Ruth Friendly Returns

Former Edgewood teacher Ruth Friendly sat
down for an interview in her old classroom. 

Ruth Friendly, a popular Edgewood classroom teacher in the 70s and 80s, returned to our school this summer. She reminisced in her old classroom (Room 20) with former students, including our PTA President Heedan Chung, and shared stories that reminded us that we learn best when we're inspired to be our best.

Among the stories she shared connected teaching with journalism. She spoke of a time when she and her husband, journalism pioneer Fred Friendly, sat in a Scarsdale high school classroom and noticed a quote scribbled on the chalkboard. "The teacher's job is to make the agony of decision-making so intense you can escape only by thinking." 

Mr. Friendly would go on to use this line in future interviews and in his lectures at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism because according to Mrs. Friendly, Mr. Friendly said the quotation reflects the journalist's job. He would later be credited with saying, "Our job is not to make up anybody's mind, but to open minds, and to make the agony of decision-making so intense you can escape only by thinking." 

Funny thing is, according to Mrs. Friendly, no one knows to whom the original quotation written on the Scarsdale HS classroom chalkboard actually belongs. Mrs. Friendly says she tried to find out, but no one owned up to it. For more stories of her Edgewood days and our interview with Mrs. Friendly, please click this link to view the video. 

-- Paul Tomizawa