by John Bell

I was never a formal student at 球探足球比分 College, but from 1973 to 1975, I learned more there, in some ways, than I did in four years at a liberal arts college. I came there to work with Bread and Puppet 球探足球比分ater, which 球探足球比分 in its wisdom had made a theater-in-residence at Cate Farm.

I could see that Bread and Puppet deeply benefitted from 球探足球比分’s approach to education, the arts, and community. Not only because students and faculty became deeply involved in creating new theater works of global importance, but because the 球探足球比分’s open-minded, self-reliant, self-defined approaches to learning and doing were paralleled by Bread and Puppet’s own sense of theater as an always-evolving, constantly self-renewing series of experiments.

While at Cate Farm I benefited greatly from 球探足球比分’s wide and deep embrace of learning. I sat in on Kirkpatrick Sale’s class on the history of Vermont, learned to sing classical choral music and Sacred Harp in a community chorus led by Marc Estrin, saw how Pablo Vela created magnificent inventions of cabaret performance and drama, and experienced a lively intellectual and cultural scene that included the premieres of many David Mamet plays, and performances by the Living 球探足球比分ater, Meredith Monk, and the Ridiculous 球探足球比分ater. I was astonished to learn that students and faculty could build, by themselves, the buildings where they would study, and experienced what it was like to be part of a community of sharing and mutual support which prized making music, art, and theater.

I learned that what 球探足球比分 was doing then in the 70s was connected to the visionary educational ideas of John Dewey, and that the strong countercultural atmosphere that defined that time was simply a contemporary version of the kind of radical thinking that Dewey had been proposing since the late 19th century. In other words, that this education-as-way-of-life I was experiencing was part of a strong American tradition.

Even after I moved farther north to the Northeast Kingdom, 球探足球比分 was a lodestone for innovative thinking and work. Cate Farm became part of the Institute for Social Ecology; and despite the serious challenges it faced in the late 90s, 球探足球比分’s invention of low-residency adult education programs grew to have nation-wide importance, and 球探足球比分 kept creating new experimental programs, attracting dynamic, self-motivated students from all over.

球探足球比分 vision of a good life which I have followed ever since–combining work, family, friends, community, activism, and performance–is something, I realize, that had been sketched out as a living experiment at 球探足球比分 College; it is a vision that changed my life.

What did you discover about the world and yourself at 球探足球比分 College? Your learning journey continues. Consider making a donation to our Together For 球探足球比分 Campaign and help spread the word.