Lucy Sprague Mitchell was an education reformer born in 1878 who established the Bureau of Educational Experiments in New York. She was influenced by John Dewey's progressive ideas about education and believed that children learn best through experiences connected to others. At the Bureau, Mitchell incorporated interdisciplinary teaching, student behavior studies, and family background checks. Her school programs were seen as radical at the time but became the model for modern nursery schools. Mitchell promoted the idea of raising "whole children" by fulfilling their emotional, social, and mental needs, not just physical ones. She trained teachers to become "whole teachers" and guide children to their full potential.

1. Andrea & Lisamarie
LUCY SPRAGUE MITCHELL

2.  Lucy was born July 2, 1878 in Chicago.
 In her time, children were taken care of but silenced.
They were looked upon as inferior and given strict
scheduled lifestyles.
 Lucy did not have a very intimate relationship with her
father but she was influenced by him because of his
great interest in education reform.
 Little did they know she would mark the education
system of America forever.
 Her thoughts: How could anyone expect to teach
children when they do not even understand the way
children learn & what they are interested in learning.
 Fun Fact: Lucy did not receive any kind of education
until she was 16 years old.
THE EARLY YEARS

3.  She pursued a college education in University of
California at Berkley. Even though during this time it
was rare for women to obtain this level of education.
 Fun Fact: She graduated & became the first woman
to become a Dean at the university.
 1913: She moved to New York and married to
Wesley Clair Mitchell.
 She was fascinated by the theories of John Dewey.
+ John Dewey’s ideas: children learn through
experiences connected to others as well as he called
their learning a “social function.” Stimulating the
creativity of children and encouraging each child
individually is a key to affective education.
THE BEGINNING OF LUCY’S
JOURNEY

4.  She started the Bureau of Educational Experiments in New York.
 How education was conducted at the Bureau incorporated by Sprague
Mitchell: The interdisciplinary approach to classroom management, the
study of student behavior, psychological profiles recorded and
updated, family background and environment checks.
 Her revelations about language: +during observations of children she
found that language development is more important than they thought of
before.
BUREAU OF EDUCATIONAL
EXPERIMENTS

5.  Her school programs were seen as “loony” and “radical” in the
1910’s, but in the 1950’s those schools were considered “developmentally
appropriate” and became traditional nursery schools.
 She promoted in what it was to raise “whole child.”
+ This meant they were children that were developmentally healthy
and emotionally secure. She believed that if people raised “whole children”
that society would progressively improve.
+ This centered on the focus on the children and fulfilling all their
needs. Not just their basic physical needs but more in depth
emotional, social, and mental needs.
 In 1930’s, she extended her teaching to train teachers to become “whole
teachers” to be able to teach and guide children to become “whole
children.”
HER THEORIES

6. ACCOMPLISHMENTS