As a newly certified elementary teacher in 1978, I set off in a camper to find a compatible place to live and teach. I was looking for an “alternative school” in a community where I could both be myself and learn from experienced teachers.
I had done my student teaching in a British primary school in Bristol, England and had studied the “Free-school” movement in the U.S. I learned about Carolina Friends School (CFS) from a friend in Durham, and so I called and set up a meeting.
I drove down the dusty gravel drive to meet with Don Wells and learn more about the school. We talked and at the close of our meeting, Don invited me to an all-staff meeting that was about to begin in the “Earth” classroom. (The entire staff fit easily into that small space).
The teachers were welcoming, intelligent, focused, very “hip,” and quite informal. I was impressed with their sense of humor and community. Many people sat on the floor and some lacked shoes. I was intrigued.
After my promising visit, I kept traveling and visited schools out in California, only to return a few months later to tutor children in the Lower School until a job opened up. I became an intern teacher and a bus driver in the fall of 1979 since there were no open positions. It paid $4,000, but John M. offered me a rustic cabin he owned on a fantastic bit of rural land, long abandoned but rent free.
It was a “bring your tools to work” kind of teaching job. We painted, repaired, hauled, and built much of what was in our classrooms. The teachers had constructed lofts out of found materials, with climbing ropes to get down. There were bathtubs made into couches and tunnels to get to cozy reading places. This definitely was my kind of school.
Teachers had incredible freedom to design curriculum and try out new ideas. I learned tons from the many innovative teachers who put the children and the School’s philosophy at the center of what they planned. The philosophy was often discussed and guided our decision making.
There was then a commitment to staff each classroom in the Lower School with a male/female team and I soon became a team teacher in the Water Class.
In those early years every adult at the School taught children in some capacity, no matter their role otherwise.
There were active attempts to save energy and money in those early days, so wood stoves were installed and Upper school students cut, split and delivered all of the wood as part of their service component.
A shop-built solar hot air panel was put on the roof of my classroom as an experiment that didn’t end up offering much heat, but the hole cut in the roof leaked, providing lots of water when it rained. Our classroom truly lived up to its name. (There was no A/C to worry about in those days.) In my early years in Lower School there was a resident cat named Coolcat. A bit later, two kittens were raised at school, and Shirley brought her dog Annie each day to wander the classrooms. Mary brought Pickles, the Potbellied pig, to live on the playground and the students let Pickles out to roam at recess.
There was always a spirit of, “Yeah, I think we can do that.” I once remember Peter Klopfer pushing back on some project saying he felt perhaps we were being “a bit too cavalier,” in the bold and reckless sense. I was always impressed that such failures did not hamper or stifle subsequent projects and bold ideas around the School.
The children also had a great deal of freedom to pursue their interests with the support and encouragement of their teachers. Many student-initiated projects were undertaken. There was a time when we raised thirty rats from two rat mothers (donated by a Duke researcher) and designed mazes for them as they grew. We built a half-scale model of the Wright Brothers’ plane “The Flyer” (twice) and raised and bred Louisiana crayfish, hundreds of them, conducting experiments and research. Don once told me early in my time at CFS, to “be bold in your teaching” and I loved and tried to embrace that guidance.
I always felt encouraged to be a lifelong learner and to learn along-side my students. The administration helped me take classes and attend workshops. They even made it possible to ride horses across a part of Mongolia and return to build a Yurt with my students as they learned about nomadic people.
There were many trips to Philadelphia for meetings and workshops and a chance to see what other Quaker schools were teaching and learning. Those trips helped me establish connections and friendships that have lasted to the present day.
When I reflect on my forty years at CFS it is highlighted consistently by two things: freedom and support. Freedom to be my genuine self and explore my own learning and the freedom to change things up when my students (or I) needed it. The support I felt for my own learning was critical and kept me engaged as a learner and a teacher. There was also the support of the community for my family through both the highs and lows. Times change, as do expectations, and I hope some of the things I have described here about Carolina Friends School never do change.
Michael Bonsignore serve in the Lower School from1979-2020. Over the past couple of years, Michael has had the opportunity to take a deep dive into many of the things he has always loved—travel, making things, fixing things, gardening, playing music, being outside in amazing places and spending time with family. He has made many trips to California to be with his grandson Julian, a central figure in his life right now. He is working hard at slowing time down.