Simon's Rock College

Simon's Rock College is a small liberal arts college located in the vast sprawling metropolis of Great Barrington (population 8000), in Berkshire County, Mass. The foremost of the many unusual things about Simon's Rock is that most students enroll after completing the tenth grade of high school, rather than after graduating.

The college's founder, Elizabeth Blodgett Hall, had formerly been a private school headmistress. She concluded from her experience, and that of her colleagues, that for many students the latter two years of high school are wasted on repetitious and overly constrained work. Many young women (and men -- but for its first few years in the '60s, Simon's Rock admitted only women), she thought, are ready to pursue college-level academic work some time before the usual system asks it of them.

Because Simon's Rock provides this accelerated program, it also attracts many students who might not consider a "liberal-arts" education if they had to wait two more years. Computer geeks, pre-med stress puppies, and mathies read Plato, Dante, Nietzsche, and Foucault alongside dancers, artists, and literary types. Many students transfer to larger institutions after two years; many stay for four.

There are only about 350 students. Secrets aren't as safe as they are in larger schools. Everybody knows everybody else, or has at least seen them. As my RA put it, when you walk into the dining hall, you might feel uncomfortable when you realize that people know who you're sleeping with.

Teachers are on a first name basis. This is school policy. It doesn't matter if you just finished 8 years of school and a 1000-page dissertation; you can't make students call you "professor" or "doctor." People don't refer to the dean as "Dr. Bernard Rodgers." He's Bernie.

Classes are small. Class sizes do not exceed 17 students, usually have no more than 15, and average around 12. It isn't unheard of to have a class with as few as 4 students. Learning is much better facilitated, of course. Students interact with each other and the professor more. There's no such thing as sleeping in the back of a huge lecture hall at Simons' Rock.

Classes are discussion-oriented. Professors do not have a monopoly on knowledge. All participants in the class can learn from each other. Professors do not (and should not) lecture most of the time; they should facilitate and guide discussion. Classes occur mainly around tables. Most of the time, there are not rows of desks. This helps foster discussion. Structurally, this does not place the professor in a position of authority, as is common in high school.

Simon's Rock is tolerant. In 2000, Simon's Rock was rated as the 2nd most gay-friendly college in the United States by gay.com. I'm surprised it didn't come in first. Students are very open-minded. I'm told even "coming out" can be somewhat anticlimactic. To put it in perspective, the college barely needs a GLBT student group. Sure, we had BIGALA. But that turned into The Lavender Menace, and they didn't do too much -- they didn't need to. There was also a big Bisexual Pride Day celebration.

The faculty is interesting. My sociology class was taught by a former SDS member. I took a Latin America course with a former CIA-supported contra leader turned anti-CIA author. There was one professor who spent five years in jail in China for being a pro-democracy activist. And I'm sure I missed a few. The faculty bring with them interesting backgrounds and an incredible dedication to Simon's Rock's mission.

Other interesting tidbits. In 2000, Simon's Rock became the only college to recognize International Workers Day (May Day). Simon's Rock was also unfortunately the site of moderately famous school shooting in December 1992. In a 2000 survey conducted by the dining hall, 25% of students said they were "vegetarian" and 5% said they were "vegan." As such, the dining hall always labels vegetarian and/or vegan food as such.