New Light on Marietta Johnson (1864-1938)

Abstract

In 1885, Marietta (née Pierce) Johnson graduated from Third State Normal School at Saint Cloud, Minnesota. She built up professionalism in primary teaching in the Midwestern state of Minnesota (1885-1890) and in tertiary teaching of prospecting teachers at Normal Schools in diverse Midwestern states (1890-1900 and 1901-1902). In 1907, she founded the School of Organic Education at Fairhope in the Southern state of Alabama, and remained the school's principal until her death. Additionally she amassed an impressive curriculum vita as a school principal lecturing throughout the country-especially in the Eastern states. She became an accomplished recruiter of students and progressive teachers. She was a capable speaker, able to explain a novel educational approach in terms of a drawn out emotional, personal, and professional struggle. In 1919 Johnson co-founded the Progressive Education Association (PEA) with four fellow progressive educators. Virtually unknown, however, is the fact that two years earlier she joined the Bureau of Educational Experiments (BEE) in New York City, and worked at Public Schools 64 and 95 during the 1917-1918 season, salaried by the BEE. This article will shed new light on Marietta Johnson and her meandering educational career with high ups and low downs.

John Dewey, New Education, and Social Control in the Classroom

“…Still, Hopkins may well have been a yet unacknowledged theoretical and practical forerunner of Marietta Johnson and her didactic views regarding teaching an "Organic Education." Although Johnson never referred to Hopkins in her writings, she would have fully agreed with Hopkins" line of reasoning regarding body, soul and mind of the "whole child," quoted above (compare, for instance: Hunt, 1913;Johnson, 1913;Staring, 2013bStaring, , 2014Staring, , 2016.…”

The Influence of Beatrice Hinkle and Jungian Psychology on the Early Progressive School Movement in the United States

“…Marietta Johnson, originally a traditional teacher in Minnesota, influenced by G. Stanley Hall, abandoned her strict notions of children"s development when she was given The Development of the Child (1898), written by Nathan Oppenheim (Newman, 2002). In 1902 Johnson and her husband moved to Fairhope, Alabama where she eventually started the School of Organic Education based on the theories of Henderson, G. T. W. Patrick, Oppenheim, Rousseau, Froebel, and Dewey (Aldridge & Christensen, 2013;Cowles, 1996;Staring, 2013Staring, , 2014Staring, , 2016.…”

Frederick Matthias Alexander and the Bureau of Educational Experiments

“…In 1913, following her marriage to economist Wesley C. Mitchell she moved from Berkeley to Manhattan and offered her services to the Public Education Association of the City of New York (PEA). At first she worked as a volunteer under Harriet M. Johnson, head of the PEA visiting teachers program (Staring & Aldridge, 2015a) (Staring, 2014), and long-time socialist friends Helen Marot and Caroline Pratt regularly came together to lengthily discuss a plan to set up and organize an educational clearinghouse. In the spring of 1916, they united as the Bureau of Educational Experiments (Staring, 2013a(Staring, -b, 2014Staring & Aldridge, 2014a, 2015b.…”

“…The first listings of possible research items consisted of topics of interest to educators: teaching, health, administrative problems, and, lastly, school and community. Specific headings included school discipline, sex education, Marietta Johnson's educational principles (see: Staring, 2014), and, surprisingly, Frederick Matthias Alexander's method of changing motor coordination and breathing habits.…”