In the San Francisco Bay Area, where public school space is doled out by lottery and private school space is at a premium, it seems that every school puts on their best possible face. From the outside, many independent schools — a term used by some to avoid the elitist stigma of “private” schools — may look alike. Every school promises to provide the best education possible to turn your child into a successful adult. Operating in this climate are three Episcopal grade schools (K-8) in the Diocese of California — Cathedral School for Boys in San Francisco, St. Matthew’s Episcopal Day School in San Mateo, and St. Paul’s Episcopal School in Oakland.

To find out how being affiliated with Episcopal churches makes these schools unique, we interviewed the Canon Headmaster at Cathedral School for Boys, Michael Ferreboeuf; the Head of School at St. Matthew's, Mark McKee (who began his tenure on July 1, 2007); and the Head of School at St. Paul's, Karan Merry. In addition to a pledge of academic excellence, we found a genuine dedication to community that seems to spring from the nature of Anglicanism itself.
 

These three schools share a common value that all baptized Episcopalians share — a commitment to "seek and serve Christ in all persons," and to "strive for justice and peace among all people." In our Episcopal schools, this commitment to universal justice begins by educating children about local leadership and responsibility in programs that promote community service inside and outside the school.
Merry believes that working in the local community is important for cultivating a lifelong desire to learn. "We see ourselves as all being a part of that community," she says. "So unlike some private schools where you can sort of separate yourself from what's going on in the public, we believe that's an integral part of who we are and a part of the excellence that we offer in the school." McKee says that including community service in the grade school curriculum leaves a lasting impression. "We find when you build service into students' education as a habit, that it really does become something that they do, like breathing, just as a matter of course."

At Cathedral School, younger students have been collecting items such as small shampoo bottles for the Episcopal Sanctuary homeless shelter in San Francisco and selling books to raise funds for Bayview Mission. Every Thursday morning older students are taken outside of the school for community service, visiting with senior citizens or tutoring at public primary schools.

St. Matthew’s students have toy drives, organize food drives, and make sack lunches for Samaritan House, a non-profit health and human services agency. They also spend an intensive month on community service in religion class, focusing on a specific area of service such as caring for the environment or addressing poverty and hunger, including hands-on work.

At St. Paul's, where students are immediately visible to neighbors in the community as they walk from building to building and eat lunch in the park, sixth graders take part in a project to clean Lake Merritt. Third graders help conduct a bird census for the Lake Merritt Institute and assist at the senior farmer's market in the parish hall.

 But there is more happening at these schools in terms of community-building than just service to the community at large. What happens inside the schools is just as important. According to Ferreboeuf, students at Cathedral School reflect on their community service through journaling and discussion with the chaplain in religion class. "We think it's important that you just don't do it, but that you start understanding about the purpose of your responsibility, and what it does for you as well as for others in the community." St. Matthew’s students also reflect in class with the chaplain on why service is important to people of faith and how those who serve are changed.

McKee identifies small class size as a community-building feature of independent schools, because students are "much more likely to feel like they are, even within the community of an individual classroom, that they are a member of a community. They're not just an anonymous person in a large classroom, but they have a role and a contribution."

At St. Paul's, a major focus of community building is diversity. The school's founders sought to include students from different racial, socio-economic, and cultural backgrounds reflecting the diversity of Oakland. Now, roughly half those enrolled are students of color, and about one-third receive tuition assistance. But the commitment to diversity at St. Paul's is not merely a way to provide a decent education to those who otherwise might not get it. As Merry puts it, "It isn't so much that we're giving someone something, ... but we're getting the privilege of getting to know them and learning and benefiting from them as they are benefiting from us." This, she says, is what it means to be a "private school with a public purpose," making the lives of all the students richer by serving others.

McKee focuses on leadership training as an important feature of community building that goes on in independent schools. He says, "I feel a calling and an obligation to educate [our students] so that they can have … an impact on society for the good that ends up being far greater than the mere numbers attending independent schools would suggest." But leadership does not necessarily mean a powerful political or economic position. "We need leaders who ... are leading quiet daily lives of contribution in their community," he says. "We need leaders who are thoughtful people of purpose and integrity and goodwill, and I think that's something that independent schools are very much about creating."

 Ferreboeuf seconds the idea that leadership training is a communal endeavor. "It's not about beating the other student, or getting ahead, or being competitive, it's about learning, again, in community." At Cathedral School, community building is facilitated by music. Some boys become part of the Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys; others participate actively in the robust music program the school offers. The Friday hymn-sing service with the choir is an important community event that parents routinely attend. "I think there's something about music that bonds a community even more so. There's something different about sitting together, talking together, and singing together."

Despite the different emphases, all three heads of school are clear on one thing — spiritual grounding is a crucial ingredient of building community in their schools. All three schools work intentionally to cultivate students' spirituality. Affiliation with the Anglican tradition — complete with the three-legged stool of scripture, tradition, and reason — provides a framework for considering spiritual values alongside traditional academic subjects. The heads of school view this as a blessing of freedom. McKee says, "What that means for a family who enrolls a child in an Episcopal school is that they recognize that they are being given access to this tremendous tradition and being given permission and responsibility to find their way in it through their own reason." Merry says, "I think the spiritual component gives a context for learning, and goodness, and kindness, and diversity, and service learning."

Of course, non-Episcopal schools work to foster the "moral values" of their pupils, but the unique claim of the Episcopal tradition seems to be a spiritual grounding in multiple viewpoints. This enables Episcopal schools to be religiously affiliated institutions that are comfortable for students from a wide variety of faith backgrounds. (By McKee's estimate, three-fourths of Episcopal school students might not identify as Episcopalian.) Ferreboeuf says his predecessor used to quip, "If someone is a Buddhist, we want them leaving as a better Buddhist."

Chapel services at the schools, which are often student-led, are also important to the focus on spiritual growth and community. "We have chapel four times a week, and we come together in chapel, and you get to talk about caring for one another, loving one another, being responsible to one another. You can do that in a secular school, but it's harder," says Ferreboeuf. St. Matthew's also has chapel four times a week; St. Paul's has chapel every Friday.

Chaplains, indispensable shepherds for the spiritual lives of these schools, help to keep the academic and the spiritual in balance. The Rev. Mehrdad Abidari at Cathedral School and the Rev. Stacy Williams Duncan at St. Matthew's not only help lead chapel and conduct Eucharist about once a month, but also teach classes on religion and coordinate service learning programs. St. Paul's is currently searching for a chaplain and director of service learning.

A close association with the Episcopal Church clearly informs how these schools provide spiritual guidance, and that guidance is a vital part of their identities. As Ferreboeuf puts it, "The spiritual piece just runs through the fabric of everything."