The Latin School of Chicago

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Latin School of Chicago is a small, private elementary, middle and high school in the Gold Coast neighborhood in Chicago. The school was founded in 1888. It is considered one of the top private high schools in the United States.

Latin School of Chicago
Established	1888
Type	Private
Students	1,100 (2005-06)
Grades	JK–12
Location	Chicago, Illinois USA
Mascot	Romans
Newspaper	The Forum
Website	www.latinschool.org

The School was founded in 1888 by a small group of mothers wanting to establish a school for the education of their sons, which had until that time been primarily the provence of either private tutors or eastern boarding schools. The school grew rapidly and by the First World War had full classes for every year from kindergarten through 12th grade. In 1902 Girls Latin was founded and was subsequently merged with Boys Latin to form The Latin School of Chicago in 1948. The school nearly collapsed following the Great Depression and the migration of many families from central Chicago to the suburbs (sometimes derogatorily referred to as white flight). The school has since rebounded and now boasts more than 1100 pupils in 14 grades, 440 of which are in grades 9-12. Like many modern independent schools, the Latin School has sought to increase its national presence over the last decade. It has done so by pioneering its Humanities interdisciplinary course, which has been adopted by schools across the US. Although this course has been so successful, in the 2007-2008 school year, it will be discontinued due to the worries of preparation for tenth grade English. The school has also sought to increase its scholarship funding and has consequently become far more diverse than it was even 15 years ago. The Latin School has always had the tradition of being an academically conservative school with a strong grounding in the Humanities and the Classics. At least one year of Latin is required of all pupils in 6th grade and the high school curriuculum requires four years of English and a minimum of three years of other subjects. Latin also offers the highest number of AP classes per capita and has a thriving system of Independent Studies that has been a model for other schools across the country.

The current campus was completed in 1970 when the building housing middle and upper school students was completed. The previous building was kept in use as the home for the lower grades and the old Girls Latin building was finally sold off. The school recently broke ground in February 2006 for construction of a third building to house its middle school students.

There has traditionally been some rivalry with Francis W. Parker School and The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, especially with Parker.

Latin recently won its first state title for a team sport when the girl's soccer team beat Columbia 3-2 on Elizabeth Schink's toe-tapped goal with only several minutes remaining in the game.

It also boasts a strong Water Polo team that competes ably against much larger schools despite the sport's lack of divisions in Illinois high school play. The boys team has fared quite well at State in recent years, posting a 3rd place finish in 2004 and a 2nd place finish in 2006.

The Latin School's Scholastic Bowl team has reached the IHSA Class A State Finals a record sixteen consecutive years. Over this span, they are 39-12 overall at the State Finals, including six State Championships, two second place finishes, three third place finishes and one fourth place finish.