Page "Amos Bronson Alcott" Paragraph 10

On September 22, 1834, Alcott opened a school of about 30 students, mostly from wealthy families.

It was named the Temple School because classes were held at the Masonic Temple on Tremont Street in Boston.

His assistant was Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, later replaced by Margaret Fuller.

Mary Peabody Mann served as a French instructor for a time. The school was briefly famous, and then infamous, because of his original methods.

Before 1830, writing ( except in higher education ) equated to rote drills in the rules of grammar, spelling, vocabulary, penmanship and transcription of adult texts.

However, in that decade, progressive reformers such as Alcott, influenced by Pestalozzi as well as Friedrich Fröbel and Johann Friedrich Herbart, began to advocate writing about subjects from students ' personal experiences.

Reformers debated against beginning instruction with rules and were in favor of helping students learn to write by expressing the personal meaning of events within their own lives.

Alcott's plan was to develop self-instruction on the basis of self-analysis, with an emphasis on conversation and questioning rather than lecturing and drill, which were prevalent in the U. S. classrooms of the time.

Alongside writing and reading, he gave lessons in " spiritual culture ", which included interpretation of the Gospels, and advocated object teaching in writing instruction.

He even went so far as to decorate his schoolroom with visual elements he thought would inspire learning: paintings, books, comfortable furniture, and busts or portraits of Plato, Socrates, Jesus, and William Ellery Channing.