Francis W Parker School - Record Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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sf' 14 - - K fi mg -all ln .V i k 11:1 -' J l vi E ' , G2 Y-4'?5:5'1f1 1 'i ,I lleii li . '.Mrz.s.'f.sH,l1L. l ifiiifi' ' wwf l, in fi gklf lfi .f H- ix kgvu fl:-if i in 'iiQ5'E!!lEa5 .fi ill ' mA voluntary drudgery which the Record requires is another case in point. The motive and reward is to make the best possible book. Those who carry the heavy end of this job really have the greatest reward. Those who are willing to accept credit without work or responsibility have added nothing constructive to their power or experience. No one year of the Record can be expected to reflect the fact that the boys and girls who work hardest for the common good, who take part in the greatest number of school activities are not only the happiest people, but are the ones who are successful increasingly in difficult, but satisfying obligations and undertakings. Examining the Records over a period of years makes this point clear. ' But there are some things the Record cannot do and there are questions which we need to ask the school itself at the end of the year. For instance, in the light of our experience do some of the older students begin to suspect that people cannot be punished into goodness? Are there faint signs that a few of the more mature students realize that merit and integrity alone should determine leadership? Is there a growing effort in high school to 'put the good of the whole above personal selfish impulses? How would the Morning Assembly answer this last question? , Finally I should like to leave one thought with the readers of this Record to carry into next year. To me the accepting of responsibility for difficult undertakings, seems the most developing factor in all education. We have seen boys and girls, who given a responsible oiiice, have almost over night become unexpectedly forceful and independ- ent. We have just seen the President of the United States rise to the call of a great national trust and need. All leaders, even great ones, being but human make mistakes, but a high purpose helps inevitably to develop vision, wisdom and great achievement. Indeed to me the chief function of a school seems to be to develop in students high motives, purposes, and objectives which beget vigorous effort and bring results in kind. No age has ever offered greater challege to its young than this one. Our field is small but if we develop and use to the full social conscience in our home, school and community we need not fear for the future. We are creatures of habit. We cannot prepare for any precise set of social conditions. We do not know how even the next decade may change our social order. However, we can acquire those qualities which society will always need-self-command, resourcefulness, power to think independently, some discrimination of values, wholesome love of work and a habit of sharing under- takings with our fellows for the benefit of all. , Flora Cooke A MESSAGE FROM-AND TO-THE ALUMNI We, the Alumni, have been officially banded together under the title of The Francis Parker Alumni Association for ten years. The Association was founded December 26, 1922. A decade has passed. Let us take stock of what we have accomplished. Each year at Christmas time we gather in the large front hall of the school beneath the familiar portraits of Colonel Parker and Miss Cooke, and Miss Cooke herself in her never-failing, heartfelt manner welcomes us. Those of us who return annually to renew old memories and to greet each other, to learn news of the school and to tell our old friends and teachers of our experiences, our disappointments and our accomplishments, find that We go away renewed in spirit. There is something inexpressibly warming and inspiring about the Parker spirit, that We, her graduates, realize fully only in the perspective gained in our years in college and thereafter. Parker still gives us encourage- ment and inspiration whenever we trouble to seek it. Some of us who feel that we could not let the year pass without dropping in for a moment at the annual Christmas reunion have been saddened at the diminished attend- ance, at the absence of dear friends we had particularly hoped to see. The Alumni Council believe there is a valuable function fulfilled by the annual social reunion, but that the fundamental purposes of the association have been overlooked and forgotten, which, if emphasized might bind us more closely together. Especially now, when financial diiliculties beset us on every side and the school must face an impending change of leadership, there is increasing need and opportunity for

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WHAT THE RECORD CAN AND CANNOT DO g Every year the Record presents a composite picture of the school which reflects its life according to the ability, taste and spirit of its editorial staff. The staff members accept responsibility for choice of material and for its arrangement guided but not hampered by the counsel of the faculty advisor. What will be the 1933 Record reveal? I suggest that this year every interested reader test it by a set of questions devised by himself to see if it really represents his idea of the school. As a faculty member I shall ask: Does each succeeding grade indicate increase in power, skill and the widening of experience? Is the material chosen alive, stimulating, and amusing, with illustrative, artistic and original 'touches which stir imagination and make one unwilling to miss a single page? Growth and progress of such diversity are of course not easy to measure. In a tree, clearly marked rings separate the lean periods of drought from the fat days of nurture. But there are no fixed norms which apply to human growth. We cannot graph it accur- ately. This is because individuals differ so much one from another and change so much themselves from year to year. Nevertheless the Record does register unfailingly the school condition. If many in it love beauty and try to express it, even though very few succeed, these glimpses delight us with their promise. The Record invites everyone in the school to contribute, for everyone has something he can do well if he is willing to give time and energy to the task. The results may be a photograph, a poem, a color sketch or a joke, a story or an interesting personal experience-each has its place and its merit in this book. Thus the Record constructively stirs the emotions of the whole community each year. Many accept it whole-heartedly as something to treasure through the years. Others, more critical and sensitive, are unhappy when some unworthy idea casts a shadow here and there. - Our alumni send for it sometimes. More of them drop in and ask to see last year's Record. This unflagging interest is significant, as are such comments as: This book is better than the last or The jokes are not so good as last year's. Then there are per- tinent questions which can only be answered by the editorial staff. The Record in one way or another makes us take stock of the school through its media. Recently one faculty member wondered if the 1933 Record would portray certain distinctly encouraging trends of thought and 'action which he had sensed during the yearg or would it center rather upon those features of our school life which need most drastic improvement. You have the answer toithat question in the pages which follow. It probably wll ignore one recent important but very puzzling question. A group of intelligent boys genuinely interested in the 'improvement of the school suggested an Honor Roll as an incentive to better work for pupils of ability. Perhaps this was only a reflection of radio advertising propaganda which hourly suggests that children must be paid in money or prizes for eating nourishing food, or caring for their teeth or even for playing interesting games. Perhaps it means that the faculty is not stressing sufficiently the search for true values in life. However, we suspect that this idea comes to the surface impelled by forces set very deeply in human nature. Shall we have an Honor Roll? Colonel Parker used to tell a story in point. A little girl cried bitterly because her mother kept her home from Sunday School. Her mother boasted in the presence of her child that her little girl was heart-broken because she could not go. Whereupon the little girl said, 'Well, if I miss a single Sunday then Mary will get the gold star. If she does I will never go to Sunday School again' but hopefully she added, 'Maybe Mary will be ill more Sundays than I am, then I can get it'. Surely just to get ahead of Mary in Sunday School or day school, to get a gold star or to be on the honor roll needs no encouragement in education. The ugly roots of selfishness thrive only too well without it. A strange fact stands out concerning this suggestion for an honor roll. It is that the very boys who suggested it have themselves this year voluntarily joined classes and activities which carry no college credit or external reward. They chose extra hours of hard work. Why? Because they found keen satisfaction in the work itself. The :ll -- xii yll if M QM, x l 1 fis h . if fy Gill: I 8 'il' sa Z Ygsivqi fPi:f 5 , , . nj 15 1' ',. klgxf. ,' Q Vlfigi ii '.ivf,j 'lrjiaj f 'I Q-ff we -sa S, ,Jig ss 2 , 31, A .. - T T .J . a- ..a3rf4 f Mwgpm ' .

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the Alumni to be of vital service to the- school. The school could have no more valuable asset than the loyal intelligent support of its Alumni. There are several specific and concrete ways in which individual alumni can help. First, by assisting in formulating the future policies of the school by contributing our observations and comments on the school's reputation as we know it and as we have heard it spoken of abroad. Second, by helping the school to carry out its ideals and purposes by our indvidual and personal recommendations. Both of these require a knowledge of the school as it is today with its changes in tradition, in outlook, in personnel, curricula and methods. To give you this information, meetings are planned for the Alumni to meet in conjunction with the Faculty and with the Parent's Association in the Fall to acquaint us not only with our own school as it is today and as it hopes to be in the future, but with the progress and aims of progressive schools throughout the country. ' Most of us wish never to cease learning. We all have a continuing interest in the problems of education both because of our desire that our children 'may have advantages superior to our own and because of our increasing awareness of the relation of education to social planning-the vision of how we may 'lharness the school to the task of building a better, a more just, a more beautiful society. We hope that the planned meetings will prove stimulating to the individual Alumnus as well as to the growth of the school because now that we are graduates, we realize that the whole purpose of the twelve years we spent from First Grade to High School was to increase our capacity for happiness and our usefulness to the world. Miriam Hamilton 1926 THE PARENTS ASSOCIATION The extent and manner in which parent coordination' and cooperation has been developed at the Francis W. Parker School is one of the outstanding tributes to the accomplishment of Progressive Education. The influence of the home and the parent upon the many-sided phases of the education of the child, is becoming more and more recognized by the modern educator. At the Parker School the Parents Association serves as a most effective vehicle for developing and directing that influence. Grade meetings held at frequent intervals, in charge of Chairmen appointed by the Association, have given the parents a better knowledge and a more sympathetic under- standing of many of the problems affecting the interest and welfare of the child. These meetings have been supplemented by a series of special eveningmeetings dealing with the broader phases of Progressive Education, giving to both parents and teachers a more comprehensive understanding of the aims and purposes of the school. if . On 'the evening of November 18, Mr. Eliot Dunlap Smith, Master of Saybrook College, one of the undergraduate colleges of Yale, and a Member of the Board of i Trustees of the Parker School, addressed the parents on Progressive Education and . l Later Life. The freshness of his viewpoint and the vigor with which he dealt with i' his subject created a most stimulating effect upon his audience. ' A ..:,.- ' .I '- ,This was followed by another meeting on the evening of January 16, at which a 'rx iii ' number of parents volunteered to talk on the subject How Parker Parents Work 1 and Play with their Children. Some of the speakers illustrated their talks with n presentation of actual projects or pieces of work developed co-jointly by the parent and X Vlgiff, 1, is the child. Both meetings enjoyed an overflow attendance-a recognition of the ability I , ' fjfsl K1 of the speakers, the interest of their subjects, and the efforts of Mrs. W. L. Pattison, lpknll w I Chairman of the Program Committee, under whose direction the programs were planned. I The Parents Association fills an important and well-merited place in the Parker School, , lf il and is deserving of effective support on the part of all parents. - ajjuglj l j Q c. A. Beflgge iggj, jagw i President ' ' 1-nuff ' sllluzfli?