Letter from the Head of School

Every day, I go to work in a community that is joyfully focused on learning and growth in every moment of every day, in every nook and cranny of our buildings and campus, and for absolutely everyone here, from three-year-olds to those of us with graying hair and grandchildren and everyone in between. It is a thrilling endeavor to have such a pure and generative focus at the heart of our community. Generative because new learning always leads to new ideas to try, new initiatives and new growth.

The shorthand of educational basics across generations was “the three R’s: reading, writing and ‘rithmetic.” Indeed the founding mission of AFS in 1697 was to provide a “useful education with a moral grounding,” which meant basic literacy, a trade and simple virtues for daily living. It was a simple education for a much simpler time and the overall environment was one of austerity and no nonsense.

As the circle of a “useful education” continually widened over the centuries to include complex literacies that would encompass a broader terrain of human knowledge and a far more complex world, so too did our ideas in Friends education broaden to a much more expansive idea of human potential and the full development of children. We now understand childhood to be a miraculous process of social-emotional, physical, intellectual and spiritual growth that thrives on wide experience, healthy challenge and active initiative. And the adults in our community mirror a joyful zeal for growth and learning that drives their creation of the learning environment for our students.

And so, the AFS experience each day is one of inspired curiosity, exploration, engagement, building, initiative and creation that defines the classrooms; the art studios and performance spaces; the playgrounds, creek, gardens, beehives and arboretum; the Berman Athletic Center and playing fields; the adventures of field trips, global travel, Eighth Grade Independent Studies, Ex Programs and Senior Capstone; and the interplay of diverse voices and experiences in every setting at AFS and the sacred space of our 326-year-old Meetinghouse itself.

In this issue of Oak Leaves, you will encounter stories that illuminate learning in several spheres of community life under the question of “What makes a curriculum?” At AFS, it may be more apt to ask, “What’s not in the curriculum?” Everything at AFS is built around learning and growth and where it leads in creating an ever more joyful, just, peaceful and productive community, an outstanding foundation for the lives ahead of our children.

Rich Nourie

Head of School