History
Philadelphia's Progressive Orphanage
The Carson Valley School
- Order before 3pm and it leaves London today
- Tracked UPS delivery worldwideUsually arrives 6–12 Nov
- 30-day returnsHow returns work
- Format
- Paperback
- Pages
- 272
- Published
- 1997
- Publisher
- Pennsylvania State University Press
About this book
The story
A trolley magnate's will, a hundred acres of rolling Pennsylvania countryside and a campus designed as a neo-medieval fantasy village: the Carson College for Orphan Girls opened in 1918 on Robert N. Carson's $5 million estate, which he stipulated could admit only white, parentless girls. Its first president, Elsa Ueland, a former settlement house worker and student of John Dewey and Maria Montessori, led it for nearly half a century. David Contosta draws on her personal papers to show how teachers and housemothers joined home and school in ways other progressive educators only imagined.
He traces how Carson's restrictions were gradually lifted until, by the 1970s, the school admitted children regardless of race or gender. This is a thoughtful institutional history for anyone interested in Philadelphia, progressive education or the long debate over caring for children without families.
If you like this
You might also like
From the same author, publisher and shelves.
