New Music Teacher Says Friends School is 'Amazing Community'

Joanna Stamper started her teaching career at a Friends school, and now, after a stint in public school, she’s returning to the type of classroom where she feels most at home.

“I definitely missed the Friends environment and the community,” said Stamper, who will teach music at the Lower School at beginning this year. “I missed the sense of community, the spiritual aspect, looking at the entire child.”

Stamper, who previously taught at the Friends School Haverford (PA) and most recently in the Cherry Hill School District, said Moorestown Friends “seems like an amazing community.”

As the music instructor for the Lower School—preschool through fourth grade—Stamper said she won’t have to worry about holding the notoriously short attention spans of her young students as much as some of her brethren.

“For young children, music is a natural inclination and a way to express themselves,” she said.

Aside from her teaching experience, which also includes the Westminster Choir College at Rider University, Stamper has worked in summer music programs in Philadelphia and Camden and is a member of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association.  

Looking ahead to her first day (Thursday), Stamper simply said, “I’m anxious to meet the kids.”

For key dates in the Moorestown Friends School 2012-13 calendar, .