Prospect Center

The gift of the Prospect Archives to the University of Vermont’s Bailey/Howe Library Special Collections is important to the University and to people everywhere – educators, lay people and parents (even parents who are home-schooling their children.) As the article in the Burlington Free Press said, the work of (Virginia), one of the students represented in the Archives, is on exhibit at the library. This exhibition is thoughtful and wonderful and, when viewers take time to look at it in its entirety, they will see the remarkable course (Virginia)’s work, especially in drawing and writing, took throughout her nine years at Prospect. Though the exhibition comprises only a partial view of a very large file, if the viewer were interested in looking further, s/he could, in the Special Collections Reading Room of the Bailey/Howe Library, view slides of a more comprehensive collection of (Virginia)’s work, could peruse an extensive sample of her writing, and could read the narrative records and parent report cards written by her teachers. If the viewer wanted to look even further, s/he could get permission from Special Collections to view the entire collection of her original work. Through this closer look, the viewer would then learn about (Virginia) as a student - that she was more than a tentative speller and a number on a standardized test score, that she was an avid reader, a gifted and imaginative writer who knew mathematics and the other subjects needed for entry into high school. (Virginia)’s teachers exposed her to a wide variety of books, materials, and life experiences. This contrasts sharply with what goes on in many schools today, where teachers are told to focus on improving their students’ scores on standardized tests, tests which measure isolated, small bits of knowledge. This focus forces teachers and administrators in lower-scoring schools to narrow the experiences of their students, and it is beginning to do the same even in schools where test scores are higher. By removing the very experiences that would enrich students' lives and provide a more complete education, such as art, music, physical education, and even recess - all in the name of “learning” - all students are affected, but particularly those who would benefit most from them. When schools provide all students with meaningful experiences, and when teachers and parents begin to pay attention and to accurately document children’s learning in all areas as they did at Prospect, rather than using single measurements, they will then be able to say they are truly educating. The Prospect Archives show one way to do that.