Do You See What I See?

 

Scenes from student work in Germantown keep replaying in my mind from this spring. I wish I had them all on video to share. A few of the highlights were: the Germantown Poetry Festival in Vernon Park, baking for the Fashion Show fundraiser, litter pick-ups around the campus and around the block, community garden work, learning sign language at the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, collaborative drama classes and rehearsals with Germantown High School students, Middle School volunteers at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club day care center, collecting clothing for the Whosoever Gospel Mission, hosting Senior partners from Center in the Park, making sandwiches and delivering them to Holsey Temple across the street. The list continues and evolves a little each year. Of special note was the tenth grade’s all-grade community work day which was organized by an incredible team of students this year: Lily Gold, Matilda David, Shelby Tucker, and Zoe Groomes-Klotz. They did a phenomenal job of setting up work sites (a total of ten different projects) assigning students to sites, arranging for transportation and even ordering snacks for the end of the day.

 

Reverend Bob Emberger from the Whosoever Gospel Mission addressed the tenth grade that morning. He told us how he sees things others do not always see. He talked about his childhood when he saw the dust motes in the sunbeams and his classmates didn’t. He drew an analogy with the work he does at the Mission, helping men who are trying to pull their lives together again. He can see both the needs and the potential in people.

 

Bob Emberger’s notion of "Seeing what others can’t always see" has stayed with me all spring. It fits beautifully with our Quaker belief that we each have something to share in our corporate search for truth. To be able to share what we see, it takes a special set of circumstances, special tools, and practice. A recent example of this was the Upper School Community Action Committee’s Fashion Show fundraiser. They titled it "Fashion For Action." Students perceived a need in the community: to assist the Whosoever Gospel Mission in rebuilding after their devastating fire. The committee met often to brainstorm ideas for how to best pull off a fashion show. They combined artistic expression with collaborative problem-solving, pounded many pavements and clocked many hours to pull off a brilliant and successful show which rasied $2,000 for the Mission.

 

This was a powerful example of students "seeing", then sharing and taking action. Other student groups and classes have been working all year with this same formula. It works.

 

Insight can be orchestrated, according to Malcolm Gladwell in his article, "In the Air: Who Says Big ideas are Rare?" in the May 12 New Yorker magazine. He says that "Good ideas are out there for anyone with the wit and the will to find them which is how a group of people can sit down to dinner, put their minds to it, and end up with eight single-spaced pages of ideas." Pulling people together to work together is the joy of Germantown Friends Community Involvement. As we begin to value relationship-building in the community, our sense of Neighborhood and City grows. Every year in June I look back on the year in amazement at how far the students (and I) have grown.

 

It’s been a wonderful year of generous giving, fellowship, dedicated work, and great ideas.

 

I want to thank all of our students, teachers, staff, and, in particular, all of our parent volunteers who helped us with community projects this year. You helped us to "see" the world from many different perspectives. Thank you.

 

Still to come: June 5 and 6, Senior Community work days. Would you like to help chaperone? Give me a call at 215-951-2325.