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Seeking to become a modeldiverse learning community isone of the core commitments of

Friends School of Minnesota. Withall our work at FSM grounded in theQuaker insight that there is that ofGod in every person, we work todevelop in our students a nuancedunderstanding of both the fundamen-tal equality of all people and therichness of diverse cultural traditions.Our school’s multicultural curriculumguide reinforces that developing mul-ticultural awareness, valuing diversi-ty, learning about multipleperspectives in the world around usand living cooperatively with othersare central tenets of a Friends Schooleducation. Because of our strongcommitment to these principles,every child from her or his earliestyears at the school, experiences acohesive, consistent approach toissues of diversity and multi-culturalism.

The primary goal within ourmulticultural curriculum is “to devel-op in our students essential attitudesand skills for living in a diverse worldand interacting positively with peo-ple who are culturally different fromthemselves.” It goes on to list anddefine these attitudes and skills:• Developing a sense of identity• Recognizing and defining biases• Being able to think critically about

what one sees, hears and reads• Suspending judgment when

encountering someone who isdifferent

• Developing curiosity to learn how

and why others are different• Seeing and treating others as peo-

ple of worth (even when we dis-agree with them)

• Being able to see situations fromothers’ perspectives, includingbeing able to see oneself from theperspective of others

• Understanding that individuals areinterdependent, as are cultures

• Becoming articulate about one’sown views and where they comefrom

• Developing the ability to prevent,recognize and resolve cross-culturalmisunderstandings

• Developing strategies for effectingchange and influencing societyAll of these factors that define our

school must be guided by a consistentstriving toward understanding and

appreciating ourselves and otherswho are different from us. Our phi-losophy, the content we teach and

Friends Circlethe

I S S U E 1 7 , N U M B E R 2 S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 0 5

InsideLetter from the Head of the School . . . . . . . . .1

Alumni News . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Building and Grounds . . . . . . . .3

Art in Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Understanding Constructivist Education . . . . .5

Plant Sale Blooms, Grows . . . .6

Poems For Mother’s Day . . . . .8

Student Music Compositions . .9

Reignited MulticulturalCommittee . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Student Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Letter from the Head of School

continued on page 2

Young dancers performed at the American Indian Dance Festival held at FSM.

F R I E N D S C I R C L E • S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 0 5

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the teaching methods we use, work together to support our growth in this direction as a school, and asindividuals.

It was with this goal of the school becoming a modeldiverse learning community that the School Committeereinstated the Multicultural Committee this year. TheMulticultural Committee, made up of parents, staff andboard members, has as part of its charge, the goal ofensuring that every individual at FSM feels that he or sheis a welcome and valued community member. A very suc-cessful effort of this committee was our recent AmericanIndian Dance Festival, which is profiled in this newslet-ter. The Dance Festival—a variation of a traditional pow-wow—was held in our gym on a rainy Saturday this pastspring and had well over 100 FSM family members inattendance. The event featured dancers from among theschool’s Native American families, drummers from theAnishinabe Academy, and lots of audience participation.We learned quite a lot about Native traditions and wecelebrated the heritage of part of our own schoolcommunity.

Another significant step taken this school year was toreinstate the position of Diversity Coordinator.According to research carried out by the National

Association of Independent Schools, having a diversitycoordinator is the single most important step a school cantake to help it become a successful, diverse learning insti-tution. While a school as small as FSM is not able to funda fulltime diversity coordinator—which is the NAIS rec-ommendation—we are pleased to have middle schoolhumanities teacher Amy Lyga filling this role on a part-time basis. In addition to supporting and working withthe Multicultural Committee, she is the staff person towhom community members are encouraged to approachwith diversity-related interests or concerns.

Recognizing that of God in everyone leads FSM to havea very broad definition of diversity. FSM defines its diversi-ty commitments in terms that include race, religion, eco-nomic status, sexual orientation, learning style anddisability. Friends School has had its successes and its set-backs in seeking to become a model diverse learning com-munity. We are not ready to say we have reached our goal,and perhaps never will. But the pursuit of this goal in itselfprovides a rich experience for our students and helps themto develop insights and understandings that will be a partof who they are for the rest of their lives.

—Mark Niedermier

From the Headcontinued from page 1

Alumni NewsClass of 1992Tom Robinson is Minneapolis Ward 2delegate to the DFL convention and isstudying child development atMinneapolis Community College.

Benjamin Robinson has graduated fromcollege and is getting settled into his newlife in Bryn Athyn, Pa. He would enjoyhearing from old friends and can bereached at [email protected].

Class of 1996Scogin Zimmerman now spends histime studying traditional and primitivetechnology. He teaches wicker basketry.

A student of social and political science atMetro State University, Edwin Holmvig-Johnson is campaigning on behalf ofPeter McLaughlin for mayor ofMinneapolis.

Class of 2001National Merit Scholar Rachel DeYoungis a senior at DeLaSalle High School. Inthe fall, she will attend the film programat the University of Southern California,where she has received a full scholarship.

National Merit Scholar Sybylla Yeoman-Hendrix is a senior at Southwest HighSchool and plans on studying classics atGustavus Adolphus College.

Class of 2002Jen Winston is transferring to CreativeArts High School in the fall. She iscurrently co-chair of the Gay StraightAlliance at Highland High.

Elsie Lewison is a junior at WaldorfWatershed High School. She especiallyenjoys political science and third worldliterature and plans to attend theUniversity of Minnesota full-time in thefall. After that, her plans includeemigrating to Canada with her family.

Class of 2003Emma Bruggeman is a sophomore atthe Blake School. She runs track, is amember of the diving team and reportsthat she likes math a lot. She plans tocoach diving and lifeguard this summerat the St. Paul Tennis Club.

Class of 2004Max Macemon is enjoying high school,where he is on the soccer and Nordicskiing teams.

Kaitlin Ziehr will spend her sophomoreyear attending a Friends School inEngland.

Kari Finseth attends Central High Schoolwhere she plays soccer and badminton.She has stayed involved with FSM byvolunteering in the sports program.

FSM Alums—Keep in touch! Send your updates to Mark at

[email protected].

by Teri Kwant

The school’s Building andGrounds Committee workedthis past year to develop a

Vision Statement to guide decisionsabout landscaping and potentialfuture construction. The VisionStatement was approved by theSchool Committee and is reprintedhere as we wish to share with thecommunity the thoughtful andvalues-centered approach that isbeing taken in regard to the school’sstewardship responsibilities.

IntroductionThe choices that the school makes

for its building and grounds are apowerful statement and potent exam-ple of its values. The following visionis a distillation of input that was col-lected from the Buildings andGrounds Committee members, afocus group that included the largercommunity, and members of theschool staff.

PurposeThe purpose of the Buildings and

grounds Committee of FSM is toembody and further the school’s stat-ed mission to prepare children toembrace life, learning, and communi-ty with hope, skill, understandingand creativity. The following valuesand goals shall guide the FSM com-munity as decisions regarding thebuildings and grounds arise. Projectcommittees including students, par-ents, stakeholders and neighbors maybe called upon as needed to reviewthese criteria related to any proposedprojects for the FSM Buildings andGrounds prior to their initiation.

Values and GoalsJust as the school is committed to

the Quaker values of peace, justice,simplicity and integrity, the buildingsand grounds should create an envi-ronment that will provide a directexperience of these values. In orderto insure this experiential outcome, aset of guides or standards needs toexist. We believe the following areessential to deliver an experience ofFSM’s mission and values through itsbuildings and grounds.

• Stimulate excellence in educa-tion through the use of thephysical environment at FSM

• Enhance a sense of communityconnections: to each otherindividually and globally

• Provide deeply engaging spacesthat promote spirituality, con-templation and communication

• Celebrate creativity, art,aesthetics, and beauty

• Encourage and consistentlyemploy sound design and archi-tectural principles and practices

• Create opportunities for selfexpression and interactivitythrough art and play

• Build understanding and respon-sibility for the natural worldthrough sustainable design

ConclusionIt is the intent of the Building and

Grounds Committee that allenvironmental projects that aredetermined to have a lasting impacton the buildings and grounds of theschool be subject to an appropriatereview to insure that the abovevalues and goals are addressed and met.


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Buildings and Grounds CommitteeDevelops Vision Statement

Editing/proofingEric Bosler, Annnamary Herther,

Kelsey Kiefer, Wendy Lutter,

Contributors this issue:Joanne Esser, Teri Kwant, Wendy Lutter,

Mark Niedermier, Russell Packard

PhotographyWendy Lutter, Steve Moe

Poetry, art and writing:Friends School children

LayoutPat Thompson

The Friends Circle is published two timesper year by Friends School of Minnesota,located at 1365 Englewood Avenue, St.Paul, MN 55104-1902, 651-917-0636.

Postmaster: Send address changesand subscription correspondence to

Friends School of Minnesota.

ArtEarth


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Earth Art: Taking elements of nature and using them to re-create a new image that ispart of the environment.

Earth Art is based on the worksof the internationally known artist Andy Goldsworthy, aphotographer and Quaker.

Middle School science teacherSteve Moe takes studentsperiodically to visit CrosbyRegional Park. They work ingroups to create Earth Art.These photos are from aseventh/eighth grade springtrip.

“The lines I make are theones that I hope to someextent exist already—somehow following the line of the land.”

—Andy Goldsworthy


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Middle SchoolStudentsComposeOriginal Music

Each year, in the secondsemester, Middle School studentsare involved in a music compo-sition unit. They create originalcompositions, applying musictheory and instrumental skills.

Putting pencil to staff paperand performing what you havewritten is as hands-on as a musictheory unit can be. It works forstudents of all levels. Many of thecompositions are outstanding.

The Irish Music ensemblerecently performed three of thesecompositions at the LandmarkCenter including Danielle’s Jig #1,written by Danielle Eckhoff-Bennett. This was impressive to saythe least. Students often createbeautiful harmonies, as demonstrat-ed by Deborah Lee and AlannaNorris. A number of these compo-sitions will be performed at an All-School Assembly on the last day ofschool. Creativity flourishes andchildren thrive when their knowl-edge, skills, expression and freedomare nourished.

—Russell PackardFSM Music Instructor


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by Wendy Lutter

Sixteen years ago, Henry Fieldsethnever dreamed he’d be orderingover 1,700 varieties of plants for

Friends School. He merely thought it wasa good idea to help out with the first-everplant sale at the small school his daughterattended. Back in 1989, if you came toFSM’s plant sale, you had only two hoursto shop and only a handful of plants fromwhich to choose. There were marigolds,impatiens, and unique 50-cent perennialsfrom Green Fingers Farm. The catalog, ifit could be called such, was a single,photocopied page with no color or illus-trations—quite a contrast to today’s gor-geous 44-page color catalog, chock-full ofuseful information for novice to experi-enced gardeners alike.

Henry quickly saw the potential suc-cess of a Friends School Plant Sale, par-ticularly the strong interest in uniqueperennials at very reasonable prices.“Since the first year, Friends Schoolbegan carrying a signature line of uniqueperennials that have been very good forus.” Henry has become the expert, aswell as historian, for Friends School’sPlant Sale. He now works, as a volun-teer, year-round on the sale. One canoften find him in the front office at

FSM, buried in piles of plant catalogs.Early on, Henry discovered the

importance of enlisting committed vol-unteers. One of his best recruits, Victoria(Toria) Erhart, began as a volunteerwhen her daughter Kate was at FriendsSchool twelve years ago. “What isremarkable about Toria is that she hasbecome more involved after her childleft the school, instead of less involved,”remarked Henry. Toria is involved inordering, organizing and supervising thedisplay of plants and figuring out whatwill go where and how many tables are

needed. Toria’s paid vocation is as a fam-ily practice physician. She takes off awhole week of work for the plant sale.

So how do you take this great plantsale and grow it without losing the spiritof the school? How do you bring in morepeople with the skill set to run this vol-unteer event with business sense, butalso a heart?

Enter super volunteer Pat Thompson.Pat picked up her first plant sale catalogat her daughter Ruby’s preschool in 1997and thought it looked interesting. Whenshe came to pick up her order at Friends

Committed Volunteers Turn Friends School

At least a thousand people were lined up with wagons, sleds and strollers when theplant sale opened at 11:00 a.m. Friday morning.

Volunteer slots, 2004: 300

Volunteer slots, 2005: 500

Student volunteers: 68

Master Gardener pink hats: 30

Tables: 130

Plants: 161,007 pots

Plant varieties: 1,700+

Best seller: alyssum (4,800 plants sold)

Easiest to grow: Annual flowers,especially impatiens for shade andmarigolds or geraniums for sun. Forperennials, hostas and daylilies are prettymuch kill-proof.

Most exotic: The rare peonies, such asyellow, Wittmann’s, and Japanese andChinese forest peonies.

Most requested plant: Despite having147 flats of basil (around 3,500 plants),sweet basil was mentioned most often asthe plant shoppers couldn’t get.

Years of three sunny days for plantsale weekend: Zero. 2001 was the bestyear for weather.

Years of below-freezing temper-atures: Many, but the most recent was2002 when half the plants were movedinto the school and then moved back outagain.

Number of locations: 5 (Twin CitiesFriends Meeting house, two former FSMschool locations in Minneapolis, FSM’s St. Paul campus, and State Fairgrounds)

Plant Sale Fun Facts at a Glance


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School (this was still during the pre-ordering days) Pat saw Henry runningaround in the pouring rain, unloading atruck of plants. She was intrigued, think-ing, “These people need help!”

The next year, Pat returned to thesale. She laughs when she thinks abouther timing. “I did the ultimate sillything, arriving at 11:10 on Friday morn-ing, expecting to be able to get myplants, breeze through and make itdowntown by 12:30. It was pouring rain,45 degrees and I had no rain coat.”Although she then learned about theFriday morning plant sale craze, she metmany nice staff and parents in line.

The plant sale was a major reason Patbecame interested in FSM as the schoolfor her daughter. “I could tell thingsabout the school from the sale. Seeingthe kids working made a big impression.It had a good feel. I like organizationswhere parents and kids are involved.”

The catalog was of particular interestto Pat. As an owner of a graphic designcompany, she knew improvements couldbe made. “I wanted to get my hands onthe catalog. It caught my interest rightaway. It was good, but I knew it could bebetter and more effective.”

Pat now works year-round on the

plant sale. The plant sale committee is astrong community and now a group offriends. She and Tom Bolstad, anotherlong-time, super volunteer, work on thedatabase used to keep track of the plants.Tom has created a sophisticated databasejust for the plant sale that tracks inven-tory and now allows the committee tomake better buying decisions.

“Some people go to another countryto build houses as a volunteer ‘vaca-tion,’ ” says Pat, “but I choose to staycloser to home, to make a difference inour community here. The plant sale isvery concrete and satisfying. It’s thehighlight of my year.”

In addition to Pat, Toria, and Henry,there are dozens more volunteers whotake time off from work to make theplant sale happen. Over the years, gar-deners from the community with no oth-er connection to Friends School havealso become core volunteers. Take CarolHerman for example. Carol, a gardenenthusiast, started volunteering one shifta year in order to be able to shop earlyThursday night. She found she couldn’tstay away and began adding shifts. Herknowledge of plants caught the commit-tee’s eye, and Carol joined the buyingcommittee. (The buying committee

meets monthly for three to four hours atime, so this is no small commitment.)At this year’s sale, Carol had a perma-nent position at the Rare Plants table forthe entire sale.

As the plant sale grew, the location atFriends School became more problemat-ic. The school grounds were trampled,parking was scarce and then there wasthe weather. Plant sale weekend is tradi-tionally known for its bad weather. Lastyear’s weather was no exception, whenstraight line winds that blew tents ontocars and forced volunteers inside forshelter. The damage cut into FSM’s prof-its and caused Henry to consider otheroptions. He had investigated the StateFair in previous years, but now the timeseemed right to take the risk and move.

The plant sale committee took a fieldtrip to the Fair Grandstand building inSeptember. “There were manyunanswered questions and it felt a bitscary, but it seemed like the right thingto do,” says Toria.

Some in the FSM community wereskeptical about moving to theGrandstand. “I thought it would lose theflavor of the school and seem too com-mercial,” says Susan Nagel, parent and

Plant Sale into a Blooming Success

Volunteer Coordinator Dhaivyd Hilgendorf jokes with FSM parent and Head Cashier John Hering.

Middle school students help put the flats of plants where they belonginside the 66,000-square-foot building.

continued on page 8


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plant sale volunteer. “I couldn’t have been morewrong. The space was fantastic.”

The camaraderie and enthusiasm of the FSMvolunteers has transcended location. The atmos-phere was electric on the morning before the dooropened at 11:00. The middle school students intheir tie-dyed volunteer shirts were busy checkinglast-minute details With over 500 volunteer timeslots to fill, coordinator Dhaviyd Hilgendorf hadhis hands full. The space was bigger, there werenew challenges, but the plants arrived and so didthe people. People come to the plant sale from allover, taking off work, coming with friends andturning it into a tradition. “My friends and I havebeen coming for years. We take off work, go out toan early breakfast to go through our catalog onelast time, and then come shop,” said a womannamed Trish while waiting in line.

“There’s a website called Gardenweb.com thathas a thread all about Friends School plant sale,”says Henry. “On the website, people said they havecome from as far as Philadelphia for our sale. It’sbecome a big deal.”

On opening Friday, eighth graders counted1,000 people waiting in the bright sunshine of acloudless day. Toria, in her slightly faded pink hat,waited anxiously by the entrance. When she heardthe news of the happy, excited crowd outside, shesaid, “This is really incredible. To see this salecome so far, and do so much for the school and ourcommunity, really warms my heart. It’s a bit likegiving birth.”

When asked what the best thing is about theplant sale, Pat laughs. “Most importantly, it raises abunch of money for Friends School. But for me thebest thing is the people—I love the plant sale com-mittee. To work with such a competent group ofpeople, who are all volunteering their time for thesame cause, is amazing. It’s energizing. It makesyour life better.”

And thanks to Pat, Henry, Toria, and hundredsof other volunteers, the plant sale makes the livesof children at Friends School better, providingscholarships to make the school more accessible toeveryone. Sixteen years ago, the $2,000 profitseemed like a good effort. But this year, after gross-ing over $350,000, Friends School is able to addthe profit of over $100,000 to the scholarship fund.

Poems for Mother’s DayMom

by Ruth Sheldon, 4th grade

You’re the soft green grass that I lay on, cool jazz as I fall

slowly to sleep.

You’re the ice cream dripping onto the floor, that the dog

always catches.

You’re the nice silk pillow rubbing against my checks.

You’re always there when I am feeling sad; you’re always there

with me in my mind.

You’re always there at the ocean shore dancing along the waves

with no fear left for us to have.

To me, you are perfect in each and every way.

Robin

by Harris Bernstein, 4th grade

You are the summer, winter, fall and spring.

No other person can be such a thing.

You are as sweet as the sound of music.

You are the maker and creator of earth.

You are a tree that is impossible to cut, which makes you as

powerful as King Tut.

I would like you to know that I will always love you so much,

which means XOXOXO!

Betsy

by Moriah Walter, 4th grade

You are the wet cool sound mushing under my feet.

You are the soft velvet rubbing against my check.

You are the smell of warm pasta in my bowl.

You are the cool sparkling cider in my cup.

You are the loud, wild rock in my ear, the last tear running down my

face, you are the mystery that never ends in the pouring rain

outside my window, the last leaf on my tree.

The world would not be like it is without you.

You are the blank piece of paper just waiting to be filled with ideas.

Plant Salecontinued from page 7


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This Life

By Simran,

First Grade

This life

should be happy.

And animals

should be free.

This whole world

should be free.

Silent Meeting

By Arius, First Grade

Quiet and peaceful

A candle in the middle

Burning bright.

Ocean is doing a song

The whole school is here

My dad is here,

The lights are off,

We hold hands in the end.

Understanding Constructivist Educationby Mark Niedermier

The progressive approach to education as prac-ticed at Friends School of Minnesota includesmany techniques which make up what is current-ly known as constructivist education. The follow-ing chart, reproduced from the book In Search ofUnderstanding: The Case for ConstructivistClassrooms, provides an insightful comparisonbetween traditional classrooms and constructivistclassrooms. The Constructivist Classrooms list isan excellent description of much of what happensin a Friends School classroom.

Traditional Classrooms• Curriculum is presented part to whole, with

emphasis on basic skills.• Strict adherence to fixed curricula is highly

valued.• Curricular activities rely heavily on textbooks

and workbooks.• Students are viewed as “blank slates” onto

which information is etched by the teacher.• Teachers generally behave in a didactic man-

ner, disseminating information to students.• Teachers seek the correct answer to validate

student learning.• Assessment of student learning is viewed as

separate from teaching and occurs almostentirely through testing.

• Students primarily work alone.

Constructivist Classrooms• Curriculum is presented whole to part with

emphasis on big concepts.• Pursuit of student questions is highly valued.• Curricular activities rely heavily on primary

sources of data and manipulative materials.• Students are viewed as thinkers with emerging

theories about the world.• Teachers generally behave in an interactive

manner, mediating the environment forstudents.

• Teachers seek the students’ point of view inorder to understand students’ present concep-tions for use in subsequent lessons.

• Assessment of student learning is interwovenwith teaching and occurs through teacherobservations of students at work and throughstudent exhibitions and portfolios.

• Students primarily work in groups.

Tulip

By Laurel,

First Grade

Pink and white

Feels smooth

Green stem

Just like a straw

It has pollen inside the pink

and white petals.

The pollen is yellow like hay

on a summer day.

Moira and her art.

Aaron draws his self-portrait.


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by Joanne Esser

Ever since the founding ofFriends School of Minnesota,the school has maintained a

strong and visible commitment todiversity. As a Quaker school, one ofits central goals is to create a climateof respect for all the members of thecommunity and to be intentionallyinclusive of people from differentbackgrounds and with differing abili-ties, family styles, religions and cul-tures. So right from its beginning,Friends School created a committeewhose specific job was to ensure thatthe school’s commitment to diversitywas put into practice.

The Multicultural Committee isan active group whose efforts aim tokeep the conversation about diversityat the school alive. The committee’scharge is to:

• work with staff, SchoolCommittee members and par-ents to ensure that the school iswelcoming to all members of theschool community;

• act as a resource to the studentsand teachers with respect tomulticultural issues, such as bysuggesting speakers, communitycontacts, books, etc.;

• organize events for the schoolcommunity to focus attentionon the school’s multiculturalcommitments; and

• keep aware of the school’s multi-cultural climate in an on-goingway.

This committee mission statementis a recent revision that placesstrongest emphasis on the communi-ty within the school. In the earlyyears of Friends School, theMulticultural Committee’s effortsfocused most on organizing “UndoingRacism,” public events that illumi-

nated large diversity issues in thecommunity and the world. Most ofthe committee’s energy was spent inorganizing, publicizing and findingfunding for a well-attended lectureeach year, featuring guest speakerswith expertise about various multi-cultural issues. Speakers includedNative American activist WinonaLaDuke, researcher and professor ofWomen’s Studies Peggy McIntoshand local Asian-American poetDavid Mura. These annual events,free and open to the general public,helped make Friends School well-known in the community as a leaderin anti-racism awareness.

As the Multicultural Committee’sactivities continued and deepened,there was a desire to broaden thescope of its focus. The committee

wanted to reignite the conversationand expand it beyond looking only atissues of racism. “Diversity” is a wideconcept that encompasses not onlyrace and cultural differences, but alsoissues of gender, sexual orientation,disability, class and religion. TheMulticultural Committee beganinviting more local speakers and peo-ple with expertise in a wider varietyof areas of diversity. For example,Judy Siegle, a Paralympic athlete, wasinvited to talk about her life experi-ences as a paraplegic woman. Thename of the annual forum waschanged from “Undoing Racism” to“Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges”to reflect the broader focus.

Around that time, a concernbegan to grow that part of the job ofthe Multicultural Committee shouldbe to look within, at our own schoolcommunity. A new effort to connectthe committee’s work more closelywith the topics students were study-ing in class began to take shape. AsFriends School added its MiddleSchool, it seemed important for thecommittee to act as a resource to sup-port social studies learning for theschool’s own students, parents andfaculty rather than aiming primarilytoward the general public. At thesame time, grant funding to supportexpensive, well-known outside speak-ers became harder to get. Committeemembers questioned the largeamount of time and energy they weredirecting toward fund-raising andpublicity efforts for a single publicevent. These trends came together torefocus the MulticulturalCommittee’s efforts inward.

Soon the committee began to lookat the needs of our own communityfirst. What conversations woulddirectly benefit parents, staff and stu-dents at the school? How could they

The Reignited Multicultural Committee Places Emphasis on Community

Josie and Devlin get ready to dance at the American Indian DanceFestival, sponsored by the Multicultural Committee.

include and encourage the participation of our own families in thoseconversations? One year, for example, committee members discov-ered that almost one-third of Friends School families includedadopted children, many from different countries or cultures. So thecommittee organized a book discussion group around the book RealParents, Real Children: Parenting the Adopted Child by Holly vanGulden and Lisa M. Bartels-Rabb. They invited a local young manwho had been adopted from Guatemala by a white, middle-classfamily to speak at a community potluck evening.

The committee began to organize smaller, more intimate eventsusing local resources and focusing on a broader range of topics. Forexample, when Middle School students were examining issues ofhomophobia in their social studies classes, the committee organized amovie night for students and parents to view the film “Scout’sHonor,” a documentary about the Boy Scout’s ban on gays in theirorganization, and about a young man wholed a movement to protest what he felt wasunjust. Multicultural Committee membersled small-group discussions for adults andstudents to reflect together about the film.When students were studying what it meansto be a “hero,” the committee invited localauthors Burt Berlowe and Rebecca Jahnke into talk about their book The CompassionateRebel. Three people featured in the book,Native American leader Jim Anderson, folksinger and FSM parent Larry Long and long-time antiwar activist and Quaker Don Irish,also came to tell their stories about theiractivism work. When the U.S. was first con-sidering going to war and Middle School stu-dents were studying Iraq, the MulticulturalCommittee invited a speaker from the localIslamic Speaker’s Bureau to present informa-tion to families about Islam.

After a few years of inactivity, the Multicultural Committee hasbeen reignited in 2004–2005. A fresh group of parents and staff hascome together with renewed energy to continue the important con-versations about diversity issues. This year the committee sponsoreda movie night for students and parents, featuring the film “WhaleRider.” The highlight of the year was an American Indian Dancecelebration held in April. This intergenerational event broughttogether dancers, drummers and FSM families for a wonderful event.

The Multicultural Committee at Friends School has evolved overtime according to the needs of the school. It continues its dedicationto raising awareness about diversity issues, both within the schoolcommunity and in the larger world community.


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Fourth-graders Paco and Harris with their self-portraits,done in the style of Beaufort Delaney.

Below are self-portraits by Josie, third grade, Maddi, third grade, and Dakota, fourth grade.

Friends School of Minnesota1365 Englewood AvenueSaint Paul, MN 55104Phone: 651-917-0636Fax: 651-917-0708

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

Nonprofit Org.U.S. PostagePAIDMinneapolis, MNPermit No. 1767

CalendarGraduation June 12

Last Day of School June 14

ARTS ETC! Summer Program Begins June 27

Back to School Picnic September 1

First Day of School September 6

Fall Picnic at Petersons’ Farm September 17

Bulb Sale October 1, 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.

Mark your calendar

Friends School’s Third Annual Bulb SaleSaturday, October 1 • 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the school

Preorders accepted and encouraged! A catalog will be mailed to you in August.

The Friends School of Minnesota Class of 2005.

the friends circle - preparing children to embrace life ... our work at fsm grounded in the ... are...

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