The Pendle Hill Idea

by Howard H. Brinton

Overview

The Society of Friends, while engaged in promoting the cause of education along traditional lines, has also made unique contributions to educational procedure. Among these are the co-educational boarding school, based on the pattern of the Quaker family; the work camp, organized primarily as an educational undertaking; and the educational community or settlement, such as Woodbrooke in England and Pendle Hill in America. All of these make educational use of two basic Quaker principles: the importance of the small, integrated, religiously centered community as a starting point for a social order higher than that of the world in general, and the importance of immediate experience as a necessary supplement to beliefs and theories. These two principles are neither new nor are they the exclusive possession of the Society of Friends. Both are primordial and perhaps more characteristic of ancient than of modern man.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940148134176
Publisher:	Pendle Hill Publications
Publication date:	02/04/2014
Series:	Pendle Hill Pamphlets , #55
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	30
File size:	108 KB

About the Author

Howard Brinton (1884-1973) taught at several Quaker institutions, including Woodbrooke – a model for Pendle Hill. He served as co-director of Pendle Hill from 1936-1950, with his wife, Anna Cox Brinton.
In 1936, the Brintons faced the contingencies of a pioneer school-community. Howard Brinton was often seen on his way to negotiate the latest crisis, pursued by his rabbit Tibbar and the family dog Nuto. Gerald Heard, a staff member, watched this peaceable kingdom on the march with delight and saw in it a practical illustration of the philosophy of survival by reconciliation.
After retiring in 1952, Howard and Anna worked in Japan and Europe for the American Friends Service Committee. After Anna’s death in 1969, Howard married Yuki Takahashi, his Japanese secretary.
Howard Brinton wrote many Pendle Hill pamphlets and several books, including Friends for Three Hundred Years, a classic work of Quaker faith and history, republished as Friends for Three Hundred and Fifty Years with comments from the perspective of the Philadelphia Friends.