Integrated Arts Program

FSMN integrates arts education with other curriculum areas, greatly enhancing students’ experiential learning. Arts education at Friends School incorporates the values and spirit of our Quaker mission. Public performance, as in the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, is viewed as service which supports and strengthens unity within the school and the broader community.

FSMN’s multicultural goals are also supported through exposure to the arts of diverse cultures and the artistic achievement of individual artists.

Six Guiding Principles of Arts Education at FSMN:

  1. Experiential. Active, hands-on, concrete experience is the most effective method of arts education. Students are immersed in the most direct experience possible.
  2. Holistic. Children learn best when they encounter whole ideas, events, and materials within a purposeful context. Understanding the integral role the arts have both in history and in human culture enhances appreciation.
  3. Authentic. Real, rich, complex ideas and materials are at the heart of the curriculum. Whenever possible, students’ interests are incorporated into classroom activities. This may lead to spontaneous changes in studies and influence curriculum. 
  4. Expressive. To develop expressiveness students must be involved in meaningful arts experiences. Many opportunities are provided throughout the arts curriculum for students to share their work with a variety of audiences.
  5. Collaborative. Cooperative learning in the arts is more effective than competitive and star-centered approaches. Students’ skills are enriched through collaboration with other students and across classroom grade levels and curriculum areas.
  6. Challenging. Students learn best when faced with genuine challenges, choices, and responsibilities in their learning, and when their efforts to achieve are supported.

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Our Mission

Our mission is to prepare children to embrace life, learning, and community with hope, skill, understanding and creativity. We are committed to the Quaker values of peace, justice, simplicity and integrity.

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651-917-0636
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1365 Englewood Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55104

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