Harper School

I went to Harper School at the end of 4^th grade and the beginning of 5^th grade, when my parents and I relocated to the Chicago area. Although this was to some extent a year of struggle and transition for me (being the new kid is tough and can make you an easy bully target), I believe I got a very good primary school education here.
Harper is a very small school for a public suburban school; it is the smallest of the public schools that feed into Wilmette Jr. High School. My 5^th grade class only had about 60 students, which meant we were in three classrooms of 20 each. This was a nice, small ratio for that grade. We were divided into classes with different teachers based on our ability level for math and English classes. We had a great PE teacher and had PE every day, as well as art and music several times a week. I took that for granted as a kid but not after working in an elementary school for a year where the kids had PE only twice a week and rarely had art or music.
We had a large lunch-​room, recess twice a day, and a great library program as well. While I didn’t care for my 5^th grade homeroom teacher at the time, I see that she really did care about my academic and social development, just in a more gruff way than I understood at the time. She was one of those teachers who went the extra mile for students. In the end of it all I was sad to leave Harper and to have to go onto a larger junior high school.