In honor of this 75th anniversary year of the Friends Council on Education, we are featuring highlights of evolving leadership and services in sustaining the spirit in Friends schools. Check back regularly for highlights celebrating the Council's evolving services.

We have begun digging into the Friends Council archives and gathering stories from Friends Council elders to compile an accurate and meaningful historical narrative. A morning adventure to the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College led to reading the diaries of Hadassah M. Leeds, one of the founders of the Friends Council on Education. Her beautiful diaries, given to the library by her daughters, Mary Leeds Johnson and Esther Leeds Cooperman, were kept with diligence and care. In the entry for December 8, 1930, we discovered this description:

I worked on the seating for this evening — then dressed and went over to Friends’ Central. We fixed the flowers on the table and then met the guests — a group of Quaker educators. Then George Walton [Head, George School, 1912-1948] and President Aydelotte [President, Swarthmore College 1921-1939] spoke leading the discussion on whether we need a Quaker Education Council or not — to be composed of representatives from all the schools and colleges. The committee was approved. I had to act as chairman and dreaded it, but did not mind when we got at it! Really had a lovely and I hope successful evening.

In 1931, Hadassah M. Leeds, chair of the newly established Committee of Education of Friends General Conference, in leadership partnership with her husband, Morris E. Leeds, chair of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Education Council, worked with educators to found the “Quaker Educational Council.” The aims of the Council were:

• To develop the feeling of friendliness and mutual understanding among our institutions;
• To impress upon the schools and colleges the importance of reverence for the truth and respect for the divine element in each person, students and teacher alike.
In Friends education today, as a united network of Friends schools, we continue to bring reverence for the truth and respect for the divine element in each person to our students, their families, and the world outside of Friends education. The Council has a strong function

as the organizing force for developing and sharing Quaker values-based pedagogy and spreading it widely. We agree with the words of a donor, “This is the time to be our quiet selves in a very loud way.”

Please join the 75th anniversary celebrations in June 2006 at the George School. We invite you for a special Friends Council reception on Thursday, June 22, 4:30 p.m. followed by dinner and a “loud” celebratory program. I look forward to seeing you there.

Irene McHenry, Executive Director