Elizabeth Harrison (educator)

Elizabeth Harrison

Photograph from Sketches Along Life's Road
Born September 1, 1849
Athens, Kentucky., U.S.
Died Oct. 31, 1927
San Antonio, Texas
Pen name Elizabeth Harrison
Occupation College President, founder, educator, and author
Nationality United States

Elizabeth Harrison (September 1, 1849 – October 31, 1927) was an American educator. She was the founder and first president of what is today National Louis University.[1] Harrison was a pioneer in creating professional standards for early childhood teachers and in promoting early childhood education.[2]

Life

After encountering the early kindergarten movement in Chicago in the 1870s, Harrison sought training in St. Louis and New York. She then taught kindergarten in Iowa and Chicago. In 1886, she founded a training school for kindergarten teachers in Chicago. Intrigued by the ideas used by a German woman working at her school, Harrison decided to find out more. She tracked these ideas back to the Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus in Berlin and in 1889 she traveled there to study. On her return she renamed her institution the Chicago Kindergarten Training College.[3] Harrison's school became an innovative college of education.[4] She was president of the college until her retirement in 1920. It is now part of National Louis University.

Writings

During her career, Harrison wrote a number of books, including: A Study of Child Nature (1890), In Storyland (1895), Some Silent Teachers (1903), Misunderstood Children (1908), Montessori and the Kindergarten (1913) and The Unseen Side of Child Life (1922). In 1893, the college published Harrison's book, The Kindergarten as an Influence in Modern Civilization, in which she explained, "how to teach the child from the beginning of his existence that all things are connected [and] how to lead him to this vital truth from his own observation . . .." [5] Harrison's autobiography, Sketches Along Life's Road, was edited and published in Boston in 1930, after her death.[6][7]

Influence

Nobel Peace Prize winner, Jane Addams of Hull House, said of her colleague and friend, that Elizabeth Harrison "has done more good than any woman I know. She has brought light and power to all the educational world."[8]

In the 1890s, Harrison organized a series of annual conferences in Chicago, which led to the founding of what is today the National Parent Teachers Association (PTA).[9]

References

  1. ↑ "A History of Innovation." 2010. History: National-Louis University (retrieved, July 30, 2010)
  2. ↑ "Elizabeth Harrison." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. (retrieved July 29 2010)
  3. ↑ Henry Geitz; Jürgen Heideking; Jurgen Herbst; German Histo<rical Institute (Washington, D.C.) (31 March 1995). German Influences on Education in the United States to 1917. Cambridge University Press. pp. 95–98. ISBN 978-0-521-47083-4. Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help)
  4. ↑ National-Louis University, The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago © 2005 Chicago Historical Society
  5. ↑ Elizabeth Harrison, The Kindergarten as an Influence in Modern Civilization (Chicago 1893)
  6. ↑ Catalog of Copyright Entries. New Series: 1930
  7. ↑ Book front piece - National–Louis University Online Archive
  8. ↑ "A History of Innovation." 2010. History: National-Louis University (retrieved, July 30, 2010)
  9. ↑ "Elizabeth Harrison." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. (retrieved July 29 2010)

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