The Promise of Friends
Friends School will develop in your child a vigorous intellect and the habits of a peaceful heart. This is the promise of Friends School, made to every family who entrusts their children’s education to us. For 225 years we have been providing a balanced, morally-centered, and responsive education to the children of Baltimore. And we know that today it is more important than ever that we keep this promise, for the world truly needs what our children can do. Our goal in this introduction to Friends is to give you a clear sense of our school: what we believe in and what we will do for your child should you choose Friends School. Most of all, we hope what you read here will compel you to visit the school and let us show you Friends School’s unique qualities in action.
A Friends School education is balanced. Parents who choose Friends School embrace a particular aspiration for the adults that their children will become: that they will be balanced, intellectually and emotionally successful human beings, possessed of a love of learning and of life; people who have grown to know their true selves, and whose actions reflect their most deeply held beliefs; men and women whose habits of reflection and introspection have inspired them to let their lives speak.
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Friends School believes, as did the Quakers who founded
our School more than 225 years ago, that there is that of God in every person— that every child has the capacity for goodness, wisdom, and the discernment of truth. A Friends education seeks to develop these capacities and to ensure that all our children come to understand and value all that is within them.
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Friends
School is a vibrant community. The values that form the foundation of our school’s culture—a commitment to simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship of our earth—are not the Quakers’ alone. They are touchstones of many cultures and belief systems, and they are what make Friends School at once so richly diverse and so deeply unified. A Friends School education is responsive. We are a community of learners. Our collective goal is to nurture in the children we teach the habits of mind that will make it possible for them to take joy from, and contribute effectively to, the world in which they will live. These habits include critical thinking skills, creativity and curiosity, the capacity for reflection, an inclination towards empathy, and an openness to collaboration. In today’s complex world, in which there is instant access to vast amounts of information and misinformation, and in which we must be able
to relate to and work effectively with people from cultures and circumstances very different from our own, these Six Habits of Mind are more necessary than ever.
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Today’s Friends School is responsive to the needs of today’s children.
Our program will develop in your child the characteristics of an intellectually and emotionally resourceful person: self-direction, persuasiveness in oral and written communication, an abiding commitment to teamwork, and an understanding of when and how to assume the responsibility of leadership. A Friends School education is morally-centered. At the heart of each student’s experience at Friends is the Quaker tradition of Meeting. At its core, a Meeting is a coming together in silence. Meetings are not occasions for debate or persuasion, but times to gather as a community of women and men, boys and girls, in a common search for truth—to approach what the Quakers refer to as the inner light.
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Meeting is not a quaint tradition, but a vital and defining element
of the Friends School experience. As a result of their experiences in Meeting, our graduates enter into college and adult life able and inclined to make productive use of silence, to claim the time and space necessary to keep their balance, to stay calm and focused amidst the turbulent ebb and flow of the contemporary world. And when moved to do so, Friends School graduates find they are well-prepared to speak from the heart.
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Friends students at every age attend Meeting once
each week, and over time they come to appreciate the opportunity Meeting provides to settle and center themselves, so they may more fully reflect upon the lessons and experiences of a busy day or a challenging week.
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Whatever your
family’s faith or beliefs, you and your child will find a nurturing, caring, and welcoming community at Friends, for we are a school in which the trappings of our affluent society are consciously laid aside, so that all of us—students and teachers—can seek to better recognize and experience what is essential. Friends School is coeducational. For well over two centuries, Friends School has provided a balanced, morally-centered, and responsive education to girls and boys together, in the firm belief that each group has a great deal to learn from and with the other.
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Through lengthy experience, we have learned that for coed-
ucation to fulfill its potential requires an atmosphere defined by caring, equality,
fairness, and support—attributes that are fundamental to Friends School. That potential—to be a setting in which students learn to respect, understand, and work effectively with people of both genders—is not easily achieved; yet when it is, it offers our children invaluable preparation for the world beyond our campus.
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At Friends, we rely on 225 years of practice—and our grounding in Quaker values—to guide us in creating an atmosphere in which boys and girls grow and thrive together and all children benefit from the true diversity of coeducation. The Friends School community is welcoming. We hear routinely from families starting at Friends that the caring and accepting environment of the school makes it a remarkably easy place to be “new.” The students who join our community each year add immeasurably to our culture and are appreciated for doing so by their classmates and their teachers. The fresh perspectives, stories, talents, and energies they bring with them enrich the experiences of everyone at Friends. A Friends School education leads to great choices. Friends is a particularly vigorous independent school that is held in high regard by colleges all across the country. To be sure, we routinely send students to the nation’s most prestigious schools. But in each case, our graduates choose the college or university that represents the best fit for them. Friends School students select a college not because of the prestige associated with its name, but because it offers the elements they are searching for in their college experience.
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College guid-
ance at Friends begins with the student, not the college, and with the knowledge that, among the great number of choices that a student has earned the right to consider, there is an ideal match to be made. From that understanding, we go to work together to find the best match. And we take special pride in one particular statistic: 98% of Friends School alumni graduate from the college they originally choose to attend.
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Friends School transforms children of promise into active,
self-directed learners; then our guidance process helps them find the college in which they will flourish. Friends School graduates fan out across America and the globe to further their educations, but they are not hard to find: look for them near the front of the classroom, asking the probing questions, engaging their professors as fellow learners, and seizing the opportunities before them.
The Lower School To be known, loved, and nurtured. To come to value oneself and others. To be happy and secure. To begin the journey of a lifetime.
The Lower School provides a warm and supportive environment that nurtures and challenges our students. Within the safety of this atmosphere, children learn to explore their world, take healthy risks, and master essential skills. Quaker values are the essential guides for our teachers and students in all that they do, and it is these values—simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, stewardship, and above all respect—that define the classroom environment. In the Lower School, boys and girls build the solid educational and emotional foundation that will underlie their lives. It is a place where each child is supported as she or he discovers the power of the mind and the exciting possibilities the world holds for us all. Life-long skills, such as working cooperatively and thinking critically and reflectively, are emphasized throughout the curriculum. Lower School students discover the joy of reading, encounter the challenges of writing in all its forms—expressive, creative, and expository—and become confident in their ability to organize their thoughts and express themselves. Through active engagement in hands-on projects, students learn to organize information, compare ideas, make hypotheses, and find solutions. In all areas, our program nurtures independent thinking and problemsolving skills.
The Middle School To be respected, supported, and understood. To become free in spirit, limber in mind, and confident in body. To grow strong and true.
The Middle School years are a wonderful and complex time in our students’ lives. This time of transition between childhood and adulthood brings dramatic physical changes, intellectual development, and emotional maturation, all marked by joyful accomplishments, significant challenges, and sometimes, intense disappointments. Helping children navigate these years requires a mindfulness and collaboration between parents and teachers. At Friends, we provide the structure and resources to meet the intellectual and emotional needs of our middle school students and to make it possible for them to fully discover their gifts and talents. Our faculty builds in our students a strong sense of self that will help them thrive in an increasingly complex world. With an emphasis on cooperative learning and hands-on activities, the Middle School’s vigorous academic program nurtures students’ critical-thinking skills. Along with a rich range of core academic subjects, students take life skills classes that foster good social skills and decision-making abilities to help them navigate this dynamic time in their lives. Elective and enrichment courses in the arts provide further balance and a focus for channeling students’ creative energies. Those needing extra help in any subject receive individual attention during and after the school day. The Middle School’s outdoor education clubs and service programs further support our philosophy of experiential, project-oriented learning and community building. Working together, out-of-doors and away from home, students learn about themselves and their community.
The Upper School To develop a passion for knowledge that can enrich and fulfill a life. To be challenged and sustained. To learn to speak, listen, reflect, and act. To engage the world.
In our Upper School, students work side by side with their teachers as active partners in the learning process. In this rich intellectual environment, the vigorous curriculum calls on students to apply what they learn within and beyond the classroom. Students are encouraged to passionately pursue their interests and ideas and to put their hopes and ideals into action, to “let their lives speak.� The Upper School offers a challenging college preparatory program in an atmosphere where individual differences and perspectives are respected and celebrated. A broad range of course offerings within the various disciplines allows students to tailor the academic program to suit their aptitudes and interests. Upper School students participate in a myriad of student activities which meet during the school day, assisted by faculty advisors. A close-knit community, the entire Upper School gathers each morning for Collection, a time for sharing information and announcements as well as a venue for guest speakers and presentations. Special events and activities in the Upper School include Convocation, a day-long, student-organized symposium that brings community leaders to the School to discuss current events, personal experiences, and contemporary issues. Every Upper School student completes 50 hours of off-campus community service as a requirement for graduation. This hands-on experience helps students evaluate possible careers, shows them how classroom theory can be applied in real life, and allows them to appreciate their own ability to make a meaningful contribution to the broader community.
Athletics
The Arts
Athletics is an essential element of the
Creativity permeates Friends School. It is encouraged, nurtured,
education of every Friends student. At
and urged forth from every student in every class, from every
each level, our students develop their
teacher in every discipline. Our Fine and Performing Arts program
physical talents, their love of sport, and
is integral to the Friends experience and to the school’s goal of
their capacity to work with others
nurturing our students’ spiritual, intellectual, physical, and creative
towards a common goal.
strengths. We see the arts as essential to the fulfillment of our
We have more than 30 interscholastic girls’ and boys’ athletic teams, providing students with abundant opportunities to
promise to develop in our students a vigorous intellect and the habits of a peaceful heart. Throughout their years at Friends, students discover and
participate in competitive sports. Our
deepen their artistry, and in the process, come to a more profound
athletes learn to play for the love of the
understanding of the human spirit. The emphasis, in both the
game and the good of the team. And we
visual and performing arts, is on the student as creator, with
know that the many lessons learned on
self-expression at the heart of the experience. Public exhibitions and
the fields, courts, and mats shape the
performances offer students at every grade level the opportunity to
character of our students and inform the
share their passion and their accomplishments with the community.
way they live their lives.
The annual Spring Art Show is a highlight of the year and includes
Middle and Upper School students
works created by every Friends School student, from Pre-Kinder-
are required to participate in at least one
garten through 12th Grade. A wide assortment of vocal and
after-school sports activity each year. The
instrumental concerts, dance recitals, dramas, and musicals also
majority choose to do so during two or
draw the community together to share in the fruits of our students’
more seasons. Students who choose not
labors and to celebrate the power of creativity.
to play a team sport in a given season are
The arts program at Friends is characterized by inspiration, joy,
able to contribute to the Friends School
and enthusiasm. Through their experiences, our students establish
athletic program in other ways: by
the foundation for a lifetime of participation in and appreciation for
serving as team managers, videotaping
the arts—cornerstones of a rich and fulfilling existence.
games, keeping statistics, operating the scoreboard—or, just as importantly, by coming out to cheer on the team. We know that not every student is an equally gifted athlete, but our coaches believe that every child has a personal contribution to make to the team’s success. Our students get the opportunity, and the coaching attention needed, to discover and fulfill their potential and to contribute to the team to the best of their ability.
“As educators, we spend much of our time nurturing children’s intellects and supporting their physical development … There has to be an equal emphasis on the evolution of their spiritual lives.” An Upper School faculty member
“I came to change this place, and it changed me.” A division principal
“Friends had evolved and changed in every decade of its two-hundred year existence. Change in fact had been the great constant.” Friends for 200 Years: A History of Baltimore’s Oldest School
“Friends is a diverse place … being in this community has helped me learn to respect opinions that are different than my own—and to be more accepting in general.” A member of the Class of 2009
“You come to rely on Meeting because you know it is the place you go that provides relief from the rush of life.” An 11th Grade student
“I chose Friends for my kids because of the school’s value system, because of how the school treats the students, and because of how Friends students treat each other.”
“I never knew there could be a school like this for me.” A 5th Grade student
A former Friends School parent and trustee
“Friends provides the best education the world has to offer.” A recent graduate, to her mother
“We’re not timid to speak in class because we all treat each other with the same respect. I have just as many close guy friends as I do girl friends.” A 12th Grade student
“Friends graduates are lovingly educated. They go many places and do many things—each propelled by possibility, motivated by optimism, unrestricted by convention, reinforced by achievement, and guided by principle.” From the Friends School Identity Statement
Let’s Connect While we hope that you’ve found this introduction to Friends School helpful, we know that the most important aspects of life at our school are not easily conveyed on the page. The qualities that make this school such a powerful environment for learning and growth must be experienced first-hand to be fully appreciated. Only with a visit to Friends can you truly sense the palpable intellectual vibrancy of our classroom discussions, the compassionate manner in which all members of our community actively care for one another, and the many ways in which our faculty lovingly nurture and challenge their students each day. We would welcome the opportunity to host you on campus, to answer your questions, and to continue the conversation we’ve begun in this booklet.
Karen Dates-Dunmore ’82, Director of Admission and Financial Aid, Grades 7–8 kdates@friendsbalt.org 410-649-3207 Josh Carlin, Admission Counselor, Grades 9–12 jcarlin@friendsbalt.org 410-649-3312 Amy Mortimer ’87, Admission Counselor, Grades 2–6 amortimer@friendsbalt.org 410-649-3210 Marge Felter ’63, Admission Counselor, Pre-Kindergarten–Grade 1 mfelter@friendsbalt.org 410-649-3313 Rosemary Cerra, Admission Office Manager rcerra@friendsbalt.org 410-649-3308 Lavera Howard, Admission Assistant and Outreach Coordinator lhoward@friendsbalt.org 410-649-3211
Friends School of Baltimore 5114 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21210-2096 www.friendsbalt.org 410-649-3200