1. education
2. school

THE BRIDGE
John came over to the window. “Yo! I’m
choking on your fumes, man”
“Well, don’t follow so close,” I said.
“I don’t want to lose you,” he complained.
“Lose me? I’m barely going 40 and there’s
no one else on the road!”
A bit later, the attendant at the station
took a look at the engine and determined the
van was fit. “It’s probably just working
harder than it’s used to,” he explained. We
would just have to take our chances the rest
of the way.
On the road again, it was dark. The roads
were winding and steep, but we were counting down the miles at this point. Under one
hundred to go. Back onto the interstate, I-89
North. Next stop, Montpelier. The skies
were dark and the stars were bright, and not
another car in sight. “We’re not in Virginia
anymore, Toto, I mean Natalie,” I said. She
laughed.
Counting down the exits now, exit 5, a
few miles later, exit 6, then exit 7. “One exit
to go,” I said. Exit 8. We’re here. I eased the
big machine onto the off ramp, and around
we went, for what seemed like a complete
circle.
We passed the golden dome on the left.
“Look,” I said, “Isn’t it beautiful?” Left on
Main Street, through town and past the little
shops that make up the downtown. Through
the roundabout, and up Main Street to the
top of the hill. We were really excited now,
as our journey was nearing its end. Around
the curve to the left. One more turn. We
made it! I yanked the steering wheel to the
left onto Towne Street. It was the first house
on the left. Screech! Thunk! The van ground
to a halt.
It wouldn’t go forward anymore. I threw it
into reverse. Scrunch! The sound came from
the back. Now it wouldn’t go backward either. We’re stuck! I got out to inspect, barely
able to open the door as the van was at what
felt like a 45-degree angle pointed up the
hill. Around the back, I saw that the van’s
trailer hook, which stuck out about a foot
from the tail end, caught the ground when I
went up the hill. Then, when I backed up, it
stabbed the pavement and stuck. We were a
mere 50 yards from our destination after a
700-mile drive.
Within five minutes, a car pulled up next
to us as I was fumbling around the cab looking for my cell phone. A young guy of about
20 stuck his head in the window and said
“You guys are stuck, aren’t you?”
“Um, yeah,” I moaned.
“OK, man, I’ll call my girlfriend. She
works for a towing company.” He pulled out
his cell and started dialing. “Hey Brenda,
honey, I’m on upper Main Street with some
AUGUST 5, 2010 • PAGE 7
folks who need a tow. Yeah. Cool.”
“Done, dude, they’re on the way,” he
said. “My name’s Jake.”
“Rick,” I offered. “This is my daughter Natalie. Nice to meet you.”
Out the other window a familiar face appeared. My good friend, Tim, who made the
trip up from his home in Salem, New York
earlier that day to help us with the move,
was standing there, beer in hand. He handed
it to me and said, “Looks like you need one
of these.”
Within 10 minutes, the police showed up
and put down flares to direct traffic. Then
the tow truck arrived. The driver looked at
the van and just shook his head. He got in his
truck, drove around us, up the hill and
backed down to the front of the van. He was
quiet as he hooked up his winch to the front.
“Alright,” he said, “I’m going to pull you up
the hill and I want you to gently give it gas as
I do.” I got in alone this time. As he started
to pull, I put it in first, Oh yeah, no first gear.
I put it into second and gave it gas. As I eased
off the clutch, it rattled and stalled. “Try
again!” he yelled. It stalled again and again
and again. The tow truck driver got more
and more frustrated.
He drove his truck around to the back of
the van and backed up to it as close as he
could. Then he placed the tow hook under
the back end. “Put it in neutral,” he demanded. He then started to retract the
winch, lifting the back of the truck straight
up, his little tow truck fish-tailing around. It
worked. The trailer hook popped out of the
pavement, and the van was freed from its
trap.
The cop came up to me and said, “Now
pull the van forward up Main Street and then
back it up the hill. We’ll guide you.” So I did.
I got the van into position, and gunned it in
reverse up the hill, blindly smashing into
trees as I went. I made it though, and I
backed the van into the driveway of our new
home. I pulled to a stop, exhausted.
The police officer walked up to the window. I was expecting a ticket or a reprimand, but instead he kindly leaned in, smile
on his face, and said, “Welcome to Vermont.”
Rick Powell is a freelance illustrator and
owner of The Book Garden in Montpelier.
He creates custom portraits and illustration his downtown studio and lives in our
fair capital with his two children, Natalie,
16, and Bobby, 10. You can see more of
Rick's work at www.studiopowell.com and
on the walls of The Book Garden at 50
State Street.
The Knitting Studio’s 2nd Anniversary!
Progressive Sale—the more you spend,
the more you save!
Saturday, August 7
97 State Street, Montpelier
802.229.2444
Storewide savings up to 25%!
PAGE 8 • AUGUST 5, 2010
THE BRIDGE
A Conversation with Mark Mason
Montpelier’s New School Superintendent
by Marsha Barber
M
ark Mason took the reins as Montpelier school system superintendent on March 3 of this year after
serving for eight years as school superintendent in Scituate, Massachusetts. Born and
raised in Brockton, Massachusetts, just south
of Boston, Mason graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and
came up through the ranks of the educational system, teaching high-school social
studies in Brockton for 14 years. When the
city went bankrupt, 124 teachers were laid
off. Mason was one of them.
Instead of pursuing another traditional
teaching job, Mason took a new route and
helped to initiate a program for 44 disenfranchised youth at a vocational technical
high school on Cape Cod, soon becoming assistant principal of the school. Eventually, he
ended up in Scituate, first serving as principal and then as superintendent. After 10
years in Scituate, deciding he needed something different, he applied to work in the
New York City public school system. Right
around this time, as he tells it, “the job in
Montpelier came on the radar. I knew Montpelier had a solid reputation culturally and
traditionally.” His big-city plans were abandoned and he’s now a proud citizen of
downtown Montpelier.
We recently met in my office at The
Bridge to discuss his new job, the three
schools he supervises (Montpelier High
School, Main Street Middle School and
Union Elementary School) and his visions for
the future of the Montpelier school system.
You began job in Montpelier on March
3 after most recently serving as superintendent in Scituate, Massachusetts.
How does that area compare in size to
the Montpelier school district?
There were around 220 to 260 graduates
there as opposed to about 90 at Montpelier
High School. We had six buildings as opposed to three here and a $34 million budget
as opposed to around $13 million here.
How do you see the challenges in the
Montpelier school system as different
from your previous job?
The pressures are the same in that they’re
consistent in dealing with a family’s most
prized possession—their child. There’s still
the same obligation in that when they cross
that podium at graduation that they have options and choices in their lives. That truly is
what our job is: to make sure the students
have opportunities beyond high school. Yes,
there has been some reduction in enrollment in Montpelier and there has been concern about that. That’s probably the number
one challenge.
What do you hope to achieve, broadly
speaking, as Montpelier’s school superintendent? What are some of the
changes you’ve implemented already?
What are the current strengths of the
system? What are the needed areas of
improvement?
Number one, I want to be a protagonist
for excellence. I pledged to the school board
to really have a long view of making this district the best in the state: culturally, academically, in the fine arts arena. Maintaining our
facilities is key. The state has invested $16
million in three physical plants, and it’s crucial to maintain those. Our citizens take civic
pride in those. It’s also crucial to maintain
quality programs in every level so kids have
options. We have to make sure we have a
school system in grades K through 12 in
which taxpayers have trust and faith that it’s
managed efficiently and effectively—that the
overall organization is running effectively
and that there’s a certain degree of transparency in the way we do business. I relish
the opportunity to answer questions about
our budget and programming. The school
system is the one municipal department that
absorbs the greatest amount of revenue and
I think we always have to be aware and appreciative of that.
My main focus has been on facilities. We
want a renewed sense of openness and pride
and we’ve focused as many resources on
that as possible. At Union Elementary, I received an e-mail from a mom who’s organized more than 40 moms and dads between
Tuesday and Saturday of this week to come
in and help clean, sweep, paint, spruce up
the basketball court. The recreation department has planted new grass. We really want
a “wow” factor when the kids return to
school. I’ve pledged to the school board that
by September 1 we wouldn’t have to look
backwards but could move forward and deal
with visionary issues.
Once we cross threshold with three facilities, we want to maintain them on a regular
basis and to provide our board and community with data in terms of supporting consolidation and reorganization. We want to
maintain stability. The system has suffered
the loss of a beloved superintendent and
since then there has been a flux in stability.
It’s very important to have one “go to” person for a bit of tenure.
In the past several years, school enrollments here in Montpelier have been in
decline. But school taxes have continued to rise. Why has this been happening? What can be done to address this
issue?
I would assume it’s to maintain a certain
level of programming for youngsters. We
have a really good fine arts program. It may
have 60 kids or 40 kids, but we have to maintain a knock-out fine arts program no matter
what the size of enrollment. The same can
be said for our science program, etc. But it
behooves us not to cut those programs. Secondly, inflationary costs come with running
any organization. Thirdly, you have to make
investments in your infrastructure. Plus, you
have to update technology every three to
five years. Then there are costs associated
with updating heating, plumbing and electricity. For safety’s sake and to make sure
that our kids get recognized, whether it be
for drama performances, chorus, football,
you must prepare the stage, have coaches,
prepare uniforms. If you enter into competitions, particularly in fine arts, there are fees
to pay and travel costs. You must showcase
these opportunities so taxpayers see the
value of where there dollars are going and
the community feels a certain pride.
Given enrollment declines, do you
think it continues to be wise to run
three separate buildings with three
separate building principals? Do you
favor continuing to keep the Main
Street Middle School open? Do you personally support the “middle school”
concept?
That’s something that the school board,
school staff, our community as a whole and
other communities have to decide. Is there
merit? Is it the will of the people in Montpelier to merge with another high school?
There are some gains and losses. There may
be some opportunities. There’s something
good about kids walking to a local middle
school. There’s something to be said about a
school board looking out for the kids in their
own middle school. There’s something to be
said for a community to know that the high
school is theirs.
I do personally support the middle school
concept. In truth, I wish our numbers were
higher. I think another one of my jobs is to
see what we can do with neighboring communities. I’m sure there are people who
look at Montpelier and say, “I wish I could
send my kids to that school.” I think with
some imagination and showcasing we can
show that Montpelier public schools are the
go-to school district in this area. But making
that perception the reality is, how do we
transport them? How do we come up with
tuition that’s fair to their community and fair
to taxpayers in our community?
There appears to be a growing interest
in local agriculture. Do you think the
Montpelier school system is doing
enough both to support this growing
interest and to prepare students for careers in farming and agriculture?
continued next page
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The Bridge
THE BRIDGE
[Laughs] Well, Tom Sabo is a demigod.
[We discuss the popularity of Sabo, a biology
teacher at Montpelier High School who runs
a greenhouse and agricultural program at the
school, whom I interviewed for The Bridge’s
Food Issue.] But seriously, I had a conversation with NECI to see if there can be a partnership with them to have them be part of
our food service program, which is a winwin. I think we’re leading the way. It’s not
just one science class. There’s a whole mentality, a whole culture that extends through
all of our schools: eating healthy, buying
local, a whole sense of sustainability.
Do you favor a merger between the
Montpelier school district and the U-32
school district? If you favor such a
merger, what are the obstacles to
achieving this merger?
I can’t make a recommendation until I see
what all the data is. If it means our middleschool kids have to sit on the bus for half an
hour each way, I can’t recommend that.
There’s a lot of stuff we have to evaluate.
It has been observed that property
taxes in the towns that surround Montpelier are as much as 25 percent less
than property taxes in Montpelier.
What do you think should be done to
address this gap? How is this gap affecting Montpelier school enrollments?
I would assume it has some impact. I
would think a family would look at Montpelier and think how wondrous it would be to
live here and think they can’t afford it. I
know some of your readers will want to kill
me for saying this, but taxes aren’t necessarily the big evil. Look at the resources you
get: a great library, a beautiful downtown, so
many wonderful cultural resources you can
walk to. I recently purchased a home in
Montpelier for that reason.
If we can look at something imaginative
and creative about inviting youngsters from
surrounding communities to enroll in our
school system, that would be great. If we
could get them to come in at a tuition rate
that’s acceptable to them and to local taxpayers, that’s a win-win. If it’s costing us
$12,000 typically to pay for the education of
a Montpelier youngster, it would be tough
for taxpayers to accept we’d offer a $3,000
tuition to a youngster from another community. But if we could find some middle
ground, that would be good.
There are now a number of alternative
schools that are serving elementary,
middle, and high-school youth. Do you
favor public funding for such alternative schools?
In Massachusetts we had charter schools,
and we had to compete with private schools
and parochial schools. My message to the
community is that we will build the very
best programs we can in our public school
AUGUST 5, 2010 • PAGE 9
system. In truth, I’m not really afraid of losing kids. There are programs existing and
there are programs imagined for the future
that are going to be exciting, and families
will look at those programs and say there’s
no reason for me to leave the Montpelier
school system.
What do personally enjoy most about
your job as superintendent?
I think what I find most gratifying is the
opportunity to work with a group of civicminded individuals who choose to work
within a skilled organization that cares about
people and outcomes, all within a community which supports public education and
each other.
I noticed earlier in our interview that
you mentioned the arts as a focus
you’re proud of. I was very happy to
hear that, given the general cut in arts
funding for schools. Is that a personal
mission of yours, to emphasize the imports of the arts in education?
I would not say that the arts are a personal
mission of mine, but I do know that the arts
and a variety of other in-school pursuits give
voice and meaning to any number of students. Some youngsters find success in the
classroom, but still others may find accomplishment on the field, stage or within a lab.
If we are truly committed to providing a
comprehensive education for all and determined that our graduating seniors have career options ahead of them, we must offer a
relatively broad range of programming.
Binge drinking is all over the news as
being on the rise on high-school campuses. Has this been an issue at Montpelier High School and, if so, what can
the school system do to address this?
Yes, drinking, and its regrettable close relative binge drinking, is, either directly or indirectly, part of an adolescent’s life. And yes,
our high school has issues similar to most
every high school in this region and across
our country. Within our high school, I can
report that every adult serves as a responsible role model and ever-available counselor.
We encourage healthy habits in our classrooms regardless of whether it is physical
education or modern literature, and I would
like to believe that we have had an impact.
Yet I must point out that typical high
schools serve their youngsters for approximately six and a half hours a day. Thus, it behooves the entire community, from students
to staff, parents to neighbors, governance
board members to business owners to
demonstrate healthy habits for our young
people 24 hours a day and seven days a
week.
You mentioned a spirit of volunteerism
at Union Elementary, in the 40 moms
and dads who were sprucing up the
Mark Mason. Photo by Nat Frothingham.
place. How do you think volunteerism
in general can be increased in the district (if it needs to be) and do you have
a plan for that?
Yes, I was amazed at the extraordinary
number of parents, guardians, and students
supporting the renewal of the Union Elementary School. I will confidently assume
the same level of vigor and involvement in
other Montpelier schools as well. With that
said, I believe that it behooves us as public
school staff members to encourage, and then
direct, this high level of support for our
schools. In truth, we must always remember
that the public schools are the public’s
schools and that a mutual partnership must
be nurtured so that taxpayers feel pride in
supporting public education while public
school staffers take pride in their community.
How is sports participation changing,
if it is?
This is an interesting question. I came
here from a community who appreciated the
fact that successful sports teams not only
provided opportunities from youngsters to
find success and satisfaction the fields and
courts, but that winning programs brought
esteem and dignity to local residents. Yet
here seems to be a greater degree of balance
between all the pushes and pulls on young
people, and . . . winning is not as important
as practicing and having fun. A great example from last year was the Ultimate Frisbee
team. Now, no one would mistake this sport
as a challenger to football or hockey. Yet
your high school put together a squad, built
a competitive schedule [and] garnered a
growing support from the community, advancing to a post-season competition, all the
while having young people compete, work
together, think creatively, all within a challenging environment, all the while having an
enormous amount of downright fun. I see
this as a example of where Montpelier may
very well lead in a new direction for interscholastic sports.
Just so people can get to know you a
bit beyond your role as superintendent, what are your main personal
hobbies and interests?
Personally, I enjoy reading fiction and listening to a variety of musical forms. As well,
I seldom miss a determining championship
athletic contest, whether it be a seventh
game in baseball or basketball, a Sunday tennis or golf match, or a final contest in hockey
or soccer. Otherwise, I am just a casual
sports fan. In addition, I try to keep physically active and, most of all, I enjoy laughing.
Joshua Singer, MS, L.Ac
Come visit us at our new location:
156 Main Street, Suite 103, Montpelier
www.integrativeaom.com | 223-0954
Supporting our community in collaboration
with the Montpelier Health Center and
Central Vermont Medical Center.
Kerry Jenni, MS, L.Ac
PAGE 10 • AUGUST 5, 2010
THE BRIDGE
The Orchard Valley Waldorf Alternative
Gains Ground
by Nat Frothingham
A
t a time when many public schools are under pressure to get children to read earlier; to get them
started on math earlier, even in kindergarten; and to
get them to perform well on federally-mandated, standardized tests, the Orchard Valley Waldorf School in East Montpelier and its satellite early childhood center, The Child’s
Garden in Montpelier, are embracing an alternative approach to education.
The Child’s Garden, founded in 1991, and the Orchard
Valley School, founded in 2004, are offering educational programs that begin with parent and infants and continue all the
way up through eighth grade. All told, both schools enroll
about 180 students and employ 30 full- and part-time faculty
members on the two campuses. The Orchard Valley School
will graduate its second eighth-grade class in June 2011.
The Orchard Valley Waldorf School and The Child’s Garden (like other Waldorf schools worldwide) trace their roots
to Austrian-born scholar, thinker, writer and lecturer Rudolf
Steiner.
It was Steiner who opened the first Waldorf school in
Stuttgart, Germany in 1919.
According to an article titled “Schooling the Head, Hands
and Heart” by Ronald E. Koetzsch, which first appeared in
the East West Journal in 1989, the first Waldorf school was
a collaboration between a Stuttgart industrialist, Emil Molt,
and the writer and lecturer Rudolf Steiner whom Molt had
come to know.
World War I, with all its devastation and loss, had just
ended in Europe in 1919, and Emil Molt, who was director
of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, put two
questions to Rudolf Steiner. First, “Is there a way to educate
children that will help them develop into human beings who
will be capable of bringing peace to the world?” And if there
is such a way to educate children, “Will you start such a
school?”
Rudolf Steiner opened the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart
in 1919 with 175 children and eight teachers. A Rudolf
Steiner School in New York City opened in 1928. Today,
there are some 900 Waldorf schools in more than 80 countries worldwide. The Waldorf school movement is particularly strong in western and northern Europe. But the Waldorf
movement has spread across the globe with schools in such
far-flung places as India, Japan, South Africa, Brazil, Korea,
Australia and New Zealand.
Steiner’s idea in 1919 was to create a school “in which all
capacities of the child—physical, emotional, intellectual,
moral and spiritual—were nurtured and developed . . . in
which art, music and handcrafts where as important as reading, writing and arithmetic.”
Steiner identified three critical stages in a child’s development. During the child’s first seven years, Steiner saw “imitation” as the child’s chief way of learning. Imitation: that’s
how children learn to speak. It’s how they learn to crawl,
stand, walk. Through imitation, children take on the gestures, attitudes, values of the adults around them.
In a second developmental stage, around 7 years old, as
children lose their first teeth, it is imagination that Steiner
believed was the most active learning talent.
In the third developmental stage, beginning with adolescence, children, Steiner believed, develop the ability to
think, discriminate and make judgments.
***
In the Orchard Valley Waldorf School community
newsletter of fall 2008, Kate Winslow, who is a teacher at
Xixi Smith (on swing) and Cora Stearns. Photo courtesy Orchard Valley Waldorf School.
the nearby Wellspring Waldorf School in Chelsea, wrote
about the teaching of reading and writing at Waldorf
schools.
A family came to look at our school for their son a
couple of years ago and asked me, “Do you know
what they say about Wellspring—that you don’t teach
children to read and write.”
I laughed. . . . The most controversial, and perhaps
the healthiest, part of Waldorf education is the “delayed” reading. In a culture that is in a mad rush to
grow up its children, it can be shocking that capital
letters are introduced individually, not until first
grade, and are written first as pictures drawn from
fairy tales the students have heard. Children make
their own books that are filled with these letters, colorfully illustrated. . . .
Waldorf educators have long understood that reading is an abstract concept that children are not ready
New This Year
F
or the first time this year, The Child’s Garden will be joining Turtle Island Children’s Center and the Family Center of Washington County as preschool partners with the Montpelier School District.
Under Act 62, passed by the Vermont legislature in 2007, local school districts may provide preschool opportunities for children in partnership with private preschool programs. These programs must meet the Vermont Department
of Education’s quality criteria.
According Patty Gaston, who is managing these preschool partnerships for the Montpelier School District, Orchard
Valley’s early childhood center The Child’s Garden definitely qualifies for this partnership.
“We don’t know the number yet,” Gaston said about the children (3 or 4 years old) who will be able to participate
in Child’s Garden programs. In Montpelier, there’s a cap of 67 preschool children who can participate. Under the program, each child will qualify for tuition money of approximately $2,000 per child. The money to support this program
at The Child’s Garden this first year is being made available through the Vermont Community Preschool Collaborative.
This collaborative has pulled together money from the Turrell Foundation, Ben & Jerry’s and the A.G. Henderson
Foundation.
Interested Montpelier parents of 3- or 4-year-old children should call the Orchard Valley Waldorf School at 4567400.
to start to learn until they are at least 7 years old, if
not later. In the meantime, though, they are filled
daily with stories, fables, myths and legends, not read
from a book but orally told by their teachers. As they
listen, no picture books are held up to give them preformed illustrations. Instead, their own vivid imaginations are busily creating original pictures.
“It’s not about filling the pail. It’s about lighting the fire,”
was what Orchard Valley’s Enrollment Coordinator Dawn
McConnell said about a Waldorf classroom. “For us, childhood is a magical time. We don’t want to rush them through
it. They are learning how to navigate the social world. This
is the first time they are separated from their parents. They
need to learn how to take turns, share, work together, solve
problems.”
Talking about her work as a teacher of a mixed-aged (3- to
5-year-old) class at Child’s Garden, Laura Karstensen said,
“We honor childhood. We allow children to experience
childhood to its fullest. Children have a lot time to explore
the world, themselves, to develop friendships and learn to
participate in a social world. We’re lucky both in Montpelier
and in East Montpelier that both schools are situated on
beautiful land. At the Child’s Garden, in addition to a play
yard, there are also meadows and a forest to explore. Our
children are comfortable outdoors in all kinds of weather.
They notice what’s out there. It’s so alive for them.”
An important element of the Orchard Valley School (and
other Waldorf schools as well) is that a class teacher starts
with a class in grade one and ideally stays with that class
through grade eight.
The idea of a child at play permeates the Waldorf approach to early childhood education. Writing passionately
about how play is currently under assault in the lives of children, longtime Waldorf teacher Rahima Baldwin took aim at
television.
We have seen that the young child is most at home
continued next page
THE BRIDGE
AUGUST 5, 2010 • PAGE 11
in the imaginative, artistic world of color, movement,
repetition, imitation and fairy tale images. Many
things commonly found in homes and preschools
today work against the normal growth of the child.
One of the most destructive is excessive exposure to
television. The hours spent in front of the television
are an assault on the child’s developing senses and
can destroy imaginative free play.
Baldwin went on in this article to dismiss the value of
workbooks for preschool children. Then she attacked the
too-early teaching of reading and math to kindergarteners.
Summing up, she wrote, “Studies by Piaget and others have
demonstrated that a wide, rich imaginative life is the foundation for language skills in the next stage of development.
If you were to observe an early childhood class at Orchard
Valley, this is what you would see: children singing, jumping
rope, bean bag tossing, participating in rhythmic activities,
playing cooperative games, drawing, painting, chopping apples, baking, washing up, knitting, listening to stories and
telling stories, planting seeds and watching things grow.
Parents, Teachers and Governance
In many ways, the Orchard Valley School is parent and
teacher driven. It was a group of parents who pushed hard
to open the Orchard Valley School in 2004. Parents take on
a range of responsibilities: sitting on committees, serving on
the board, planning the intelligent use of Orchard Valley’s
55-acre site, sometimes constructing buildings, taking turns
cleaning up the school, helping with school festivals and
fundraising.
When there is a teacher vacancy to be filled, a hiring team
is brought together and a parent along with teachers and a
school administrator serve on that team. At Orchard Valley,
there is no school principal, no formally designated school
leader.
“Our administrators are in service to the faculty,” said the
school’s administrator, Deb Reed. “I serve on the hiring
team. We always have three faculty [members] to one administrator.”
In discussing school leadership and governance at Orchard Valley, enrollment coordinator Dawn McConnell said,
“Ideally, it’s supposed to work through consensus.”
Not surprisingly, some families find it difficult to come up
with the tuition money to support their children at Orchard
Valley. Tuition for a full-time Orchard Valley student is
$8,400 per year. Enrollment coordinator Dawn McConnell
talked about tuition adjustment. “We support each other
through our community,” she said. In dealing with tuition
adjustment requests, Orchard Valley has a committee of volunteers. “Two people from the committee meet with you,”
she said. “They discuss the school’s budget. The family describes their circumstances. Each side stretches to meet the
other. Most often,” McConnell said, “it does work out.”
Three Parents Talk About Orchard Valley
Sally Fox
Sally Fox and her husband Hall Ellms have two sons at
Orchard Valley: Hayden, 9 going on 10, and Bridger, 7.
H
ayden started in kindergarten at the Child’s Garden.
The Waldorf teachers are so tuned into each of their
students. They know them in a way that is whole. The
teacher visits the student at home. When a Waldorf
teacher is interacting with students, they understand these
students. At Waldorf they tend to stay with one teacher
throughout the eight grades. They’re not just teaching the
ABCs. They have developed a structure that teaches the
students consideration and compassion. They are doing
things with their hands and using their bodies.
There’s a difference between the typical gym class and
a movement class. The Waldorf students don’t do “win-orlose” games. In Waldorf, there is no grading system. You
don’t get picked for a team or dropped. There are a lot of
tagging games. In these games, students feel, “We’re all in
this together.”
Hayden is an avid reader. Bridger will probably be an
avid reader in the second grade. In reading, third grade is
where they hit their stride. Before that, there are other
areas of learning that trump learning to read. I’m totally
comfortable with that. More and more mainstream publications are saying, “Don’t teach them too early.” When
they begin to read too early, it’s memorization and their
comprehension of what they read can suffer. I’m not in a
hurry for my children to become adults. We all become
adults almost too soon.
At Orchard Valley, the children in second grade plant a
garden. In third grade they make a wonderful dinner from
what they have grown. It’s a wonderful connection to the
earth. They build outdoor shelters. They learn to listen.
There’s a spectrum of parents at Orchard Valley. Some
parents are very tied into the Steiner tradition, but it’s not
ubiquitous. Like many at the school, I take it “cafeteria
style.” Some things I take. Some things I leave.
I value the ability of children to think on their own, to
come to their own conclusions. At Orchard Valley, children are brought to their fullest potential. Music, art, the
dexterity of handwork—these are basic. All this is part of
educating a child in the biggest sense.
what the class needed. There’s that kind of family feeling
and a strong desire and a strong love for the children.
Kindergarten is all about playing and the children’s
physical bodies. They make their snacks. They do some
cooking. The kindergarten becomes a cozy household.
Children sit and paint. They get along with each other.
In the early grades, children learn each letter. It touches
them on a deeper level. They want to know more. All of a
sudden they want to read. Mia is so proud of being able to
learn a word. Each word is a discovery. At the end of second grade they are reading chapter books. They learn to
read by writing. They know a verse, or a sentence from a
story. The teacher writes it on the board. The students
copy it in their books. It all comes naturally.
What I really love about the Waldorf school experience
is that everything comes from the inside. All the stories are
delivered orally. Then they draw the pictures. The students create the texts of their own books. The same is true
for the more rigorous subjects. The students discover all
the things that speak to them. This is better than random
information. I am able to see the intent behind everything.
Each topic is taught at certain ages.
During third grade, students feel their growing physical
ability. This is a year about farming. They build sheds.
They use their bodies to take care of themselves. These are
9-year-old children. What they do speaks to their age.
At Orchard Valley, the parents are involved. The school
is cleaned each weekend by a different family. Last year I
made all the food for the café at the Fall-into-Winter Fair.
In general, parents love being a part of these things. Everybody enjoys bringing their energy to it.
Public school teachers do their best, but they are restricted by federal regulations and testing. Waldorf schooling started with Rudolf Steiner. He was working with the
children of factory workers. The idea was that children
would learn that war was not the solution to conflict. The
Waldorf School is very rigorous. Children learn a love for
their peers, for humanity, for the earth. They have an empathy for their surroundings. Many high school graduates
don’t have a strong feeling of being a part of the whole.
We’re all one. We’re all working together. We’re all on this
earth together.
Jake Brown
Madelief Welters
Madelief Welters, a single mom, has two children at Orchard Valley: Mia, 7 and a half, who is going into second
grade; and Rose, almost 6, who is going into the second
year of kindergarten.
T
he experiences of my two children are different. Mia
loves observing, absorbing. She requires a little more
time on each subject.
My daughter Rose is a very high-energy child. She’s always running around. She’s high-strung. From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, Rose’s attention
span increased. She’s found that balance between high
and low energy.
I went to a Waldorf school myself. I graduated from
eighth grade. Part of what I really loved was having the
same group of children and the same teacher for eight
years. My peers were my family. There was a consistency
from one year to another. I’m still in contact with my
teacher and some of my fellow students.
Mia was in kindergarten at Orchard Valley. Then she
went on to first grade. Having the same teacher and peers
is a consistency I value. That consistency is working for
Mia. The teacher had the strength and the knowledge of
move into a math exercise that engages their body. They
are doing the multiplication tables by throwing a bean bag
back and forth. They are using stick and bean bags to divide, multiply and subtract. They will be throwing that
bean bag, passing that stick. They are using their brain and
their bodies at the same time. From a learning perspective,
it seemed very stimulating.
When I get to Orchard Valley to pick up Nelson after
school, he’s not interested in leaving. In some schools, the
door pops open and the kids can’t wait to get out. Nelson’s got a music project. He’s reading a book. He’s drawing something. He’s excited to do more after school when
I have picked him up. He’s not drained. He’s not bummed
out. He’s not carrying concerns, problems, social issues.
At Waldorf they seem to have an interest in memory, in
reciting things. There will be an ongoing story to run for
about two weeks. The class is asked to repeat the story
that was told yesterday. Johnny tells the story that was told
yesterday. The teacher asks, “Billy, where are we?” The
class is listening. They’re interpreting the story. They’re
presenting and reciting before the class what they remembered of the story. This is all about paying attention.
Nelson has gotten involved in plays. That’s been helpful
for him. He wants to do his homework. It’s not a huge assignment. He wants to plow through it: math, reading,
writing. There’s a pride that’s being fostered. They try to
get the kids to be proud of what they’re producing. The
children play recorders and know how to read music. He’s
drawing. Some of his drawings are intricate. Some of them
take a long time to create.
The world is very much a “drive-through” experience
these days. Nelson’s work at Orchard Valley is not a drivethrough experience. The kids are encouraged, “Make this
beautiful.” They respond to this. They get into a different
pace. It’s calmer. It’s a slower space.
At Orchard Valley, you have the same teacher up
through all the grades. It’s working very well for us. Nelson’s teacher is Nancy Crowe. She gets totally high marks.
She has excellent communication with us. As parents,
we’re getting information. We’re getting lots more information than we got from Union. The school produces
newsletters. They’re very informative. The administration
is accessible: the music teacher, the French teacher. Our
parent conferences last at least an hour. You never feel
there isn’t enough time for you.
Jake Brown and his wife Milly Archer’ have one son at
Orchard Valley: Nelson, 11, who is going into the fifth
grade.
N
elson was a student at Union Elementary School. He
didn’t seem to be coming home energized, stimulated. We knew nothing about Waldorf School. We
thought a smaller school with more individual attention
might be a good idea. Nelson has no learning problems.
We went looking for an alternative. We had some
friends whose children were at the Waldorf School. Their
kids seemed to be happy there.
Waldorf has a three-day “test drive” where students can
try it out for three days. After the first day at Orchard Valley, Nelson came back and said, “I don’t want to go back
to Union.”
We went to Orchard Valley to watch a class. I saw respect in the classroom from student to teacher and teacher
to student. I saw a fantastic blend of discipline and fun
from kids who were clearly interested in learning. The
teacher was telling stories, doing math problems, working
on spelling. For some reason, the kids were engaged. They
were in dialogue with the teacher.
At Orchard Valley, a student may do 20 minutes to a half
hour of book work or seated academic work. Then they
Maclay Ericson, nursery student. Photo by Jay Ericson;
courtesy Orchard Valley Waldorf School..
PAGE 12 • AUGUST 5, 2010
THE BRIDGE
China Diary
A Local Student’s Adventures in the Orient
by Lily Feldman
Editor’s note: Lily Feldman, a rising junior
at U-32, is spending the summer in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou as a participant in
a U.S. State Department program called the
National Security Language Initiative for
Youth. The program selects and sponsors
highly motivated students to study languages such as Mandarin, Arabic and
Russian that are deemed important to U.S.
national security and asks them to serve as
youth ambassadors to the countries where
they are sent. Zhengzhou, a few hundred
miles southwest of Beijing, is one of
China’s oldest cities. Although the city has
8 million inhabitants, it’s rarely visited by
Westerners.
Lily’s study of Mandarin was mentioned
in our July 17 cover story, “Branching
Out.”
The following are some excerpts from
Lily’s China diary:
July 2, The Great Wall
A combination of uneven stairs and rollicking pitches, the Great Wall is no easy
stroll. More interesting, however, was the attention that our group attracted from the
throngs of more local tourists. As Americans,
we most definitely stood out. This was my
first visit to a place where my appearance
(especially hair, skin and eye color) immediately set me apart from the masses. I’d been
warned before, but didn’t believe it: many,
many Chinese people actually asked me
(well, maybe “asked” is an overstatement) to
take pictures with them! I felt like a
celebrity: People would just walk up, point
Lily Feldman (second from right, front row) watching a kung-fu demonstration at Shao-Lin Temple in Dengfeng, near Zhengzhou,
where she is temporarily living. Photo courtesy Feldman family.
at me, make the camera symbol and then either grab my arm or waist and pull me close
for a photo op. I was pulled, prodded,
grabbed and yanked by throngs of (mostly
women) who wanted pictures with me. I
was also hugged, kissed and talked to in English and Chinese, and several women told
me they loved me. All in all, not what I was
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July 5, Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou has about 8 million people. It
has wide, open streets, and most medians
seem more like mini parks than anything.
There are trees and flowers everywhere.
Hordes of bicyclists and mopeds roam the
streets with wild abandon and little regard
for anything smaller than them. The rules of
the road in Zhengzhou seem to be the same
as in the ocean: you yield to whatever is bigger than you. Thus, buses pretty much always have the right of way, cars need to be
on top of things, mopeds should be precontinued next page
THE BRIDGE
pared to stop suddenly and unexpectedly
and bicyclists may need to throw themselves
off their bikes at any moment. In my opinion, pedestrians should have to be certified
acrobats in order to be able to successfully
(by which I mean “without dying”) navigate
street crossings.
Imagine yourself as a field mouse in an entire meadow of stampeding cows. It’s not
that they want to hit you, but if they did
trample you, it’s not like they would even
notice. Yet I somehow managed to cross
the street to our hotel with only five or six
near-death experiences.
At first, I felt unbelievably overwhelmed—it’s not Montpelier—but I do
think that I’ll be able to handle this city eventually. I’m pretty psyched to be able to have
this experience, which is already pushing
my comfort zone way into red. I think that
I’ll grow a lot as I overcome these issues.
July 6, First Night with Host Family
Dinner that night was great—it looked exactly like the food I’d been eating in restaurants. However, every time I set down my
chopsticks, they would start telling me to eat
more rice, beans, chicken, tofu or fish, and if
I didn’t take any for myself, they would
reach out and place some in my bowl. In the
beginning of the meal, my host mother was
talking to me (quickly, in Chinese) so I was
looking at her, trying to understand. She was
telling me that the meal was special, just for
me, etc. Mandy grabbed my bowl and put
something from a serving dish on top of my
rice, but I wasn’t watching her. When I
looked down into my bowl again, my meal
was staring back up at me. A whole fish,
maybe five inches long, was staring at me
with blank eyes. With head, fins and tail still
attached. If not for the sauce, it looked like
it could have started flopping around at any
moment. Having never eaten a whole fish
before, I had no idea where to begin, especially with chopsticks. When I realized that
they were taking my lack of enthusiasm to
mean I didn’t like it, I realized I had to either
explain or dig in. In the end I did both—
telling them that in America, we never get
whole fish like that, so I didn’t know how to
proceed, then eventually just digging in.
It’s weird to realize that my family (especially my host mother) closely watches
everything I eat and remembers it for the
next meal’s preparation. I have to be very,
very careful not to give misleading cues
about my preferences, and try to be open to
anything.
July 9, The Water Park
Today, after a full morning of classes, our
AUGUST 5, 2010 • PAGE 13
group walked to a nearby water park for an
afternoon of swimming. It was fun, but the
park was very sketchy. You know how in
America, strict safety regulations mean that
most rides are designed to appear/feel dangerous, but aren’t actually? Well, in China,
it’s the opposite—the complete lack of regulations mandate rides that appear benign,
but can in fact be extremely dangerous.
July 13, Karaoke
Eventually, school was over, and the entire group (plus two host students and some
teachers) went to KTV together. (KTV =
karaoke). It was a lot of fun, although it’s
hard to satisfy both the American and Chinese students. There are a lot of cultural
gaps between our music styles. The Chinese
boys (popular, outgoing, occasionally flirty
teenage boys) ended up literally physically
hiding their eyes or hiding in the corner of
the room or facing a wall during some of the
music videos. They couldn’t handle the suggestiveness, and didn’t understand how we
were so unfazed by it (I’m talking about
singers like Lady Gaga, Keisha, Shakira, etc.).
It was really funny to see them turn bright
red and hide over things that we see as totally normal. In contrast, all their pop music
is softer (obviously in Chinese) and all about
true love.
July 16, Thursday and Volunteerism
Today, I volunteered at Zhengzhou’s Child
Welfare Center. It’s a place where disabled
kids with no parents live, go to school and
are cared for. It was a really intense experience, but one that I’m really glad that I now
have had. I went straight home after, where
I had dinner and then sat down to write this.
After my experience at a dismal zoo in
Zhengzhou, I was understandably concerned about the facilities of this center. Not
knowing what to expect, I was bracing myself for the worst—something like an awful
combination of the disfigured beggars on the
street and the horrendous living conditions
of the antiquated zoo. However, to my surprise and delight, my preconceptions were
way, way off. The center’s facilities include a
large open park with trees, play set and
grass. More importantly, each of the children
seemed happy. Playing musical games,
singing and frolicking around with the children, the atmosphere was delectably light
and devoid of any of the despair I had been
preparing myself for.
Random Thoughts
1. Frisbee = “flying plate”
2. If you want to say a sentence, you usually go “subject+verb+object+verb+object.”
Lily Feldman (second from right) with three NSLI-Y students at Tianamen Square in
Beijing. Photo courtesy Feldman family.
No bells or whistles (or conjugations!).
Nope, it’s just “I ride bus go school”.
3. Chinese people believe that if you’re
not Chinese, then you must be dumb and incapable, but you can’t help it. Thus, “Westerner watching” (as my friends and I call it)
is pretty much an accepted sport here.
4. Chinese songs are amazing, mostly because they don’t make any sense. (My favorite
is Xi Shua Shua (“Wash Scrub Scrub”).
5. If you like something (or they think you
like something) it will be given to you.
Every. Day.
6. The Chinese eat a minimum of one watermelon per day. If this quota has not been
filled by 9 p.m., you will be presented with
a half a watermelon and a spoon and told
very simply: “Eat.”
Those are all true things that I’ve experienced in the last two days (along with much,
much more).
© Lily Feldman 2010
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Beginning September 8 for all ages & levels
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Lorraine Neal, Director • 802 229-4676
Call 229-4676 or go to
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complete brochure.
PAGE 14 • AUGUST 5, 2010
THE BRIDGE
College, Ho!
by Ariel Swyer
he Princeton Review is a very nice,
nonthreatening book, with many fine
qualities. It doesn’t have any teeth, for
instance, and is quite willing to sit still and
refrain from making irritating noises in the
way that nice, nonthreatening things do.
Yet, for a very long time I would respond to
even the mention of The Princeton Review
by leaping up, shouting incoherently and
then dashing from the room to find a corner
in which to stay and twitch for a while. I
don’t think this was an entirely unique phenomenon. In fact, I believe that throughout
the fall, high-school seniors all over America
were screaming, leaping, twitching and generally feeling intensely threatened by The
Princeton Review.
The reason for all of this, of course, was
that we were involved in the College Application Process. The College Application
Process induces a great deal of peculiar behavior, much of it based on the violent desire not to think about any of it. The Princeton Review, a college guide, was subject to
the projectile force of all that stress and confusion because it caused us to think about,
well, the College Application Process. Another thing that caused us to think about it
was having to do it. Sitting around trying to
convince strangers that one is brilliant and
interesting when one is an apathetic highschool senior can be difficult. When I mentioned to a friend that I was writing an article about college, she suggested that it
would be most effective to have the entire
thing consist of the sentence: “The College
Application Process sucks.”
In retrospect, it doesn’t seem like it could
have been that bad. My wild declarations of
intent to burn The Princeton Review were
never actualized. I got into college. No one
was hurt too much. Everything turned out
fine. I, like many others in my class, ended
up applying early decision and actually
knew where I would be going by mid-December. (An early decision application is a
binding agreement with the college that the
applicant will attend if he or she is accepted,
and the application and response are both
sent before regular applications and responses.)
At one information session, a college representative told us to think of applying early
decision as more of a “love letter” to the college than anything else. It did feel a bit like
that: a promise of loyalty, a carefully constructed case for what a good match we’d
make and the rest of it was up to fate. I did
run to meet the mailman and my heart really
was all aflutter as he sorted through the
stack of envelopes.
It was Swarthmore (a small liberal arts college near Philadelphia) to which I had sent
my love letter and they did, by some miracle,
T
ADVERTISE!
Call 223-5112,
ext. 12 or 13.
Ariel Swyer relives her college application days with The Princton Review. Photo by Nat
Frothingham.
accept me. After that the other early-decisioners and I went into a blissful coma for a
while and watched the rest of our classmates
continue to be crazy.
During this time, of course, we, the earlydecisioners, were all completely sane. The
periodic bursting into our guidance counselors’ offices to express existential crises
through the abrasive sharing of sentiments
such as, “Hey! Did you know that you can rearrange the letters in Swarthmore to spell
earthworms?!,” was ridiculously sensible behavior. Note: Guidance counselors are
saints. They go through the College Application Process hundreds and hundreds of
times. Thank you.
Now, it is August, the regular applications
have long since arrived and everyone gets to
be as sane as we were. There was joy, disappointment, luck, unfairness, just desserts,
surprise, etc, etc. The class of 2010 has survived the College Application Process! Hurray! And it was more then that—it was the
Figuring Out of Life, At Least Sort of Vaguely
Process. We are going to college, working,
joining the military, staying in Vermont, leaving Vermont, going to Tanzania, Greece and
New Orleans. We are realizing plans, changing plans and hoping we’ll get along with
our roommates. On the whole, the class of
2010 has much to think about. As recent
high school graduates and survivors of the
College/Life Application Process we know a
lot, but also very little and there is no grand,
all-encompassing Princeton Review of the
world—or not one that I’ve run across. But
it’s much more interesting like that and anyway, we’d probably find such a publication
threatening. We’re going to find out about
the world for ourselves.
River Rock School
HANDCRAFTED EDUCATION
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252 Upper Main Street Montpelier, VT 05602 | (802) 223-4700
www.riverrockschool.org | [email protected]
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