Class in the classroom

“There was this huge divide in, like, social grouping and connection … No one really talked to each other.” “Making friends at the high school wasn't really my priority because I felt like I had nothing in common with them at all.” “I think the closer we got to graduation, the more it kind of came out.” “Financial class absolutely affects everything beyond financial class in the classroom. Absolutely it does.” In this episode, a series of recent grads from Middlebury Union High School in Addison County wrestle with class differences among classmates — and how those differences shaped their experiences there. One of those grads is winning question-asker Ari Graham-Gurland from Middlebury, who asked the question at the heart of this story: “How does socioeconomic diversity affect classroom dynamics in high school?” Find the web version of this story here . This episode was reported by Sabine Poux, with editing and production from the rest of the BLS team: Burgess Brown, Camila Van Order González and Josh Crane. Our executive producer is Angela Evancie. Theme music by Ty Gibbons; Other music by Blue Dot Sessions. Special thanks to Stephanie Sherman and Ariell Slater. As always, our journalism is better when you’re a part of it: Ask a question about Vermont Sign up for the BLS newsletter Say hi on Instagram and Reddit @bravestatevt Drop us an email: hello@bravelittlestate.org Make a gift to support people-powered journalism Tell your friends about the show! Brave Little State is a production of Vermont Public and a proud member of the NPR Network.

You can listen to Class in the classroom online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Class in the classroom is an episode from Brave Little State by Vermont Public Radio.

This episode is 28:09 long.

This episode was published on Oct 16, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Brave Little State when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.