The Power of Shared Experience

As part of an event called Morning with a Friend, fifteen members of Green Street Monthly Meeting came to Greene Street Friends School to share their experiences as Quakers. The event was organized by Anne Bayless and Margie Felton, members of the Meeting. Bayless is the parent of three Greene Street Friends students and Felton is the parent of a graduate. Both serve on the School Committee, the governing board.

"Morning with a Friend is a community-building event, intended to deepen the relationship between Greene Street Friends School and Green Street Monthly Meeting," Bayless noted. Greene Street Friends is owned and operated by Green Street Meeting and the school is the meeting's largest form of outreach to the community. The School exists under the Meeting’s care, and its mission is based on Quaker principles, or testimonies.

A diverse group of Friends, known more commonly as Quakers, shared aspects of how they live out the testimonies of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and stewardship. The visiting Friends attended Meeting for Worship and also spent time in the classroom.  A teacher reported, “I was surprised to feel so moved during Meeting for Worship by the presence of all our visiting Friends.”

Thoughtful planning helped the new event go smoothly. Ahead of the day, Greene Street students and teachers were provided with a short biography of their visiting Friend. Using the biography, they prepared questions about that person’s life, work, and experience as a Quaker. Visitors and teachers exchanged emails and phone calls to coordinate plans for the day. One teacher said, “I was so pleased at how prepared our visitor was. She made the students feel comfortable and excited!”

The activities and information shared depended about the age of the children as well as the interests of the presenter. Robert Dockhorn brought gardening tools for a seed-planting activity with Pre-K students; Cheryl McFadden read the Dr. Seuss story, Hooray for Diffendoofer Day, to second graders, with a few of them providing musical accompanimen; Eric Corson shared about his life’s work visiting prison inmates with seventh graders.

The event proved uplifting and enriching for everyone. Students were asking for their visitors to return and Meeting members expressed their desire to continue their connection with their host class and with the School.