This is why I send my children to a Friends School

My fourth-grader, Nine-Soon-to-Be-Ten Year Old, recently went on a two-night school camping trip at the Mineral Bar campground, near Colfax, Calif. Their campsite was by the North Fork of the American River, in 49er Gold Country.

No parents are allowed on this trip, only staff. They'll have another one-night trip to the Russian River near the end of the school year. Parents are allowed on that trip.

The fourth grade teacher's parent newsletter described last week's trip. It's a beautiful summary in itself. This part illustrates for me why we send our two children to a Friends School:

That evening, we sat in silence for a thirty minute Meeting For Worship, listening to the rustling leaves and the crackling of the fire. People spoke of how caring everyone was of one another; how we are all here helping each other and supporting our friends. One child commented that the miners were mining Fool's Gold because the real gold was the landscape around us, not the glint of gold flakes from the river.

To have the opportunity to develop such perspective at the age of just nine or ten years old is a blessing and a gift.