The Woolman Way: A History of John Woolman School

By Lisa Frankel and Catherine Lenox. Self-published, 2023. 402 pages. $24.95/paperback.

As a longtime teacher and administrator at a Friends school, I am often forced to grapple with some inherent tensions in our institutions. How do we provide students freedom for self-discovery while maintaining enough structure to keep them safe and supported? How can we offer an attractive and robust program with equitably compensated staff while remaining accessible to a diverse student body and honoring a commitment to simplicity? How do we reconcile competing visions within our own community of what a Friends school is for?

In The Woolman Way: A History of John Woolman School, Lisa Frankel and Catherine Lenox thoughtfully explore these questions while telling the story of a remarkable Quaker boarding high school tucked away in the Sierra Nevada foothills in Nevada City, Calif. Rather than offering a traditional institutional history, the book is divided into two sections. Frankel, a public historian and strategic planning consultant, composes the first half of the book as a comprehensive history of the school: from its planning stages in the late 1950s; its frantic opening in 1963; its closure and transformation into a semester program in 2003, lasting just over a dozen years before closing again; and then, while the school was shuttered, a massive wildfire in 2020, which brought an opportunity to reimagine the use of the property entirely. Though Frankel’s association with the school dates back only a few years, she draws on a wealth of information for her history: citing interviews, school archives, correspondence, meeting notes, newsletters, brochures, photos, and newspaper clippings.

Lenox, a Woolman alumna from 1971, follows this historical account with personal reflections from alumni and teachers that are organized along the many distinctive aspects of the school, including its arts programming, special projects, and unique campus and culture. This approach allows the book to serve admirably as both a celebration of an institution that largely succeeded in achieving its ambitious mission as well as an honest account of the persistent challenges that threatened its sustainability. I should note here that this past September, Woolman sold its land to an Indigenous group that includes descendants of the area’s original inhabitants, the Nisenan Tribe.

A recurring theme from alumni reflections is that “Woolman saved my life,” highlighting the profound impact the school had on students who often felt like outsiders in mainstream social and educational settings. This sense of belonging was cultivated through shared experiences that set Woolman’s program apart. For example, the work program required students to be not only responsible for their own upkeep but also active participants in the daily functioning of the school: from farming, animal husbandry, and gardening to maintaining buildings and preparing meals. Weeklong special projects provided students with opportunities to engage in community service and pursue their own interests on and off campus, including working at local schools, building homes for migrant workers, and exploring nature with a herd of wandering goats. The book offers rich details of this work, as alumni reflect on how it helped them develop a sense of autonomy, connections to their community, a respect for manual labor, and an understanding of sustainable living.

With a 230-acre campus, lots of unstructured free time, and a student body that generally hovered between 30 and 60 students, there were also ample opportunities for experiential learning that encouraged self-expression. Artistic students threw themselves into pottery, jewelry making, music, drama, and dance, while students interested in environmental science planted orchards, drained and studied lakes, and stargazed at night on the campus meadow. Social and political engagement was also not merely theoretical, as students often traveled to San Francisco and beyond to participate in protests, march in rallies, and work with local activists.

The book also examines the many challenges that arose out of this alternative approach to education. One constant struggle that ultimately caused the school to close was a lack of funding. Established with insufficient financial reserves and a commitment to generous financial aid, the school often operated with a budget shortfall. This was exacerbated by low enrollment, particularly in later years when rising costs made tuition increasingly unaffordable for the kind of diverse student body the school sought. Another persistent challenge was regulating student behavior and maintaining a healthy school culture. Woolman’s emphasis on exploration and freedom worked well for disciplined, self-motivated students, but it did not serve those who needed support in managing substance and behavioral issues. Furthermore, school staff often felt the strain of maintaining structure and safety in this environment, which led to high teacher turnover and a lack of a consistent curriculum. Finally, a commitment to consensus and student autonomy also contributed to a lack of clear decision-making processes, as the school often faced ambiguity regarding authority in addressing issues.

However, rather than undermining the reflections on the positive impact of John Woolman School on so many lives, the examination of obstacles allows the book to serve both as testament and case study. While members of the Woolman community may appreciate this preservation of their beloved institution for posterity, all readers are given an insightful meditation on the potential and inherent challenges of creating an intentional community built on competing values. As the ties that bind adolescents (and adults) to each other and the physical world continue to grow more tenuous, we all have something to learn from the story of John Woolman School.

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Brad Gibson is a middle school humanities teacher and administrator at Friends School Mullica Hill (N.J.) and a member of Woodstown (N.J.) Meeting.