The Firke Files is an occasional blog by Don Firke, the head of an independent school on the north side of Chicago.

Meet Your Host

The video below was taken during a poetry reading given by Jack Prelutsky and hosted by Poetry Magazine at The Latin School of Chicago. Don introduces the poet and offers a variation on one of Mr. Prelusky’s poems.

  

Video by Shandor Simon. Used with permission and thanks.
The poem, “I Let the Cat Out” by Jack Prelutsky,
appears in his book A Pizza the Size of the Sun.

The Usual Vitae

Don was born and grew up in Akron, Ohio, and graduated from Western Reserve Academy, an independent boarding school, in 1972. He went on to major in Economics, Classics and The History of Ideas at Williams College and did further work in Classics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He holds a Master of Liberal Studies from Wesleyan University.

Don began his professional life as an economist in Washington, DC, but soon turned to teaching as his great love. He has taught at The Hackley School in Tarrytown, NY, the Collegiate School, in NYC, and the Cranbrook School, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

In 1985 he and his wife Lisa moved to Choate Rosemary Hall, in Wallingford, Connecticut, where Don taught Latin, coached soccer and baseball, deaned the classes of 1991 and 1994, chaired the language department, served as dean of academic affairs, and became assistant head and dean of faculty.

Don and family moved to Chicago in 2005 when Don became head of the Latin School.