ML - Michigan Avenue

2012 - Issue 5 - September

Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!

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Former First Lady Nancy Davis Reagan (THIRD FROM RIGHT) was in Latin's class of 1931. This line of thinking has resonated with parents who want their children to be equipped with the ability to parse experiences. "It's essential to develop a work ethic, critical-thinking skills, the ability to juggle time," says Sonia Chae, a member of the board of trustees at Latin. Her two children are enrolled in the upper school and have attended since junior kindergarten (Latin's version of preschool). "I haven't met one parent whose child wasn't exceptionally prepared for whichever college they attended." Lab experiments are part of Latin's hands-on approach. Prepared is an understatement. Latin's reputation as a left-brain institution stems in part from its society-building graduates. They include civic leaders Adlai Stevenson III, Nancy Reagan, and John Marshall Harlan II; business tycoons Bill Wirtz and William Wrigley Jr.; and, among the younger genera- tion, Rockit Ranch CEO Billy Dec. Some of the region's current captains— and the journalists who police them—graduated within just years of each other, including Attorney General Lisa Madigan, State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey, and talk-show host Roe Conn. "Latin has a history of turning out folks who have had an impact on this city," Dunn says, "the kind of people who care a lot about Chicago." PARKER SCHOOL C olonel Francis W. Parker, a Civil War veteran, teacher, and disciple of the most prominent educator of the Progressive Era, John Dewey, had long sus- pected that students would thrive if corporal punishment, mindless LATIN SCHOOL OF CHICAGO Founded: 1888 Grades: Junior Kindergarten–12 Total enrollment: 1,113 Average Student to Teacher Ratio: 8/1 Reputation: Left-Brain Lower School (Junior Kindergarten– Grade 4) Enrollment: 384 Tuition: $22,480–$24,485 Middle School (Grades 5–8) Enrollment: 299 Tuition: $24,825 In spite of its brainiac reputation, Latin also emphasizes the arts. memorization, and inflexible grading systems were exchanged for social development and cultural emphasis. He had implemented this method while he was a superintendent in Quincy, Massachusetts, and to the surprise of his critics, his students outperformed their peers on state-mandated tests. He arrived in Chicago to help transform the public schools, but in 1901, he helped Anita McCormick Blaine establish a new, independent school on the North Side, which she, as benefactor, named after Parker. This set in motion wheels that would turn out scores of influential thinkers for decades to come. "It has that public-school flavor that's been a part of the school for 110 years," says Dan Frank, Parker's principal. He is quick to quote the Colonel, whose words are emblazoned on the walls outside: "The needs of the society should determine the work of the school. The supreme need of society is good citizenship. Ideal citizenship demands… the highest degree of knowledge, power, skill, and service." Jonathan Marks, president of the board of trustees and a partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman, swears by the value of the school's classical education. Not only was he a Parker student, he now has three chil- dren at the school. "If you said to them, 'You should go to school here because it will get you a good job and a lot of money,' they would look at you and say, 'You don't get me, and you don't get this school,'" Marks says. "They understand art, history, music, English. They speak a foreign language. They are going to lead a better life for these experiences." For Marks, one of the highlights of a Parker edu- cation is the school's tradition of immersive history. During the unit on the Middle Ages, students take the traditional approach—reading, writing papers—but researching, there's also a more artistic Upper School (Grades 9–12): Enrollment: 430 Tuition: $28,985 finale in the form of a play-acted fair. "You become a cobbler, a mason, a weaver," Marks says. "You take on the role of that person, figure out what their life was like, and present that to your classmates." Teachers take 112 MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM the same approach for the

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