[UnschoolingDiscussion] Hampshire College WAS College
Betsy and Chris
******************************
I went to a cool, hippy college where everyone designs their own course of
learning (Hampshire College in western MA). It was one of the things that led
me to unschooling.
Lots of other students there at the time
had been homeschooled or went to alternative schools.
Kathryn
******************************
I grew up in the area and have always remembered an incident while riding on one of the 5 College Buses:
A woman was boarding the bus through the rear door and tripped up the steps. My initial reaction (at 16 or however old I was) was to laugh--that's just what you did if someone fell at school or dropped their books or whatever--that's what *everyone* did. Oy.
Anyway, another young woman who had gotten on at Hampshire (very hippy-ish, "typical" Hampshire student <g>) immediately jumped forward and extended her hand to the woman, asking, "Are you OK?"
It was such a small act of kindness and it hit me *really* hard--made me ashamed for my feelings at the time and was such a clear lesson in what to do if someone is hurt or embarrassed in public. It also made me realize how cruel my public school peers were and how cruel I had become.
That woman was such a good example to me--I've never forgotten her. I didn't know that many of the students at Hampshire were homeschooled, and maybe that young woman wasn't one of them, but it strikes me that that sort of behavior might be more common among kids who've avoided the dog-eat-dog mentality of public school.
Anyway, thanks for letting me reminisce.
Betsy S.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
I went to a cool, hippy college where everyone designs their own course of
learning (Hampshire College in western MA). It was one of the things that led
me to unschooling.
Lots of other students there at the time
had been homeschooled or went to alternative schools.
Kathryn
******************************
I grew up in the area and have always remembered an incident while riding on one of the 5 College Buses:
A woman was boarding the bus through the rear door and tripped up the steps. My initial reaction (at 16 or however old I was) was to laugh--that's just what you did if someone fell at school or dropped their books or whatever--that's what *everyone* did. Oy.
Anyway, another young woman who had gotten on at Hampshire (very hippy-ish, "typical" Hampshire student <g>) immediately jumped forward and extended her hand to the woman, asking, "Are you OK?"
It was such a small act of kindness and it hit me *really* hard--made me ashamed for my feelings at the time and was such a clear lesson in what to do if someone is hurt or embarrassed in public. It also made me realize how cruel my public school peers were and how cruel I had become.
That woman was such a good example to me--I've never forgotten her. I didn't know that many of the students at Hampshire were homeschooled, and maybe that young woman wasn't one of them, but it strikes me that that sort of behavior might be more common among kids who've avoided the dog-eat-dog mentality of public school.
Anyway, thanks for letting me reminisce.
Betsy S.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]