What does a Friends School Have to Offer?

Quakers believe in strong encouragement of the individual. Each person has the capacity to be good, the ability to see the Light of God, and the ability to put that truth to good use. Thus, Quakers provide an exceptional and unique learning environment. Students who graduate from a Quaker school walk away with a strong sense of social understanding, skills to deal with adversity, tolerance and respect for others, and a strong sense of self-worth so that they have the power needed to succeed.

Friends schools hope to create an environment within which students and staff alike can continue to mature as companions in a wide range of experiences. These experiences, both outward and inward in nature, may bring forth in each a deepening awareness of the presence of God.

The Quaker belief in the “Inner Light” leads to faith in the ability of every member of the school community to reach his or her full potential. Children are expected to grow and change in an environment that nurtures their spirits and challenges them to develop inner resources for discipline and achievement. A variety of gifts and talents are honored.

Students learn to respect and practice truth and to know the various ways it can be found - through scientific investigation, through creative expression, through conversation, through worship, through service within the school community and beyond. They are encouraged by word and example to respect the talents and perspectives of others, and include them in a cooperative, rather than competitive search for knowledge.

A basic tenet of Quakerism is that truth is continuously revealed and is accessible to the seeker. At Friends schools, this belief is reflected in an open-minded approach to curriculum and teaching, in an emphasis on critical thinking skills, and in a developmental approach to children and learning. Work on individual skills and knowledge is balanced with group learning, in which each person’s unique insights contribute to a collective understanding.

The fundamental principle which Friends stress, that in every person, there is something of God capable of receiving direct illumination from God, must apply equally to children as to adults, and must, therefore set the tone for the whole life of the school. The whole community should live together in friendship, each one recognizing the special position held by the others, and the contribution required from each for the perfection of the common life.

-London Yearly Meeting, 1946

Aims of Quaker Education

A Friends school hopes to offer a community that cares deeply about what kind of persons its members, young and old, are becoming, what goals and motives are effective in their lives, what their response is to the high calling of being human. They hope to be communities of those who have, not only techniques and knowledge, but also a vivid relationship to reality, a hunger for worship, a passion for truth, and the experience of growth in the Light.

Quaker education does not seek to inculcate a particular set of beliefs or doctrines; it seeks to nurture a particular sort of personhood - a person who knows deep down that sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing are not all there are to life; a person who, in an age of rampant materialism, has first-hand experience of the reality and importance of the Spirit in life; a person rooted as much in the unseen as in the seen, as much in the spiritual as in the physical; a person who has a capacity for reverence, and who is as well equipped to experience the Spirit as to do work in the world.