BFS school-year beginnings, today and yesterday

Brooklyn Friends School began its 148th school year this month with its traditional convocation. Our opening assembly for older students, held at the Brooklyn Meeting House on Schermerhorn Street, came to be known as convocation in the early 1990s, yet this year's largest-ever student body required separate convocations for the middle and upper school divisions. Quite similar to years past, as one can see on this page from the 1916 Brooklyn Friends School catalog.

1916: Principal John L. Carver addresses the entire
BFS student body at a Thursday assembly

98 years ago,  each division, then called departments, held separate opening exercises just as we did this year. The photo above was taken at one of the bi-monthly assemblies of the entire school, in the exact same meeting room at the Brooklyn Meeting House. Since 1916, the meeting room has changed slightly and our entire student body has grown by perhaps 300 percent, but BFS and its historic home of the Brooklyn Meeting House remain beloved by students as one can see in this video of the upper school convocation, featuring the upper school student body singing our school song of today "Simple Gifts."

Simple Gifts 2014-15 from Brooklyn Friends School on Vimeo.

50 years ago, we wore what at BFS Commencement?

BFS and the Class of 2014 may be gearing up for Commencement right now, but at this time 50 years ago, it was the Class of '64's big moment to graduate BFS. Fun to look back since many of our '64 alumni are planning to celebrate their 50th reunion on June 7 at BFS Alumni Day. And BFS is very fortunate to have both '64's commencement photo and the last edition of The Life for the 1963-64 year to shed a little light on how BFS celebrated the Class of '64 in 1964. BFS has neither complete collections of class and commencement photos nor of the student newspapers, so please share from your personal collections with BFS.

Commencement photo of the Class of 1964
wearing our school's former graduation attire of
black tuxedo pants and white suit jackets for the boys
and white semi-formal dresses for the girls
Photo donated to BFS by William Forgang, Ph.D. '64 (thanks again)

Commencement 1964 articles from The Life:
the guest speaker for the June 5, 1964 ceremony was
noted Quaker author and theologian D. Elton Trueblood, Ph.D.

Times change at BFS and everywhere else. The long-standing tradition of white dresses and jackets probably departed BFS Commencement around 1969 (this and other changes at graduation were intimated in the March, 1969 Life article "New Exercises"). Today's Class of 2014 will graduate with blue caps and gowns, a student-led decision and new tradition that began at BFS with the Class of 2007. 

Do you remember May Day at BFS?

The First May Day, 1928

Some readers may recall BFS May Day celebrations held at Friends Field and perhaps at Pearl Street. May Day was a huge lower school event that began in 1928. Each year had its own unique theme such as early U.S. settlers, nations around the world, the circus, toys, candy, and 1945's theme of international peace and friendship. Each lower school class worked diligently on their individual class performances and costumes, there was dancing around the May Pole, king and queen of the May from the organizing-it-all 6th grade class, a picnic lunch, and the lower school was divided into school-color teams for the afternoon's sporting events. Taking the entire lower school, kindergartners to 6th graders, to the Field required buses, so the gasoline rationing of World War II apparently kept the festivities at Schermerhorn for at least 1944 and 1945.

For many reasons, including the uncertainty of the weather, May Day was not always held on May 1. And, as happened in 1929, the rain sometimes forced BFS to call an early end to the festivities, only to have the sun come out once all were back on Schermerhorn Street.

This May Day Cartoon from page 43 of the 1929 BFS Yearbook provides an early example
of the work of the late Aldren Watson '35, artist, author, and much more.  

Your friendly historian does not know when the last May Day was held and could use alumni help to figure it out, but does recall very vague early lower school memories of a May Pole at Pearl Street and thinking of dancing around one while looking at a coat rack in the 7th floor music room, all memories ca. 1973-1978. Perhaps memory is off and it was really the Art Festival found on page 7 of The Life, May, 1974.

The May Day Court, 1936

Join us for Alumni Day, June 7

Dick Begelman, 1968

BFS Alumni Day is June 7 and it will be a fabulous event as always. Our annual Alumni Day is for all alumni, faculty and friends. Alumni of all graduating years are welcome, yet Alumni Day is also the day for alumni class reunions. BFS often recognizes faculty at Alumni Day and this year we are delighted to honor Dick Begelman, English and Drama teacher from 1967 to 1988. Mr. Begelman will be there and we hope you will be too.  For more information, please contact Director of Alumni Lekeia Varlack, lvarlack@brooklynfriends.org. 

BFS Alumni Day Schedule, Saturday, June 7, 2014
1:00 pm - Alumni Basketball Game, 375 Pearl Street Gymnasium
2:00 pm - Tour of School Buildings at Pearl and Willoughby
3:00 pm - Meeting for Worship, 375 Pearl Street Meetinghouse
4:00 pm - Celebration of former Upper School teacher Dick Begelman
4:30 pm to 7:00 pm - Cocktail Party toasting Alumni, Special reunion classes, and Faculty

Thought it might be fun to take a look back at when Mr. Begelman first came to BFS. We are fortunate to have several issues of The Life from his first year at BFS, 1967-1968. Of course, Mr. Begelman had numerous mentions in The Life over the years, but readers can discover them and much more on their own in the Newspapers Section of the BFS Digital Archives. 

Mr. Begelman was first mentioned in the October 10, 1967 edition of The Life article, "Varied Backgrounds Distinguish Faculty" on page 1. Mr. Begelman was first hired as a reading specialist for the Upper School. At the time, the Upper School consisted of grades 7-12 and the Lower School, grades K-6; our Middle School was created a few years later. 

A terrific feature about Mr. Begelman, "Versatile Teacher Instructs in Reading; Experienced in Dramatics, Film-Making," is on page 2 of the March 26, 1968 issue of The Life, and it was written by Alexandra Levitt '71, author of the highly acclaimed, Deadly Outbreaks: How Medical Detectives Save Lives Threatened by Killer Pandemics, Exotic Viruses, and Drug-Resistant Parasites. On Alumni Day, perhaps we will learn if Mr. Begelman's favorite book is still "the dictionary." 

Hope you can join us for BFS Alumni Day on June 7!

For Earth Day, join BFS for an Earth Hour today, 1:30-2:30 pm Eastern

The Earth Flag

Today is Earth Day. 44 years ago on this day, BFS students were part of the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, and you can read all about it on page 6 of the May, 1970 edition of The Life and journalist Stephen Magagnini, BFS Class of '72, briefly recalled that first Earth Day in his 2002 BFS Alum Profile. Many of our Upper School students attended rallies throughout New York City that day, joining millions in raising awareness of the need for environmental protection and stewardship. One of the concerns students raised in that article was that BFS itself did not recognize Earth Day school-wide in 1970, but we do today as we have done for several years and we so hope you will join BFS today! 

In 2014, BFS reduces, reuses, and recycles as much as possible every day, but Earth Day offers a special opportunity to educate the BFS community about our environment and our world. Individual classes often approach Earth Day uniquely, but among our larger school-wide initiatives are several of note:

The amazing team in our Cafeteria has responded to Upper School students suggestions by providing strictly vegan offerings for the entirety of Earth Day, a first at BFS. Chef Tom Buckley wrote to our faculty this week: "This is probably the most ambitious Earth Day project that my department has ever been asked to be a part of...  Please show your support for what these upper schoolers are doing..." 

Also happening in the BFS cafeteria, middle and upper school students will compete in a food weigh-in to raise awareness of food waste. Lower and pre-school students have been welcomed to join the effort in their classrooms and several of our juniors are creating a video PSA to explain more. Waste is deeply rooted in the economics of our food system and between one-quarter and one-half of the United States' food supply is wasted or destroyed every year. A food weigh-in can help raise awareness of what it takes to get food to our tables and reduce food waste. 

And finally, please join BFS as it observes an "Earth Hour" from 1:30 to 2:30 pm today. All it takes is for you to shut off your lights, power down your devices and reduce your use of electricity for one hour. As Janet Villas, BFS science teacher and environmental action coordinator wrote of Earth Day this week, "... green initiatives should be part of our daily lives and not wasting food and shutting the lights for one hour is something we all can easily do."

And, if you can, get outside today. Whether it's sunny or rainy, we can each take a moment to renew our commitment as stewards of this planet Earth and in the hope of making every day Earth Day. 

Great moments in BFS Basketball, 1925 and today

1925, BFS Boys Basketball Team,
with the Friends School League
Championship Trophy

It's a great basketball season for BFS teams, so today let's look back 89 years ago to February of 1925, when BFS won the Friends Schools national title in boys basketball by defeating Wilmington Friends. The BFS Digital Archives has this photo of our 1925 boys basketball team, with the Friends School trophy, which rests just outside our lower gym at Pearl Street today.

Happy Holidays - Yesterday and Today

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for the New Year!

A moment from a 1930s Lower School Christmas Pageant.

And a moment from this year's Holiday Sing when, for the first time ever, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was sung outside.

Post by Brooklyn Friends School.

BFS Yearbooks - know all words are faint

These days BFS yearbooks are hard-bound volumes, about 200 pages in length, often have color photos, and provide an overview of the year for the entire school. The earliest known BFS Yearbooks, from 1927 to 1932, differ in many aspects from today's norm.

The 1927 BFS Yearbook was the Commencement Edition of The Life, which then was a quarterly magazine (an earlier blog post delved a bit into the history of The Life). The yearbook's focus in 1927 was on the senior class, with portraits of each graduate on individual pages, with their high school activities and a poetic quote for each. Other features of this yearbook also celebrated the graduating class and were yearbook traditions for several years: the valedictory, a class history, the class's last will and testament, and the class prophecy. Also included were an overview of the year in sports, the latest news at BFS, and, finally, charming advertisements from businesses of the day which were much needed as our students not only wrote all publications, but were charged also with raising funds to cover the costs of their publications through advertising, magazine sales and subscriptions.

A BFS Tradition, Learning through Service

1995 - Service at the "Park"
(now known as the Marriott)

Certainly, there are myriad ways in which we all contribute to the greater good of our world, but BFS has a long tradition of encouraging its students and families to learn through giving their time, energy and monies to non-profit organizations, including to BFS. Last year's article about BFS students helping families overseas after World War II is just one of many examples of our school's long-standing commitment to community service. BFS has just engaged a new Director of Service Learning, Natania Kremer, who is profiled in a recent article at the BFS website, and states "...it's wonderful to be looking at service learning schoolwide starting at age 2." Also wonderful is that Natania joins us right in time to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the service learning graduation requirement at BFS.