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

Head of School
David M. Felsen
Editor
Rebecca H. Anderson
Director of Communications
Contributing Writers
Connie Burgess Lanzl ’68
Harvey Zendt
Matthew Baird ’80
Mary Ann Sheldon
The students of
Chemistry II Advanced
Proofreader
Laura Novo
Design
Yoonsun Chung
Ad Layout & Design
Yoonsun Chung
Valley Press
Printing
Smith-Edwards-Dunlap
Directions is published twice a
year by the Development
Office of Friends’ Central
School. We welcome any
comments, letters, photographs,
and suggestions for
future issues. Please send all
communications to:
Editor
Directions
Friends’ Central School
1101 City Avenue
Wynnewood, PA 19096
randerson@friendscentral.org
Visit Friends’ Central
on the web at
www.friendscentral.org
ALUMNI/AE, WE WANT TO
HEAR FROM YOU!
Have you published a book
recently? Run a marathon?
Had a baby?
FCS encourages friends to share
their news with Directions.
E-mail your notes and photos to
alumni@friendscentral.org
(preferable method) or mail
information to the Development
Office, 1101 City Avenue,
Wynnewood, PA 19096. Please
mark the back of prints with
your name and class year.
Digital images must be of high
quality (28" x 21" at 72 dpi, or
4" x 6" at 300 dpi). We accept
photos up to 2MB.
Dear Friends:
Editor’s Note
FROM THE EDITOR
I’ll never forget the thrill of my first experience as a
teacher. I was five; my rapt student, my sister, was three.
The lesson was geography, and equipped with only a
box of crayons and our white playroom wall, I brought
that lesson to life. I outlined the states in different colors;
I filled in mountains, lakes, and forests. I sketched
tall buildings for the cities and silos for farms. It was a
dazzling performance that my mother utterly failed to
appreciate and I was ordered never to repeat.
But I did go on to teach—literature and writing, not
geography, to much older students—and to use a blackboard
and chalk for my notes. I remember that the energy
it took to engage my students sometimes made me
feel as if I stood on the other side of a thick, impenetrable
wall—maybe even a one-way mirror. At other times,
the spark of a true connection, or the hum that accompanied
an unexpected insight, were incomparably
thrilling. But no other teaching moment was as effortless
Rebecca H. Anderson
as that first one!
The years I spent teaching, as well as my own experiences as a student, have left me with a deep
and abiding appreciation for the commitment—both personal and professional—that teachers
make. There are few more demanding, more rewarding, and more important jobs than that of
being a teacher. It is true: good teachers can change lives.
This issue of Directions is focused on teachers—the pulse of any strong academic institution.
The work of putting it together has provided me with a very thorough introduction to the past,
present, and future of Friends’ Central. Throughout it all, I have been most struck by two
things: the instinct for conversation, reciprocity, and attentiveness that characterizes our faculty
and alumni/ae, and the abundance of intellectual and creative energy that defines our community.
I only wish I had more pages to fill!
It has also been a pleasure to keep on top of all the activity on our campuses. This fall has been
full and rich. There have been walls covered with art, rooms full of music, classes collaborating
on lessons, younger children working with older children, athletic championships, and national
academic recognition. I hope that as you read this issue you will feel the vitality of our school. It
is a privilege to be a part of this community.
Sincerely:
Rebecca H. Anderson
Director of Communications
DIRECTIONS Fall 2006 / Winter 2007 3