= "an emergent movement dedicated to the renewal and revitalization of higher education through the creation of new, humanly-scaled institutions with holistic curriculums". [1]

Description

"Thoreau College is a leader in an emergent movement dedicated to the renewal and revitalization of higher education through the creation of new, humanly-scaled institutions with holistic curriculums known as microcolleges. Found in diverse locales, these institutions tend to incorporate several common features: intimate student bodies, the inclusion of student labor, the limiting of technology in favor of face-to-face interactions, student self-governance, experiential and discussion-based academic courses, a strong connection to place, and an emphasis on the holistic development of the student as a unique individual. Several microcollege initiatives draw their inspiration from Deep Springs College, which was far ahead of its time as a microcollege with about 26 students established in 1917. In actively synthesizing the manual, the intellectual, and the social, these colleges seek to re-create post-secondary education as a place where, as founder L.L. Nunn wrote of Deep Springs, students go not “to find either absolute truth or absolute wisdom, but to think, to read, to grow, and above all, to securely establish the one and only purpose which can justify man’s existence.” In one sense, the microcollege movement is a response to specific worrisome trends in modern academia: administrative bloat, a morbid fixation on infrastructural development, and the impersonal, or even mercenary, relationships that often exist between institutions and students. But it is also evidence of a deeper cultural reflection on the very form and purpose of education, a critique that goes deeper than rising tuition costs."

(http://thoreaucollege.org/microcollege-movement/)