BFS: A Guide to Understanding Quaker Education

A GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING QUAKER EDUCATION

Buckingham Friends School

MISSION Buckingham Friends School honors the Light within each person, inspires scholarship and spiritual community, and instills the value of caring for others and our world.

Members of a Friends community are guided by testimonies, or guiding principles for conduct: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship (S.P.I.C.E.S.). We have developed this booklet to help you understand more about what a Friends education has to offer and how the Buckingham Friends School community interprets and lives these enduring values and principles. We invite you to consider your own interpretations and to ponder which questions and responses may help guide our lives together as a community.

It is our hope that this guide will help you reflect on and experience how Quaker testimonies come to life at Buckingham Friends School. If you have any questions, we’d love to hear from you! Feel free to email us at info@bfs.org or speak to us directly at 215-794-7491.

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T

he Religious Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers, was founded in the 1600s with the central belief that within each person there is a unique presence and personal potential, often referred to as the Inner Light. Soon after William Penn, a Quaker, founded Pennsylvania in 1681, the first Friends school was established in Philadelphia.

Today, Friends schools are located across the country – over two dozen in the Philadelphia area and surrounding counties.

For over 330 years, Friends schools have been valued and recognized for providing quality academics; offering a breadth and depth of programs that nurture the wholechild; and guiding the education of children with a concern for balancing intellectual and moral development. Every Friends school has a distinctive character and feeling.

The core testimonies of Quakerism – simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equity and justice, and stewardship – provide a common cornerstone of tenets and values.

Friends schools have a shared concern for developing world citizens, and for teaching an appreciation for religious freedom, democracy, and discourse. Service learning is embedded in the curriculum and life of the school.

Students who attend Friends schools are presented with a challenging educational framework that fosters community and the importance of service to others. In response, students naturally bring their quest for self-awareness and achievement to their work at school, allowing them to identify and develop their emerging talents and abilities and ensure their success as lifelong learners. True to missions that honor the Light within each person, students at Friends schools learn and grow in an environment that celebrates their promise while challenging them to cultivate the resources they need for their personal growth, self-discipline, and achievement.

Friends schools do not actively teach anyone to become a Quaker or adopt a set of beliefs (only a few members at a typical Friends school are Quakers). The shared belief

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that everyone is unique – with special promise and a capacity for goodness – guides everyone to strive for self-awareness; to respect others; to listen carefully; and to endeavor to live responsibly. Educators at Friends schools believe that by working towards these goals, everyone will be prepared for life, able to realize their potential as citizens of our world.

Attending Meeting for Worship is the central experience at a Friends school. It is where each individual can learn to listen, reflect, and ultimately share their unique voice as a contributing community member – and it’s where a culture of respect, trust, and advocacy is built. Once a week students gather in shared silence, often in a simple space with benches facing one another. Every now and then the silence is broken by a young voice or other member of the school community offering a personal message for everyone. In this practice, and throughout other aspects of school life, students are encouraged to develop a deepening understanding of themselves as individuals and as members of a community.

Realizing academic excellence as a Friends school also requires a collective commitment to diversity that recognizes and embraces the richness in the identities, presence, ideas, and contributions of everyone. When each person can feel safe, be heard, and contribute meaningfully, they will achieve at their highest potential in all areas. Developing a student’s community and multicultural literacy supports them in being an engaged, compassionate, and active classmate, community member, and citizen.

Friends practices also guide the approach to management of Friends schools. Friends schools believe it is important to involve those responsible for implementing initiatives in thoughtful and inclusive decision-making processes. By engaging community members in forums and meetings that strive to forge unity and build consensus, collaborative planning and informed decision-making flourish.

PAUL LINDENMAIER, Head of School, 2018 – Present

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Simplicity

Simplicity is about understanding yourself and clarifying your thoughts into their most true form.

Once we understand ourselves, we are better able to be in positive relationships with others.

RACHEL GRIFFIN-SNIPES, BFS teacher

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Photo: Ozzie(rvoiiiphoto.com)

When we strive for simplicity, we seek to value others over things, consider how less can be more, and aim for the elegant over the complicated.

Q:

How do I learn to discern what is most important in life?

How can I take action to prioritize the natural over the material?

How can we as a community encourage simplicity in thought, in word, and in action?

‘Tis a gift to be simple, ‘Tis a gift to be free, ‘Tis a gift to come down where we ought to be.

JOSEPH BRACKETT JR., from the Shaker hymn Simple Gifts (1848)

A person doesn’t have to say many words, but the words should be really meaning ful.

SEVENTH GRADE STUDENT, Class of 2009

Live simply, so others can simply live.

MAHATMA GANDHI, Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer, 1869-1948

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.

HANS HOFMANN, German-born American painter, 1880 - 1966

Queries and Testimonies, SIMPLICITY

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Peace

Peace is not only what we’re looking for, it’s what we use to get what we’re looking for.

THIRD GRADE STUDENT, Class of 2013

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In a global sense, the testimony of peace is about a commitment to nonviolence, and strong opposition to war. Closer to to home, we ask ourselves:

Q:

ow can our students, teachers, and families H take action to promote peace?

How can I resolve differences with others so that no harm is done?

Peace is not only the total absence of any violence in our lives; it is also our non-judgmental acceptance of the whole human race as our family.

JOAN MACLATCHIE, Member of Buckingham Friends Meeting, 1924 - present

Peace helps the earth be quiet.

FIRST GRADE STUDENT, Class of 2028

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.

ALBERT EINSTEIN, Physicist, 1879 - 1955

No matter what we do there is always a peaceful answer, a way that we can cooperate and find a solution without fists or mean words, to not let anger or frustration get in the way of that.

FOURTH GRADE STUDENT, Class of 2025

Queries and Testimonies, PEACE

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Integrity

One’s sense of integrity must be welldeveloped and as second nature as breathing, as one never knows which message, which action, which moment in any given day will register in the mind of one of your charges.

NANCY SANDBERG, BFS teacher and administrator, 1986-2021; alumni parent

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The testimony of integrity demands that we be authentic, honest, courageous — and that we always seek the truth. In committing to integrity, we consider:

Q:

What can I do to earn the trust of others at Buckingham Friends School?

What does it take to stick to my beliefs when there’s pressure to do something I know is wrong?

How do I deal with dishonesty in myself and in others?

Right is right even if everyone is against it and wrong is wrong even if everyone is for it.

WILLIAM PENN, Religious Society of Friends, 1644 - 1718

It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it and what you do that matters.

DENNIS HAUPERT, BFS teacher, 2002 - present

Listen to your conscience. It always knows what the right path is.

You just have to let it speak.

EIGHTH GRADE STUDENT, Class of 2008

Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy; and choosing to practice our values rather than simply professing them.

BRENÉ BROWN, Professor, lecturer, author

Queries and Testimonies, INTEGRITY

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Community

There are lots of things that we do every day and every week that new people don’t know about. We can show them and include them, so they know they’re a part of it too.

KINDERGARTEN STUDENT, Class of 2029

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Photo: Ozzie(rvoiiiphoto.com)

Being an extraordinarily inclusive and interdependent community does not happen by accident, and we are always asking ourselves:

Q:

How can I seek to make members of our community feel connected and better understand who may feel excluded?

What special gifts do I have and how can I share them with and through Buckingham Friends School?

What can I do to make sure Friends values are upheld in the Buckingham Friends community?

In what ways can we come together to make a difference in our global community?

Participation in the activities of a group is the oldest and most effective form of education!

HOWARD BRINTON, Author, professor, from Friends for 300 Years (1952), 1884-1973

The spirit of cooperation and the tradition from which this grows are integral parts of the life of the school.

GEORGE ROWE, BFS teacher and Head of School, 1950 – 1981; alumni parent

We respect, enjoy, serve and celebrate one another. We seek the Light in one another.

And we work together to improve our abilities to do these things.

CHRIS KERR, BFS former teacher and alumni parent, former and current trustee

We believe that a variety of experiences, perspectives, and identities are integral to the strength and continuous shaping of our interconnected community and our commitment to diversity, equity, justice, and belonging.

Buckingham Friends School Statement on Diversity, Equity, Justice, and Belonging

Queries and Testimonies, COMMUNITY

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Equality

And yes we are far from polished far from pristine but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect We are striving to forge a union with purpose To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us but what stands before us AMANDA GORMAN, Youth Poet Laureate

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When we commit ourselves to fostering equality, we openly value each individual as a member of a connected whole. We challenge ourselves to consider:

Q:

What does a focus on the Light within each person at Buckingham Friends School require of me?

What does it mean to treat others the same way I want to be treated?

What is necessary to offer equal opportunity for growth to all members of our community?

How can I live life in the spirit of love, truth and peace, answering to that same spirit in everyone?

Here at BFS, we have always been treated with the understanding that we are each an imperative part of the future. No one has to earn this significance in a special way. We are all born with the Light, the ability to create positive change, and the capacity to dream.

EIGHTH GRADE STUDENT, Class of 2006 Commencement Address

Only by seeing others not as we want to see them, but as they want their Light to be seen, can we find the Light in ourselves.

JEN ROBINSON, BFS parent

Equality is the soul of liberty; there is, in fact, no liberty without it.

FRANCES WRIGHT, Feminist, Course of Popular Lectures (1829)

Queries and Testimonies, EQUALITY

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Stewardship and Service

Service is a true act of love as well as a moral obligation to eliminate barriers and take care of the world.

ISABELLA TAMBURRINO-SCHREIBER, BFS teacher

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We all benefit when community members care deeply about conserving, nurturing, and sustaining our campus… and our world.

Our behaviors and actions are guided by questions such as:

Q:

Do I act on our responsibility to protect the balance of humans and nature, and respect animals, plants, and other living things?

What can I do to help care for Buckingham Friends School now that will make a difference in our next 250 years?

How can I help others in a way that respects their dignity?

What are my responsibilities as a citizen of the world and how can I support others?

Our hope is that through service-learning experiences students gain an understanding of their civic responsibility and that this encourages future involvement and a commitment to support and better our world.

JENNIFER GIBSON, BFS teacher, alumni and current parent

Sowing the seeds of service early in a child’s development is more important now than ever before.

OZZIE OSWALD, alumni parent

Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world.

For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.

MARGARET MEAD, Anthropologist, Class of 1915, 1901-1978

Only if we understand, will we care. Only if we care, will we help.

Only if we help shall all be saved.

JANE GOODALL, Anthropologist, Jane Goodall: 40 Years at Gombe

Queries and Testimonies, STEWARDSHIP AND SERVICE

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Meeting for Worship

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SILENCE – REFLECTION – SHARING – LISTENING Through Meeting for Worship, all are encouraged to develop the Light within, which guides them to a deepening understanding of our core tenets and values and of themselves as members of the world community.

It is the sense of spiritual community, started in the Meetinghouse, that nurtures a sense of community outside the Meetinghouse.

PETER PEARSON, BFS teacher and Head of School, 1973 – 2005; alumni parent

You should take what you hear in the Meetinghouse with you when you leave.

SECOND GRADE STUDENT, Class of 2014

I have always felt that there is truth in silence. Meeting for Worship provides us the opportunity to understand ourselves and share our truths with others, for the good of the group. It is a unique and beautiful community-building experience.

STEVE BERNARDINI, BFS teacher, 1980-present; alumni parent

I enjoy the simplicity of Worship – it is a time for me to pause, reflect, and connect with the Spirit along with my BFS community.

FIFTH GRADE STUDENT, Class of 2024

To sit in silence is an amazing dissent from the world we live in.

RALPH LELII, Quaker educator at George School for 33 years (1986-2019)

Testimonies, MEETING FOR WORSHIP

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES You are welcome to use the Quaker resource library available at Buckingham Friends School and to visit our website, www.bfs.org.

The following websites also offer additional information about the Religious Society of Friends, Quaker meetings, and Quaker education. quakerbucks.org Bucks Quarterly Meeting - Learn where and when you can find a Quaker Meeting for Worship near your home. All school families are encouraged to attend a Meeting for Worship to see what it’s like and to get to know the Quaker community.

Find out about First Day School (the Quaker version of Sunday School) and special events like Quakerism 101 for adults.

The Bucks Quarterly Meeting site provides links to the 14 local meetings in Bucks County including the four meetings responsible for the governance of the school: Buckingham Monthly Meeting - buckinghamfriendsmeeting.org Doylestown Monthly Meeting - doylestownquakers.org Solebury Monthly Meeting - soleburyfriendsmeeting.org Wrightstown Monthly Meeting - wrightstownfriendsmeeting.org

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pym.org The Philadelphia Yearly Meeting website provides a wealth of information about the Greater Philadelphia Quaker Community and Quarkerism in general, including local meetings, workshops, special programs for youth and adults. pym.org/education/children Children’s Religious Education & Spiritual Life on the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s website provides support for First Day School teachers and religious education committees and is a resource for parents and for Meetings as a whole. friendscouncil.org The Friends Council on Education provides services and advocacy for Quaker schools and their communities. A section for students and parents provides information on Quaker schooling, access to literature, and a directory of Quaker high schools and colleges, universities, and study centers. afsc.org The American Friends Service Committee carries out service, development, social justice, and peace programs throughout the world. This organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 for its work after World War II and continues to serve communities around the world with a focus on sustainability and peace.

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Photo: Ozzie(rvoiiiphoto.com)

Cover photo by: Ozzie(rvoiiiphoto.com) Inside photo credits: Melissa Clayton, Paul Lindenmaier, Lexi Logan, Ozzie(rvoiiiphoto.com), DeeDee Snyder, Todd Trice Copy consulting: Melissa Clayton, Katelynn Connolly, Rachel Griffin-Snipes, Chris Kerr, Michele Levy, Paul Lindenmaier, Nancy Sandberg, DeeDee Snyder Design and production: Brad Wilson Published November, 2021. All rights reserved. No duplication without permission.

Buckingham Friends School FOUNDED FOUNDED 1794 1794

A Co-ed Quaker School for Grades K - 8

“As we leave this friendly place, Love give Light to ev’ry face May the kindness which we learn, Light our hearts til we return.”

VINCENT SILLIMAN, 1894 - 1979, From As We Leave This Friendly Place

Sung at the end of Meeting for Worship just before Buckingham Friends School students and teachers shake hands.

PO Box 159 • 5684 York Road, Lahaska, PA 18931 215-794-7491 • www.bfs.org