THE VERMONT TOWN SCHOOLS PROJECT
A community-led oral history collection
that explores the relationship between small towns and their schools.
Based on conversations with community leaders, the VTSP emerged in the context of recent policy reforms and discussions and decisions around school consolidation that impact the future of town schools. As Vermont’s schooling landscape shifts, this project creates a space for people’s stories and experiences with town schools to be told, recorded, shared, and saved for posterity.
Vermont Folklife Center staff will support this community-led effort with training in ethnographic interviewing, research approaches, and media production. The resulting collection of audio interviews will be placed in VFC’s Archive and will be made accessible to the public. During the pilot phase of this project all activities are focused in Addison County. In time we hope to expand the VTSP to other counties as the entire state is grappling with these questions.
How you can participate:
Share your perspective in an interview (can take place virtually or in person as you prefer)
Join a training session; learn to be an interviewer and record interviews for the oral history collection
Help with transcription, audio editing, and preparing files to be archived
Tell others about the project: spread the word through community outreach
If you are interested in participating in the Vermont Town Schools Project
please contact VFC Media and Education Specialist Mary Wesley with any questions.
Thank you for your interest!
Town School Stories
Below you can listen to four audio stories that were created during the pilot phase of the Vermont Town Schools Project (VTSP) and with help from participants in the 2021 VFC Summer Institute: an educational opportunity providing training in community-based research and interviewing.
The VTSP served as a research theme and “field site” for the Institute, allowing participants to practice interviewing and media production within the context of an active community oral history project. Four participants from across the country (the Institute was virtual) interviewed four residents of Addison County community members to learn about their perspectives on town schooling. Each pair then engaged in a collaborative process of editing an hour-long recording into a short audio piece that felt true to the person whose experiences it featured.
The resulting audio stories are presented here and represent the beginnings of the Vermont Town Schools Oral History Collection. These stories have been edited and some of them include narration from the interviewers. The unedited versions of these and future interviews will be made accessible on this website soon. We hope you enjoy listening and that you’ll consider adding your voice to the project (see above).
Our heartfelt thanks to the Summer Institute participants and Addison County community members for allowing us to feature your work and stories.
The views and opinions expressed by participants of this project are their own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Vermont Folklife Center.
Eugenie Doyle - Monkton, VT
as interviewed by Clark Noone
Nathan Richardson - Lincoln, VT
as interviewed by John Bannon
Amaia Perta - Lincoln, VT
as interviewed by Amanda Muir
Alice Leeds - Bristol, VT
as interviewed by Danna Gutman