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WEEK of November 12, 2007
@BFS! archives

Ninety Years Ago at Brooklyn Friends School: A Focus on Fresh Air, Pacifism, and Student Self-Government

by John R. Martin and Susan Price ’86

The “Teens” were a decade of great change both in our world and at Brooklyn Friends School. The United States became the most highly industrialized country in the world, the first moving assembly line began, motion pictures flourished, labor unions grew, the Jazz Age began, women fought for the right to vote, and, of course, Great War, World War I, began in 1914. It was a changing world, one in which the United States and the world came of age, and one might say the same of BFS.

From 1910 to 1913, under Principals Edward B. Rawson (below left) and Nancy J. Adams, BFS grew from 158 students to 200. Students could enter the BFS kindergarten at the tender age of 3-1/2 years and continue their education, uninterrupted, through their entrance to college. The Upper School, in its earliest years, offered an excellent curriculum by anyone’s standards. As noted in the Friends School circular of 1918-19, “Our graduates are received without examinations by those colleges that admid on certificate, but n pupil will be recommended for college who has not shown the serious devotion to scholarship necessary for creditable college work.”

During this time, the importance of outdoor education and fresh air was on the minds of our families. The public school system had begun outdoor education and the same was wanted at BFS. Our school was equipped with outdoor classrooms in 1912 for students of all ages. While Upper School students may have studied French on an informally arranged set of chairs, our Lower School outdoor classrooms were more traditional. Even though the classrooms shared some characteristics with tents, they had chairs, desks, tables, blackboards, and cots for naptime. During winter, students sat with their legs in bags for additional warmth. The outdoor classrooms, and leg bags, were used at BFS through the 1920s and seem to have been phased out by 1935.

Possibly as a result of the fresh air movement in education, the Teens were also when physical education grew in importance. Although BFS did provide for exercise in its early years, 1910 saw the hire of a new physical instructor, Guy C. Carr, who resurrected competitive sports from the ash-heap. Boys were the focus in those days: our Boys’ Athletic Trophy was first given in 1915, while our Girls’ Athletic Trophy was established in 1925.

One of the last acts of Principal Edward B. Rawson was the creation of an organization for student government in 1913. While student councils are standard practice at most schools today, this was a radical idea during the Teens. BFS students approached Rawson, expressing their interest in governing themselves and he saw merit in their request. Rawson and BFS students drew up a charter outlining how school rules were to be proposed and enforced by our students. In one form or another, students at BFS have had this privilege ever since.

When John Carver (above right, with his wife) became principal in the fall of 1913, he inherited an established and thriving institution. The groundwork was laid, the country was prosperous and peaceful, and Carver’s role was to further enlarge and mold BFS. He was up to the challenge. The school grew from 200 in 1913 to 287 in 1917 when Carver left to become principal of both BFS and Friends Seminary. Carver was a firm believer in the importance of physical education and under his administration, the school leased the athletic fields at the end of Grace Court and built a new gymnasium. Even school catalogues reflected Carver’s beliefs: “Because vigorous moral growth is difficult without a sound physical equipment, we put Health first in our education scheme.” The improvement our physical education program was not Carver’s only contribution to BFS: although both had existed before, it was during Carver’s years that our theater program and student newspaper truly began to take shape and gain importance at BFS.

Most importantly, Carver was our principal when the US entered WWI; BFS students and adults were not ignorant of the Great War raging in Europe. Quaker ideals told Brooklyn Friends and Friends around the country that pacifism was the best way to deal with war. Pacifism may have been the preference for Friends, but what to do or think about the war was not. A renowned Quaker leader of the time, Rufus Jones, was quoted as saying that “When the great war burst upon the world in the summer of 1914, Friends in America were not spiritually prepared to give an adequate interpretation of the ground and basis of their faith, nor were they clearly united upon a plan of action suited to and correspondent with their ‘ideals in life.’”

As principal, Carver recognized the situation facing the young men and women of both BFS and FS and felt that they must be readily prepared for the real world that they would soon be entering. Carver declared that “Every school is a training camp and every lesson, every lecture, every period of study is a drill” and he believed that “The honor of America and the welfare of the world will depend upon how the young men and young women of our country face their stupendous tasks.”

Carver, a Quaker himself, felt that Friends could no longer remain passive on the issue of the War and many agreed. However, most Friends wanted to remain pacifists in their actions towards the war. In April 1917, days after the United States entered the war, a group of Quakers met in Philadelphia to discuss the impending military draft. The group decided that instead of sending young men and women over to Europe to fight, they could be sent there to help aid the civilian victims of the war.

In light of that meeting, the American Friends Service Committee was founded. According to their website, afsc.org, “American Friends Service Committee is a practical expression of the Faith of the Religious Society of Friends. Committed to the principles of nonviolence and justice, it seeks in its work and witness to draw on the transforming power of love, human and divine.”

The American Friends Service Committee wasted no time in lending its hand to the people suffering in Europe during World War I. Hundreds of young men and women helped feed and care for young refugee children in France, often rebuilding homes and providing the necessities needed for these refugees to begin their lives again. While World War I ended in 1918, the AFSC’s commitment to helping people did not: the committee went to Russia to help victims of famine and disease and they also went to Poland and Serbia to establish an orphanage and help aid agriculture, as well as to Germany and Austria to feed hungry children. Additionally, AFSC worked tirelessly helping US citizens stricken by poverty, notably during the Depression. The AFSC began working for racial justice in 1925 and this important work continues to this day. At BFS, students and adults have actively helped the AFSC in its efforts since its inception – from knitting for soldiers to working with the underserved in AFSC work camps.

In 1947, 300 years of efforts to make peace and help those in need led to the Quakers receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. The American Friends Service Committee and the British Friends Service Council came together to accept the award on behalf of all Quakers. For 90 years, the American Friends Service Committee has helped people in times of need around the world. As members of the Brooklyn Friends community, we are proud of this group’s dedication to the Quaker ideals that this very school was built on. The AFSC is still very active today in a number of issues, including the war in Iraq, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Immigrants’ Rights, and LGBT Rights and Recognition. If you are interested in any of these topics, want to help the AFSC or just want to learn more, visit their website at afsc.org. As Friends, we all must do our best to help bring the ideals of peace to people around the world.