Redding Ridge Plan

Last week the headmaster of a private preparatory school made an astounding announcement: he was proud that next year his school's enrollment would be more than twice this year's; he was mortified that because of this increase the school would no longer be able to have more teachers than pupils, but would have only two teachers to every three boys.

The headmaster: Kenneth Bonner, 47. The school: Redding Ridge School, Redding Ridge, Conn. Enrollment, 1937-38: 5. Enrollment so far for next year: 12. Teachers, 1937-38: 6. Teachers next year: 8. Tuition: $1,400. Reason for the increased enrollment: a unique idea in preparatory education which proved highly successful in its first year of operation.

Headmaster Bonner based the Redding Ridge Plan on the conviction that only one thing can be done thoroughly at a time. Redding Ridge prepares boys for College Entrance Examination Board papers, and its courses are no departure. Novelty of the system lies in shuffling the courses so that a boy studies only one subject per year. In the first year (known as Second Form) pupils study geography --as related to literature, mathematics, world history, human relationships. Next year French is the major subject and Third Formers live in a separate house, speak only French, conduct all classes in French, master by year's end better than the equivalent of fourth year French conversation, composition, history, literature. (No other language is offered, on the grounds that it is better to learn one language well than to pick up a quickly forgotten smattering of several). Fourth Formers study the arts. Fifth Formers the sciences, Sixth Formers history and literature, closely correlated. Each successive year the subjects of previous years are applied to the new field of study.

Headmaster Bonner got his big idea during the War when, at high-pressure Plattsburg Officers Training Camp, he was polished as an officer in three months, simply by concentration. But militaristic regimentation is taboo at Redding Ridge. Boys are encouraged to swim, play tennis and golf, sports which they will enjoy later in life. (Mr. Bonner wryly admits he would have had trouble developing a football team with five boys.)

In defense of the Redding Ridge Plan, Headmaster Bonner says: "I am simply advocating that the system under which a boy is asked to do his work shall not be as irrational as a system which would require of an adult that he be a lawyer from nine to ten o'clock, a doctor from ten to eleven, a stock broker from eleven to twelve, and an author from twelve to one. It is my unalterable conviction that under such a system all but the rarest adult would be foredoomed to failure in all capacities, and do his best work in none."

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