Summer 09 has begun

Jerry and Lane working on "Logic Puzzles"
over dinner. I must say Lane has a great deal of patience for these things.
Jerry is really good at them, I think it comes from "Cleaning-up" the messes I make at work.

Family on the 5th celebrating the 4th

Lane at the opening reception for Joe Ray's show

Joe and Chris were two old friends from my Art Major days back at ASU. Thanks to the "Magic" of Facebook, we have been back in touch; so when they told me of the opening of a collection of his work in Madison Wisc. - I tossed the family in the car. I must say it was well worth the trip.




After a very long and cold winter; I must admit have been a bit disappointed by the delay of summer.

Lane and his friend Taylor enjoying one of the few truly warm, sunny days.

While I happen to be a big fan of going to East Bank Club, Lane, and his friends prefer the beach.

I can absolutely see why, for me the major appeal of going to the club (Aside from knowing I'm spending $350/ month to belong) is that I just have to show up. I don't have to bring towels, or chairs or all of the other baggage that comes with a trip to the beach. I also like the idea of nice clean bathrooms and showers with granite walls. That said, I must say that the beach is fun, particularly when you are there with a group.

This Kid jumped in front of my iphone as I was taking a picture, I showed it to him and he asked me if I could email it to him.

Max And Lane two weeks earlier also at Oak Street Beach.

Lane and Sam sitting in a tree in Wrightwood Park.

Quick Trip to LA

Marla was a friend that I met through Heidi. Marla was also an old friend Of Ilene's back from the days they went to Camp Interlaken together.

About 18 years ago, Marla informed me that "I had to go out with her friend, Ilene that had recently moved to town. As they say the rest is history.

Over the years Marla and Jeff Garlin's son James, and Lane became close friends. The fact that Jeff's acting career requires them to live in LA, has done little to keep them from being close despite the long gaps between visits.

We do both spend Christmas break in Florida, and they come to Chicago each year for a part of the summer.

After they came in for Lane's Bar Mitzvah, it only seemed right that we should go to LA to celebrate James's.

The party was catered at their home. The food was great, the night was beautiful and having it at their home gave it a very warm feel.

Yes there were "Celebrities" and No I did not take their picture.

Yes while we were there we decided to do a bit of the tourist things,

We saw Lane's old sitter, if you can call someone a few years out of college "Old"

She had recently moved out there and met us down at Sunset and Vine to see the walk of the stars.

It was great to see Shauna Stannard

It was also nice to see that the city cleaned up some of the prostitutes.

While there we also took a tour of Warner Brother Studios

This is the set from Friends

The Sets were fun to see.

We had to see the "Tar Pits"

And I could not miss the opportunity to have a few Jack in The Box Tacos.

I will add some of the Medium Format Black and White pictures I took.

The Head of School Award - Lane Lubell

Dr. Michael B. Roberts
Head of School

Wilfred Peterson, author of the "Art of Living" series of books which sold millions of copies around the world advised his readers to "Champion the right to be yourself; dare to be different and to set your own pattern; live your own life and follow your own star." Lane Lubell has certainly taken Mr. Peterson's advice to heart and in the process has stolen the hearts of all who know him. One of Lane's teachers shared, "we are so proud of how far he has come in his years at Catherine Cook. We feel his story is a success story that we all can feel a part of. He is highly creative. He is liked by all students and teachers." Lane's greatest gift is in his ability to see the world from another's point of view and to honestly respect those viewpoints. Consequently, significant gains in his academic and personal success and positive contributions to the school have been remarkable.

Jim Kirsch For City Council

Jim Kirsch For City Council
I am happy to announce that Jim Kirsch Won!

I am very proud of the great work that Jim has done.

Gently Used Books Needed

Middle School
Do your children have two or three (or 100) books that they have outgrown and do not read anymore? Would they be willing to donate those books to children less fortunate?


For his Bar Mitzvah community service project Lane Lubell, Middle School seventh-grader, is collecting gently used books to donate to abused and neglected children who need to appear at Juvenile Court. The waiting room of each child protection courtroom has a bookcase for donated books. While the children are waiting, they are encouraged to read the books and take one home. Currently the bookcases are empty. There are approximately 12,000 abused and neglected children. There is a book drop-off location at The Catherine Cook School located in the Lower Level Lunchroom. Please drop your donated books and Lane will get them to the children. Thank you for your donation.

Global Ethics Website

From Head of Middle School
Imagine this: small groups of middle school students sit together at round tables, engaged in animated discussions about how they can help build a school culture of integrity and how they will know integrity when they see it. Students draw and doodle as they think and talk, and a visual practitioner captures the flow of conversation, recording words, phrases, and images in a colorful mural as the dialogue moves along.
This past Tuesday, that's how CCS Middle School students spent part of their afternoon, immersing themselves in a Values Café to deepen their understanding of one of the core values they identified earlier in the year. But this work has deeper roots: it grows out of a conversation that middle school students and CCS staff have been having all year long.
It began with a thought experiment: you have a block of stone for the front of the school in which to carve five words that will capture the values that CCS strives to cultivate. You have room for only five words, so they must be chosen carefully. Faculty and staff started this process in the August pre-planning days, when we closed down the front office, put the room preparation, curriculum planning, and floor waxing on pause, and gathered in the gymnasium to begin this work together. After school opened in September, each of twelve middle school advisory groups went through a similar process to identify five values, then came together in larger and larger configurations, debating and refining the lists until the whole middle school came to agreement. This culminated in an October discussion between staff and student representatives where, through lively and respectful debate, adults and students came to agreement about the five main values that underlie our work together: Respect, Responsibility, Compassion, Integrity, and Diversity.
Since then, the conversation has taken many forms, from small group activities in advisories to help students connect the values with their everyday school experiences, to whole staff work to develop norms for professional interactions and ways to deal constructively with differences.
Along the way, many people have shared responsibility for moving the work forward. An advance team of three teachers attended the Ethical Literacy planning conference in June to learn from other schools who have taken on this work. A team comprised of thirteen middle school teachers and administrators from throughout the school received Ethical Literacy training last August and created an action plan that will drive the process over the next several years. The Tuesday sessions and summer training were led by Institute for Global Ethics facilitator Don Proffit, who also facilitated faculty discussion and planning sessions and met with trustees.
The bottom line is that the work of building a school culture of integrity belongs to everyone. No one has a lock on ethics and no one handles tough decisions perfectly every time. But by making this an intentional process, we empower our students, and our staff, to handle complex "right vs. right" decisions more effectively their whole lives long. We invite you to learn more about this work by viewing the photographs of our Tuesday sessions, visiting the Global Ethics website, or asking us-middle school students, staff, or trustees. We are eager to share what we are learning.
Warmly,
Cory Stutts
Head of the Middle School

Ilene and Larry Lubell are proud to announce, that our son Lane is going to be celebrating his Bar Mitzvah on March 7th.

This is amazing since I would swear it was just two years ago Lane left the womb; and no more than 10 years ago since I my self was standing on the same spot, under the watchful eyes of Rabbi Binstock.


Lane is an absolute delight. Thirteen years ago if given a blank Order form, allowing Ilene and I, the magical power to construct the “Perfect child” to our exact specifications, our collective imagination could never have created a child as wonderful as Lane.