Conversation about Quakerism: Truth

This month we continued our yearlong series of conversations around Quakerism. We plan to gather each month for a conversation inspired by a topic connecting to our Quaker identity. Our conversations will be sparked by selected publications, videos, social media posts, news reports, etc.

We framed our conversation with the Quaker idea and testimony of Truth. We considered what Truth might mean in the context of teaching and learning in a Friends school using these resources:

Friends of What? (Quaker Historical Lexicon)


https://quakerlexicon.wordpress.com/tag/friends-of-truth/

Guided by an Inner Truth (QuakerSpeak, Sterling Dunn, 04/16/2015)
https://quakerspeak.com/guided-inner-truth/








Truth is Something that Happens (Quaker Earthcare Witness, Louis Cox)
https://www.quakerearthcare.org/article/truth-something-happens

Vital Friends: What Bayard Rustin's Life and Activism Can Teach Us About Finding Common Ground by Marta Rusek Friends General Council, 4/30/19

https://www.fgcquaker.org/news/vital-friends-what-bayard-rustins-life-and-activism-can-teach-us-about-finding-common-ground

https://www.afsc.org/story/bayard-rustin

Our conversation was loosely structured using the following prompts:

• What questions does this raise for you?

• What insights have you discovered?

• What concerns does this raise for you?

Our reflections inspired some queries...

We are all listening to our own truth... How might that create and enrich our community? How might that cause divisions? How do we understand who has which part of the truth?

Where is the gray in not knowing the truth? Where is the joy in not knowing the truth?

Prison reform really resonates to some of us in the work we do. What role does truth play in our criminal justice system? How can we make this system better?

How do we listen for the truth?

If we agree that there is not just one truth, that everyone has a piece of the truth, that humility is an important part of truth, then how do we teach that to our children? How do we help them understand that no one has all the answers?

How do we model humility? (and trying out new ideas, growing, changing)

How do we approach building trust and breaking trust in our teaching and learning context?

Query for Parents this month...

For our gathering of parents this month, our clerks have created a query to guide the conversation. These queries will be shared with parents as they explore how they and their families interact with technology and screens.

In an increasingly digital age, how can we guide our children to make good choices about the use of technology and screen time?

How do we, as parents and teachers, join in this – modeling, learning, making choices, etc… What do our actions “teach” about what we value when it comes to technology/screens?

Conversations about Quakerism...

This month we began our yearlong series of conversations around Quakerism. We plan to gather each month for a conversation inspired by a topic connecting to our Quaker identity. Our conversations will be sparked by selected publications, videos, social media posts, news reports, etc.

We began with the big query of Friends Schools. We considered the why, when, how of a Quaker education using these resources:

Teaching Religion at a Friends School, Tom Hoopes, QuakerSpeak, 08/03/17

https://quakerspeak.com/teaching-religion-friends-school/

Quaker Schools / Friends Schools: Quakers in the World

http://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/66/-Quaker-SchoolsFriends-Schools

Quaker Schools: Strong Model Minority, Charles Austin, NewYorkTimes, 11/13/83

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/13/education/quaker-schools-strong-moral-minority.html

Quaker Education : What's Different about a Friends School? Drew Smith, Friends Council on Education, 7/26/17 

https://www.boardingschoolreview.com/blog/quaker-education-whats-different-about-a-friends-school

Quaker Indian Boarding Schools, Friends Journal, Paula Palmer 10/01/16

https://www.friendsjournal.org/quaker-indian-boarding-schools/

Our conversation was loosely structured using the following prompts:

• What are you noticing/feeling/thinking?

• What in these ideas feels familiar or expected?

• What in these ideas feels surprising or unfamiliar?

• What questions do you have?

Our reflections inspired some queries...

How does the multiplicity within each of us "speak" to our role in our community? Multiplicity meaning the varied ways we might identify... individuals who might be both Jewish and Christian, for example. This becomes important especially as we think about the identities of the learners in the room - we are used to the multiple identities and perspectives in the group, how about those within each of us as individuals?

How do we remember that we are "stumbling" forward? What does that mean? Why might it resonate? (Quote from Tom Hoopes, Quaker Speak)

Does the Quaker ethos in our rooms build because of the type of learners that we admit, or are the learners that we admit shaped by the Quaker ethos in the room? What might that mean for our teaching and learning practice?

Who are we today? How has the past shaped our ideas and opinions? What might people of the future feel shock or dismay to learn about our practices today? How do we examine our own leadings to let the light shine?

The Story of an Educator in a Quaker School...

I believe strongly that Quaker ideas and values should be addressed explicitly in the elementary classrooms. I also believe that the children in those classrooms need to be exposed to a community of people who value and are led by those same Quaker ideas. I’m of a mind that there needs to be a balance between Quakerism being “caught, not taught” and children needing someone to explicitly lead them in the social and spiritual component of a Friends’ education. As one of the clerks of my Lower School QLC community, I believe that my role is to create and curate a collection of tools that teachers, parents, and students can use in the course of their Friends education. I don’t believe that my role is to define or dictate how each member of my community interprets, delivers, or shares these tools. I am merely a fellow traveler who is ready to lend my metaphorical binoculars when someone is confused or unsure of which direction might be clear or beautiful or interesting. I also believe that, as a teacher of students who are just beginning their Friends education, I have a responsibility to provide age appropriate foundation blocks for future learning and discovery. As a teacher of our youngest children, I introduce Quaker testimonies in visible, audible, and tangible manners. I have created a classroom culture that includes language, traditions, and behavior that are rooted in Quakerism. I make careful choices, read diverse stories, and share my own truth as an example of letting one’s life speak whenever possible or appropriate.

Communicating about Meeting for Worship with attention...

At Lower School, we recently found ourselves with a schedule conflict and a need to adjust our Meeting for Worship time and focus for one day. 

We have decided to celebrate Diwali and follow it with a special Meeting for Worship with an attention to culture and identity. 

Below is our plan for our Meeting in November that falls on Diwali:

We will enjoy a Diwali celebration assembly in the Multipurpose Room. In order to maintain our faith and practice, we will still have Meeting for Worship - we will have a Meeting for Worship with an attention to celebrating culture and identity! 

Each class will have Meeting on its own, at a time that makes the most sense to you.

We are shifting the attention of Meeting for this Tuesday to one of considering the connections, influences, similarities, and wonderful differences between our Diwali experience and our own individual identities and that of our Quaker (school) community. 

In preparation for this Meeting, you might consider the following questions:

What stood out for you at the Diwali celebration?

What was familiar?

What was surprising?

In what ways might this connect to Quaker ideas or practices?

What do you wonder?

Meeting for Worship for Social Justice and Action

This month we will gather for our Meeting for Worship for social justice and action.

The Meeting will begin in silence. One third grade student will share their Query (near the beginning of the meeting to give us focus). Meeting will close with a song. 

As way opens, teachers will take some time to reflect on our shared experiences at Meeting for Worship  Below are some ideas for framing a conversation and reflection (and reminders):

*What do we do to settle into the silence? Are we considerate of others in the silence? (Do we “take away” the silence from our friends?)

*How has Meeting helped us to build our LS community?

*In what ways might we see Meeting ideas or actions seeping into other areas of our lives?

*Are we mindful of our own Faith and Practice? Are we repeating messages? Are we speaking to each other (are we using names)?

*Are we giving the Meeting enough silence between messages? 

*What works for us as we try to settle ourselves into reflection?

*What do we do when we start to “unsettle”?

*How many messages should be shared during our 20 minutes? (remembering the meaningful silence that must follow each message)

Additionally, we will remind our community that this Meeting is a time to consider how we might move peacefully and actively forward in our lives.  

We will center on how Martin Luther King, Jr. let his life speak and how we can use that as inspiration as we shine our own lights.

In the news:

PUBLISHED: JANUARY 8, 2018 

"Yesterday the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) was included on a list of 20 organizations whose staff may be denied entry to Israel because of their support for the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement.

Motivated by Quaker belief in the worth and dignity of all people, AFSC has supported and joined in nonviolent resistance for over 100 years. We answered the call for divestment from apartheid in South Africa, and we have done the same with the call for BDS from Palestinians who have faced decades of human rights violations." 

Read more here: https://www.afsc.org/story/afsc-among-human-rights-orgs-barred-israel

Resources for teaching:

Justice & Human Rights

"The rule of law presents a path for nations to create a just and humane world. Our resources on human rights examine international systems of justice developed in response to mass violence, past and present. These emcompass struggles around racism, religious intolerance, national origin, gender and sexuality, and sexual expression."

Read more here: https://www.facinghistory.org/topics/justice-human-rights

Here are some other Friends who let their lives speak for social justice and action:

·         Margaret Fell and Elizabeth Fry – prison reform

http://www.documentingdissent.org.uk/quaker-women-prison-reformers-at-lancaster-castle/

·         Bayard Rustin – civil rights

http://www.fgcquaker.org/resources/bayard-rustin-invisible-activist

·         Alice Paul – suffragist

https://youtu.be/HnQiXDW4urU

·         Lucretia Mott and Levi Coffin– abolitionists

http://www.harriet-tubman.org/supporters-of-the-underground-railroad/

·         Elizabeth Blackwell – champion of women’s education

https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/education/Biographies_Blackwell.htm

·         Edward Hicks – artist

http://nyti.ms/2dHOGrq

·         John Woolman – abolitionist and native American peacemaker

http://www.westrichmondfriends.org/FamousQuakers.htm

·         Rufus Jones – anti-nazi activist

https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005212

A wonderful and simple picture book that notes other peaceful activists is Peaceful Heroes by Jonah Winter.

Live Simply So That Others May Simply Live

Simplicity is a challenging idea for many educators new to Quakerism. I often define it very simply with kindergarteners as thinking about what we need rather than all the things we want. I connect that thinking to the global thinking routine, the 3 Y's.

• Why might this matter to me?
• Why might it matter to people around me?
• Why might it matter to the world?

Below is an excerpt from a recent article in Friends Journal. It really expounds on the idea of Simplicity and the possibilities, ramifications, effects on the larger world.

From Philip Harnden in Friends Journal, 1/1/2018:

“Live Simply So That Others May Simply Live.”

“That message seems ready-made for Quakers, with our thrift-store wardrobes, our decluttered homes, and our plain meetinghouses. When we practice simple living, we collectively say a resounding no to the consumerism, materialism, and waste of modern industrial society.

But how often do we ask ourselves whether our simple living actually does enable other people to live? By living simply, do we really touch the lives of other people in the places where they hurt the most? And how attainable is a simple lifestyle for most Americans today?”

Read the full article here:

https://www.friendsjournal.org/simple-living/