Latin School of Chicago

F E AT U R E Wellness as a strategic priority for Latin School of Chicago? Has the school gone soft? Where do the expectations of academic excellence and a challenging program that pushes students to dig deep fit into this? Where is rigor? In fact, according to middle school director Deb Sampey and history department chair Kirk Greer, co-chairs of Latin's Wellness Committee, the physical and emotional well-being of students and faculty are key components of these hallmarks of a Latin school education. "In a way, a focus on wellness pushes back against the perception that people might have of Latin as a 'rigor at all cost' teaching and learning environment," said Greer. "But actually it supports our identity as a school committed to academic excellence because we now know that if students don't have a healthy body and healthy spirit, they are not going to be as attentive in the classroom, as focused or have the resilience that they need to fully succeed in our program." On the Cutting Edge e strategic plan challenges the school to consider its program and determine how to best "build a healthy school climate that promotes student wellness." According to Greer, this charge puts Latin ahead of the curve in terms of making use of the current research on children and adolescents that focuses on health and learning; coming out of institutions like Stanford, Duke and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Latin being Latin, the Wellness Committee is tackling this assignment with the full rigor that would be devoted to any other work going on at WHAT MOTIVATES YOU? WANT TO GET GOOD GRADES 416 100 NUMBER OF STUDENTS 200 300 400 391 389 357 350 STRIVE FOR A SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT LIKE TO DO PERSONAL BEST INTERESTED IN LEARNING WANT TO SATISFY PARENTS Extensive research has demonstrated that motivational style has important influence on emotional resilience and academic satisfaction. Intrinsic motivator Extrinsic motivator Latin students were 14% more driven by positive intrinsic motivators than students in comparable schools and 24% less driven by extrinsic motivators than students in comparable schools. ON WELLNESS 19 L AT I N S C H O O L O F C H I C A G O "Our school promotes physical and emotional wellness because they are essential to the pursuit of academic excellence." – The Strategic Plan for Latin School of Chicago 2013-18. SURVEY DEMOGRAPHICS: 196 45% 233 55% freshmen juniors sophomores seniors 113 112 102 102 Data from the Independent School Health Check survey conducted in October 2013.

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