SUMMER 2003Drew Smith
Head of School
n February our school participated in Friends Schools Day of Peace, organized by students from the Westtown Friends School. I was pleased to be joined by a number of our Board members, students, parents, and faculty on the march from City Hall to Arch Street Meeting House. Some of our group began the day before the march at Friends Select School, where classes in peacemaking and worship-sharing groups helped prepare marchers for the days and weeks ahead. The event closed with meeting for worship at Arch Street.
It felt right being among Friends that day; right to be among people on this earth who believe that conflicts among individuals, groups, and nations should be solved nonviolently, and right to be among people who search themselves and those around them for the ties that bind our humanity together. I know in speaking to others who attended the Day of Peace with me that they too were deeply touched by sharing this day with others, young and old, who were of like mind and spirit. And like me, my colleagues have used our memories of the Day of Peace to strengthen our resolve to teach all of our students that there is an alternative to violence and war.
This is not the first time in my tenure that our government has chosen a path very different from the one that we as Friends would choose. As I think back upon all of the years I taught Civics class, the central role of violence in so much of human history provided more than enough opportunity to challenge my students to consider the peace testimony, and to speculate on what might have become of the world had a particular leader or country chosen the path on nonviolence. Unfortunately, the past few months have provided teachers now with the same opportunity.
The Board of Trustees recently approved a minute affirming the school’s corporate commitment to the historic peace testimony of the Society of Friends. The minute also acknowledges that the school actively seeks to support those who suffer the consequences of violence, actively teaches alternatives to violence and fighting, and actively witnesses to our corporate testimony for peace.
That being said, this corporate work does not mean that all of the individuals in our school community are all in line with the peace testimony. In fact, the war in Iraq has prompted strong feelings on many sides, and I have had more than my fair share of meetings with non-Quaker parents and students concerning where Quakers stand on the war, and why there is no American flag on a pole in front of the school, and why our students do not recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of each school day.
I have also met with Quaker parents and students who have wondered why I do not limit the debate in classrooms, or why I do not ask every teacher to toe the Quaker company line about this war. As you can imagine, these have certainly been challenging days at Friends School.
In fact, it has been a challenging winter at school. I hope that our corporate voice will resonate with our students, and that some of them will feel compelled to some day lead the way to a new world where war is no longer considered a viable option for conflict resolution. I know that not all of our students will become such leaders; but I take comfort knowing that they have all been exposed to the alternative, and that they have had the experience of listening actively to the voice of peace.
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Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:19 AM
