About the Program

× The Language and Thinking Program was created in response to the problem of inadequate literacy among students, first explored in A Nation at Risk, a 1983 report published by the National Commission on Excellence in Education. Bard College President Leon Botstein characterized entering students’ writing at the time as preoccupied with correctness at the expense of substance.

Botstein met Peter Elbow at a conference on “The Crisis of Authority in Education” at the University of Southern California's Annenberg Center. Elbow, the author of Writing without Teachers, argued for freeing students from their internal editor and developing writing practices that allowed students to put greater emphasis on invention, critical thinking, and discovering one’s own ideas. Inspired by Elbow’s boldness, Botstein invited him to design the three-week presemester Workshop in Language and Thinking, as the program was originally called. 

Satisfactory completion of the Language and Thinking Program is required for matriculation into the College. Students who do not meet this requirement and wish to matriculate are given the option to take one year of academic leave and to enroll in the program again the following year.

For additional information, please contact the program at ltdirect@bard.edu.