Pictured above: Rachel pictured with third and fourth-grade students and their eighth-grade buddies at our recent "I-Kid-Arod" assembly.
Friends Council on Education offers workshops for educators new to Quakerism. At Friends School of Portland, our goal is to offer all teachers and staff new to Friends education the opportunity to attend this training via zoom or in person.
This February, our new 3-4 teacher, Rachel Fischhoff, attended the training at Pendle Hill in Pennsylvania. As the only Friends School in Northern New England, we benefit from this unique opportunity to meet with other educators and administrators teaching at Friends Schools across the country. It is an opportunity to compare experiences, ask questions, and make connections with our strong (but small) Quaker school community.
Here are a few of Rachel’s thoughts:
What is something that you learned that you didn’t know about Quakerism?
There was a lot of conversation around the origins of Friends Meetings and historical Quaker figures. I didn’t realize that Bayard Rustin was a Quaker! I also didn’t realize that there were programmed and unprogrammed Quaker meetings. I knew that FSP has its founding roots from Portland Friends Meeting which is unprogrammed. But I didn’t realize that there was another version of meeting.
I was also really curious about what practicing Quakers thought about Quaker schools. I was struck by the conversation about how there are so few Quakers in the world that Quaker schools are really a beloved way to sustain Quaker values in the world.
What was it like meeting other Friends School teachers and administrators?
There were people at the training who held a bunch of different roles: assistant heads, division heads, teachers new to Quaker schools but not to teaching, teachers brand new to Quakerism and teaching, and graduates of Quaker schools just beginning teaching. When I was talking with other teachers, we talked about classroom dynamics a lot. When I spoke with administrators, it was a similar conversation just on a different scale. We were talking about spaces, school culture, and connecting threads between classrooms. I also had a really interesting conversation about discipline in middle school and Quakerism.
What is a new practice or way of thinking that you would like to bring back to your work at FSP?
The Executive Director of Friends Council on Education, Drew shared his wish that Friends Schools would teach testimonies as practices instead of values. He spoke about how the testimonies are all action words that can guide our choices. I was really intrigued by this and I left thinking about how I might think about the SPICES as actions.
We talked about the underpinnings of ideas that were radical in Quaker schools when they were introduced but are now more widely accepted like asking deep questions, collective decision-making, and the autonomy of children. I appreciated delving into some of the theological underpinnings rather than thinking about it as the education tool of the moment.
Anything else?
There was a lot of conversation around meeting for worship. It was pretty interesting to hear about different models, and different questions that are coming up at different schools. I think that I am more curious than I was before to ask myself, “How do I help kids consider if they have a message to share during meeting?”
The whole professional development training just had a really good tone. It was at Pendle Hill, so it was just dominated by people in their practice. There was so much good energy around. I am glad that I had the opportunity to go!