The Friends School of Atlanta

Bringing forward more than 329 years of excellence in Quaker Education

Jan 09 2023

Alumni Spotlight featuring Morgan Phillips-Spotts

Stories are at the heart of FSA, moments that we feel seen, places we’ve been, the people we’ve loved and who have influenced us. This month’s Alumni Spotlight is about just that, meet Morgan Phillips-Spotts, Class of 2001. Morgan, seen here with her brother, shared about her experiences at FSA and how that has shaped her company, Momo’s Book Club. 

Momo’s Book Club is a subscription book club for kids that’s designed to make a child’s home library as diverse as the world. 

How do you think FSA helped you find your voice? As weird as it sounds, silent meetings. I started attending silent meetings when I was 5 and I remember there were a couple that went off the rails (I think there was one where we talked about frogs for a while). There was a lot of joy and laughter in those but the biggest thing is that the teachers didn’t course correct. I kept waiting for an adult to tell us to stop but that didn’t happen. They let us have this moment about frogs. Silent meeting gave me the courage to express my thoughts and my teachers gave me the space to do so.

What is your favorite memory from FSA? Most of first grade. Linda and Diana made that whole year so great. This was the year we found Shelly and she became our class turtle. We had a leprechaun come to visit and the classroom got turned all around and then we got extra recess and then a scavenger hunt to find the treasure left for us. I think this year was part of the reason I really love the storytelling aspect of theater. We were reading “The Witches” and at the beginning the narrator is describing what a witch looks like and then adds “it may even be your teacher reading this to you right now.” and then Linda looked up at us and then went back to reading and we immediately ran down the list she just gave just to confirm. I remember us complaining that we were tired in the afternoons after lunch (no more naps for 1st grade) and they added a quiet time with carpet squares if you wanted to rest or read at a table. It felt great to be listened to. Little things like this made that year really fun for me.

The SPICES (Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, Stewardship) are deeply ingrained into all aspects of teaching, helping kids build empathy, understanding, and allowing them to build what each of these is to themselves and their community. 

How did the SPICES come into play in that mission? I think equality and community have the biggest impact on Momo’s Book club because true equality would be seeing all types of people on your bookshelves, showing kiddos that other people who aren’t exactly  like them can be the heroes of a story too. And that we’re all part of a global community so let’s take the time to walk in someone else’s shoes for a bit.

What is your favorite book in the club/ or a book that had an impact on you as a child? It’s hard to pick a favorite but I think City Green is one of my favorites. It’s about a little girl who brings her block together by creating a community garden in the vacant lot next door. It’s a good read!

Momo’s Book Club

Written by saraperez · Categorized: Community Impact, News · Tagged: alumni spotlight, community, small business

Nov 07 2022

Everyone Deserves to be the Main Character

middle school libraryBy my second or third year of teaching Language Arts at FSA, I’d become pretty familiar with the books in my classroom. I had spent a lot of time organizing them, taking out volumes that were damaged, and generally making sure that the books were available to students not just as classroom books but as usable library books. I’d gotten pretty good at pointing students towards books that they might want to read, helping them to find stories that reflected their interests, or showing them new possible interests.

One student, however, was stumping me. They were an avid reader, and they liked romance stories, but they kept rejecting the books I suggested to them. Finally, the student told me the problem. “I don’t like reading romances,” they said, “because they’re all based on heterosexual people.”

This statement floored me.

I knew that romances and other stories that focused on LGBTQIA+ characters existed. Yet I could not name one book in our current library with that characteristic.

Here in front of me, I had a student who loved books and who loved to read, and I couldn’t successfully share stories with them because they didn’t see themselves in the books on our shelves. Their enjoyment for books was significantly damaged because they were tired of reading books that only represented the heterosexual norm.

This conversation made me wonder about the representation in the books I’d read as a student. Had I ever read a book about LGBTQIA+ characters? I could only name one gay relationship in a book: Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood from the Mortal Instruments series, which I hadn’t read until after high school. Alec and Magnus are two of my favorite characters in the series, but they are side characters. And were they the very first gay couple I’d ever read about? It’s entirely possible that they were, that I had gone through the entirety of high school and not seen gay people represented in a book.

My discovery made me question even more. Had I ever read a book with a main character on the cover who was Latina? Had I ever read a book where the main Latina character had a Latino dad and a white mom? Had I ever read a book where one of the Latina character’s main joys was playing lotería at her grandmother’s on weekends? Had I ever seen any books about Latinx people at all that weren’t about drugs or gangs or struggles?

In short: Had I ever had the chance to see myself in the stories I read?

The answer, I feared, was a resounding “no.”

When I transitioned from being the Language Arts teacher in charge of books to the Middle School librarian, I knew that more than anything, I wanted my library to be a place where students from different places and identities could find something that they loved. But that wasn’t going to be possible if students from different places and identities were not represented in the books we had.

Since my conversation with that student, my goal for our Middle School library has been to incorporate books in which students can see themselves. I sought out books that had Black children doing magic on the covers and Latinx children playing soccer. I looked for graphic novels by Gene Leun Yang, a prominent American-Chinese author, and removed books from our space that had outdated and offensive portrayals of Indigienous Peoples. I added books that feature students who aren’t neurotypical or able bodied, and I made sure that all of our stories about diversity weren’t just stories of violence or struggle.

Having a diverse library doesn’t just help students who are part of a minority group. Diverse literature helps everyone to see that there are so very many people in the world and that one way of thinking isn’t the only way. For too long, the standard of literature has been that of white male authors, and while such books can carry value, there are so many other perspectives available to us. Reading is about opening minds and learning new things, and reading books by the same kinds of people about people who look the same limits not only a student’s potential to learn, but also a student’s potential to love what they’re reading.

Students from every identity deserve to see themselves in the books they’re reading. They deserve to think of themselves as the main characters, worthy of a cover, and not just a side character or comic relief.

Today, in my 7th year at FSA, I have students in my library constantly. They come in every day and find something new to love, and if we don’t have something they can connect with, I make it my job to try and get it for them.

One of our newest, and one of my favorite shelves in our library right now, is our LGBTQIA+ fiction section. It’s small, still growing, but it is unapologetic. I think of that student from my 2nd or 3rd year and the conversation we have every time I see it. 

My biggest hope for our library is that every student will get the chance to feel welcomed, seen, and loved in this space.

 

by Yvonne Rodriguez

If you would like to send a book to the Middle School Library the dream list is here.

Written by saraperez · Categorized: Classroom Stories, News, School Culture · Tagged: community, library stories, Middle School, middle school library, representation

Sep 01 2022

Accepting applications!

private school decatur

The Friends School of Atlanta is still accepting applications for the 22-23 school year.  We cannot, however, extend the deadline of February 7 for financial aid applications. If you have an interest in applying for this school year or next, please find more information on the Admissions pages of this website or email Alexis Garrett, Director of Enrollment, with your questions. Also, our social media platforms offer great information on the life and values of the school. If you haven’t already done so, please follow us on Facebook  and Instagram. Instagram, especially, has a “day in the life” campaign going that will give you a good idea of our classroom experiences.

To apply, please follow the steps detailed on our Admissions page. Thank you for your interest in The Friends School of Atlanta!

Written by Nancy Bent · Categorized: News, Uncategorized

Jul 18 2022

Walking the Halls

Walking through the halls in the last weeks of school tells a story in a way only walls can. The bulletin boards that line the walls create the pages in our yearbook, reminding us of projects, conversations and of the tiny moments that got us to summer. 

independent schools atlanta

We spent this year in masks, reacting to lists of banned books, saying GAY, protecting our trans kids, honoring changing pronouns, Covid testing on Fridays, learning how to support humans in war torn Ukraine, talking about global warming, researching famous Black Atlantans, digging into SEE learning and having hard conversations. We learned consonant blends, released trout into the south river, celebrated birthday circles, made care kits for unhoused humans, and built timelines of famous Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC). 

We have spent 180 days together. In a time of chaos we tried to be steady, we made safe spaces, we discussed racism and how to be anti-racists. We practiced our cursive and learned our multiplication tables, had sewing circles where we discussed water protectors and how to advocate for marginalized communities. We have gathered on Friday mornings to sit in silence and hold in the light…ultimately holding each other. 

independent middle school atlanta
independent schools atlanta
independent schools atlanta

Walking these halls at the end of this year there are stories of civil rights leaders, definitions of words associated with the topic of antisemitism, art reflecting stories and people from around the world and the moments that taught us more about ourselves than we knew 180 days ago. 

by Sara Perez

Written by saraperez · Categorized: Classroom Stories, News

Apr 15 2022

The 7th Grade Banned Books Project

Banned books
7th Grade Language Arts Students Examine Frequently Banned Books


The project begins with a pile of books.

I spend an afternoon collecting volumes from various shelves in our Middle School library–science fiction, dystopia, graphic novels, modern fiction, fantasy, classics; titles that range from Bridge to Terabithia to To Kill a Mockingbird. I gather them together, and the sheer number of books makes an impressive display. Around the room, the library shelves look noticeably depleted. 

At the start of the lesson, I invite my Language Arts students to look through the books, to touch them and to reflect on how many of the books they are already familiar with and how many they’re just seeing for the first time. When they sit back down, I ask them what the books have in common, looking for a particular answer. Mostly, students will give answers that relate to the genre of the books, their themes, or the fact that they belong to our library. After several minutes, I change the question. I ask them: “What if I told you that these are books that you were never, ever allowed to read? What if I told you I was gathering these books to destroy them?”

 Then, very close to the pages, I light a match.

Students will gasp, scream, exclaim “No!”, sit with shock on their faces. Sometimes they’ll start to physically get up out of their chairs to come stop me. One year, a student let me know that they would hide all of the books and never let me touch them again. It usually takes a few minutes to calm them down and convince them that I really have safely put out the match, and that I promise we won’t really be harming these books.

It’s easy after that for students to name the main thing the books in the pile have in common: they have all, at some point in their history, been banned or challenged.

It is an intense lesson, one that leaves students randomly exclaiming throughout the day about the unfairness of such an unfathomable concept as banning books. I also feel it is one of the most meaningful lessons I share with students each year.

For this unit, I lead the students through unpacking some of the history and justifications behind book banning. We talk together about the era of Nazi book burnings, and look through archival imagery of children not any older than my students participating in the bonfires with smiles on their faces. We examine word clouds that show the most common reasons books are banned in the US each year. Finally, students choose a banned book and spend some time researching why it has been banned and where.

Sometimes the reasons for banning seem silly or vague, such as Watership Down being banned for containing talking animals or The Lord of the Rings being banned for being “satanic.” It doesn’t take very long, though, to find books in the list like And Tango Makes Three, an illustrated children’s book which was banned for its depiction of two male penguins raising an egg together. In several schools in California, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax has been banned because of its negative representation of the logging industry, an industry that makes up a sizable portion of California’s economy. In China, the result of citizens creating satirical depictions of China’s president, likening him to the title character in Winnie the Pooh, resulted in a ban of that story. 

The more carefully you look, the more it becomes clear that book banning is about control. And while it’s easy to look back on Nazi book burnings and imagine them as a thing of the past, we cannot ignore that a conservative pastor led a book burning for “occultic” books  in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee on February 2, 2022. We cannot ignore that in November of 2021, the Moms for Liberty group in New Hampshire offered a $500 bounty to any student or parent who turned in a teacher for the teaching of “‘divisive subjects,’ such as critical race theory, racism, sexism, or ‘injustice against marginalized groups.’” We cannot ignore the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill that recently passed in Florida that limits “when and how teachers and school staff can discuss gender and sexual orientation in the classroom.” The more carefully you look, the more it becomes clear that book banning is about silencing diverse voices and limiting what students can read, what they can learn, and how they can think.

There is active legislation across our country and in our very state of Georgia working to keep diverse books out of student hands. Book banning is a very real and current danger.

Students deserve to see themselves reflected in the books they read. They deserve the chance to learn to think for themselves, and not for the agenda of an elite few. So when our project is done, I hang up the students’ work so that others can see and learn from it. 

Then, very carefully,  I put the books back on the shelves.

By:

Yvonne Rodriguez

Lead Teacher and Middle School Librarian

Sources:
Gaynor, Jessie. “A Right-Wing Pastor Held a Literal Book-Burning in Tennessee Last Night.” People’s World
Gruenberg, Mark. “Aft Hits Right-Wing Bounty Offer Targeting NH Teachers.” People’s World
Hernandez, Joe. “Florida House Passes Controversial Measure Dubbed the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill by Critics.” NPR

Written by saraperez · Categorized: Classroom Stories, News

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