Embracing the Tension: Reflections and Perspectives on Race and White Privilege

CHRONICLES OF

Quaker Education

FALL 2015

Embracing the Tension

The clay tile mural “Justice, Faith, Hope, and Peace” at Abington Friends School was created by the school community to inspire continued action and attention to issues of equality and social justice.

Reflections and Perspectives on Race and White Privilege Are there aspects of Friends education that uniquely position our school communities to tackle challenging conversations about race and white privilege? Are Friends schools uniquely positioned to create change?

What change is taking place and what growth remains to be seen?

This summer we brought these questions to educators of color on the Friends Council Board and received the following responses. The four leaders of color featured in this issue — Darryl J. Ford, Michelle Holland, Juan Jewell, and Beth Reaves — have approximately 100 years of collective experience in Friends education. Interestingly, three of the four are Friends school graduates; all of them hold leadership positions in Friends schools.

We hope you find their perspectives informative as well as thought provoking. We also hope this issue serves a springboard for further conversation and exploration.

The well runs deep. We have merely skimmed the surface. In the words of Darryl J. Ford, “. . . Quaker schools are better at embracing the tension, at wading into areas of discomfort.”

The conversations are not easy. Creating change is not easy. Our hope is that we can embrace the tension together and together work for a more equitable and peaceful world.

Diversity as a Standard

Michelle Holland Principal of the Lower School, Friends School of Baltimore Clerk, Friends Council Board Michelle Holland with students at Friends School of Baltimore.

This school year I will celebrate my 20th year in Quaker education. In 1996, I started as a third grade teacher at Friends School of Baltimore (Baltimore, MD). Two decades later I’m still here, but the school is not the same, of course. In terms of diversity, for one, we have evolved tremendously. It’s now a place where diversity is not just a buzzword, but a standard.

When I started my journey as a classroom teacher, I was one of the few faculty members of color and there was one student of color in a grade of 60 children.

Currently, we have a thriving Diversity Council, a published Diversity Plan, a Director of Diversity, many students of color, and a hiring mandate to help us keep candidates of color in the forefront as we’re hiring.

This summer our faculty read Waking Up White by Debby Irving, and we’re having dedicated conversations and activities related to white privilege and race. Irving also was the guest speaker at our recent Board of Trustees retreat and spoke with faculty and parents during her visit.

I’ve had the opportunity for advancement in leadership throughout my tenure here. I’ve had the wonderful experience of being a homeroom teacher, an Assistant Principal, and I’m now in my tenth year as Principal of the Lower School.

I believe the words of Maya Angelou:

A Publication of the

Through all these experiences, two learnings stand out for me: ( Be who you are and bring your special gifts to the table. For example, I sing, speak poetry, and write stories, so I enhance my speeches and group talks with these gifts I have. It’s different from how other administrators deliver their messages, but it’s well received.

(A s an African American female leader in an independent school, I knew that I would most likely be one of the first persons of color who many of my families and colleagues have worked with closely in this way. In order to serve children and families well, and to ensure they get the best education we can give them, I believe we have to deal with any of our personal insecurities and hang-ups about race, gender, and privilege.

As a leader, I feel it’s my responsibility to talk through concerns with my administrative and teaching teams, especially controversial concerns, so that with each other’s collaborative help we can get to a better place and do better in our work and relationships.

“When you know better, do better.”

An Interview with Darryl J. Ford A nationally known educator, Darryl J. Ford was the first African American to serve as the clerk of the Friends Council board. He is currently the head of William Penn Charter School (Philadelphia, PA). A graduate of a Quaker school — he remembers his high school years at Friends Select School (Philadelphia) as the best part of his entire education — he always knew he wanted to be head of a Friends school and involved in Friends school leadership. Today, Darryl Ford sees both signs of progress and work that still needs to be done on issues of race and white privilege in Friends education.

Reflecting on your experience as an educator of color in Friends education, what opportunities have you found?

What obstacles have you faced?

The opportunity to be a head of a Quaker school is a wonderful gift. It is a rarified air to lead in any school and to lead in a Quaker school is even more rare.

What I hope I have given back to the community is the opportunity for all students, white students included, to see me in a leadership position. Often people say, “Isn’t it great that students of color get to see you in a leadership position?” I think that is really a naïve understanding of the worldview of students of color. Students of color often see people of color in leadership positions, whether in their community or their church. White students are less likely to see a person of color in a leadership position than students of color.

In terms of obstacles, I do wonder about the employment search process, and how people of color are viewed in it, and whether or not their names are raised up for leadership positions and headships.

I think there are other obstacles that come with the position which are less well known and articulated. For example, I think many issues in society are still heavily laden with issues of race and of difference. Yet people won’t name the elephant in the room. I also think there are projects I am more easily able to move forward and other things I am less able to move forward because of being a person of color in a leadership position.

You were the first African American clerk of the Friends Council Board. Is there anything you would like to share about your experience as clerk?

I had a great time clerking the Board, and I hope I was of service to Friends Council.

My agreeing to clerk really was as much a decision about me being African American as it was about the skill set that I could bring to a clerkship. It was at the forefront of my mind: Well, why shouldn’t I be the first African American clerk for the sake of modeling people of color in leadership positions. If I have the ability to be clerk and if Friends Council can model what is happening in our schools — that people of color can serve in different leadership positions — then why not?

What is it like to lead in a Friends school with a largely white community?

When we think in terms of numbers, these probably are largely white communities, and yet in preparation for this interview, I called my admissions office and asked about our percentage of students of color. At Penn Charter is it is 34%, which indicates that our school community is changing.

Something that was very fulfilling for me last year was how I was able to engage students around issues of police brutality in the African American community.

I think I was able to help our school have positive conversations, instructive conversations, in which our students were able to understand facts and emote when they needed to show emotion.

And I was proud that our black students and our white students and many members of our community were able to approach these learning moments without white guilt. We were able to have a series of honest conversations about white privilege with Peggy McIntosh* and Ali Michael** because people were able to leave their guilt behind.

Are there aspects of Friends education that uniquely position our school communities to tackle the challenging conversations about race and white privilege?

While it is not easy to have conversations about race, about being a person of color, about white privilege, I think our schools are uniquely suited to have those conversations because we strive to see the inner light in each person. That means people have the ability and the right to define themselves as who they want to be.

I also think that at Quaker schools we are better at embracing the tension, at wading into areas of discomfort. While none of us want to be all torn up and uncomfortable all of the time, we have exercised the muscles of understanding what it is to be in that realm of discomfort. I think conversations of race and of white privilege take us to those places of being uncomfortable and because we have rehearsed that in Quaker schools, we are better at having the conversations.

What growth have you seen around issues of race and white privilege in your school community?

I think where we have grown at my school, and at Quaker schools and at independent schools, is that we no longer minimize these issues. We have better understandings of racial identity formation, of what it means to be white, and of privilege.

In what ways do you think we still need to grow and change?

There still needs to be growth in terms of who occupies positions of leadership. I don’t think we are seeing the numbers of people of color and women in leadership positions as we would have hoped.

We also want to make certain that all students are supported, including students of color, and that our understanding of what it means to be a student of color is not minimized, that our understanding of what it is to have white privilege is not dismissed as just fallacy.

Darryl J. Ford is the first African American head of school for William Penn Charter. He became head in 2007.

I hope those in Quaker schools can continue to be counter-cultural in ways that are appropriate to being Quaker schools, and not run away, not give in, to societal pressures that race and privilege don’t make a difference.

Are our schools positioned to actually create change?

I think Quaker schools always are preparing people to create change. At Penn Charter we talk about educating students to live lives that make a difference.

In our Center for Public Purpose at Penn Charter, students learn about and deal with issues of inequality in education, and issues of hunger and poverty. I don’t think our kids are going to solve all of the problems around education and poverty and hunger. But I know when they are in positions of leadership they will make informed decisions about paying a fair wage and about equity as it relates to gender and race in the workplace.

We are fortunate and blessed to be in environments where teachers honor learning, where you don’t have to deal with distractions of not having resources or kids not showing up for class. Because of that, I think our students have a responsibility to think about what change, what difference, they are going to make.

I think our work with the Quaker testimonies is preparing our kids to make a difference in the world.

* Peggy McIntosh is the founder of Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity (SEED) nationalseedproject.org. ** Ali Michael, Ph.D., is the Director of K-12 Consulting and Professional Development at the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education at the University of Pennsylvania and the Director of the Race Institute for K-12 Educators. alimichael.org

Darryl J. Ford in his first year as clerk of Friends Council Board, with (from left) Irene McHenry, Kay Edstene, Ginny Christensen and Paul Lacey (above) and teaching students at William Penn Charter School (left).

Building Community Through Conversation

Beth Reaves Head of School, Friends School Mullica Hill “What are you mixed with?” “Are you Black?” “Why does your hair do that?”

“You don’t talk like you’re Black.”

From my earliest memories as a student at Germantown Friends School (Philadelphia, PA) in the 1970s, race was always a part of what I’ve known as topics of conversation between students at school.

Now, as the Head of School at Friends School Mullica Hill (Mullica Hill, NJ), a small elementary and middle school in South Jersey, I would say that student conversations still include discussions of race and racial identity. These discussions are different in many ways, and yet still so similar, to the ones I experienced.

Our school is quite diverse and students today seem much more comfortable with themselves and each other. Their sensitivity to their own identities and those of their peers is enhanced when compared to 40 years ago. They appreciate the diversity among themselves, recognizing those differences as unique.

And yet, complications, disappointments, and disagreements around race still occur. Students offend (inadvertently sometimes) through their statements, their observations, and their questions.

What is unique in a Friends school, however, is an environment where students are encouraged to talk through those disagreements, to articulate the actions or statements that hurt or are insensitive. Our community encourages discussion as a way to bring understanding, and sometimes, it works.

But there is still work to be done.

At Friends School Mullica Hill, our diversity of faculty does not mirror our student population, and that is a concern. Yet we continue to push for open and honest conversations between students and ourselves as adults. It is tempting sometimes to shy away from the difficult and uncomfortable conversations that can occur around race, but I think in a Friends school, these conversations are necessary to build a community where all feel and truly are valued.

Real change can occur when those empowered individuals leave the Friends school community and carry this message into the broader community.

Beth Reaves presiding over a graduation ceremony at Friends School Mullica Hill.

She is the first African American head of school for FSMH.

Welcome New Heads Karen Carney, Chicago Friends School, IL Stacey Mink, Connecticut Friends School, CT Kirk Smothers, Delaware Valley Friends School, PA Kathryn Park Cook, Frankford Friends School, PA Idenna Russell, Friends School of Harford, MD Latrisha Chattin, Friends School of Minnesota, MN Peggy Bretschneider, Haddonfield Friends School, NJ Darrell Cotton, High Point Friends School, NC Debbie Galusha, Monteverde Friends School, Costa Rica Rick Juliusson, Monteverde Friends School, Costa Rica Steve Blanchard, New Garden Friends School, NC Chad Cianfrani, Oakwood Friends School, NY Kenneth R. Hinshaw, Olney Friends School, OH Bryan Garman, Sidwell Friends School, DC Jill Dougherty, Stratford Friends School, PA Kim Bernaus, Swarthmore Friends Nursery School, PA Alex Brosowsky, The Quaker School at Horsham, PA Gray Horwitz, The Woolman Semester School, CA Eve Nealy, Westbury Friends School, NY Brian Clyne, Wichita Friends School, KS Kenneth Aldridge, Wilmington Friends School, DE

Appreciation and best wishes on new journeys to the following Heads: Kim Tsocanos, Mark Dansereau, Pritchard Garrett, Penny Colgan-Davis, Clare Pitz, Lili Herbert, Sharon Dreese, David Girardi, Francisco J. Burgos, Ari Betof, Peter Baily, Charles F. Szumilas, Timothy P. Madigan, Joanne Swanson, Ruth Joray, Dorothy Henderson, Barbara Hershman, Shelli Kadel

Juan Jewell (front row, 2nd from right) as a student at Friends’ Central School.

Open to Change, Slow to Change: Resolving the Tension

Juan Jewell Board member, Friends School of Atlanta Board member, Friends Council on Education Retired Director of Studies, Paideia School, Atlanta GA Sixty years ago, I began my formal education in kindergarten at Friends’ Central School (Wynnewood, PA). Although I was not the first Black student to be admitted to the school, there were only a handful of Black students in the school, and none in my class.

After graduating from Friends’ Central in 1968, I returned in 1974 as one of the first African-American teachers in the school’s history. Little did I know that I was beginning a career that has involved me as teacher, parent, administrator, and trustee in the lives of four Quaker schools.* In some respects, Friends’ Central had not changed a great deal since I had left.

But in other respects it had changed. There was a new Head of School. There were many more students of color; indeed, there were enough African-American students to support the creation of a Black Student Union.

Coinciding with the increased presence of students of color within our schools and with the arrival of the first generation of Black Friends school administrators was another, less obvious change. Earl Harrison, long-time Head of Sidwell Friends School (and of Westtown School before that), later observed that at some point in the 70s or 80s, independent schools began losing “the benefit of the doubt”, that the various school constituencies had become far more demanding, much more insistent upon immediate results, much less inclined to assume good will on the part of the institution.

These changing attitudes presented new and unfamiliar challenges to independent school administrators of all races, and they posed unique challenges to Black administrators and teachers.

Quaker schools had advantages in trying to meet these new challenges. Perhaps most important is the fact that Quaker schools are built upon a firm foundation of clearly articulated values. The divine discontent, the search for truth, and the belief that it might be found in unexpected places, all made Quaker schools at least willing to consider the challenges posed to our practice by changing awareness of race and privilege among our constituencies.

However, while the reflective nature of Quaker schools makes them open to change, it also makes them often slow to change.

Somewhat paradoxically, our values and our practices put us in a unique position to tackle questions of race and privilege, while leaving us uniquely vulnerable to charges that we should be doing more. Resolving that tension will continue to challenge all of us in Quaker education. * Friends’ Central School, Friends School of Atlanta, Sidwell Friends School and Sandy Spring Friends School.

Drew Smith Executive Director Friends Council on Education

Deborra Sines Pancoe Associate Director Friends Council on Education

In Friends education, we seek equity and justice to create communities that will work for healing the social forces that can divide us into segregated and fractured groups.

Many Friends schools now have mission statements that include emphasis on creating more diverse, just, and inclusive communities. These statements are in the tradition of the Religious Society of Friends, which has a long history of working to bring healing to areas where conflict exists through listening, nonviolent conflict resolution, and seeking the Light within all.

However, it is clear from events in the national news over this past year that we need to dig deeper into the souls of our schools to move beyond what we look like and broaden the depth of racial inclusivity for our students.

We know that in order for our school communities to be truly inclusive there must be a transformation of organizational structures. It is not enough to simply seek students of color to attend Friends schools. Today our Quaker schools seek faculties that are more reflective of the global community. School leadership, including boards of trustees, must be inclusive of people of color and school communities must examine policies and practices to root out implicit biases.

It is in this space that Friends Council’s mission to nurture Quaker principles and values in its member schools intersects with our work on racial justice. Work on racial inclusivity is in keeping with Friends Council’s mission to work for equity and justice. And although diversity is about more than race, Friends Council is particularly focused on it this year as one of our strategic priorities.

It is our hope that continued focus on this strategic direction will promote best practices for racial inclusion within Friends education and the continued shift of organizational structures in our schools and beyond.

Friends Council on Education recognizes that its own leadership structure must be inclusive and more fully representative of the full range of human experience. The Friends Council Board has worked to have greater representation of people of color. Currently educators of color comprise 25% of the Friends Council Board (up from 0% in 2000). Some of their voices are featured in this issue.

As part of our work to lift up best practices for racial inclusion, Friends Council is taking a leadership role on the local host team for the White Privilege Conference to be held in Philadelphia on April 14 – 17, 2016. Its theme is “Let Freedom Ring — Re-Imagining Equity and Justice in the United States” and will focus on challenging concepts of privilege and oppression, offering solutions and team-building strategies to work toward a more equitable world.

In addition, Friends Council’s program for 2015 – 16 includes a multi-school SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) seminar of eight monthly 3-hour sessions to explore how factors of race, gender, socioeconomic status and more impact our schools and classrooms.

It is worth noting that this strategic work on diversity, equity, and justice is part of the preparation of students for global citizenry — for the “whole of life.” We know that technology has drawn our world closer together. Yet that closeness does not automatically translate into the kind of respect for each other and our differences that is called for in the equality testimony of Quakers. As Quaker schools we need to increase our focus on embracing our differences and living as One — connected to the Spiritual Whole.

Travel/Seminars/Conferences TM

Head Gatherings REGISTER NOW online at www.friendscouncil.org

Annual Fall Heads Gathering, October 15 – 16, 2015, Friends’ Central School Heads New to Friends School Headship, October 15, 2015, Friends’ Central School Elementary, K-8, and Early Childhood Heads Gathering, May 1 – 3, 2016, Chestnut Hill Friends Meetinghouse Heads of Friends Schools with Secondary Divisions Gathering, April 28 – 29, 2016, Location TBD Heads of Small Friends Schools (hosted by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Heads), Location & Date TBD

Workshops

Peer Network Events and Head Gatherings

Educators New to Quakerism, October 27 – 28, 2015; February 29 – March 1, 2016; April 7 – 8, 2016, Pendle Hill Educators New to Quakerism, Southern Region, November 16 – 17, 2015, Carolina Friends School Educators New to Quakerism, New York City, January 25 – 26, 2016, Mary McDowell Friends School Facilitating Quaker-based Decision Making in a Friends School October 26, 2015 with Arthur Larrabee at Friends Center, Philadelphia Learning in the Light: Training in Faith & Play for Friends School Educators, October 22 – 23, 2015 with Melinda Wenner Bradley at Friends Center, Philadelphia (space is limited)

Let’s Dig Deeper As we create inclusive communities

SEED Seminar for Friends School Educators 8 monthly 3-hour evening sessions, Abington Friends School (PA)

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Philadelphia, PA Permit No. 248 1507 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102 215.241.7245 • info@friendscouncil.org • www.friendscouncil.org

Reflections

SAVE-THE-DATE – WPC17 Coming to Philadelphia, April 14 – 17, 2016 Friends Council is part of a collaborative host team of regional organizations for the White Privilege Conference.

Development, Admissions, & Public Relations May 2, 2016, Friends Center Diversity, February 1, 2016, Friends Center Division Directors & Assistant Heads Conference, November 10, 2015, Friends Center Early Childhood Educators, Spring 2016 (Date TBD), Location: Moorestown Friends School (NJ) Friends Environmental Educators Network (FEEN), April 7 – 8, 2016, Carolina Friends School (NC) Heads’ Assistants, November 5 – 6, 2015, Moorestown Friends School (NJ) Librarians, February 5, 2016, Mary McDowell Friends School (NY) Mindfulness Educators, November 2, 2015, Abington Friends Meetinghouse and School (PA) Quaker Life in Lower & Middle Schools, November 9, 2015, Friends Center Quaker Youth Leadership Conference, February 4 – 6, 2016, Moses Brown School and Lincoln Schools (RI) Service Learning with National Network of Schools in Partnership, November 20, 2015, Friends Center US Religion Teachers, December 7, 2015, Friends Center Quaker Pilgrimage to England 2016, July 11 – 17, 2016 A Trip to “Fox and Fell Country” (space is limited)

Experiential Professional Growth for Faculty, Staff, and Trustees in Friends Schools

Quaker Education CHRONICLES OF

Embracing the Tension

FALL 2015