Pages tagged "education"

Dear Editor: Thank you for the Jan/Feb 2017 issue, “On Competition.” Each of the articles gave me something new to think about. I know Jay Thatcher, so I especially enjoyed what he had written. But aside from the personal connection, I found his essay, “Prophets on the Field of Play,” profound. Weeks later, I continue to re-read it and think about his ideas.

Dear Editor: Thank you so much for your work. With grandchildren who do not attend Quaker meeting, I especially appreciate the section for young people to share.

Artists and poets are fond of irony and William H. Matchett is no exception. The title of his selected poems refers to an editor who commented in 1872 that Emily Dickinson’s poems reminded him “of air plants that have no roots in the earth.” Well, I would note that there are at least two levels of irony here: Dickinson’s poems are deeply rooted in her New England soil of hymns, history and experience; and Matchett’s poems are deeply rooted in his location outside of Seattle, Washington, overlooking a fiord and the Olympic Mountains. In fact, exploring the irony even further, one of the underlying themes of these selected poems is Matchett’s deeply rooted celebration of place, including its geography, biology, birds, soil, plants, and their meanings.

This delightful book by Nancy L. Haines, with illustrations by Anne E.G. Nydam, would be a good addition to any Friends Meeting library. Drawing on the experience of Wellesley Meeting with junior meeting for business, the slim volume offers clear information about Quaker decision-making.

Dear Friends: This year my meeting, Phoenix Monthly Meeting, decided to sponsor a Bolivian university student for three years, at $750 per year, through the Bolivian Quaker Education Fund. (See bqef.org .) This decision came after we seasoned the idea in our Peace and Social Concerns Committee and with interest from our First Day School. This expenditure – of an annual “beca” or scholarship – is now the largest item in our budget, other than property expenses.

Here's a job for a detective.