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SPRING
1999John Harkins, Head of School
My high school classmates are on the e-mail to each other, lobbying for a good rate of return for our class at our forty-fifth George School reunion. I plan to attend. We are the Class of ’54. My old roommate reminded us that when we were students there in our senior year, the alumni who returned for their forty-fifth reunion had been the Class of ’09. That's 1909. In this year of panic for the Y2K problem, we have to say which century to differentiate between the high school Class of 1909 and the high school class of 2009. 1 saw the class of 1909 forty-five years ago. I saw the class of 2009 this morning when I visited our second grade. The century has been spanned. And this year’s George School seniors, who will observe our forty-fifth, will return for their own forty-fifth in 2044.
Looking at those who went before and those coming after, I have seen more than a hundred years of students influenced by a Friends’ education. Friends Select, William Penn Charter School, and Abington Friends School have histories that go back more than three hundred years. Here in Mullica Hill, Friends School is in its twenty-ninth year and is building a future that looks both exciting and promising for an enrollment approaching three hundred.
Part of my personal commitment to Friends School is based on my family’s experience with Friends’ education. My wife and I and both of our children attended Friends’ schools, three different schools. Very dffferent, in fact, each with its own mix of strengths and weaknesses. What the schools shared was an openness in the search for truth and a deep commitment to respect for each individual. The theological basis for these values is interpreted in a variety of ways by Friends, as are the pedagogical implications. But when these values are turned into practice, a school community will have a character that is distinct. Visitors often say, “You can always feel the difference when you’re in a Friends’ school.”
My family has been touched by Friends’ education. I am honored to be helping as we build one of the youngest Friends’ schools here in Salem Quarter.
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Last modified:
Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:19 AM
