About Us: Our Mission
Northwest Institute for Contemporary Learning (NICL) is a private, not-for-profit school operating in the Greater North Pulaski / North Austin Community of Chicago. Chartered by the State of Illinois, NICL operates two interlocking programs that reflect the character and needs of this community. The first program is the Preschool serving children between the ages of two and five years. The second is an Elementary School, grades first through eighth.
Our Mission is to provide excellence in our programs for preschoolers and elementary students while fostering students intellectual, social, physical and moral development: to provide an environment that is conducive to learning (understanding that children learn by doing - moving from concrete, hands-on experiences to more abstract concept development). Our Mission priorities include: healthy balances for student-directed, teacher guided activities; time for students to work individually, in small and large groups, to provide a stable, safe healthy, comfortable, and culturally relevant environment.
Education provides the combination of values and methodology to help people gain the specific skills needed for life in the modern world. Very little that transpires between people is without an educational component, but when it is backed by objective flexible methods based upon individualization of curricula, the outcome is both predictable and modified. All people do not learn in the same way. Therefore, an institution that intends to teach must find out how each child learns as a necessary starting point. Once armed with this information, the curricula can be executed.
The integration of these values and methods from different professional disciplines is facilitated by our belief in democracy. Democracy means more than self-government to us. It means opportunity, protection, creativity, and caring. Opportunity relates to those moments when an individual may freely apply his/her talents and skills to express himself. This may be in a classroom, in a family, or in the community. Being responsible, as one must be in an open society, behavior will tend not to injure or prohibit others from the same expression. Protection is the frank recognition of the hazards that exist to people and property. We believe that protection is both a right and a responsibility, especially of children whose vulnerability is great. We offer protection as a normal extension of the work we do with children and their families, who can find support and strength in the relationships they develop in our programs. Creativity is both an inspirational entity as well as the result of protracted hard work. NICL itself is the result of this process. While inspiration played a role in its development, it was the hard work on a day-to-day basis that brought it into being and has nurtured its steady growth. We apply this principle in our programs for much of our work is with children who will one day become adults. Of all the qualities mentioned, caring is most important. Because of it, NICL.is able to act on theories, concepts and principles. Caring for people and about their situations gives us the means to make it all work. Caring is a quality possessed by both humans and other animals that makes a large difference in the quality of relationships they have. Imagine operating a school without caring for the children, or the teachers or their families. It would be a very cold and excessively inhumane set of relationships that would result. NICL cares about the community, the children, the staff, and about how we do what we do.
Our Mission is to provide excellence in our programs for preschoolers and elementary students while fostering students intellectual, social, physical and moral development: to provide an environment that is conducive to learning (understanding that children learn by doing - moving from concrete, hands-on experiences to more abstract concept development). Our Mission priorities include: healthy balances for student-directed, teacher guided activities; time for students to work individually, in small and large groups, to provide a stable, safe healthy, comfortable, and culturally relevant environment.
Education provides the combination of values and methodology to help people gain the specific skills needed for life in the modern world. Very little that transpires between people is without an educational component, but when it is backed by objective flexible methods based upon individualization of curricula, the outcome is both predictable and modified. All people do not learn in the same way. Therefore, an institution that intends to teach must find out how each child learns as a necessary starting point. Once armed with this information, the curricula can be executed.
The integration of these values and methods from different professional disciplines is facilitated by our belief in democracy. Democracy means more than self-government to us. It means opportunity, protection, creativity, and caring. Opportunity relates to those moments when an individual may freely apply his/her talents and skills to express himself. This may be in a classroom, in a family, or in the community. Being responsible, as one must be in an open society, behavior will tend not to injure or prohibit others from the same expression. Protection is the frank recognition of the hazards that exist to people and property. We believe that protection is both a right and a responsibility, especially of children whose vulnerability is great. We offer protection as a normal extension of the work we do with children and their families, who can find support and strength in the relationships they develop in our programs. Creativity is both an inspirational entity as well as the result of protracted hard work. NICL itself is the result of this process. While inspiration played a role in its development, it was the hard work on a day-to-day basis that brought it into being and has nurtured its steady growth. We apply this principle in our programs for much of our work is with children who will one day become adults. Of all the qualities mentioned, caring is most important. Because of it, NICL.is able to act on theories, concepts and principles. Caring for people and about their situations gives us the means to make it all work. Caring is a quality possessed by both humans and other animals that makes a large difference in the quality of relationships they have. Imagine operating a school without caring for the children, or the teachers or their families. It would be a very cold and excessively inhumane set of relationships that would result. NICL cares about the community, the children, the staff, and about how we do what we do.