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Nellie Cornish and Calvin Cady never wrote the principles they developed for the Cornish School down as a list, and maybe their suspicions about systemization discouraged it. But it's easier to absorb as a list. Following is a construction of what they might have produced had they been so inclined.

 

It is of necessity a work in progress.

Principles of the Cornish School Under Nellie Cornish

 

  1. An education in the arts is an education.   EXPAND
  2. The main purpose of education is the development of the individual, not imparting skills.   EXPAND
  3. The arts are best taught together.   EXPAND
  4. Departments and curricula should be interrelated.   EXPAND
  5. Systemization of education should be avoided, experiment should be encouraged.   EXPAND
  6. There should be no grades, no schedules .   EXPAND
  7. The school should be a home for the arts.   EXPAND
  8. Quality in everything, always strive to be the best.   EXPAND

 

8. Quality in everything, always strive to be the best. 

When Nellie Cornish founded her school, she aimed at the highest point she could imagine given her narrow educational experience: eastern schools. “When I established the Cornish School, I wanted it to have the same dignity of learning I felt the East offered.” The school often touted itself as the best in the West. But visits from Anna Pavlova and others on the national and international stage began to let Nellie see that her sights were set too low. “Nevertheless, the reputation of the school all over the country was growing apace. Many of our famous visitors were greatly impressed by the organic unity of its departments and their orientation toward a common aim.” [MAN 162] Too, the fact of Cornish's involvement in setting up an experimental art school in England in the 1930s, at Dartington Hall in Devon, reinforced Nellie's feeling that Cornish had made its mark in the world.