Faculty Around the World

FACULTY AROUND THE WORLD: S UMMER TRAVEL

As a participant in Read Around Grenada, Amanda visited a government school, the one that her adopted sister had attended, to spend the day and to read to seventh graders. The children listened and then eagerly asked questions about life in the United States. Amanda observed that, like kids everywhere, some of them napped during the reading! At the outdoor assembly, Amanda stood with the students and teachers outside in the sun and joined in singing some of the same songs she had sung as a student in Grenada.

Amanda also noted changes in her hometown: a great deal of development, new neighborhoods, and an expanded stadium. She visited the Junior Murray Cricket Academy, named after a local cricket star and hero. But everywhere she went, Amanda felt the deep sense of community that she remembered from her childhood.

When she visited her grandmother’s grave, she noted that the cemetery wasn’t sitting on the outskirts of town, but in the thick of things, surrounded by houses and activity, and she recognized this as a testament to the respect for community, heritage, family, and continuity that she sees as a hallmark of Grenada’s culture.

AMANDA MCMILLAN: A TRIP HOME

For her summer travel funded by The Reilly Family Faculty Travel Abroad Program, middle school English teacher Amanda McMillan returned to Grenada, the home she left at age twelve and had not visited since she ZDVˉIWHHQ6KHZDQWHGWRUHFRQQHFWZLWKKHUFKLOGKRRGDQGFXOWXUHWR KRQRUKHUJUDQGPRWKHU7LWLZKRVHIXQHUDOVKHKDGPLVVHGWRYLVLWDVFKRRO similar to the one she had attended, and to explore two programs: Ashanti Footprints, which uses the arts to help young people in Grenada connect with their African heritage, and Read Around Grenada, a literacy program to which Amanda donated books.

Her journey was physical and also profoundly emotional. Amanda met and spoke with the woman who had cared for her adopted sister for years, thus ˉOOLQJLQSDUWVRIKHUIDPLO\KLVWRU\WKDWVKHKDGPLVVHG+HU VHQVHVEHFDPH UHDWWXQHGWRWKHVRXQGVDQGˊDYRUVRIKHUFKLOGKRRG&DO\SVRPXVLFVSDUNing certain memories, the tang of mangoes and breadfruit evoking others. Every day at dawn, she walked on the beach near her childhood home, recalling the smells and sounds of the ocean and sometimes striking up conversations with current residents. One day, she climbed Mount Qua Qua, the highest local peak and one she had climbed as a child.

At the Ashanti Footprints gathering, she watched children and young adults learn, very deliberately, dances, songs, and patois phrases that she had learned organically. She observed adults passing along stories and songs so that the children could hold onto a sense of their heritage. Amanda danced and sang and drummed along with everyone.

BRADEY BULK: DISCOVERING TERANGA

$QRWKHUEHQˉFLDU\RIWKH7KH5HLOO\)DPLO\)DFXOW\7UDYHO$EURDG3URJUDP upper school French teacher Bradey Bulk traveled to the Francophone West African country of Senegal determined to immerse herself in the daily life of the place. She planned to talk to as many “regular people” as possible, to eat the food families serve in their homes, to observe children at school, to pay attention to both the beautiful and the not-so-beautiful, and to bring home photographs, impressions, and ideas that she could integrate into her curricula at Friends.

Her contact in the city of Dakar, Jean-Baptiste Seck Sarr--history teacher, director of curriculum, and founder of Ecole Jean-Baptiste, a Catholic school in a mostly Muslim country--quickly became a friend. Teranga is the Senegalese tradition of hospitality, community, and solidarity, and Bradey found Jean-Baptiste to be a living example of this tradition. When she asked to observe for a day at his school, not only did he say yes, but he invited Bradey to his family home in M’Bour and to his village for the weekend. She had meals with Jean-Baptiste’s wife and many children, which took place in the community-friendly Senegal way: around one large, shared bowl of delicious food.

Bradey discovered that Senegal is a country with no minimum education requirement and limited educational opportunities. For instance, JeanBaptiste’s wife was not formally educated because there was simply no school in her village. Ecole Jean-Baptiste was funded through donations and is partnered with a school in France, with its classroom structure following the traditional French model, including the IB program. Although it is a Catholic school in a Catholic village, all students are welcome to attend, so that its student body is a combination of Catholic and Muslim students. On her visit to the school, Bradey brought her gift of school backpacks to give to the children, and because she found that taking photos herself interfered with her truly interacting with the students, she handed her camera over to the kids, so that they could take photos themselves. This left Bradey free to converse with the students and to observe activities, such as boys practicing Senegalese wrestling for an end-of-year performance.

While in Senegal, Bradey traveled by horse cart, went mango picking, and had clothing made out of beautiful batik fabric she purchased in the local markets. She even attended a First Communion celebration with the village women in their brilliant headwraps and dresses cooking communal meals outdoors. Bradey was fascinated by the enormous, ancient baobab trees, a central feature of every village. The trees function as a kind of town hall, with village meetings taking place around their thick trunks and under their knobby branches.

Bradey also learned a bit about the darker side of the vibrant, welcomLQJFRXQWU\6KHYLVLWHGDˉOWK\VPHOO\ˉVKLQJSRUWDQGOHDUQHGDERXWWKH GLVDVWURXVHQYLURQPHQWDODQGHFRQRPLFHIIHFWVRIRYHUˉVKLQJDQGSROOXWLRQ She also heard stories of Senegalese in search of a more prosperous life attempting to travel to Europe in small boats, a treacherous journey across open ocean that many refugees don’t survive. Bradey also visited Goree Island, used by the Dutch, French, and English slave traders. She walked through the dark holding quarters on the edge of the water, alongside which the slave ships would dock to load their human cargo.

Back at Friends, Bradey found ways to bring her new knowledge and experiences into her classroom. In French Two, her students compared houses in the village Brady visited with their own houses, while in French Four, as part of a study of culturally distinct pastimes, the students did a presentation on Senegalese wrestling.

Bradey believes that her unforgettable trip will continue to shape her teaching in unexpected ways, saying, “Its lessons continue to reveal themselves.”

ELLEN JOHNSON: A NEW VIEW OF QUAKER EDUCATION

On her teacher-exchange visit to the Friends’ School of Tasmania, the only Quaker school in Australia and, with 1900 students, the largest Quaker school in the world, upper school Biology teacher Ellen Johnson studied not just the school’s present, but its past: the 132-year story of its inception and development that culminated in the educationally rich and eclectic institution it is today. Founded by Samuel Clemes at the Hobart Estate in 1887 with funds from London Quakers, the school quickly found tremendous community support. Over the years, it underwent numerous shifts, expanding, both in physical size and in educational programing. In the 1980s, the focus became pastoral care and outdoor education. In the 1990s, the IB program was added, with the opportunity to study Chinese, and the Tech/Vocational school was developed, as well, focusing on such professional skills as culinary arts. In the 2000s, among other changes, a state-of-the-art theater was added, as well as DUHPRWHFDPSLQJZLOGHUQHVVVLWHRIIHULQJVWXGHQWVWKHEHQHˉWVRIOHDUQLQJ in remote, beautiful, physically challenging outdoor spaces.

Today, the student body is composed of students from as young as three months old in the Early Years section, to eleventh and twelfth graders in Clemes College. The Early Years teachers employ techniques from Reggio (PLOLDZKLOH&OHPHV&ROOHJHRIIHUVWKH,%GLSORPDWKH7DVPDQLDQ&HUWLˉFDWH of Education, and the very popular Vocational Education and Training program. For the older students, service is strongly encouraged and highly--and enthusiastically--subscribed.

While the number of students pursuing the IB diploma is quite small, Ellen discovered the IB students to be a particularly engaged and hard-working bunch. In the IB Year 7 Science course, Ellen observed familiar laboratory work, and was also happily surprised by the students’ singing for her.

Ellen also had the opportunity to help, as the IB students hosted their Young Immigrant Education Program for CAS project day, an event that is completely student-organized and student-run. Students prepared the food, gave the introductions, and either assisted or led myriad activities, including knitting classes, science labs, math puzzles, ultimate frisbee, ping pong, and creating supplies for a local animal shelter.

In the end, Ellen felt that the school had very much lived up to its goals of “Finding good in each individual, appreciating difference, living simply and being careful with material resources, a concern for world peace and justice, an interest in international relations and other cultures, and a sense of the importance of community.”