“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 […]
Stuart Smith, 1968 to 1978 Since 1867, BFS has had 19 heads of school, not including interim heads. Over the years, the title of our school’s highest administrative role has evolved from principal to headmaster to today’s head of school. The history of each administration is unique, fascinating and lengthy, so today I’ll only give […]
Thoughts this week turn to the many wonderful people we know and have known at BFS, particularly those no longer with us. Such thoughts make me feel fortunate to have worked with the late Gilbert Zalman. I so enjoyed my occasional conversations with Gil over the years that I envied his students their near-daily opportunity […]
Meeting for Worship is such an important element of the Brooklyn Friends School experience that it is difficult to imagine that it did not exist in its present form at Brooklyn Friends School until October 30, 1941. We can thank Douglas G. Grafflin and S. Archibald Smith, two former BFS Heads of School, for introducing the […]
Teachers’ Treats Cookbook, published 1984-85 Some of us will remember the BFS cookbooks produced by members of our community, most often our teachers and parents of the PAT. The first of these cookbooks shared here is titled Teachers’ Treats, was illustrated by Lower School students, dates to the 1984-85 school year, and was found in […]
Take a look back to 1993 for a fabulous rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at BFS, sung by Middle and Upper School science teacher and past athletic director Janet Villas. Big thanks for making this possible go straight out to several of my BFS colleagues: director of media services Andy Cohen for the […]
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 […]
BFS celebrated Martin Norregaard’s 50 years with BFS with much fanfare at Reunion 2011. To jog your memories, Martin taught Middle School English and Social Studies from 1961 to 1991, then retired although he taught part-time for the next two years. After 1993, he remained in close contact with BFS and soon became a […]
I typically hate surprises, but some are always appreciated: there is nothing quite like finding a BFS historic treasure in either a traditional or electronic mailbox. Every once in a while, kind people find BFS-related items among their personal collections and choose to share them with BFS, thinking (correctly) that BFS might wish to have […]
