Sarah Lawrence College - Yearbook (Bronxville, NY)

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The other kind, the Sarah Lawrence kind of institu- tions, have made their reputations, too, but the people who stand behind that name are not convention’s slaves. They change with the tides of time, with the schools of thought and stand for the present and the future—not the past. Here teachers and students go along on fresh shadowy, and sunny paths which to them seem to be the right ones, without taking into consideration the much used, dusty narrow country road. Every new discovery, every new atti- tude, every new science is studied and approached with the same serious inquisitive and respectful attitude, as are the older sciences, arts, and attitudes. Classics are found side by side in the library with psychoanalysis and Stalin- ism. The teacher in the class is no more the all powerful, ex-cathedral, respect-needing man who hands over to the poor ignorant student some of his once acquired knowledge. Teachers and students are both explorers of the abyss-like depth of the philosophy of Life, Wisdom, Art, Man. I am afraid this all will sound too ideal to a stranger. As a matter of fact my first impression of this place was: an ideal community. You, my reader, will at once ask me: But what happens next? What when the student leaves this Utopia of an ideal community, this oasis, and enters the wide “real world, the desert? I knew this was coming. I felt that as much as I would explain about this college and its work, as many illustrative points I would give, I wouldn’t be able to give you the whole answer. I have given you an indirect answer in Page Seventy-six

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IMPRESSION I I have been asked the following question: what can Sarah Lawrence College give you? Now, many foreign native students have probably been asked this question and through the years I am sure that one quality or another of this College as an interpreter of American life, has been mentioned. Yet I am not afraid that my answer will, through lack of originality, be boring to the reader. According to one’s own special background one is able to get different things out of the same situation or experi- ences. method or institution. Maybe I am wrong in this case in saying “out of the same situation or experience, method or institution, for this college has a unique char- acteristic—Sarah Lawrence is alive! What do you mean? How can an institution be characterized as being alive, in contrast to any other institution? The People who are standing behind the title “Sarah Lawrence College have succeeded not to be, nor appear as people working and struggling along in an institution which has been built and composed some years ago, and which, after having estab- lished certain principles and methods, stays firm and un- moving in spite of the flowing life all around. This usually happens in places which have acquired a reputation some- where in the past, and which then feel bound to that “name. The people in these institutions must move within the line which one traced the “name of this place. If they don’t, they are misfits, for there is no room for individual- ists in the cliche institution. Page Seventy-fi e

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describing the attitude of the people with whom one works at this college—especially their way of approaching Life and its manifestations. The “Ideal Community” we live in is a positive proof that there can be such a kind of life where people are guided by free, rational and broad think- ing, by spontaneous, irrational and sincere emotions — instead of being guided by narrowmindedness, prejudices and suppressed emotions, as people today are. We do not, however, get lost in this seventh sky, nor do we apply blinkers towards the problems in the world around us. Through the broadminded and unprejudiced attitude we are willing and trying to attain, we are aware that we must not be and are not separated from the world, but part of it. The only difference which may actually exist is that through our understanding we may be more willing and more prepared to work for a “better world.” In general, I feel that this year here in Sarah Lawrence College has influenced my whole attitude towards life and has brought me nearer to the attitude the Ancient Creeks had towards life. As Aristotle said: “Happiness is the con- templative life.” I couldn’t withhold mentioning my own dear country- men. But who does? After all, the Ancient Creeks are no more my ancestors than anybody else’s. That is why I feel free to praise them. Can you see now why I felt so impertinently sure that my answer would be one of the many but not one like the many? Maria V. Fotila ’50 Page Seventy-seven