Bread Loaf School of English - American Education

A degreegranting graduate summer school of literature studies and writing courses for teachers of English. Founded in 1920 at Bread Loaf Mountain on the campus of Middlebury College, in Vermont, the school was designed to provide English teachers with an in-depth knowledge of composition, literary criticism, expression and techniques for teaching writing skills. At the time, nearly half the English teachers in American public schools lacked college degrees, and almost all lacked the knowledge and skills to teach writing skills and literary interpretation. (Even today, many English teachers with teaching certificates and degrees in pedagogy and educational psychology lack skills in creative writing, rhetoric or literary criticism.) The original Bread Loaf curriculum offered courses in creative writing, dramatic production, En glish and American literature, public speaking and debate and methods of teaching En glish. Today’s Bread Loaf curriculum has expanded to include a wide range of courses leading to master of arts and master of letters degrees in English and a master of modern language degree in French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish. Held at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Lincoln College, Oxford, England, as well as at Middlebury, Bread Loaf enrolls several hundred students each summer, from the end of June to mid-August. Thirty fellowships for rural teachers from Alaska, Arizona, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Carolina and Vermont are available from the DeWitt Wallace–Reader’s Digest Fund. Bread Loaf has spawned similar projects across the United States to expand the writing skills of English teachers. (See also NATIONAL WRITING PROJECT.)