This is a response from retired Cabot teacher, Helen Morrison yesterday's blog re. the school choice question coming up at Cabot's town meeting:  

I really liked your comments on the blog vis a vis school choice.  I, too, have heard that it could cost a whole lot more, and we'd lose a say in the education of our kids.  Add to that having to get the kids to the other schools, and the loss of an institution that helps make a "community", and we need to think very carefully before we change the set-up.  My understanding is that the high school is doing much better, the kids are into it, the rigor is going up.  I say, let's wait and, as you say, see what the State settles into.  Helen

I was going through a few days worth of newspapers this morning and happened on the article about Peacham Elementary School facing similar issues as Cabot.  It becomes very difficult for smaller schools to continue operating as population shifts occur and enrollment first swells and then dwindles.  In Cabot, this has happened repeatedly.  At one time or another there have been 14 school "districts" set up, each following the population shifts.  School was kept sporadically in the early years, according to weather or harvesting cycles and whether there was a teacher available.  Sometimes classes were held in centrally located homes, or in the meeting house, but over time, one-room schools were built and became the center of each cluster of residents.  The schools were where neighbors met for social gatherings and to conduct business meetings, and they were headquarters in times of crisis.  Not unlike Cabot School today.  Only, families were larger then.  With all eight grades in one school, a family might have four, five or more children going to school at the same time.  Schools in Cabot were located so no child would need to walk more than two miles to reach it.  And walk they did, or rode horseback or came in a buggy or sleigh, if they were lucky.  

After eighth grade, Cabot students who wished to continue their education had to go to academies in Danville, Hardwick, Barre, Montpelier or St. Johnsbury.  And that worked for some, but others simply couldn't manage it because there were chores to do at home and they had to help, or they couldn't afford to go.  Most, girls and boys alike, as soon as they were big enough, had to either work at home or go out to work to help support themselves and their family. 

Cabot established its first high school in 1909, a two-year school, and gradually, nearly everyone "went on to school" from eighth grade.  Eventually, as population centers shifted, one by one, all the one-room schools in Cabot were closed and children who lived in outlying areas were bussed to school in the village.  The dynamics certainly changed for those students coming from the hills to the village.  Over time, most adapted, but along with the new experiences and more choices, there was a loss of the closeness and special learning process that came from being in a small school where they helped the younger students and respected the older ones - their extended family.  

Today, in the fast-paced, irreverent, often violent society we have, it's a fair question to ask whether a larger, more diversified school setting is better for our youngsters or would we be exchanging a not-so-great situation for a really bad one?  Will there be more caring teachers?  Will parents still have input?  Will fewer kids "slip through the cracks"?  

There is a lot to think about, and I'm really glad I'm not a parent facing these questions.  But it's very much on my mind as I sit here with my computer and dusty history notes.  I sure hope we make the right decision, if indeed there is one.