On Friday, October 26, a group of Friends Select students will be performing at the Franklin Institute from 4:45 - 6:15 p.m. as part of the Parkway Soirée. Join us for their musical performance, and enjoy all of the free festivities that will be taking place that evening in celebration of the 100th birthday of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

The year 2019 is significant for Friends Select School as it will mark our building’s 50th anniversary. It’s an important occasion for us to reflect upon the conversations, deliberations, consultation, and decision of our Friends Select leaders in the 1960s to solidify our current location at 17th and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Their careful planning enabled us to remain in the city and of the city.

At Friends Select, we are able to enjoy the many benefits of running an athletic program in the middle of Center City. 

The school is ever closer to its ideal of delivering on its mission. To be in the city and of the city, to be more equitable and inclusive, to prepare students for the whole of life. We are in a state of great change, and yet a state of great stability. Our foundation is as firm as ever, as we are building up and out and across and with each other.

I’m excited to be entering my second year at Friends Select School as the Middle School Director. I love the middle school years—the dynamism, the seeking, the flowering of possibilities. I’m particularly excited by our Middle School, and some of the new things that will be rolling out this year that will give our students increased opportunities for agency and further strengthen an already strong and warm community.

Quakers believe that new truth is constantly being revealed to those who seek it, and that each new bit of understanding helps us create a more developed picture of the whole. For us as educators in a Quaker school, continuing revelation is what drives us forward in refining our teaching craft. There are always new understandings to be developed, and this is what keeps us energized and fresh year after year. One could say we are never done, nor should we be.