Advance Friends Select: Part II

Yiming (Victor) Pan
January 16, 2019

“Learning does not begin at 8 a.m and end at 3 p.m. At Friends Select, education is a series of revelatory moments and a sustained flow of self-discovery,” said Michael Gary, Head of Friends Select School.

The ultimate purpose of the school, the Teaching and Learning part of the strategic plan is the most important.  The second section of the strategic plan, the Excellence in Teaching and Learning, would be achieved through enhancing the school’s connections with the city and reorganizing faculty and student engagement in academics, according to the school website.

Located in the heart of Philadelphia, Friends Select leverages various resources around the city through external partnerships to provide teaching and learning experiences that are creative and dynamic. To redefine teaching and learning experiences, the strategic plan will manifest the school’s Quaker values by increasing students representation in the decision-making processes, exploring the city’s resources, and emphasizing art and athletic education, according to the strategic plan book.

Chris Singler, the Upper School Director, said the plan of Excellence in Teaching and Learning is being further divided into six parts and carried out by a group of committees.

These committees design the plans, and specific departments subsequently implement them, Chris said. He said, for example, each committee will initiate ideas under the given goals set by the board and select feasible ideas. Chris added that for some “low hanging fruits” that do not require detailed planning concerning data and budget, the committees could carry them out immediately.

Chris said the school is also actively exploring options to make the curriculum more diverse and culturally inclusive, though the plan is still in the preliminary stage. “Right now there is no clarity on adding or taking away any class,” he said. He also noted that the school may add a class on topics such as equity and cultural inclusiveness, but it remains to be seen whether such an addition would be an elective or mandatory class.

There are six different committees. Each of the committees is led by a clerk, the person who is directly responsible for each committee, Chris said. He added that students are invited to these committees.  Chris said each committee will decide the ways for students to be involved, and the committees will try to increase representation from students in these process.

Chris said the Quakerism Committee, which aims to examine Quakerism in the school’s curriculum, is clerked by Jonathan Ogle, who is a middle school history teacher. “It also wants to make Meeting for Worship more central and vital to students and teachers at Friends Select,” Chris said.

The clerk for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee is Toni Graves Williamson, the Director of Equity and Inclusion, who will lead the committee to diversify the faculty and student body. Chris added one of the committee’s goals is to identify “how the school can actively create a diverse community and make our community feel inclusive,” Chris said (watch a video about Toni here).

Naté Hall, the Associate Director of College Planning, is the clerk for the Student Voice Committee. According to Chris, the committee is addressing issues such as how to increase students’ voice in the school’s decision-making process and how students can take leadership positions in the school’s daily activities.

The City Curriculum Committee is led by Heidi Hutchinson, the Director of City Curriculum, the purpose of which is to use the school’s resources as leverage to enhance student’s learning experience (watch a video about Heidi here).

Chris Meiskey, who is a fourth-grade teacher, is the clerk for the Professional Development Committee, which addresses issues such as anti-bias curriculum, city curriculum learning, and Quakerism.

The Performing and Visual Arts and Athletics Committee is clerked by Colleen Law, who is the lower school music teacher. At this committee, the members aim to improve the visual and performing arts and athletic life at Friends Select School.

“There is not a priority, all of the areas are really important. In order to be successful, the different committees need to work together,”  Chris said. “All of the committees are interconnected.”