Oak Lane Day School
Encyclopedia
Oak Lane Day School, located in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania
, was an independent school serving preschool and elementary-aged children, and operates an eight-week children's camp program in the summer. The school's stated mission is to honor each child's individuality in a setting that fosters intellectual, creative, academic and personal growth. Oak Lane places an emphasis on art and art history, music and drama. Included in its academic curriculum are language arts (reading and writing), math, physical education, science and social studies. The 30 acres (121,405.8 m²) country-like campus includes a stream, pond, woods, meadows, specimen trees and animal life that support environmental studies.
Francis Mitchell Froelicher, 1921–1927;
William Burnlee Curry, 1927–1931;
Arthur Seybold, 1931–1934;
Dr. Joseph S. Butterweck, 1934–1937;
George Harvey Ivins, 1937–1943;
J. Conrad Seegers, 1943–1944;
Dr. N. Eldred Bingham, 1944–1945;
John H. Niemeyer, 1945–1956;
Lynn E. Brown, Jr., 1956–1957;
Ruth Dolton Tomlinson, 1957–1958;
Marion Sacks, 1958–1960;
Mae Spang, 1960–1964;
Frederic W. Locke, 1964–1967;
Dr. Douglas Cameron MacDonald, 1967–1969;
Richard Tyre, 1969–1970;
Miriam Niebuhr, 1970–1986;
Karen M. Johnson, 1986–1991;
Betsy Berger, 1991–1992;
Peter F. Baily '64, 1992–1999;
Karl Welsh, 1999–2009;
Martha Platt, 2009-2010.
just north of Philadelphia, PA. The school’s founders used the model of the Progressive Education Movement
to support a religiously, racially and economically diverse student population. Oak Lane's first head of school was Francis Marion Garver who later became director of the elementary division of the School of Education at University of Pennsylvania
. The first chairman of Oak Lane's board of trustees was Dr. Morris Jastrow, Jr., the great scholar of Middle East languages and librarian of the University of Pennsylvania
. Other trustees included members of prominent Philadelphia families in the early 1900s: Milton Sloss; Jay F. Schamberg, M.D.; Jerome J. Rothschild; Maurice Fleisher; Samuel Simeon Fels
; Albert M. Greenfield; Lessing J. Rosenwald
; Joseph Snellenburg; Alice Fleisher Liveright; and Judge Horace Stern
.
In 1921, Francis Mitchell Froelicher became headmaster. Froelicher came from the Park School of Baltimore
that was founded in 1912 by his father, Professor Hans Froelicher of Goucher College
. Professor Froelicher was one of the leaders of the Progressive Education movement in America and served as a consultant to Oak Lane's founders in 1915. Francis Froelicher was elected president of the Progressive Education Association of America while he was Oak Lane's headmaster, and upon his departure in 1927, he went on to found the Fountain Valley School of Colorado.
Progressive education was a movement begun in the late 19th century in reaction to the influence of the industrial revolution on education. The Oak Lane catalog of 1924 stated that the school "is a protest against a system of education which apparently considers that children can be properly educated by factory methods." It also explained that the school "is not experimental, but accepts and puts into practice the principles established by those working in the field of educational psychology."
The 1924 school catalog listed the following as members of Oak Lane's Advisory Board: Felix Adler, of the Ethical Culture School in New York; David Werner Amram
, professor of law of the University of Pennsylvania; John Dewey
, Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University
; Frank Graves, New York State Commissioner of Education; Henry Holmes, Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University
; Eugene Randolph Smith, former Headmaster of the Park School; and Ambrose Suhrie, Dean of the School of Education in Cleveland.
From 1927 to 1931, William Burnlee Curry, a native of England and graduate of Oxford University, was headmaster. He had previously taught at Bedales School
, a progressive school in England, and brought to Oak Lane a large retinue of teachers, many of them family. His wife, Mrs. Curry, taught nursery school, her sister, Miss Magaret Isherwood, taught English, and another relative, Miss Dorothy Cowley, was the librarian. Curry later became head of Dartington Hall School
, one of the early progressive schools in England. While at Oak Lane, Curry hired Boris Blai, who was a student of Auguste Rodin
, to become the fine arts teacher. Blai went on to found Tyler School of Art
in 1935. Blai took with him another Oak Lane art teacher, Furman Finck, who later in his career painted a portrait of President Eisenhower.
In 1927, Oak Lane became accredited with the Secondary School Commission of the Association of College and Secondary Schools of the Middle States and Maryland. Oak Lane also became recognized by the Department of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of PA.
In 1929, funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. Leopold Stokowski
, world renowned orchestra conductor and Oak Lane parents, allowed the construction of a nursery school wing. Architects George Howe
and William Lescaze
were hired for this building project, which was the first of many under their new firm. Its "International Style"
attracted world-wide acclaim. Many building concepts appropriate to young children were incorporated in its plans, such as smaller doorways and steps, cork flooring, special furniture and protected outdoor areas.
During the Depression, Oak Lane began to experience financial difficulties and diminishing enrollment which opened the door for Temple University
to consider acquiring the school. Temple, on the lookout for opportunities to develop a laboratory-demonstration school, learned of Oak Lane’s situation and it was not long before a merger between the two became official in April 1931. Oak Lane’s name, “Oak Lane Country Day School of Temple University”, confirmed this new affiliation. Part of the agreement was the recognition of Oak Lane as an educational enterprise for the purpose of developing the best progressive method of education, and for use as an observation school to train teachers.
Under John H. Niemeyer's eleven-year tenure from 1945–1956, Oak Lane became part of the School Affiliation Program of the American Friends Service Committee
. An exchange of pen pal letters and group projects formed the base of the affiliation program between Oak Lane and La Maison d'Enfants de Sèvres, France, a school whose purpose was to help children orphaned during the recent war or whose parents were no longer able to care for them. Members of the faculties of the two schools exchanged visits and give the children an opportunity to help understand better the world in which they lived. In conjunction with this program, the 4th-6th grades at Oak Lane learned French, the language of their overseas’ friends. Niemeyer left Oak Lane to become President of Bank Street College
in New York.
In June 1960, Temple University determined that it could no longer support Oak Lane Country Day School because of mounting debt and other issues, and the property on which it stood was sold to a developer. Now existing on its own merit due to the strength of trustees, faculty and parents, the School became incorporated as Oak Lane Day School and reconvened in the fall in a former public school building at Springhouse Lane and Easton Road in Glenside, PA. Niemeyer served as Board of Trustees chair and school spokesman.
Proceedings were begun in 1963 to purchase a permanent site for the School on the former John Cadwalader estate in Whitpain Township
, PA. In 1964, ground was broken on the old apple orchard on the grounds of the estate for a building known as the Perch Hankin Classroom Building. In 1965, the School moved to its current location, and as much as possible, the existing structures and ground were utilized in a manner consistent with the school’s educational philosophy. In 2002 and 2003, the Leah Cutler Gymnasium was designed and built. James Bradberry Architects received an AIA Honor Award for their architectural design.
In April 2009, Oak Lane announced that it would be selling its property with the intent to move to a yet-to-be-determined location following the 2009-10 school year. However, in October 2009, it was announced that the Board of Trustees decided that it would not be feasible to keep the school going beyond the 2009-10 school year and it would close at the end of the school year. The last graduates presented a gift of running the school website for the next ten years.
Noam Chomsky
, an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and political activist, attended Oak Lane Country Day School. Chomsky remembers the first article he wrote was at age 10 while a student at Oak Lane Country Day School about the threat of the spread of fascism, following the fall of Barcelona in the Spanish Civil War.
Blue Bell, Pennsylvania
Blue Bell is a census-designated place in Whitpain Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 6,067....
, was an independent school serving preschool and elementary-aged children, and operates an eight-week children's camp program in the summer. The school's stated mission is to honor each child's individuality in a setting that fosters intellectual, creative, academic and personal growth. Oak Lane places an emphasis on art and art history, music and drama. Included in its academic curriculum are language arts (reading and writing), math, physical education, science and social studies. The 30 acres (121,405.8 m²) country-like campus includes a stream, pond, woods, meadows, specimen trees and animal life that support environmental studies.
School Heads
Francis Marion Garver, 1916–1921;Francis Mitchell Froelicher, 1921–1927;
William Burnlee Curry, 1927–1931;
Arthur Seybold, 1931–1934;
Dr. Joseph S. Butterweck, 1934–1937;
George Harvey Ivins, 1937–1943;
J. Conrad Seegers, 1943–1944;
Dr. N. Eldred Bingham, 1944–1945;
John H. Niemeyer, 1945–1956;
Lynn E. Brown, Jr., 1956–1957;
Ruth Dolton Tomlinson, 1957–1958;
Marion Sacks, 1958–1960;
Mae Spang, 1960–1964;
Frederic W. Locke, 1964–1967;
Dr. Douglas Cameron MacDonald, 1967–1969;
Richard Tyre, 1969–1970;
Miriam Niebuhr, 1970–1986;
Karen M. Johnson, 1986–1991;
Betsy Berger, 1991–1992;
Peter F. Baily '64, 1992–1999;
Karl Welsh, 1999–2009;
Martha Platt, 2009-2010.
History
Originally known as Oak Lane Country Day School, Oak Lane was established in 1916 and for 44 years was located in Cheltenham TownshipCheltenham Township, Pennsylvania
Cheltenham Township is a home rule municipality in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. Although it retains the word "Township" in its official name, it has been governed by a home rule charter since 1977 and is therefore not subject to the Pennsylvania Township Code. The population was...
just north of Philadelphia, PA. The school’s founders used the model of the Progressive Education Movement
Educational progressivism
Progressive education is a pedagogical movement that began in the late nineteenth century and has persisted in various forms to the present. More recently, it has been viewed as an alternative to the test-oriented instruction legislated by the No Child Left Behind educational funding act...
to support a religiously, racially and economically diverse student population. Oak Lane's first head of school was Francis Marion Garver who later became director of the elementary division of the School of Education at University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
. The first chairman of Oak Lane's board of trustees was Dr. Morris Jastrow, Jr., the great scholar of Middle East languages and librarian of the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
. Other trustees included members of prominent Philadelphia families in the early 1900s: Milton Sloss; Jay F. Schamberg, M.D.; Jerome J. Rothschild; Maurice Fleisher; Samuel Simeon Fels
Samuel Simeon Fels
Samuel Simeon Fels was an American businessman and philanthropist.Early in Samuel's life his family relocated to Philadelphia, where Samuel's older brother Joseph Fels founded a soap manufacturing company, Fels & Co. Samuel became the company's first president, a post which he held until his death...
; Albert M. Greenfield; Lessing J. Rosenwald
Lessing J. Rosenwald
Lessing Julius Rosenwald was an American businessman, a collector of rare books and art, and a chess patron.-Biography:...
; Joseph Snellenburg; Alice Fleisher Liveright; and Judge Horace Stern
Horace Stern
Horace Stern was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1 November 1952 to 29 December 1956. He was elevated to the Chief Justice position after serving on the Court from 6 January 1936....
.
In 1921, Francis Mitchell Froelicher became headmaster. Froelicher came from the Park School of Baltimore
Park School of Baltimore
The Park School of Baltimore is a private, co-educational K-12 school located in Brooklandville, Maryland, USA, just north of the city of Baltimore. The campus lies to the south of Old Court Road in Baltimore County...
that was founded in 1912 by his father, Professor Hans Froelicher of Goucher College
Goucher College
Goucher College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts college located in the northern Baltimore suburb of Towson in unincorporated Baltimore County, Maryland, on a 287 acre campus. The school has approximately 1,475 undergraduate students studying in 31 majors and six interdisciplinary...
. Professor Froelicher was one of the leaders of the Progressive Education movement in America and served as a consultant to Oak Lane's founders in 1915. Francis Froelicher was elected president of the Progressive Education Association of America while he was Oak Lane's headmaster, and upon his departure in 1927, he went on to found the Fountain Valley School of Colorado.
Progressive education was a movement begun in the late 19th century in reaction to the influence of the industrial revolution on education. The Oak Lane catalog of 1924 stated that the school "is a protest against a system of education which apparently considers that children can be properly educated by factory methods." It also explained that the school "is not experimental, but accepts and puts into practice the principles established by those working in the field of educational psychology."
The 1924 school catalog listed the following as members of Oak Lane's Advisory Board: Felix Adler, of the Ethical Culture School in New York; David Werner Amram
David Werner Amram
David Werner Amram was a prominent lawyer and legal scholar, as well as an early American Zionist.Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1887, and an LL.B. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1889...
, professor of law of the University of Pennsylvania; John Dewey
John Dewey
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...
, Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
; Frank Graves, New York State Commissioner of Education; Henry Holmes, Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
; Eugene Randolph Smith, former Headmaster of the Park School; and Ambrose Suhrie, Dean of the School of Education in Cleveland.
From 1927 to 1931, William Burnlee Curry, a native of England and graduate of Oxford University, was headmaster. He had previously taught at Bedales School
Bedales School
Bedales School is a co-educational independent school situated in Hampshire, in the south east of England. Founded in 1893 by John Haden Badley in reaction to the limitations of conventional Victorian schools, today the school is one of the most expensive in the UK, charging £9,985 per term for a...
, a progressive school in England, and brought to Oak Lane a large retinue of teachers, many of them family. His wife, Mrs. Curry, taught nursery school, her sister, Miss Magaret Isherwood, taught English, and another relative, Miss Dorothy Cowley, was the librarian. Curry later became head of Dartington Hall School
Dartington Hall
The Dartington Hall Trust, near Totnes, Devon, United Kingdom is a charity specialising in the arts, social justice and sustainability.The Trust currently runs 16 charitable programmes, including The Dartington International Summer School and Schumacher Environmental College...
, one of the early progressive schools in England. While at Oak Lane, Curry hired Boris Blai, who was a student of Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin
François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
, to become the fine arts teacher. Blai went on to found Tyler School of Art
Tyler School of Art
The Stella Elkins Tyler School of Art, usually just referred to as Tyler School of Art is Temple University's school of art, which confers BFA and MFA degrees. The school was originally founded by sculptors Stella Elkins Tyler and Boris Blai on a separate 14-acre estate in Elkins Park...
in 1935. Blai took with him another Oak Lane art teacher, Furman Finck, who later in his career painted a portrait of President Eisenhower.
In 1927, Oak Lane became accredited with the Secondary School Commission of the Association of College and Secondary Schools of the Middle States and Maryland. Oak Lane also became recognized by the Department of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of PA.
In 1929, funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
, world renowned orchestra conductor and Oak Lane parents, allowed the construction of a nursery school wing. Architects George Howe
George Howe (architect)
George Howe was an American architect and educator, and an early convert to the International style. With William Lescaze, he designed Philadelphia's PSFS Building .-Biography:...
and William Lescaze
William Lescaze
William Edmond Lescaze was a Swiss-born American architect, and is one of the pioneers of modernism in American architecture....
were hired for this building project, which was the first of many under their new firm. Its "International Style"
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
attracted world-wide acclaim. Many building concepts appropriate to young children were incorporated in its plans, such as smaller doorways and steps, cork flooring, special furniture and protected outdoor areas.
During the Depression, Oak Lane began to experience financial difficulties and diminishing enrollment which opened the door for Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
to consider acquiring the school. Temple, on the lookout for opportunities to develop a laboratory-demonstration school, learned of Oak Lane’s situation and it was not long before a merger between the two became official in April 1931. Oak Lane’s name, “Oak Lane Country Day School of Temple University”, confirmed this new affiliation. Part of the agreement was the recognition of Oak Lane as an educational enterprise for the purpose of developing the best progressive method of education, and for use as an observation school to train teachers.
Under John H. Niemeyer's eleven-year tenure from 1945–1956, Oak Lane became part of the School Affiliation Program of the American Friends Service Committee
American Friends Service Committee
The American Friends Service Committee is a Religious Society of Friends affiliated organization which works for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world...
. An exchange of pen pal letters and group projects formed the base of the affiliation program between Oak Lane and La Maison d'Enfants de Sèvres, France, a school whose purpose was to help children orphaned during the recent war or whose parents were no longer able to care for them. Members of the faculties of the two schools exchanged visits and give the children an opportunity to help understand better the world in which they lived. In conjunction with this program, the 4th-6th grades at Oak Lane learned French, the language of their overseas’ friends. Niemeyer left Oak Lane to become President of Bank Street College
Bank Street College of Education
Bank Street College of Education is located in Manhattan, New York City.-History:Bank Street was founded in 1916 by Lucy Sprague Mitchell as the "Bureau of Educational Experiments"....
in New York.
In June 1960, Temple University determined that it could no longer support Oak Lane Country Day School because of mounting debt and other issues, and the property on which it stood was sold to a developer. Now existing on its own merit due to the strength of trustees, faculty and parents, the School became incorporated as Oak Lane Day School and reconvened in the fall in a former public school building at Springhouse Lane and Easton Road in Glenside, PA. Niemeyer served as Board of Trustees chair and school spokesman.
Proceedings were begun in 1963 to purchase a permanent site for the School on the former John Cadwalader estate in Whitpain Township
Whitpain Township, Pennsylvania
Whitpain Township is a township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1701, it has grown to a total population of 18,875 as of the 2010 census.-Geography:...
, PA. In 1964, ground was broken on the old apple orchard on the grounds of the estate for a building known as the Perch Hankin Classroom Building. In 1965, the School moved to its current location, and as much as possible, the existing structures and ground were utilized in a manner consistent with the school’s educational philosophy. In 2002 and 2003, the Leah Cutler Gymnasium was designed and built. James Bradberry Architects received an AIA Honor Award for their architectural design.
In April 2009, Oak Lane announced that it would be selling its property with the intent to move to a yet-to-be-determined location following the 2009-10 school year. However, in October 2009, it was announced that the Board of Trustees decided that it would not be feasible to keep the school going beyond the 2009-10 school year and it would close at the end of the school year. The last graduates presented a gift of running the school website for the next ten years.
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and political activist, attended Oak Lane Country Day School. Chomsky remembers the first article he wrote was at age 10 while a student at Oak Lane Country Day School about the threat of the spread of fascism, following the fall of Barcelona in the Spanish Civil War.