Word: bard
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...creativity, perhaps, it has succeeded very well. But in aiming at individuality and community Bard has shot to the extremes and the extreme of each have confounded each other. Its individuality has tended to develop into extreme idiosyncrasies and its community spirit, into indifference...
...Bard's creative approach to education is perhaps its most distinctive feature. The traditional college, such as Harvard, emphasizes theories, history, and factual material. For instance, in a Fine Arts course here, a student learns the history, style, and development of past masters, along with the trends in modern art. At Bard he will learn to sculpt, paint, and model, with only incidental treatment of the background of the subject...
This practical approach does not stop at teaching. In the middle of every winter Bard students scatter almost literally to "the four winds" to take up jobs in industry and business for their Field Period. The Field Period consists of seven or eight weeks between the Fall and Spring terms and has been set up, according to the Bard catalogue, primarily "to afford the student a practical introduction to a profession or vocation in which he has an interest." The student may do this either for pay or voluntarily...
Student opinions of the value of the period vary. Some think it should be radically revised. They agree only that it is a most refreshing experience. One professor describes students as "running panting up the hill" to Bard when returning from these periods. One wonders whether the refreshment is worth the eight weeks of academic endeavor which are lost...
...Bard's courses are divided into four divisions: languages and literature; social sciences; the arts; and the natural sciences. Within these divisions, because of Bard's small size, it is possible to adjust offerings to the educational needs and interests of the students then in residence at the college...