Walking through Brooklyn Friends School, visitors immediately notice something different. The classrooms aren’t arranged with neat rows of desks facing a teacher at the front. Instead, many are circular or like amoebas in their design. You might have to look around to find the teacher. “They’re not at the front of the room. Where are they? They might be on the floor. They might be in the hallway connecting with the teacher about something while the children are collaborating,” Head of School Crissy Cáceres explains.
This seemingly simple difference in classroom arrangement reveals much about the educational philosophy that’s guided this Quaker school since 1867. The educational institution’s pedagogical approach centers on three pillars: global social impact, diversity, equity, and belonging; wholeness and well-being.
Cáceres describes the Brooklyn Friends School’s pedagogical approach as “human centric.” She explains, “Meaning that there could be a math lesson happening, and the next day there might be a test. But if a child comes in despondent or in need of attention, the teacher will absolutely pause, prioritize that, perhaps call the student aside and have a conversation or find them right after that class session, and then may completely shift how they orient that next lesson or the next day.”
This flexibility comes from the educator’s ability to overcome overconfidence or self-importance. Rather than positioning teachers as all-knowing experts, Brooklyn Friends School teachers recognize that their students often bring knowledge and perspectives adults might lack.
“The minute that we decide that we know more at any given time and we behave in that way, we have failed them because we’re not showing our confidence that the rate of the development of the world has outpaced our skillset and our level of exposure relative to themselves,” Cáceres says.
Brooklyn Friends School’s Values-Driven Education
Founded in 1867 by the Religious Society of Friends as a coeducational grade school, Brooklyn Friends School began with just 17 students in the Brooklyn Monthly Meetinghouse on Schermerhorn Street in Downtown Brooklyn. The school expanded over time, adding a kindergarten in 1902 and a high school division in 1907, before relocating to more spacious quarters on Pearl Street in the early 1970s.
The school’s educational philosophy remains deeply intertwined with Quaker values. When people think of Quakerism, they might imagine something unchanging or traditional, but Cáceres quickly dispels this perception.
“Somehow, people think connecting to Quakerism means continuing to repeat all elements of the past. People think about Quakerism as though it still exists just as in a long-ago historic past,” she says. “If that were true, I, as a woman of color, wouldn’t be head of Brooklyn Friends School, and there would be many different realities.
For example, Cáceres believes that AI, used in its best form, equalizes the playing field. It provides tools that allow learners and doers to utilize AI to further enhance their thinking and ideation. The school doesn’t bar students from utilizing AI in a research paper so long as they credit what and how they used AI.
Central to Quaker education is the belief that everyone has an inner light. “Our quest is to make space for those lights to be as in support of those values as possible,” Cáceres explains.
That support extends to the school’s evaluation process, which Cáceres describes as “beautiful and tender.” The annual Evaluation for Growth process centers Quaker values: peace, equality, integrity, community, simplicity, and stewardship.
Perhaps nothing better illustrates the school’s philosophy than its handling of behavioral issues. “When families say, ‘My child was bullied,’ the first thing I say is, ‘That was impossible.’ And they say, ‘What are you talking about, Crissy?’ And I said, ‘In order for bullying to occur, there had to be active intent, there had to be a connection to what you thought you gained from the bullying, there had to be a measure of trying to hide or omit yourself from the impact of that. And their frontal lobes have not fully developed enough for all of those three things to be true. So that is not bullying, that’s mistake making,” she says.
With punitive punishments off the table, the school focuses on restoration and learning. Cáceres recently met with three seventh graders who were replacing letters in words that might be considered inappropriate or “naughty” with different letters to create substitute words. Rather than immediately disciplining them, she began with a peaceful pause and an invitation to honesty.
“We took a moment of silence, and I said, ‘The first thing is that we cannot have a conversation unless you begin with truth. So you have the gift of taking this opportunity to only connect to the truth. And without that, I actually can’t help you and you can’t help yourselves,'” she recounts.
This led to a powerful conversation about empathy and humanity. During her tenure at the New York City school, not a single student has been counseled out for behavioral reasons — a testament to the school’s commitment to working through difficulties and restoring community members rather than discarding them.
Academic Excellence Across All Grades
Brooklyn Friends School serves students from age two-years-old through 12th grade across several distinct learning communities, each tailored to specific developmental needs while maintaining the school’s core philosophy. With a 7:1 student-to-faculty ratio, the school provides individualized attention that helps students reach their potential.
The Early Childhood program (ages 2-4) provides a rich, child-centered curriculum that supports different learning styles and developmental readiness. The curriculum integrates emerging literacy, mathematics, science, social studies, visual arts, music, and large motor activities — all embedded through purposeful play.
In Lower School (K-4), classes on average contain 14-18 students, with two teachers in each K-3 classroom and specialist support. The academic program honors and centers children through a progressive approach. Students develop conceptual understanding and critical thinking, engage in multiple field trips each year, and deepen their social-emotional relationships.
Middle School (grades 5-8) builds on this foundation with a strong advisory system that establishes close relationships between students and faculty. Small classes promote partnerships with parents and guardians. Activities and an exploratory curriculum provide opportunities for students to discover their interests and strengths while assuming leadership roles.
The Upper School (grades 9-12) offers a challenging college preparatory curriculum that focuses on building students’ local and global consciousness and activating them as change agents for positive social impact. Students benefit from guidance from two assistant heads, a dean,, a school psychologist, a learning specialist, and two college counselors.
Beyond academics, Brooklyn Friends School requires service learning as part of its curriculum. Students participate in varsity and junior varsity sports across 36 teams, visual arts courses, theater, student government, publications, and numerous clubs. Weekly Meeting for Worship provides all community members, regardless of faith background, with time for reflection and spiritual growth.
The results speak for themselves: 100% of Brooklyn Friends School graduates are accepted to four-year universities, many at prestigious institutions across the United States and worldwide.
“The measure of our success is who they are as 30-, 40-, 50-, and 60-year-olds in the world; it’s who they are and continue to be in relation to the privileges they hold,” Cáceres says.
