“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.

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Brave Little State is a production of Vermont Public and a proud member of the NPR Network.