The Arthurdale Community School


Book Description

This work examines the Arthurdale School, which was created during the Great Depression and dedicated to the purpose of building community and preparing students for participation in democratic society.




The Arthurdale School


Book Description

This book chronicles the school envisioned by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1933 to serve Arthurdale, the New Deal government-created community in north-central West Virginia. Arthurdale was founded to house unemployed miners and their families and provide them with opportunities to receive healthcare and obtain gainful employment. Roosevelt had a particular interest in the education of children, feeling that education and social life were profoundly intertwined within a community. With that in mind, in 1934, she hired Elsie Ripley Clapp—an educator and leader in the Progressive Education movement—to design and implement the school, as well as oversee the social life of Arthurdale as a whole. In addition to covering the Arthurdale School's birth, life, and dissolution, Rosenberg discusses how the lessons of the school might serve the culture of education today, especially as an element of a comprehensive approach to community revitalization.




Back to the Land


Book Description

How New Deal economic policies played out in the small town of Arthurdale, West Virginia Today, the U.S. government is again moving to embrace New Deal-like economic policies. While much has been written about the New Deal from a macro perspective, little has been written about how New Deal programs played out on the ground. In Back to the Land, author CJ Maloney tells the true story of Arthurdale, West Virginia, a town created as a "pet project" of the Roosevelts. Designed to be (in the words of Eleanor Roosevelt) "a human experiment station", she was to create a "New American" citizen who would embrace a collectivist form of life. This book tells the story of what happened to the people resettled in Arthurdale and how the policies implemented there shaped America as we know it. Arthurdale was the foundation upon which modern America was built. Details economic history at the micro level, revealing the true effects of New Deal economic policies on everyday life Addresses the pros and cons of federal government economic policies Describes how good intentions and grand ideas can result in disastrous consequences, not only in purely materialistic terms but, most important, in respect for the rule of law Back to the Land is a valuable addition to economic and historical literature.




Arthurdale


Book Description

In August 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt visited the impoverished coal communities of north central West Virginia. Suffering from the effects of the Great Depression, these coal families looked to the First Lady for help out of the devastating economic times. Her visit spurred the creation of Arthurdale, the nations first New Deal Homestead Community. Arthurdale quickly became known as Eleanors Little Village because of the First Ladys involvement with the project. She visited the community often to dine, dance, and converse with the homesteaders and to attend high school graduations. In addition to the creation of new housing, Arthurdale featured a community business center, state-of-the-art school buildings, a craft industry, an industrial factory, and home-based agricultural production. Although not a financial triumph for the federal government, the social success of the community is immeasurable.




Eleanor Roosevelt and the Arthurdale Experiment


Book Description

The story of Eleanor Roosevelt's personal crusade to aid West Virginia's downtrodden coal miners during the Great Depression, tracing the founding and ultimate downfall of America's first homesteading community.







Founding Mothers and Others


Book Description

Interest in progressive education and feminist pedagogy has gained a significant following in current educational reform circles. Founding Mothers and Others examines the female founders of progressive schools and other female educational leaders in the early twentieth century and their schools or educational movements. All of the women led remarkable lives and their legacies are embedded in education today. The book examines the lessons to be learned from their work and their lives. The book also analyzes whether their leadership styles support contemporary feminist theories of leadership that argue women administrators tend to be more inclusive, democratic, and caring than male administrators. Through an examination of these women, this book looks critically at the ways in which the leaders' administrative styles and behaviors lend support to feminist claims.




"Schools of Tomorrow," Schools of Today


Book Description

The second edition of «Schools of Tomorrow, » Schools of Today: Progressive Education in the 21st Century documents a new collection of child-centered progressive schools founded in the first half of the twentieth century and provides histories of some contemporary examples of progressive practices. Part I discusses six progressive schools founded in the first part of the twentieth century (City and Country; Dalton; the Weekday School at Riverside Church; The Laboratory School at the Institute of Child Study; Alabama State Teachers College Laboratory High School; and Highlander), tracing them from their beginnings. Part II examines four more contemporary schools (Central Park East 1; Central Park East Secondary; Learning Community Charter School; and KIPP TEAM Academy), showing how progressive practices gained momentum from the 1960s onward. As a volume in the History of Schools and Schooling series, this book seeks to look to the past for what it can teach us today.




Miner's Daughter


Book Description

Backbreaking work, threadbare clothes, and black coal dust choking the air -- this is what a miner's daughter knows. Willa Lowell fears that this dust marks her to be nothing else, that she will never win against the constant struggle to survive. Even the fierce flame of her family's love -- her one bright spot against the darkness -- has begun to dim. Willa yearns for a better life -- enough food to eat, clothes that fit, and a home free of black grit. She also yearns for a special love, the love of a boy who makes her laugh and shares the poetry she carries in her heart. When a much brighter future is suddenly promised to her family, Willa knows it is a miracle . . . until she discovers that every promise has a price. But she also discovers that the real change has burned inside her all along -- if only she is strong enough to mine it. Writing in a style that is as breathtaking and lyrical as it is powerful, Gretchen Moran Laskas draws from her family's past to bring to life the story of a girl struggling against seemingly insurmountable odds. The Miner's Daughterwill touch readers' hearts and stay with them long after they've read the last word.




Elsie Ripley Clapp (1879-1965)


Book Description

This biography chronicles the life and teaching practices of Elsie Ripley Clapp, one of the most significant female leaders in progressive education. Clapp's greatest contribution to American education is the community school, a place for self-realization, caring, cooperation, and cultural enrichment as well as the cornerstone of democratic society. Challenging the practices of contemporary education in her era, she envisioned pedagogy as the integration of living and learning, building upon local resources and the experiences of students and their community. Learning was more than training or the acquisition of knowledge, it was a form of communal sharing. Agreeing with her mentor John Dewey, a true education was more of a journey than arrival at a specific destination. This book explores Clapp's personal journey, her triumphs and her failures.