Scattergood Friends School 1890-1990 (review)

Book Reviews Edited by Thomas D. Hamm ScattergoodFriends School 1890-1990. By Robert Berquist, David Rhodes, Carolyn Smith Treadway. West Branch Iowa: Scattergood Friends School, 1990. 399 pp. illus. $15. The life and influence of a small Quaker boarding school on the Iowa prairie take on a large and heart-warming significance in this well-documented and scrupulously honest centennial history. Typical of the school it describes, this book is itself a cooperative group enterprise. At first glance, the reader may wonder if perhaps too much was included in this 100-year history; for example, at the end of many chapters are fragments from interviews, odd newsletters or other sources, and one entire chapter is devoted to vehicles and special pets at Scattergood . However, after a thoughtful reading of the book, one understands that Scattergood is in some sense family: thus each small memory is important and treasured. Without some way of conveying the sense of family and of the religious dedication behind the school, this history would have been incomplete. An early chapter shows how the name Scattergood is itself a tribute to the wide religious network which has always surrounded the school. Those who are familiar with the circle of Conservative yearly meetings early in this century will be interested in the names of teachers and visiting Friends (all teachers are listed in an appendix) as well as the way in which the old school was very much a part of the Conservative Quaker community. Later chapters show how Scattergood's Quaker community expanded to become international in scope, and how the school welcomed other religious and cultural influences as well. This history also shows how this remarkable school has always lived close to the financial margin because of the limited resources of its small and largely rural sponsoring body. Scattergood had to close during the Depression, but its use as a hostel for refugees from Nazi Europe inspired Friends to reopen it in 1944 under Leanore Goodenow, who out of financial necessity and out of her own vision of education created a school which combined Quaker values and life style, a remarkable student work program, high academic standards (which were maintained without any grading system), and a good arts program. Scattergood in this period is well documented with vivid vignettes, such as a student account of going to milk cows before dawn in a blizzard. The honest and interesting story of Scattergood under Leanore (as well as during Scattergood's later years) makes this book not only good history, but an excellent source book for people interested in the evolution of an outstanding educational experiment. It is tempting to say much more about the remarkable achievements of Leanore Goodenow, but it seems best to let the reader discover them from the book itself. The entire book also documents the fact that Scattergood has been a group enterprise which could never have succeeded without many other exceptionally able and sacrificially dedicated people among staff, committee, and friends of the school. Pendle HillWilliam Taber Witnessfor Change: Quaker Women Over Three Centuries. Edited by Elisabeth Potts Brown and Susan Mosher Stuard. New Brunswick and London: Rutgers ...