MFS to Celebrate Kindergarten Landmark

Provided by Moorestown Friends School

On Thursday, Nov. 14, Moorestown Friends School (MFS) will celebrate the 130th birthday of its kindergarten program. Kindergarteners, teachers and friends will attend a special birthday party celebration in the school’s dining hall commons at 10:15 a.m.

There will be cake and singing, as well as words from Head of School Larry Van Meter, who is a member of the Class of 1968 and attended MFS for 14 years. As part of the festivities, 12th grade students who have been at MFS since kindergarten (known as “originals”) will share birthday-themed books with current kindergarten students.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to explain and illustrate to our young students the great history of our school,” said Lower School Director Kelly Goula. “We are proud of our dedicated and talented faculty, as well as our many predecessors.”

Moorestown Friends School is home to one of the oldest kindergartens in the United States. Although the school as a whole was established in 1785, the kindergarten program was not added until the fall of 1883. This was about 10 years before American public schools began integrating kindergarten on a national level, and 10 years before the establishment of the International Kindergarten Union (only 6 percent of American kindergarten-aged children attended kindergarten in 1900).

Rachel L. Rogers and her assistant Sarah Wilson were the first kindergarten teachers at MFS. Rogers studied under a famous pioneer of the kindergarten movement, Madame Maria Kraus-Boelte, who herself was a disciple of Friedrich Froebel—the German pedagogue who invented the concept of kindergarten (“children’s garden”) in the 19th century.

The Moorestown Friends School kindergarten program is also notable for one of its earliest alumni, Alice Paul, who was one of 11 students enrolled in the kindergarten class in 1891. Later known as one of the country’s leading advocates for women’s rights, Alice Paul graduated from Moorestown Friends School in 1901.

Today the school’s “Beginnings at MFS” program enrolls 87 students in preschool, prekindergarten, and kindergarten. In addition to core instruction in Language Arts and Mathematics, students take classes in Art, Music, Science, Spanish, Physical Education, and Quaker/Religious Education, all taught by professionals in those fields. Learning is very hands-on, and students, read, write, ask questions, interview experts, conduct experiments, take field trips, and share their learning.  

The program for the birthday party will begin promptly at 10:15 a.m.