BFS
Our Strategic Vision

BFS history, the video

“This Is Our Quiet Time” BFS ordinarily shares brief clips in its Video Archives, but we make an exception this week with the full version of the original BFS musical, Forward to the Past. Written and performed by the BFS community in 1989, Forward to the Past: the Historical Hysterical Follies of Brooklyn Friends School, relates our school’s […]

Gatekeeper No More

1940, BFS Principal Douglas Grafflin’s Address to the Trustees of the Schools of New York Monthly Meeting  proposing the enrollment of African American students at BFS.  Please click to read Grafflin’s entire address This week, I’m unexpectedly switching gears thanks to a courageous conversation focused on the experiences of students of color in independent schools, a conversation […]

Miss Woodward, innovator at BFS and beyond from 1900 to 1951

  Examining the history of Brooklyn Friends School means also examining the history of education in Brooklyn and New York City. Brooklyn Friends School has a long history of educational innovations, but it also has a long history of allowing innovative educators to implement their ideas at BFS. Ella Frances Woodward exemplifies our long-standing commitment […]