In my experience 1970 - 1972 were amazing transformational years at Carolina Friends School. That is when we got the U.K.s, and the new middle school building was built.

The U.K.s were small one-family-dwellings made with wood framing and particle board walls. When my class moved up from the lower school to a U.K., I recognized the type of building from my earliest N.C. home in "Victory Village", or married student housing at U.N.C.

My  fourth grade class in the "Yellow" U.K. was taught by homeroom teacher Sue Maulitz, a young English woman who later went to teach at Sidwell Friends School. Everyone loved her. Her accent was marvelous, and she referred to math as "Maths". This is also when Bettie Flash became my all-time-favorite social studies teacher, by teaching "Man, a Course of Study."

We'd already covered communities in Mrs. McCalister's 3rd grade class. Bettie Flash brought us about Darwin, animal behavior, and Eskimos. This was the year when we dissected a fish in Social Studies (I think it was a flounder because both eyes were on the same side). I still remember looking at it's brain, and its eyeballs. I also remember that I was the brave or practical one in my group who inferred that I could serve and impress my group by supressing my feelings about dealing with the organic goop of a formerly living creature. (I liked being the hero who saved the day.)

We studied baboon social behavior; hunting; infant and juvenile behavior; group organization and social roles. We watched a film about Jane Goodall and Chimpanzees who made tools by preparing reeds to attract ants when they were insterted in to ant hills.

The we watched a series of films on the traditional life of the nomadic Inuit people; people who followed caribou herds, who built weirs for fishing, who used every part of the animal from the flesh for food and the bones for tools, to the tendons for sinew and fat for fuel and light. We saw the original kyakers, the building of igloos, the packing of camp, dog sledding and so forth.

In the following years I had the honor of taking other classes from Bettie Flash. For example, I got to take "Aztecs, Incas and Mayas" and somewhere in there I got to study India (including the traditional caste system) with her. She always had lots and lots of authentic materials, artifacts, fabircs, photos, games and movies to enrich and support her talks.

These were my earlier middle school experiences at CFS. Later in middle school I learned about Voltaire from Bill Butcher, Latin America from Stewart Fisher, and "Roberts Rules of Order" in a politics class from Cecil Mitchell. I learned about water, erosion, amoebas, rotifers and algae and first-aid, from Jim Keighton. I learned about Yoga, Drama, and film-making from Peggy, Carol, and Greg.  

My friends Hill and Richard collected arrowheads up on Davis field, and soon learned how to make their own. (I was afraid to go along because wor was, that was tresspassing.) Other friends of mine built dodecahedrons in Bill's Solid Geometry class, and launched homemade hot air balloons made of tissue paper and tape. We went on camping trips at Linville Gorge and the Outer Banks.

Although the middle school years are difficult years for a lot of children, important memories are being formed at that time. I am so grateful for all the many things I learned, and most of all for the love of learning that I was able to develop and nurture at CFS.