In Cabot, they're building community along with the arts center
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Cabot High School student Tyler Stecker, 17, works on the new Cabot Performing Arts Center. Jeb Wallace-Brodeur/Times Argus |
Toolbox
By Mel Huff Times Argus Staff - Published: November 29, 2008
CABOT – The sound of hammering reverberated inside a newly enclosed space at Cabot School on a recent frosty morning. Outside, several students, wearing hard hats over their hoodies, were sawing foam insulation boards and carrying them into the building, while instructor Jon Lange climbed a ladder.
"What are you doing, checking to see if it's level?" asked Tyler Placey-Noyes, who had been looking at a nailing ledger and wondering whether it was properly installed. "You have to get the bottom of it just right, especially if it's your lighting station," he explained.
The space taking form will be the school's performing arts center.
When a $350,000 bond issue to build a facility for the school's thriving music program failed two years ago, the school board and community supporters asked the town to fund part of the project and pledged to match the town's share. They filled in the gaps with offers of goods and services, and local contractors donated a portion of their time to work with students in a special construction class coordinated by Lange.
The students work on the building during class time, and community volunteers work on weekends."It's really been wonderful – working with the community, students with adults in the community, adults in the community working with teachers, teachers working with volunteers and parents," said Gemma Yamamoto, a board member who stopped at the construction site to talk with guidance counselor Sue Polen. "Talk about meaningful work!"
The rhythm of the hammers punctuated a song playing on a radio.
"We had a field trip and nobody wanted to go on it because it was the first day the framing was going up," Polen replied. "Nobody wanted to miss it."
A set of architect's drawings extend across the rear wall of the nearby shop that serves as Lange's classroom.
"There's a lot of natural consequences in learning that goes on," Lange said. "It's not just me saying, 'You've got to do A, B, C, D, E, F.' The kids are becoming more independent learners. They have to go read plans and figure out steps A through C. It's kind of nice."
Sophomore Dave Rathbone, junior Tyler Stecker and senior Sam Talbert note other differences from a traditional class.
"You don't have to sit the whole period," Rathbone said. "I was excited to be able to do this – it was something I wanted to do." He has a long-standing connection with the school: When he was little, his grandfather was the head custodian, and Rathbone used to come to work with him and follow him around.
"It's more hands-on," added Stecker, who said that he's using the math and geometry that he learned in other classes.
"It's more real-life application, something you could just graduate and do," Talbert observed. (She's taking Advanced Placement calculus, although she hasn't decided whether to go to college.)
Talbert thought that the experience would give her and her classmates an advantage in the job market. "We're kind of like a leg up on most kids our age," she said.
"Especially in licensed fields, like plumbing and electrical," added Lange. "There's x-number of hours that are required, and it can go toward their internship."
Stecker has already used some skills he learned.
"We built a horse barn. I framed that all out like we did out there," he said.
"If you have a little bit of skill on measuring angles and layout, you can carry things over to all kinds of different applications," Lange observed.
The project has brought together a diverse group of students. The mother of one is a college professor. Stecker's family are farmers. Rathbone's father is a finish carpenter.
"It wasn't a plan for it to be that diverse. It was just that diverse students had an interest in doing it," Polen said.
Lange says the students have learned to respect each other's skills and make allowances for their deficits, and Polen observes that students who never used to eat lunch with each other now eat together.
"I feel like we're all tighter than we used to be," Talbert said. "We're better friends than we used to be."
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