Original: Education on a mountain: The Story of Black Mountain College, by Louis Adamic (1936, Harper’s Magazine)
I
Last autumn, to temporarily escape the fast pace and chaos of New York, I headed south. I had no specific plans. I thought of a few places to go, but there was no must-visit destination. One of them was Black Mountain College in North Carolina, which I had heard about since it was founded in 1933 by a group of teachers and students. They separated from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, due to a disagreement.
On the fifth day of my journey, after a pleasant hike through Virginia, I arrived at Black Mountain, a small town nestled between the Blue Ridge and Great Craggy ranges. Following local directions, I drove up the slopes of the Blue Ridge, where the autumn colors were vibrant red and gold, until I reached a huge dilapidated summer hotel-like building, which I later learned was rented by the college from the Southern YMCA, which used it as a conference camp for secretaries during July and August. Walking into the vast barn-like hall, I introduced myself to the first person I met, explaining that I had heard about the place and wanted to learn more about it.
I originally planned to stay for about an hour and then check out TVA the next day; however, I ended up staying in the guest room right away. I attributed this to Southern hospitality, although most people there seemed to be from the North. I spoke with several teachers and students, had dinner with the entire college, and continued conversing until after midnight. In short, I stayed there for two and a half months, not just overnight.
On the third day, I found myself taking notes about the place. Two weeks later, I realized that I had stumbled upon one of the most interesting and significant stories happening in America today.
II
I was not particularly thinking of Professor John Rice, who, while developing his educational philosophy over the years, publicly criticized the American educational system, desecrating the sacred cows grazing on campuses, and later became the leader of the Rollins College rebels and the president of the New College. Nor was I particularly thinking of the few professors and lecturers who continued to support Rice after he was dismissed from Rollins College, making the dispute national news and costing him his job. I admired the entire group that left Rollins College and established the New College amid the turmoil following the bank holiday.
But I particularly wanted to commend the fifteen boys and girls, averaging twenty years old, including the president of the Rollins College student body and the editor of the Rollins campus newspaper, who, alongside the rebellious professors, embarked on a seemingly impossible new college plan, at a time when no professor knew where to start or what money to use. Unlike the dismissed teachers, these fifteen students did not have to leave their comfortable dorms in Winter Park to find a place to pitch a tent. Without them, Rice and his colleagues would not even have been able to conceive of starting a new school. After the New College was announced, these students helped the teachers raise the minimum rent, leasing the hotel-like building they found in Black Mountain, purchasing necessary course equipment and several months' worth of food, and recruiting four students and three faculty members; thus, when the college opened, there were nine teachers and nineteen students.
The students and teachers collected their personal books, calling it the college library, and agreed to contribute labor voluntarily. The teachers only took out some necessary clothing and miscellaneous items from storage, averaging about $7.27 per person per month. Even so, the college nearly went bankrupt twice due to a lack of funds, ultimately saved by the collective creativity and self-sacrifice of the faculty and students.
The following year, the number of teachers increased to 16, and the number of students to 32. This year there are 20 professors and lecturers and 48 students. Next fall, the student body is expected to be between 60 and 70. An important part of the Black Mountain College plan is that about half of the students at the beginning of each year should be returning students who can help the faculty maintain the overall pattern of the school, which I will describe. The ultimate maximum size, reached a few years later, would be 125 students and 30 teachers; because the education advocated by Black Mountain College is only achievable in very small colleges.
The Rollins College rebels opposed many popular educational systems, but they agreed on one issue: that the trustees, presidents, and deans of colleges and universities — most of whom are not teachers or scholars, but administrators and enforcers — have the right to interfere with the functions of teachers. This small group was determined to return to the old American notion — “Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a student on the other.”
Thus, Black Mountain College had no board of trustees, president, or dean. There was only a typist in the office, who was not a teacher. Rice was the head of the college; however, his job was not office work, but teaching. Other office tasks were handled by the registrar, secretary, and financial staff, who were all teachers before taking on any other roles. There was a so-called advisory committee made up of friends of the college, but it had no legal power. All important decisions were made by a board elected by the faculty, which included major student representatives. There was a real student government, whose members regularly met with the entire faculty and president on equal terms. About once a month, the faculty and student government gathered in a general assembly to express their concerns.
Although this plan was only three years old, it was very successful and demonstrated unexpected capabilities. A physics teacher became a competent financial officer; a chemistry teacher became an efficient secretary and factory manager; and a romance language teacher became a capable registrar and office manager. Thus, Black Mountain College challenged the assumption that teachers are generally unsuitable to be fully responsible for all activities of a university; it negated the common notion that teachers can only handle trivial matters related to class hours, credits, and absences; and affirmed that a faculty team can be a responsible institution and fully manage educational affairs.
III
Aside from purely organizational issues, the initial faculty at Black Mountain College mostly lacked clear positive ideas, and educational policy issues were almost entirely handled by the leader, John Rice, who was filled with ideas and initially stated that he wanted a new type of college. Educational policy was primarily his responsibility because all 15 rebellious students liked his teaching methods and style.
Since 1983, Rice's thoughts on the shortcomings of the general education system had faded into the background of his thinking, while his positive ideas had formed his own educational philosophy, which would require a book to fully articulate. He had promised to write it one day. For now, I quote some of the things he said to me from my notebook:
The job of the university is to bring young people to intellectual and emotional maturity, where intellect refers to the subtle balance between wisdom and emotion, and not merely rote memorization. I believe that German education is largely to blame for Hitlerism because it has focused on intellect, emphasizing the impartation of facts, thus preparing a nation of emotionally immature citizens ready to succumb to his incitement. Now our national life is in a general crisis, and the same danger exists here, because our education is strongly influenced by Germany. Until the end of the last century, the ultimate goal of American scholars was to obtain a German doctorate. Now look at our “best” and largest university graduates. Their minds are filled with facts, but the knowledge they possess often does not include self-awareness. Many of them are pathological children, suffering from themselves and the world, ready to transform into “naive leftists,” calling themselves communists, or even more naive fascists.
Co-education is necessary, not just in the sense of boys and girls in the same classroom, but in terms of the educational relationship between them. From the beginning, American civilization has been an experiment in co-education. It is foolish to separate boys and girls in college, mimicking Europe’s mistakes.
The constant admonition of the university should not be “Be intellectually strong!” or “Be muscular!” because both cases are divided by the neck, but rather “Be wise!” The university should consider the development of the whole person, becoming a second womb where young people can grow into fully mature human beings.
The common expressions of acquiring education are very important. They reveal the entire fallacy of the current system, as education can only be experienced through practice; one can only acquire information or “facts,” and the “facts” obtained at ordinary universities are related to the past, which are fundamentally worthless for those destined to live in the future. Moreover, many of the “facts” now taught in fields such as history, sociology, economics, and psychology are no longer facts, even if they once were; they are now merely guesses or wishful thinking. There are some stubborn facts that must be learned in the early stages of physical sciences, mathematics, and biology. However, once these stages are passed, one enters the realm of imagination, where even professional scientists often lose their way due to excessive factual education and a lack of imaginative training... I particularly oppose the purely rote education in fields such as philosophy, literature, art, music, and drama; because these subjects are the best training grounds for imagination and the most important distinctions of humanity.
Only through imagination can education reach and develop the whole of humanity, hoping to have a beneficial impact on human affairs. Among ordinary people, imagination needs training, and education can provide that training. However, before that, people must realize that the deep predicament the world is in today is the work of politicians, priests, soldiers, and technical experts, characterized not by imagination but by a lack of it, and as such, they are united with the past; while humanity's hope lies in the hands of artists, who are characterized by imagination. (Rice certainly did not mean that educators should immediately start agitating to replace Franklin Roosevelt and Jim Farley with Thomas Benton and Theodore Dreiser; Bishop Manning with Robinson Jeffers; Henry Ford with Norman Bel Geddes; and General MacArthur with Toscanini. He also did not mean that we should immediately summon “strange” people from their ivory towers, who are “strange” because they are detached from the main currents of life, and whose imaginations can only manipulate the creation of images and poetry. He knew that many people are primarily significant as symptoms of the deep afflictions of humanity. Rice hoped for such a transformation in education that schools would cultivate artists rather than potential political and financial schemers and hustlers, who view politics and finance as ends, while artists do not. They need not be — in fact, it is better if they are not — professional painters, sculptors, musicians, or novelists and poets, but those who have an artistic attitude toward all of life and everything in it; their values will be qualitative rather than quantitative; they will always be modern, and as such, their distinction will not be what they will know, but what they will do with what they know; they will know and feel that life is essentially not competitive, but requires cooperation everywhere, and that to avoid the extinction of humanity, people must stop spending most of their energy plotting how to hurt each other and start moving toward a goal, toward the construction of what they want to become and the world... Rice hoped to see a world filled with artists and poets; however, again emphasizing, not simply the likes of Picasso and Mestroviches, but poets in the Greek sense of the creators; they — unlike the artists now hiding in solitary places, whose genius has turned neurotic — will walk into the center of life and belong there.)
Almost everyone is an artist, at least potentially imaginative, capable of development; as far as I know, there is currently only one way to cultivate and develop him — this is the holistic discovery method of Black Mountain College. Our core and consistent effort now is to teach methods, not content; to emphasize process rather than results; to invite students to recognize that the way they handle facts and themselves in the facts is more important than the facts themselves. Because facts will change, while the way to handle them — as long as it is a free, dynamic way of life — remains the same; therefore, if this world wants stability or order, it can only place the so-called content of facts, results, and past lives in second place, emphasizing the way of handling facts in the present and future.
Now there are many people in universities and colleges, most of whom have unclear identities but are capable of being responsible for this education, although most of them do not realize it and are not valued. These people must find opportunities to act as working artists in the teaching world, no longer being merely passive receivers and distributors of information, but becoming productive and creative, utilizing all the resources they come into contact with, especially others.
There is a skill that needs to be learned, a grammatical art of living and working. Logic must be learned, though it is strict, but one must understand its limitations. Dialectics must be learned: there is no emotion in the face of truth. The rigorous facts of science must be learned, for truth often hides in strange places. One must learn humanity's responses to thoughts and things. We must recognize that the real world is not worth saving; it must be reshaped. These are pencils, brushes, chisels... but that is not enough. Humanity has lost some subtle ways of communication because our nerve endings have been burned by schools. These nerves must be re-sensitized. We must learn to move fearlessly, to be aware of everything around us, and to sensibly look toward the future.
John Rice, the son of a minister from South Carolina, now 47, is essentially an idealist-optimist; intelligent, knowledgeable, and extremely honest and straightforward: a bit fanatical. For him, teaching is the greatest vocation in life, and he believes that only great teachers, not necessarily those who teach in schools, can become great men. His ambition is to see Black Mountain College cultivate teachers who combine intellect and emotion; artist-teachers dedicated to nurturing potential “poets” in the Greek sense.
This man — his mind, his passion — left a deep impression on me when I first met him, but I smiled at his optimism. However, after a while, I found that these educational ideas at Black Mountain College were indeed at work and achieving such outstanding success on a small scale that their possibilities and impact were clearly immense.
At Black Mountain College, there is no mind indoctrination. Education there is an experiential action that involves the whole person. There, the increasingly successful efforts are aimed at perfecting an educational program based on the concept that both the world and the individuals prepared for it are changing, active, and dynamic, a concept that challenges, on one hand, the unconscious notions of the big old institutions that the world and individuals are static, and on the other hand, the more conscious ideas of so-called progressive schools that the world is static and individuals are not.
IV
Black Mountain College is one of the smallest colleges in existence — initially inevitably so, now deliberately so. It is not only a place where one can study most of the courses offered at other universities, but also a place where one must live as part of a close-knit social unit; in fact, it is so close-knit that it has the characteristics of a large family — as I will demonstrate, this latter point is equally important in the plan.
Aside from four pairs of faculty couples with children living in nearby cabins, all faculty and students live in the grand hotel-like building I mentioned, where all teaching, learning, reading, and recreational activities take place, except for music, drama, and dance. Everyone, including families with children, dines in a common dining hall connected to the main building. The college has no staff other than a cook, three assistants, a winter furnace worker, and two people who clean the main hall, stairs, corridors, and restrooms. All other chores are voluntarily completed by students and faculty, with no distinction. During meals, students and faculty serve each other, and no one is assigned to do any specific tasks in advance. Food is brought to the table, passed around, and eaten; empty plates are taken to the kitchen for replenishment, and then the tables are cleared, with one person bringing dessert and another bringing tea and coffee; all of this is done in perfect order. Students who pay less than the full amount or do not pay at all do not require extra service; the main reason is that it is not good for the served — it creates an unhealthy sense of superiority.
The rebellious students from Rollins College — naturally — are the best students. Some students admitted in the first two years may not be as good, as extreme poverty forced the college to accept almost anyone who could pay tuition or any part of it. Last autumn, the number of applicants exceeded capacity, so efforts were made to obtain a cross-section of American life through economic, cultural, and geographical distribution when accepting students.
Currently, there are 26 boys and 22 girls at Black Mountain College, aged between 18 and 25, but there is no rule against having older or younger individuals. The two requirements for admission are: the ability to live and benefit in a community like Black Mountain College, which will be discussed further; and intellectual capacity — not necessarily high, but not too low either. Desired traits include: a deep sense of frustration, occasionally saying “I can’t!”; the ability to be angry and prone to outbursts; a sense of order, formality, and an intrinsic love for truth. They accept some neurotics because they feel they can help them become less neurotic and difficult, partly to train “normal people” to deal with difficult individuals.
There are no required courses. However, during their college years, students must take two knowledge tests if they wish to graduate: the first test is two years later, and the second test is about two years after that, depending on their willingness and ability. How they acquire this knowledge is their own responsibility. They can work alone, work under a mentor, or attend classes. Typically, students' initial learning is done in the classroom, and later almost entirely through personal study.
The people at Black Mountain College believe that the current range of knowledge is almost limitless, and it is no longer possible to pick out some subjects and say these subjects must be learned. However, before students can wisely choose the subjects they want to deal with, they must explore the knowledge areas of the junior department so that they do not, as often happens in universities, discover their true interests only in their third or fourth year.
From the junior to the senior department, and from the latter to graduation, the initiative is always in the hands of the students, who must decide for themselves whether they are ready to take that step. It is not to say that students must struggle alone at this stage or any other stage; because during their stay, teachers will provide advice when requested. The first thing a student does during the first week is choose a teacher to be his advisor to plan what he will do, but this choice is not final.
The senior year is a period for specialization in a particular field or related areas of knowledge. One of the requirements for entering this stage is to develop a careful work plan covering about two years. When the student believes he has completed this work, he applies for graduation, accompanied by a statement of the knowledge he has mastered in the chosen field. If this statement is satisfactory, the faculty will invite some capable individuals unrelated to the college to review the knowledge he claims to know.
Overall, the efforts of Black Mountain College are to cultivate individuals rather than individualists, as individualists are destined to be maladaptive in modern life, while on the other hand, the submission of both genders to a unified and consistent pattern of action will inevitably hinder the creation of a better society than the one we have now. The first step in this process is to make students aware of themselves and their abilities, and the best start is often to persuade them to engage in one or more artistic disciplines. For this reason, no classes can conflict with the foundational courses in music, drama, and fine arts. People do not expect many students to become artists; in fact, the school feels responsible for preventing only talented individuals from thinking of themselves as geniuses, but insists that everyone has artistic qualities; the development of this talent, no matter how meager, is accompanied by strict discipline, leading students to become more sensitive to order than could be achieved merely through intellectual effort.
But individuals must also become aware of their relationships with others. In Black Mountain College, the entire community is their teacher. Chopping wood, repairing roads, participating in the work of the college farm, organizing tennis courts, serving afternoon tea, retrieving mail, maintaining grounds, building cabins, driving the college truck, and other tasks completed by students and faculty individually and in groups help to smooth the edges of individualism and train people in taking responsibility. The assistant financial officer is a student.
Of course, these tasks have a certain amount of fun, somewhat replacing the purely artificial physical activities of other schools, but while completing these tasks, students feel they are participating in the daily life of the entire school, feeling they belong there, playing a role, and having a sense of importance.
Although no one tells him, the student cannot help but realize that he is as important as the president and other staff. He possesses the freedom and privileges of everyone. He can criticize teachers as freely as others can, and he can speak out about anything at any time and bear the consequences. Some teachers, including Rice, also participate as students in the courses they are taking. He knows they are learning just as he is. He is an inseparable part of the community, and whatever he does will affect it. This place is so finely organized that the word “organization” is no longer sufficient to describe it; he has the ability to create scandals and seriously damage it. Conversely, he has the ability to prevent another student from creating such a scandal through persuasion. Or he can do something or participate in something that suddenly makes this place more valuable. Rice insists that the contributions students make to the construction of the college are as significant as those of the faculty and staff.
Unlike psychologists like Adler, Black Mountain College believes that ordinary people will feel fulfilled as long as they work in places suited to them, play their unique roles, and feel their work is meaningful. Black Mountain College also makes it easy for students to discover what work they are suited for, such as being a plumber rather than a philosopher, a scientist rather than a writer, a grocery clerk rather than a chemist. The entire community works to make everyone aware of their uniqueness, not just as potential scientists or plumbers, but as imaginative artists.
V
Black Mountain College recognizes that America has undergone tremendous changes over the past century, and education must begin to confront the problems brought about by these changes. To simplify what several people from Black Mountain College have said to me:
In the past, a person's history was a gradual recognition and understanding of human history. He first recognized his mother and began to understand humanity through her. Then he gradually adapted to others in the family, all of which was very slow: fortunately, there were many people at home, representing what he would face later. Some could be relied upon for their necessary warmth and unreasonable emotions; others maintained a vigilant hostility. The old maid aunt and the aged grandfather were people he could begin to cautiously dislike, but he had to get along with them. He could rely on subtle family feelings to save him from disaster. He could not escape anyone's observation; nor could anyone escape his. He became adept at interpreting communication. Raised eyebrows, hand gestures, every movement, every tone had its meaning. He was prepared to go to the village.
In the village, he encountered open hostility and criticism, without the embellishments of unreasonable emotions or family etiquette, but, due to experience, he was able to retaliate. And just like in the family, no one could escape anyone's scrutiny. They were all in a small world, and we at Black Mountain are also in a small world. In the village, individualism struggles to survive, but the rights of personality are forcibly recognized. This explains why when you want to find distinctive characters, you go to the village.
Now, even the villages that still exist, like Lewis’s Main Street, long to escape to the city as soon as possible, thus the lessons of the extended family and village have largely been erased in most of America.
What we now have are small, refined families, where children — usually only children — do not encounter open indifference, criticism, or hostility. They tend to always treat him as the center of a small world. He is very close to one or two people, sharing each other's thoughts.
Now, with the village gone, he must turn from those he is familiar with to those he does not know at all. Immigrating into the world outside the home, although pre-tried through school, he finds himself among strangers; in the city, he faces potential enemies. Then he continues to do what he has done at home to protect himself from excessive affection and interference from school teachers: establishing a superficial self to replace reality. By the time he reaches college, this superficial self has often become a work of art. His best thoughts and abilities have been used to create it.
The extended family and village have disappeared, but humanity needs them, especially the village. It is just that it is no longer a random product, but the best possible village, free from the narrowness, malice, cruelty, and ignorance of the old village. We at Black Mountain realize that the college must become this new village. It must also possess some characteristics of a large family.
At Black Mountain, a common saying is that almost everyone who comes here must go through hell. The hell he experiences is a desperate attempt to maintain this superficial self, and the most terrifying moment in this process is when he says to himself, “Now they know me!” Imagine dozens of eyes focused on you, only you, and just as many mouths saying, “Don’t think you’ve deceived us! We see through you.” These eyes and mouths turn the human spirit inside out.
This happens to almost everyone who comes here. This college is a village with the atmosphere of an old extended family. It will begin to affect students at 18 or later, so the experience is intense, and they will suffer, wanting to hide or escape.
However, gradually, the sufferer learns that others have done for him what he has always done for himself, that their evaluation of his virtues may not be as high as he evaluates them, nor as mercilessly condemn his faults as he does. In other words, he at least discovers some indifference, charity, humor, or even love. This brings him back from the mad effort to hide or escape, or to become his own merciless judge...
The people of Black Mountain have a name for this process — group influence. It implies psychological analysis, but is entirely different from it. It implicitly questions the mechanical concept of man held by modern psychologists, resulting in people beginning to see themselves as a pile of things done to them, now leading them to do things they should not do. Black Mountain College is less interested in students' high school records and past events, but rather in their potential as human beings.
Freshmen arrive, entering a strange world, which is also a strange and exciting land of freedom. There are no rules at Black Mountain College. This is their opportunity. If they were fools before, they can now freely choose to do something different. If they have established an uncomfortable reputation for angelic virtue, they are no longer forced to be angels. Sometimes, these noble individuals will behave like donkeys shortly after arriving, unless their foolish behavior might make this place uninhabitable, in which case they are allowed to continue being foolish. Usually, after a while, they will not like doing so, not because others do not like it, although, as mentioned earlier, others do have some responsibility in making them dislike it. The same process applies to those who were fools before and choose to continue. They often take a long time to realize that they are the fools, not others.
The place in September feels like a grand weekend party. Everyone is happy to be there. The place is beautiful, and the view of the Craggies is spectacular. Everyone is free. Are they not voters? Did they not abandon Harvard and Vassar? They feel superior. They immediately form permanent friendships and irreconcilable enmities: after all, the party is just a prelude to a vicious war — only at home do parties usually end before hostilities begin.
They realize the first meaning of freedom: others also have the opportunity to criticize — some complain that there is too much talk about people; some even say what they are and do is none of others' business. But no one would say he does not want others to mention his name in his absence. Such logic is too extreme.
Self-awareness begins to awaken. They are not so concerned about Black Mountain College. Sometimes they feel disgusted by it, a cloud hanging over. This is what people expect; “Without sharp self-awareness,” one teacher said, “nothing can be accomplished.”
“Group influence” moves from high to low and then back to high. When they free themselves from depression, they think they have done it, then sit down to enjoy the calm of self-discovery. They indulge in wisdom and the desire to improve themselves. Then uncertainty strikes, and they fall back into depression. This process does not end here. It is a continuous wave. Or to use another metaphor, a person's thoughts about himself are erosive. One will rub down repeatedly until he touches his true essence.
This is experience — education — in its most profound form. Students are told upon arrival that they must be ready to change; otherwise, their coming here is meaningless; they can go home and remain as they were. Of course, they do not understand at that time how they should change.
Gradually, two things happen. One is that a person's interest in others increases in intensity and intellect. The other is that a person begins to like, almost enjoy, the process of being changed. The people of Black Mountain explain it as follows:
Men suffer most from the unrecognized self-contempt. In contrast, the characteristic of children is self-esteem. Between kindergarten and college, self-esteem has been damaged or distorted to the point of no longer being evident. However, a person must have self-esteem or something similar to present to society. This movement starts from the outside. He tries to act in a way that earns him respect from others, ultimately becoming confused, believing that the self-esteem he assumed has been sold to others. But deep down, he knows or feels that it is all a lie. Behind the exterior he presents to the world, he is a disordered person. He never knows whether enemies are waiting for him when he walks into a room, ready to expose him as a fraud. Yet he subconsciously longs for such things to happen to him. But at the first attack from an enemy, he will fight as he would against a real enemy. He has constructed and carefully decorated the surface self he presents to society. Just as he wears a carefully designed mask, he has given the most tender care to it, while behind this mask is a real person, increasingly confused, suffering, and unhappy, longing for his savior but prepared to accept him as an enemy.
The task of the university is to become his enemy-friend: a harsh enemy to the superficial self, a friendly friend to the real self. But the real self is hungry and emaciated, needing nourishment; while the superficial self must be ruthlessly attacked.
Black Mountain College provides a diet for the poor “real self.” It is benevolent. Most people do not speak with malice or triviality. There is a desire to help. Unless the issue is trivial, no one is completely without supporters. Moreover, as has been said, one belongs, plays a role, and is important in Black Mountain College. One is also constantly invited, verbally and implicitly, to become intelligent and mature, which is somewhat annoying but also quite pleasant. Older students try to figure out how to make newcomers aware of their predicament. Frankness is perhaps more prevalent at Black Mountain College than anywhere else in America, sometimes unsettling, but it produces striking events that almost prove that truth is beauty. But the most important part of the diet for the “real self” is a sense of humor. Young students learn to laugh at themselves. Thus, in one way or another, they discover that, despite their past experiences and a wealth of literature denying it, human nature is fundamentally quite good.
The original group at Black Mountain College began to develop this process unconsciously and accidentally in 1933, when they suddenly found themselves in an extremely narrow space, not only as students and teachers but also as people with varying degrees of vitality coexisting freely. They had to smooth out the corners of individualism in their personalities. Rice gradually recognized the merits of this process and carefully guided its development into what it is now. He was certainly not satisfied with it; nor were any others at Black Mountain College who understood this process. It is still developing. Almost everyone who goes there adds some content to it. This article is the first to make it public, and it may have a huge impact. I received permission from Black Mountain College to write this article after considerable debate.
Group influence, as I said, is one of the most important elements of education at Black Mountain College. It has sparked keen interest among psychologists, researchers, and scholars of related issues both domestically and internationally. What I say here is merely a simple suggestion. To fully understand it, one must experience it firsthand.
I can add that in that hotel-like building, almost nothing can happen; although no one is watching, everyone can understand the situation within an hour; and very few people stay there for two weeks without becoming more famous than they were before, no matter how long they previously stayed anywhere. It can be said that the Black Mountain College community psychologically deprives individuals of privacy, revealing them to everyone, including themselves — ultimately, they will come to like this state.
One direct goal of group influence is that students should not make mistakes in marriage. This should make one a connoisseur of humanity. I believe it has made some students connoisseurs. Some of those who have been there the longest can exchange complex information without speaking. For them, raising an eyebrow is a sentence. They are absolutely being “re-sensitized.”
Do Black Mountain College students marry each other? So far, the college has had only one pair of students marry. This couple is still in school.
Sexual morality? People can do anything, but the warning is always to be smart! On this basis, nothing that could cause scandal and harm to the college will happen. The moral control of all things lies within the group. It is not imposed on it. It partly comes from the fact that most people, no matter how they may dislike certain aspects of “group influence,” are filled with a passionate dedication to this place.
Do the people there have no privacy? Students share rooms with two people, but everyone has their own private study space, where they can hang a “Do Not Disturb!” sign on the door when they are alone inside.
VI
At Black Mountain College, age, position, and reputation are not the basis for gaining respect, and teachers are also influenced by “group influence,” leading to a high proportion of efficient and interesting teachers. At Black Mountain College, teachers work hardest, with the aim of serving the entire college, which is the most urgent. Some students are undoubtedly not the best students, but many are very eager to learn and know what they should receive, and they must be satisfied. If they are not satisfied, they will speak out; unsatisfactory teachers will be discussed, but so far, there has never been a consideration to get rid of him, but rather to see what can be done to help him develop his teaching skills and personality. Again, there is no malice or pettiness. The self-esteem of teachers who are often criticized is hurt. He feels anger at the criticism from these little guys in this so-called college; he feels anger at the fact that some colleagues agree with their views. He finds that this place is indeed a new type of college. Facts and results do not matter; processes, methods, and imagination are what matter. Seeing the success of some other teachers in the classroom, he begins to doubt that their ways may be correct. He feels anger at not being told what is expected of him. He does not know that he has not been told anything because they want him to develop uniquely. So he may try to imitate Rice, only to quickly find that he cannot. More pain. He can only develop by forgetting what he has long believed to be correct.
He must correct his character and personality, become humble, and be a student rather than a teacher. He does not leave because, although his salary is meager, he is a free man. A recently joined faculty member said to me, “It’s different here. A person can stand up. He can find out where he is wrong; otherwise, he will always be right. Walt Whitman would feel at home here.”
I do not have enough space to discuss all the teachers at Black Mountain College. I will briefly describe the general methods of just three teachers.
Rice is a born teacher, perhaps one of the greatest teachers of all time, very humane. Some of his colleagues criticize his uncompromising frankness and his inability to sell the school to those he does not like. Why can’t he be friendly to potential donors when the school needs funds so badly? But his merits far outweigh his shortcomings, some of which are taken to extremes. He insists through word and deed:
A good teacher is always more like a learner than a teacher, requiring everyone to be taught something. A person who never asks himself any questions is best not to try to ask others. A teacher must have some sense of humor, a deep irony, rather than cynicism. Deep down, he should be calm, quiet, and strong. He must possess principles for growth; like students, he should have a sense of justice and a strong capacity for frustration.
In a place that values education like this, teachers should always remember that they are the central issue; if we merely let students see us being educated, then we provide them with a free education. At the same time, we must understand that hoping others will be like us is a mistake; we must strive to become the kind of people others should be like.
Although he also teaches Greek and Latin, Rice’s most important course is a three-week Plato course, which has little to do with Plato, but most seniors and several faculty members attend. He should be called “Thought in Action,” as he described to me. He begins with some questions, such as “What is the difference between personality and individualism?” Then, through his skilled Socratic handling of students (too complex to describe), he inspires them to form a team aimed at arriving at a certain answer. Occasionally, he successfully makes the class forget his presence and forget themselves in the pursuit of an idea or definition, achieving together:
Complete anonymity, collective thinking, collaborative intelligence — these moments can only be described as mystical experiences. When we reach a deadlock, the most humble wisdom in the room may suddenly provide the words to push things forward. When we reach such moments, we feel the joy of being a part rather than the whole. At that moment, we are in a state of obedience, not to each other, but to the so-called truth.
However, Rice’s most important teaching does not take place in the classroom. He is always doing this. He manipulates group influence, stimulating imagination. He rarely stays in his office, walking throughout the building, joining various groups to discuss issues about Black Mountain College or education or politics, and subsequently, these discussions are likely to continue at several tables during dinner, echoing the next morning.
Rice participates as a student in the courses of other teachers; then, in his own classes or anywhere, he constantly points out the interrelationships and interdependencies between the subjects taught by university professors and integrates them into those who teach and learn them. His goal is to develop the idea and feeling that knowledge, truth, art, education, effort, action, experience, and life are all the same thing, or at least that they can be synchronized.
Equally important to Rice’s work are the courses in painting, color, and the so-called “craft education” (Werklehre), which are supplemented by exhibitions and discussions of ancient and modern art, crafts, industrial products, prints, and photographs. These courses are taught by Josef Albers, who was a member of the Bauhaus school, which had been closed by Hitler before books were burned. His technique is shaped by a broad knowledge and the unique self-confidence of a self-taught artist, fundamentally as simple as life itself, yet also complex. To adequately report on his courses would require more than this article. His courses are “not for artists but for people.” Attending his classes is absolutely an experience of art as a process of life. For us, he says, the act of painting is more important than the graphic product; understanding and perceiving color correctly is more important than a mediocre still life. His guidance in the classroom is also a correction of the students themselves. For example, if a student’s motor system is unbalanced, with a tendency to exaggerate to the right, he will be asked to consciously draw exaggerated lines to the left. This ultimately balances him not only in painting but also personally. Albers not only critiques students’ artistic works but also criticizes those that are clearly timid; then he offers corrective suggestions.
This year, among his more than 30 students, perhaps fewer than two will become painters, but perhaps all will have a sense of form and order, an appreciation for the essence of life, which he says has now been lost to most people, buried somewhere in the so-called facts and momentary realities. Everyone will have imagination.
Albers’ courses are the largest, and like Rice’s, the most striking, exciting, sensuous, and intellectually satisfying, and also the most important.
The drama courses deeply attracted me, although previously my interest in drama was almost zero. Under the guidance of Robert Wunsch, a professor from Rollins College who resigned in Louisiana, students and faculty perform five plays each year, and if I can judge by the two plays I saw, they are outstanding; but for Wunsch, drama is not “the thing.” His purpose is not to cultivate actors, playwrights, or mimic technicians, nor to pursue external artistic perfection to entertain the audience. The key to the matter lies in “group influence,” which he explains to me as follows:
Our method is to place an arrogant person in an arrogant role, making his own arrogance more apparent than in other situations, so that not only the audience (i.e., the community) can see it, but he can see it himself. We try to find roles for rude people, dictators, wealthy kids (whose main support is wealth), those who want to play God, and super-individualists, so that the place can see them, and they can see their outstanding characteristics, which almost always leads to a painful but successful — corrective process. Due to this approach, we believe that the most unpleasant people we have encountered are now among the most charming, effective, and popular people in this place. Of course, he has gone through a series of “hells.”
Of course, we arrange for people to play roles that are opposite or different from their main characteristics and situations. Wealthy boys are induced to play the roles of poor tenants or workers; poor girls play the roles of tragic wealthy women. We let a young cynic play a role that can help him understand and feel the meaning of fighting and dying for a cause.
VII
The weaknesses and difficulties of Black Mountain College today will soon become apparent; if not, the people there will point them out.
Other colleges have buildings, facilities, and donation funds, which are tangible things. Everyone understands them more or less. They receive publicity, then more donations, more buildings. Black Mountain College is almost entirely built on ideas and idealism, thus it is fragile and elusive. It has no quantifiable assessments. Life at Black Mountain College has no present. Its moments have one foot in the past and the other in the future. The people there find it difficult to articulate what they are doing. For most, they have nothing to say; they only ask that they stay to find out. Before me, two writers had attempted to write about this place, but I admit this article hardly tells anything about it. It can only be experienced firsthand. Providing any form of support for it is an act of faith. Rice and his colleagues guarantee nothing. They do not like to ask anyone for money. They cannot tell donors what they want money for, so that donors know what they are talking about. Some worry about what money might do to this place, almost madly unwilling to accept a dollar from anyone who might wish to impose demands on them, except for courtesy and detailed expenditure reports. Thus, Black Mountain College barely manages to survive between terms. They constantly face the danger that the YMCA will sell the place to someone who does not want them there.
Some hope that soon an angel will fly over Black Mountain and drop $500,000 on them. They hope to buy the house they are renting, as it is for sale. They plan to renovate it, which would mean more opportunities for students to take responsibility. They need a sufficient library and various facilities. Now, they shamefully admit that they are forced to prefer boys and girls who can pay full tuition over those who pay less or not at all. They hope one day to provide full scholarships for half of the students. Moreover, if they had a reasonable amount of free funds, they could establish a pension so that permanent faculty could achieve maximum financial security. They could relieve those students who are ready to leave but are unsure of what to do from family pressure, allowing them to stay, or if what they choose does not work out, to come back and start over. They hope to invite writers, artists, composers, dancers, and scientists as long-term guests to work; because seeing such people at work can knock the romantic nonsense out of people's heads.
But some of these people also know that too much money could be worse than their current poverty. If five million dollars cannot be left for establishing similar colleges in other areas, it could ruin them. Greed may intervene. Traveling to Europe may become a necessity. Ford cars may not be good enough. Worse, they cannot judge whether new teachers come for ideology or for money.
Other dangers? Complacency and superficiality. The people of Black Mountain feel satisfied with themselves, especially those who have taught or studied elsewhere; when visitors praise them, they readily agree. However, one teacher said to me that once we think we have arrived, we die. They realize that superficiality comes from a lack of seriousness; additionally, it can also occur when there is too much teaching and not enough learning. Now there is no lack of seriousness; but can they maintain it? I believe they can and will; but who knows? Their future also depends on the development of this country and the world. War? Fascism? Communism? When asked about this, they raise their hands in uncertainty.
Last autumn, I thought there was too much emphasis on art, and not enough on social sciences and current events. This was partly due to Professor Albers’ relative superiority as a teacher. A few people there are very aware of this situation and worry that if Albers’ strong influence continues to grow, this place will become overly spiritual and artistic. However, the idea in this regard is not to undermine Albers but to find ways to make social science and current event courses as interesting, exciting, and personally valuable as his courses, thus balancing their influence. The question is where to find teachers who can teach economics, sociology, politics, etc., objectively, rather than as “facts or propaganda,” so that these subjects can stand on equal footing with Rice’s “Plato” and Albers’ “Art.” Black Mountain College may need to cultivate them so that they can not only present the respective positions of capital and labor, Mussolini and the Allies, Wall Street and Western farmers, but also understand the essential truths of the issues, allowing students to freely swing their sympathies or withhold them.
For the time being, Black Mountain College urges students to study industrial, social, and political conditions anywhere during long Christmas and spring breaks, as well as summer vacations, to address this serious deficiency. Upon returning to the college, they are asked to report their observations and findings. Last Christmas break, the entire college gathered in Washington for a week, meeting with prominent politicians, government officials, and journalists. This spring, they may organize trips to industrial centers.
I could list some smaller defects and shortcomings, but by the time this text is printed, they may no longer exist. Let me be as clear as possible: this place is a process, a way of education, synonymous with the concept of Black Mountain College; it is not only a process but also a microcosm of life itself, with its own strong sense of reality, not unrelated to the world below: vibrant, creative, demanding not only change but improvement. It is self-correcting.
I wrote this article in early February, a friend visited, and I asked him to read my article. He said, “Are the people at Black Mountain ordinary people?” Undoubtedly, yes; even the two teacher geniuses, Albers and Rice, are very ordinary in some respects. This place may seem like a utopia, but it is very human, very ordinary; fundamentally, like the places around it, intellectually perhaps higher, consciously so, but also capable of making mistakes; more serious, but not entirely aware of the details of the process it is caught in, nor always aware that it is not just a place, but a process.
The same friend said, “Everything about art, imagination, and ‘group influence’ sounds good; what about intellectual discipline, work, and achievement? I have seen the papers of Black Mountain College students, and overall, they are better than the few dissertations I have seen in those institutions that emphasize intellect.”
What kind of people will Black Mountain College students become in their thirties, forties, and fifties? Who can say for sure? Now, one or two people are in danger of becoming pure artists, thinking of Matisse when they see starving tenants. But most have a good chance of becoming very good, balanced people, pleasant to be around, calm and strong within. They are intelligent, imaginative, and efficient. They can spot hypocrites at a glance. They feel out of place in the world. Some may try to escape it. I believe most will try to improve it. A few will become writers and artists. Others will become teachers. A few may enter politics. Rice urges them to find work in Washington, to continue learning, being candid and honest, passing by the White House once a week. He believes that in the next twenty-five years, an honest, intelligent person who speaks his mind, not treating politics as an end but as a means, will have a great future in this country and the world.