A
SchoolIsCityandCountry:
ABookAboutCarolinePratt
ByMonaDeVictoria
Doyoueverthinkaboutyourschool?
Doyoueverwonderwhatmakesaschoolaschool?
Whataboutwhoyoulearnfrom,howyoulearn,orwhatyou'relearning?
Doyouthinkyoustoplearningwhenschoolisoverfortheday?
Willyoueverbeanagewhenyouaredonelearning?
CarolinePrattthoughtalotaboutthesequestionsandwhattheanswers couldbewhenshestartedCityandCountrySchool.Shewantedtocreatea placewherechildrenwouldfeelfreetobethemselves,andhavethespace, time,andmaterialstolearnbydoingthingsthatwereimportanttothem. Thiswasanunusualideaatthetime,butCarolinewascertainitwasagood one!
Carolinesaidthatchildrenandadultsaren’tsodifferent.Eventhough childrenmightbesmaller,andmighthavelesslifeexperience,theyhavethe sameneedsasadults.Allpeoplewanttoknowthatothershave consideration forthemandrespectfortheirwork,andtakethemandthethingstheydo seriously.
Whenitcametimetostartherschool,Carolinethoughtalotaboutwhat materialscouldbeusedincountlessways.Sosheusedhercarpentryskillsto createUnitBlocksforherclassroom.Shemadesurethereweremanyof them,andlotsofspacetousethem,andlotsoftimetousethemtoo. Carolinealsotookchildrenonfieldtripstoseewhatwasgoingoninthecity aroundthem.Sheknewthatblockswouldbeawayforthemtorecreate whattheysaw.
AtCityandCountry,Carolinebelievedthatmakingmistakesandtryingagain wasjustpartoflearning.Oneofherideaswasforchildrentocookby themselves,evenifitdidn’tcomeout rightthefirsttime.Shesuggestedthey changetherecipeagainandagainuntilittastedjustliketheywanteditto.
AtthetimewhenCityandCountrybegan,mostpeoplebelievedthatsome activitieswereforboysonly,andsomeactivitieswereforgirlsonly.
Carolinedisagreed.Shesaidthateveryoneshouldhaveanequalopportunity todothingslikesew,cook,build,andusetheworkbench.
Carolinealsofeltstronglythatteachersshouldlistentoandlearnfrom children. Sheoftenchosenottoanswerchildren’squestions,andletthem figureouttheanswersontheirown.
Carolinefollowedherownadvicetoo,bylisteningtochildren’sideasabout whattheschoolshouldbecalled.CarolinestartedoutwiththenameThe PlaySchool.Butthestudentsdidn’tlikethename!Theysaidthatgrownups mightgetconfusedandthinktheywereplayingallday,whenwhatthey wereactuallydoingwashardwork.SoCarolinechangedthenametoCity andCountryinstead.
Childrenwereasnoisyaslions,notassilentasbutterflies,andthequietest peopleintheroomweretheteachers.Childrenwereexperimentingasthey worked,evenifitmeantmakingmistakes.
AUTHOR’SNOTE
BythetimeCarolinePrattbeganPlaySchoolin1914,herideasabout educationwereconsideredunusual,evenradical.Whentheschoolgotits name,CityandCountry,in1921,itwasclearCarolinehadn'tgivenupon hervision.Bythenshehadhadalotofpracticelearningtotrustherself.
AsachildgrowingupinupstateNewYorkinthelate1800s,Carolinedida lotofthingsthatwereunusualforgirlsherage,suchasdrivingawagon withateamofhorses,playinglawntennis,swimminginthetownpond,and choosingnottowearfrillydresses.Herparentssupportedherdecisions,and shewasproudofwhoshewas.
Lateron,whenshewasayoungteacher livinginPhiladelphia,Caroline begantovisitalibrarywherepeoplemettodiscusshowtochangetheworld forthebetter.OneofthepeoplewhocreatedthelibrarywasHelenMarot,a librarian,activist,andwriter.WhenCarolineandHelenmeteachother,they fellinlove.Atthetime,itwasagainstthelawforwomentomarryeach other.However,theydidnotletthelawstopthemfromlivingtogetherasif theyweremarried.ThegatheringsatthelibraryinspiredCarolinetocreatea schoolthatwouldempowerstudentstobecomelifelonglearners,andshe andHelenmovedtoNewYorkCitytomakethatdreamcometrue.
Carolinediedin1956,butherlegacycontinues.Schoolsaroundtheworld useunitblocks,andCaroline’sbook, I Learn From Children,isinitsfourth edition.Atthetimeofthispublication,CityandCountryisinits119thyear.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Hauser, Mary. Learning From Children. NewYork, Peter Lang, 2006. Pratt, Caroline. I Learn From Children. NewYork, Grove Press, 2014.
IMAGES:
P1: Barry Munger, “Snow in the BallYard, 2003,” City and Country School Digital Archive, accessed September 2, 2023, https://digitalarchive.cityandcountry.org/items/show/287
P2: “Lower School, Outdoor Blocks, Undated,” City and Country School Digital Archive, accessed September 2, 2023, https://digitalarchive.cityandcountry.org/items/show/126
P3: Unknown, “Caroline Pratt in her Office,” City and Country School Digital Archive, accessed September 2, 2023, https://digitalarchive.cityandcountry.org/items/show/374.
P4: Barry Munger, “AIV with his Block Structure, 2013,” City and Country School Digital Archive, accessed September 2, 2023, https://digitalarchive.cityandcountry.org/items/show/496
P5: Geoffrey Biddle, “Working in the Shop, 1990,” City and Country School Digital Archive, accessed September 2, 2023, https://digitalarchive.cityandcountry.org/items/show/285.
P6: Unknown, “Towering Blocks, 1987,” City and Country School Digital Archive, accessed September 2, 2023, https://digitalarchive.cityandcountry.org/items/show/416.
P7: “Children Measuring While Cooking, Undated,” City and Country School Digital Archive, accessed September 2, 2023, https://digitalarchive.cityandcountry.org/items/show/78
P8: Unknown, “Leaping across Hoops, 1980s,” City and Country School Digital Archive, accessed September 2, 2023, https://digitalarchive.cityandcountry.org/items/show/337.
P9: Lewis W. Hine, “Children Paint inAfterschool, 1933-34,” City and Country School Digital Archive, accessed September 2, 2023, https://digitalarchive.cityandcountry.org/items/show/265.
P10: CaseyAllen, “Teachers in theYard, 1958-1960,” City and Country School Digital Archive, accessed September 2, 2023, https://digitalarchive.cityandcountry.org/items/show/301.
P11: “Lower School, Outdoor Blocks, Circa 1970,” City and Country School Digital Archive, accessed September 2, 2023, https://digitalarchive.cityandcountry.org/items/show/129.
P12: Unknown, “ACity of Blocks, 1944,” City and Country School Digital Archive, accessed September 2, 2023, https://digitalarchive.cityandcountry.org/items/show/415.
P13: Unknown, “Barrels in the PebbleYard, 1950,” City and Country School Digital Archive, accessed September 2, 2023, https://digitalarchive.cityandcountry.org/items/show/514.
P14: : Unknown, “VIIs on aTrip with Roni, 1974,” City and Country School Digital Archive, accessed September 2, 2023, https://digitalarchive.cityandcountry.org/items/show/407.
P15: Photo from Staring, Jeroen. (2016). Caroline Pratt: Progressive Pedagogy In Statu Nascendi. Bank Street Occasional Paper Series. 2014. 46-62. 10.58295/2375-3668.1045.
P16: Photo of Caroline Pratt from: Staring, Jeroen. (2016). Caroline Pra : Progressive Pedagogy In Statu Nascendi. Bank Street Occasional Paper Series. 2014. 46-62. 10.58295/2375-3668.1045.
P16: Photo of Helen Marot from: Unknown, “Librarian, trade union activist, and writer Helen Marot is born in Philadelphia. “ Today In Labor History, accessed September 2, 2023, https://todayinlaborhistory.wordpress.com/?s=Helen+Marot
This book was based on Caroline Pratt’s own words, from her book I Learn From Children: An Adventure in Progressive Education. The quotes referenced are below.
P2: “But the child, unhampered, does not waste time. Not a minute of it. He is driven constantly by that little fire burning inside him, to do, to see, to learn.You will not find a child anywhere who will sit still and idle unless he is sick—or in a traditional classroom.” 10
“We had confirmed, first of all, a basic relationships between freedom and interest. Freedom of itself was not a value.There was no benefit in freedom to destroy, to interfere with others. Freedom was good only if it meant freedom to do something positive, and that something positive was determined by the child’s interest in what he wanted to do.The freest child is the one who is most interested in what he is doing, and at whose hands are the materials for his work and play.The mere fact of being a member of a group imposed certain checks on individual behavior, just as an adult finds he must abide by the more of the community in which he lives. Discipline for its own sake—an axiom of traditional child rearing—was anathema to us. But freedom for its own sake was scarcely better. Freedom to work, and the discipline of work, both individual work and group work—these were the values on which the children thrived and grew.” 91
P3: “I was seventeen when I taught my first class—a one-room school in the country—and I had none of the benefits of normal school, teacher training, not even, possibly, had ever heard the word pedagogy. When I did have was a deep conviction, unspoken, indeed unconscious until much later, that a desire to learn was as natural and inevitable in children as the desire to walk in babies.” 6
“These children knew that the entire work of production—thinking, planning, executing—was all theirs, and the knowledge opened for them a fascinating world into which they walked with confidence in their own powers.” 25
P4: “Children are different from adults only in size and experience; they need most of the things adults need—consideration, respect for their work, the knowledge that they and the things they do are taken seriously.” 94
P5: “What I sought was so flexible, so adaptable, that children could use it without guidance or control. I wanted to see them build a world, I wanted to see them re-create on their own level the life about them, in which they were too little to be participants, in which they were always spectators…Asimple geometrical shape could become any number of things to a child. It could be a truck or a boat or the car of a train. He could build building from it from barns to skyscrapers. I could see the children of my as yet unborn school constructing a complete community with blocks… Children have quite a body of information, more than adults generally guess. I am not talking about the information which has been told them or read to them and which, parrotlike, they repeat, to the admiration of the same misguided adults. I mean the information which they have gained by their own efforts, firsthand, often unconsciously. The child is already possessed with a method of learning, which served him well in babyhood.And he has gathered for himself a small body of related information. He needs only opportunity to go on with his education. “ 36, 37, 38
P6: “Cooking especially attracted the children at this age.They began by preserving fruits, experimenting with fruit, sugar, and heat. If they failed they were shown why.” 95
P7: “You taught children to dance like butterflies, when you knew they would much rather roar like lions, because lions are hard to discipline and butterflies aren’t. All the activity in the kindergarten must be quiet, unexciting.All of it was designed to prairie the children for the long years of discipline ahead. Kindergarten got them ready to be bamboozled by the first grade.” 18
P8: “[B]oys and girls were given equal opportunities, and generally their interest in one or the other was not markedly based on sex.” 96
P9:“My own education was given me, not in teacher-training courses, not by professors of pedagogy, but by children themselves.” 11
“The over helpful adult is no help, is actually a hindrance to the child… Questions came in a steady stream from some of my children when we first began to go on trips… Whether I knew the answer or not, I rarely supplied it on demand. Most answers thus given are a waste of the child’s time, if not of the adult’s.The answer which the child has found out for himself is the one which has meaning for him, both in the information gained and in the experience of finding it. “ 59
P10: “Children have their own meaning for the word play.To them it does not, as it does to adults, carry the ideas of idleness, purposelessness, relaxation from work. When we began our school we had named it a “play school,” as a telegraphic way of saying that in our way of teaching, the children learned by playing. It was the children who made us, early in the school’s history, delete the word from the school’s name.To them it was not a “play school” but a school, and they were working hard at their schooling.” 13
11: “Most people considered their education finished when they finished school. But it seemed to me that a school’s job was quite the opposite—not to finish, but to begin education. Alifetime is not too long to spend in learning about the world.Aschool’s function could become that of developing in children the kind of thinking and working attitudes which would enable them to take over their future growth.” 21
“Often during my three decades at City and Country I have thought we should have a doctor on hand at all times. Not for the children (we took care of that) but for innocent visitors to our classrooms. Sometimes, emerging from a morning of observation, they have seemed visibly to be suffering from shock!…The sharpest reaction could be counted on to come from the good teacher whose entire life had been spent in a traditional classroom. “Do you call this a school?”… Of course the visitor was right in her complaint: this did not look or sound like any schoolroom. Nor did these children look like schoolchildren, starched, and clean-faced, the boys in white shirts, the girls in crisp frocks.These children wore work clothes, dungarees or overalls, boys and girls alike (occasionally a dress, the exercise of individual prerogative), and they and their work clothes bore the evidences of their work… This classroom was a place where work was done.The workers could not be fastened down; they had to come and go about their various jobs, fetch supplies, seek advice, examine, compare, discuss.The work got done, not in proportion to the silence in the room, but in the proportion of the responsibility of each worker to his job and the group… [W]e could ask in our turn, what is a school?To answer that a school is a place of learning is no answer at all, but only another way of stating the question.Aplace of learning what?Aplace of learning how?”
TheAuthor’s Note was based on a book about Caroline Pratt, Learning From Children: The Life and Legacy of Caroline Pratt, by Mary Hauser. The quotes referenced are below.
“Despite the conventional Victorian nature of Carrie’s family, there is no evidence that they discouraged her from her development as an active, self-confident youngster… She grew up as an independent, capable individual.There is ample indication that she valued those qualities in herself and that others saw them in her as well. She related that, “at ten, my great aunt used to say that I could turn a team of horses and a wagon in less space than a town man needed to do it.” 25
“The things that I remember as a child are the long rovings in the woods on Saturdays, the farm where I spent a brief period every summer, the village ‘baby hole’where the boys learned to swim and which I was allowed to visit properly guarded when it wasn’t in use…” 25
“[Caroline] didn’t follow the traditional path of young women socializing even though both her mother and sister were active members in a variety of organizations. Instead, as [the biographer Patricia] Carlton pointed out, Caroline was active in a club for lawn tennis, and she attended the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, which held meetings with readings and discussions in the subjects of history and government…Arecord of her sister Lizzie (Elizabeth) being able to play the piano and do fancy needlework exists, but it seems that Caroline didn’t grange in such pursuits typical of young Victorian women. In describing Caroline as a young woman of 20, Carlton reported that Caroline didn’t dress the same as her peers. She did not wear the decorative rosette and ribbon or dainty lace cuffs some people wore to add a touch of femininity to their silk dresses.” 27
Probably the most significant impetus to her professional and personal development was Caroline’s meeting and subsequent life-long friendship with Helen Marot, a young woman two years her senior. Her association with Marot was an important influence on the direction of her life and gave a focus to her independent thinking. Marot was one of the founders (in 1897) of a small library in Philadelphia, the Library of Economic and Political Science, which was a haven for liberals and radicals… Caroline Pratt and Helen Marot lived together until Helen’s sudden death…They shared ideas, ideals, and friends. Their relationship has been described variously as “close friend(s),” “partner(s)”, “life long companions,” and as a women-committed relationship.” 44-45, 49
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Hauser, Mary. Learning From Children. NewYork, Peter Lang, 2006. Pratt, Caroline. I Learn From Children. NewYork, Grove Press, 2014.