Edgewood School - Bridge Yearbook (Greenwich, CT)

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was that they were given something definite to do. Many of them now have re- sponsible positions in banks. Chicago became the center of educational traning in America where Colonel Parker, President Harper, john Dewey, Jane Adams, Ella Flagg Young and others became interested in the practice of educational theories. During this time the Uni- versity needed a Womens Gymnasium. We organized a great drive called The Path of Pennies , asking people to help supply the coppers that would reach from Lake Michigan to Cottage Grove Avenue! Before our energies were exhausted, Mr. Noyes, Cwho made his wealth with the dictionary standardj in memory of his wife, gave the necessary money and our own Lucine Finch who organized our first dra- matics, wrote and presented the pageant at its dedication. Scenes from this pageant now constitute the famous murals in Ida Noyes Hall of the University of Chicago and I was invited to assist Doctor Myra Reynolds in selecting and purchasing its furnishings. ' Because of my association with these people I was twice called to Europe to represent the ideas of the new education which they helped to develop. So, when later Mrs. Marietta johnson, who had developed her own school in Fairhope, asked me to help her establish The Edgewood School. I gladly came. Edgewood at that time was a partially burned house without a roof and badly water-soaked for seven and one-half years, and a neglected stable. The overgrown grounds showed signs of formal gardening. The present Science building. now the laboratory for the learned. was once the home for pedigreed cows and the Bell- Illava Studio a storehouse for their food! This end of the athletic held was a very large duck pond and the rest was covered with magnificent trees. The evolution of these early days into the present school represents the ideals, the enthusiasm and the generosity of many friends of whom Miss Evelyn McKinney, President of our Board of Trustees. is the present representative. Edgewood today has an Alumni of 325 boys and girls, some of whom live and work as far away as South Africag others in different places in Europe and America. One hundred boys and girls did active duty in the last War. In memory of the nine who did not return, Mr. Illava's Memorial Plaque bears testimony. Your school has taken honors in over twenty colleges in this country and four universities in Europe. Besides the number of its Alumni we have a growing group of grandchildren. three of whom have been attending school this year. EUPHROSYNE LANGLEY

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Personal Notes I was born in New York in a nice little brownstone house in the front room on the second floor. It was Friday the thirteenth and my twin was a brother. And the house is still standing! Years after, I used to walk by this house and long for the courage to ring the doorbell but I was afraid of being arrested as a 'crank', but one day, many years later, when I was a student at Columbia, I was invited to speak at the home of Mrs. Coonley Ward on Washington Square. When I arrived there the meeting had adjourned to her friend's house which proved to be my house , then occupied by johannson the portrait painter. Mr. johannson was proud of his house which was famous for its beautifully constructed stairwell. , , I was elatedg I had a sense of great pride in the admiration of the guests but I hugged my secret until the end of the tour when I said that I had been born there. Mr. Johannson resented the statement for some reason or other saying it was im- possible-that it must have been next door! He seemed to resent my previous occupancy forgetting, apparently, that I was the guest of honor of the day! I have loved being in school all my life. I used to tease my brothers and sisters to take me to school with them to visit. One day they consented and my oldest sister gave me a tiny china cup with a gold and orange band to take with me in case I wanted a drink of water for they did not have fountains in those days. I still have the cup. At that early age I used to line my dolls up-poor little blockheads that couldn't escape-and try to drill the lessons into them. Of course they learned nothing and many years later, when my dream of teaching was realized, I too had learned that that was not the proper way to educate children. My early school days were spent in a public school in New York but my father taught meto read sitting on his knee, learning the letters from the beautiful large print in our family Bible. I have always remembered this experience and that is why I bought some old family Bibles for Miss Potter's students-that they might begin to read from beautiful print. I attended schools in New York and Chicago. I graduated in Chicago and later taught at the University there. During this time I visited the schools of our country from Canada to California. Later I visited the schools of Europe in Germany, Austria, France, Holland, Belgium. Denmark, Sweden and England because I was interested in learning their methods. I stayed in Sweden and earned a diploma from the Slozdareseminarium. This was a famous training school for teachers in handiwork where one became familiar with the simplest practice of whittling to the most com- plicated technique of dovetailing so that pieces of furniture are fitted together without nails, screws or glue. Nineteen different nationalities attended this unique school at Naas where folkdancing was a prerequisite to graduation. My woodworking training at Naas contributed to my usefulness by giving me an opportunity to work nights for twelve years in the famous Little Hell district in Chicago. My point of view regarding discipline grew out of the experience of working with so-called 'jailbirds', not one of whom was finally locked up. The reason

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mf- A gag. ., Y , ' 123- N, , Photograph by CLARA E. SIPPRELI