Princeton Friends School

A visit to Princeton Friends School If you want to see a state of the art school with 130 students k-8th grade, this is it. It began in the late 80s. I taught there in the early 90s when it was 3 years old - walked in and said this will become a remarkable school, and Ernie Boyer at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in his book Basic School, a community of learning thought so too. This school has such a profound sense of respect and encouragement for each and every student. The attitude is projected from the top by Jane Fremon, the director. There is a beginning school of 4's and 5's, then the advisories are identified by age or grades 2nd and 3rd, 4th and 5th, 6th -8th. I advised an advisory of 3rd through 6th graders. I also taught everything as elementary teachers often do with drama, Central Study, Math and PE. With a class of 4th through 8th graders in PE I thought it would be a challenge. How could I teach a gifted athlete who is raging to show off how to play with a clumsy non-athletic 4th grader? I asked him to take up a challenge. "You're good" I said, "if you can get that 4th grader to score a soccer goal. You must coach a young newby in soccer to follow you up and you'll be the assist for his scoring -- then you're good." He accepted that challenge and learned to respect that younger athlete too. The school is designed around the library which has risers to sit on in front of the books as a place to read. There is the big room for all school gatherings for Friday folk dance, singing, and meeting. It now has a playground and basketball court, but that all came after 1997. The core of the school is the amazing faculty. The courtesy, respect and time spent to instill a wonder about the world is palpable. princetonfriendsschool.org can give you some understanding and pictures. Here are a few of their programs: canoe trips to the New JerseyPine Barrons to learn about brackish water and ecology, an annual trip to Guatemala with a sister school there a trip to Kentucky for a folk dancing festival sometimes. Richard Fischer produces a math problem of the week that includes information about mathematicians and encourages parents and student collaboration toward work, study and play with the problem; sometimes its games pr designs. Each student gets a schedule to follow. Each student has an advisor, but also goes from class to class to follow central study: this year work and play, other years Walls and Bridges, or Rivers -- a topic that is discussed and read about and studied in metaphor, non-fiction, fiction, science and throughout the curriculum; devised in a customized fashion by the entire faculty. I had an amazing day watching students love being there because the entire staff loved being there. If you're interested I can tell you more details of the classes I attended. write back