Weaving Quaker Activists into First Day Schools, a project of the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative

Make your Quaker Religious Education come alive! Weave Quaker Activists into your lesson plans bringing a fresh, contemporary voice of lived Quakerism to your Friends Meeting or Church. Use digital technology to invite the world into your classroom in the person of a living Quaker activist. The activist will “walk with” the class over four to eight weeks, sharing experience and kindling a relationship. Connections with Quaker youth in the activist’s area will be encouraged as possible. An important element will be queries to engage the families and leaven the wider meeting/church life.

QREC will help at every step along the way– providing mentors, selecting activists with a story to tell, supporting planning between teacher and activist, and offering tech support for online video conference conversations with the activist at the beginning and the end of the unit. Where needed, a QREC mentor can offer translation services. This model has been pilot-tested in five meeting-based Quaker religious education programs in the US and one Friends School in Bolivia. A generous grant from the Shoemaker Fund allows QREC to offer each activist a modest honorarium.

The activists selected have a compelling story to tell. The Quaker activists exemplify at least one core element from our list of thematic threads below.

• Community & inclusion.
• Quaker discernment and decision-making.
• Stewardship of the land and sustainable life choices.
• Social & racial justice, peace work and witness, economic equality.

QREC is creating an online directory of participating Quaker activists, including American and international Friends, who are prepared to engage with First Day School students  Initial topics include:

• Engaging youth in environmental sustainability;
• Peacemaking in violent communities;
• Economic empowerment of indigenous women;
• Racial justice

This list will grow as QREC engages Quaker activists across a broader range of issues. If your First Day School is interested in a specific leading, please contact us.

The goal for the Quaker Activists in First Day Schools Project is to help set the stage for students to live from their deep center, speaking and acting for Truth, justice, and compassion, in age appropriate ways. We hope the Quaker activists inspire as well as inform; inviting into action as they exemplify a Quaker life.