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I can honestly say that I love school. I know not everyone is lucky enough to share that sentiment, and let me point out, if it makes you feel better, that my first thirteen years of school were, in general, very bad. Sure, I had some good, wild, purely inventive years in my public arts high school. Prior to high school, however, it was primarily an endless barrage of brutal schooling. And that's putting it mildly.

It's important to remember that I was as privileged as it got for kids in the public school environment. I was tracked since kindergarten, put in every advanced program available to my public school, and had a few really remarkable teachers. Still, I was vividly aware that 80% of the kids in that education factory would never be given the chances I had. I hated it, both for what it was and for what it removed me from.

It was after I turned seventeen that I discovered Hampshire College, which had sent a brochure to my best friend (who eventually ended up at art school). Hampshire doesn't use letter grades, doesn't care about SAT scores, doesn't use tests, has no required classes, has almost no dorm rooms that require you to have roommates (single rooms were a big criteria of mine), and is located in the midst of forest and farmland in idyllic Western Massachusetts. The 'idyllic' part unnerved me; I hated how elitist and removed from real life college seemed to be. But Hampshire offered me aid and promised I could take as much leave of absence as I wanted. So off I went, into thickly forested academia and ultimately into the educational utopia of my dreams.

You would think, right, that since Hampshire has no grades or tests that it must attract slackers who do nothing. And that's essentially right; it does attract slackers in the face of traditional education. I met an entire population of brilliant slackers and genius misfits. Still, the only way to graduate is to complete a series of projects, roughly over four years, under the guidance of a range of faculty sought out by the student. For the last two years of projects, committees of faculty must be formed to judge your work, and technically, it is not necessary to take classes in order to graduate. Classes are across-the-board excellent, however, and in lieu of a grade every student receives a narrative evaluation from the professor (who is addressed in class by first name only). The evaluation always includes, in detail, both what was done well by the student and what needs improvement.

The effect of this kind of feedback is profound; it pushed me to work harder with every class and to absorb criticism constructively and aggressively (well, more than I had before, trust me). In the absence of an A+, there is no ceiling to learning. I never bothered to take a leave of absence.

Hampshire uniformly teaches its students to develop a critical eye and an analytical mind. It was founded in 1970 by the presidents of the four surrounding colleges (UMASS-Amherst, Smith College, Amherst College, and Mt. Holyoke), who felt that there was growing field of subjects which their trustees and alumni considered too radical to teach but that still needed to be taught. Critical social theory, queer theory, thinking about law and justice in terms of race and culture, media analysis, experimental film and video, progressive science, postmodern political analysis, and radical approaches to studio art, music, theater, and dance are just some of the staples of the liberal arts education as Hampshire has redefined it. Together, the five colleges make up the Five-College Consortium, complete with a free range of cross-registration at all five schools and a free busing system (each school is no more than twenty minutes away from the others). I took courses in sociology and postmodern theory at Amherst, and at Mt. Holyoke I spent two years jumping horses.

Of course, some of the brightest people I know would have disliked attending Hampshire; it doesn't propel everyone. It's perfect only for a specific kind of person: ideally, a person who finds that they can thrive on a complete absence of structure, has an enduring interest in social equality, wants very much to befriend their faculty members, and is willing and hungry to take responsibility for their own education. It made me love school. If you are this kind of person, maybe you should apply.