By John Kerrigan
“We’re afraid of you guys,” said the parent of a rival Montpelier cross-country runner. I asked, “What do you mean?” “We’re scared of Harwood.” He repeated. “But why?” I asked. “Well, you see over here in Montpelier we are one kind of people. We all come from a similar background. You guys are all unique! You come from seven different towns with seven different philosophies. You guys are like a melting pot! But you know what? It all seems to work for you. Your teams are always strong and you all seem to get along with each other.”
The laws of evolution teach us that variety of genes and behaviors build adaptations that make organisms stronger. They are better suited to their environment, more competitive and more likely to survive. The students of Harwood reflect this Darwinian principle. The Montpelier cross-country parent was correct in his assessment of the students and athletes I taught and coached in my 38 years at Harwood. This is what happens on a larger scale in America and in nature in general.
Act 46 will threaten our local culture. We will become more homogenous. The citizens of Warren are correct. They will lose the culture of their school. We must all fight hard to maintain the culture of Warren School and others.
As a Harwood Union High School teacher I could tell which town a student was from. For example, the Warren students usually had a unique intellectual curiosity and the Duxbury students always had a great empathy for others.
As a science teacher, I always urged my students to employ the Scientific Method. Before testing any hypothesis, do the research. Has anyone ever approached this problem before? As it turns out there is precedent for Act 46! In the late 1990s, my town of Duxbury had its own little elementary school. The school building was old and had much deferred maintenance. Parents bonded together to make the repairs and create a new library space and playground. Classes were small. Because of limited numbers of students and resources, classes were combined. They learned, played and worked together. It all seemed to work for them. I noticed that my children learned tolerance of others. They saw people as people not having special needs or different in any way. They learned to respect all of their classmates. While teaching at Harwood, I noticed that the Duxbury students were the kindest. They were always the first to stand up for the rights of others. Many were also very good students. For several years in a row the valedictorians at Harwood were students from Duxbury. It was obvious that having an empathetic, caring nature did not have an adverse effect on their ability to learn.
The patchwork efforts of the Duxbury parents were not enough. The school building needed repairs and renovations that would cost millions. In the late 1990s, Duxbury School was closed and town residents were required to send their children to Waterbury. Waterbury was a much bigger school. It had a beautiful library, a real gymnasium and a large cafeteria. But something was lost in the transition. The caring, empathetic character of the Duxbury kids was compromised. The love and spirit the Duxbury parents had for their school also weakened. If Act 46 goes into effect, what happened in Duxbury will happen in Warren and possibly Fayston and Moretown.
Act 46 will not only cause the loss of the unique culture of our school but will give our state and federal governments even more control over our curriculum. When I first started at Harwood, there was much flexibility in the curriculum. I took advantage of Harwood’s unique and ecologically varied 186-acre campus to help enrich what I was teaching in the classroom. As federal and state mandates were being employed and enforced, my curriculum changed. I had limited time to allow students to take advantage of our wonderful campus. Electives started to disappear. Industrial arts and business classes were dropped; honors classes and home economics are now being eliminated. Talk to current Harwood seniors. They will tell you that academic rigor has decreased dramatically. I recently learned that AP math students are refusing to take the AP exam because it is “too difficult.” They feel that Harwood did not adequately prepare them to take this challenging exam. Many good, young teachers have lost their passion for teaching at Harwood. Some have moved on to other school districts or private schools. When an early retirement buyout was dangled in front of me, I took it. I felt like I wasn’t really leaving my profession but more like my profession had left me.
Kerrigan lives in Duxbury.
