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2021 African American Read-In

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 16:39:35 GMT

2021 African American Read-In

Every year we participate in the International African American Read-In, created by the National Council of Teachers of English. This initiative, established in 1990 by the Black Caucus of the NCTE, aims to make literacy a core part of Black History Month. Normally all grades, preschool through eighth, participate. This year due to Covid restrictions and protocols, we participated virtually with grades three through eight.

African American Read-In || NCTE

Students Return to Outdoor Classroom

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 15:21:00 GMT

Today’s story from the Caledonian-Record – our students return to the outdoor classroom this week, as part of our Outdoor Science program!

Science Teacher Tom Forster is eager to resume his field science program with students at the Thaddeus Stevens School in Lyndon Center. The spring rotation was lost due to COVID-19, so students and Forster are excited to return to the outdoor classroom and their work.

Continuing their work in Forest Ecology and Water Chemistry, students will immerse themselves in the natural environment. Particularly at this time of Zoom classes, Forster said he “gives students an opportunity to be away from screens. They learn by observing, experimenting, and exploring the natural landscape.”

Director Julie Hansen adds that “Nature is healing and soothing. Studies confirm that spending time in a natural environment increases a person’s sense of connectivity, a crucial need in this time of social distancing.”

Each grade has a rotation of several days in row at the outdoor classroom as they study forest succession, water quality, and the ecology of the forest.

Students are glad for the opportunity, “Being in masks in a classroom is really hard for me, so I am really happy to be outside and learning. I like learning about ecosystems and forests,” says student Willa Kantrowitz.

Another student, Rhys Trevits, says, “Outdoor science helps me focus. I like the quiet of the forest.”

Stark Realities

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 16:36:00 GMT

Thaddeus Stevens’ legacy compels us to pay close attention to the issues of racial justice in America. As such, our response below ran in our local newspaper, Caledonian-Record , on June 4, 2020.

STARK REALITIES

The murder of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer has shaken us all and completes a trilogy of Black people killed by a white person just since February, two of whom were killed by police. George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor broke no laws. George was picking something up at his local store, Ahmaud was jogging in his neighborhood, and Breonna was in her own home. It is clear that all three are dead because of the color of their skin. This is not the first time we have witnessed such injustice, but it feels like a final fall into an abyss of bigotry. Finding the words to guide our students toward hope and compassion without diminishing the horror of their deaths is a challenge in an already fearful time.

These deaths force a stark and brutal conclusion: the lives of people of color are more precarious than the lives of white people. Guiding our students toward hope and compassion has never been more difficult nor more important than it is now. We must clear the fog of complacency and look fearlessly at the components of hate and inequality that combine to jeopardize and limit the lives of our fellow Americans. We must listen better to the people of color who live in our communities.

In the aftermath of the 1965 Watts Riots, California Governor Pat Brown organized the McCone Commission, headed up by John McCone, former head of the CIA. Among his many conclusions he highlighted what he described as a “spiral of failure” to address the concerns of the Black community. The report urged “reforms in police procedures” and found that the “Board of Police Commissioners is not visibly exercising the authority over the department vested in it by city charters.” The report identified a chasm of opportunity, education, and safety from police abuse between white communities and Black communities, concluding that “if allowed to persist, could in time split our society irretrievably.”

What we face today is not new nor are the solutions. We must be prepared to examine the large and small layers of racial bias that exist in our society. Each time we excuse a slur on behalf of being polite, each time we step away from discussing the role of race in American history, we contribute to an environment in which it is not safe to be a Black person.

The best tool we can offer our students is bravery. We all need to be brave enough to examine carefully the American systems that operate on a set of prejudices that are so deeply embedded in our culture that white people are oblivious to the harm inflicted on people of color. It is a system that empowers agents of the state to murder Black Americans with little or no consequence. It is a daunting and frightful exercise to look through the layers of history that built white supremacy, but as Frederick Douglass said so well, “There is no Negro problem. The problem is whether American people have loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough, to live up to their own Constitution.”

Video: From Quarantine with Love to our Students

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Sat, 16 May 2020 00:04:00 GMT

COVID-19 Message from the Director to our Students

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 22:46:00 GMT

COVID-19 Message from the Board to our Families

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 22:45:00 GMT

From the Board to our families:

Dear TSS Students, Parents, Teachers, Admins and Friends,

Let’s take a minute to reflect on and celebrate what’s good in our lives, especially in these difficult days.

The blows seem to keep coming, left and right, but all in our small but vigorous community are still standing, albeit mostly indoors!

The Board of Trustees wants to extend our very best wishes to you all and to thank those of you who continue to make our collective lives possible through your extraordinary efforts to keep food in the markets and on the table, hospitals open and running, students with productive and challenging learning exercises, wood in our stoves, communications up and running, and child care for those who so desperately need it. (This is a special hat tip to our pre-school teachers who are selflessly and courageously providing community day care!) And let us not forget our state legislators and myriad human service employees who continue to function flat out to provide safety nets for all of us who need them. We salute them, too.

It is inspiring to witness humanity rising to meet the challenge of keeping us all healthy and connected, notwithstanding 6 feet of separation. We are intent that the school shall continue to provide the kind of community support that underlies its mission, serving the greater good one student at a time, all students in all times, ordinary and extraordinary.

We wish you all good health,

Thaddeus Stevens School Board of Trustees

COVID-19 Message from the Director & co. to our Families

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 21:51:00 GMT

From the Director & co. to our families:

Through the whirlwind of emails, announcements, Facebook postings, faculty meetings, and technical glitches, there was a sweet breeze that lilted its way into our work. The warm support from parents brushed alongside us at sometimes the most frustrating moments, reminding us that we are a community working together on behalf of the students who comprise Thaddeus Stevens School. We want to thank our parents for their faith in our decisions and for their kind humor as we make our way to a new kind of learning.

As you know, it has been noted over the years that our students excel at academic thinking and discussion. Our Socratic approach is at the heart of creating the compassionate scholars who distinguish themselves in high school, vocational school, and college. We were acutely aware of that moving our voices and our knowledge into online spheres created a space between us that felt rather like a gaping pit. With trepidation we began uploading our materials and moment by moment, created our classrooms.

We are finding new ways to sustain our community of learning. Mr. Hood has set up an art Facebook group for his K-4 students and they are submitting work that we can all enjoy. Mr. Forster gave his first online lecture and discussion which, according to his students, was excellent and fun! We are working on creating a space for an online yearbook for students to share their new experiences. Student work is flowing between teacher and student and we are all establishing our routines together.

Moving quickly to respond to the Governor’s mandate brought out the very best in our teachers, our students, and our families We worked together to ensure each teacher would be able to deliver the commentary and work that will continue to provoke deep learning.

Although we will not be interacting face-to-face, we remain steadfast in our commitment to each other, to our students, our parents, and our faculty.

We still post regularly on our school Facebook page; please visit us regularly! Our Facebook posts also go out on Instagram.

We are all readily available and eager to hear from you and forge this new pathway.

Stay healthy. Keep in touch.
In hope and solidarity,

Julie et al.

Thaddeus Stevens School to offer Teacher Trainings in Cultivating Racial Literacy

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Fri, 03 May 2019 20:29:00 GMT

Thaddeus Stevens School, as the result of work with Jen Botzojorns, Superintendent of Kingdom East Unified Union School District, Brandon Mazur, Head of East Burke School, and Hennekis Stoddard from Northern State University, and, since October, Molly Shepley, St, Johnsbury Academy will offer a training, consisting of sequential sessions led by Sha’an Mouliert. Mouliert is co-coordinator of I AM VERMONT, TOO, a photo-story project highlighting people of color living, studying, and working in Vermont. She serves on the advisory boards of the Root Social Justice Center and the Vermont Coalition for Ethnic and Equitable Studies. The training is anchored by Howard Stevenson’s Promoting Racial Literacy in Schools: Differences That Make a Difference, which have been provided by Vermont Humanities Council. The trainings are scheduled to commence in the fall of 2019, with limited spots available.

The committee’s goal is to create a resource network for teachers in the Northeast Kingdom, a place to discuss authors and historical documents that provide a fuller range of curricular offerings and some training in how to teach them.

Two committee members have specialized in working with the histories and texts of marginalized populations. Hansen, Director of Thaddeus Stevens School studied with Valarie Babb, Professor of African American Literature, the Andrew Mellon Professor of Humanities at Emory University and author of Whiteness Visible: The Meaning of Whiteness in American Literature and Culture. Hansen also participated in a summer institute at Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition. Emma Hansen, teacher at Thaddeus Stevens School and Director of Rosie’s Girls at Thaddeus Stevens studied with Emily Bernard, Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of Vermont and minored in ALANA studies, She also was research assistant for Bernard’s Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten. Together, the two have created a reference library at Thaddeus Stevens School containing fiction, non-fiction, biography, essays, and literary criticism is available for local teachers.

The committee believes that creating a fully inclusive school environment involves at least two components: acquiring language to talk about race, gender, and power, and ensuring that curricular offerings in history and literature promote all voices – racial, ethnic, religious, class, ability, gender, and sexual orientation.

“The time is right for these trainings,” says Director Hansen, “The conversations evoked by Kiah Morris and the Vermont Coalition on Ethnic and Social Equity in Schools inspired us to move forward with our project. It is further supported by research that indicates expanding students’ perspectives enhances their critical thinking skills and academic scholarship.”

Director Julie Hansen Discusses Frederick Douglass

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 13:49:00 GMT

Director Julie Hansen gives a lecture at the Peacham Library on history, race, and the life of Frederick Douglass and his legacy as an American citizen and hero.

2019 MathCounts Team Captures First Place

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 00:09:00 GMT

Nine schools competed in this year’s Northeast, VT competition. Nico Sipples and Hannah Keith also garnered awards for Top Ten scorers. Good job to all and thank you Coach John Snyder! The team will head to the state competition on March 9 at Vermont Technical College in Randolph!

Op-Ed: Inclusion As Accuracy

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 20:50:00 GMT

Inclusion As Accuracy
Julie Hansen
Published in the Caledonian-Record
Thursday, January 10, 2019

One of my many work study jobs while a student at UC Berkeley took me under an old church within walking distance of the campus. I entered through the side and down old cracked steps that led under the building and into two tiny, creepy rooms with walls made of big stones that bulged out unevenly. A small sign identified the space as The Women’s History Research Center.

The story was that one day in 1969 Laura Murra was in history class and asked her professor why there were no stories of women. His alleged response was that he did not think the contributions of women would complete a book of even a hundred pages. She chose that day to change her name to Laura X, following in the footsteps of Malcolm X, shedding her lineage from the patriarchy.

She collected books written by women, about women, in the fields of science, art, politics, medicine, literature, maternal arts, and every other human action and then transferred them onto microfilm and microfiche. My job was to distribute the works according to requests which we received from universities in the United States as well as India, Africa, and Latin America. It turned out that the contributions of women filled books well beyond one hundred pages.

The collections are now stored in the Schlesinger Library at Harvard, but the point remains. America’s history, because of cultural constraints about who could be published reflected work of male authors who told the story that they knew. Equally, in the early days of anthropology, male field workers wrote monographs depicting the customs they observed. Because they had only been included in the male activities, they were unable to answer the Laura X question: what did the women do? The inclusion of female field anthropologists offered more complete pictures of human societies. The person telling the story decides who the players are and judges the value of those players by their own yardstick.

Schools bear a responsibility to ensure that their curricular offerings are authentic and include the voices of all who have built and contributed to the nation. Education is not a zero sum game, including one voice should not eliminate another, presenting dueling arguments develops critical thinking and authentic civil discourse: two goals of education. Adding the work and ideas of women and people of color, does not replace our history, it provides a comprehensive view of the events that continue to influence and shape our lives today. Failing to include and examine the interaction and the concurrent experiences of women and people of color, creates students who might come to the same conclusion that Laura X’s professor did: their contributions did not exist. But those students would be wrong, and on college campuses today they would seem uneducated. If we are to continue the precepts postulated by John Dewey that our job is to educate for democracy we must include the intersections of men and women, white people and people of color.

In his “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King pointed out that the “destiny” of white and black Americans were “tied up with” each other’s destiny and that the freedom of both were “inextricably bound.” That sentiment inspired educators for a time and universities began to expand their literary and historical offerings.

Yet, in 1974, Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison recognized that “despite years . . . of . . . academic energy, there is very little scholarly recognition of that a major part of American history is the history of the black people: how they influenced whites and how whites influenced them. There ae very few examinations of U.S. economics as the growth of a country that had generations of free labor.”

In 1998 Yale University and Gilder Lehrman Center established the Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition to “foster an improved understanding of the role of slavery, slave resistance, and abolition in the functioning of the modern world.” Higher education is again striving to unravel the ropes of intersectionality to examine and reveal King’s assertion.

Surely, last year’s incidents with Representative Kiah Morris reveal that Vermont also needs to work toward an “improved understanding” of the intersectionality of race and class and its impact on our state. Last year a bill was proposed to establish an advisory board that would work with schools in reviewing their curricular offerings and practices with regard to race and class. The bill did not pass.

But this should not prevent schools from reflecting on what they teach and why. Our job is to create citizens capable of participating in a pluralist democracy, citizens who embrace the modern understanding e pluribus unum. The pluribus includes black, brown, and white people, gay people, non-binary people, and people with disabilities, to name a few. The freedom of all of us is “inextricably bound” and we should not shy away from the academic challenge of examining the literatures and intersections of all Americans.

Family Testimonials: Why Families Love TSS

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 15:14:00 GMT

From our parents:

“When our children were in fourth and seventh grade, making the decision to move them out of our local public school was incredibly difficult. We both come from families of educators, and believe strongly in supporting local schools as the primary means that communities have for coming together in a shared commitment to providing resources for future generations to thrive and succeed. But at a certain point, it became clear to us that our children’s needs were not being met with the very limited resources that were available to them locally, and at that point, we were so fortunate to have found Thaddeus Stevens School as an option. We were immediately draw to the school’s intention to help young people understand what it means to participate in a democracy, to foster a sense of purpose larger than one’s self, and seek to learn from the mistakes of past systems of racism, sexism, and classism, and to identify and understand how these “isms” continue to cause harm. Their classes were still small, and their teachers were dedicated, attentive, and very much a part of the fabric of the school. Perhaps most importantly, it was of great comfort to us to know that having our children out of a public school didn’t mean having them out of a setting that included classmates from families of diverse socioeconomic, religious, and political backgrounds; we did not want them to be in a private school bubble, but learning, as they did, that the world is full of diversity, and differences are to be respected and worked with. Now in high school, with one preparing to apply to college, we find that they’ve been prepared exceptionally well for the challenges of accelerated and advanced placement coursework, and both cite Thaddeus Stevens School as having taught them how to really write, how to really understand what literature is trying to tell us, and how to have thoughtful discourse with fellow students and teachers alike. The logistics – driving, tuition, and so on – were not always easy for us, but what our family got in return from Thaddeus Stevens School was truly priceless.” Jen and Josh Castle, Walden

“Thaddeus Stevens School has allowed our son to thrive. The unique environment of the school and its academic approach have made him a more confident person, a more passionate learner, and a more responsible citizen. We could not be happier with our decision to enroll him here.” Carla Ciardelli

“Thaddeus Stevens School has had a huge impact on our lives. My son is thriving here. The school recognizes each individual, and actively searches for just the right way to get through and connect with the students. The school creates a safe space for community and respectful connection. The life lessons my child is learning will benefit not just his personal life, but also the changing world at large. When I am lucky enough to stay for morning meeting, sometimes I leave with tears of inspiration and gratitude that theses students are learning how to be informed, to take care of each other, and create a better world. We are so lucky to be part of this amazing school community.” Andrea Thibaudeau

“Our child enjoys being involved in an engaging and challenging academic environment while at the same time partaking in social justice and community outreach opportunities.” Adam Norwood

From our current students:

“We have a relationship with our teachers.”

“The teachers here always care if we are not doing well in class.”

“The school finds a way to make sure that each student feels like they belong.”

“Problems are always resolved right away.”

From our alumns:

“Teachers are committed to each student’s success.”

“Students are given the opportunity to express an opinion and question what they are learning.”

Op-Ed: Independent Newspapers a Bulwark of Liberty

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 17:11:00 GMT

Independent Newspapers a Bulwark of Liberty
Julie Hansen
Published in the Caledonian-Record
Monday, July 30, 2018

I am sitting in a dorm room at Yale University this week, my housing while studying Frederick Douglass: his life, writings, orations, and work in the anti-slavery movement. It is an intense, immersive study with thirty-two other teachers from around the country. The seclusion of academia removes us from the barrage of everyday news. There are no televisions and there is no time to watch if there were. We each have phones and periodically check them allowing the news to puncture the intellectual bubble that cushions us.

Today’s headline shouts, again, that Americans should not trust the news media. It is an odd juxtaposition as we have just spent the morning at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, reading pages of anti-slavery newspapers published during the decades before and up to the Emancipation Proclamation. Newspapers provide context, facts, and an historical record. It is clear that the framers valued the role of the news media by including protections against government censorship in the First Amendment

Independently owned newspapers carried anti-slavery arguments across the new nation, supporting themselves on subscriptions. As early as 1827, Peter Williams, Jr., a free black Episcopal priest founded the first African American newspaper in New York City called, simply, Freedom’s Journal. The Liberator, founded in 1831, owned and operated by the famous abolitionist Frank Lloyd Garrison published until 1865. The partnership of Frederick Douglass and Garrison, which began in 1841, is well documented as they embarked on a lecture circuit and the oratory skills of Douglass were born. Understanding that his life as an escaped slave was not safe, Douglass sailed to England. He returned in 1847, a free man, and promptly established his own newspaper, The North Star, in Rochester, New York.

Later, during Reconstruction, journalism again highlighted the heinous lynching mobs that had sprung up. Ida B. Wells, born into slavery but freed in 1863, became a young investigative reporter. Her work was published in the pamphlet entitled Southern Horrors: Lynch Law and all its Phases. In 1882 Douglass wrote to Wells saying, “You have dealt with the facts with cool painstaking fidelity and left those naked and uncontracted facts to speak for themselves.”

Claiming that news is “fake” is not new. The April 27, 1849 issue of the Richmond Enquirer, published an article entitled “The Destroyer in our Midst.” It seems a jury made a “presentment” against a man “for feloniously and knowingly circulating a printed book . . . entitled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.” Felonious. Fake. So demonizing the news media is not new. But we must not forget that newspapers and the news media comprise an institution that is fundamentally necessary to a democracy.

Independent newspapers have been and are a bulwark of liberty. That has been their purpose since the founding of the nation. The First Amendment makes it clear that the government may not regulate the news; the government does not determine what is true and not true for the press.

It is said that James Madison believed that “to the press alone, checkered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.”

Lyndon Center Teacher to Attend Highly Competitive Gilder Lehrman Institute Seminar

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 16:12:00 GMT

This summer, Julie Hansen, Director from Thaddeus Stevens School will travel to Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut to attend a weeklong professional development seminar entitled “Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass.”

Led by renowned historian Professor David Blight of Yale University, the rigorous seminar will explore the thousands of pages of writings and over 1200 pages of autobiography to make him representative of the best and the worst of the American spirit. He assumed three roles in American history: activist, artist, and thinker.

Julie Hansen will join 1,000 other K–12 teachers, library educators, and National Park Service interpreters–representing 48 states and the District of Columbia, the Northern Mariana Islands, and an Armed Forces Americas School, as well as Australia, the Dominican Republic, Russia, South Africa, and Taiwan—who were selected in a competitive process by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Held at colleges and historic sites across the U.S. and the United Kingdom, the seminar will include daily programs with leading historians, visits to local historic sites, and hands-on work with primary source documents provided by their professor and the Gilder Lehrman Collection. Full room and board and a travel allowance will be provided to all participants.

“America’s struggle to live up to its commitment of “liberty and justice for all” exploded with the Civil War. Frederick Douglass wrote volumes on the profound conflict between America’s stated values of personal liberty and concurrently legalizing the ownership of fellow human beings. His writing dissected the problem philosophically, politically, socially, and artistically,” says Hansen.

Among the locations hosting 2018 Gilder Lehrman Teacher Seminars are Yale University, the University of Virginia, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Columbia University, Stanford University, the University of Edinburgh, Gettysburg College, Oxford University, and the National World War II Museum.

The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass” is one of 30 seminars being held this summer for K–12 teachers by the Gilder Lehrman Institute. Since the program’s inception in 1994, more than 20,000 educators have participated in Institute’s prestigious Teacher Seminars.

Op-Ed: Celebrating Black History Month

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 15:00:00 GMT

Celebrating Black History Month
Julie Hansen
Published in the Caledonian-Record
February 13, 2018

This month we celebrate Black History Month, a month originally proposed by Carter Woodson in 1926. Fifty years later, in 1976, President Gerald Ford formally recognized Black History Month urging Americans “to seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Despite that 1976 declaration and the subsequent years of Black History Month, and despite having elected a black president – twice – there appears to be a growing racial divide in our nation. A recent Pew Research Center report found a perceptual gap between white and black Americans regarding the treatment of blacks in the court system, mortgage applications, restaurant service, and workforce treatment. White Americans believe there are no differences in the treatment of black and white citizens; black Americans see large differences. Four in ten white Americans said there was too much of a focus on race as opposed to six in ten African Americans who said there was not enough discussion on race. In either case it is clear that people of color experience America differently than white Americans. Bridging those differences is essential if all Americans are to share in the benefits of a democratic nation.

Schools play an enormous role in preparing students to live effectively in a pluralistic democracy. Rather than declaring one month to recognize the contributions and talents of African Americans, schools need to create diverse curricula that is ongoing and embedded in the courses.

A study in 2002 found that pre-college exposure to diversity produced strong intellectual outcomes: 1) the ability to see multiple perspectives, 2) strong cognitive development, and, 3) greater complexity of thinking. And, at this point in time, diversity is not confined to race; it includes members of the LGBTQ community; it includes economic levels; it includes native-born and immigrant Americans.

Schools must meet the challenge of cultivating a point of view that erodes the concept that white is the norm and that difference is the “other.”

Toni Morrison has written about the number of academic and non-academic readers who comfortably announce that they have never read any African American text. As teachers, let’s not contribute to that. There are thousands of stories, poems, novels, memoirs, essays, and autobiographies written by people who participated in the growth of America since the 1600s, and hundreds of them are not white. To choose not to teach them contributes to a status quo that serves no one in a democracy. Southern Poverty Law Center’s recent publication of Teaching Tolerance compels teachers to “teach the hard history” of slavery in America, saying that “learning this history is essential if we are ever to bridge the racial differences that continue to divide our nation.”

Vermont’s Thaddeus Stevens wrote the Fourteenth Amendment as a first step toward establishing equality for all citizens in America. There was no one to carry his work forward after his death in 1868 and ensuring the rights of newly-freed African Americans languished during Reconstruction. Codes, Jim Crow laws, and the segregation established by the Plessy v Ferguson decision further delayed the justice long denied to our fellow citizens. The history is painful to read but that should not stop us. The legacy of owning and abusing human beings echoes in our contemporary times and we all have to rise to the demands of honest scholarship and complex conversation.

Op-Ed: Choice Gives Students the Opportunity to Be Themselves

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 15:17:00 GMT

Choice Gives Students the Opportunity to Be Themselves
Julie Hansen
Published in the Caldedonian-Record
Monday, January 22, 2018

This week celebrates National School Choice; a gathering is scheduled in Montpelier mid-week with the hope of impressing upon our legislature that school choice is an optimistic and viable option for the education of our children.

The event is part of the ongoing conversation that the independent schools and the agency of education have engaged in for quite some time and one that remains at about where it was ten years ago. The democratic lawmakers hold that opening the educational landscape to include independent schools will benefit only the privileged tier of the Vermont population. They live in the echo chamber of a well-funded education bureaucracy, hearing daily that only wealthy and educated parents will choose the right school for their children, leaving behind the working class or poor student. Another refrain is that independent schools “cream” only the best students for acceptance.

Their most heartfelt argument is that public schools, and confining the population to the public schools, is the foundation and key to the preservation of American democracy.

These arguments sound compelling: egalitarian and inclusive, formulated to appeal to our finest ideals.

But there is no evidence to support these arguments. The economic argument, aside from its classist echo, falls apart under easy scrutiny. Independent school leaders have testified about the working families who sacrifice to send to their children to a school other than their designated public school. They choose the independent school because they don’t feel their unique child is safe in the public school and they will do whatever they need to do to place their child in an environment that will allow their child to just be: to be gay, to be transgender, to be an introvert, to be an active learner, to be a quiet learner, to be . . . They just want their child to be able to go to school and feel that they are respected and safe.

This holds true in states that allow charter school choice. Research provides data that high achieving students tend not to transfer to charter schools. Choice works for those for whom one methodology does not work. Achievement levels improve once students find the school culture and expectations that fit them. This becomes even more important when a struggling student is quickly identified as a learning disabled student. Not all struggling students have a learning disability.

This is not to say that there are not public schools who work to ensure that all children are recognized and honored. But in those situations where the student is floundering, parents should have the guaranteed right to find the school that works for their child. The state funding should support their quest if, indeed, they believe that all children have a right to access all educational opportunities.

Vermont’s continuing achievement gap between economically advantaged students and those who live in a different economic level seems to prove the point that independent schools are making. The preservation of democracy rests in diverse approaches to education, not one. It rests in ensuring that all families, not just the privileged few, have options for the education of their children.

The Brazilian educator, Pablo Friere, said that “to glorify democracy and silence the people is a farce.” Isn’t it time to listen to the people?

Op-Ed: Engaging Students on the Tough Stuff

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 19:56:00 GMT

Caledonian-Record Guest Opinion
Engaging Students on the Tough Stuff
Julie Hansen, Director, Thaddeus Stevens School

In his book, Democracy and Education, Vermonter John Dewey observed that “as society becomes more enlightened, it is responsible for making a better future society,” and concluded that “the school is its chief agency for the accomplishment of this end.”

While families reel from the story of the lynching attempt in New Hampshire, schools must take seriously their role in cultivating democratic citizens who cherish the pluralism that makes America strong. Schools must commit themselves to fostering a global view of the world that sees diversity and equality as foundational; they play an inescapable role in teaching the democratic foundations of our nation.

Teachers must engage students in the most vital conversation of our time: the increasing racial divide. I recently received an invitation to participate in a webinar entitled “Discussing Race, Racism, and Other Difficult Topics with Students.” It is unacceptable that the most American conversation we could have is still couched in such terms as “difficult” or “uncomfortable.” It is not difficult for the students. They have questions about what they see and read about their own culture and by ignoring it we make the conversation taboo. We teachers are the ones who make it difficult and uncomfortable. Students want and deserve to know the history of the African American in the United States. They would like to know what it is that has made people of color targets of ridicule and even violence. They want to talk about the NFL players who “take a knee,” as well as those who don’t. Our reluctance teaches fearfulness and that stands in direct opposition to the concept of an educated mind. We do not serve students by not discussing an issue that permeates American society.

At least two of the twelve standards for the National Council of Teachers of English address the importance of reading the literature of “other cultures of the United States and the world, to respond to the needs of society” and for students to develop “respect for diversity in language, ethnic groups, and social roles.” Schools cannot adequately fulfill those standards if the only literature they read is authored by a white person. Not all Americans experience America in the same way and we will not unite and stabilize our country unless and until we step into those varying experiences. We cannot foster empathy if we read only of ourselves. We cannot truly understand the African American experience if we only view it through the eyes of white authors.

Marshal McLuhan said, “I don’t know who discovered water, but I can guarantee you it was not a fish.” If we do not remove ourselves from our own fishbowl and assist students out of that same fishbowl, they will not understand the world beyond their personal boundaries.

Remembering 9/11

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 17:15:00 GMT

This morning, Director Julie Hansen joined the eighth grade students up at the outdoor classroom at Burke. While students back at TSS took moments of silence and talked about the importance of remembering 9/11, Hansen read the following speech to the eighth graders out in the beautiful woods of Burke Mountain.

September 11, 2001 began as a day like today. Families woke up, prepared to go to work, go to school, walk their dog, change the baby, fly to a business meeting or a family gathering.

Our lives changed that morning. Our sense of safety, security, and stability was punctured. As the morning unfolded we came to understand that four men, four terrorists, hijacked American airplanes and used them as weapons against our symbols of finance and democracy.

We witnessed first responders, firefighters, and police enter the chaos to rescue survivors and remove them from the devastating scene of destruction. Port authority employees, ferry boat drivers surged along the river to transport citizens out of the city and to their homes.

Day after day they returned to the rubble. Day after day citizens reached out to one another with tenderness. Days became weeks in which we reached out to one another with a new knowledge that indeed there was danger beyond our borders that could hurt us.

We might have chosen fear and suspicion of one another but we did not.

In those hours and days and weeks, we affirmed who we are: e pluribus unum: out of many one.

One nation united in the belief that all people are endowed by the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. United in the belief that our inclusion of all people allows us to meet the highest ideals of our Constitution. We chose to stand for honor and to embrace one another.

You have not seen this common belief in our American differences. But you will see it in your lifetime. You will be courageous when the moment calls you. You will reach out with an open hand and not a clenched fist. You will create solutions to the challenges we face, both domestically and globally.

You will do these things, if I may paraphrase President Kennedy, not because they are easy but because they are American. America stands for the highest ideals imagined by humans. You will lead us to a more perfect union.

You will exemplify the courage, the compassion, and the commitment that shone so brightly in those days after the dreadful day of September 11, 2001. You will choose courage in the face of crisis. You will honor your fellow Americans no matter their heritage, their religion, their gender, their class. You will be who we are.

We are counting on you and we have faith in you.

Statement from Director Julie Hansen Regarding Current Turbulent Events in America

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 21:42:00 GMT

To our students, parents, faculty, and friends,

We always look forward the beginning of a new year, greeting returning families and welcoming new members of our school community.

We begin this year in the midst of national turmoil and sorrow. Sorrow for the loss of a young woman practicing her First Amendment guarantee to peaceably assemble, sorrow for witnessing so many young men and women carrying the Nazi flag and chanting anti-Semitic words, sorrow for the division among our fellow Americans.

Here is what I know: America is an idea that is big and bold. American democracy is a system that speaks to the highest ideals of human aspiration. We cannot achieve those ideas without struggle. When we find ourselves in those destabilizing moments when national character feels fractured, we call upon those who came before us. Their legacies carry our national character and affirm our national values. The founder of Plymouth Village, William Bradford, told his small community in 1620 that “all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties.” And Americans have been engaged in the struggle toward a more perfect union since that time. Thaddeus Stevens spent most of his life arguing on behalf of the fundamental beliefs embedded in our Constitution and Frederick Douglass said, the question to ask is whether the American people had sufficient “loyalty, honor, and patriotism to live up to their own Constitution.”

I believe that we do. We have proven time and again, yes with great struggle and even hate, that in the final analysis, we will stand by the ideals of equality.

We have had the Nazi white nationalism argument before as well as its twin, the Ku Klux Klan and their vile world view. The concept of racial supremacy has no place in America. The United States has always risen above the diminished world view of bigotry and has vanquished the hate that feeds it. It has not been easy and we have stumbled greatly on our quest toward a more perfect union, but our higher ideals have emerged and galvanized us. We have prevailed in our laws, in our courts, and in our neighborhoods.

At Thaddeus Stevens School we remain committed to the legacy of our founding ideas of equality and justice for all. We will continue to read and listen to powerful arguments of our forebears. We will dedicate ourselves to presenting a full history of our nation, inclusive of the ebbs and flows of our greatness. We will teach thoughtful discourse. We will embrace democracy and all that it demands.

2017-2018 Calendar

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Sun, 25 Jun 2017 23:32:00 GMT

To plan for specific events, head over to our Annual Events page.

Director Julie Hansen Speaks at Lyndonville Veteran’s Day

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 14:13:00 GMT

Every year on Veteran’s Day, TSS walks down to the service at the memorial in downtown Lyndonville. The veterans from the VFW have given the School awards thanking us for our attendance. This year, they asked Director Julie Hansen to speak at the services.

Thank you for inviting me to speak today. I speak as a grateful outsider; I cannot claim to know what you have experienced. I have never served, never had to wake in the dawn and load myself up with gear that pushed me into the face of danger in a land far from my home.

I speak as the citizen who remains safe at home. Yesterday, after school, we had a soccer game with the parents and teachers against our soccer team. It was a beautiful fall twilight. As I watched the children and their parents laughing I thought of children in other parts of the world where gunfire and bombs are a routine part of their day.

I happened to look across the russet sunset sky, and the silhouette of the American flag was flying high on the flag pole on top of Lyndon Institute.

We played freely on that field thanks to you. You leave your homes, your families, your friends and say to us, “I’m going to keep the trouble over there, far from you.”

It is challenging to adequately thank you for that.

Right now, there are military personnel deployed in about 150 countries – that’s 75% of the world’s nations. It is important to make that abstract number real for our children, for our students, and yet, because of our safety, it is a struggle to do so.

Our best solution is to stand here with you today, to see you face to face, and to shake your hand and thank you for your service. Last time we were here, a woman who had served at Pearl Harbor was in attendance. That resonated with me because my father was wounded and lost the use of one arm as a result of that infamous day. So the effects of war were real to me. He still jumped a foot whenever a car backfired –cars used to do that.

We have always honored the WWII vets and rightly so.

For me, I want to speak of my generation’s war, and to say out loud that we must also honor our Vietnam vets, who were not greeted with the same love and respect. To those of you who fought over there or served at that time, we say, now, welcome home. And I say, we owe you an apology. We hope that our presence here today, with you, to honor you now, is some salve to the wounds inflicted from that unpopular war.

George Orwell said that “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because other men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” Thank you being those men and women. Thank you for your service. Thank you for being a part of our community.

Kingdom Montessori Rated Three Stars by Vermont Department of Children and Families

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 16:50:00 GMT

Kingdom Montessori at Thaddeus Stevens School is rated Three Stars by the Vermont Department of Children and Families. The School has submitted a plan to earn the fourth star.

The Certificate states that the Three Stars are awarded for “demonstrating commitment to quality care and education for Vermont’s Children and Families. Three star programs offer a solid program while working on accomplishing specific goals. These programs have made substantial achievements either with multiple accomplishments in two or there arenas or showing several strong markers across all arenas. These programs have earned 9 – 11 points.”

For more information on Kingdom Montessori at Thaddeus Stevens School, click here .

TSS Announced as School Division Winner in the 2014 Recycle-Bowl!

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 16:25:00 GMT

It was announced that we were the 2014 School Division Winner in the Keep America Beautiful Recycle-Bowl! Our third and fourth grade students spearhead the recycling at our school, and helped organize our participation in the event. Great job, everyone!

TSS Receives Eat Well Play More VT Grant

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 21:19:00 GMT

Eat Well Play More envisions “Vermont as a state where all children eat healthy food and are physically active every day.” We are delighted to announce that we are one of the Fall 2014 recipients of the Eat Well Play More Vermont Grant!

TSS Alumna award 2014 Calvin Prize for Vermont Youth

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 17:20:00 GMT

TSS alumna Sydney Benjamin, daughter of TSS teacher Kelli Kazmarski, was honored as the first place winner of the 2014 Calvin Prize for Vermont Youth last week in New York City.

This year, the prompt asked “Should I stay [in Vermont], or go?” Applicants were also requested to reference Calvin Coolidge’s letter to his father: “I have been thinking what I should do when I get out of College, would you like to have me start in the store and live in Plymouth and live for Plymouth? Or would you prefer to have me enter some profession and go away and leave my community as almost every man of your generation who had any ability did except my father.”

Their responses must be fewer than 1,000 words.

“I would just like to say a huge thank you to you, and to all the teachers at TSS. I cannot emphasize enough how many times I have given you guys credit for my success in high school, be it at math, writing, or art. Everything you guys did prepared me so well for the environment and type of work that I have done here,” said Sydney.

The Coolidge Foundation received almost 100 entries this year.

Congratulations, Sydney!

TSS Hosts Everest Climber

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 02:02:00 GMT

Ed Webster , author of Snow in the Kingdom: My Storm Years on Everest spent the day at Thaddeus Stevens School sharing slides and stories, of three Everest ascents. The final ascent, with a team of only four climbers, in 1988 carved a new route up Everest. The four-member team had no bottled oxygen, no sherpas, and no radios. Students were spellbound as he demonstrated how he saved himself from what would have been a fatal fall. He used the actual ice axe and re-enacted how he drove his ice axe into the ledge and flipped himself upright. Webster then spent the rest of the day with the seventh grade in their outdoor science classroom as they discovered how to measure the age and health of the trees in the forest.

“You have to always try to do what you want,” he told the students. “If you put forth the effort; just take that first step, you will succeed in achieving your dreams.” An eager fourth-grade student, Kalie Foley-Rutherfurd, purchased Webster’s book and held it tightly in her arms. “I was amazed that he went where no other climbers had gone,” she said. “I’m gonna do that.”

Students Host Emmett Till Traveling Exhibit

jay@northeastkingdomonline.com (jay@northeastkingdomonline.com ) — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 21:02:00 GMT

With support and grants from the Vermont Community Foundation and Burklyn Arts, we hosted the Emmett Till Traveling Exhibit. We invited local schools to come and view the exhibit, while our seventh grade students functioned as docents and guided the visitors through the exhibit, answering questions and explaining the panels. We also hosted an evening event for community members to come and discuss the importance of the Emmett Till murder, and how we can continue to improve our society.

Composed of newspaper headlines, articles, personal correspondences, family photographs, oral histories and other primary source materials, the Emmett Till Traveling Exhibit takes visitors back to the Mississippi of 1955 during the trial. The panels are arranged thematically and allow visitors to examine the facts and suggestions which surrounded the case.

The Emmett Till Traveling Exhibit was developed by the Delta State University Archives & Museum, and funded through the Mississippi Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.