By the time BCL students begin their semester, they have spent nearly 15,000 hours in classrooms. Over the course of their time in school, many aspects of conventional instruction have become so obvious and habitualized that they are almost invisible: time tables, bell schedules, hall passes, compartmentalized subjects, forward-facing desks, the 22-minute lunch break… Fish don’t see the water they swim in, and many elements of schooling come to feel normal.

One particular element of the institution of school is the separation of learners by age-band. A former colleague provocatively calls this “batch-feeding by birthday.” While this allows different grades to attend to different developmental needs, it also artificially separates learners from one another. First graders, 9th graders, and college Sophomores all learn from their teachers — but they rarely learn from different-aged learners.

Burlington City & Lake Semester students have the unique opportunity to bridge this divide, and connect with learners ages 5 to 21.

Talking to the UVM students about their experiences with place-based learning left me intrigued and inspired. Hearing about how they engaged with different communities, like BCL, made me realize that college learning after high school can take many different forms. One student said, “ We basically go on four-hour field trips once a week.” I was excited to learn about how college could offer opportunities to explore a new place, even while still pursuing academics and earning a degree. 

• Felix

It was nice to be with people ‘around our age’  or also people that are also just learning. The students were chill and open to our ideas while also giving advice with real experiences

• Leahna

Before our time with the PBE students, I hadn’t heard of the place-based education program at UVM. I think it’s interesting that UVM has a program similar to what we do in BCL. From my understanding, many of the people who were in the UVM place-based education class were not from Vermont. I think it is interesting that they are learning about the places around them from a brand new perspective since they have had experience in other places that they can contrast it to.

When we broke into our small groups, my group walked to Battery Park. When we got there, the grounds of our conversation consisted largely of the homelessness that is prominent in the park. In my journal reflection I wrote, “It was interesting to take a walk around Burlington because none of the UVM students were from Vermont and they provided different perspectives about what the stigma against homeless people was where they lived vs how it is here.” … I guess I had never really thought about how other states deal with the homeless population because I’ve never lived anywhere other than Burlington. Having the UVM students take a walk with us gave me a wider view of the challenges other places face…and I think it was something that we should talk about more because it is so important to compare and contrast other states’ outlooks.

• Lucy
  

When the UVM students came to visit our BCL class, I didn’t really know what to expect. I thought we’d just be showing them what we do, but it ended up being this really cool exchange of curiosity and interest. They asked questions about our projects and the way we connect learning to real life, and I realized how much our class is rooted in our community. It made me think about how BCL is really a part of Burlington, not just a class in a building. Every time we work on something new, it connects back to the city around us.

Our learning in BCL often happens naturally. It’s not always about what’s written on the board but what we find and notice along the way. I think about when we went to the waterfront to learn about erosion and water quality. I expected it to just be another assignment, but it turned into this bigger conversation with people who actually work on those issues. It made me realize that learning feels different when it’s alive and happening around you. One of the UVM students said that “it was refreshing to see real kids experience what I have been learning about.” I thought about that after they left because I think they saw how much BCL values those real experiences. Our class pushes us to think deeper, to ask better questions, and to notice what’s happening right in front of us. It’s not always neat or organized, but that’s kind of the point.

• Vera

It was fun to spend time with the PBE students. As a senior, I have been thinking a lot about what my life will look like in the coming years and how I might change. The opportunity to spend time with so many college students and ask them questions about their lives was helpful. 

• Jesse

One of my favorite experiences in BCL so far was our time with the UVM PBE students. Immediately after breaking off into small groups, I got the feeling that everyone in my group was super genuine and excited to be there. After doing introductions, we started to walk, and the conversation flowed easily. I spent most of my time talking to one student in particular, Maya. She was such a cool, authentic person, and made me feel like she was very interested in what I had to say. We spent the whole walk talking, and it felt like the time just flew by. I was very interested to learn about the PBE program and what their course curriculum looks like…I was shocked at how similar their program is to BCL. They even have some of the same community partners as us, including a core partnership with Shelburne Farms.

One quote I found on the PBE website that resonated with me was: “I believe the transferable outcomes and experiences that come from place-based and outdoor educational opportunities are truly far reaching.” This quote struck me because this is exactly how I feel, and is a sentiment I’ve heard reflected by many BCL students. 

• Harper

I think connection between different age groups is really important for a community to thrive. In Burlington especially, we are unique in the fact we have this university with thousands of kids who come and stay in our city. Building connections with them helps ease tensions between permanent residents and college students. [One example is at] Momo’s market, where almost all their staff are UVM students. This is valuable as it allows everyone else to build relationships with them. Additionally, I just learned about a UVM SGA program that works to connect UVM students with the broader Burlington community. Recently, they organized a community clean after halloween. Having a connected community is important for a thriving one. 

• Sam

 This experience makes me think about how important it is for different groups of students to connect with each other and share their experiences…It showed me that learning doesn’t always happen in class rooms but sometimes learning happens when we explore real places with new people, and see other people’s point of view. It made me realize that even though we are different ages and go to different schools we can learn a lot from each other and I think we did. A question I have from these experiences is how can we create more opportunities for students from different schools, ages, and programs to connect and learn from each other the way we did with the UVM place-based students? Meeting them helped us see new perspectives on our own neighborhood and their campus, so it makes me wonder what other kinds of partnerships or activities could help students build connections, share ideas, and understand their community in deeper ways.

• Anzal
  

As November days grew shorter, BCL students enjoyed one of the coziest places in Burlington–the Children’s Room at the Fletcher Free Library. After an activity that challenged them to hone in on a core value that they wanted to convey to younger learners, and another activity that invited them to reconnect with themselves at age five, they were ready to choose picture books.

I thought at first that it would be weird  to talk to someone in a different age group but it was really easy to do. The college students were easy to connect to, and it was easy to talk to them. With the kids, it was easy because I understood how it is to be a kid so it was easy to interact with them. It was funny though. When I was younger I remember always thinking that the older kids were a lot older than they actually were.. I remember thinking that they were like 30, and when we were with the little  kids, a kid thought I was 20! It was funny because in the moment I remembered that I used to do that when I was a kid. 

• Anzal

I loved reading to the little kids. It was really fun and they enjoyed it. It was also really cool going back to my old school and seeing if anything had changed.  I wonder if the little kids will remember us in 10 years. Doing these activities  shows that people of different age  that they see the world diffidently, and need different things to thrive. 4th graders are so different from kindergartners!. It’s really crazy. 

• Jasmine

The collaboration from each age group we’ve been around is what makes a community thrive. The 4th graders collectively drew maps and built cool 3D models. The UVM students planned the day for us BCL students. Learning about college life at UVM was very relieving. Working with all of these kids impressed me a lot. I think they’re all very smart for their age. 

• Taeshon

In my years as a student, I don’t really remember any opportunities to work with kids of different ages – not any I can think of. Overall, it has been really cool. On one hand, you have the kindergartners and 4th graders who are way younger and really fun to just be around. On the other hand you have the college students who offer some really cool insight and similar experiences to us thanks to being similar in age to us. It’s cool seeing what we can gain from different age groups that aren’t just “adults who know what they are talking about.” The most memorable example of this [in BCL] was reading to the kindergartners. It was really fun, and I was surprised how eager the kids were to read with me. It seems like they had a lot of fun and I did as well. It was just so refreshing dealing with kindergartners.

• Skylar
  

​​It has been pretty fun to be able to show each other our learning. With college students, it is interesting how close in age we feel, whereas with elementary schoolers, the gap feels huge. It is cool to see what interests different age groups and compare that against my own interests. My favorite activity we did with a different age group was reading to kindergartners. It was super fun seeing the way they would engage with any book or any question I asked them. It was also fun and rare to have the opportunity to be in a teacher role while at school.

• Mo

Spending time with people who are different ages requires getting to know each other. It is important to communicate with others to be able to understand them. Working with the college students was nice. It was a good experience (other than it being cold out). They learned from me too. It was hard to work with the fourth graders because some of them were giving me attitude. Working with kindergartners was easier, because we got to play games and read books and we got along with each other. I taught the kid I was working with how to write the number 4! And now he knows how to do that.

• Koleta