(Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com/2021)
State Representative Martin McLaughlin spoke last week on the Illinois House Floor in Springfield honoring his alma mater, Elgin Academy. Sadly, after 185 years of academic excellence, Elgin Academy will will be closing.
His address to the floor can be viewed here, and read below:
“I rise to acknowledge an unfortunate and momentous event for one of the oldest educational institutions in the state that is taking place tomorrow May 25, 2024 – a high school which has been established in the state of Illinois since 1839 will be closing. The Elgin Academy opened its doors in Elgin, Illinois some 50 years prior to this building that we serve in was constructed. This school flourished as the nation grew – beginning with President Martin Van Buren. During its lifetime 38 presidents have lead the United States.
EA was chartered a as a non-sectarian co-educational college preparatory school. Well ahead of its time, Elgin Academy understood the value of a well-rounded educational experience with young men and women learning together. Elgin Academy has endured and survived the Civil War, marked the end of slavery and the adoption of the 15th Amendment, World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the Vietnam War and has survived multiple booms and busts in the stock market and our economy. It saw the women’s suffrage movement culminating their right to vote with the 19th Amendment, and it witnessed the rise the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s. Elgin Academy had students serve in the Civil War, WWI and WWII.
And it even survived my attendance, along with my brother Jim and many of our friends from 1979-1984!
But what the Elgin Academy couldn’t survive was their recent decision to incorporate social emotional learning and progressive programs turning away from their traditional curriculum and agendas. Latin, Actual Science: Chemistry, Physics, Calculus, Computer Science, The Arts, Music and Theatre.
A few families that supported the schools included the founding families of Illinois Tool Works, Northern Trust, Motorola, Fisher Nuts, Sears, Borden Dairy, Edwards Manufacturing, Skok Industries, Heico Co. and my friend Jim Liatuad – the founder of Jimmy Johns.
Elgin Academy was a true liberal arts school – with its campus on a hill overlooking the beautiful Fox River on its highest point sits its historic building Old Main built in the 1840’s. It’s a beautiful campus. It also has an art gallery, which at one time held works from famous artists from all around the world. Sears Hall on campus was a dorm and had students from around the world attending – Japan, China, Mexico, Thailand, Iran and England just name a few.
For many years, the teachers and administrators understood that their primary focus was. They were there to not teach us WHAT to think, but how to develop critical thinking – HOW to think. That’s a distinction that I fear is being lost in Illinois schools today. Students were introduced to Plato, Socrates, Locke, Burke. Chaucer, Thoreau, Melville Whitman and others.
Their educational programs included professors from Northwestern University. The high school had affiliations with the University of Chicago and Northwestern University.
The Academy was a participant in scholastic and athletic conferences competing with private and public schools in the region. Elgin Academy over its history had state championships not only in athletics but in academics competitions in Latin and JETS junior engineering technical society. The school was a member of the independent school league which included such prestigious schools as University of Chicago Laboratory School, Morgan Park Academy, Frances Parker, Latin School, North Shore Country Day and others.
The athletic fields overlook beautiful Lords Park in Elgin. EA was the oldest nonsectarian HS school west of the Appalachian Mountains and has filled a need as an exclusive education institution thriving on a small school hands-on college preparatory approach.
I will be joining tomorrow several classmates who enjoyed and thrived in a smaller education environment, focused on a classic education, not beholden to State or Federal mandates for progressive education initiatives of the day. Although in its entire history, the Academy graduated a total of only around 7000 students, many of those have gone onto the most prestigious universities in the world and have thrived in business, law, medicine, education, technology and so many other fields.
On a personal note, I, along with several other friends met our spouses while there, for that it always hold a special place in my heart.
Finally evaluating the past few years, it has become evident to me that leadership is important in all organizations, and that remaining true to the guidelines and spirit of a classic education would have been the proper way to maintain and continue this successful center of learning. I only hope as a school focused on learning, that those who oversaw its recent decline and who have decided to shutter this historic institution will reflect on lessons learned. I have hope that The Elgin Academy will be reorganized and resurrected to provide an alternative to the public high school option for students in the Fox River Valley region.
If I could have your indulgence for just a bit more, I would like to read into the Record of the State of Illinois. my school’s song, as a final tribute to friends, supporters, educators and administrators who made the Elgin Academy a place where even this shy quiet underprivileged scholarship kid could learn, thrive and become part of a family.
‘Academy, we pledge to thee and raise our banner high. We honor thee and loyal be and praise thee to the sky. Let Elgin sons and daughters stand united all for thee and praise our school throughout the land. Long Live Academy!’”