West Newton English and Classical School

West Newton English and Classical School, also known as the Allen School, was a model school in West Newton, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1854 by Nathaniel Topliff Allen, with encouragement by Horace Mann.[1]

Nathaniel Topliff Allen Homestead, where the West Newton English and Classical School was located beginning 1854.

It was unique in that it had a diverse student body that included students of mixed races, and both boys and girls. It offered pure kindergarten, using Froebel's Kindergarten System, and had gymnastics as part of its curriculum, both of which were education firsts in the country.[1] Coursework included reading, spelling, arithmetic, geography, geology, and bookkeeping. Daily journals kept by students were critiqued every two weeks.[1] The school also taught art, music, dancing and ethics. Students attended lectures by Theodore Parker, William Lloyd Garrison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and others.[2] Many relatives, who taught at the school and provided lodging in their homes for students, included uncles, brothers, cousins, nieces, and his three daughters.[2]

Over the course of its 50 years, more than 5,000 students attended the school.[2] Students came from the United States, Hawaii, Europe, Asia, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Graduates, both men and women, had careers in medicine, law, government, and education.[1]

Notable alumni

Notable staff
gollark: - If a foreign country's relations with our own are poor, it should be removed from all maps and not acknowledged by government policy.
gollark: - I think markets are a reasonably good resource allocation system, and to ensure liquidity would support requiring any property someone owns whatsoever to be put up for auction if someone requests it.
gollark: - I believe our country should construct its own god to reduce reliance on foreign imports, and maintain a stock of reality anchors to remove other gods if necessary.
gollark: - I think that consumption, possession, distribution and production of all drugs should be legal everywhere for everyone at all times.- I support an improved tax system, where everyone in the country is directly billed `country's yearly operating expenses / population` each year, to increase fairness.
gollark: - I believe we should end racial discrimination by replacing computer monitors with 1-bit black and white displays so race cannot be distinguished.

References
  1. "Newton, MA - Allen Family". Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  2. "Nathaniel T. Allen Biography and Photographs, 1845-1938". Massachusetts History. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  3. Vernon L. Farmer; Evelyn Shepherd Wynn (2012). Voices of Historical and Contemporary Black American Pioneers. ABC-CLIO. pp. 11–12. ISBN 978-0-313-39224-5. Retrieved May 3, 2013.
  4. Henry Louis Gates; Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (March 23, 2004). African American Lives. Oxford University Press. pp. 199–200. ISBN 978-0-19-988286-1. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
  5. "Obituary for Elizabeth Piper Ensley (Aged 62)". The New York Age. March 15, 1919. p. 2. Retrieved March 4, 2020.

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