59-518: (Redirected from Modern School ) Modern school can refer to: Francisco Ferrer related [ edit ] Ferrer Modern School movement , an early 20th century libertarian education model popularized by the anarchist Francisco Ferrer Escuela Moderna (Spanish for "modern school"), the name of Ferrer's school in Barcelona New York Ferrer Modern School ,
118-529: A popular university with classes open to the public. Though this idea grew contemporaneously in France and other parts of Europe, Ferrer's popular university did not come to fruition. Apart from the school's workshop, laboratory, and teaching aids including maps, the Escola Moderna hosted a school to train teachers and a radical publishing press. The press was partly impelled by what Ferrer considered
177-521: A cultural "union of enthusiasms" in the Ferrer movement, in which new Jewish immigrants, whose families tended towards warm affection and interest in education, met a body of Americans who equally wanted to be their teachers. The day school's students were predominantly from immigrant, garment industry worker families with radical or anarchist politics. Like the Association itself, early principals of
236-418: A few continued into the next decade. American libertarian schools experienced a resurgence in the 1960s and were guided by alumni of Ferrer schools. New York Modern School Active Defunct Publications Works The Ferrer Center and Stelton Colony were an anarchist social center and colony, respectively, organized to honor the memory of anarchist pedagogue Francisco Ferrer and to build
295-606: A group of 22 anarchists and sympathizers began the Francisco Ferrer Association in New York City. Together they built a "cultural center and evening school", which expanded into an "experimental day school" and, ultimately, a colony outside New Brunswick, New Jersey. The association lasted over 40 years and had three goals: to promote Ferrer's writings, to organize meetings on the anniversary of his death, and to establish schools by his model throughout
354-406: A lack of decent reading material. With a cadre of translators and luminaries, the press created more than 40 textbooks written in accessible language on recent scientific concepts, many translated from French. The Spanish authorities abhorred the books for upending social order. Their topics included grammar, math, natural and social science, geography, anthropology, sociology, religious mythology, and
413-417: A large room on the second floor where two classes occurred at once, and a small office and kitchen on the third floor, where the adult anarchists congregated. Enrollment rose despite the school's conditions. By 1914, the school taught 30 children and turned away half its applicants. Historian Laurence Veysey attributes this rise to the expressiveness and love shared between students and their teachers, and to
472-566: A longtime radical for Spanish republicanism but moved towards anarchist circles during his time in Paris, where he read ravenously about education. He was captivated by Paul Robin's Prévost orphanage school in Cempuis, which tried to integrate the children's physical and intellectual capacities without coercion. Around 1900 Ferrer announced he would open a libertarian school based on that model. This intention became plausible when he inherited around
531-456: A military base adjacent to and with negative effects for the colony. Elizabeth Ferm died in 1944 and her husband retired four years later. The school had diminished to 15 pupils at the time. The school closed in 1953. Laurence Veysey described the association as "one of the most notable—though unremembered—attempts to create a counter-culture in America". Of its accomplishments, Veysey counted
590-682: A million francs from a French woman whom he had tutored and convinced of his ideas. His return to Spain in 1901 coincided with a period of national self-reflection, particularly regarding ecclesiastical national education, after losing the Spanish–American War . The Escola Moderna opened on Barcelona's Carrer de les Corts with 30 students on September 8, 1901. This class was nearly two-thirds male and divided into three groups: primary, intermediate, and advanced. The school charged sliding scale tuition based on parental capacity to pay. School enrollment increased throughout its existence, from 70 at
649-550: A model for short-lived Ferrer schools across the country and lasted among the longest. In 1909, the free-thinker , pedagogue, and anarchist Francisco Ferrer was executed in Barcelona and subsequently propelled into martyrdom. The resulting Ferrer movement led to the founding of anticlerical private schools in the model of his Escuela Moderna throughout the world. One such school was founded in New York. On June 12, 1910,
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#1732772564787708-522: A model for similarly short-lived schools in Chicago, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. Each lasted several years. However, the schools opened at the Stelton (New Jersey) and Mohegan (New York) colonies lasted decades. The schools mostly did not employ formal curriculum and their lessons were non-compulsory. Students focused on hands-on work. These schools fell out of favor during the 1940s, though
767-482: A process of imposing dogma. The founders had little experience with education or parenting, apart from some having taught in the Workmen's Circle radical Sunday Schools, and trusting no authority, would hold long debates with no effect. Some Association members interfered in the classroom to the objection of other members. The day school teacher was not expected to uphold a religious or social dogma but instead to "have
826-753: A prominent school under Ferrer's model in the United States, later moved to New Jersey The Modern School Movement (book) , a 1980 history book by Paul Avrich about the American Ferrer school Artistic movements [ edit ] Al-Madrasa al-Ḥadītha ('The Modern School' in Arabic), a modernist literary movement that began in 1917 in Egypt Other uses [ edit ] Freinet Modern School Movement ( Mouvement de l'École moderne ), an international education movement based on
885-540: A rough and ready Spanish tradition of extragovernment, rationalist education: the republicans and Fourierists schools (1840–50s), the anarchist and secularist schools (1870–80s), Paul Robin 's Cempuis orphanage in France, Joan Puig i Elias 's work in Catalonia, and José Sánchez Rosa 's work in Andalusia. Education was a major topic among rationalists and anarchists at the close of the 19th century. Ferrer had been
944-574: A school based on his model, Escuela Moderna , in the United States. In the widespread outcry following Ferrer's execution in 1909 and the international movement that sprung in its wake, a group of New York anarchists convened as the Ferrer Association in 1910. Their headquarters, the Ferrer Center, hosted a variety of cultural events in the avant-garde arts and radical politics, including lectures, discussions, and performances. It
1003-554: A world premiere of a Lord Dunsany drama, as well as their own original plays, which had social themes. The theater had a very limited budget and some of its performers struggled to speak English. They also hosted Floyd Dell 's troupe and others from Greenwich Village. The Center had an air of radical affability and cosmopolitanism. Historian Laurence Veysey described the Center, with its unrestricted discussions on social subjects and wide representation of nationalities, as potentially
1062-491: The child-centered tradition of Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Froebel by "opting out" of the traditional systems of Spanish education. Ferrer's pedagogy advanced an "ideal" of education against a critique of the "evils" of schooling systems. Towards the didactic fostering of counter-hegemonic beliefs, the Ferrer schools of Barcelona, Lausanne, Liverpool, and Clivio (northern Italy) advocated for the school's role in driving sociopolitical change. They sought to change society by changing
1121-499: The Center, came to write about Yiddish culture following his interactions there. Gallerist Carl Zigrosser wrote of the Center expanding his understanding of New York society beyond the knowledge he had received from books. Several anarchists from the association decided to take the school out to the country. The Center served as a model for schools across the United States in Chicago, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. But while these schools mostly closed within several years,
1180-624: The New York Ferrer movement was the relationship between Jewish immigrants, who valued education, and domestic Americans, who approached teaching with alacrity. The Association and Modern School leaders were mostly domestic Americans. Among the early leaders, only Joseph J. Cohen was an immigrant, and he arrived three years after the Center's founding. The rest were not immigrants: the early spokesperson and first Association president Leonard Abbott , Harry Kelly , and early financier Alden Freeman. Journalist Hutchins Hapgood, who lectured at
1239-472: The United States. Outside the United States, the Americans had no explicit connection with international Ferrer groups. The Association's headquarters, the Ferrer Center, hosted a variety of cultural events: literary lectures, debates on current affairs, avant-garde arts and performance, social dances, and classes for the inquisitive masses. And when the Center crossed genres, its spirit of experimentalism
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#17327725647871298-552: The association of (1) college-educated native Americans with recent, Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe, and of (2) intellectuals with laborers. Veysey called the Ferrer Modern School one of the few "truly advanced" American progressive schools of the 1920s. The Friends of the Modern School was founded in 1973. It was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in around 2005 with the mission of preserving
1357-673: The boarding house. Nellie and James Dick operated the boarding house for children, known as the Living House. The couple had formerly opened Ferrer schools in their original England and elsewhere in the United States. They promoted freedom and spontaneity in education. In their dorms, the Dicks taught personal responsibility. In 1920, Elizabeth and Alexis Ferm became Stelton's co-principals. The couple had previously run schools in New York City. Their methods emphasized manual work and crafts—e.g., pottery, gardening, carpentry, dance—held in
1416-480: The combination of manual and intellectual work, openness between children and teachers, and participation of children and parents in school administration. Ferrer's pedagogy descended from a libertarian pedagogical tradition from 18th century rationalism and 19th century romanticism, with pedagogues including Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Kropotkin, and Tolstoy. These influences advocated learning through experience and treating children with love and warmth. By removing
1475-424: The country's least inhibited and most stimulating small venue at the time. The Center's radical politics made it a haven for anti-capitalist revolutionaries, anarchists, and libertarians. It hosted children from the 1912 Lawrence textile strike , supported Frank Tannenbaum 's 1914 mobilization of the unemployed, and fed protesters. The Center's formation coincided with a resurgence of interest in radical politics:
1534-478: The day school were native born, largely with degrees from Ivy League schools and not Jewish. They were possibly propelled by their interest in upending the status quo, altruism for the poor, and a curiosity for bohemian life in the ghetto, as juxtaposed against their urban, predictable upper-middle class lives. The school moved multiple times and ultimately closed in 1953. Students would "often" not learn to read until ten or twelve years old. Harry Kelly arranged
1593-533: The dilapidated children's dormitories, resurrected the children-run periodical, and added a range of adult activities. The Dicks left in 1933 to pursue their longtime wish of opening their own Modern School in Lakewood, New Jersey . The Ferms were recruited to return in the mid-1930s, when the school population declined as the Great Depression depleted family incomes. The American government established
1652-631: The end of the first year to 114 in 1904 and 126 in 1905. Spanish authorities closed the school in 1906. Ferrer's pedagogy sought to strip dogma from education and instead help children direct their own powers. Ferrer's school eschewed punishments and rewards, which he felt incentivized deception over sincerity. Similarly, he did not adopt grades or exams, because he considered that their propensity to flatter, deflate, and torture were injurious. Ferrer prioritized practical knowledge over theory, and encouraged children to experience rather than read. Lessons entailed visits to local factories, museums, and parks where
1711-666: The evenings and weekends. It also hosted a printing press to create readings for the school. The press ran its own journal with news from the school and articles from prominent libertarian writers. Following Ferrer's execution, an international Ferrer movement (also known as the Modern School movement ) spread throughout Europe and as far as Brazil and the United States, most notably in the New York and Stelton Modern School . Francisco Ferrer , through his Escuela Moderna, sought to afford children educational liberties uncommon for
1770-782: The ideas of French educator Célestin Freinet Secondary modern school , a type of secondary school that existed in Great Britain from 1944 until the early 1970s Specific schools [ edit ] Modern School, Lucknow , a K–12 day school in Lucknow, India Modern School (New Delhi) , a private, day-cum-boarding school in New Delhi, India [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about schools, colleges, or other educational institutions which are associated with
1829-476: The influence of the church and state from mass education, they argued, the enlightened public would upend the status quo. A free education, to Ferrer, entailed educators who would use improvised experimentation and spontaneity—rather than their own formal dogma—to arouse the child's will and autodidactic drive. His beliefs on pedagogy did not follow a single school of thought, being of a time when ideological separations were not as pronounced. Instead, they reflected
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1888-429: The injustices of patriotism and conquest. The most popular children's book was Jean Grave's utopian fairy tale The Adventures of Nono . Other titles included: The press's monthly journal, Boletín de la Escuela Moderna , hosted the school's news and articles from prominent libertarian writers. The press published selections from student essays, which were written on themes of economic and religious oppression. Atop
1947-403: The international Esperanto language to foster cooperation. The lessons of this education in social justice, equality, and liberty included capitalism as evil, government as slavery, war as crime against humanity , freedom as fundamental to human development, and suffering produced through patriotism, exploitation, and superstition. Their textbooks took positions against capitalism, the state, and
2006-478: The liberatory prospect of his approach, but they made no concerted effort to replicate his example. The American movement for progressive education was a more likely influence on the New York founders' interest in starting a school, as was the importance put upon education in Jewish culture. New York anarchists believed in the liberatory role of the school partly because, as European anarchist émigrés, they believed in
2065-524: The libertarian spirit" and answer children's questions truthfully. The teachers had low salaries and high turnover, including multiple scrambles for staffing. No principal stayed longer than a year between 1911 and 1916. The Ferrer Modern School also suffered its environmental conditions. The Center's original location at 6 St. Mark's Place was established in haste and could not house a day school for lack of outdoor play space and park access. It moved several blocks north to 104 East Twelfth Street just before
2124-490: The military: Ferrer was the center of Barceloinan libertarian education for the decade between his return and his death. The Escola Moderna's program, from Ferrer's anticlericalism to the quality of guest intellectual lecturers, had impressed even middle-class liberal reformers. Anarchist Emma Goldman credited the success of the school's expansion to Ferrer's methodical administrative ability. Other schools and centers in his model spread across Spain and to South America. By
2183-496: The move to Stelton, New Jersey, about 30 miles from New York City. The anarchist printer and Association member selected the site, a farm within two miles of a railroad station. The group bought the land and resold plots to colonists at fair market value while setting aside land for the school. As anarchists, the colonists did not uphold a common doctrine towards property, and disagreed on whether private property should be preserved or abolished. Plots were individually owned such that, in
2242-528: The objects of the lesson could be experienced firsthand. Pupils planned their own work and were trusted and free to attend as they pleased. The school invited parents to participate in the school's operation and the public to attend lessons. Evening and Sunday afternoon lectures were open to the public and featured scholars of physiology, geography, and natural science. By the school's second year, these ad hoc lectures had become regular evening courses. Ferrer spoke with Barcelona University professors about creating
2301-401: The power of ideas to change the future and wanted their children to share their values. The school's early character was unplanned and undogmatic. The Association sought "the reconstruction of society upon the basis of freedom and justice" and accordingly, the founders wanted their school to let children develop freely and through this freedom, develop a sense of social justice. The Association
2360-457: The rise of syndicalism, multiple revolutions (including Russia ), and strike actions. While assimilation had eroded immigrant interest in radical politics for several decades, with this optimistic turn, anarchism had begun to escape the stigma of the 1901 McKinley assassination . By 1914, the Center's adult membership was in the hundreds and Jewish people formed the largest contingent of its many represented nationalities. The social foundation of
2419-423: The role of the syndicalist union for the school. To this end, the Escola Moderna students were not free from dogmatic instruction, which they received in the form of moral indoctrination. Ferrer believed that respect for fellow men was a quality to be instilled in children. Children brought to love freedom and see their dignity as shared with others, by this accord, would become good adults. The school also taught
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2478-501: The same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Modern_school&oldid=1171149135 " Category : Educational institution disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Ferrer Modern School movement The Ferrer school
2537-405: The school had no discipline or set curriculum, same as it was in New York City. Students joined in craft and outdoor activities. In addition to students from colonist families, between 30 and 40 children boarded at the school in what was formerly a farmhouse. Next to the farmhouse, Stelton built an open-air dormitory. Their winters were cold. Margaret Sanger's daughter died of pneumonia contracted in
2596-572: The school opened for the school year in 1911. This location had an outdoor play space but the building continued to lack standard school equipment and was less accessible to radical families, so the school moved farther north in October 1912 to an older building in East Harlem , 63 East 107th Street, which had a stronger immigrant population and rested three blocks from Central Park . The three-story building included an unusable ground level floor,
2655-454: The school press, with around 120 such rationalist schools in all. Ferrer schools spread as far as Geneva, Liverpool, Milan, São Paulo, and New York. Their variety complicates their comprehensive study. The resulting Ferrer movement's philosophy of pedagogy had two distinct tendencies: towards non-didactic freedom from dogma, and the more didactic fostering of counter-hegemonic beliefs. Towards non-didactic freedom from dogma, Ferrer fulfilled
2714-440: The school's purpose of fostering self-development, Ferrer believed it had an additional function: prefigurative social regeneration . The school was an embryonic version of the future libertarian society Ferrer hoped to see. Propaganda and agitation were central to the Escola Moderna's aims, as Ferrer dreamt of a society in which people constantly renewed themselves and their environment through experimentation. Ferrer approximated
2773-422: The school, that rational education would address error and ignorance. Following Ferrer's execution, Emma Goldman , Alexander Berkman , and other anarchists founded the Ferrer Association in New York City to promote Ferrer's teachings and open schools in his model across the United States. The Association's Modern School, operated from its New York City Ferrer Center from 1911 in its first incarnation, served as
2832-460: The schoolhouse's workshops. Alternatively, students could study in the library with James Dick. Following disagreement with some parents, who wanted the school to put more emphasis on reading and class-struggle politics, the Ferms left the school in 1925 rather than compromise their technique. The school briefly floundered between 1925 and 1928, when the Dicks returned as co-principals. They renovated
2891-559: The schools in Stelton and Mohegan would last for decades. As was originally intended, the Ferrer Association established a day school for children within the Ferrer Center in October 1911. In practice, the New York Ferrer Modern School was based less on Ferrer's method than his memory. The New York school's founders were propelled by their sense of injustice at Ferrer's execution and their belief in
2950-437: The spirit of anarchist volunteerism, anyone could sell and exit the colony at their prerogative. ... They hoped the colony could form the center of a national libertarian education movement. The school at Stelton was founded in 1914. It floundered in its first years. In 1916, the socialist William Thurston Brown, who had experience operating modern schools, became Stelton's principal. Stelton's lessons were non-compulsory and
3009-404: The time Ferrer opened a satellite school in the nearby textile center Vilanova i la Geltrú towards the end of 1905, Ferrer schools in the image of his Escola Moderna, for both children and adults, grew across eastern Spain: 14 in Barcelona and 34 across Catalonia, Valencia, and Andalusia. The Spanish Republicans and the secular League of Freethinkers organized their own classes using materials from
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#17327725647873068-533: The time period. Upon his return to Barcelona in 1901, following 16 years of exile in Paris, Ferrer became a prominent proponent of education focused on reason, dignity, self-reliance, and scientific observation. Standard Spanish schools, by comparison, emphasized piety and obedience under the authority of the Church. Where those schools used formal regulation and dogmatic curriculum to discipline and conform, Ferrer wanted his school to encourage originality, independence,
3127-521: The weekends, the Center hosted speakers for discussion including journalist Hutchins Hapgood , poet Edwin Markham , and reporter Lincoln Steffens . A lecture by lawyer Clarence Darrow attracted hundreds. Others associated with the Center included Max Weber , Jack London , Upton Sinclair , and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn . The folklorist Moritz Jagendorf started a "Free Theatre" at the Center in late 1914. The group performed new manuscripts, including
3186-681: Was also home to the Ferrer Modern School , a libertarian, day school that emphasized unplanned, undogmatic curriculum. The Center moved several times throughout Manhattan to establish a space conducive to children's play. Following a bomb plot and police infiltration, several anarchists from the association decided to take the school out to the country. The school moved to what would become the Ferrer Colony in Stelton, New Jersey , 30 miles outside New York City, in 1914. The colony
3245-475: Was an early 20th century libertarian school inspired by the anarchist pedagogy of Francisco Ferrer . He was a proponent of rationalist, secular education that emphasized reason, dignity, self-reliance, and scientific observation, as opposed to the ecclesiastical and dogmatic standard Spanish curriculum of the period. Ferrer's teachings followed in a tradition of rationalist and romantic education philosophy, and 19th century extragovernment, secular Spanish schools. He
3304-462: Was based around the school and land was individually parceled such that, in the spirit of anarchist volunteerism, anyone could sell and exit the colony at their prerogative. They intended for the colony to form the center of a national libertarian education movement. The school floundered in its first years and passed through multiple administrations, the longest of which with co-principals Elizabeth and Alexis Ferm . The school closed in 1953. It had been
3363-417: Was essentially anarchist, unwedded to a particular ideal, but to the free expression of opinion and exchange of ideas. The school would be both a protected island against the influence of middle-class America, and a force to propel cultural and political revolution. The Association found little agreement on school policy apart from that education was a process of educing a children's latent talents rather than
3422-712: Was particularly influenced by Paul Robin 's orphanage at Cempuis . With this ideal in mind, Ferrer established the Escola Moderna in Barcelona, which ran for five years between 1901 and 1906. Ferrer tried a less dogmatic approach to education that would try to draw out the child's natural powers, though children still received moral indoctrination on social responsibility and the importance of freedom. Ferrer championed practical knowledge over theory, and emphasized experiences and trips over readings. Pupils were free and trusted to direct their own education and attend as they pleased. The school also hosted lectures for adults in
3481-684: Was unpretentious. Though many of its teachers were hostile to formal academic manner, classes addressed standard subjects. Some were taught by distinguished individuals: painters Robert Henri and George Bellows taught figure drawing , Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen 's son taught comparative literature, Robert La Follette 's law partner taught government, and Will Durant taught the history of philosophy. The Center held an evening English class, whose topics often included proletarian history and current affairs. One group studied Esperanto . Lectures discussed free thought, religion, sex, and hygiene. Margaret Sanger proposed mothers' meetings on birth control . On
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