Germantown Friends School

Germantown Friends School
Location
31 West Coulter Street Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Information
Type	Private
Motto	Behold, I have set before thee an open door
Established	1845
Head of school	Richard Wade
Grades	K–12
Enrollment	895
Athletics conference	Friends School League
Website	germantownfriends.org

Germantown Friends School (GFS) is a coeducational K-12 school in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States under the supervision of Germantown Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). It is governed by a School Committee whose members are drawn mainly from the membership of the Meeting and the School's alumni. The School's current Head is Richard "Dick" L. Wade.

Since the 1930s, Germantown Friends has been a respected and influential private day school, educating students in traditional humanistic studies in the light of the Quaker tradition. Many graduates have gone on to leading colleges and universities in the United States, including Ivy League institutions. In 1925, admission statistics at the University of Pennsylvania showed that 10-20% of the Germantown Friends School graduating class matriculated at the University. Due to the strong academic preparation of the school, the percentage of Germantown Friends graduates who matriculate at Penn remains about 10-20%. Other popular college destinations include Princeton University, Dartmouth College, Haverford College, Brown University, Trinity College, and the University of Chicago. Present Germantown Friends students generally have a reputation for community service, intellectual boldness, and broad artistic interests.

History

Germantown Friends School was founded in 1845 by Germantown Monthly Meeting which had grown in size and stature in the Philadelphia Quaker community during the previous several decades. The School was founded in response to a request of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting which like all Friends Meetings valued an equal education for boys and girls. Until some time in the early 20th century, Germantown Friends was a "select" school, meaning that only the children of Quaker parents were admitted. The school in the early 20th century was a cheerful but proper place. Germantown Monthly Meeting was an Orthodox meeting and thus valued classical education, but athletics and the arts were still considered, as they had been since the founding of the Society of Friends in the 17th century, a diversion from the essentials needed by a young person growing up in a complex world. Esther Greenleaf Mürer has collected some relevant sources on this issue. [2].

Athletic traditions

Germantown Friends School teams are nicknamed "The Tigers." A charter member of the Friends Schools League (FSL) [3], its teams are almost always competitive within the League and sometimes are well known in the Philadelphia area. In 2008, the Boys Track team won the High School Boys Distance Medley Championship of America at the Penn Relays. The relay's time of 10:11.54 was the second fastest high school Distance Medley Relay in the nation at the time, and the fastest in Pennsylvania. A friendly rivalry exists between GFS and Friends' Central School, who compete with each other for possession of the Felsen Cup, named after an administrator who has worked at and given much to both schools. Another rival is Penn Charter School, whose campus is adjacent to Germantown Friends' athletic fields. However, Penn Charter is a member of the Inter-Academic League, de-intensifying this rivalry. One interesting tradition of Germantown Friends School basketball teams is never to play full-court defense if leading by 20 points or more. GFS also excels in other athletic activities as well, for instance teaching students rock-climbing. There is no Germantown Friends School fight song. Further, the school guidelines on spectator-conduct encourage cheering in favor of the GFS teams, forbid cheering against the opposing team, and are enforced by all faculty and staff present at athletic contests.

Academic and extracurricular traditions

Since 1993, Germantown Friends has been divided into three divisions, the Lower School (K-5), the Middle School (6-8) (later named after former teacher, administrator, and Quaker, Eric W. Johnson), and the Upper School (9-12). First among the traditions of the school is weekly Meeting for Worship of each division. Meeting for Worship gives students the opportunity for introspection and discussion of spirituality. The weekly Meeting of each division have rather different characters. The Lower School Meeting is generally quite active with many short messages from students because elementary school children tend to appreciate the chance to be heard. The Middle School Meeting often is a very silent meeting, only punctuated by the occasional spiritual stirring of a faculty member. The Upper School Meeting is often focused on current events and fundamental issues of young adults. Seniors tend to speak, knowing that they will soon graduate and depart into the hopeful but complex world.

Other notable traditions include concerts by the GFS Choir under the direction of Mary Brewer, Lawrence Hoenig, and Steve Kushner. Choir tours have visited London (UK), Falaise (France), Cracow (Poland) and Copenhagen (Denmark), among other locales. In March 2005, the GFS Choir traveled to China, where it performed in conservatories, concert halls, and in the occasional impromptu street performance. In March 2008, the Choir went on a tour of the Southern portion of the United States, culminating in a few days in New Orleans, where the group helped build houses with Habitat for Humanity. Most recently, the Choir traveled to and throughout Puerto Rico during Spring Break of 2011. Other traditions include the 9th Grade Musical, the Dionysia (an Ancient Greek dramatic festival performed by 10th grade Ancient History classes), the Latin III Debates during an annual "Classics Day," and a Writers Assembly, showcasing pieces by writers from the Middle and Upper School.

One unusual graduation requirement at Germantown Friends School is the requirement that each junior complete an independent project, known as a "Junior Project." During this project, students have the opportunity to pursue some independent but intellectually rigorous activity in the local community or elsewhere in the world. If completed in January, students are given the month off to pursue the project, although they must go through a proposal process and present written and oral accounts of their work afterwards. Students must pay for at least half of all project expenses out of money the student earned through work (rather than by means of a parental allowance).

For many years, Germantown Friends gave academic awards to its students. During the 1990s, there arose concerns that the tradition might contain an underlying negative effect on the broader school community. After five years of faculty discussion and four years of student and alumni surveys, in 2002 the school discontinued its practice of making academic awards. In announcing this decision to the school community, the head of school noted that there were long-standing concerns about the detrimental effect of elevating a select few students above others in a ceremony with clear winners and losers, and how the practice stood in contrast to Friends' beliefs in honoring every person. He further noted that when surveyed, "students opposed any practice that created incentive to compete for grades rather than for learning's sake." While athletic awards are still given at Germantown Friends, the academic awards have been replaced with more opportunities for all students to showcase their work.

Commencement in recent decades has taken place at Arch Street Meetinghouse in Philadelphia. The ceremony begins with an instruction concerning Meeting for Worship by a Quaker member of the graduating class, followed by a meeting. At present, GFS does not calculate GPA for purposes of class ranking, and therefore no Valedictorians or Salutatorians are selected. Instead, the graduating class elects one faculty member and one member of its own ranks to give addresses after the conclusion of the meeting. Following the addresses, the Head of School speaks and then awards diplomas to each member of the graduating class.

Notable alumni

• John "Skip" Barber: Racing Instructor.
• Emily Bazelon: journalist.
• Eric Bazilian: Musician and songwriter of the band The Hooters.
• Henry Bean, 1963: film director, script writer.
• Jesse Biddle, 2010: Left-Handed Pitcher selected by the Philadelphia Phillies 27th overall in the 2010 Major League Baseball Draft.
• Sandra Boynton: Cartoonist, songwriter, and best-selling author.
• Stephen G. Cary: Commissioner for European Relief of the American Friends Service Committee after World War II (during this time the American Friends Service Committee was awarded Nobel Prize for Peace).
• Sarah Chang: Violinist. Studied at GFS but did not graduate.
• Stacy Levy: Sculptor.
• Owen Chamberlain: Discoverer of the antiproton and Nobel Laureate in Physics for 1959.
• C. West Churchman: Philosopher, System Theorist and a founding father of Management Science.
• Joan Countryman, 1958: Acting Head, Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. She was a teacher and administrator at GFS and the Lincoln School, Rhode Island, and the first African-American graduate of GFS.
• Walter Cope: Architect known for academic buildings.
• Kathryn Davis, 1964: Novelist.
• Garrett Dutton III, aka G. Love: Musician and front man of the band G. Love & Special Sauce.
• Michael Friedman, 1993: Composer.
• William Newport Goodell, 1926: Artist, craftsman and educator
• Adam Goodheart: Journalist and author.
• Nathaniel Kahn: 1981. Filmmaker. Writer and director of My Architect, a film about his father, Louis Kahn.
• Tom Myers: 1976. film sound designer at Skywalker Sound in Marin County, California. Nominated for two Academy Awards. Sound design and sound mixing for such films as: Toy Story 2, Wall-E, Cars, Up, The Dust Factory, and others.
• Santigold: Musician.
• Scott Pagano, 1996: Video artist.
• Saul Perlmutter, 1977: Astrophysicist; winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the accelerating universe.
• Sam Smith: Author, editor, journalist.
• Merrie Spaeth: Political public relations consultant; appeared in the film The World of Henry Orient while a sophomore at GFS.
• Makiko Tanaka: Japanese Foreign Minister, 2001-2002.
• Michael Grant Terry: Actor in TV show Bones, as well as other shows and films.
• Rebecca Traister: Senior Writer for Salon, author of Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women.
• Elizabeth Gray Vining: Newbery Medal winner and English tutor to Emperor Akihito of Japan during his early adolescence.
• PJ Vogt: Assistant Producer, On the Media.

Entertainment

• The main character from the TV series Twin Peaks, FBI Agent Dale Cooper, supposedly grew up in Germantown and attended Germantown Friends School (as created by director David Lynch, who spent many years in Philadelphia).

External links

• Germantown Friends School