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

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AN EMBRYONIC DEMOCRACY Last of all, our school, the school which Col. Parker wished to be both a home and a community, strives to become also a democracy. Like our federal government, the school has incorporated in its principles the idea of basic freedom for all , freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right of initiative and referendum-free- dom, that is, but not license. The Parker student has a much more direct contact with his government than has the citizen of the Ll.S. with the federal. Perhaps a better analogy might be the United Nations-one large assembly for all mem- bers of the organization but the work is split up into various committees. ln Parker, these are the Social, Auditing, Budgeting, Library and Lunchroom commit- tees. Then there are, of course, the jobs of the various officers. ln other words, opportunity for participation is at its best at Parker and it is only up to the student to take advantage of it. Taking advantage of opportunity not only means running for an office or working on a committee, it means, too, taking a part in discussions with the fac- ulty about school problems. This is a very important part of Parker life and here, too, the smaller scale makes the democracy closer to the people themselves. When the students felt that they did not have enough control over their own finances, they went to the faculty and discussed it with them. As a result, we now have the student budgeting system in which all funds must be passed by a student committee and then the assembly before going to the various student bu- reaus while the records are kept by the student auditor. Probably one of the best remembered cases of student referendum in faculty decisions was in 1936 when the students became exasperated with the Two-inches- between-cheeks rule which the faculty enforced at all dances. When general protest and Weekly editorials brought no repeal of the law, the assembly voted to send a delegation to talk with the principal and some of the faculty. Says an alumnus who was one of the delegation: Each class sent its bravest, noisiest, cheekiest mem- ber . . . Our injured oratory won a trial for cheek-to- cheek. No perceptible sag in student morals resulted. ln comparatively recent years, Parker students have found a much easier way of discussing their problems with the faculty. This innovation is the Committee of 4-a council composed of students and faculty. Almost all important decisions come before the committee and through their representatives, the students make their opinions heard. As the Parker, student looks around him, he is proud not only of the democratic form of his government, but of the whole atmosphere of Democracy which sur- rounds him. His friends are from all races, creeds and classes. Out of the 452 students, 168 are on full or part scholarships. This is one of the things that makes possible the establishing of this democratic atmosphere in which one third of the parents are jewish, a slightly larger percentage Protestant and the rest Roman Cath- olic, Russian Orthodox, Confucian or unaffiliated. ln nationality, they are American, Armenian, Austrian, Canadian, Chinese, Czecho-slovakian, Danish, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, japanese, Latvian, Mexican, Norwegian, Polish, Roumanian, Russian, Swedish and Swiss. And of these there are 68 doctors, 36 attorneys or judges, 32 teachers, 135 busi- nessmen of various kinds, 29 clerical workers and 9 laborers. One can see that there is something special about Parker when one realizes that so many people from so many backgrounds live together in this home, learn together in this community, and work together

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1935-The Swan Song Aria del Capo . The Birthday of lnfanta 1936-The Rival The Whiteheaded Boy 1937-The Late Christopher Bean The Romancers 1938-Admirable Crichton Twelfth Night 1939-As You Like lt The Playboy of the Western World 1940-Trelawny of the Wells 1941- 1942-The Inspector General 1943-Death Takes A Holiday 1944-Pride and Prejudice 1945-Devil's Disciple 1946-Two On An Island 1947-Flizabeth the Queen 1948-A Midsummer Night's Dream 1949-The Flies 1950-Crime and Punishment 1951-The Mad Woman of Chaillot Blood Wedding Special Chorus is also a student volunteer activity and is under the direction of the music department. The annual spring concert has consisted of such things as Elijah, and The St. john Passion. Two years ago, Kurt Weills Down in the Valley was given. We are proud of the fact that this was the first Chicago per- formance of the operetta. However, it is not to be supposed that Sports are forgotten at Parker. The football team, the basketball team, baseball, tennis, track, and swimming teams have all won honors for the school, Each year the sports department gives the father and son banquet-The Stag. The awards are given out here and a well-known guest speaker is often invited. The girls, too, have their extra-curricular sports which comes under a student department, the G.A.A. In the spring they hold the feminine counterpart of the Stag, the Stagette. Although this night of fun for mothers and daughters is comparatively new - this year is the third-it is already somewhat of a tradition, and a pleasant one at that. To keep its citizens informed as to all of these activ- ities, the Parker community has three publications: The Record, the Weekly, and the Prints. The Weekly has all that any good newspaper in- cludes-except maybe comic strips. But it is perhaps primarily interested in providing a vent for any com- plaints or revolutionary ideas a student or faculty member might wish to express. And there are plenty of these. The first issue of the Weekly was printed in one corner of the woodshop and in spite of some misgiv- ings, came out on February 20, 1911. The Prints is concerned only with the literary inter- ests of the community and includes compositions from all the grades. It is the outgrowth of the Recorder which was started in 1906, just 5 years after the school opened. At Parker it is quite an honor to be included in one of its issues. As for the Record, ever since 1916, when the first glimpse of its little blue and white cover was seen within Parker walls, it has been going strong-bring- ing pictures of the years events to brighten up the years end. But though the school strives to become a complete community, it is careful not to become wrapped up in itself. At Christmas of every year, the interest in out- side affairs and the desire to help others takes the form of a week long project called Toy Shop, where the school is turned into a sort of Santa's workshop. Rock- ing horses, doll houses, teddy bears, buggies and scrap books are created or given a new face by the Parker family. And when the work is completed, the toys are sent to various settlement houses around Chicago. Stu- dents, teachers and parents participate and the whole school is united in the knowledge that they are doing something useful for someone else.

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in the embryonic democracy , when one sees that from our little democracy, Parkerites have graduated into a larger democracy and taken their rightful places as intelligent and useful citizens. They have become doctors, lawyers, housewives, executives, club women, clergymen, teachers, scientists, salesmen, musicians, en- gineers, secretaries, mathematicians, newspaper col- umnists, architects, actors, editors, bankers, designers, artists, government workers of all kinds-even tax collectors. We may boast of quite a few well-known names among the list of alumni. Names such as Celeste Holme, Hollywood actress, Perry Dunlap Smith, North Shore CD., Elliott Dunlap Smith, president of Carnegie Tech, Mildred McAfee Horton, president of Wellesley College and one time head of the WAVES, is iff ff it R111 AX,---.-....,. Katherine Taylor, well-known educator, and Darlene Stern Ceis, authoress, who writes that in her book, Design for Ann, she used Parker as a background for her characters and called the school Parsons, True, that for some individuals, life at Parker was simply a phase, the school itself just another institu- tion of learning. the country to many years in learned to love But to those who came from all over attend it, to those who have spent the circle of the Parker family and it, to those who have graduated and now look back on their days there with a certain, warm glow, to those people, what has Parker meant? Wfell, it has meant a way of life and of living, it has meant people and learning to live with them and to like them, it has meant an interest in everything from animal life through the arts, and a surer faith in hu- manity and the world. J W a MT -Q. N,