On the front page of the Rutland Herald, I recently learned that Castleton is the ninth most educated town in the country, and the most educated in the state, beating out Middlebury and Burlington, as well as Hanover in New Hampshire, home to Dartmouth College and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
It’s satisfying to learn that the town we chose to live in, however inadvertently, ranks up there with Chevy Chase in Maryland and Wellesely in Massachusetts, both wealthy suburbs of large cities. The study, conducted by Business Insider, a technology-news website, clearly raises our profile.
The same article noted that according to Census Bureau data, as a state Vermont beats the national average for education. Almost 36 percent of Vermonters have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 29 percent nationally.
Conscientious families teach their children that privilege comes with responsibility toward those less fortunate. And as one of the richest states - in social rather than in economic capital – as well as one of the most educated, Vermont has been and should continue to be a leader in moving the country forward.
Vermont has been heeding that call throughout its history. The list of Vermont firsts ranges from the influential to the merely curious. It was the first to abolish slavery in 1791; the first to establish a state university. The environmental movement was born in Vermont more than 150 years ago when George Perkins Marsh of Woodstock became America’s first conservationist, a tradition heeded today by environmental leaders such as Bill McKibben. It was the first state to ban billboards, and is still one of only four states to do so, and the first to legalize same-sex unions. Most recently, we became the first to require GMO labeling, precipitating an expected and well-financed legal battle. Individually, a Vermonter was the first to photograph a snowflake, no mean feat in 1885, and another was the first to cross the continental U.S. by car.
There are also some admirable lasts. Vermont was the only state without a Walmart until 1996, while Montpelier remains the only state capital without a McDonald’s, thanks to overwhelming opposition by its citizenry.
Education, wealth and creativity confer privileges as well as responsibilities. I hope we’ll continue to blaze a trail of innovation and commitment to solving the challenges threatening our country and the world, from climate change and human rights to food crises and political gridlock. If a single Vermonter could launch the environmental movement 150 years ago, it’s intriguing to think what a state of 620,000 Vermonters could – and should – accomplish.
