PHILADELPHIA — In a spacious meeting room with broad, cathedral-like windows and a vaulted ceiling, 450 high school students and their teachers sat side by side on long wooden benches in sustained and still quiet for 40 minutes. The silence was interrupted only by the occasional cough or gently cleared throat.
The group — the student body, faculty and staff of William Penn Charter School — gathers once a week for this noiseless period of reflection called “meeting for worship,” a Quaker practice that William Penn would recognize from 1689, when he founded the school here.
Such a mellow setting might not figure to be a breeding ground for nationally prominent athletes, but Penn Charter, as it is known, has recently produced a handful of professional players and scores of top collegiate athletes, including Matt Ryan, the quarterback who will lead the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl on Sunday.