Women in American education, 1820-1955 : the female force and educational reform

The lives and contributions of eight female educators who influenced modern American schools are described, as well as the historical context in which the women lived and worked. These women challenged the male establishment, broke barriers, and utilized techniques heralded today as radical reforms, such as teacher facilitation, student initiative, active learning, meaning construction, and practical applications of knowledge. They stressed open-ended research, creativity, and the integration of subject matter, and they promoted critical thinking, peer cooperation, and shared teacher/student decision-making. The women's methods were radical in their own day, and in many ways still are.

The female reformers described in this book opened the doors of education to the larger public, often working with people excluded from traditional institutions, including females, the very young, the mentally disabled, immigrants of all ages, homemakers, and African-American youth. Without government subsidy, most of these educators had to work with meager resources and constantly raise money for their schools and other projects by giving speeches, writing books and articles, soliciting wealthy donors, and even organizing bazaars and bake sales. With enormous confidence in the worth of their endeavors, they persevered despite many hardships and gave their entire lives to creating new educational and career opportunities.

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This is a valuable contribution to the history of education literature, giving rightful due to the women pioneers who helped establish some of the most important innovations and movements in education. Edwards includes eight prominent female educators (Beecher, Peabody, Blackwell, Richards Addams, Montessori, Bethune, and Parkhurst) who were well recognized in their lifetime but have largely been ignored in current books on education. These women, born in the 19th century, made lasting contributions to contemporary theory and practice. Edwards posits a nice and justifiable conceptual frame to orient the reader to the commentaries by suggesting that all eight women could be classified by the modern term Contructivists (adherents to an educational approach that promotes active learning with an emphasis on students finding knowledge on their own through exploration and discovery). This book is to be commended for closing a gender-based information gap, but the concise summaries of the lives, work, and accomplishments of these women are too brief, and the book could use more synthesis and comparative analysis than the nine-page introduction provides. Nonetheless, the book is very readable and highly recommended for general readers and education students. N. E. Sacks SUNY College at Old Westbury

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Introduction	p. ix
1. Catharine Beecher: Educating Girls, Homemakers, and Teachers	p. 1
2. Elizabeth Palmer Peabody: Educating Young Children	p. 21
3. Elizabeth Blackwell: Medical and Physical Education for Females	p. 41
4. Ellen Swallow Richards: Science Education for School, Home and Society	p. 57
5. Jane Addams: Educating the Immigrant Poor	p. 75
6. Maria Montessori: Educating Children for Independence	p. 91
7. Mary McLeod Bethune: Educating African-American Youth	p. 111
8. Helen Parkhurst: Educating for Responsibility with the Dalton Plan	p. 129
Index	p. 151

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