Students Discover “Beauty Within” at My Walden

Today’s educators compete against powerful forms of electronic entertainment, but the timeless appeal of nature still comes out on top. Sharon (VT) Elementary School is showing the way via fun and memorable field trips at UVLT’s My Walden property.

My Walden features 236 acres in Sharon of hardwood forest, grassland, streams, and wetland, and was donated to UVLT in 2024. Neighbors and friends contributed to a campaign that endowed stewardship of the roads, trails, woods, and fields as owners Steve and Shiela Swett had done with such love and generosity for decades.

Steve emphasizes that neither he nor Shiela, who passed in 2022, believed that the land truly belonged to them.

“It belongs to everyone,” he said recently. “Everyone should have access to everywhere on the property.”

“For students at Sharon Elementary, having access to My Walden is critical as open natural spaces are more difficult to access and families are not as likely to venture outside,” says first grade teacher Debra Walton-Strong. “The technology in homes and life now also seems to take up a lot of the free time that we have. While in My Walden, I am able to craft meaningful and educational experiences. Due to the vast terrain options that are available, I can find a spot for any science content that I need.”

Third graders Sophia and Violete Pickens take measurements on a My Walden field trip.

She adds, “As for the community, we are so lucky to have access to a place that is safe and inviting.”

“We need to allow kids to use their creativity, but in this day and age, there’s so much TV and screen time that it doesn’t happen,” says third grade teacher Alex Brands. “Then when they’re in the woods, they forget all that stuff.”

Brands combines mathematics and botany by having students measure 30 x 30 perimeter grids and then counting and classifying the trees contained within. Students get especially excited by his My Walden lessons on tracking and plant identification.

“It’s like finding gold,” says Brands. “We live in such an amazing part of the world that it’s really cool for them to identify and what is around.”

“Sit spot” activities have students returning to the same My Walden location in different seasons, allowing them to catalog nature’s subtle changes. Focusing on change over time and the flow of nature produces many benefits, notes Principal Keenan Haley. “It allows our students to experience a level of peace and calm that we can’t often provide here in our building,” says Haley.

Haley prioritizes transportation funding in his annual budget for “beyond the classroom” student experiences like these. “We take their knowledge that they’re learning in school and then we want them to apply out of the classroom, and then also to learn things out of the classroom that they can bring back.”

Perhaps this comment from a young visitor captures it best: “I am nine years old now and there is still so much that I can learn but what I do know is there is beauty within.”

My Walden is a place to find quietness, solace, and space to rejuvenate the soul. Plan your visit today and you just might encounter today’s students becoming tomorrow’s land stewards.

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“For young people, left to their imaginations, the property offers no end of adventures, discoveries, and, we can imagine, memories.

“For the most part, we have let the land speak for itself, which is to say, visitors are encouraged to enter into their own dialogue with the trees, trails, ponds, streams, plants, views, evidence of four-legged visitors, etc.

“There are exceptions, among them the winged sculpture that honors our granddaughter, Rachel, and a favorite with youngsters—the swing just above the cabin.

“The swing symbolizes the freedom we want everyone to feel visit the property.” – Steve Swett