Digital Commons Network^™

The Future Of Early College: An Interview With Dr. Leon Botstein, Dumaine Williams

Early College Folio

The first public, tuition-free Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) opened in Brooklyn in 2001. Today, an entire network of Bard Early Colleges operates in partnership with public school systems to offer students affordable access to higher education in a cohesive, engaging environment. Simultaneously, alternative takes on early college (Early College High Schools, dual enrollment, early entrance) have proliferated across the United States, providing even more opportunities for younger students to earn college credit.

In December 2022, the author, Dean of Bard Early College, sat down with Bard College President Leon Botstein to examine how the pandemic made new demands …

The House Of Seminar Needs Overhaul: The General Education Seminar In Theory And Practice, Matthew J. Park

Early College Folio

Matthew Park's intellectual and institutional history of the General Education Seminars at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. This historical analysis, which the author revolves around a discussion of the genealogy and philosophy of Seminar more broadly, serves as a multidisciplinary lens through which teachers and students of Seminar across the Bard Early Colleges may center current and future discussions of the course(s).

“Digital By Necessity”: An Interview With Dr. Jane Wanninger, Julia Carey Arendell, Jane Wanninger

Early College Folio

In the summer of 2020, Dr. Jane Wanninger participated in a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute hosted by Agnes Scott College to learn about implementing digital storytelling in the classroom, which ironically, had to be completed digitally due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Her experience was the inspiration for this issue of Early College Folio as she pitched her ideas using the phrase “digital by necessity.” Issue Editor Julia Carey Arendell interviewed Jane, captured here, on all that she learned to think more deeply about using the virtual tool of digital storytelling as a teacher, a student, and …

Review: The Scarlet Ibis By Stefan Weisman And David Cote, Larry Wallach

Early College Folio

Opera Review: The Scarlet Ibis (Bill Holab Music, 2015) by Stefan Weisman and David Cote (libretto). Weisman, faculty at Bard High School Early College in Queens, based the opera on James Hurst’s 1960 short story of the same name.

Scaffolding A Collaborative Humanities Classroom Online: Pedagogical Tools And Techniques, Jennifer Browdy

Early College Folio

With basic digital tools and adaptations of time-tested assignments to the digital landscape, faculty in the humanities can successfully create lively, discussion-based humanities classes online. The author, who has been teaching early college humanities classes for nearly 30 years, shares specific tools, assignments, and pedagogical approaches tested with Bard/OSUN online courses that enhance student engagement and productive collaborative learning.

Transcript: "The House Of Education Needs Overhaul" Roundtable Discussion

Early College Folio

This is a transcript of a recording of the June 24, 2021 Early College Folio launch event in celebration of the journal’s first issue. It includes a roundtable discussion, led by Issue Editor John Weinstein, with five of the authors who responded to Elizabeth Blodgett Hall's "The House of Education Needs Overhaul." The transcript has been edited slightly for publication. You can view the recording at this link: https:// youtu.be/LdbC7dq8TTc.

Rikers Island And The Crisis: Storytelling, Scholarship, Activism, Shana Russell

Early College Folio

This essay was originally shared by the author as the 24th annual W. E. B. Du Bois Memorial Lecture at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. It has been edited slightly for publication.

The Need For Early College In The 21st Century, Donald E. Heller

Early College Folio

This essay, a response to Elizabeth Blodgett Hall’s “The House of Education Needs Overhaul,” details the evolution of the early college movement within the American educational system. The author then makes a case for the continued importance and success of early college models in the 50 years since Hall’s initial call for reform.

Early College As Sites For "Moratorium", Michael Sadowski

Early College Folio

This essay, a response to Elizabeth Blodgett Hall’s “The House of Education Needs Overhaul,” finds common ground in Hall’s depiction of the self-exploration of young students entering her new school and the findings of child and adolescent psychologist Erik Erikson’s identification of a particular point in youth development he dubbed a “psychosocial moratorium.” The author grounds these pioneers’ theories in the transformations he witnessed in students as former director of a Bard Early College program.

Imagine, Patricia Sharpe

Early College Folio

This essay, a response to Elizabeth Blodgett Hall’s “The House of Education Needs Overhaul,” places Hall’s 1967 defense for educational reform in the context of present-day Simon’s Rock and Bard Early College. The author describes the application of early college pedagogy as a disruption of the educational status quo, and details the philosophical and intellectual “overhaul” at work in these environments.

In Praise Of "Powerful, Head-Strong, Young People", Francesca Gamber

Early College Folio

This essay, a response to Elizabeth Blodgett Hall’s “The House of Education Needs Overhaul,” details the ways in which Bard High School Early College students in Baltimore challenge the systemic racism and economic disadvantages through community and critical thinking. The author describes the ways in which educators must support the courageous actions of these students to seek the resources, power, and a place in American education that they’ve historically been denied.