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1.1-1.21 Form. This is a paper I wrote about education during my last semester of high school. May 1992. This represents the transition from high school at Northfield Mount Hermon to Hampshire College. (I left NMH after my junior year there and went right to Hampshire, without graduating from highschool.)
2.1-2.4 Some thoughts on teaching physics. I held problem sessions for the Physics I and II classes in my first year at Hampshire and felt that I had discovered some important principles of teaching physics that the Professors were not aware of. At the request of my advisor (one of the physics teachers) I began to write down my thoughts. This is the resulting document - notes which were never rewritten, and never shared with my advisor. January 1993.
3.1-3.2 Let's Try a New Way of Organizing Classes. This is a flyer made by Josh Moses and I in an effort to publicize an idea we thought Hampshire should try: The Brainstorm and Idea Board. April 1993.
4.1 The History of Networking and The SIN Manifesto I on the Future of Networking. These short descriptions outline some of my early work (with the Brainstorm and Idea Board and the Student Information Network) trying to make Hampshire College what I had wanted and expected it to be. Many of my ideals are still exactly as I expressed them in these documents, though the forms in which I see these ideals have become implementable and my leadership ability has significantly improved. Fall 1993.
5.1 Hampshire Student Information Network form. The first semester of SIN (fall 1993), SIN did a mass mailing of these forms to campus mailboxes, and several students went through the dining common to request entries. For two years now, these forms have been distributed to incoming students in their course registration packet in mid-summer. Then, at the beginning of the school year, I picked the sheets up from the advising office to type into the computer. Each year, I had volunteers who took many of the sheets, but who never typed these in as they had promised. I still think SIN has a lot of potential, and the only thing between its current obscurity and being widely known and used is one devoted person. In particular, I believe what previously held SIN back from success was the lack of any structure to organize student-initiated education; now that EPEC provides that structure, I believe SIN could become very useful. The basic form is the same as the one first used in 1993-1994, and has now been used in the summer 1995 and summer 1996 mailings.
6.1 University of Redlands Lunch Bytes flyer. During January of 1995, I traveled to the Johnston Center at the University of Redlands. This is a flyer from a presentation I was part of, explaining the Johnston Center to the University of Redlands.
7.1-7.18 Johnston College, Johnston Center, and a Context for Hampshire College. Included are several sections of the report I prepared as a result of the January visit to Johnston. It was also my Social Science Division 1. The full text is available from the Hampshire College Archives as CG.S5. March 1995.
8.1-8.2 Rhonda Blair letter. Throughout the year 1994-1995, I was on Hampshire's Educational Policy Committee. That year, the faculty was developing a plan for ``Inquiry Seminars'' as a new form of Division I. I was against this idea; I thought it was based on backwards thinking of trying to fit people into models, rather than trying to make models reflect people. This is explained in the letter, to Rhonda Blair. At that time, Rhonda Blair had been selected from the faculty to work part time spear-heading the effort to fix perceived problems in Division I - which became the effort to institute Inquiry Seminars. My letter was waived off by her: ``The faculty have already addressed those issues,'' she said. March 1995.
9.1-9.3 Division II Contract This is my final Division II contract. Until a few days before passing, my official contract still looked like a somewhat atypical computer science concentration. The night before the final deadline for passing, I rewrote the contract so that it reflected more than only computer science. March 1995.
10.1-10.5 Looking Back on My Div II My Division II retrospective. March 1995.
11.1-11.3 Division II Evaluation More than a year after I had passed my Division II, Herb Bernstein (the chair of my committee) was finally able to put together an evaluation. As he notes in his final paragraph, my concentration was far more than what I captured in the official contract and portfolio. As I mentioned in the Introduction to this Appendix, I feel that this Division III is really the first time when I have managed to put my education and my life together - my official education was always happening in some form or other, but my life was really happening, and that was where my heart and learning were more than in the official education (though to be honest, they did overlap slightly before this thesis in my studies of computer science and education).
12.1 Subject: Alternative Colleges, email. This is a sample of the emails I sent out in the spring of 1995 when beginning the Network of Alternative Colleges.
13.1 For the division I in Natural Science, each student should... This document was one I wrote in response to feeling that the version of the goals for Division I prepared by several faculty of the school of Natural Science did not reflect what I thought the goals should be. I prepared it in on the suggestion of a faculty member. April 1995.
14.1-14.2 My New and Dear Friends! letter. This is a letter to the second orientation group I led. I had to talk to quite a few people before I could get the names of my group members, but it all worked out in the end. August 1995.
15.1-15.3 Course Description: F95 I distributed this course description to the people who came to the first meeting of a student-led education course I started (but did not lead or participate much in - I was officially on leave). September 1995.
16.1-16.4 Wanna Learn About Alternative Education? This is the flyer and my notes from a talk I gave to the education class. These notes include the next level of maturity in analyzing education, beyond the level of my paper ``Johnston College, Johnston Center, and a Context for Hampshire College'' but still limited in my ability to put these ideas into action. September 28, 1995.
17.1-17.5 The Man of the House This is a story I wrote while on leave of absence in the 1995-1996 school year. I was on a one-month trip through the south-eastern US, visiting alternative schools and intentional communities. I had stopped for a day in Little Rock, Arkansas to visit my mother's college roommate. The story describes a friendly encounter that turned into me being robbed. I still don't fully understand the impact of this event on my psyche, but at the very least it has made me aware of my own inability to know for sure what is going on in other people's mind and experience, aware of my inability to reach out to help anyone I want to, and somewhat more scared of cities in general. Luckily, it came at the end of my trip, and I had already met many of my goals (exploring a little of the south; seeing several schools and communities; confirming the possibility that alternative schools were the next place I wanted to take myself; finding out that I could educate myself without an institution). December 1995.
18.1-18.6 Welcome to the First Annual Conference on Alternative Higher Education. These are the information sheets prepared by Rebecca Saunders for the Conference. I was primarily responsible for getting people to attend the conference, for organizing a panel on the history of Hampshire, for transportation, and basically responsible to do whatever other people didn't do. Other folks organized food and lodging. I found out what a challenge it is to organize a conference - takes a lot of work but it's doable. Also included are the letter I wrote to the members of the panel I eventually found (two students from Hampshire's first few years, and Everett Hafner, Hampshire's first Dean of Natural Science - a trustee I had originally invited unfortunately came down with the flu), and a short article on the conference that appeared in the AERO-Gramme. January 1996.
19.1-19.4 The Alternative Higher Education Network web page (featuring the mascot of AHEN, AHEN). Also included are the list of member institutions (which means only that there is at least one person from the institution on the AHEN email list), the letter of invitation to join the Network, and the minutes from the business meeting of the first conference. This web-page is now listed in many places on the internet and receives fairly high traffic the main AHEN page gets 40-100 hits a day). These original web page was created in spring of 1995; I have been keeping it updated since then.
20.1 Subject: The Radical Departure (email). In late February, I decided that I would dedicate some time to the Radical Departure. Immediately, I wrote ``The Radical Departure'' (Document 21) and sent it as part of this email message to a long list of people I had brainstormed as potentially interested. February 1996.
21.1-21.5 The Radical Departure, Version .6 (RD paper number 1) See descriptions for documents 20 and 23. Late February 1996.
22.1-22.5 The Meaning of Education, and Meaning, in a RD World (RD paper number 2) See description for document 23. March 1996.
23.1-23.11 Ends and Means: The Spiritual Approach to Being a Professor (Expert Learner and Person) in RD (RD paper number 3). These three papers, written in March of 1996, still represent most of my educational philosophy and my analysis of Hampshire. At the time, they were not helpful to anyone else, however. No teachers or students I gave the papers to managed to even finish reading them. Probably this is partly because I could have condensed the ideas some, but more than that I think it is because they were not ready to understand many of these ideas. I did some work revising these papers at the time, but because they seemed to be almost entirely useless to others, I gave up and decided simply to make RD happen and the philosophy would have to be transmitted personally. These pieces also reflect the most starry-eyed ``spirituality'' jargon I have ever used - which has much to do with my current reading material at the time, Gandhi. This is not to say that spirituality is not a valid lens through which to view these ideas. Rather, it just isn't the language that many of my fellow Americans can comprehend at this point in their lives. March 1996.
25.1-25.2 Greg Prince letter. After sending this letter (with copies of RD papers 1 and 2), I went to the traditional Monday morning breakfast with the President. This was quite a breakfast. He started off asking me, ``Who is the enemy?'' (the bad habits of students and faculty, I responded). Later, he had the most brilliant articulation of the falsest thing I have ever heard: discussing the frustration we had previously experienced when I took his course and felt like he had not supported what I needed, he said ``This is going to give you an ulcer, but I consider you my greatest success.'' These are both examples of what many at Hampshire see as Gregspeak, completely brilliant evasions of what is being discussed so that the discussion gets so caught up in details or contests (used whenever the territory becomes close to something about which Greg could actually learn something). It is so tempting to get caught up in this rubbish - I remember, in fact, that the whole day after this discussion, I was wishing I had come right back at Greg (to the first comment) by pointing out that he was purposely creating an adverserial relationship, and (to the second comment) by saying that he was my greatest failure. But I only thought of these things later; and more to the point, even these responses are still playing the game of trying to out Gregspeak Greg. After attending probably three dozen or more of these breakfasts at Hampshire, finally this semester I have been able to not let myself get very caught up in this talk. I could do this only after developing a great deal of confidence and experience working directly with Greg. For the most part, the real key for me has been recognizing that it's not my duty to make Greg change his mind; that's up to him. My goal becomes simply to share my opinions, experiences, desires, and reflections. I think these tactics of conversation go beyond just the dialogue between Greg and me - this is a key point in all dialogue. The end result of the dialogues was some hesitant support from Greg last spring, which turned out to be nothing concrete. Since then, we have become increasingly proactive, and Greg has been very supportive. The letter is dated February 27, 1996.
26.1-26.2 Hampshire faculty, administration, students, trustees letter. The trustees organized an open dinner with students the evening before their March trustee meeting, and I presented a copy of this letter to each of the trustees who attended the dinner. Several students involved with the Radical Departure talked with individual trustees about RD. At this dinner, I met Blair Brown, Chair of the Board of Trustees. He asked whether there were any impediments to the Radical Departure. I said only one: that the faculty insisted on trying to make everyone into an academic. ``That's not our mission here,'' he said. I also told him about some other documents I had written about Hampshire, and he asked me to send him a copy of them. March 1996.
27.1 Hey You, Hampshire! The Radical Departure group put together this mailing to all Hampshire students' mail boxes. March 1996.
28.1-28.3 Hi Blair letter. In response to Blair Brown's request to send him my documents about Hampshire, I sent him this letter along with each of the documents listed as enclosures (all of which are included in this appendix). He never wrote back or thanked me, and I don't even know if he read any of them. He's either disorganized, forgetful, stupid, or made a dumb mistake. A little reply would have gone a long way. March 1996.
29.1 Radical Departure Presents a Feast! This is a poster for one of the dinners I cooked to get people aware of RD and discussing how they might use it. March 1996.
30.1 What is the Radical Departure? This article appeared in a cam campus newspaper (The Omen) in late March 1996.
31.1 Agriculture, Dancing, Radical Education, and You - This is the description for the orientation group I would lead in the fall, written April 1996.
32.1-32.5 Greetings Nancy, To: Greg Prince re: The Experimental Program in Education and Community, and Dear Chris. This is the official budget proposal to Hampshire college. As I have written elsewhere, this was written at the time when I decided to really be the leader and proposed to change the name from Radical Departure to the Experimental Program in Education and Community. (This was briefly after I had a late night revelation and decided to write this Division III not as an analysis of alternative education, but as my story.) I sent the proposal to Nancy Kelly, who Greg usually directs students to send their financial proposals to. From the strange response letter Nancy sent, I was not at all sure whether Greg even heard about the proposal I sent, nor sure in which direction to proceed.
33.1-33.3 Dear Brenda and To: Brenda Phillips re: Proposal for the Lemelson Program... This was a funding proposal to the Lemelson Program to provide some funding for one of the courses in the Experimental Program. I am particularly proud of this proposal, though it was not approved for funding. June 1996.
34.1 Dear Blair letter. Here, I tried to keep Blair Brown as an ally by sending him copies of the two proposals I had written (Documents 32 and 33). June 1996.
35.1-35.2 The Experimental Program in Education and Community brochure. In July, I was working as a teaching assistant for a month in a Springfield public school program for middle school children, and the program housed me on the Hampshire campus. While on campus, I got some advice on writing this brochure from Noah St. John, a student who was working in the alumni relations office over the summer. I spent many evenings working on this brochure through July, and finally got it to the presses around August 10th. I made one typo in this document: my phone number. (The neighbors were very kind and directed all the callers to my real phone.) Details matter.
36.1-36.4 The Experimental Program in Education and Community, Fall 1996 Course Catalog. I had asked Jacob Bornstein to make this catalog in the spring, but he didn't have the time; he did get people's submissions, however. He ended up finishing his version and sending it to me on August 1. I made a few changes and additions and had it to duplications around August 10. I also made an error in this catalog, writing September 4 instead of 5 (in addition to also having the wrong phone number here). Important lesson - have several proofreaders check everything, not just spelling and grammar, and give oneself enough spare time for that. I had all the course descriptions approved by Bobbi Stewart (Director of Central Records) and Aaron Berman (Dean of Advising); the description for Applied Sustainable Agriculture also had to be approved by the Dean of Faculty because it was an official Natural Science course and appeared in Hampshire's course catalog supplement.
37.1a August 8, 1996 meeting - Greg Prince and Chris Kawecki I arranged this meeting to go over the EPEC materials, goals, and budget with President Prince. Also on the suggestion of Noah St. John, I did several things to make sure I got Greg on my side. First, I gave him copies of the materials several days before the meeting, then at the meeting I gave him an agenda so he could remember what we had talked about, and during the meeting I made sure to ask him what his goals for EPEC were (at the meeting, he couldn't think of any beyond the ones I proposed). August 8, 1996.
37.1b Dear Alumn This is a note I stapled into each of the 300 brochures that the alumni relations office agreed to send to nearby alumns. I made a similar addition to the brochures I put into staff mailboxes. About August 10, 1996.
38.1-38.2 Dear New Pals This is a letter to the students who would be in my orientation group. August 8, 1996.
39.1 Hampshire College Invites Community to Participate in Cross-Generational, Collaborative Learning press release. I sent this to ten newspapers, and several put it in the calendar, but none called me for more information or ran the whole story. Next time, I will call the papers before and after. August 15, 1996.
40.1 To: Greg Prince re: EPEC progress report, and work-study followup. After almost two weeks with no reply back about my budget proposal, I sent this in. My tactic was to just not accuse the administration, but consistently to keep informing them that I was still waiting. It worked, though it still took another couple weeks.
41.1-41.2 General Orientation Ideas, and Important Academic Ideas. I wrote these sheets in August, with the goal of sharing my experience and ideas with the other orientation leaders. I gave them to the orientation staff before orientation training. They finally had copies to distribute at the end of the last day; I'm not sure how many of the leaders read them, as everyone was drained at this point, but I'm sure at least several did.
42.1 The Experimental Program in Education and Community. This is a printed copy of the internet home page I made for EPEC. I made this page in spring 1996 and kept it updated.
43.1 Some thoughts about my Educational Philosophy, and other stuff This is a printed copy of one of the parts of my personal internet home page. I started this page around January of 1995, and have been adding to it since. My goal is always to create an environment where it is possible for students to learn from one another's experience, and where learning takes place by curious people exploring. In this particular case, I am trying to create that environment in computer space.
44.1-44.4 Orientation Banquet Speech to All Entering Students I began thinking about giving this speech the year before, during orientation, and kept rethinking it every month or two. Finally, in July I sat down and wrote out the first version. At that time, the speech focused on the balance of ``culture'' and ``revolution;'' about a week before the actual speech, I suddenly realized as I was trying to go to sleep that these words were still holdovers from the old me, and that words with more contemporary connotations for me would be ``tried-and-true'' and ``become.'' I rewrote this speech at least a dozen times during July and August (probably the most I have ever rewritten anything). The story of how I arranged to give the speech is in the EPEC timeline. In late September, Greg wrote me a letter thanking me for my speech.
45.1-45.7 To all EPEC course participants letter. I wrote this during August, then printed out about 175 copies to give to students who came to the introductory EPEC meeting. I gave them all out. I'm not sure how many people read it - most likely, it is another one of my absolutely brilliant writings that I put so much energy into, but that just aren't what other people are ready for. Later, I gave copies of this letter and the banquet speech to the trustees on the trustee Educational Policy Committee (of which I was a member in fall 1996). One of the trustees who had read my letter, Jean Guyton, was extremely impressed - I met her at the fall trustee-student dinner, and she said to me that she had been so impressed by this letter that she was going to suggest to the trustees that it be sent to all prospective students (though she suggested that it would have to be condensed to one page).
46.1-46.3 NS 145 Contract, Assessment Squad Contract, and EPEC Archetypes Class Contract These were the contracts I distributed to the members of these three EPEC classes I was sponsoring. (I didn't write a contract for the course I cosponsored with Rebecca Saunders, Building The New Society.) September - October 1996.
47.1-47.2 Subject: meetings with CCS, NS; eval of EPEC; restructuring of schools email. This is an email I sent to the epec email list. I always tried to keep all EPEC participants up to date on what I was doing and thinking about, and always be open to discussing these things with them or inviting them to participate in discussions or action. The story on participation in discussion was much like the story on participation in action. For the most part, everyone just let me do/say all administrative and philosophical stuff. There are two definite exceptions to this. Whenever we talked about something completely unimportant (a name, or a location, or what kind of spaghetti) then everyone would have an opinion. Also, part way through the final semester, several students (Silke Akerson, a first year in two of my EPEC courses being primarily responsible) took up some of the reigns for taking over EPEC in the spring, when I will no longer be around.
48.1-48.3 Division III Contract - my final contract. In the 18 months between the first time I filed this contract and the last time, it went from being a study of communal childraising in America and Israel, to being an analysis of alternative education, to finally being my development as teacher, writer, reformer, and thinker. September 30, 1996.
49.1-49.2 Eugene Experiments With His Education, EPEC Explained, and Dear Mister Manners. ``Eugene...'' is a satire on EPEC, by a student who entered in the same semester as I did and who is graduating in the same semester as I am. On account of my horrible memory for jokes, I have doubled up laughing from this article at least three or four times this semester. This appeared in the same issue of The Phoenix as my Orientation Banquet Speech (which EPEC paid twenty bucks to make sure they print). At first I thought it was too bad The Phoenix had confused EPEC and my orientation banquet speech, because the speech certainly didn't intend to ``explain'' EPEC. But since then I've realized that almost every person on planet Earth has Attention Deficit Disorder and only occasionally remember the beginning or the title or purpose of an article when they're reading any of the rest of it (if they even finish), so it doesn't bother me all that much. Finally, there is a little comment in the Mister Manners article about EPEC - a reminder for me that my little baby was becoming a household word/tool/rag.
50.1 The Catalyst: `Alternative' Academics. This article about AHEN appearing in the New College student newspaper. September 1996.
51.1-51.4 Greg Prince letter. Fall 1996 was marked by many angry students who felt disempowered by several changes that had been made in student services over the summer. I tried some to provide some positive direction to the students' energy, but I would have basically had to take over, and I just didn't have the time to do that. I wrote this letter to Greg thinking that I would be able to help Greg figure out how to respond in a way that was positive. I think it probably helped some.
52.1-52.3 Taking Control of One's Education flyer and notes. I distributed the notes to the 15 people who came to a Merrill House event I had been invited to do. The flyers were made by someone else, who forgot to write the purpose of the meeting on the flyer. No wonder the low turnout! October 9, 1996.
53.1-53.5 EPEC One-Month Report I prepared this report to distribute at the October trustee-student dinner. This report also includes a final list of the courses (changed considerably from the initial catalog). October 10, 1996.
54.1-54.2 Subject: Party Tuesday night, etc Email about the continuation of EPEC, officially saying that I would not be responsible for EPEC in spring, and listing important tasks. October 14, 1996.
55.1-55.5 Some Thoughts On Goals, Chris Kawecki I distributed these reflections to the ``concerned students'' group which had been actively creating trouble of all kinds by reacting negatively rather than acting positively. They all seemed to agree with my descriptions, but I think although it had some slight effect on people's perspectives to inform future analysis, it didn't seem to have much affect on the current goals or tactics. October 17, 1996.
56.1 To all involved in EPEC: This is a letter sent by two EPEC participants (who wanted to insure that EPEC continued in the spring) to all EPEC course participants through campus mail. October 20, 1996.
57.1-57.3 The Catalyst: From the Alternative College Network, What Makes New College ``Alternative'', and Why Are You Here The first document is an article I wrote up immediately upon arriving at New College for a one week visit, to let New College students know that Dave (the other student who went with me) and I were around and going to give several talks. The two signs are flyers made by Dave and I to advertise our talks. Each talk had about a dozen audience members - we had expected quite a few more. October 29, 1996.
58.1-58.2 To EPEC Sponsors and EPEC fall term report The group of students who was organizing to take over EPEC wrote this letter to let course sponsors know about the new steering committee as well as to let them know about the curriculum-building/informational meeting for the spring. The ``EPEC fall term report'' was prepared by George Howard, a student in the EPEC course ``Hampshire College Assessment Squad'' and a member of the EPEC steering Committee. Early November 1996.
59.1-59.3 Some Ideas for the Hampshire College Self-Study I was working on this on and off through October, and met with Merideth Michaels a few times to discuss the Hampshire self-study. In early November, I sent this version on to Nancy Kelly, who then forwarded it to Fran White. November, 1996.
60.1-60.7 Spring 1997 EPEC Course Guide & Catalog Like the fall course catalog, this was put together by Jacob Bornstein. 25 proposed courses! November, 1996.
61.1-61.2 Dear Friends letter. I sent this to a whole slew of people, 18-25, as well as some parents, who I thought might be interested in starting a school with me in Vermont. This is my next project.
62.1 To: Dean of Faculty and Dean of Students...AHEN Brett Lefferts and I organized funding for 5 students to attend the AHEN conference at the Johnston Center in January 1997. This was our proposal, written by Brett with help from me. We ran all over the place for funding, and we finally got as much as we asked for (from slightly different sources) approved December 23. Several of the places we went for funding were hesitant or completely resistant to giving funding ``for conferences,'' as if the conference was an end in itself rather than a means to bring something back to Hampshire. However, by this point Greg Prince was very supportive of me and the work I am doing, and basically figured out a way to pick up the slack somehow. December 5, 1996
63.1-63.2 EPEC Evaluation survey. I arranged for Kate Reedy (a student in her last semester at the Paracollege at St. Olaf's College studying alternative education) to come do an evaluation of EPEC. EPEC paid for her plane ticket. This was a survey we wrote together and distributed. However, we didn't get the responses back until after Kate left, and now I have them in a nice green folder.
64.1 A New Development in the Liberal Arts I submitted this op-ed to a contest sponsored by 30 liberal arts colleges to find op-eds they could print, essentially as advertisements, in papers around the country. It was quite a challenge to write this article - I had to simultaneously critique and applaud the liberal arts! I think I was successful, though perhaps not quite successful enough for it to be chosen unless the competition articles are even worse, or the judges forget for whom they are working. The article discusses what it means to take ideas seriously and describes the new school I am planning to start. Greg Prince got ahold of it somehow and wrote me a brief letter saying that he liked it, but didn't think it would be chosen because it does not respond to a contemporary issue, as op-eds typically do (but also saying that he would try to find some other place to publicize it). It reflects my recent analysis of the liberal arts - not particularly different from even the analyses I made in high school, except in emphasis. Now, I emphasize my own action rather than what others should do, I am less judgmental, and I am more clear in my writing - all important in order to get things done. But these are important in addition to, rather than in lieu of, my older ideas.
65.1 How to Evaluate EPEC Courses I wrote up this sheet and distributed it to all course sponsors shortly before December 10 1996.
66.1-66.3 The influence of Chris K on my education, From jgbF95, and Dear Chris I wrote an email to the epec list requesting that anyone on it write up a short description of how ``I personally have contributed to you personally.'' I got two responses (the first two documents). Dear Chris is a letter which accompanied a birthday gift from my friend Matt Earls. He didn't intend it to be included here, but I think it speaks for itself. That letter is my real diploma as far as I am concerned, and that is why I drew in a frame around it.
67.1-67.5 Sample contracts and self-evaluations for students in the agriculture course Several students took up three of my suggestions: a contract at the beginning of the semester, a revised contract partway through the semester, and a self-evaluation at the end of the semester. 67.1-67.4 provides and example of one of these sets. 67.1 has notes written on it from the meeting I had with this student to go over her first contract. 67.5 is the self-evaluation for another one of the students (this self-evaluation was part of a binder of notes she handed in at the end of the course).