Quaker Meeting: Pass the Peace Squeeze

If you walk the halls of Cambridge Friends School, you’re likely to encounter Charlotte Croft. She is a connector, greeting students by name, coordinating with teachers, saying hello to families. She is both the lower school science and first grade teacher, and she brings a refreshing, upbeat, positive energy to all that she encounters. And Charlotte leads the Lower School Meeting for Worship, a central element of this Quaker school. To make Meeting for Worship relatable for students from Pre-K to 5th grade, Charlotte has crafts each meeting with care, time, and energy to make sure that the students with such a wide range of vocabulary and comprehension find the meeting meaningful. And she coordinates regularly with Sami Martasian, the 3-8^th grade art teacher and lead for Middle School Meeting for Worship, to pre-plan and structure the theme for Meeting for Worship depending on what is arising within the school community. 

Charlotte brings the meetings to life with queries, visual displays, and tangible props to illustrate in concrete ways the six Quaker values known as the SPICES – Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equity, and Stewardship – that underlie Quaker daily practice and everything we do here at Cambridge Friends School. In a mid-winter meeting last year, she brought battery operated candles for students to hold to illustrate the Spirit within all people called the Inner Light. Sometimes she reads from the CFS Faith and Practice or uses picture books that show examples of making peace, simplicity in life choices, stewardship of resources, and equality of all people. And she ends each Meeting for Worship with a “pass the peace squeeze,” bringing the students in tune with each other spiritually, emotionally, and physically. 

Charlotte was raised with Quaker values and attended Sandy Springs Friends School in Maryland.  She is currently a member of Adelphi Meeting in Maryland. We are so fortunate to have Charlotte at CFS. Come by for a visit and meet Charlotte!