Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

Education

Spirit-Led, Interactive Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting

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Let’s get at least 5 friends (not including the PQM representatives) from every monthly meeting in Philadelphia to show up! And you will love what is in store!

Schedule Highlights

Two group learning activities

  • 1:00 – 1:30 PM — Join our hosts, Chestnut Hill Friends on “Engaging Young Quakers Across Distance: a demonstration on using Google Classroom for First Day School”. Donna Pucci, FDS coordinator, will share their success, and invite other monthly meetings to join.
  • 3:00 – 4:00 PM — Join us in a Spirit led inquiry – to learn with and from each other. We’ll break out into small groups to consider the Queries below on how we as Quakers practice our faith in our communities – and how the Quarter can support our efforts.

Worshipful Business

Thank you to Friend Barry Sloane for agreeing to clerk this Quarterly Meeting with Attention to Business.

PQM Nominations Committee will update us on the search for a new Quarter Clerk (and others) to start January 2021. The CPMM Climate Crisis Minute has been considered by all monthly meetings in the Quarter. Request for mutual support will be received. And more.

The Philadelphia Quarter has an opportunity to build on the work from our past Clerks – deep thanks to Anthony Stover and Hollister Knowlton!

The Queries

These Queries arose from Friends in the Quarter’s reflection on the challenges many are facing during this unprecedented time of pandemic, racial injustice, economic and climate crisis and civic polarization.

How do we live our faith? How can we care and support each other?

  1. Please describe the community that your monthly meeting is in. Specifically, what are it hurts and what are its strengths? I.e. what is its pain?
  2. In what ways does your Monthly Meeting take actions, partner and celebrate its community?
  3. How, in what ways could the Quarter support your efforts to give to your community?
  4. To what extent does the community of the MM reflect the community that it “lives” in? How are they different and why?

Quakers in Education: Nitobe Inazo, Elizabeth Gray Vining, and Joseph Wharton

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This is the second in a series of articles about Quakers who’ve impacted the fields of education and contributed to global scientific, medical, political, or economic leadership. The first article was published on September 23 and covered Elise Goulding, Ezra Cornell, and Johns Hopkins.

Nitobe Inazo (1862-1933) was a Japanese Quaker who became the first Under Secretary General for the League of Nations. Nitobe was born into a samurai family on Honshu, the main island of Japan. While in college, he became a Christian and later a Friend. In 1884, He moved to the US for post-graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University. There he began attending Quaker meetings, telling friends, “I very much like their simplicity and earnestness.”

[Read more…] about Quakers in Education: Nitobe Inazo, Elizabeth Gray Vining, and Joseph Wharton

Quakers in Education: Elise M. Boulding, Ezra Cornell, and Johns Hopkins

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Quaker education has always been grounded in the most basic principles of the Religious Society of Friends. Each child has that of God within, and Friends’ education is centered in truth, practical learning, scientific inquiry, simplicity, and concern for civic society.

Quakers have a long history of questioning power and engaging in social action for human rights and peace. Today, many Quaker schools or Quaker affiliated institutions of higher education frame their learning environments with social or civic responsibilities and define community expectations through the lens of Friends’ values while still honoring the individual.

As the United States grew from colony to nation, the Quakers advocated for and delivered universal pubic education in Pennsylvania, built colleges, and created private Quaker secondary and elementary schools. The motto of the William Penn Charter School; “Good Instruction is Better than Riches” dates back to its founding in 1689 and still serves to describe Friends’ fundamental belief that knowledge outperforms wealth over time.

In the United States, Quakers were key to the founding of Haverford College (Pennsylvania), Guilford College (North Carolina,) Earlham College (Indiana), Swarthmore College (Pennsylvania), Johns Hopkins University (Maryland), Cornell University (New York), and the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania).

[Read more…] about Quakers in Education: Elise M. Boulding, Ezra Cornell, and Johns Hopkins