Welcome to Penn Valley Meeting

First Day School Committee Yearly Report - 2000

This past year, the First Day School of Penn Valley Friends Meeting continued the schedule of meeting every other first day. As all of the youth presently attending First Day School are between 11 and 15 years of age, we meet as one class and follow a discussion format. During the Fall, we continued the pattern of exploring the beliefs of other religious paths during one first day per m onth and discussing the query questions the other first day. The religious paths studied included Catholicism, Sufism, Judaism, Greek Orthodoxy, and afundamental-ist Christian path (namely, Southern Baptist). As part of the whole experience, we also attended services at a Jewish synagogue, a Greek Orthodox church, a Southern Baptist church and a Catholic church.

By late winter/early spring, we had completed discussing all 12 queries, and the youth expressed an interest in developing their own queries. This process was begun and will likely continue next year.

Ongoing challenges for Penn Valley Meeting's First Day School include the unpredictability of attendance; however, scheduling First Day School every other first day may alleviate that somewhat as it allows to schedule in advance. Other challenges include lack of contact among the youth outside of First Day School, which apparently constrains interactions among the youth during First Day School due to a lack of comfort, lack of interest, and perceived lack of common experience by the kids. A third ongoing challenge involves constraints of the Meetinghouse itself, as First Day School meets in a room directly above Meeting for Worship. First Day School Committee is seeking solutions to these issues.

Positive aspects for this year included several excellent discussions generated by attending the services of other religious paths. First Day School committee has also been augmented this year by three additional committee members, including one of the youth; their contributions of resources and expertise are very much appreciated.