Full Description
Fools Friday is the story of one man's life as an educator, of the uniqueindependent school he founded and led for twenty-six years, and of the hundreds of young adults who touched his life. In episodes ranging from senior pranks, counterfeiting rings, and the New Lunar Society to trauma and tragedy, Tom Pike explores the two qualities he found equally present in his teenaged students: the carnival spirit of Fools Friday and the essential Quaker belief that each of us has the sacred within us. In teenagers, he shows, both qualities are close to the surface and can burst forth at any moment. The goal of education, he argues, is to find a way to let this happen while initiating young adults into a world that forbids both. Fools Friday recounts moments when this worked and moments when it did not, learning as much from negotiating failure as from celebrating success. Fools Friday: An Educator's Journey shows how the often baffling, sometimes tragic, and always heartfelt choices made by teenagers in these crucial years come from this emerging sense of engagement with the world, and the different roles educators, parents, and peers can play in this process.
Contents
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements...9
Author's Note...9
Senior Prank...11
F.O.I.L...19
Fools Friday...28
Third and Broadway...49
Tree of Life...61
Sudden Death...64
Second Chances...71
The Sign Out Policy...75
The New Lunar Society...83
Vinegar and Oil...90
Recovery...97
Discomfort
102Boundaries...110
A Chick Course...116
Questionable Acceptance...124
LEO...132
The " N" Word...140
Esther...149
The Counterfeit Caper...154
Senior Projects...167
The Sacred...177
About the Author...184