“The fundamental principle of democracy is the responsibility of each for all, and all for each.” Parker’s quotes line the walls of the school. In the auditorium, down the ramp from the middle school atrium, reaching every corner of the school. His philosophy is embedded into the mission statement, and the curriculum throughout the school.

The school’s founder and “The Father Of Progressive Education” Colonel Francis Wayland Parker is seen throughout the school by teachers, lower schoolers, upper schoolers, and anyone who walks through the halls. “Parker was committed to a sense of education as the hope for democracy,” Parker archivist, historian, former English teacher, and editor of the journal “Schools” Andy Kaplan said. “You don’t just learn about democracy, you have to learn with democracy.”

This November 9 marks the 181st birthday of Colonel Francis Parker. Schools in New York, California, Massachusetts, and more share his name. “Parker wanted to be sure that students of his time were being educated in a way that would allow them to contribute to the society and the democracy that they were going to become a part of in adulthood,” Upper School english teacher Theresa Collins said. Collins focused on progressive education on her sabbatical last year.

Parker was born in Bedford, New Hampshire in 1837. Parker began teaching at age 16 and went on to become the principal of a school in Carrollton, IL. five years later. As the Civil War started, he was commissioned to a Lieutenant for the Union Army and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

After the Civil War ended, he taught in various schools, trying different teaching methods to change the rigid fashion of teaching in American schools at the time. “He was as much a soldier fighting for young people and for students as for our country,” Principal Dan Frank said. “He believed that teachers really were the key to democracy, that what they had to offer was going to be the path to enlightenment for a citizenry to know how to be inclusive and make sure that everybody’s rights were upheld and protected.”

He traveled to Germany to study pedagogy, the methods and ways of teaching, at the University of Berlin. He returned to the United States and held various positions in education, including a stint as superintendent for the Quincy, Mass. school system, during which he began adding art and science to the curriculum. Frank said, “He believed that without a school system that gave students the experience of having control over parts of their education, they wouldn’t know how to take control of their own lives when they were adults.” 16 years after his passing, the Francis W. Parker elementary school was built in his name in Quincy.

After Quincy, served as principal of Cook County Normal School in Chicago, a school to educate teachers. He founded the Chicago Institute, a progressive Normal School, that was eventually merged with Chicago Laboratory schools. His colleague, John Dewey, founded the University of Chicago’s School of Education — which Parker became the first director of. Kaplan said, “Colonel Parker came to Chicago after a long and very distinguished career in Massachusetts. He had become a very famous educator and administrator, and he came to Chicago in the late 1880s because it was a place of experiment in social action.”

While working at the Cook County Normal School at Chicago, Parker met Flora J. Cooke, who was a part of the faculty, and Anita McCormick Blaine, who was a parent. Starting in 1898, Anita McCormick Blaine encouraged Parker to start a school on the north side of Chicago. With the help of Flora J. Cooke they were able to start this school, with the focus on implementing Parker’s progressive philosophy. It opened on October 7, 1901, with just 13 teachers and 144 students.

He left a mark on education, and it didn’t just stop in Chicago. Clara Sturges Johnson and William Templeton Johnson founded the Francis W. Parker School in San Diego in 1912, after their nieces had attended the Francis W. Parker school in Chicago. They wanted to replicate the mission of Chicago’s Parker school and integrate Parker’s philosophy into the goal of their own school.

Frank said, “His philosophy is that people have great potential within them to learn and grow, and that potential becomes even greater when each individual is known and understood for who they are.”