Latin School of Chicago

20 L AT I N M A G A Z I N E the school. During the 2014-15 year, it is focusing on the daily pace of faculty and student lives. Working with the Challenge Success program at Stanford University's School of Education, members have embarked on a project to shadow a sample group of fourth- through twelfth- grade students and faculty. e goal is to gather data that will help the school in making decisions about schedules and homework load and to develop strategies that will support students as they prioritize and manage their time. In Search of Balance Even as the Wellness Committee began its work, both quantitative and qualitative evidence already suggest that today's Latin students have very full plates. Results from the Independent School Health Check survey, which upper school students participate in every three years, indicate that a number of students are getting too little sleep and feeling too much stress. ose who often work directly with students dealing with these issues, paint a picture of an immense diversity and complexity of life experiences. "Each student has experiences inside and outside the home and before and after school," said upper school counselor Jenny Stevens. "So if we are only focusing on what is going on in the classroom, we are not serving our students." Stevens, part-time upper school counselor Michael Bruner and middle school counselor Pamela Buchanan Miller see students who leave their home at 5 a.m. and change buses three times to get to Latin, students who have parents who are terminally ill or are going through a divorce, students who have after-school and weekend jobs, students who have athletic games and practices that go well into the night, students who are responsible for helping to raise a younger sibling and students with countless other responsibilities and pressures that are added on to their busy school day. "e demands we as teachers and parents place on children and the demands they place on themselves can be overwhelming," said Buchanan Miller. "Children need time to sleep. ey need time to play and to daydream. ose things should be valued." At times, the best qualities of the Latin experience play into this, according to Greer. "Students recognize there are so many great opportunities in the curriculum and beyond the curriculum," he said. "It's both a blessing and a curse to have so many opportunities to explore because it can be hard for students to choose. It is incumbent on us to give students the resources, support and time to set their priorities and figure out their unique strengths so that they are able to choose." ACADEMIC PRESSURE Girls exceed boys in feeling extreme/high pressure by 7%. To feel successful at Latin, students feel the need to excel at a variety of things: academics 97% social life 82% athletics 61% performing arts 27% visual arts 26% Students feel extreme to high pressure to excel in academics from a variety of sources – including themselves. SELF-PRESSURE 83% 65% 49% PRESSURE FROM TEACHERS PRESSURE FROM PARENTS 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% "Each student has experiences inside and outside the home and before and after school. So if we are only focusing on what is going on in the classroom, we are not serving our students." – upper school counselor Jenny Stevens

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