EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS OFFERED at the DOUBLE E RANCH

Courses are taught by Prof. Bonney MacDonald, Ph.D. Yale University, Professor of American and Western Ameican Literature at West Texas A&M University.

Formal class meets each and every morning with discussions of assigned books. Along the way, they explore Spanish and Anglo traditions in land use and policy, work their way through the consequences of the Homestead Act, study ranching practices in the southwest, and explore the traditions of native populations.

Students live, work and study on the ranch and their days will be full. Students learn about the West in their "indoor classroom"and later, in the "outdoor classroom", learn to ride, rope and take part in ranch chores. It's not long before they are team penning and rounding up cattle! Academic life is not limited to the classroom, however; after all we're on a ranch, so life here prompts learning in all kinds of places. Students develop close one-on-one relationships with their professor and with the ranch staff. They find themselves in unconventional classroom settings around the ranch. Academic and hands-on learning go on through the day, every day.

Prof. MacDonald is convinced that an on-site experience like this is just about the best way for students to learn - to learn not only about the literature, culture and history of the American West, but also to learn about the values of leadership, working together and rural life in America's working wilderness.

When Thoreau wrote in Walden that "my head is hands and feet," he said something important about how intellectual work and manual labor can be united. Hard work, and the satisfaction that can come from it, can - and should - be connected to the world of the muse, to the world of books, ideas and art.

In these college classes, Prof. MacDonald aims for that kind of seamless experience. There us hardly a moment when students aren't thinking about Western missus, and hardly a moment when the aren't socially engaged or diving into some kind of work at the ranch. These classes offer a seamless experience, off the beaten path, where intellectual rigor, manual labor and new friendships can all happen at once.

The history of the West describes processes of adaptation and rebirth - it tells of adjustments to an arid geography, newly created social structures, hard work and new ideas born of that adaptive experience. And with pens, pitchforks and a lot of heart,that's exactly what happens for these students!

Classes are offered at the Double E Ranch during winter holiday breaks and during the summers. The classes bear English credit and transfer easily to students' home institutions as a course in Western American Literature. Each class is worth three credits, has no prerequisites and is open to students of all majors and backgrounds.

For detailed information, contact Professor MacDonald at: 806-651-2456.