"We prepare students to engage in the world that is and to help bring about a world that ought to be."
Sacred Spaces
Utilizing the City as Our Classroom
Third graders are participating in Sacred Spaces: Understanding Religious and Spiritual Traditions of Our NYC Neighbors. The curriculum, which was designed by Third Grade teachers and Lower School administrators and launched last year, focuses on visiting places of worship in New York City. During a series of day trips, the students observe architecture, listen to stories and music, ask questions and identify intersections of peace, community, service and sanctuary. Utilizing New York City as an extension of the classroom challenges children to seek a deeper understanding of others.
The study begins with a close observation of our own Quaker Meetinghouse. Children learn about the history of the sacred space and its relevance in the neighborhood. Sitting in silence and focusing on an aspect of the sanctuary, children sketch what they observe, then write a reflection in their journals. Community members are invited on these trips to help children make meaningful connections, and to answer questions. This process is then repeated at all of the places visited, including Brotherhood Synagogue in Gramercy, the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, Islamic Cultural Center Mosque on the Upper East Side, the Kadampa Meditation Center in Chelsea, and the Ganesh Hindu Temple in Queens. New this year, thought leaders from these communities are invited to attend Lower School Meeting for Worship.
Work on this exciting and relevant curriculum has been a collaboration among the Grade 3 teachers — Linda Chu, Courtney Rezler and Katie Fitzpatrick — and Lower School administrators — Head of Lower School, John Evans and Assistant Head of Lower School, Kelly Grimmett — along with many parents, faculty and friends from the Friends community and the communities the students visit.
Friends Seminary actively promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism in all its programs and operations, including admissions, financial aid, hiring, and all facets of the educational experience. To form a community which strives to reflect the world’s diversity, we do not discriminate on the basis of race or color, religion, nationality, ethnicity, economic background, physical ability, sex, gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation. Friends Seminary is an equal opportunity employer.
Friends Seminary — the oldest continuously operated, coeducational school in NYC — serves college-bound day students in Kindergarten-Grade 12.
