Carolina Friends School

Carolina Friends School is a private school on the western outskirts of Durham, NC. Founded by Quakers, and reflecting the Quaker philosophy, the school often does things differently from other schools.(For example: Students and Staff "settle in" together for 15 minutes or more in the morning, with no formal reading of "announcements"; individuals speak as they feel the need. Upper School students help with the maintenance and instruction at the school as part of "School Service" classes, or did as of 1982, when I went there; I presume this still applies.)

Links

Carolina Friends School official web site
- photo site

CFS in the News

2006-04-10 Students from Qatar visit Durham
2005-06-19 Herald-Sun: sports at CFS
2005-05-31 Washington Post (near the end; search for "Carolina")
2005-05-20 News & Observer "Harvesting for the Needy"

Forums and Mailing Lists

River Class - lower school (free subscription required)

Events

Trivia

Pavilion Mural

The mural on the driveway-side of the middle school pavilion (The Quakerdome) was painted by:

Matthew Henry (trompe l'oeil which has since been painted over)
me (weird unfinished brown tower-thing being sucked into the black hole)
Jenny Hall (dragon)
Charlotte Denny (from New Zealand -- the Kiwi is hers; we jokingly called it "the dragon turd")
...and I have to check about the one or two others.

It was done for a mini-session project in 1982 (possibly 1981). I thought we were going to come back later and finish it... (I think the supervising teacher's name was Ellen, but I'm not quite sure; time to rifle through old yearbooks).

Related Pages

CFS's financial aid uses the NAIS SSS Online form application

Notes

Recollections

CFS in 1979-1982 felt almost magical, at least compared with the rigid structure and competitiveness at DA. I met people there who totally changed my life. (Athough some dad things happened, too, and they didn't handle Harena's crisis very well when she was there, but they at least erred on the side of allowing the individual to make their own choices rather than being heavy-handed and authoritarian.) It would also seem to have been very good for for Mel (Harena's eldest), who graduated from the CFS upper school in 2002(?), and Zander (age 7 when he first went there in 2004), who was not getting along very well at Hope Valley (Durham Public Schools). (My wiki offer still stands, for what it's worth.) 2006-02-09 update: some more background is on the HypertWiki –Woozle 06:10, 30 Apr 2005 (CST)

News from CFS

Apparently CFS is now actively promoting and actively advertising itself, which was something they never did when we were there in the 1970s and 1980s:

You've seen our ads in various print publications, helped us to distribute flyers throughout the community, and heard our spots on WUNC FM. Now we're reaching out in some new directions.

To hear a lively conversation about the CFS dance program, tune in to WCHL (1390 AM) this Sunday, 12:30 - 1:00, when Jon Wilner interviews Annie Dwyer, Mike Hanas, and Lydia Kramer on his arts program. Those who are unable to hear the program on Sunday can access a podcast on the WCHL website.

Mike will be interviewed on Ron Stutts' morning program later this month, and you can hear radio spots about CFS broadcast by Mike on WCHL from now through December 3.

Also, jazz lovers may hear underwriting spots on WNCU (90.7 FM).

We're on the air, spreading the good word about CFS. As always, thanks for your support.

(From a CFS emailing, 2006-11-03)

Our feeling is that the place has gotten too big already, and does not need to be expanding any further. –Woozle 09:34, 4 November 2006 (EST)