Felicity HuffmanFelicity HuffmanFelicity Kendall Huffman is an American film, stage, and television actress. She is known for her role as executive producer Dana Whitaker on the ABC television show Sports Night , which earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination, and as hectic supermom Lynette Scavo on the ABC show Desperate...
'81 actor - Kathleen Kennedy TownsendKathleen Kennedy TownsendKathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend , is an American attorney who was the Lieutenant Governor of Maryland from 1995 to 2003. She ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Maryland in 2002. In 2010 she became the chair of the non-profit American Bridge, an organization that will raise funds for Democratic...
'69 Lieutenant Governor, Maryland - Kerry KennedyKerry KennedyMary Kerry Kennedy is an American human rights activist and writer. She is the seventh of the eleven children of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy. She was known as Kerry Kennedy Cuomo from 1991 until 2003.-Early life:...
'77 lawyer and human rights activist - Bill KochBill Koch (skier)Bill Koch is an American ski racer and the first world-class cross-country skier from the United States.A native of Brattleboro, Vermont, he is a graduate of the nearby The Putney School in Putney, Vermont. He originally competed in the NIS in the Nordic combined, but later switched to cross...
'73 Olympic cross-country skiingCross-country skiingCross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...
medalist - Tea LeoniTéa LeoniElizabeth Téa Pantaleoni , better known by her stage name Téa Leoni, is an American actress. She has starred in a wide range of films including Jurassic Park III, The Family Man, Deep Impact, Fun with Dick and Jane, Spanglish, Bad Boys, and Ghost Town.-Early life:Leoni was born in New York City...
(Pantaleoni) '84 actor - Christopher Lehmann-HauptChristopher Lehmann-HauptChristopher Lehmann-Haupt is an American journalist, critic and novelist who has worked in the field of books all of his professional career. He began as an editor for various New York City publishing houses, among them Holt, Rinehart and Winston and The Dial Press, from where he moved in 1965 to...
journalist, critic, novelist - J. Anthony LukasJ. Anthony LukasJay Anthony Lukas, aka J. Anthony Lucas , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and author, probably best known for his 1985 book Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families, a classic study of race relations and school busing in Boston, Massachusetts, as...
'51 Pulitzer prizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning journalist and author - Sally MannSally MannSally Mann is an American photographer, best known for her large black-and-white photographs—at first of her young children, then later of landscapes suggesting decay and death.-Early life and education:...
'69 fine-art photographer - Joanna MilesJoanna MilesJoanna Miles is an American actress.Miles was born in Nice, France, the daughter of Jeanne Miles, an American painter, and Johannes Schiefer, a French painter art curator. She immigrated to the United States, and was naturalized a citizen, in 1941...
'58 original cast member on All My ChildrenAll My ChildrenAll My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most... - Adrian MorrisAdrian MorrisAdrian Grant Morris was an English painter. Following a successful retrospective exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in London in May/June, 2008, works were included in their mixed Autumn exhibition, 2009...
painter - Errol MorrisErrol MorrisErrol Mark Morris is an American director. In 2003, The Guardian put him seventh in its list of the world's 40 best directors. Also in 2003, his film The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.-Early life and...
'65 filmmaker - Nell NewmanNell NewmanElinor Teresa Newman is a former child actress who performed under the name of Nell Potts. She is an environmentalist, biologist, and a prominent supporter of sustainable agriculture, who became an entrepreneur when she founded an organic food and pet food production company, Newman's Own...
'78 co-founder/owner, Newman's Own - Heather NovaHeather NovaHeather Nova, is a Bermudian singer-songwriter and poet. She has released eight full-length albums and has found lasting success in Germany where two of her albums South and Storm have made their way into the Top-5 of German official album chart.-Biography:Heather Nova was born in Bermuda...
'83 musician and songwriter - Ken OlinKen OlinKenneth Edward "Ken" Olin is an American actor, director and producer. He is known for his starring role on the television series Thirtysomething, and most recently as Executive Producer, director, and recurring guest star of the television series Brothers & Sisters .-Career:As an actor, Olin...
'72 actor, director and TV producer - Jonathan PielJonathan PielJonathan Piel is an American science journalist and editor.-At the Scientific American:He became the editor of Scientific American in June 1984 and left the magazine in August 1994...
science journalist, past editor of Scientific AmericanScientific AmericanScientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics... - Noel RockmoreNoel RockmoreNoel Rockmore was born Noel Montgomery Davis to mother Gladys Rockmore Davis and father Floyd Davis in New York City. Rockmore was an American painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. He claims to have produced over fifteen thousand works of art in his lifetime...
'47 painter, portraitist - Jonathan RosenbaumJonathan RosenbaumJonathan Rosenbaum is an American film critic. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for the Chicago Reader from 1987 until 2008, when he retired at the age of 65...
'61 film critic - Jonathan SchellJonathan SchellJonathan Edward Schell is an author and visiting fellow at Yale University, whose work primarily deals with nuclear weapons.-Career:His work has appeared in The Nation, The New Yorker, and TomDispatch...
'61 author - Wallace ShawnWallace ShawnWallace Michael Shawn , sometimes credited as Wally Shawn, is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, author, voice artist, and intellectual. His best-known film roles include Wally Shawn in My Dinner with Andre , Vizzini in The Princess Bride , and debate teacher Mr...
'61 actor, playwright - Lucy SheltonLucy SheltonLucy Shelton is an American soprano best known for her performance of contemporary music. She graduated from The Putney School in 1961 and Pomona College in 1965.-External links:* musician profile...
'61 soprano - Alexis StewartAlexis StewartAlexis Gilbert "Lexie" Stewart is the only child of Martha Stewart and her husband Andrew. She was the co-host of Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer on Sirius Satellite Radio, and Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer on the Hallmark Channel, with co-host Jennifer Hutt.-Career:Stewart previously...
'83 television host, daughter of Martha StewartMartha StewartMartha Stewart is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising...
Notable teachers
- Fernando GerassiFernando GerassiFernando Gerassi was a Sephardic Jew born in Turkey. He was an accomplished artist and exhibited alongside Picasso before volunteering to fight in the Spanish Civil War....
(artist) - John H. CaldwellJohn H. CaldwellJohn Homer Caldwell was an American nordic skier who competed in the 1950s and later wrote a series of books in the United States that popularized cross-country skiing in that country....
(nordic skier & Olympic coach)