Monday, June 7, 2010

Olney Graduation

Saturday saw the class of 2010 (19 students, 17 present) celebrate graduation at the Stillwater Meeting House. Friday was the annual almuni meeting at Stillwater, which is part of the graduation ceremony. Every year, the alumni meeting includes a roll call of classes. This year 13 out of the 21 from the 50th anniversary class (class of 1960) showed up and five from the class of 1940. We learned that oldest known living alumna is from the class of 1924, presumably 104, and still living independently.

When I watched commencement, the alumni meeting and, earlier in the year, Gym-Ex, I was reminded of how long it takes to build traditions and how they can't simply be replicated from scratch because they carry with them pieces of other times. I'm always impressed with the loyalty of the former students, and am glad the school has changed little and slowly, opting to keep to Quaker ways rather than embrace every new fashion.

I wish more Olneys could spring up around the country--small schools offering strong ethics, a safe community and excellent academics in a simple environment. In a time when many private (now called "independent) educational institutions (including many Quaker schools), have, like the rest of the country, followed the pattern of becoming the elite few separated from the deteriorating public sector, Olney is a refreshing reminder of an earlier time. The school offers a distinctly Quaker education in a setting that is still middle-class, not impossibly posh and elite. I really love that, and mourn that I don't know of more schools that follow this pattern.

Of course, Olney is still expensive, even with generous financial aid (though I imagine most people from the coasts would find, after aid, the entire cost of tuition and boarding less than the average Quaker day school) and the school has been pondering how to become more affordable. Perplexingly, the real cost of attending Olney has risen over time, even with salaries kept as low as possible (much compensation comes in the form of room and board) and a very careful eye on other expenses. The school will be having a summit in the fall to consider, among other things, ways to lower the cost of an education here. Those who can't participate in the summit can go to the Olney website and fill out a survey, and the school is looking for as much input as possible.

I sometimes worry that parents of potential students might be concerned that the school doesn't offer all the bells and whistles of an elite Quaker boarding school. We're struggling to put up the new activities center (gym) and in the meantime, parents drive past the old, disused tennis courts. I hope we can convey that something better is going on at the school--something more rare, more elusive, more difficult to find--than state-of-the-art buildings (though we hope soon to have a "green" gym).

While I have issues with the Harry Potter books, and know that Hogwarts is an over-used (and often false) comparison, Olney does have several things in common with the fictional boarding school. It's old, with a long tradition, and it builds strong community. Of course, it's Quaker and doesn't indulge in magic and occult. It's most like Hogwarts, to me, in not being visible to the average "muggle" eye: If you are looking for outward packaging or a particular kind of school, all you will see are old buildings and a school that doesn't offer 12 languages. It's as if it is disguised from the shallow and materialistic. But if you have the eyes to see ...

At graduation, we also saw our friend from Patapsco Meeting in Ellicott City, Ramona Buck, class of 1965. Johanna Danos, another Patapsco Meeting friend, whose son Elvin just completed his first year as an Olney student, arrived with her mother Helga, a healthy and glowing 83 year old who was much impressed, as I was, by the commencement address given by a recent humanities teacher.

As with most things in the "upside-down" kingdom, the school's financial struggles in the recent past (it almost closed a decade ago) are what have kept it true to itself. Now, however, with the economy down, the school could use more scholarship money as well as the rest of the funds for the new gym, but there's a trust that both will come as needed.

I hope the school will be more and more accessible...and that more people will be able to see that the school is an attainable goal for their children.

10 comments:

Hystery said...

Wow. Olney's tuition is more than either my husband or I make in a year. I wonder what kind of options exist for Friends with lower incomes.

Diane said...

Hystery,

There is a lot of scholarship aid available. The cost never goes to zero, but it can get very reasonable.

Diane

Jeremy Mott said...

Jeremy said, I am a graduate of Sandy Spring Friends School, class of 1963, the first graduating class. It was a different world then. Now SSFS is not really a boarding school. The few boarders go home every weekend.
In my day most were boarders. About
35 percent of the students, and many of the teachers, were Friends. Now there are almost no Quakers on the faculty. (One is
principal of the middle school, but
is moving on to Newtown Fr.School in Pa.) The school emphasizes environmental eduction, but certainly not the Quaker peace testimony as it did in my day; so
it's hard to see how it's really
a Quaker school.
My class had one African-American.
Now there are many more. In 1963
neither Baltimore Friends School or Sidwell in Washington had ever graduated an African-American. So maybe in this way the School is more Friendly than it was.
I'd say that about one third of my classmates, including several Quaker classmates, did not go
to college but went straight into work or marriage or both. SSFS
then was not just a "prep" school.
I think that this is better. I
spent most of my working life on
the railroad, and earlier I was on the staff of CCCO. I didn't need
a college education for any of this; but for the CCCO work I did need to know something about Friends. I wish there were some
way to return to the days when high
school education was all that was
expected of even the brightest, but
I guess that's just a pipe dream.
At SSFS then, we had a required course in Bible in 11th grade and
a required course in Quakerism in
12th grade; I can't imagine there's anything like that now.
The percentage of Quaker students
now is probably well under ten.
You're at a very special place, at
Olney; only Scattergood could be
much like it,, and maybe Oakwood
to some extent (but it's only half boarders now).
There are many new Quaker day schools around the country now.
They are mostly well racially inte-
grated, which is good; they usually
emphasize environmental education, which is good; some of them do some peace eduction; few of them have many Quaker teachers or Quaker students; and I'm sure that
almost all of them produce almost no convinced or active grown-up
Friends. It reminds me of SSFS.
Even in my class, only one or two
others are active as Friends now.
It's hard to see why Friends put
so much effort into these schools,
when we have so much else to do.
Jeremy Mott

Diane said...

Hi Jeremy,

Olney does good work and has kept its Quaker identity, with required Quakerism classes and collection (meeting for worship) twice a day. Your stories of SSFS in the old days sound like Olney in the past too. Olney was not then college prep. Now there is a large international contingent. I hope--and believe-- the school is continuing to graduate students who will make a difference in the world. But at the point that Quaker schools become just another playground for the rich, I agree that they have to be called into question.

Jeremy Mott said...

Jeremy suggests:
Maybe my pipe-dream might be made
real, by providing opportunites for
graduate of Friends schools ways
to go into Quaker service right after graduation. There are plenty
of ways to do this now, but I don't
think Friends schools usually know
about this or inform their students. There are especially many opportunities for young people to be bookkeepers, computer
experts, carpentsrs, truck drivers,
etc, Many Friends schools could
provide this sort of training. This
could be done if the long-talked-of Quaker Volunteer Service never gets off the ground. There is also Brethren Volunteer Service,
now more than 60 years old, with a fine variety of service opportunities nationwide and worldwide. BVS has no profession of faith and no promise of proper
sexual behavior (though one must
certainly do as the Romans do when
in the field). There is also
Americorps, the domestic Peace
Corps, a very large program, partly militarized, usually not.
Americorps service is usually rewarded with substantial college
scholarships afterwards; these
scholarships also go to some who
serve in other programs, like BVS.
After completing some years of
service in this way, a young Friend or graduate of a Friends
school would be truly prepared for college, if he or she wished.
There's some information on all this on the website of Center on
Conscience & War (which
usually has a BVS volunteer
working there), and a lot from the
Church of the Brethren offices
Elgin Illinois; of course much
from Americorps in every state.
I think it's too harsh to say
most Friends schools are simply
playgrouds for the rich; but most seem to be little more than good
prep schools; they don't teach
Bible, or Christianity, or Quakerism, or service. I will say
that Westtown, Oakwood, Carolina
Friends School, and Haverford College have been very useful to
Bolivian Quaker Education Fund,
with teacher exchanges, volunteer service for U.S. Quakers in Bolivian Friends schools, etc.
Jeremy Mott

Jeremy Mott said...

Jeremy goes on, I think almost all
the remaining Quaker boarding schools have a large international
contingent. Since many of these
students are wealthy and need no
financial aid, having these students is a good way for the schools to pay their bills. And
many people worldwide have heard of, and have respect for, Quaker
education.
My nephew graduated from Scattergood a year ago. The school, and he, have kept their
Quaker identity. Bub only as liberal Quakers, extreme liberals. He won't hear of the RSOF as a christian church, for example; one would think that we're an independent religion, as Buddhism is independent of Hinduism!
And this is in part the school's
fault. The meeting in West Branch
which the students attend is in
Iowa Y.M. (Conservative), which is
actually like an FGC yearly meeting in most ways. There is also a Friends church in town, in
Iowa Y.M. (FUM). It's a Friendly place. Twenty years or more ago, they even had an openly lesbian pastor, until the yearly meeting
(very evangelical) forced her out.
Right now they are offering a peace scholarship to young Friends
who write a good essay, on the
350th anniversary of the declaration by Friends of the Quaker Peace Testimony. It couldn't
be more unlike most churches in
Evaangelical Friends Church---East.
Yet Scattergood studentts are never taken there. Even worse, Scattergood students never have field trips to the Mesquakie Indian Reservation, only about 40
miles away, where Iowa Y.M.(FUM)
has an Indian mission---an ongoing
example of a traditional Quaker
concern. There are work camps at
Mesquakie, but Scattergood students never are part of them.
Since Olney is much better
connected to many sorts of Friends,
you're at a really special place.
My bias is clear: I grew up in
a Friends meeting that started out
and remained united; in a united
yearly Meeting (New York); I've
been a member, briefly, of two
other Friends meetings besides
Ridgewood, and they were both
united as well (Rochester and 57th St. in Chicago). Further organizational unity of this kind is clearly impossible nowadays, and no one should even propose it;
theological unity and political unity are clearly impossible, and should't even be attempted; but
spiritual unity is possible and
is what Friends need to do. Almost
everywhere outside the U.S., Friends are not bothering with theological or political debates,
but are working together in spiritual harmony. I hope that
we will follow this example. Friends in the U.S.A. are now a small and shrinking part of a growing, worldwide church; we still have a lot to give and should
proceed to try to do this.
Jeremy Mott
Roanoke, Va.
P.S.to Hystery,
You might find Olney, with financial aid, less expensive than
a Friends day school in your area (if there is one), for these schools often don't have much aid
available. It's still expensive.
Many Friends are home-schooling
nowadays; and even this is costly.

Hystery said...

There are no day schools available in our area. We home school our children, but we do so very inexpensively.

Cost is very relative. What is reasonable and affordable for some is quite out of range for others. I cannot even imagine affording a school that cost hundreds of dollars let alone thousands. Still, a good Quaker education (or at least some components of it) should be available to all Quaker kids. I'm hopeful that Friends with more financial and educational resources can assist others with children in public schools or who are educated at home. I appreciate the internet because it links me to Friends who can share their ideas with me as parents and educators.

Diane said...

Hystery,

I think about this cost problem and have been very busy the last week, but hope to discuss it more. There is the issue that for any kind of independent education is probably going to cost at least a thousand a year per student, versus zero for the public school system ... but more later.

Hystery said...

Diane,

I'd love to have a longer conversation about Quaker education with you. I know you'll have great thoughts and observations that may help me with home schooling young Friends.

Jeremy Mott said...

Diane and Hystery, Here's an idea.
Someone might try to get a little
grant from the Clarence Pickett
Fund---see website---to develop a course on Quakerism for
Quaker parents who are home-schooling their children (I think there are many of them now.) The course could also be used by any of the numerous new Quaker schools which have no Quaker teachers; but
that wouldn't be the emphasis, for Friends Council on Education already tries to help them. The
material might be based, in part,
on what Max Carter of Guilford
College has done to develop curricula on Quakerism and on world religions for the upper grades of the Friends Schools in
Ramallah in Palestine (You can
find this info in their latest newsletter on the web.) There have
got to be ways to make Quaker education less expensive, even in
the U.S.A. Jeremy Mott