Building a Climate of Civility and Respect

CHRONICLES OF

Quaker Education FA L L 2 0 1 6

Building a climate of civility and respect

Talking about presidential elections in a divided age By Graham Holland

Civic and civil discourse in Friends schools As our nation navigates the 2016 presidential election season, we are witnessing divisive language and behavior on the part of presidential candidates and their supporters in both parties.

In light of these challenging times, this issue of Chronicles focuses on how Friends schools approach civic and civil discourse in their communities.

Friends schools often have insight into how to encourage community members to share respectfully and with appreciation for difference. What processes, Quaker and otherwise, are being used that educators and schools might draw on as we move through the fall election and its aftermath?

We reached out to Friends Council member schools with a series of queries. In addition to stories about civic discourse, you’ll find examples of how schools are navigating conversations about many kinds of difference, including race, religion, economics, family structure and more. We found these stories to be powerful, inspirational, and a source of hope for the time ahead.

We hope you do too.

Moses Brown students ask clarifying questions as they share their views of an ideal presidential candidate.

Ever since Barack Obama was voted into a second term in 2012, I have been thinking about how to teach during presidential elections. Given the toxicity that seemed to enter my seventh grade history classroom at Moses Brown School (Providence, RI) in the month before that election, I began searching for a way to establish a more positive tone. I found myself asking: is there a creative, pedagogically sound, developmentally appropriate way to address presidential elections with students?

Americans of all political stripes lament the absence of civil dialogue or genuine debate among the voting public. The term homophily is increasingly invoked to describe our tendency to seek out like-minded peers who will confirm what we already think. This trend has accelerated in the age of social media, where we block out the things we don’t want to see and are increasingly fed the content that is most appealing to us. If we take it as a given that these are unhealthy trends in a vibrant democracy, then what role can we as educators play in interrupting them?

Grant Wiggins offers a “Backward Design” model to identify the set of knowledge, skills, and outcomes we want students to achieve and then work backward to plan the lessons and experiences that will yield that result. To imagine an end result in this case, we have to visualize the tone and character of an ideal student discussion of presidential politics. It would be characterized by vigorous debate in which even the sharpest disagreements could be expressed with civility continued on page 3

A Publication of the

Students in Graham Holland’s class during a discussion of presidential politics.

Welcome New Heads Kavita Hardy, co-clerk, Arthur Morgan School, NC

Reflections

Sadie Kneidel, co-clerk, Arthur Morgan School, NC

With open hearts and minds

Helen Marter (interim), Buckingham Friends School, PA

“ We meet on the broad pathway of good faith and good will; no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall be openness and love.”

Renee Prillaman (interim), Carolina Friends School, NC Kathryn McGorty, Connecticut Friends School, CT Andrea Kelly, Friends Academy, NY Michael Gary, Friends Select School, PA J. Samuel Houser, George School, PA Matthew Sharp, Haddonfield Friends School, NJ Kim Freedman (acting co-head), New Garden Friends School, NC Terry Aiken (acting co-head), New Garden Friends School, NC Leah Dougherty, Oak Lane Day Care, PA Elizabeth Donnelly, Orchard Friends School, NJ Mike Hanas, San Francisco Friends School, CA Ed Hollinger (interim), Tandem Friends School, VA Jon R. Hall, Westfield Friends School, NJ Pam Chambers, Wichita Friends School, KS Karen Bryk, co-director, Wrightstown Friends Nursery School, PA Claranne Merlo, co-director, Wrightstown Friends Nursery School, PA Appreciation and best wishes on new journeys to the following Heads: Bridget O’Hara, Lucretia Wells, Stacey Mink, William G. Morris, Rose Hagan, Nancy O. Starmer, Peggy Bretschneider, Steve Blanchard, Mary Garofalo, Bill O’Flanagan, Catherine S. Hunter, Andy Jones-Wilkins, Peter Pearson, Katherine Lightfoot, Latrisha Chatin, Brian Clyne.

— William Penn, addressed to the Lenni-Lenape, 30 November 1682 at Shackamaxon Today I ate my lunch at a table at Dilworth Plaza on the west side of City Hall in the central square of William Penn’s Philadelphia. On a typical day in the summer, the park offers a view of the confluence of Philadelphia; business people walking through to a favored lunch spot, residents from around the city exiting the subway and commuter rail station through the new Broad Street concourse, and kids playing in the fountain that is the park’s central feature.

Today was also Day Three of the Democratic National Convention, thereby expanding the standard lunchtime scene to include a fleet of badge-wearing out-of-towners. Five of the out-oftowners carried signs that all began with “God Hates ________.” A double line of police stood in tight formation in front of them. Admittedly, these five messengers of hate are extreme, but they are on a continuum of public discourse that feels increasingly uncivil.

As I watch, listen, and read through my news feeds, the art of listening feels in short supply.

Too often, we, as citizens, are talking at each other in frustrated, angry, and/or enraged voices.

Quaker schools, though perpetual works in progress, are intended as sanctuaries of learning.

We insist on open hearts and minds, each prepared to listen first, assuming that those to whom we attend have worth and value. We assume that building knowledge is the perpetual pursuit of what is rightly ordered in the world, not for one particular side or another, rather for all of us.

We teach that individual worth is best tempered in a loving community.

As we weather this challenging time in our communities and our country, I am encouraged to offer you this issue of Chronicles of Education with informative and inspiring messages about educators and students in our schools finding ways to engage in civic as well as civil discourse about differences of all kinds.

In our cover story, Moses Brown history teacher Graham Holland shares his vision for a “politically positive” classroom and the tools and techniques he plans to use this fall in the homestretch to the election. At Germantown Friends School, Mirangela Buggs involves students and teachers in the expansive process of Intergroup Dialogue as her contribution to the complex work of equity and inclusion. Not to be missed is Rich Nourie’s piece about bringing Abington Friends School students into direct dialogue with an imam and Muslim leaders from West Philadelphia. The collaborative piece from Steve McManus and Amy Schmaljohn about Friends School Baltimore’s struggle with racial tensions following the death of Freddie Gray is a story of hope and promise.

And, as you’ll find in the entries from Lansdowne Friends School, San Francisco Friends School, and Plymouth Meeting Friends School, it’s sometimes our youngest students who have the largest, most powerful lessons to teach.

Collectively, Quaker schools, have much to share with the world about civil discourse, respect and listening, and honoring the Light in all. With open hearts and minds, we also acknowledge there is more work left to do. Let’s proceed.

Drew Smith Executive Director

Friends Council on Education

3 Talking about presidential elections in a divided age continued from page 1

The Upper School Social Justice Collective at GFS. Students meet weekly for conversations based on the model of Intergroup Dialogue.

Intergroup Dialogue in a Friends school

By Mirangela Buggs For more than three decades, Germantown Friends School (Philadelphia, PA) has pursued a mission for diversity, multiculturalism, and social justice, work that constitutes some of the core of our school’s identity.

At GFS in 2016, it is clear that “diversity” ultimately means equity, justice, expanding consciousness, and educational practices informed by issues of access, identity, power, equitable interactions, and knowledge.

A part of this rich and complex work in equity and inclusion, in honor of the manner of Friends, is to involve students and colleagues in the expansive and inspiring practice of Intergroup Dialogue.

Intergroup Dialogue is a kind of civic engagement, compatible with the energy in Quaker schools and organizations, where community members are encouraged to “speak truth to power” — to individuals’ own societal power and/or lack of power — in a respectful, exploratory manner.

At GFS we have convened professional learning communities to engage adults in challenging societal and personal matters pertaining to power, identity, discrimination, social privilege, and social advantage.

GFS upper school students have formed a social justice collective that meets weekly to engage in conversations predicated on the models of Intergroup Dialogue. In

the upper school, twice yearly Diversity Dialogue Days introduce students to the practice of learning about power, identity, and social justice. In multiracial, mixed gender, mixed religious groups, participants are asked to “lean in” to sustained discussions that bring both differences and commonalities to Light.

In Dialogue we talk openly about race and racism, gender and sexism, sexual orientation and homophobia/ heterosexism, class and classism, religion and ethnoreligious oppression experienced by non-Christian minorities in the United States. In Dialogue, understanding leads to action. Those who have participated in Intergroup Dialogue at GFS describe a process of personal transformation that then inspires them to become advocates for equity, inclusion, and social justice.

Friends’ schools struggle with the testimonies of equality given our educational contexts of privilege and our rising tuition costs. Intergroup Dialogue presents opportunities for communities to deal honestly with the tensions, to “lean in” to our diversity and difference, and to respectfully engage the realities of our varied lives and experiences amidst our commonality as members of Friends school communities.

Mirangela Buggs is Director of Multicultural Affairs at Germantown Friends School.

and respect; well-informed participants who can support their own opinions and critique with evidence the opinions of others; openness to new ideas; and a tone in which uncertainty, curiosity, and flexible thinking are valued.

My vision for a “positively political” classroom starts with a set of understandings that I intend to share with my seventh graders early in the year beginning with an honest portrait of the state of political discourse today.

I want to tell them how I felt four years ago, what I saw in the classroom, and the concerns I have for teaching this election. I want to invite them to join me in building an alternative.

Last spring I experimented with this model by having my students complete a journal entry in which they described their ideal presidential candidate.

What characteristics or personality traits would he or she have? What background or experience? Students responded in writing on a shared projected Google doc. They shared aloud if they saw another response that resonated or made sense to them and then asked each other clarifying questions. This exercise felt like a good starting point. It provided a chance for students to lay the foundation for a thoughtfully constructed belief system.

With enough time, I imagine that we could work through many of the issues facing our country today.

Will this experience impact my students in a meaningful and lasting way? I truly hope so. In a time of partisan rancor a hopeful outlook might feel like a luxury. Yet it is the very nature of teaching to see in our students the promise of the next generation. While teaching during this election season may seem like a burden, perhaps it is an opportunity.

Graham Holland teaches 7th and 8th grade history at Moses Brown School.

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Finding new pathways in times of great unrest

By Steve McManus and Amy Schmaljohn At Friends School of Baltimore (Baltimore, MD), we place significant emphasis on the tiny preposition in our school’s name: “of.” We are a school whose roots in our city can be traced back to the late 18th century and intertwine with the moments of birth, decline, pride, shame, and inexorable changes that shape most of America’s great post-industrial cities.

One of those challenging moments washed over Baltimore in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody in April 2015. The ensuing unrest, protest, and violence exposed the deep class and racial divides in our city as well as the rifts that exist in our school.

Baltimore City Public Schools closed their doors to students during those tense days. However, we remained open as we endeavored to come to grips with the causal factors that led to this explosion of frustration, while at the same time create some sense of safety and normalcy for our students.

The morning after the riots we gathered in the Meetinghouse to seek the comforting embrace of community. However, emotions boiled over and the silence was shattered by a cacophony of raw and tearful student and faculty voices that ran the gamut of

After the unrest in Baltimore last spring, a group of Friends School of Baltimore Upper School students formed the Social Activism Club, where students participated in a series of events, including a Black Lives Matter vigil (hosted at the Homewood Meeting every Friday night) and voter registration drives.

sympathy, anger, frustration, grief, shame, recrimination, and disbelief.

The tension among us did not dissipate in the ensuing days and weeks; rather, it exposed the need to commit ourselves to our own awakening and learning. What followed that week in the upper school was a facultyled forum about the history of racism in our city and about the known events in the days between Freddie Gray’s arrest and his death.

We also heard personal narratives about what some of us experienced on the day of the riots and unrest in our city. We were finding new ways to talk about the things that made us uncomfortable — and to stay in relationship as we did so.

Our faculty summer reading that year was Debbie Irving’s Waking Up White, a text that generated a year-long book discussion group including titles such as Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me. Our Board of Trustees dedicated time during

Friends School of Baltimore Middle School students listen attentively to one of the many speakers brought in to talk about social justices issues ongoing in Baltimore.

each of its monthly meetings to these topics.

Student-led learning days and our work for social justice saw us partnering more consistently with our city’s Quaker meeting communities.

We also realized a need to attend to all voices on the margin — in our case, our students and parents who identify as politically conservative. Our work became more complex, richer, and deeper as a consequence.

At our closing meetings in June of 2016, a committee of faculty, staff, and students presented a “Statement of Respect” that reflects our learning and intentions to maintain a climate of civility and inclusivity in all of our work as a community.

Grounded in our shared belief in “that of God in everyone,” the statement invites us to “hold ourselves accountable for the intention and impact of our behavior and speech.”

As we engage in “open dialogue, embrace diverse perspectives, and celebrate difference,” we are practicing a process for civil discourse that we expect will continue to change both our behaviors and perspectives. Perhaps it is through this ongoing search for unity and understanding, central to our identity as a Quaker school that our students will become better prepared to constructively engage the social and political divisiveness that plagues our nation and world.

Steve McManus and Amy Schmaljohn work at Friends School of Baltimore. Steve is the Upper School Principal and Amy teaches courses in social justice and global religions and coordinates service learning.

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In dialogue with our Muslim neighbors At Abington Friends School (Jenkintown, PA), the decision to ask an imam from a West Philadelphia mosque to be a scholar in residence sparked a surprisingly sharp response.

When word of the invitation to Malik Mubashshir began to circulate beyond our campus, I received an angry letter. Didn’t I realize that Muslims were not interested in assimilating as other Americans were, the writer warned, but rather were bent on conversion or murder in an attempt to overthrow our country?

The writer’s message deepened my conviction that our upperschool students and faculty would benefit from seeing the human face of our Muslim neighbors in Philadelphia and engaging in a dialogue aimed at puncturing the myths and misunderstandings that have conflated Islam with terrorism.

As a peace-building school, we recognize the peril of distance.

When we view people from afar, see them as “the other,” and make them less than human, then injustice, oppression, and violence become possible. We also know this is a two-way street. Those same distances make us the “other” to some.

In proximity, we can see each other’s humanity far more clearly and are better able to navigate even difficult conflicts with knowledge, respect, and a genuine commitment to justice. So, part of our work toward peace, diversity, and inclusion is to close these gaps.

That is why we invited Mubashshir, a longtime Friends educator and imam at the Muslim Community Masjid Association in West Philadelphia, to campus for two days of interaction with students.

Mubashshir’s visit took him into several classrooms where he joined in discussions about the differences we perceive in one

By Richard F. Nourie

another and how fear can turn to discrimination and inhumanity.

A powerful exchange occurred in a French class, where students had been studying the 2015 massacre at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris after the satirical magazine published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Extremist Muslims, angered by the blasphemy and seeing it as a direct attack on their faith, killed a dozen journalists.

The question before the class was whether Muslims should adapt to freedom of speech within a democracy that permits people to scrutinize or even mock religion. Mubashshir responded by citing a passage from the Quran about what Muslims are supposed to do when the religion is disrespected in their presence. It has nothing to do with violence.

“The Quran says you get up and you leave,” he said. “And it says when the conversation changes, you come back and join the group.”

On the final day of his visit, the school hosted a forum with Mubashshir and three other Philadelphia Muslims (see photo). The panelists each told of a personal journey that led to their declaration of faith, allowing their humanity to shine forth and their differences to diminish. Asked by a student what should be the first step toward ending misunderstandings about Muslim Americans, Rashidah Abdul-Raheem responded quickly.

“Forums like this,” she said. “Talking about what Islam is really about. It is one of the best ways. . . .”

Amen.

Richard F. Nourie is Head of School at Abington Friends School.

Excerpt reprinted with permission from Philly.com.

Forum panelists (from left): William E. Jacobs Jr., active in the Muslim Community Masjid Association; Malik Mubashshir, imam at the Muslim Community Masjid Association in West Philadelphia; Zakiyyah Abdul-Raheem, a former leader of the East Mount Neighbors civic group; and Dr. Rashidah Abdul-Khabeer, founder and executive director of Islamic Social Services Association of Philadelphia.

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“ See, Think, Wonder” protocol and Quaker process to address homelessness

By Kristen Daniel and Annie Gwynne-Vaughan Celeste Payne at the Civil Rights Memorial

Honoring the Journey Towards Equity and Inclusion Friends school educator Celeste Payne (Westtown School) traveled to Montgomery, Alabama this summer and took along her Quaker Education magnet.

“I took this selfie at the Civil Rights Memorial to honor those who have come before us, those who are with us now, and those who will come in the future committed to the journey towards equity and inclusion.”

Payne, clerk of FCE’s Publication Work Group, received the magnet by contributing to the 85th Anniversary Annual Fund matching challenge. “I donate to Friends Council because it supports Friends schools which consider social justice central to their mission of educating today’s students and tomorrow’s leaders.”

A member of the 2015-2017 FCE Leadership Institute, Payne’s action research project is on the retention of faculty of color in Friends schools. Payne appreciates connecting with colleagues from other Friends schools. “The collective wisdom of this group is something that I trust and value even as I am doing my own thinking about leadership.”

Suggested Resources The Candidates and their Values The Choices Program at Brown University http://www.choices.edu/resources/ twtn/twtn-election-2016.php Speak up for Civility Teaching Tolerance http://www.tolerance.org/blog/speak-civility “Towards a Quaker Pedagogy”

by Nancy Starmer In Readings on Quaker Pedagogy: Philosophy and Practice in Friends Education friendscouncil.org>bookstore>top 10 titles Thinking Together with Young Children: Weaving a Tapestry of Community

by Susan Hopkins friendscouncil.org>bookstore>subjects> peace education

San Francisco Friends School (San Francisco, CA) is located in the Mission District, the heart of the homeless crisis in our city. This past winter as Superbowl City festivities took place just a mile away, tent cities ballooned under the highways near our school. Immersed in a yearlong study of homelessness, our 55 eighth graders used Lakpa Guta, an 8th grader at meetings for business and Quaker decision-making San Francisco Friends School, carries models throughout the year to guide our service a sign at a rally in Sacramento. learning about an issue so very close to home.

We began the year with observations using the “See, Think, Wonder” protocol.

Graphically documented in a meeting for business, the shared observations helped us work toward achieving a “sense of the meeting.” A student sub-committee used this shared sense to develop and test three essential questions for our study: • How can we meet the needs of specific groups within the homeless population?

• How can we prevent or respond to homelessness?

• How can we move past judgment to take in the whole person?

We returned to these questions repeatedly to guide our service work. Activities ranged from serving meals at St. Anthony’s (an organization providing essential support to San Franciscans living in poverty), hosting a panel devoted to the health care aspect of the homeless population, speaking at a city supervisors’ open meeting, holding a rally in Sacramento to support California Bill 1380 which would establish a statewide council on homelessness, and collecting feminine hygiene products for women who receive services at Mission Neighborhood Health Center.

Our culminating Day of Action was designed using Quaker process. Students held a threshing session to scrutinize ideas, we had a period of “seasoning,” and a subcommittee recommended a symbolic 10-mile walkathon fundraiser to benefit a local nonprofit, Lava Mae, that provides mobile hygiene units. Students also organized a pop-up street store to give away donated athletic shoes. Quaker processes were instrumental in making all voices heard and in forming an authentic, student-led inquiry.

Kristen Daniel is Middle and High School Transition Coordinator and Annie Gwynne-Vaughan is 8th Grade Humanities Teacher at San Francisco Friends School.

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Love is love: Joining across differences

By Sarah Sweeney-Denham Preparing students to be active voices in civic discourse is a social responsibility in Quaker schools. A commitment to its fundamental importance is noticed at every grade level at Plymouth Meeting Friends School (Plymouth Meeting, PA). A powerful and unusual example of this evolved in the work of PMFS’ fourth grade over the 2015-16 school year.

Each year fourth grade students at PMFS focus on American history, and come to appreciate that they have an obligation to learn about what has happened in the past because they are indeed a part of the present and the future. By the end of the year, students interpret historical events, applying insight into how attitudes flow and change over time. More importantly, the process highlights how they have an onus to move society forward.

Taking these ideas into an experiential project, PMFS fourth graders put on a circus

each year. This year, through a Dr. Seussesque storyline, the performance made a powerful social commentary on differing groups coming together. Student dialogue on this theme continued as a follow-up, including reflection on the thoughtprovoking quote, “Nobody likes things that they don’t understand.”

Fourth graders pondered questions such as “Who is your family?” and “How well do you accept people who act differently than you?” This culminated with a performance for the annual PMFS Strawberry Festival to the song “Same Love” by Macklemore.

The skit especially resonated in a class where one-third of the children have same-sex parents, and the community joined together in recognition that love is love.

At PMFS, students practice joining across differences every day, knowing there is a common ground we can reach. Through careful reflection and respectful dialogue that

Plymouth Meeting Friends School fourth grade students delivered a powerful message about equality at the 2016 Strawberry Festival during their performance choreographed to the song “Same Love” by Macklemore.

culminated in creative and bold performance art, this year’s fourth grade students put their learning into action, bringing powerful messages of love and light to the extended school community.

Sarah Sweeney-Denham is the Head of School at Plymouth Meeting Friends School.

First & second graders engage in dialogue on diverse perspectives

By John McKinstry Fundamental to civil discourse is respect for one another, and being willing to listen to the experiences and perspectives of others.

An example of how important this is arose out of a discussion in the first and second grade classes at Lansdowne Friends School (Lansdowne, PA). We were preparing an all-school holiday video greeting card. Each class was asked to come up with one word that they would wish for everyone in the New Year. In teacher Jill Bean’s class, many children suggested “joy,” “happiness,” or some similar sentiment often expressed at Christmas. Yet there were several AfricanAmerican students who wanted “safety” to be the word that expressed their wish.

For many of the students who were not African-American, this was perplexing. It did not occur to them that safety was in short supply or a worry for anyone. The class listened to one another’s reasons and experiences. Very persuasive were several students’ testimonies of close relatives who had been shot and killed, something outside

Listening combined with respectful conversations at Lansdowne Friends School resulted in the creation of their New Year’s video greeting focusing on “safety.”

the experience of the other children. Having a thoughtful, respectful conversation like this enabled the entire class to unite around the word “safety.”

In the larger adult world where many cannot understand the motivation of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the awareness-raising goal of the White Privilege Conference, it would be helpful to follow the example of our first and second

graders, who were able to see with great respect and listening how our experiences shape our views of justice and peace. Our Quaker sense that each person has within a piece of the divine truth which each of us is obliged to answer is indeed a model for the larger world.

John McKinstry is the Head of School at Lansdowne Friends School.

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REGISTER NOW online at www.friendscouncil.org Workshops Educators New to Quakerism, October 18 – 19, 2016; February 27 – 28, 2017; April 3 – 4, 2017, Pendle Hill Educators New to Quakerism Southern Region, November 17 – 18, 2016, High Point Friends School (NC) Educators New to Quakerism New York City, January 30 – 31, 2017, Mary McDowell Friends School (NY) Facilitating Quaker-Based Decision Making in a Friends School, October 17, 2016 and November 7, 2016 with Arthur Larrabee at Friends Center, Philadelphia Learning in the Light: Training in Faith & Play for Friends School Educators, December 8 – 9, 2016 with Melinda Wenner Bradley at Friends Center, Philadelphia (Space is limited) Meeting-School Care Relationship, October 29, 2016 at Arch Street Meetinghouse, Philadelphia TM

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