2006-2007 Fall/Winter Directions - Friends' Central School

FEATURES – ALUMNI/AE
by Matthew Baird ’80
became interested in teaching
when I decided to switch careers.
After graduating from Haverford College, I
went to Penn for a degree in Government
Administration. For about four years after
earning my Masters degree, I worked as a
management consultant for a couple of firms
who specialized in public transportation.
Then one day, in the middle of a typically
grey Philadelphia March, I took an afternoon
off from work and had a transformative
experience.
For some reason I decided to go to Friends’ Central that
afternoon, even though I had not visited the School in some
time. It was just after dismissal, and I saw kids playing outside
in the oval waiting to be picked up by their parents. At first, I
chuckled at the contrast—the kids were happy to be outside
running around in the chilly weather, while my co-workers,
stuffed into their cubicles in an office park, most likely were
grumbling about the awful day. But then I stopped smiling
because I realized that the students, at least at this school, were
participating in a life that was much saner than the one I was
living. It struck me next that such exuberance might not be typical
of students at all schools. So I thought some more, this time
about all of the students who don’t have access to a school like
FCS or Haverford College and who don’t get to work with the
types of teachers and mentors that had influenced my life. In
that moment I decided to become a teacher.
My first step was to go back to Penn and enroll in the
Graduate School of Education. While in graduate school, I
served as a student teacher at Overbrook High School where I
was exposed to a mirror image of the privileged education that
was occurring less than a mile away at FCS. In one sense, the
process of schooling at Overbrook worked. Classes met, teachers
taught, and students learned. Apart from the classrooms of a few
teachers, however, most of what happened there paled in com-
40 DIRECTIONS Fall 2006 / Winter 2007
parison to the instruction in good independent schools. I
wasn’t used to this mechanical way of educating, and during
my free periods, instead of hiding out in the teachers’ lounge,
I gravitated to the few rooms where there was actually something
happening.
One of the things I learned by working at Overbrook
High School was that a key component of my education can
only be described as soulfulness. At Friends’ Central, it was
accepted that academic learning was only one component in
an individual’s journey, and that there was much more to
learning beyond the accumulation of facts or a portfolio of
skills. Ideally academic learning was tempered by wisdom and
human kindness. This balance was not taught at FCS in a
course called “Values”; it was simply exhibited by teachers
who cared deeply about the core principles of fairness and
tolerance. Without being conscious of it, my studies in virtue
(as the Greeks might call it) began as a four year old with
Charlotte Haskell and extended over the next fourteen years
with teachers who are too numerous to list.
There are three educators at Friends’ Central who were
critical to my later career as a teacher: Bettina Moore, Frank
Groff, and Clayton Farraday. My teacher in Pre-First, Mrs.
Moore, was a gifted educator who was especially kind and
accepting. I cannot recall very much of the year I spent with
her, but I know now, deep in my bones, that my life as a
Quaker teacher is partially a reflection of Mrs. Moore’s influence
on me.
Mr. Groff was my PE teacher for several years. I adored
him, because he taught us that athletic accomplishment must
take a back seat to a rigorous code of sportsmanship and
principled behavior. Trying your best was much more important
than winning, and an acceptance of everyone’s participation,
no matter what their ability, came before everything
else. We could sure use a few more Frank Groffs in the world
today.