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about HFS > quaker tradition
Haddonfield Friends School is a Quaker school that takes its Quaker
connection seriously. What are the signs of this connection? How
does the school's Quaker roots and practices shape a student's experience
here? Read on.
The Religious Society of Friends began as a radical challenge to
the Church of England in the 17th century. The Quakers'simple realization
that there is 'that of God in every person' led them to leave the
established church and worship together in silence without ministers
and prearranged prayers, to oppose all violence done by humans to
one another, to refuse to pay their war taxes, and to challenge
state hierarchies by refusing to 'doff their hats' to the authorities.
These 'outrageous' practices brought persecution and martyrdom in
England and here in America.
Friends today continue to try to live a witness of simplicity and
social consciousness working for prison reform and economic justice,
for peace both amongst nations and within families. They come together
regularly for silent worship. Friends Meeting in Haddonfield is
a lively mix of long-time Friends and new attenders.
Quakers from early times have been known for schools which seek
to give a quality education in a context which respects and nourishes
the students' emotional, social, and spiritual growth. HFS was started
over 200 years ago and has been educating children continuously
ever since. It is administered by a School Committee made up of
Meeting members and attenders, some of whom have children in the
school.
Given even this sketchy introduction to Friends' ways, one can
discern the philosophical roots of some Quakerly features at HFS:
- When children call teachers by their first names, for example, they
are following the original Quakers'resistance to social hierarchy:
if we all are children of God, then the respect we owe each other
should manifest itself in ways beyond mere titles.
- When students and teachers shake hands at the close of each
school day, they are addressing each other as Friends do at the
close of their silent Meetings. Both this handshaking and the
traditional mode of addressing teachers (i.e., Teacher Mary, Teacher
Bob, etc.) combine the formal and personal in a characteristically
Quaker way.
- Children participating in playground activities are encouraged to
play their best and fairly, with the knowledge that everyone will
participate; undue competition between schools and teams, like competition
between nations is downplayed. Quaker emphasis on religious and
sexual equality means that all classes and sports events are coed.
In faculty meetings and often in the classroom, decisions are reached
by consensus rather than by voting, with the intention of corporately
seeking the truth rather than the will of the strongest faction.
Visitors have remarked on the cooperative, supportive, and caring
spirit among teachers and staff; this grows in part from the Friendly
process of coming to decisions as a group.
Teaching methods and curriculum also reflect Friends'convictions.
Teachers work to minimize competition and 'put-downs.' Helping
children to discover their own particular strengths and to appreciate
the strengths of others is an undergirding goal of Quaker education.
Disagreements and fights between children get a lot of attention
from teachers who begin teaching methods of solving conflicts nonviolently
in the prekindergarten classes. Older children are trained in a
formal process of peer mediation to enhance those skills.
Gathering in silence "the Quaker mode of worship" plays
a special role in the school. Faculty and School Committee meetings
begin and end with silence. Friends' understanding of silence is
that it enable a person to get to a quiet place inside herself or
himself. In Quaker language, it offers a chance for both the individual
and for the gathered group to hear the 'still, small voice of God.'
There is no attempt made at HFS to proselytize or convert students
to the Religious Society of Friends. The respect Quakers have for
'that of God' in each person leads them to a respect for other religious
convictions. And that respect is borne out in the school in various
ways, including a serious effort to acknowledge major holidays of
all religious faiths represented in the student body. The religious
education curriculum, the holiday celebrations, the school's approach
to recreation and discipline, and especially the silent Meetings
for Worship all of these factors are designed to support students
in their individual spiritual growth.
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