Friends School Mullica Hill

Quakers arrived with a strong belief in the value of education but also disposed against the class-based and gender-based educational system of England.  In southern New Jersey, Quakers opened up several schools in the 18th century and made them open to Friends and non-Friends alike, rich and poor, boys and girls.  Beyond the Lenape, however, few non-Quakers lived in the region at the time. As...

In the 17th century, one of the newly formed religious groups to emerge out of the religious upheaval that began with the Protestant Reformation was the Religious Society of Friends, soon known colloquially as Quakers.  Founded by the English dissenter George Fox and expanded with the aid of his wife, Margaret Fell, the Quakers were widely perceived as heretics and as a danger to the established...

On the second day of school, a new 5th grader brought into school a large Chinese praying mantis.  These invasive insects have been known to capture and eat hummingbirds.  I watched one this summer try to set up camp right on top of a hummingbird feeder at our home. In school, the praying mantis stayed (in a container) for a good part of the day with students observing its movements and its...