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SPRING
2001 Drew Smith
Head of School
Like all Friends Schools, we hold Meeting for Worship once per week. Unlike some of those schools, we are fortunate to hold those worship sessions in an historic meetinghouse thanks to our gracious neighbors from the Mullica Hill Monthly Meeting. Twice each Thursday, our students parade to the meetinghouse, some quietly and alone, and others as parts of larger and louder groups of students who will most likely take a minute or two to settle into silence.
Silence is a relative term. I have found that the silence of a Fourth Day Meeting is different than that of First Day. In Fourth Day meeting I find that there is more ruffling of coats, more clomps of feet as they slip from the footrest to the floor, more quiet giggles, more sniffling noses, and more crinkling of candy or cough drop wrappers. Quite frankly, the silence isn’t always silent. The ambient sound is more like the one I might hear if I were to hold a seashell to my ear to listen for the sound of the ocean.
In other ways, it is very much like First Day. I notice that some of those in attendance close their eyes, others cross and uncross their legs, some cradle their chins with palms of hands, and some appear to nod off, although that look can be deceiving. Periodically a teacher, or adult visitor, or a student will rise to speak. The messages vary in tone depending on the age of the speaker, but they do not vary in general content. Always the messages come from a place inside the individual speaker.
I welcome each Fourth Day. It is the day of the school week when I know that I can suspend the daily rush of things great and small, at least for forty minutes or so. It is the day when the school conducts its most important work. It is the day when I feel like we are really showing our students an alternative way to be and to think and to listen and to speak.
I welcome all of you to Fourth Day at Friends School. Fourth Day Meetings for Worship begin at 9:00 AM for younger students, and 10:20 AM for the Middle School. I would recommend both to all of you.
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Last modified:
Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:19 AM
