Quotes, Quirks, and Quakerisms

Named after one of the School’s founders and former teachers, Barry Morley P ’82, ’84, ’87, Morley Games are cooperative team competitions with quirky names: Friedelfrappe, Frazleerham, Brindledorph, Hoop-a-Doop, Nurdleybawl, and Rondoturf. Barry designed the games specifically for SSFS in the 1960s and ‘70s as a way for our small yet growing student population to participate in team sports.

Although the School is now large enough to field more traditional team sports, SSFS students still enjoy these whimsical and quirky contests, which encourage cooperation as much as competition. For us, Morley Games are an expression of the radical optimism that has defined SSFS since its founding. With the School’s commitment to athleticism, but without a league to join or formal equipment in hand, Barry Morley designed games that used the materials already available on campus in order to meet students’ physical, mental, and spiritual needs in an athletic setting. Morley Games also epitomize SSFS’s commitment to fostering belonging, offering light-hearted and inclusive contests that even those who don’t consider themselves athletes can enjoy. Learn more about the games' history and creator Barry Morley in the Morley Games Booklet—including the article that appeared in the November 1974 issue of Sports Illustrated! Pro tip: the booklet also includes printable versions of the rules for each game.

In the Spring of 1962, faculty and students made a meal together to celebrate the end of the challenging but successful first year of Sandy Spring Friends School. The making of the meal, like the first year of school, was a hands-on effort that could not have succeeded without the resourcefulness, labor, and can-do attitude of students and faculty alike. Tables were laid. Cakes were baked. Strawberries were picked at a neighboring farm. Local beef for grilling was procured. And the very first Strawberry Cowbake was held in the “hollow” behind Scott House.

Each June, the Strawberry Cowbake is a celebration of another successful school year; a nod to the characteristic resourcefulness, simplicity, and stewardship that defines our school’s culture; and an expression of individual and institutional commitment to the SSFS community.

A day of environmental and human community stewardship,  this unique tradition at SSFS is full of expressions of the SPICES (Quaker values of Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship). On OPOP Day, you’ll see the entire community living out many of the Quaker values we hold dear. Even the origins of the tradition are an example of the respect and value given to all voices at SSFS, as well as Quaker decision-making. The first OPOP Day took place in the spring of 2017, representing a combination of an existing Environmental Stewardship Day (begun by faculty in 2004) and the proposal created by a group of international boarding students and presented by Victoria Lyu ’17 for a day focused on global citizenship and the diversity of world cultures present in our campus community. Living out the Quaker value of equality and demonstrating the non-hierarchical partnership between adults and students within the community, the Earth Stewardship Day Committee and the student committee of which Victoria was a member worked together to combine the concepts into an event that focuses on stewardship of both our natural and human communities.

Students throughout the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools participate in two educational workshops; one focused on the environment and another on culture, as well as a service and a reflection component. Upper School students bring concerns and expertise to the day’s workshops, increasing learning opportunities and building student connections across all three divisions. Additional presenters sourced from local and national organizations, as well as our parent/guardian and alum networks, bring new ideas to campus, as well as internship opportunities for our older students. All students come together at the end of the day for final presentations showcasing the day’s activities.

A quirky SSFS tradition since 1994, the Community Play is rooted in the resourcefulness, drive, and creative talent of our diverse community. Begun by former US Arts teacher and professional actor Bruce Evans, the Community Play launched with a simple goal: to stage one show each year in which any member of the school community could be involved.

The first production, To Kill a Mockingbird, was funded solely by an open collection taken at the show, and featured then-Head of School Stephen Gessner as Atticus Finch, alongside other faculty and staff, parents, and students of all ages, including lower schoolers. Over the years, the play has even included alums, family members of employees, and trustees. Audiences have been treated to everything from well-known Broadway classics to original plays—and even a one-act original opera! Each year that it is staged (some modifications and interruptions have been necessary due to the pandemic), the beloved tradition continues to bring together the SSFS community, standing on its original purpose of using the arts to create an educational, inclusive space in which to grow in the knowledge and respect for one another’s talents and personal stories.

Each year before Winter Break, SSFS presents How the Grinch Stole the Holidays, an adaptation of the similarly-named Dr. Seuss classic. Since 1999, the School’s version of The Grinch has been performed for the entire student body—from preschoolers to seniors—by a changing cast of faculty and staff at the Winter Assembly. Audiences arrive at the performance in a state of great anticipation, eager to learn the closely guarded secret of who will play each role that year, from the Grinch to the Christmas tree! With the All-School Traditions Committee taking care to select the cast each year and periodically reevaluate and tweak the script, this quirky, participatory, and beloved tradition continually adapts with the community, as well as the current cultural moment, including unique filmed versions during the pandemic (2020 and 2021). Year after year, it also continues to exemplify many of SSFS’s Quaker-inspired values—with a healthy dose of absurdity and fun sprinkled in. 

Community Day is a longstanding tradition at SSFS, when students, faculty, and staff campus-wide set aside a day to work, play, and reflect together. Community Day's origins date back decades to when SSFS was solely an Upper School and the head of school would spontaneously cancel classes on a day of particularly glorious fall weather so that students and faculty could enjoy “Mountain Day” hiking at nearby Catoctin Mountain. The tradition evolved as the School grew, but remains focused on community-building in the great outdoors. Typically scheduled in October, the day begins with a walk to the Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting House, where we gather for an all-school Meeting for Worship. Upon returning to campus, we divide into cross-divisional "Family Groups," which each collectively decide on a quirky group name, ranging from “Foxy Georges” (a nod to the Quaker-inspired school song) to Yapping Yodeling Yellow Yetis.

From Kindergarteners to adults, students, faculty, and staff spend the day with their family group, participating in on-campus community service projects, Morley games, crafts, and bonding time. The day offers a wonderful opportunity to have fun and build connections across grade levels and is a favorite memory among many alums. Fun fact: Family Groups stay together year to year, building enduring bonds while joyfully embracing the natural changes of graduates moving on and new students joining the community.

Here at SSFS, students use first names when speaking with faculty and staff. Inspired by our Quaker values—particularly equality—we believe in a collaborative, equitable, nonhierarchical community, where teachers act as mentors and engage students as partners in inquiry-based learning.

You might be surprised to see so much cross-grade and cross-division collaboration at a PK-12 school. This quirky characteristic probably has something to do with our Quaker-inspired approach to equality and our culture, which is less hierarchical than most. Taking advantage of the wonderful opportunities offered by our single-campus, PK-Grade 12 community, we offer several opportunities for student mentorship, from Reading Buddies (a Lower School literacy program that pairs Pre-K with Grade 2, Kindergarten with Grade 3, Grade 1 with Grade 4, and Grade 2 with Grade 5); to Upper School and Middle School Affinity Groups often planning activities together; to middle schoolers running many of the activities at Lower School Field Day; to Senior Buddies (a year-long program pairing each 12th grader with a student in PK-4 through Grade 1, which often results in alums returning to campus after graduation and reconnecting with their buddy.

We confess that the ox-like South African antelope that began to be called “gnu” in the 18th century isn’t Quaker. Nonetheless, our mascot sure is, since, well, it’s ours! Gnu (pronounced “nyew”) is another name for this species of wildebeest, which explains the quirky play on words with our “Gnu Stories” newsletter.

Still scratching your head? Let’s start from the beginning. The wildebeest was a character from an original operetta written by former music teacher Bryan Seith and performed by SSFS students during the School’s early years. At some point after the production, a student thought it would be funny to bring the wildebeest costume head to an SSFS game to cheer on the team, and eventually, SSFS adopted the wildebeest as our mascot! While it might seem like a quirky choice, the wildebeest represents deep connections to our Quaker values. Wildebeests’ grit (they have a 500-1,000 mile migratory circle), social and collaborative behavior (they gain protection by gathering in large herds), and unity in diversity (they have similar yet unique black vertical stripes on their backs) all resonate with SSFS’s culture. Sometimes you’ll hear people refer to Springers and our athletic teams as the “‘Beests,” for short, and thus "being ’Beestly” is something we strive for!

You might call it our school song! George Fox (1624-1691) was an Englishman who received the revelation that led to the birth of the Religious Society of Friends, aka Quakers: that there is “that of God” in everyone and that one can gain access to God through stillness and the practice of silence. Fox’s foundational beliefs, which included that decisions in the religious community should be made by the “sense of the meeting,” not only inspired the basic tenets of the Quaker faith but also a song—one you might periodically hear us singing around campus, especially to begin all-school gatherings.

For us, radical optimism means hope for good and right outcomes that is so deep and real that we invest sweat equity to work that hope into reality. A foundational term to the SSFS lexicon, radical optimism has described the enduring ethos of the School since its founding. A spirit of radical optimism permeates all areas of school life—often in quirky ways—from SSFS’s initial $100 donation in 1958 to founder Brook Moore mowing the School’s lawn himself in the 1960s to our community-wide effort to combat both national and local food insecurity through the Empty Bowl Project. As a community of radical optimists, we have faith and belief that positive outcomes are always possible, and we apply an unshakeable commitment to giving our best to reach them.

You might call the truss our quirky triangle logo! The graphic represents the architectural element at the top of our on-campus Quaker Meeting House, where we often gather for Meeting for Worship. Since the School was founded on Quaker values, it felt right to incorporate a graphical component that called to mind the center of our campus—our Meeting House—as part of the School logo.

Students, faculty, and staff in our religiously diverse community regularly participate in Meeting for Worship (MFW), during which attendees gather together in community and in the spirit of truth-seeking for a period of silence (about 30 minutes once or twice a week for our Upper School students, shorter for our younger students). During this time, participants sit in quiet reflection and may be given general themes or a query on which to focus their thoughts.

Silence is an invitation to listen to the “still small voice of God.” During these unprogrammed meetings, anyone who wishes may stand up and “speak out of the silence” to share a message or thought. Once the message has been shared, they sit down again, and silence resumes. Although the silence may feel strange or awkward at first for some, many students have shared that this designated time for quiet reflection has provided a welcome respite from their busy lives. And, many alums credit the silence of MFW with their ability to set aside external pressures in order to comfortably sit with and think for themselves.

“Testimonies” are what Quakers call the ways we have found to live and act based on our beliefs—at SSFS, we have a memorable acronym for these core values: SPICES! Here at Sandy Spring Friends School, we have a profound sense of hope in the individual's ability to create positive change in the world, and we foster the values that best create it: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality and Stewardship. This is why you’ll often see SSFS community members closing emails with “Peace” before signing off with their name!

While Quaker schools are known for being very welcoming and friendly places, the term “Friends'' is actually short for “The Religious Society of Friends,” which is what this religious movement called itself when it first began in mid-17th century England. The term “Quakers'' was a nickname given to the newly-formed religious group by others. While it may have started out as a derisive name (meant to ridicule those who trembled with emotion during Meeting for Worship), members of the group eventually began using it informally among themselves. Now, the terms “Quakers'' and “Friends” are used interchangeably.

A Meeting for Business at SSFS might involve the whole school (as in All School Meeting for Business or ASMFB) or a smaller group, such as faculty/staff or the Upper School. The purpose of this type of meeting is for a community to come together and discuss concerns, create solutions, and collectively make decisions that will impact the community. An agenda is created in advance, and the clerk leads those present through the process of Quaker decision-making. The Clerk facilitates discussion and seeks to determine a “sense of the meeting.” The meeting opens with silent worship, and, if discussion becomes intense, the Meeting for Business Clerk may ask for a moment of silence to recenter the community.

Other schools or organizations might call this role a “Chair,” “President,” or some other term. At SSFS, a clerk is someone who presides over Meetings for Worship with a concern for business or is the head of a committee. A clerk of a meeting for business helps move the agenda along, calls on people to speak, and helps guide the group to reach a “sense of the meeting.” Meetings for Business may also have recording and reading clerks.

The Quaker alternative to voting, we strive to reach this sense that is characterized by unity. Once a topic has been discussed and the clerk feels that a decision has been reached by the group, they state a sense of the meeting for the meeting’s approval. The clerk must decide on the degree of unity required, based on the importance of the subject and the experience and wisdom of those speaking to it; the clerk may also hold the item over for reconsideration at a later time if a reasonable degree of unity has not yet been reached.

Rather than using voting, which pits sides against one another, forcing unanimity, or rewarding the majority, this Quaker practice aims to reach a conclusion in which all present have an understanding of and feel they have a stake in the final decision—and the community remains cohesive. A sense of the meeting is a collective understanding of where the individuals who are present are led together, forged through discussion and an effort to collaborate with one another for the best possible outcome for the group.

At Sandy Spring Friends School, library and educational technology specialists are known as Inquiry Guides (or the “IG Team”). A home-grown term, “Inquiry Guide” speaks to the collaboration between the Library and Technology Department in light of the Quaker values of continuing revelation and experiential knowing, which inspire SSFS’s inquiry-based approach to learning. 

The “query,” a Quaker tool for corporate and personal reflection, shifts the pedagogical approach from teacher-directed (lecture style) to student-centered so that rather than teaching the answers, the teacher’s responsibility is to raise inspiring questions in a sequential manner that engages students in their own process of inquiry and discovery, developing critical thinking and openness to new ideas and dispelling prejudice and stereotyping. Our IG Team is there throughout the inquiry-based learning process to guide the SSFS community of learners in becoming caring and intentional users of ideas and information.

This is the acronym for Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting. Don’t worry—you don’t need to create a recurring calendar event! Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting is another name for Sandy Spring Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends —one of the oldest Quaker Meetings in Maryland (its earliest written accounts date back to 1753). 

We operate under the care of the Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends and the Baltimore Yearly Meeting, which hold a majority of seats on the School's Board of Trustees.