Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Play School Movement

The play school movement was born from the work of Caroline Pratt (1867–1954). Pratt was an innovative educator at the forefront of American educational reform, the period of progressive education as well as the nursery school movement. Understanding that education is a multisensory endeavor, she opened the Play School in New York City in the autumn of 1914. She named her school the Play School owing to her belief that children created and tested their knowledge of the world through play. Pratt was considered progressive due to her beliefs that not only were women's experiences critical to shaping democracy, but so too were children's—a concept certainly novel at the time.

Pratt's philosophy of intrinsic motivation and belief in allowing children to construct meaning through play was influenced by Jean Piaget (1896–1980) and his cognitive-interactionist theory, which supported the principle that not only inherited traits, but also environmental opportunities to engage in the world around them contributed to children's learning and development. As a friend and teacher, John Dewey (1859–1952) also inspired Pratt to extend the notion of not just teaching children about democracy but allowing them to create a democratic society through play. Joining Pratt in the work at her school and also supporting her pragmatist philosophy of child-directed learning was her colleague Lucy Sprague Mitchell (1878–1967). Mitchell began the Bureau of Educational Experiments (BEE), which was dedicated to the scientific study of children's nature and growth using the natural setting of Pratt's Play School as the laboratory. Together, Pratt and Mitchell collected extensive data regarding childhood development. The BEE later evolved into what is today the Bank Street College of Education in New York City.

City and Country School

Pratt's legacy lives on today through the continuation of the school she founded. The school that began as the Play School was later renamed the City and Country School. It originally opened in a three-room apartment in Greenwich Village and was later moved to its present location on West 12th and 13th streets, using funds from Lucy Sprague Mitchell. Children between the ages of 2 and 13 are admitted through an application process. Considered to be the oldest continuously operating progressive elementary school in New York State, City and Country School maintains the philosophy of providing multisensory experiences where children learn to solve problems using an integrated curriculum with an emphasis on community and democratic citizenship. As the foundation of the curriculum, social studies is integrated throughout other subjects that are offered, including the traditional subjects of math, language arts, science, foreign language, music, and art. However, there are several offerings which are particular to City and Country. The Rhythms Program, developed at the school in the 1920s, allows children to act out what they are learning through movement. Topics from academic content areas are transformed into skits and plays in order to bring them to life to allow the children to develop their coordination as well as their creativity. The Jobs Program, developed for students ages 8 through 13, assigns a specific job to each child that is pertinent to the school's functioning as a whole. Shop, woodworking, and technology classes provide opportunities for students to create items relevant to their jobs as well as the larger curriculum. The Block Yard Program, also developed by Pratt in conjunction with the help of a pediatrician, was designed to strengthen gross motor skills as well as to provide an opportunity for children to practice good sportsmanship. Present in the Block Yard are the signature blocks for which Caroline Pratt was known and that are still instrumental in classrooms today.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution