Why do I think Hampshire might be an appropriate place for me to
continue my education?* It is difficult for me to pinpoint any
one particular reason why I would like to continue my learning
experience there, since it is the whole idea of Hampshire that
attracts me.* Once I read the Viewbook from among dozens of
colleges, I KNEW that this was the place that I wanted to be
at.* Something "clicked" between the college's philosophy and my
own.* Just about all that I can tell you about Hampshire and me
is stuff that you already know.* I suppose that I might as well
begin here. Last year, around October of '88, I read the book on
the Summerhill school in England by the founder of the school.*
I didn't read Summerhill because of a school project, but
because my English teacher suggested that this book would be
something that I would enjoy.* This came at a time where we had
just begun Henry Thoreau's Walden and Civil Disobedience.* She
was right about the book and me.* The theories of which
Summerhill was created truly felt "right" to me, and I really
wish that the school, or others like it (not the
Montessorian-type of schools) were around today.*** The students
had just as much say as the teachers had; everyone's opinion was
valid in some way or another.* The only problem that I can see
with that book is that it doesn't give any other viewpoints of
Summerhill.* It is a book idealizing the school; it could almost
be called propagandist.* But I still believe in what it is
saying. Hampshire College, to me, holds many of the same ideals
as Summerhill school had.* The students, from what I have been
told, hold positions in all but two of the administrative
posts.* As a student, I would have the ability to choose my own
destiny, not by picking only certain courses, handing in all of
the homework and doing well on all of the tests, but by
designing my course of study by using the teachers as guides not
like guide dogs that go where THEY want to go, but that lead you
in the direction that YOU want to go in, encouraging you to go
alone and SEE.* I would be able to learn what I want to learn
and how I want to go about getting the information.* I feel
that, in Hampshire, I would have a freedom that many don't get
the chance to experience unless they already have the free will
and the ambition to go about teaching themselves.* i see people,
working in an office situation, that live out their secondary
school-type lifestyle with little variation.* This is a narrow
interpretation of office life, but it is what I sometimes see,
usually among men, hooting and howling at a beautiful woman, and
saying the same, old dirty jokes among one another.* What
strikes me as funny is the fact that many high school boys act
the "machismo", imitating what they think as mature without
realizing the fact that this attitude, among men, is the way
THEY thought that they were supposed to act as teenagers.* Some
people get stuck in a cycle and never rise above it.*
Free-thinking is the only way to beat this type of control.*
Hampshire College would give me, as well as many others, the
ability to never get caught in this cycle in the first place.
Another reason that I would like to continue my education here
is the Five-College system.* I have been told that this isn't
the only system of its kind, but when I asked for her to name
one single place with a similar system, she couldn't answer me.*
I am aware that many colleges have programs that allow you to
take courses in other institutions, but I have never seen one
that was so encouraged and well planned as the Five-College's.*
The free bus that goes from one school to another doesn't hurt
much either.* With this ability, I would be able to take more
extensive courses in MUSIC COMPOSITION (one of my interests)
than I might be able to take if I was in Hampshire College
alone.* And yet, even with this University-Style of learning, I
would still be in a small school, taking most of my courses
there. In the eighth grade, my mom prompted me to take a test
for a private school that was giving out scholarships for those
that matched the school (as shown in the test) and had financial
need.* I took the test and apparently did quite well, since I
was "competing" with twelve or thirteen other people and made it
into the school.* This school, known as "Vail-Deane", is where I
have been learning for the past three or so years.* It is a
small school, having only 202 students ranging from
Pre-Kindergarten to Twelfth Grade.* Being in a class of only
thirteen people really lets one get an individualized
education.* It is a very open school in many ways.* The younger
kids aren't "hardened" like they are (or at least as I was) in
public school and are more able to show their feelings.* They
have no trouble joking around with me as I, too, am open to
them.* We call ourselves, the "Vail-Deane family" and we are,
even though many of us lack the ability to realize that.*
"Everyone is important" seems to be one of our "mottos" is no
one is "left out" or able to hide behind a book with our small
classes.* This ability to nurture one's own learning capacity is
encouraged here and is what I like bout Hampshire College.* I
want to continue with a heightened version of Vail-Deane's
learning system - "to learn by teaching oneself".* These ideas
about Vail-Deane may not be the official ideas or even ideas
that anybody outside of myself have noticed, but they are what I
feel about Vail-Deane is showing us to be - to be open-minded
and fair, allowing everyone to have their say or, at least,
their own viewpoint of things and not to get impressed with
someone else's ideals and values. I really wish that I knew what
I could say that would convince you, without a doubt, that I
belonged in Hampshire.* Unfortunately, I know that there is no
one thing that would convince you of that.* It taes a
combination of these essays, creative work, which, in my case,
is a cassette of my piano playing, and my transcript.* I know
that, if I don't make it into Hampshire this year, or if
Financial Aid doesn't cover the costs, I will get a job or two
and work and save until I can cover the costs for the next
year.* Hampshire College IS where I want to continue my
education, whether or not these reasons that I gave seem to show
it, and I will try my hardest to make it here.* This school is
what I consider the IDEAL of education - to allow the student to
teach him/herself past what the teacher taught.* I hope you will
consider me for I feel, if I am accepted here, that I will give
something truly unique to this school.
