Education has always played an
important role in the Arthurdale community. From 1934-1936 Arthurdale participated in one
of the most innovative and provocative experiments in progressive education, using the
school as the center of community life and as a means to restore community and solidarity
believed destroyed by the Depression. Education at Arthurdale was guided by policy makers
such as Clarence Pickett of the American Friends Service Committee, and Milburn Wilson,
who, like Eleanor Roosevelt, saw the school as a tool to build a community. Eleanor
Roosevelt envisioned Arthurdale as a model community with progressive schools, adequate
health care and recreation; a model for the rest of the nation in community planning.
Elsie Ripley Clapp, a student and disciple of John Dewey, served as Director of Community
Affairs and Principal of the Arthurdale Schools from 1934-1936. Under Clapp's influence,
the philosophy of the Arthurdale schools articulated a faith in democracy, in the belief
that people need and can govern themselves in political and economic affairs. This
democratic philosophy of education stressed individuality as well as the responsibility of
the individual in the community, essential characteristics of the democratic citizen.
Although the experiment in progressive education lasted only two years, significant
strides were made in early childhood education and utilizing the school as the center of
the community.
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(left -
right): Clarence Pickett; American Friends Service Committee; Elsie R. Clapp,
Eric Gugler; architect for "The Reedsville Project," which was later to be named
"Arthurdale." The
model they are discussing was one of several plans for Arthurdale's
schools. The above plan was not chosen. |
From 1936 to the present, the Arthurdale schools have been under the control of the
Preston County Board of Education which still utilizes some of the original school
structures. Educational advisors to the Arthurdale project included Lucy Sprague Mitchell
of Bank Street College, Dean William Russell of Teachers College, Columbia University;
John Dewey, Eleanor Roosevelt, Clarence Pickett, and W. Carson Ryan, a future editor of
the journal Progressive Education. Education continues to be emphasized through Arthurdale
Heritage's living history program which attempts to characterize life in a 1930s homestead
community.
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