When was lucy sprague mitchell born

Growth in all one's powers, step by step, up through the early stages towards maturity, leads on to an adulthood which is not static, completed, but still retains the capacity and the eagerness to grow.

Mitchell, , p. Why look to the past for a model, however? By examining the life of an education pioneer, we not only develop a sense of camaraderie, but also learn to understand how the past is connected to the present. We discover new perspectives about our own commitment when we view that commitment through the filter of someone else's life. All disciplines have their paragons of the past to emulate.

As exemplified by Lucy Sprague Mitchell, early childhood educators have a past in which to take pride. In order to understand the life and work of Lucy Mitchell, one must consider the time in which she lived.

Between and , the United States experienced significant increases in industrialization, immigration, and urbanization, with an accompanying rise in poverty. Such conditions laid the groundwork for social and education reforms, including Jane Addams's settlement house in Chicago and John Dewey's Progressive Education Movement.

Addams embodied the blossoming consensus in social consciousness that education, not just charity, could alleviate the suffering of the poor. She believed that both the rich and the poor could learn from one another, and that the same education opportunities should be available to all. John Dewey, who served on the Board of Directors for Addams's Hull House, espoused an education philosophy that moved away from subject-centered rote exercises in memorization and recitation toward a cooperative, child-centered exploration of interests.

Ultimately, reformers hoped that children educated in such a democratic environment would become adults who would work for the good of society as a whole Cremin, ; Zilversmit, Lucy Sprague, born in Chicago on July 2, , was a shy, nervous, and withdrawn child. The oral history interview allowed Lucy Sprague Mitchell to recount the early dream she had formed working with Cal students in her late 20s: to provide opportunities for young women to pursue rich and nuanced fields of study.

This dream certainly did not go to waste. As a young college woman with a wide selection of majors to choose from, I am grateful that she and many others helped pave the way. Deborah Qu is a first year undergraduate student who intends to study psychology.

Find this and all our oral histories from the search feature on our home page. You can search by name, key word, and several other criteria. Lucy Sprague Mitchell teaches graduate students. Photo courtesy of the Bank Street College of Education. She died in Palo Alto, California. Writers' workshops originated by her in influenced many authors; she herself wrote and coauthored numerous stories for children and several texts on the teaching of social studies.

She also wrote Our Children and Our Schools , an influential work on curriculum. In an era of remarkable advances in the knowledge of children and how they learn, Mitchell strove with considerable success to unite theory and practice. Her organizational talents brought educators and researchers together in the common enterprise of teaching and learning more about how children learn. Her own dark childhood gave her an esteem for the child as a person and a devotion to education as "the most constructive attack on social problems, " dealing, as she saw it, "with children and the future.

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