What role did going to college play in the hippie movement

I'm just curious. Were most hippies of the 60 a product of going to college and the experiences therin? If so, did this change much throughout the late 60s and 70s to include other age groups and educational backgrounds? College definately had a big impact on me, mostly because it cured me of the sheltered, small-town mentality that so many of my friends who didn't go to college still have!

Thanks for the imput, "old" hippies

 

I would be stage 2 on your ladder. I was exposed to a stage 1. (Original 1960's youth)
Pssst. I was age 6 at the time. I'm a hippy today because of that person.
I never went to college, neither did that person. (I'm being vague because it is a family member whom I still respect.)

 

I reread my post and wanted to make sure I don't offend anyone who didn't go to college by sounding snobby or uppity because I did go. I just meant to say that it forced me to get out of the area and interact with many different types of people and views and allowed me to see beyond the very conservative small-town norms. My home town was very racist, and the common past time seemed to be getting drunk and shooting guns! In fact, I wasn't even exposed to any drugs including pot until college. Luckily for me my undergraduate college was very liberal artsy with a lot of grunge and hippie types. I have been affiliated with two larger universities since then and both have been full of very snobby yuppy-type students (you know what I mean, please don't bash me for stereotyping). I was lucky to be in the former atmosphere during a time of great personal developement. I would say the biggest time for change for me in developing who I am now, began taking place midway through undergraduate reaching a peak during graduate school. I really don't think I would be who I am now if I would have never left my small town.

 

I have to say that my hometown sounds a lot like yours, FeelinGroovy. I was a wee tyke in the 60's (grade school, mostly), and to talk like a hippy...words like "groovy" or calling a guy a "cat" ....was extremely uncool. You could mark some points by being able to dance like some of the girls on American Bandstand, but that is about it.
I went to an artsy college also, and boy did my perception of life alter at that point! I started college in 1976, so the hippy days were coming to an end, but the open minded-ness of the period was still evident...I discovered the Dead, Carole King, simon and Garfunkel, and smoked my first weed. And, then, of course, I discovered disco ;-)

So yeah, from my perspective, I would say that college expanded my mind, and opened me up to some things that I wouldn't have found without that experience. Everybody has their story!

Good question!

 

interesting question. I did not attend college for more than a quater, but my old man did, and I can see that it shaped who he is, opened his eyes to a wider world and all that. I was living on my own at 17 in the city and was involved with a lot of interesting people. My parents were very bohemian and had, from an early age, taught me to think for myself, so I have always been an independent learner. I think that has been the biggest factor in shaping my life as peaceful and thoughtful person. (thanks mom and dad!) :wink

I do agree with you that higher education, such as college can be a very determining factor in shaping one's life, especially if one's youth has been somewhat sheltered. Maybe it is simply those years, regaurdless of how one spends them, that shapes one's future?

 

good point!, but I also think that ones atmosperes also contributes to the end result.

 

College was where a whole lot of young aware people were at the time, where they were able to exchange ideas and organize protests against the lunacy then prevailing. We had a freak parade with naked girls tearing down the street on motorcycles, and stoned groups of people riding by on top of their cars, and then there were too many people, and the police came with their tear gas, and then all hell broke loose. But later we felt good about the disruption we had caused......

 

And of course some hippies went to college to avoid the Vietnam draft. It was preferable to going to Canada or going underground.

 

...and there was Kent State. I was young then and still in highschool, but many of our friends were at Kent State and experienced their world falling apart. They still hold a candle light vigil there every year.

 

Here's a few photos of the 2005 Kent State candlelight walk that I attended.

Along sidewalk on north side of campus:



Prentice Hall parking lot:



Jeffrey Miller's memorial site in Prentice Hall lot:

 

Colleges were a vehicle for the agenda of particular groups back in the 60s. It wasn't so much the education that mattered but rather that they were a place where people could gather for a cause. People could travel across the country easily back then and share a dorm or frat house with someone. There was even an old 'haunted house' near Kent State where the group SDS and students would meet to discuss and plan their causes. Alfred Hitchcock even used it as a model for his horror story.

After the shootings at Kent, the attitude of some students changed. They no longer wanted groups like SDS and the Weathermen and people like Jerry Rubin on campus. They felt the campus and students were being hijacked by these groups for their own causes and would rather do without them and get back to education. One of the students who was shot at Kent said in the early 70s that the radical groups would no longer get any help from the campus for violent activities but would have to do them on their own turf and with their own people.

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thanks for posting the pics. shaggie!