War of the Religions: Non-Denominational Style
When I first came to Penn, people were so curious about my history. When I explained to them that I went to an all girls’ school, they were always curious about whether it was a Catholic School. When I told them it was non-denominational, they were so confused. No one had ever heard of an all girls’ school that was non-denominational. They had always heard of Catholic Girl Schools. Yes, indeed I went to a non-denominational girls’ school. In fact, there are two in my area on the same street, called Baldwin and Agnes Irwin.
It’s interesting that even though both schools are non denominational, there is a clear denomination at each school.
At Baldwin, most of the girls are Jewish. They all had huge Bat mitzvahs that were the social event of 8th grade. They were the social event because there was one every weekend. If you weren’t Jewish, you couldn’t fully participate in this ritual and it was much more difficult to fit in, so hard that on average 3 a year would switch to a different school going into freshmen year.
At Agnes Irwin, the one Jewish girl that was ever in my class switched schools for high school as well. Everyone at Agnes Irwin was Protestant; Presbyterian to be exact. They all went to the same church, where everything exciting happened. Every Thursday morning, there was Breakfast Club at the local Presbyterian Church where all of the action would happen. The girls with the boyfriends went to breakfast club, because that was where the cool boys were. When the church lost one of their most favored ministers, the entire school was upset, pretty unbelievable if you ask me.
I went to Agnes Irwin for 13 years (K-12) and knew one Jewish girl through all of my years there. All of the Jewish girls were at Baldwin, so the only Jewish people I knew were guys. When I came to Penn, I interrogated this girl down the hall from me about Judaism because I have never gotten the chance to really understand it. I feel as though I was left out of that culture because I didn’t get to experience it as I was growing up; all I had to do was go to the wrong non-denominational school.
It’s interesting that even though both schools are non denominational, there is a clear denomination at each school.
At Baldwin, most of the girls are Jewish. They all had huge Bat mitzvahs that were the social event of 8th grade. They were the social event because there was one every weekend. If you weren’t Jewish, you couldn’t fully participate in this ritual and it was much more difficult to fit in, so hard that on average 3 a year would switch to a different school going into freshmen year.
At Agnes Irwin, the one Jewish girl that was ever in my class switched schools for high school as well. Everyone at Agnes Irwin was Protestant; Presbyterian to be exact. They all went to the same church, where everything exciting happened. Every Thursday morning, there was Breakfast Club at the local Presbyterian Church where all of the action would happen. The girls with the boyfriends went to breakfast club, because that was where the cool boys were. When the church lost one of their most favored ministers, the entire school was upset, pretty unbelievable if you ask me.
I went to Agnes Irwin for 13 years (K-12) and knew one Jewish girl through all of my years there. All of the Jewish girls were at Baldwin, so the only Jewish people I knew were guys. When I came to Penn, I interrogated this girl down the hall from me about Judaism because I have never gotten the chance to really understand it. I feel as though I was left out of that culture because I didn’t get to experience it as I was growing up; all I had to do was go to the wrong non-denominational school.
1 Comments:
my little cousin goes to agnes irwin...
small world.
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