Story URL: http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=148953
Story Retrieval Date: 2/9/2010 7:47:09 PM CST
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Photo courtesy of Mark Klocksin
Lucy Klocksin has taught on both the North Shore and in the city's school system as a reading specialist.
Chicago school teacher from Wilmette sees education inequities every day
by Melissa Tussing
Nov 24, 2009
Melissa Tussing/MEDILL
Reading specialist discusses the inequities she's seen in Illinois education as a teacher on the North Shore and in the Chicago Public School system.
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Earlier story: North Shore education advocacy group aims to educate its ownLucy Klocksin's vital stats
Where she teaches: Daniel Boone Elementary School on the Chicato's North Side
Where she lives: Wilmette
Where her children attended school: New Trier High School in Winnetka and schools that feed into it
Children: Scott, 26, and Katie, 31
Teaching career: 24 years total, 16 at Daniel Boone
Living in Wilmette and teaching in Chicago, Lucy Klocksin said she witnesses the inequities in Illinois education every day. She's the single reading specialist for a school of 1,100 students. She said her own son, who graduated from New Trier, would have fallen through the cracks in Chicago Public Schools.
"They're understaffed with special ed teachers," Klocksin said. "It would have just been a horrible situation."
Klocksin said her experiences fuel her work with education advocacy.
"What makes me different is I've had really intimate experiences with rich and with poor schools," Klocksin said. "I think if more people had seen what I've seen, more people would be passionate about [the education gap in Illinois.]"
