Huseby House, The Putney School, Vermont
Arrived at Huseby House at The Putney School at around 8pm on a Thursday evening in June.
The school is set in wooded hills and pasture about 2½ miles from the town of Putney in Vermont.
I was accompanying my partner who was attending a reunion.
On the Friday morning, at around 8am, after a breakfast of coffee, cake and fruit, we went for a stroll around the grounds.
Beautiful.
Imagination. Courage. Co-operation.
The school combines an emphasis on creative arts and developing an enduring personal work ethic bonded by curiosity, courage and co-operation. The school’s founders wanted to establish a school which helped form alumni to have the necessary courage, imagination and tenacity to change the world.
The work ethic, courage and tenacity parts of the curriculum are delivered through a requirement that boarding students all present themselves ready for work on the farm at 5.45am every morning.
The imagination part of the curriculum is supported by the expansive and tranquil surrounds, excellent facilities for making, music, dance, art and crafts, and inspired instructors.
An English equivalent could be the former Dartington Hall School, or a variation on a few of the former Friends’ Schools.
The Putney chair — an armchair designed and fabricated by students and staff at the Putney School
Public and Private — Flags & Badges
When approaching a public school or independent school in England often the first visible signs of its function are rugby posts, hockey goals or cricket practice nets — in brief, outdoor sports facilities.
When approaching Putney School, the first thing you’ll likely see is a cow barn and solar panels.
En route from Boston I’d seen stars and stripes of every size masted in wrecking yards, used car lots, shopfronts, front yards and gardens. But the school doesn’t have a flagpole — and no American flag. And, sadly, no big old elm tree (the school’s emblem).
Although there’s no such thing as a typical English public school — they each like to think that they are different to the others and offer a unique educational experience — you will almost certainly find a chapel, or a church-sized building, which is used to celebrate some form of Christian worship in every public school.
An interesting aspect of the Putney School is that most of the buildings were built, or part-built, by the students. They’ve not yet gotten around to building a chapel or place of worship.
So, no flags, no uniforms, no religion — sounds like my kind of school.
Singing…
Instead of a daily assembly of singing hymns Putney students get together every Friday night with the school’s music director and sing. They sing for the enjoyment, for the hell of it, with enviable joy and gusto. They call it Sing.
So, after dinner on Friday afternoon, a good many visiting alumni assembled in a small hall and sang. I went along to sit in and listen to a few songs. It was a memorably joyous and moving experience. My favourite song was The Agincourt Song, as arranged by Healey Willan (b. 1880).
…and dancing
After Sing we re-assembled in another small hall for a disco. Arnold McLeod, cool dude and former pupil, strung together a few dozen tunes from the 70s. This wasn’t a time for singing…this was the time for dancing. And, as in our schooldays, the ‘naughty’ kids gathered outside to smoke, drink and laugh.
We didn’t have a car, and we hadn’t managed to connect with anyone doing a ‘beer run’ into the village, so had to rely on the generosity of others. No problem.
By the end of the disco I had made acquaintance with a good many good and generous folk, and decided my priority for Saturday was to buy beers.
The Jeffrey Campbell Theatre
The Morning After
On Saturday morning we decided to walk up a nearby mountain.
As mentioned before, my priority was to buy beer, but we thought we’d walk up a mountain first. So we did.
When we got back to the school a few more alumni had arrived to join the reunion celebrations.
Putney can boast of alumni from some very well known families, such as the Seegers. I met Anthony Seeger (the esteemed ethnomusicologist, and a cousin of the late, great Pete Seeger) briefly after the Sing session. Screen actors, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward put their daughter, Nell, into the school (and, regardless of what’s claimed on Wikipedia, where she is falsely listed as a ‘notable alumnus’, she failed to graduate); and Bob Dylan sent his adopted daughter, Maria to the school. The TV actor, Felicity Huffman graduated in ’78.
I was introduced to Kerry Kennedy, the late Robert Kennedy’s daughter, and now President of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. She’s a fairly canny problem solver, as I discovered when I tested her with the how-do-you-remove-a-bear-from-a-tree-using-only-cheese? problem. She guessed right. And we laughed. All good fun.
But my priority was to get into town and get some beer. So, our good friends, Dorian Yates, Melisa Gillis, and my partner, Doina, together with Kerry Kennedy, all piled into a car and headed into town. Yep, I went booze shopping with a Kennedy. All good fun.
Printmaking workshop
Facilities
The school has some brilliant facilities, including a forge; a woodworking area; sculpture studio; jewellery workshop; printmaking workshop; a theatre; a concert hall; a beautifully lit dance studio; music rooms; an IT area; a lovely library; and a relatively new, 100% carbon neutral, sports center.
The school is far, far better equipped than the college of higher education where I did my first degree. But, for me, (without having met any of the teachers) the school’s greatest asset is its situation, with fantastic views across Vermont woodlands and pastures, and a wonderfully calm and inspiring ambience. The school is encircled by several cross-country ski routes, and in winter the students can spend hours on good snow. The school even has its own ski-jump.
Classes of 77 & 78
So, after the official photo session and dinner the party re-started. I got to try Vermont cider for the first time, and very refreshing it is too. A few alumni had had the foresight to bring strings, tings and things, including a double bass, and formed a scratch folk-country-swing-blues-jazz band to keep people bopping ’til the early hours. All great fun.
A great weekend. I got to spend time in a very special place and meet some remarkable, talented, warm and generous folk.
On Sunday, after a mild telling-off from the organiser of the school’s alumni program (a keg of beer had gone walkabout the night before), we said our farewells over a long chatty breakfast cum brunch and accepted Katie Xxxx’s kind offer of a ride all the way to Boston — the next stop on our way to Cape Cod.
POSTSCRIPT
The writer, Peter Heller, is a Putneyite (Class of ’77). For Xmas, 2014 my partner gifted me a copy of his book, The Dog Stars. I’ll be reading it through February. If you want to join me — and maybe swap notes, you can buy a copy HERE.
Other Putneyites with non-fiction books worth reading include Eugenia (Geena) Giobbi Bone (Class of ’78), and Dorian Yates (Class of ’78).
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