What Parents Can Learn From a Town That Produced 11 Olympians

Interesting article - as someone who lives in a much poorer village in Vermont near Rutland and grew up in Northern NJ; its true that childhood is different. Up here my kids do get cheered, coached and uplifted by every parent from both teams. My kids play multiple sports and pursuit multiple academic goals - where is when I grew up I was focused on a single sport in a hyper competitive environment where no-one really pushed me except my parents. But Norwich is surely an outlier. It has many professors and professionals living in Vermont but working in Dartmoth in New Hampshire. Its a nice place, with strong values and Im sure the kids there are awesome BUT the Olympic success is because of the additional wealth of some families - not specifically parenting.

The founders of Norwich VT came from Norwich CT, these people settled in the late 1600s, many the founding stock were very physically strong to have settled & survived in such an extreme environment at that time in history. Further, the Stamp Act forced those citizens to become more self reliant which put a further strain on the population, the weak would have died or moved away leaving the strongest to then found Norwich, VT where they met with similar environmental pressure, which would have continued to prune their society and leave a situation where only the smartest & strongest were surviving. Add to that the military & science academy founded there in the 1800s and now you're attracting a population of smart, strong, determined white people (white people already being genetically hardwired for harsh winters) Add to the fact that current poor cell service further weeds out anyone living there who is lazy, likes internet/gaming, that leaves only people who love the outdoors more than Facebook & the Kardashians. Add again that the families are some of the wealthiest in the state (which means they are smarter, more hard working & determined people on average, have more free time, & money for lessons/gear) & you have a clearer picture. I'm afraid it has nothing to do with the way they parent & everything to do with a strong, smart, founding stock which has been refined over centuries of specific environmental pressures including today's "no cell service" weeding out the weak

I'm interested in the defensiveness I'm encountering here to the idea that a town of 3K people, one of the wealthiest in the state, which is 96% white may be an outlier. Additionally, the kids of Norwich are not just successful at sports, but at winter sports which in the US have traditionally been the product of socioeconomic privilege. Certainly, there are things we can do better in parenting our children, but wariness at the idea that Norwich is the place that can teach us is not cynicism--unless the real lesson is that communities need the other advantages Norwich (and the state of Vermont) provide. Instead, the article and comments focus on direct influences, about what is taught to kids and who is teaching them--implying that success and happiness may come from which wealthy white people parents choose to emulate.

I grew up in Vermont and agree that, along with the good values, Norwich is a "perfect storm" of opportunity for Olympic hopefuls. Still, any bitterness from the poverty, that also exists in the state, is far overshadowed by the residents' perceived experience of wealth in community and connection to the land. A "can do" spirit is pervasive, regardless of statistical measures of wealth. That pragmatic spirit has proven to override the disadvantages of lack of wealth as defined by flatlanders.

I think what rubs people the wrong way is suggesting that parenting in Norwich (VT's wealthiest town) is superior to other poorer places while trying to play down the advantages that wealth provides. Or perhaps that Olympic success validates how people live their lives. Take a moment to read an informed response to this book published in Norwich's local paper: http://www.vnews.com/Norwich-is-a-well-to-do-cradle-of-winter-Olympians-... In addition, this author makes assertions that aren't true. She asserts that the kids have little access to technology, when in reality the schools are affluent enough to purchase iPads for students to do their school work. She asserts that the schools there aren't high-pressure environments, when in reality the pressure is such that 50 students in the local high school conspired to break into the high school to steal answers to exams about a decade ago (google Hanover High School cheating scandal). Norwich is like any place-it has strengths and weaknesses, but is has more depth than an idealized setting out of a Norman Rockwell painting that the author is trying to portray.

sounds reasonable - I volunteer in childcare and whenever I see a new kid standing nearby, not yet confident to approach, I invite them to join and play with the kid I'm talking to - pretty soon - everybody's happy ! selfishness may be the way people are raised to be competitive in an individualist free-enterprise society (where most benefits seem to go to the already super-rich) but the longest lasting source of happiness has been found to be - helping others. from the kids I see - without support, they hang back and do nothing - with support, they have all the enthusiasm and energy in the world !

I have lived all over the country and spent a number of years in Norwich. My first impression of the town was courtesy of a birthday party invite: 3 boys were celebrating their birthdays, which turned out to be nothing more extravagant than playing in a pond while parents grilled burgers. My second impression was the summer ‘sports camp’, which was actually a daily 3 hour game of “Manhunt” in the woods around town. The third was attending a rec soccer game. New to town, I was trying to connect kids with parents, but I couldn’t figure it out. It was indeed the case that the parents were cheering for all kids as if they were their own. I had never seen something like that before. My eldest son was an enthusiastic player of sports but not particularly talented. He had a good heart and was a great sport. No-cut meant he could keep playing. He played and he played. He started to improve with all that playing. High school also does not cut. So he kept playing. And while he easily would have been cut in a different system, or might have lost the love of sport along the way, over those years he got good enough that he got recruited by colleges to play there too. For this kid, growing up in Norwich made all the difference.

The official motto of the Austin, Texas suburbs should be "professionalized youth sports complex." Contrary to my childhood in the 1970's, where kids were encouraged to participate in all sports, and maybe specialize when they got to high school, today's kids are herded into select teams and six-times-weekly practice schedules at a very young age. My daughter has already been dis-invited from participating in gymnastics and soccer, and swim team's uncomfortable looks are already starting. She's EIGHT years old. It's not the kids driving this. It is the parents. They can't just let kids be kids. They have to take their hyper-competitive attitudes about work, commuting, and even getting the last bottle of Topo Chico from the store shelf, and apply it to their kids. Five year old kids are wearing hundreds of dollars' worth of athletic gear, nicer than when I competed in high school. The pressure is on to win, resulting in more practices, more coaches, and more camps. And the kids look like they are bored out of their minds. For parents who just want their kids to have fun and be well-rounded, there is no option. The leagues and camps aren't interested in the casual athlete, because there's no money in it.

Besides Olympians, Norwich has also produced, Zephyr Teachout, and Robby Mook. I was raised in Norwich, and it's an idealized New England town. Most of the folks their are privileged in variety of ways and I believe most of them are very aware of that fact.

Why is it that when Russian athletes win medals is a product of state sponsored doping? They "won" the Sochi Games with their illegal program that allegedly had their athletes drugging regardless of discipline. We are deeply suspicious of teams from small countries that dominate like Jamaica and sprinting. I'm no fan of Russia or Husain Bolt for that matter. But for others it's written off to PEDs while here its parenting and community support. How heartwarming.

Kudos to Karen Crouse. A hardened New Yorker (and part-time Vermonter) like me is appalled at the cynicism. Taking care of our children is not just about Norwich, and it's not just among the "wealthy." In 2013, when my adopted town, Rutland - a middle-class small town 20 minutes from Killington ski resort - was on the front page of NYT because of the opioid crisis, the focus was on positive measures Rutland took to protect our children, encourage them in sports, including skiing, and create and coalesce around a program called Project VISION - a multi-sector effort led by a former Green Mountain Power executive, the police department, and hundreds of very dedicated residents. I was so enthralled by Project VISION that I relocated to Rutland for 3 years, got involved on community boards, and ended up as a strategy/marketing VP and professor at a local college. I cherish the friends I made there, many of them former students. Killington encourages skiing in every way - discounts to families and college students, special prices for residents-only days, and more. It is ridiculous to assert that happens only to "wealthy" residents. It happens because Norwich - and Rutland, and similar Vermont towns - love and fiercely protect, nurture and empower children to be brave, honorable and engaged in healthy pursuits. Need more proof? Look at how VT children hiked to school, over the mountains, after Hurricane Irene. Not a trust-fund baby among them.

It must be something in the water—probably not lead.

Despite being a Vermonter, this article, and indeed the premise of the book is ridiculous. Norwich does not have a model that other communities can easily emulate. As another commenter noted, it is one of the wealthiest towns in the state. The state is one of the least diverse states in the country. It sits across the river from Dartmouth College, a school with it's own ski area. So, the Norwich community is able to easily access top notch winter sports facilities. In how many communities is that a realistic option? These Olympians from Norwich are almost exclusively skiers and regardless of whether it is cross-country, moguls, or ski jumping, every skiing discipline requires a large financial investment by parents. Equipment costs run in the thousands of dollars and travel costs increase into the tens of thousands of dollars for those with Olympic aspirations. How many towns have a sizable cohort of parents who can afford those costs? What's the secret in Norwich? White privilege.

I grew up in Norwich in the 80's. I was part of the Ford Sayre program and knew the people mentioned in the article. It was an amazing place to be a kid. The quality of the adults and the time they selflessly gave us is the thing that stands out for me the most. John Girard is an example of this type of person. He was a science and physical education teacher and the coach at the elementary school there. He also ran the summer recreation program. I loved summer rec more than anything. I sometimes used to hang out at his house waiting to be picked up by my parents. He was so fun to be around and made everybody feel comfortable in whatever iteration, whatever hat he was wearing that day. He put us in a position to learn and to do well at whatever we were doing, whether it was school or sports. It was people like Mr. Girard who made Norwich such an ideal place to grow up.

This is all very nice, but let me just mention that Norwich is not some small, backwater Vermont town but possibly the wealthiest town in Vermont, with a high per capita income, and situated directly across the river from Dartmouth College--two enormous advantages that seem relevant to all this fuss.

I wish that Mr. Pack, the autocratic gym teacher at my elementary school in Buffalo back in the 1950's had had the attitude that Norwich, Vermont, has towards inclusion. We shivering skinny boys in T-shirts and white shorts stood against the wall and watched as "the coah" focused all his attention on the intramural sports teams boys. All that mattered to him were the kids who had sufficient athletic ability to win games for him. A couple of years of that and it can have quite an effect.