Reflection on: Why does Quaker education matter to your school population and the world?

A Curriculum of Conscience
By Darryl J. Ford, Head, William Penn Charter School

A few weeks ago, on a picture-perfect fall Saturday, I drove by Gwynedd Meeting and saw a sole Friend standing at the corner of the property holding a sign with the word peace written upon it. Perhaps, there were other messages that I might have missed. Route 202 is a busy intersection and I was driving. In all honesty, I was a little surprised that there was this woman-with a smile on her face-holding a “made at home” or “made at meeting” sign with the word peace. Whether this “peace” was a wish for the world, an admonition to us all, both, or something else, I don’t know. But there she was bearing witness. Peace.

On September 27, 14-year old Nicolas Elizalde was murdered on a football field after his Roxborough High School team scrimmaged Boys Latin and Northeast High School. On July 2, 19-year old Zachariah Julye was murdered on North Third Street in Northern Liberties after briefly attending a party with friends. I raise up these two young men by name and identify the dates of their deaths as examples that have hit home to me.

But in all honesty, each and every day this year could be listed as a death date for a murder in the City of Philadelphia and with another name attached. Kasani Francis. Robert Green. Shawn Grant. Ameer Rodriguez. Lameer Boyd. And so many more.

Too often, perhaps as a survival mechanism or because of fear, we become numb to the daily barrage of gun violence and death of young people by guns. We become numb just so we might get through another day. Zachariah’s murder and Elizalde’s murder have hung with me. Two more young people murdered, both too close to home. One by proximity and one by friendship.

A day or two after Nicolas’ shooting and death at a playing field just a few miles away from the playing field at my school where my own students were at football practice, we offered a Meeting for Worship to remember Nicholas and all the victims of gun violence in Philadelphia and the world.

This was not a regularly scheduled Meeting for Worship, but a voluntary one called for at this moment. The vocal ministry was powerful. Upper School teachers and students and administrators offered powerful vocal ministry about gun violence, fears, and not knowing what to do to change things. One colleague asked where is the outrage? How have we become so complacent with all of the shootings and killings in the city? While we don’t measure importance or value by numbers in Quaker communities, to my chagrin, there were only 25 or so members of my school community who gathered to note the moment. This small response only heightened my colleague’s question, “Where was the outrage?” Moved to speak, I offered vocal ministry, too, and about Zachariah, his senseless murder, and the hole that was left in many hearts because of his death. I also spoke about the Friend who bore witness while holding the peace sign at the corner of her Meeting and these seemingly two competing extremes: a silent witness and outrage of the masses that might move us to action.

So, what does this all have to do with the work of Quaker schools?

As I think about the worth and work of Quaker schools, I know that our curriculums offer a potential path to progress of the world’s most critical concerns.

In Friends schools, we all know the effectiveness and power of the Content Curriculum that we teach. Lucy Calkins’ Readers and Writers workshop and Math- In-Focus. Honors courses, advanced math, AP courses, and IB Programs. Experiential learning, worldwide travel, and outdoor explorations. This, and much more, is the currency of a content that matters to student growth and student outcomes. We know that independent schools do this well, and we believe that Friends schools do this especially well.

Yet, an added Quaker advantage comes from ways Friends educators extend and deepen learning in the classroom. In Readings on Quaker Pedagogy, our colleague and Friend Harry Hammond list these strategies. They include:

• Learning through inquiry

• Learning through reflection

• Learning through collaboration

• Learning through service

• Learning through respect

Of course, Hammond further delineates what teachers and students can do in each of these areas to further student learning, self-advocacy, community, and other desired outcomes in our Quaker schools. In a powerful way, Friends educators know that these strategies themselves become a Quaker Curriculum for our students of how to act and interact in the world. When we are successful as Friends school educators, inquiry, reflection, collaboration, service, and respect evolve from being pedagogical strategies and become a pathway to and way of living.

As the world and school community, we face so many issues like climate change, the quality of urban education, food insecurity, human trafficking, and the gun violence that steals away the lives of young people like Nicolas and Zachariah, and so many more, I think our work as educators in Friends schools require that we introduce a third curriculum: a Curriculum of Conscience, or perhaps, a more apt description would be a Curriculum of Outrage. To be clear, I know that we teach with the student, purpose, and conscience at the center of the classroom. However, where is the outrage and what is our responsibility to have our students build outrage about the world’s most pressing issues. I am not speaking of fostering communities of anger and rage or meanness or divisiveness. I am speaking of intentional further exploration of a Curriculum of Conscience which both builds communities that understand the world’s concerns (like equal rights, quality education, climate, clean water, food security, gun violence, and so many more), and evolves action such that we are not numbed by fear but buoyed to act.

A curriculum of content, a Quaker curriculum, and a curriculum of conscience.

Of course, Quaker schools are already engaged in this work. However, the realities of the difficult societal problems that we face may require more. In the end, I can think of no better places than our Quaker schools to be both the testing ground and proving ground of doing the intricate work of both bearing witness and evolving outrage to action to address the world’s concerns.

Bearing witness and evolving outrage to action to address the world’s concerns. This is what we do. And this is what we need to do.
This is what we need to do for Nicolas and Zachariah.

This is what we need to do for all those students entrusted to our care and for those who aren’t.

And perhaps, this is what we need to do for the world to heal and for Philadelphia to heal.

And this is why Penn Charter, your school, and all Quaker schools matter.