The Family Foundation School

In my life before The Family School I was extremely self-centered. I hurt everyone around me to get what I wanted and got a lot of negative attention by acting like a psycho. I had no interest in God because he probably didn't want me to steal, lie, cheat, or use substances.

My life became unmanageable early on. I was kicked out of 8th grade for drinking and drugging, and a year later was thrown out of 9th grade for the same reasons. I also owed thousands of dollars in gambling debt and spent my life running from those I owed money to.

Before FFS, my life was unmanageable and out of control. I was shooting heroin, selling drugs, stealing, and lying to my parents. I did anything to blind me from reality because I hated who I had become.

At home I was an overeater and extremely overweight. Going to school was the last thing on my mind. I stayed home and slept all day, then got up and stayed out all night. I was rude and disrespectful and had fits of temper.

At home I perfected the art of quitting. My attempts at sports, school, and relationships amounted to nothing but pathetic stories because I never followed through. I did not like myself and wanted to escape the judgment of others.

My life at home was full of lies and deceit. I became part of the tough crowd in middle school, and in high school I was in and out of detention, got into bad relationships, ran away and was sent to a psych ward.

To put it bluntly, I was a drunk. I didn't care about my family, or God, just drinking and smoking. I was drug-tested for the first time at 12, at 13 I was in outpatient rehab, and at 15 I was sent to wilderness and then to The Family School.

I was 15 and my mother was driving me to the hospital. She was crying, but all I could think of was what a good job I had done not eating. I felt no remorse, only the desire to leave and continue killing myself.

I am an alcoholic and a drug addict who couldn't live life on life's terms, so I drank. When my dad was diagnosed with cancer, I was introduced to heavier drugs and started stealing and selling his pain medication.

I was empty, angry, miserable, and lonely at home, and used any means possible to numb my feelings. I dropped out of school. Nothing really mattered, and I was quickly using up my friends and family.

The Four Absolutes

The 12 Steps of A.A. are actually an expansion of the Four Absolutes of the Oxford Group, started in the early 1900s by Frank Buchman. From the beginning of The Family Foundation School, these Four Absolutes have been the bedrock upon which all else has been built.

Absolute Honesty:
Not lying to myself or others; fidelity to the Truth in what I say, what I think, and what I do.

Absolute Purity:
Purity of mind, purity of body, purity of the emotions, sexual purity.

Absolute Unselfishness:
Doing what is right and true above and beyond what I want at the moment.

Absolute Love:
Loving God with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind; and my neighbor as myself.

These Four Absolutes provide us with "first principles" with which to guide our personal transformation and growth. In keeping with the writings of A.A., we can only claim progress toward these high goals, not spiritual perfection. The Four Absolutes form the philosophical true north for all that occurs with students and staff at The Family Foundation School.

My dear staff of the FFS -

Each of you have given of yourselves, not to my Anna only, but to children upon children - to offer them a vision, a dream, of another life.

You have given my daughter and our family something we alone could not. At first I resented this (the mother in me) but I healed as Anna was "raised form the dead" in your corporate hands, I came to recognize the gift and grace of FFS.

Please forgive my early blindness and rejoice with us as we welcome Anna home. I will remember you all with the utmost respect and affection. In humble gratitude, Amy Clutcher (mother of Anna, graduation class of Dec 2008).