One of the wonderful things about sending your kids to a Quaker school is that the whole family becomes part of a community. Sandy Spring Friends School’s community is caring, diverse, opinionated, innovative, motivated and talented. We practice a type of decision making that has its roots in Quaker tradition. Betsy Meyers, a member of our Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting, described our governance in the most beautiful way. I wanted to share it with our school community.
From an essay by Betsy Meyers, Presiding Clerk of Baltimore Yearly Meeting:
Quaker business meetings are different from other decision-making forums in our culture. Indeed they are counter-cultural. Our culture tells us to be strong advocates for our position, to speak forcefully and persuasively and to win arguments. But for Quaker process to work, each Friend must put aside the secular notion of winning and be willing to seek the Truth in community, expecting to meet the Divine. Rather than asserting personal power by strong advocacy, Friends lift up pieces of Truth as they are revealed. We listen for the ring of Truth, and the quiet voice which speaks from the heart often is the one which shows us the way forward. Because of the nature of our work together, it is important that we make our business meetings places of sanctuary where Friends feel that they may safely raise concerns and speak from their hearts without fear of subtle ridicule from those who may disagree. Thus, we all must be especially mindful to speak with kindness in our meetings. With so many of our decisions, the outcome of our deliberations matters less than how much we love each other in the process.