Fools Friday An Educator's Journey

by Pike, Tom

• ISBN13: 9781941610909
• ISBN10: 1941610900
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2023-05-01
• Publisher: Fons Vitae

Summary

Fools Friday is the story of one man’s life as an educator, of the unique independent 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.

Author Biography

Tom Pike was raised in Louisville, Kentucky, where he graduated from Eastern High School. He studied engineering and philosophy at Stanford University and as a graduate student at Princeton, trained as a teacher and educator, and returned in 1967 as Assistant Headmaster of St. Francis School. In 1977, he became founding Headmaster of St. Francis High School. He retired in 2003 and continues to reside in Louisville.

Table of 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 ............................................................................... 102 Boundaries ............................................................................... 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