Classes at Antioch were very different from the classes at Pitzer. In my printing class, the teacher announced, “I am here as a resource. Everyone is expected to turn in a printed project at the end of the quarter. But I won’t be teaching you. Just ask questions if you need help with your project.”
A student shyly asked, “Do you have any guidelines for this project?”
“No,” he replied, “except it should be longer than one line.”
An upper-class student took charge and requested that the teacher name each machine in the room, tell us the order in which they were used, and demonstrate the functioning of the light table. I asked if there were any instruction books for the machine. The teacher said “No,” but several of my classmates looked at me with respect.
The unstructured educational approach at Antioch did not work for everyone. The dropout rate was high. It was rumored that some students graduated without having done any work. However, Antioch was effective for me, and I began to enjoy my studies. Now that I didn’t have to fear failure, it was possible to attempt difficult classes. For example, I took Spanish again and passed it. I got organized and wrote out my schedule each day. The first few days of each quarter were spent practicing the route from class to class, from dormitory to class, and from lunchroom to class. My attendance became close to perfect. I liked small classes, so I took the ones that met early in the morning and tended to have less students.