Today, I pulled a teacher out into the hall while their class was working independently to check on something, and while we were chatting, one of the students came out with a vocabulary question. This student had encountered a word they were unfamiliar with in something that they were reading, and came out to get…
Throughout the month of September, in community meetings and in our Looking-glasses [4th-5th grade] meetings and journaling, we have been reflecting on community: what makes a community, how we feel in a community, the challenges of being in community, and what our responsibilities to one another are. Given the ways in which our society often…
Quakers are known for their commitment to work for peace and live in nonviolent ways. However, not every Quaker draws the line about peace in the same way.In Philadelphia, near the Liberty Bell, is an old historic Quaker Meetinghouse, erected by Quakers who were “read out” of their meetings for choosing to fight in the…
A few months ago, I was in a Zoom call with Deans of Students at various Quaker schools. One of the questions asked, to which everyone took turns responding, was basically, “What does it feel like at your school right now?” And what I said, a few months ago, was, “It feels like we’re trying…
Twenty-first-century education can not be about simply filling kids’ heads with knowledge, but rather it is about teaching them the skills and attitudes that they need to become learners. Today, through our digital connections, more information and knowledge than ever is at our fingertips. Just to read through everything on Wikipedia would take a lifetime. …
Often, when I am leading Community Meeting I ask about relationships among the different Quaker Values. For example, I might ask, “What is the relationship between Equality and Community.” When we had Meeting for Community to kick off today’s service day, we sat outside in a nearby park, surrounded by the community we had planned…