IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES In classrooms across the country, students are asked to solve problems. The problem with such problems is that too often we already know the answers. Let’s not confuse the creative capacity of problem-solving with the mundane activity of solving problems. Real problems do not come on bubble tests or with discernible answers. The most daunting challenges of our age— advancing the goals of social justice, global health, environmental conservation, education for all, economic opportunity—will never be solved by “multiple choice.” At Friends’ Central, we believe that education must engage the imagination. Progress and innovation are only possible when we value the imaginative process more than memorizing a correct answer. The imagination is creative and hopeful. Its magical “what if” is both the spark of an idea and the test of its plausibility. Work the imagination like a muscle, give it room to run, and the imagination will find new pathways and new possibilities. Knowledge—the raw material of great ideas and traditions, the wealth and variety of human experience— is fuel to imagination’s fire. Learning to use knowledge to hypothesize, draft, plan, design, analyze, and ultimately solve real problems empowers our young people and gives learning its purpose. For more than 160 years, Friends’ Central’s Quaker spirit and rigorous academic program have delivered an education rich in the raw materials that engage the imagination. We are educating students for the future, charging them with creativity and persistence, and building that most critical of all human capacities: the ability to see the world anew, to offer fresh ideas, diverse perspectives, and innovative ways of moving forward.
Friends’ Central School is a co-educational, college preparatory day school for nursery school through grade 12, located on two campuses in Wynnewood PA.
www.friendscentral.org