Lafe in a test tube can be an educational experience. Since 1928 Sarah Lawrence College has experimented with its own brand of college teaching. The result: A dynamic academic formula. Sarah Lawrence College teaches the student--not the subject; and whether or not this method is effective, the school is always consistent.

Twenty-two acres of craggy hilltop and ten Tudor buildings straddle the Yonkers--Bronxville, New York borderline. Once the estate of William van Duzer Lawrence, the Sarah Lawrence campus now boasts 350 good-looking women and some definite ideas about educating them.

President Harold Taylor believes that the Sarah Lawrence girl will be taught most effectively by instructors who help her choose for herself, not only her own values and ideas, but the subjects she wants to know more about. Consequently, Sarah Lawrence is probably the only college where the students have a loud voice in choosing the courses they want on their curriculum.

They are also entrusted with the power to make their own parietal rules and, in the student council, to punish those who break the rules. The dean of the college, Mrs. Esther Raushenbush, has no disciplinary duties; her job is purely educational.

The freedom of the Sarah Lawrence girl together with the observation that 350 students necessitate 350 different programs are the heart of the Sarah Lawrence program. "There is no applied doctrine here," says Taylor. The college adjusts itself to the students, and through the development of each girl can be traced the steady development of the college. Sarah Lawrence has found that these methods of education do work, that its students can be trusted with a voice in the formation of rules and curriculum, and that its instructors feel they can teach better and even learn more without the bonds of a strict syllabus. Sarah Lawrence glances around at the changes is College education since it appeared on the American scene and cockily comments, "Harvard is little by little coming around to the Sarah Lawrence trail."

In the light of recent University policy, one is inclined to agree. Sarah Lawrence discovered long ago the best way to teach an individual effectively. . . . a personal and individual tutorial. The Administration also has offices in the dorms, creating a centralized "House system". .

Sarah Lawrence tutors are unexplicably termed "dons", a strange name since the college bears no other resemblance to Oxford. The don tutors his tutees, discusses general problems of study and educational goals, and, in addition, often provides a shoulder on which a girl can sob out all troubles concerning the men in her life. Besides the papers or "contracts" that the student delivers to her adviser on subjects of her own choosing, the don student relationship is a very informal one. Most of Sarah Lawrence education is centered on these advisers, who include the whole faculty. Students take only three courses, which meet but once a week (with the exception of the sciences and languages), so there is plenty of time to pursue individual interests.

The courses themselves, mostly small conferences of six to ten students, boast two unique features. One is no examinations or grades. The reason for this, Taylor points out, is that exams are bad educationally. If a girl studies only for grades, she is not becoming as involved in learning. "She's competing." Taylor maintains, "for Phi Beta Kappa or some other horrible thing rather than becoming a bigger and better person." Whether or not the shapely Sarah Lawrence female is bigger and better mentally than her Radcliffe sister could only be decided by judicious testing. While lack of exams lifts the pressure off a week-end at Yale or Princeton, it may result in less respect for facts on the part of Sarah Lawrence students, at least those whose tutors do not demand rigid memorization.

Competition is also partly eliminated in campus social life. There is no great prestige attached to an editorial or student council office and the college finds girls who work hard at activities do so because they like the work. Securing a position on the Student Council is a matter of ability and desire rather than politics, since the nominees are picked by a board which delves deeply into each girl's record. Because there are only 350 on the campus, the odds are that few capable workers will be overlooked.

Confidence for Competition

Sarah Lawrence is adamant on the competition question. Taylor will not accept the argument that an uncompetitive school fails to prepare its students for a competitive world. He feels Sarah Lawrence substitutes confidence for competition; the student will do her job competently without worrying about how well the girl from Smith of Vassar does hers. And she will do it as well or better, says Taylor, pointing to the graduate school, business, and teaching records of his alumnae.

The other innovation in the Sarah Lawrence system is the field work program. The college has not employed either Bennington's three months of trips and work, or Antioch's six months of work experience. Accepting the theory that both field trips and work experience belong within the structure of a course, field work is integrated into class or don subject matter. Sarah Lawrence excursions vary from the next door United Nations building in New York City down to Tennessee Valley Authority. On some projects the students merely observe. Others are more ambitious--designed to aid the surrounding community, like the recent study on Cancer education in Westchester County secondary schools.

It is doubtful that Sarah Lawrence teaching methods would fit into a more traditional academic set-up. Above all else they necessitate intelligent students, able to choose for themselves, who will not misuse a relatively free environment. The college also requires a patient but vigorous breed of teachers, who believe in Sarah Lawrence's philosophy and who are willing to leave the sanctity of the high lecture platform for the college's individual-to-individual teaching. Sarah Lawrence has done amazingly well in finding both the students and teachers it needs to function properly.

Largely responsible for selecting the school's faculty is President Taylor, who came to Sarah Lawrence in 1945 from Wisconsin where he was an assistant professor of philosophy. Taylor, perhaps more than anyone else, typifies the best qualities of Sarah Lawrence. Taylor is a handsome, curly-headed philosopher whose youthfulness belies his 38 years. Open and forthright, he has consistently fought for his principles of education and academic freedom by hiring controversial people and by answering all attacks without sacrificing his beliefs. Surprisingly, many of his worst critics are Sarah Lawrence students, who feel that once Taylor's boyishness ceases to impress the hardened sophomore, she sees her president as "a big grin with nothing behind it." Others say that Taylor "is too informal." They would like to see him act the traditional role of a college president. These critics, however, constitute a small minority of the Sarah Lawrence population.

A Valiant Educator