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Deloris Jones

"Friends School is helping to train the leaders and problem-solvers of tomorrow," says Deloris Jones, Middle School social studies department coordinator.

Deloris feels strongly that her Friends students go on to high school and then college with a greater sense of social values and responsibilities-and a deeper understanding of the world in which we live-than do most other students.

One reason for this is their study of geography, a subject that some schools tend to minimize. “Geography means more than just being able to locate countries, cities, rivers and mountains,” said Deloris.“It means understanding the environments of near and remote countries of the world, and knowing facts about their climates as well as the ecology and other factors affecting the lives of their citizens.”

Though she is fascinated with the history of the colonial era, particularly the drama behind the making of the Constitution, Deloris developed a passion for the Middle East after first traveling to the region in 1990 under the Friends School Summer Grant program. Since then, she has visited the region every year, traveling extensively in Egypt, Israel and other areas in the region. She has taken Arabic language courses at Johns Hopkins University, and recently completed a course on Arabic Literature in Translation at the University of Pennsylvania, under the auspices of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Deloris has incorporated much of the knowledge gained through her years of Middle East exploration into her geography classes. For instance, a unit on the Middle East and North Africa requires that students enter the classroom wearing traditional Muslim garments-even enter arranged “marriages”!

Deloris attended the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a B.A. in history and physical anthropology and an M.S. in secondary education. She received a Certificate of Merit for her teaching from the university’s Black Faculty Association.

After graduate school, Deloris taught courses in history, geology and anthropology at The Community High School of Philadelphia for two years before joining the Friends School faculty in 1983. She became department coordinator nine years later. Nineteen years is a long time to stay in any one place, and Deloris marvels at how the time has flown. She credits much of her enthusiasm about Friends to her fellow teachers. “They are so creative and so dedicated to doing the job in the very best way possible,” she said. “We all try to inspire one another to try new things.”

As Deloris’ students pass her outside the faculty room, they smile and wave. She returns their smiles, and the warmth between the teacher and her students is apparent. “Sometimes the students feel that we demand a lot of them, with all the reading that’s required,” she said. “But when they get to college, they may discover that they are 50 books ahead of their classmates.