After 35 years, Pierson looks forward to fall in her new camper

As a new life begins with a teardrop camper and a mental catalogue of places Sarah Pierson and her husband would like to visit, there is still an inner scrapbook filled with memories of 35 years of teaching at Charlotte Central School.

Prominent in her remembrances of those years are the school’s traditions, many now defunct, like the eighth-grade field trips for several days to Quebec City, the Halloween parades, the Carnation Ceremonies and the way middle-school students used to start the school year with three days of camping in cabins near Joe’s Pond.

School usually started on Thursday, and after three days in the woods, actual school started on Monday for the middle-school students and their teachers. “We would have three days of just games and food and getting to know the students,” Pierson said.

But one memory that stands out is how long-time principal Monica Smith would decide whether there would be school on mornings after a big snow.

When Pierson started teaching, long before school consolidation, individual principals decided whether to close their schools because of snow. Smith started as Charlotte Central School principal the same year that Pierson started her teaching career there.

Smith would joke that she decided if there would be school by throwing her puppy outside. If the dog slid on the sidewalk, it was a snow day.

Pierson said, “I was just really lucky. I started with a great group of veteran teachers, and they just taught me about teaching.”

She liked her early years of teaching when she would often have the same students for several years, but she gravitated to the middle-school grades.

“They’re a handful,” Pierson admitted, “but they’re fun.”

For around 25 years, Pierson was only a French teacher, but 10 years ago she added Spanish.

When she started on her quest to add another language to her teaching repertoire, Pierson didn’t know any Spanish. She read lots of books in Spanish, watched lots of Spanish TV shows and traveled to Mexico and Spain.

Originally from Connecticut, she went to the University of Vermont. Besides the school, she was attracted by the lake and the mountains, and that it was far enough from home, but not too far. At UVM she met her future husband, who has also recently retired.

They aren’t planning any long trips now, like camping in Mexico or Canada to practice her language skills. For the time, she’s looking forward “kicking back” and enjoying the treasures of the Green Mountain State.

“Vermont is beautiful,” Pierson said. “I can’t wait to really enjoy the fall without having to go back to work.”