EDGEWATER — The state's only Quaker school is treating Columbus Day not as a holiday but as an opportunity to serve others by feeding the homeless, raising supplies for Ugandans, and, this year, building five Little Free Libraries for kids in other neighborhoods.
The Chicago Friends School, 1246 W. Thorndale Ave., currently oversees 35 students in grades K-6.
Karen Carney, who heads the school, said the school is not particularly religious but it does apply the core tenants of Quakerism to its teachings: equality, peace, integrity, community and service.
Over the six years the school has been open, it has developed an "Alternative Columbus Day" where students and staff work on projects and campaigns to help others, rather than devote a lesson plan to a controversial figure who technically never even stepped foot in North America.
Considering her school's diverse student base and in keeping with the group's philosophy on equality and peace, Carney said the federal holiday is "hard for a lot of people" in the school's community.
"It's not really a great legacy," she said. "It celebrates Europeans, but it's a hard time for others."
Carney said at first the school considered giving students the day off, in the same way Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a non-attendance day. But officials ultimately decided that the two days were vastly different: MLK Day offered a time of reflection for a great American civil rights leader, while the other celebrated a man who enslaved and exploited others.
Instead, the school decided to hold class — but it would also come up with a themed service project.
This year, teacher Renata McAdams settled on Little Free Libraries as a way the school could work together to give back.
She received a grant worth about $850 from the Friends Council on Education, which helped her buy five discounted library kits from Edgewater Reads, as well as other supplies and tools.
Older students have also been researching where the libraries should be placed, which will be outside Edgewater, which is already saturated with the libraries.
Students have been mapping and identifying potential placement sites where other kids can get better access to free books, learning how to work with other organizations, how to look up municipal laws and how to correspond with local officials.
Later, they'll stock the libraries with an initial round of books, and hold book drives to help keep them full.
In the past, the school has made meals for the homeless in partnership with The Night Ministry, created welcome kits for refugees, and gathered blue jeans for an organization that turns them into shoes for Ugandans who live in parasite-heavy areas.
"What we're trying to show the kids is that the problems of the world aren't so big that you can't take action," Carney said.
Supplies for building the libraries [DNAinfo/Linze Rice]
Though the school is the only of its kind in Illinois, Carney said Quaker Schools, or Friends Schools, are more common on the East Coast, where influential Quaker William Penn (for whom Pennsylvania is named) established a settlement.
Of those students who attend the Chicago Friends School, which is housed inside the 104-year-old Bethany Lutheran Church, only three come from families who are practicing Quakers in religion, Carney said.
What draws families to the school is its focus on developing and nurturing all aspects of the child — social, emotional, academic, artistic and more — in an individualized way, the school said.
Each year the school has added a grade, and expects to add a seventh and eighth grade in the coming years.
For now, McAdams said her students are excited to share access to books with others.
Her students know firsthand how important the libraries are: A Little Free Library outside the school's front door was among the first in the neighborhood.
"They go through the books all the time, constantly," she said. "It's a really positive connection between students and the community."
