Can we teach ethical leadership? Can we instill this in our young people, using role models before us to guide the way? Or is it something simply born, pre-existing in people?
As an educator for 27 years in Chicago, I’ve bet my life’s work that yes, ethical leadership can be taught — must be taught. I lead five schools on Chicago’s South Side centered on this belief. At Perspectives Charter Schools, we teach the whole child. We strive to strengthen the moral compass of our students using the models before us.
That’s why I’m compelled to share this story. A story about a couple with a moral compass that guides and teaches by example what it means to live as an ethical leader in your community.
On a cool fall evening in 1994, John and Rita Canning watched the nightly newscast from their suburban Chicago home. Their hearts ached: yet another young boy on Chicago’s South Side had been killed.
This news touched them so intimately that they were compelled to act. They had to find a way to help. Instead of just writing a check, they took a risk and got involved.
The day after that child’s unimaginable death, John and Rita drove to his neighborhood, talked to police officers, community members and school administration — and tried to understand, to offer help.
They connected with Holy Angels School and soon the Big Shoulders Fund, launched in the 1980s by Jim O’Connor to provide greater access to a quality education for youth from under resourced neighborhoods.
John joined their tremendous effort — giving time, strategy and funds to dramatically grow the reach and impact. Big Shoulders boasts big numbers: 21,000 students served; 82 schools; 5,100 scholarships awarded to students who graduate from high school and go to college. Today, John continues to stay deeply involved, building student relationships, sponsoring scholarships and so much more.
Getting involved
The Cannings’ story is woven into the fabric of Chicago. They met after he moved here in 1969 following law school. John has been a highly respected leader in Chicago’s business community for many years, 24 of them with First Chicago Corp. The couple raised six children, modeling how to get passionately involved in a cause that stirs you.
John founded Madison Dearborn Partners in 1992, became a minority owner of the Milwaukee Brewers and served as chair of numerous Chicago institutions. His list of philanthropic and civic commitments is extensive and impressive.
But what does John really want to talk about? Big Shoulders. The kids who are working toward their educational goals and what they’re doing with their lives.
“When I get a call from a student or an alum, it reinforces how important this work is. It fuels me to do more,” John told me. “Getting involved is the best way to make sure your money is used in a way that’s aligned with your values. So, when you find that thing you care about,” he advised, “get involved.”
That’s what Rita did as well.
“With my kids raised and out the door, all I wanted was to be a volunteer,” she remembers.
Her community didn’t have a domestic violence shelter, so she got involved. She stumbled upon a small program run out of a church and decided to help. Today, WINGS, led by Rebecca Darr, with Rita as board chair, is a $6.5 million operation and one of Illinois’ largest domestic violence service and housing providers.
“Rebecca and I have to be very entrepreneurial to build safe homes in our communities,” she said. “John has opened doors for us. I see it as my responsibility to leverage his success and influence to make a difference.”
In 2014, John was inducted as a Laureate into the Order of Lincoln, the state’s highest honor. He used his precious few minutes at the mic to talk — not about his own business sector — but about his passion for giving and his beloved Big Shoulders.
He described “The unique spirit of philanthropy that exists here [in Illinois], where the business community and other concerned citizens band together to aggressively attack social problems that cause inequality and the lack of opportunity for those less fortunate.”
Avoiding the spotlight
That unique spirit of philanthropy John described is arguably, in part, his and Rita’s own creation.
“John and Rita are the two most broadly generous people I know,” Sam Mencoff, co-CEO of Madison Dearborn Partners and John’s partner of 35 years, told me. “And here at the firm, it is John’s integrity and ethical approach to serving people that make up our company’s culture: we’re concerned about doing the right thing.”
John and Rita would rather avoid the spotlight. Their partners at both Big Shoulders and WINGS told me how John and Rita’s respective visions and tenacity have shaped each organization, but that it’s unlikely either of them would ever own up to that.
They’re more interested in solving problems without fanfare. John and Rita are models for a slow and authentic kind of philanthropy, where passion and actions merge and lives are transformed.
It’s beyond corporate giving — it’s about building relationships and serving alongside scholars at Big Shoulders or the women and children at WINGS.
“John and Rita have a moral compass like no one else I’ve ever met,” says Big Shoulders’ Monsignor Velo. This moral compass guided John and Rita as they got into their car that day and went to a neighborhood filled with families who were hurting.
That’s the moral compass we seek to root deep in our students — in ourselves. That we might all be more moved by things that matter, and inspired to get passionately involved. That we might forever question our own role to contribute to a better world. That we might risk and get involved like the Cannings.
Today, Perspectives serves over 1,800 public school students in five schools. Next spring we’ll celebrate 20 years. We’ll honor our students and teachers for striving to study and lead ethical lives. We’ll also honor John and Rita for inspiring us with their deeply rooted moral compass — and for being the ethical leaders that our students — and all of us — strive to become.
Diana Shulla-Cose is founder and president at Perspectives Charter Schools
