Artist Erik Dillinger (left), a graphics designer for George Lucas' special effects company, Industrial Light and Magic, comments on student artwork during an afternoon presentation in a Renaissance class.
Hear what people are saying about AFS:
Finding the Alexandria Friends School was a godsend! Our ADD son was convinced that he was “stupid” (which his IQ scores belied) and absolutely hated school. He looks forward to school everyday and is doing well in subjects that were previously a challenge. When I asked what the difference was at Alexandria Friends, he said: “the teachers treat us and respect us like equals.” It seems it is this one single element that has helped unlock my son’s natural love of learning again. He is even learning to love subjects that he thought he had no interest in. While the small enrollment size was initially of concern, I now realize that it is a gift... like having private tutors and mentors. As Yeats said, “Education is not so much the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” We are so pleased that AFS is providing the perfect “match” for our son!
–L.C., Falls Church
We feel extremely fortunate to have found Alexandria Friends School. Our daughter, a first-year student at AFS, is academically engaged and excited about school–and that's a real turnaround. She's getting an individualized education in the truest sense–very small classes, assignments tailored to her interests and skills, and teachers who take a real interest in her progress and style of learning. It's a school where open communication–among students, teachers, and parents–is emphasized and where such values as honesty and integrity matter. Our only regret is that we didn't stumble across AFS sooner.
–B.H., Falls Church
I am a professional tutor in private practice. I work with an AFS student and have frequent contact with the school. I am impressed by the careful, interesting and interested teaching. Equally important is the caring environment created by the director and teachers. Here is a school where students feel valued and heard. This is skillfully accomplished by staff who set logical and appropriate boundaries, as required. The intelligent teaching, organization of the curriculum, and choice of teaching materials promote mastery of content and skills–-not a march through a textbook. In all, AFS helps restore or maintain students’ self-esteem and interest in learning. Success leads to success and AFS knows how to make that happen for its students, including those who have found academic and/or social success elusive in the past.
–C.Y., Alexandria
AFS is a nurturing environment where students are able to really learn and grow. I know this from my first-hand experience in the classroom. I have worked at AFS for some years now and have seen students regain their confidence and really blossom into learners. The small size of the school is truly an advantage in that it allows the students to get the attention they need, and allows me to get to know them on a personal basis. That way I can better suit the curriculum to their interests. This helps get them on their way to becoming better learners and teaches them lessons that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
-B.A., Washington D.C.
You're invited to our
Spring Open House
Friday, March 5, 2010
from 9 am to 12 noon
Come join us to find out what a difference a Friends education can make in your child's life and success!
Refreshments will be served.
...or call (703) 461-7222 for an appointment. You are always welcome to visit our school.
Come find out what's going on at school.
Watch this space--
Upcoming Events
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Friday, March 5 , 2010: AFS Open House, 9 am to noon
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Friday, March 19, 2010: end of the Winter Trimester (new date-see calendar)
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Monday-Friday, March 22- April 2, 2010: Spring Break (new dates)
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Monday, April 5, 2010: school resumes (new date)
Please call us at (703) 461 - 7222 if you have any questions
prior to AFS events.
Who We Are
Alexandria Friends School (Friend = Quaker) was founded to offer a challenging liberal arts curriculum in a safe and nurturing environment, with a focus on teaching our students to think independently. As Friends we highly value working together as a community, and strive to produce graduates who will take communitarian ideals into the world beyond high school. Our flexible approach to education enables us to reach students facing a variety of challenges, often those for whom other educational environments are not working. Our small classes also help home schoolers seeking a transition to rejoining their peers in education. We welcome your inquiries and encourage you to visit the rest of our website.
History
When Thornton Friends School of Maryland found it necessary to close its Alexandria satellite campus in the spring of 2006, several members of the school community decided that northern Virginia still very much needed a Friends high school. Thus we follow in the nine-year tradition of Friends education established in Alexandria by Thornton Friends School. While we are an independent institution, we remain dedicated to helping your student realize his or her full potential both as a scholar and as a citizen of an increasingly complex world. Our students leave us prepared for further education in academia or in the world at large. Preparing them for life's challenges is, indeed, our reason for being.
Our Mission
Alexandria Friends School seeks to bring out the fullest potential in each member of its community by relying on core Quaker beliefs and values. Among these are the search for that of God in every human being, non-violence, a commitment to speak the truth, a carefully considered questioning of authority, and service to others. We believe that the best education embraces not only a broadening of the mind, but also an expansion of the heart. The faculty and staff commit themselves to achieving these goals in collaboration with our students and their families as we strive to build a community of mutual respect, welcome diversity, and work together to discern the truth that lies behind all knowledge.
Who We Serve
Alexandria Friends School was founded to serve students who:
- are seeking a school where deeper community life can be experienced.
- may be doing well academically, as well as those who may not be meeting their potential.
- may be bright, persuasive, and value personal independence, yet may be bored or otherwise unsatisfied with past educational experience.
- stand up for their own beliefs, especially on matters of conscience.
- may have some learning differences that will benefit from personal attention, small classes, and a combination of innovative and traditional education.
- choose to live without drugs, alcohol, and tobacco.
- want to be engaged in their education but may find that difficult where they are now.
As members of a Quaker school, students:
- are encouraged to seek the good in all people, including themselves.
- meet in silent gatherings, allowing for reflection and contemplation.
- learn in a spiritual community.
- seek the truth in a safe and open environment.
- learn to make a difference in the world by working through non-violence for peace, justice, and service to others.
- learn through inquiry, reflection and action in daily life.
- resolve conflict through respecting and listening to others.
- embrace the diversity of cultures and religions in our community.
- respect individuality in the midst of community.
Our Vision
Alexandria Friends School aspires to create a peaceful community of learning in a troubled world. We intend to be a beacon of sanity and clear-thinking in a world in which the social contract seems to be broken.
The tool for this devolution of sanity to the younger generation is education; its mechanism is honesty, trust, and respect for others.
The core belief of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) is that there is that of God
in every person, no matter their age, experience, social status, creed, color, religious preference, or gender identity. Together we seek that truth which carries us beyond individual differences and towards an understanding of all peoples as brothers and sisters on the journey towards enlightenment.
Alexandria Friends School has been built on trust. We trust young people to have within them a core of goodness which, even under the most trying circumstances, can be called upon and witnessed. We trust all of our teachers to speak the truth without fail. For without honesty there is no trust, and without trust there is nothing.
But even trust cannot stand alone. It must be built on faith, and in a world which seems to have lost its capacity for sustained faith, Alexandria Friends School continues to breathe and sustain an unshakable faith that things can be made better, safer, and more empowering for all.
This is no idle faith. It has withstood the tempering of thirty years' heat in the crucible of our predecessor institution, dedicated to the service of young people who professed to be bored with education, with life, and with themselves.
This remains our mission. To serve young people for whom life has become too precious to waste on dull and repetitive pedagogy. Our students are those whose very creativity and intelligence make a standard
school seem not enough, pallid, pro forma, dull.
Our teachers are committed to the liberation of the best intelligence lurking within our students, the most reaching thoughts, the most energetic inquiry, the most exciting speculation. We empower young people to dare to believe in themselves, and in the possibility of improvement in the world.
Thus empowered, our graduates go out into the world, not just to use it to their advantage, but to make it a better place. We believe that if the world is to be made peaceful and sane again, it has to begin here, and to that beginning, we are unswervingly dedicated.
External link: Education Bug