Academics

Why Study Education at Lake Forest College?

Career Flexibility
You graduate from Lake Forest College with a full liberal arts experience, plus the added career benefits of teaching credentials.  Our program requires a full major in both an academic field of your interest (e.g. history, art, math) and a full major in education. This prepares you for careers and graduate work within education and in fields related to your area of academic interest.

Small Classes and Integrated Courses
In your methods courses, you will study how to plan and teach lessons that apply to all disciplines.  In small seminars, you will share ideas with other prospective teachers who are completing majors in many various fields (e.g. math, art history, politics).  This kind of interdisciplinary interaction should prepare you to develop integrated curricula and student-centered practices that are valued by today's schools.

Mentorship and Personalization of Program
Unlike professors in many teacher education programs, your professors at Lake Forest College will serve both as your classroom instructors and as your mentors in your field placement experiences in schools. Teacher education is central to the College's mission and a site for development of faculty across campus as well.

Close Relationship With School Sites Beginning Junior Year
In your education courses at Lake Forest College, you will work in classrooms with elementary, middle, and high school students and their teachers.  These schools provide us with the best learning environments for your development as a teacher.  Working in school sites allows teacher candidates to see students as members of a community with a contextualized social and economic history and structure. Schools and classrooms are sites of inquiry, where successful practices are developed and supportive teaching learning communities are created. You will become part of Lake Forest College's partnerships for school community renewal.

Nationally Recognized Schools with Varied Student Populations
We work in some of the best schools in the country in North Suburban Chicago.  These schools serve student populations spanning the American racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic spectrum.  In your experience at Lake Forest College, you will learn to work with students from all kinds of social experience and language backgrounds.  Junior year internship placements are made in the high-needs, multi-cultural district of Waukegan, IL public schools, and senior year student teaching placements are made in suburban public school settings.