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

what this means. Even in seventh grade, high school looms large.
I need to prepare them for all of the expository writing they will
have to do, and most of them think that essay writing is boring
and can’t be creative. I try to teach them that it is always creative
because it is your individual interpretation. Any essay you write
is about how you imagine the text.”
Alexa has a Virginia Woolf quote along the top of her classroom
wall that captures the interpretive stance she hopes to
encourage in her students. “Literature is no one’s private ground,
literature is common ground; let us trespass freely and fearlessly and
find our own ways for ourselves.” But she also emphasizes the
strong influence her own Quaker education has had on the way
she views the world and the way she teaches. “Lots of kids feel
that literature is beyond them. I want my students to feel that
everyone has access to literature. All you need is to trust the
power of your imagination and trust your ability to communicate
well.”
Alexa’s Quaker education also influences the emphasis she
places on using language to reach beyond the classroom. As they
practice essay writing and literary analysis, Alexa requires her students
to think about how they can use language and their ability
to communicate well to be active members of their communities.
At the beginning of every year, she talks about how important
the concept of free speech is in our society, and she tries to draw
a connection between the political or social exercise of free
speech and each student’s ability, or right, to interpret the texts
on her syllabus. Last year, she devised a mock trial as a way to
emphasize this overlap of the literary and the social or political,
and to point out all that is at stake in literature. Her students had
to craft arguments for and against the banning of a couple of
children’s books from an imaginary community. The exercise
tested their command of persuasive language and required them
to consider what type of effect a book can have in society. She
also regularly brings in newspaper and journal articles and asks
her students to write letters of response to send to the newspaper’s
editors. “Writing and literature,” she explains, “have to be
about more than just what happens to the characters in a book.
Whether we are reading a play by William Shakespeare or
responding to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, I want my
students to consider how we can use our ability to communicate
to be engaged citizens.”
im Davis has taught music and led the choral
groups at Friends’ Central for thirty-five years.
He has always known he wanted to be a teacher,
mostly because of the teachers he had as a child.
“In Junior High I used to say to myself: ‘They
look like they are having a lot of fun,’ and I
could tell that they were people who loved what
they were doing. I also admired their commitment
to their subjects and the way they related to us. I recognize
that I was a difficult eighth grader, but somehow my teachers
were able to reach past all of that and make me feel connected to
them. I admired that then, and I admire it even more now.”
Jim earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music
from West Chester University. After graduating, he took a job at
Wayne Elementary School. As fate would have it, the string
teacher at Wayne played in a chamber music group with a music
FEATURES – CURRENT FACULTY
instructor from Friends’ Central, and when a job opened up
here, Jim’s co-worker encouraged him to pursue it. Without this
encouragement, Jim probably would never have looked into
teaching at an independent school, but he believes that being
here has enabled him to fulfill his vision of good teaching. “Here
I am surrounded by a faculty committed to making themselves
available to kids, and I work in a school committed to supporting
music as part of the curriculum.”
One of the things Jim is most pleased about is the way the
music program has expanded during his time here. When he
started, there was one chorus, one orchestra, and the option for
private lessons. Now Friends’ Central has Upper School, Middle
School, and fifth grade choruses, six singing groups, two orchestras,
two jazz bands, and
opportunities to play
chamber music. There
are also course offerings
in music and still the
chance for private lessons.
“Music has a place
in the cultural life of the
School,” Jim says, “and
this is important,
because music gives kids
access to a unique emotional
language. Music
stirs them. After a concert,
there are always kids
weeping, because we’ve
created a world in which
we’ve shared our emotions.
It is a very power-
Jim Davis
ful connection to share a breath and express emotions for which
we otherwise might not have words.”
Jim believes that participation in the music program also
complements the individualism the school supports. “Friends’
Central does a fantastic job at encouraging individual thought
and expression, but there is also a significant value to all of us
learning how we fit together. Music, like sports, helps us figure
this out.” The fact that Jim would compare chorus to soccer, for
instance, is not without a certain amount of irony. The athletic
teams and the music groups have to share the limited time students
have after school, and the relationship is not always easy.
But Jim is clear that just like playing on a team, singing in a chorus
or playing in the orchestra requires that a person subvert his
or her individuality for the good of the group. “It is an important
bonding experience and an important lesson in how to build
strong communities.”
One of Jim’s greatest rewards has been the chance to welcome
former students back to campus. “I wanted to be my high school
music teacher,” he says, “and so just the other year, I made sure I
wrote to him and let him know where I had ended up. As a
teacher, I have learned how important this is. You never know
what connections you are making, and I, for one, am always
wondering if everything I teach is just dissipating. So the best
feeling for me is when one of my students goes out and makes a
career in music, and then wants to come back and share it. Then
I really feel the bliss of teaching.”
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