Growing a Garden of Peace (Testimonies for the Classroom)

Years ago, when I began working with elementary students and Quaker Testimonies, I created a graphic to help teachers and students remember the six testimonies commonly refereed to as the SPICES: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship.

At the time, I wanted to focus on those six. At my school, we had a beginning understanding of the Testimonies and the SPICES acronym served us well. For my graphic, I decided on a garden of six carrots, each with one of the SPICES written on it. At the time, I personally wanted this garden to have room for other carrots so I made blank carrots that I could use for our class testimonies.

Over time, my fellow Quaker clerk and I noticed that teachers embraced the carrots and those SPICES. They took that poster so literally that the idea or belief that those six are the only testimonies started to take hold. So I made two new posters. One with six colorful trees holding the SPICES and one that included the trees but added flowers with many more testimonies. Kindness, Truth, Love, etc. were added to the poster. My hope was that the carrots would give way to the trees, building our understanding of testimonies and their endless possibilities for growth and action.

Paul Buckley has done some wonderful thinking about testimonies and explains the thinking here (click here). (credit: QuakerSpeak and Paul Buckley)

 

The tree posters with the little blue flowers pop up all over campus, but the carrots are the OG. They are universally used and spread. I needed something new and better. Better than the carrots (tall order in my heart and mind) and better than the trees (which are "just okay" to me).

Note: I love my carrots poster. It is a tool that I still use myself (adding other flowers, plants, bees, worms to the garden in a way to make that first poster interactive and reflective of the specific group of children before me. While I love my carrots, I have also long felt that I needed to "right the wrongs" of that poster - the limits of the SPICES. But who has time to make new posters? And I really do love the carrots - a replacement has to be pretty spectacular to compete with my beloved carrots!

New year, new poster: This August was finally the time for a new poster. I created my better tool. A garden of testimonies. Carrots, radishes, beets, and garlic take root as some bumble bees pollinate the garden with those familiar SPICES. I've made two versions, one with the SPICES and one with a blank space for teachers to add their own classroom testimonies - changing them as the needs of the group grow and shift. I've captured my process so that you can all join me in starting this garden.

choosing colors

creating a background

root vegetables and layout

Here is the finished Poster:

Quaker / Peace Garden with Testimonies

Why I use "testimonies" in my teaching practice and not "norms"... I've not ever been comfortable with "norms." The idea that certain behaviors or expectations are made "normal" by exclusion has always bothered me. Who decides what makes "normal." Who is made to conform? Whose way of being is lifted up as normal or desired? Whose identity might face discrimination in those traditional meeting norms? I have instead preferred "agreements," "ways of being," or (in the past few years) "testimonies."

Quaker/Peace Garden with space for classroom agreements and testimonies

Want a copy for your classroom? I would love to share my posters with you. I do kindly request a small payment in exchange for the digital file. Please contact me at denise@teamcoffin.com and let me know you'd like to purchase the file (US $5.00 for each 30MB file). Thank you for supporting my folly!

Meeting for Worship 101

It’s time! Shake off the sand and log into the devices… Let’s get ready for the new school year. 

My first task this week is to prepare for Meeting for Worship at Lower School. How do you prepare for this in your context? Send me all the tips and tricks! Here is how I prepare:

1. Meeting for Worship Schedule

Schedule the meetings, meeting locations, and the roles that we’ll need students and grown ups to take on. At my school, we meet in a variety of contexts over the course of the year.

• We meet as a singular class family in our own space. (every 6 weeks or so)

• We meet as three or four classes together in our Meeting House. (4 times during the year)

• We meet as a whole Lower School community. (once each month)

• We meet as two classes, paired in one of our classroom spaces - one class hosts and the second class visits. (every remaining week)

This is done largely by random draw, making sure that the locations and meeting partners are varied and everyone gets to meet in the Meeting House an equal amount of times. 

Side note: A few years ago we began holding as many of our whole Lower School Meetings outside on our small field. Everyone takes yoga mats or picnic blankets and sets up in a giant circle. Our grown ups join us with their own mat or camp chair. It’s lovely.

2. Query Writing Schedule

On the Meeting for Worship schedule, Query writing classes are noted (drawing class names from a hat). We have a query writing class once every two weeks. Of course we welcome additional queries as students, groups of students, classes, or faculty/staff feel moved to share a query. It’s a great critical thinking skill practice to write these powerful, open ended, thought provoking questions. We say keep them coming! The more the merrier! 

Queries are:

• Submitted in a designated Meeting House mailbox

• Copied/shared in paper copy with each class and learning space on our campus

• Are read at our Meetings for Worship (the hosting class is the clerk and selects the Query reader)

Sample Meeting for Worship schedule (please note that the number/letter code is the indicator for each class:

Lower School Quaker Meeting Schedule

Friends:  Here is the weekly Quaker Meeting Schedule for this year.  Please review it carefully.  If you need to make any changes, please let your partner class know ahead of time.  If you are scheduled for the Meeting House and cannot attend, please let Denise or Kathleen know.  If there are any mistakes, please kindly let us know☺

Please note that the clerk class for the Meeting House is noted. Clerking class should plan to bring a copy of the Query and select a reader. Clerks will also center the meeting, sit on the facing bench, and offer the silent transfer of heart to hand in order to close the meeting. If you are hosting MfW in your space, you are the clerk (choose a Query reader).

Be sure to note your Query writing time, highlighted in pink. You may submit your class Query in the Quaker Query mailbox on the Quaker table in lower Groome. Friends are invited to submit queries as individuals, small groups, or large groups at any time during the year by placing their Query in the mailbox and raising the red flag. Whenever possible, please ask students to add their name in case clarification or questions arise.

Key:  The “>” symbol indicates guests/hosts.  For example, “PK>3x” indicates that PK will travel to the 3x classroom for meeting that week. There is a list of classes and their class name at the end of this document.

December	Meeting House	Classrooms	Multi-purpose Room
Tues 12/2 Query: 2X	1X, 4Y, 3Z, 2Y Clerk: 2Y	3y>PK   4x>KC 3X>KQ   4Z>2Z KN>1Y   1Z>2X
Tues 12/9		Meeting for classroom community - on your own, outside, a place of meaning, etc.
Tues 12/16 Query: PK			All LS Meeting with attention to the Winter Solstice

3. Gather the stuff that everyone will need

Now that the schedule has been prepared, I move onto the practical items that we use at our Meetings for Worship. We use some cueing tools to support our practice. These tools will show up at just about every one of our meetings and help as a visual reminder of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. They are inspired by my own visit to many Quaker Meeting Houses in the UK ten years ago. I noticed that each Meeting had a small table in the center. These tables had three things in common. I re-versioned those items for a Quaker school context.

Centering table:

• Bible - Our version is a small tealight which we think of as our inner light.

• Faith & Practice book - Our version is a small tri-fold card that we use as a discernment reminder (stay tuned for more on how we introduce and teach discernment in our Speaking into the Silence course) and/or some small rocks with selected testimonies written on them (because Testimonies Rock! 😉).

• Vase of flowers - Our version might be flowers but also might be anything that connects us to nature and the earth.

We teach our community that these items on the centering table are tools that we can use to deepen our practice and remind us of our purpose in the gathered group. Feeling distracted? The testimony rocks remind us to listen to our still small voice for ways to grow and take action. Mind is wandering? The little light brings us back to our own power to make change.

Once we’ve made sure that all the teachers on campus have these items, we’re ready to begin our silent practice.

4. Meeting for Worship 101

There is one final thing that is perhaps the most important preparation... My Quaker Education committee partner and I teach Meeting for Worship 101 to everyone at school. We host each grade level individually (ie. the entire 4th grade and their classroom teachers join us for their version of the course and we work our way through each grade level).  We use the first two weeks of school to lead each grade level through this course. Everyone participates whether they are new to school or have been here since prekindergarten

This is an opportunity to refresh our practice. The course is a 30 minute session in which we:

• Review why Quakers meet in silence (a smidge of Quaker history), 

• Teach (re-teach) how we travel to, join, and participate in our Meetings (these are the behavior expectations), 

• Share a little bit about what we’re doing (this is the spiritual stuff - listening to our still small voice, settling into silence, etc.). 

• And review the centering table and what is on it, how to clerk (our students clerk our meetings), and how to read the query should it be your job to do that (clear, strong, slow and steady (no racing please) voice)

It’s important that faculty and staff join these courses so that they can “grab” the language and the ideas. Hopefully, they will feel that they can then take those back and continue the teaching on their own.

Now that I’ve cleared that off my to do list, back to a little last bit of summer… See you in August!

Want a little more? Here are some teaching videos that my partner and I made a few years ago.

Meeting for Worship

Centering Table - This video was created to support Meeting for worship during the beginning of the pandemic when we were at home.

Reflections on 1652 Country

Pendle Hill

This past June I headed to 1652 Country (once again) to see what questions might bubble up, whether any answers might be lurking, and to make new connections as I continue my journey… I have a hard time staying away.

"1652 Country" refers to an area in northwest England, specifically in Cumbria and Lancashire, associated with the early years of the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers. It is the region where George Fox, experienced spiritual awakenings, tested his ideas, was challenged and punished, and gathered his first followers in 1652. 

1652 Country is a beautiful part of the United Kingdom which features narrow lanes, soaring mountains, babbling brooks, and endless flocks of Herdwick sheep. 

I traveled to this area of England with Friends Council on Education and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting as part of the Quaker Pilgrimage 2025. I have been before and I will hopefully go again. It is a powerful thing I do as an educator at a Quaker School, as a Quaker at Bethesda Friends Meeting, and as a human living this current timeline. You can read more about why this trip is so powerful to me here. In the past, this trip was made by Denise the teacher and by Denise the Quaker Education clerk at a Friends School. This time, the trip was simply made by me. That made it more than a trip, it was a true pilgrimage.

Each time I have made this trip, it has been powerful. I have filled my heart, brain, and soul with so much joy, power, love, inspiration, and learning. This was no different. Except that it was. I began this pilgrimage with so much weighing on my heart and brain after a difficult year. I put a whole lot of weight (too much?) onto what I might discover with and from my fellow travelers. What follows is a simplified account of what I received.

I gave myself some queries to guide my reflections during my journey. I’ll try to weave within some of those queries as the warp and weft of my tapestry (or embroidery;)).

What does pilgrimage mean to you? What draws you here?

A walk can be an opening. The earth beneath our feet, the clouds floating above, the “stuff” in between, perhaps the rain making us uncomfortable… I think that I must have felt nervous the first time I made this trip - not because of the actual rain. I’m just not a risk-taker. Solo traveling! 😳  It must have felt important at the time or I wouldn’t have taken the risk. I do recall that I returned fully energized as a teacher in a Quaker school with a list of teaching ideas. I seek a bit of that each time I sign up. But it’s the larger possibility of the opening that draws truly me back. 

Note: It’s tricky for me to define “opening” in words here. I know what I mean. However, for readers who need a little more, here is the Google definition: An opening is not a rational deduction but a spiritual experience where a truth is revealed. It might provide a sense of direction or a call to action.

As I travel along this journey, what am I noticing? What feels familiar? What is unexpected or surprising? What questions are bubbling up?

Colthouse Meeting House

I value the pace and pattern of this particular journey in June of 2025. Each day we travel by bus, chatting and connecting - these bus rides are simultaneously overly long and entirely essential. There are silent meetings, moments of silence, and periods of silent exhaustion (the good kind). There is a routine to our meals, toast on a little wire rack at breakfast, assembling a picnic lunch each morning, and sitting with fellow travelers to sustain ourselves with delicious food and laughter at dinner. There is the darkness of night that waits until the very last minute to fall. 

I am surprised at the learning that is offered during this particular trip. Our local guides are joyful, knowledgeable, and generous. We eat, sing, laugh, and learn. They led me to deeper understandings when I boldly thought I knew so much. A great reminder to remain open.

In what ways am I open to divine guidance, even when it challenges me?

This query is a good reminder to remain open to having my mind changed. I shouldn’t go forward with one right way in mind. There are so many possible right ways…

How am I connected to those who walked before me? In what ways do I sense the spiritual presence of others - past, present, and unseen?

Swarthmoor Hall

During one morning meeting, vocal ministry in the form of song - a beautiful voice singing into the silence - pulled me back and forth into the past and out to the future. I thought about hardships and violence that early Friends must have faced. The voice sings of determination. I think of the challenges and injustices that we are called to face / reckon with today. The voice sings of humanity and love. My heart wonders about the future. The voice sings of peace and action. I will never forget this meeting and this message. I keep this voice and this song as one of my favorite souvenirs. 

What seeds of peace am I gathering and planting as I walk cheerfully over the earth? What do I hope to grow? What unplanned growth might sprout?

This is where my path takes a turn. It’s time to make sure that I am acting on the journey. It’s not meant to be a vacation with pictures in an album. It’s a provocation…

I am a teacher. That makes me an activist. (After all, teaching is a form of political activism.) I plan to plant a new Quaker garden for and with my young learners. I’m reflecting on how to make our garden inclusive, hopeful, expansive, and full of action. I’m moved by the vocal ministry to gather songs of peace and justice. (Please send me recommendations!) I’m thinking about the ways a walk might be an opening. Should I / we be walking through the Quaker garden? What does that mean? Who pollinates the garden and how? Is there compost in a Quaker garden? What would it be? 

Brigflatts Meeting House

I’ve given myself this small big first step of re-versioning the Quaker garden in kindergarten. I’m intending for this to be the first step in my continuing journey. Stay tuned… (and send me feed-forward)

*I cannot recommend this pilgrimage strongly enough. Consider joining the 2027 Friends Council on Education (in cooperation with Philadelphia Yearly Meeting) Quaker Pilgrimage. Just do it.

Disruptive Art

 

At the start of the school year, we began our conversation about environmental stewardship by noticing that our school community, including us, was not taking care of our playgrounds. Every time we went outside to play or to go for a walk, we discovered lots of trash. We felt called to action. 

We had many discussions about this and about what we might do to change it.

"The playground should be green and brown and stuff, not papers.”“Stewardship is    important. It’s because this is our school.”“It’s a Quaker school.”“It’s also because this is our beautiful world.”“Yeah and we need to take care of it too. And my yard."

Teacher:“What might be some ways we can solve this problem?”

“We can pick it all up.”“Except for glass at the playground in the neighborhood.”“We should show everyone at school what we find! That’ll make them so shocked!”

We began to pick up the trash we found on the playground. In order to see how much of a problem we really had, we decided to collect the trash and measure the amount. After two weeks of collecting, we had two large bags full!

As we were noticing and collecting and measuring trash, we were (coincidentally) having conversations about how art tells a story. We looked at some pieces of art that told powerful stories about change or action. This led to a decision to use art to share our message about environmental stewardship with the larger school community. Disruptive art to disrupt ideas about our stewardship of our playgrounds…

Using sense of the meeting, a Quaker decision making process around unity rather than unanimity, we settled upon a plan for our artwork… We would paint a view of the earth as it should be, the greenest greens and the bluest blues and one perfect tree. We would cut a hole or pull back our perfect tree to reveal the truth that we had discovered: litter.

We began by gluing all of the trash we had collected onto a large board. Next, we painted our tree on a background of green and blue on a paper canvas. 

Finally, we explored several ideas for combining the two: draping the painting over the surface of the trash board, pulling back one corner of the painting, and rolling up the bottom of the painting. We eventually decided to cut out a part of the painting to reveal the trash behind. 

*Using the exact-o knife to cut out the tree and using the glue gun for the trash board were the only non student-led parts of this project.

To accompany our work, the students came up with some queries (driving questions):

How can we be kind to the earth?

How can we be mindful of our surroundings?

How can we be mindful about not throwing chalk and toys around the playground?

How can we be kind to others?

How can we make sure we are grateful for what we have?

How can we be mindful to not throw trash on the ground?

How can we take care of nature?

How can we make the school a better place?

We decided to install our artwork with a thinking routine and a message box to find out what our community thought as they interacted with our piece.

We asked:

What story do you see in our artwork?

What message might we be sharing?

We were thrilled to receive thinking from our friends at lower school!

“I can’t believe you saw this much trash!” Second grader

“It makes me feel that we can do better as community members of earth to cherish it more.” Fourth grader

“I think that this may be a message about the environment. I see a tree that could replace items that seem to be things that you might find in the trash. I love this and think this is a really neat piece.” Visitor to campus

“I see that there is so much pollution in the world and that you’re trying to stop it.” Third grader

“I see a lot of trash where a tree should be. If we had less trash, could we grow more trees?” Science Teacher
 

“It’s weird, cool and awesome!” Second grader 

“Our world is all tied together so we need to take care of it and love it like we would our family.” Fourth grader

One of the fourth-grade classes borrowed our art and spent some time thinking about its meaning. Using a combination of the See Think Wonder and Main Side Hidden Story Routines, their thoughts included:

“I think the story is that you can take something like trash and turn it into something amazing.”“I think that the tree is being hurt because a lot of people are littering and it’s hurting nature.”“I thought that the kindergarten art was showing how many things trees can make.” 

Our friends in prekindergarten also looked carefully at our disruptive art using the See Think Wonder routine.

Teacher:“Share something you notice or see.”

“I see paper all over it.”“I see a sticker.”“A plastic thing. A knife!”“I see a piece of a beach bucket.”“me too.”“They painted it.”“I see that there’s stuff inside the painting.”

Teacher:“How did this shape happen?”(the tree cut out)

“Maybe they cut it out.”“It’s a tree!”

Teacher:“What story do you see in the artwork?”

“Imagination stuff”“That our environment is important. Because there’s a tree.”“That it’s not good to leave trash on the ground.”“You shouldn’t leave trash around because it might ruin the trees.”

Teacher:“Is there anything you wonder about?”

“I wonder why they made… why they picked a tree.”“How long did they make the trash stay?”“Maybe they glued it on?”“I am wondering what is that piece of silver thing and I am wondering how they didn’t run out of glue?”“Why didn’t they cut the whole thing out?”

After we read the ideas from our lower school friends, we thought about our connections:

What was in line with our thinking?

What was surprising?

What next?

We were surprised that some of the fourth-graders thought different things than we did. We were really glad that so many people seemed to think that our disruptive art had an important message. We wondered what would happen if we put our piece somewhere else? Would different people see it and what would they think? We were inspired to make more disruptive art and to find other ways to "teach" about big ideas.