the creating of Carolina Friends School

 

how to define a school?

when Carolina Friends School started,

it was easy to define us as what we were not:

not segregated by race,

not hide-bound by antiquated routines,

not an assembly line that believed

in uniform input and uniform output,

not hierarchical with the teacher

all-knowing and all-in-charge,

not what many of us felt subjected to

in the 1950s and 1960s,

so instead we threw out the textbooks,

embraced the natural differences in student and staff alike,

and worked to empower whatever ways up the mountain worked,

we embraced a rapid evolution of the universe,

experimenting with this, experimenting with that,

discarding what didn't work, holding on to what did work,

aligning ourselves with the Society of Friends,

who, in their spiritual quests, viewed that God speaks,

and that anyone can open themselves to hearing the Word,

and that all of us can open ourselves

to acting upon the truth of what is revealed,

we were fortunate that most drawn to the school

lived a great gift from the universe:

the love for the student,

the love for the teacher,

the love for Truth revealed,

who possessed the energy and wisdom 

to find the ways forward

into building and maintaining a school

that works for the best within us,

that sees the person,

loves the person,

and does its best to empower us all.

by Henry H. Walker

May 30, ‘26