A Message from the Director - The Putney School

A new tradition? January’s
Chinese New Year celebration
included sparklers for the
whole school, and an impressive
fireworks display.
A Message from the Director
Dear Putney alumni, parents, and friends,
Emily Jones
Director of
The Putney School
“Ever tried, ever failed. No matter. Try again.
Fail again. Fail better.” Samuel Beckett
Putney has always been known for turning out
creative people. These days creativity is often
called innovation or entrepreneurship, but in
reality these are all mindsets that involve having
what seem like good ideas and setting about
finding out whether they are actually good ideas
by trial and error. Whether one is writing music,
writing computer code, or identifying the cause
of a disease like Warren Winkelstein ’39, who
recently passed away, the wastebasket will be
full of trials, and of errors.
The traditional academic world, however, both
in secondary school and in higher education, is
organized so that error most often means failure,
and is quickly penalized. We all talk a lot about
overcoming the fear of failure, but it can effectively
derail a student or aspiring scholar’s career.
Teachers tell students to think for themselves, but
if a student’s thinking (based on limited knowledge
and experience, which is why he is a student) turns
out not to be right, he tends to be rewarded by a
poor grade. A grad student who does research for a
Ph.D. that proves a negative rather than a positive
is less likely to be granted his degree. An assistant
professor that wants tenure is going to be very
careful not to risk making mistakes.
The non-academic world, on the other hand,
is generally more forgiving, because it has to be.
Most entrepreneurs have failed before they
succeeded, and this is not counted against them.
Many, perhaps most, adults work in fields in which
success is less easily measured than by either grades
or profits, but we all recognize the two steps
forward and one step back method of making
progress, and don’t expect everything to always
go as planned.
We are working hard at Putney to make sure that
we actually mean it when we tell students not to
be afraid to take risks, and not to be afraid of failure.
Students are taught how to learn from their
mistakes, rather than how to simply avoid the risk
2 Putney post

of making any. It is sometimes hard to convince the students we
mean it. It would certainly be easier for everyone if we taught in
the traditional way in which, if students simply do what they are
told, they will be guaranteed success.
Our faculty must also be willing to take risks, because there are no
models out there for them to copy. They learn from many sources,
but together with their colleagues they must create their own curriculum
and pedagogy. We are fortunate that we have literally
hundreds of applicants for jobs at Putney, and have been able to
hire outstanding teachers in every department. In this issue, you
will find articles from English and Music, and we hope to have
faculty voices included frequently in future issues of the Post.
All the best,
Emily
cameron ’12 and Friend
Emily H. Jones, Director
2012–2013 Trustees
Tonia Wheeler P’99, Chair
Ira T. Wender P’77, ’89, Vice Chair
Randall Smith, Treasurer
Pat Dodge, Clerk
Kevin Feal-Staub P’15, Faculty Trustee
Janine Hamilton ’73, P’11, Faculty Trustee
Nicolas Engst-Matthews ’13, Stuent Trustee
Sophie Rodenbush ’13, Stuent Trustee
Lakshman Achuthan ’84
Wilfredo Benitez ’81
Jill Carr P’09
Lee Combrinck-Graham ’59
Tim Daly ’74, P’07
Freddy Friedman P’12
Joshua Rabb Goldberg ’75
Dana Hokin ’84
Emily H. Jones
Peggy King Jorde ’76, P’10
Josh Laughlin ’82
William New, M.D.
Franz W. Paasche ’79
Peter Pereira ’52
Robert G. Raynolds ’69
Marni Hinton Rosner ’69, P’04,’07
Anne S. Stephens W ’54
James E. Thompson ’74
Putney Post
The Putney School
Elm Lea Farm
418 Houghton Brook Road
Putney, VT 05346
802-387-5566
www.putneyschool.org
The Putney Post is published twice
yearly for the alumni, parents, and friends
of The Putney School. We welcome your
comments and ideas. Please direct your
correspondence to: The Editor, Putney Post,
Elm Lea Farm, 418 Houghton Brook Road,
Putney, VT 05346; 802-387-6238;
email: putneypost@putneyschool.org
Editorial Board: Christie Baskett, Rick Cowan,
Don Cuerdon, Alison Frye, Emily Jones
Publisher: Don Cuerdon
Director of Communications
Editor: Alison Frye
Alumni Relations Manager
Alumni Relations Manager: Alison Frye
Director of Development: Christie Baskett
Photographs: Don Cuerdon, Alison Frye,
Geoffrey Goodridge ’89, Georgina Graff ’12,
Annie Petersen, Krzys Piekarski,
The Putney School Archives,
Zachary P. Stephens,
Trustees Emeriti
Barbara Barnes ’41
Kate Ganz Belin ’62
Joan Williams Farr ’49
Sarah Gray Gund ’60
*George Heller ’42, P’70, ’72, ’74, ’79, G’99, ’01
Kendall Landis ’42, P’73, ’79
Bici Binger Pettit-Barron ’48, P’77,’ 79, G’07
*Deceased
WoodwardDesign
Please send address corrections and
new phone numbers to the Alumni Office,
The Putney School, Elm Lea Farm,
418 Houghton Brook Road,
Putney, VT 05346;
phone: 802-387-6213; fax: 802-387-5931;
email: cfogg@putneyschool.org
“No, there’s no use living on year after year
just to live—to take a little nap and take a
little nourishment and take a little walk. That’s
not life. If I can contribute, that’s one thing . . .
To stop creating is to die.”
founder:
carmelita
hinton
—Carmelita Hinton, quoted by
Christopher Wallace in the
Boston Globe Sunday Magazine,
November 13, 1972