I met the author Carol Ascher at a social function where we were table mates. When I mentioned that I was from Pine Plains, I was surprised that she expressed a great deal of familiarity with it through experiences long ago. Had she lived there? Well, sort of — she spent a year there back in 1972-73 as a doctoral student in anthropology and education at Columbia University. In fact, she wrote her doctoral dissertation about her experiences as a participant observer of the Pine Plains school system.
I was astonished that 1) someone had actually written a PhD dissertation about Pine Plains and 2) that I never heard of it. I wanted to know where it was and if I could read it.
It turns out that it was in a closet and she would look for it. I offered to digitize it so that it could be preserved and shared with the community. CLICK on the picture and you can read it!