West Newton English and Classical School, also known as the Allen School, was a model school in West Newton, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1854 by Nathaniel Topliff Allen (1823–1903), an educator and protege of Horace Mann.[1] Allen was an advocate of women's suffrage, temperance, and the abolition of slavery, and his school, unusual at the time, had a racially integrated, co-educational student body. It offered a kindergarten program based upon the principles of Froebel's Kindergarten System, and included gymnastics in its curriculum, both of which were, in America, educational innovations.[1] The school's coursework included reading, spelling, arithmetic, geography, geology, and bookkeeping. Daily journals kept by students were critiqued every two weeks.[1] The school also taught art, music, dancing and ethics. Students attended lectures by guest speakers such as Theodore Parker, William Lloyd Garrison, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.[2] Many of Allen's relatives, including his uncles, brothers, cousins, nieces, and three daughters, lived and taught at the school, and provided lodging in their homes for students.[2]
Over the course of its 50 years in existence, more than 5,000 students attended the school.[2] Students came from all over the world, and many graduates, both men and women, went on to have careers in medicine, law, government, and education.[1]
Notable alumni
- Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831–1895), the first African-American woman to become a physician in the United States.[3][4] She received her medical degree in 1864 from the New England Female Medical College.[1]
- Elizabeth Piper Ensley (1847–1919), educator, suffragette, and activist.[5]
- Sarah Fuller (1836–1927), educator of the deaf, who worked with Alexander Graham Bell and Helen Keller.
- Mary Ann Greene (1857–1936), lawyer.[1]
- Henry E. Warren (1872–1957), inventor and businessman.
- Joseph Morrill Wells (1853–1890), architect.
- Webster Wells (1851–1916), mathematician, educator, and author.
Notable staff
- William Francis Allen, assistant principal in 1856.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Newton, MA – Allen Family". Retrieved November 5, 2021.
- 1 2 3 "Nathaniel T. Allen Biography and Photographs, 1845–1938". Massachusetts History. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
- ↑ Vernon L. Farmer; Evelyn Shepherd Wynn (2012). Voices of Historical and Contemporary Black American Pioneers. ABC-CLIO. pp. 11–12. ISBN 978-0-313-39224-5. Retrieved May 3, 2013.
- ↑ Henry Louis Gates; Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (March 23, 2004). African American Lives. Oxford University Press. pp. 199–200. ISBN 978-0-19-988286-1. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
- ↑ "Obituary for Elizabeth Piper Ensley (Aged 62)". The New York Age. March 15, 1919. p. 2. Retrieved March 4, 2020.