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A Small, Good Thing

A Small, Good Thing

Raymond Carver’s seminal short story, “A Small, Good Thing,” pulls its readers to the darkest place of human experience, the kind of loss unfortunately so ubiquitous these days in which we live.  Each day’s news round-up, overflowing inbox, and online posts are enough to overwhelm any one of us any day of the week, just as […]

Class of 2022: Highest SAT Average in the History of the School

From the beginning to the end of each day, it all boils down to the students, doesn’t it? The student experience, students overcoming challenges, student growth and leadership. What these incredible kids do everyday is what draws me and my colleagues to the life of being an educator. Students are intrinsically resilient, partially because they are […]

ENCOUNTER WEEK REUNITES STUDENTS WITH LOCAL & REGIONAL COMMUNITIES

  For Immediate Release October 25, 2021 Contact: Jill Strawbridge jstrawbridge@vermontcommons.org 802-865-8084 VERMONT COMMONS SCHOOL’S ENCOUNTER WEEK REUNITES STUDENTS WITH LOCAL AND REGIONAL COMMUNITIES VCS’s signature program successfully resumes after hiatus necessitated by Covid South Burlington, VT — After 18 difficult months, Vermont Commons School joyfully resumed its unique and much-missed Encounter Week Program, an […]

Why Indigenous People’s Day

I encourage us all to take a moment to reflect on why we’re not in school this coming Monday.  For years, and certainly through my childhood, this federal holiday was celebrated as Columbus Day in observance of the explorer’s contact with this continent.  In the last handful of years in Vermont and increasingly around the country, the […]

Simon Rosenbaum, National Merit Semifinalist

We are honored to have Simon Rosenbaum, class of 2022, recognized as a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist. National Merit Scholarship Corporation recently announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 67th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. 32 of these academically talented high school students hail from the state of Vermont. National Merit Scholars have […]

To the Class of 2021 at Commencement

One of the liberties–and great pleasures–you may take as a head of school is to say a few words to the graduates, a liberty, if you’ll indulge me, I’ll take now.   Among the things keeping me going during this last lap of the longest school year in history, I’ve been listening to Snow Patrol.  I […]

“To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.”

(photo courtesy of Concord Museum)        Emerson wrote, “To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.”  Yet, inescapably, here we are in the final steps of this journey, a truth shown to us through students’ stories, […]

Five Class Days to Go

As the days lengthen, the stretch between now and the school-year finish line only shrinks.  Five class days to go.  Three days of activities (thank you, Parent Ambassadors for hosting class gatherings the day after school ends!).  Senior Projects end today.  Graduation for the Class of 2021 is exactly two weeks from the moment I write […]

Scholarship. Community. Global Responsibility.

Students emerge from their time at Vermont Commons School intrinsically motivated to seek out their role for improving the world, with the skills and competencies to do so.