Who We Are
	LREI: A Leader in    Progressive Education

Educating The Whole Person | Educating for Academic Excellence
Educating For Democracy | The Living Legacy of Progressive Education

The Little Red School House was founded in 1921 as a joint public —private educational experiment designed to test the notion that the principles of progressive education, advocated since the turn of the century by John Dewey — and tried out mainly in small, private school settings — could be applied successfully in the crowded, ethnically diverse, public schools of the nation’s largest city. Its guiding spirit was educator, psychologist and journalist Elisabeth Irwin.

The experiment succeeded beyond the expectations of its most ardent supporters. Education reformers around the country closely followed its progress. Little Red’s programs and teaching methods were eventually adopted in hundreds of schools across New York City. University teaching programs sent their student teachers to train here, and thousands of visitors arrived at our doors each year to learn about the theory and practice of progressive education. At the time of her death in 1942, Elisabeth Irwin was one of the nation’s most respected and influential educators and the Little Red School House had become one of the most famous schools in the world.

In 1932, Little Red became an independent, or private, institution, but in the years ahead it would always stay in touch with its original spirit and public mission — to be a vital part of the life around it, not an exclusive refuge from it. In 1941, a high school division was established and LREI – the Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School — was born. Miss Irwin’s successor was Dr. Randolph B. Smith, Executive Director of the Cooperative School for Student Teachers. For twenty-five years, “Rank” Smith embodied and strengthened the school’s mission — fostering, as he put it, “the capacity to master the conditions of one’s own life” and the ability to contribute effectively to the continuing work of building a democratic society.

In the decades since Rank Smith retired in 1968, the Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School has experienced inevitable change and growth. It has expanded its facilities, developed new programs, and its enrollment, currently over five hundred students in grades Pre-K through 12, has continued to grow. But underlying the evolution of the school has been a remarkable continuity of core values and school spirit. Our reputation as a leader of the progressive movement in education has remained undiminished. Every day, distinguished teachers, wonderful students and enthusiastic, committed parents continue to bring fresh ideas and energy to the achievement of the school’s historic goals.

Educating the Whole Person…

The LREI experience nurtures social consciousness and ethical awareness. It combines respect, support and high expectations with rigorous academic challenges, broadening experiences in the arts, athletics, community service and a wide range of stimulating opportunities for personal growth. Drawing on the rich legacy of the progressive tradition, we believe that education is an organic, developmental and interactive process of growth encompassing all aspects of the child’s nature — emotional, social, physical, moral and creative, as well as purely cognitive and academic. We believe that authentic learning grows out of the complex interplay of curiosity and purpose, creativity and play, and the child’s innate drive to make sense of the world. And we believe that children acquire knowledge and skills both through interaction with their physical and social environment and through the prisms of their own perspectives, purposes, values and prior understandings. Elisabeth Irwin and other pioneers of progressive education believed that childhood and adolescence were unique and wonderful stages of human life. “Sometimes we forget,” she wrote, “that the child is not comparable to any factory product whatsoever.” Her vision continues to inspire us today as knowledge continues to explode and the demands and pressures on youth continue to evolve in unprecedented and unpredictable directions. We believe it remains as important as it was when she founded the school to help young people find their own unique voices and test their values in order that they may be able to confront effectively the conditions of their own lives, make a difference in the lives of others and meet the challenges of an increasingly complex world.

Educating for Academic Excellence…

Each year LREI graduates enter many of the most selective colleges and universities in the United States — equipped with the curiosity and confidence, the initiative and drive, and the knowledge, imagination and skills they will need to achieve success. Progressive education at LREI promotes disciplined, intellectually rigorous inquiry. Academic excellence requires much more than the rote memorization of disconnected facts and formulas and the ability to produce “right answers” on demand. Rather, it requires asking the “right questions,” grasping the organizing principles and concepts that form the core conceptual patterns of each discipline of learning, and developing strategies that make sustained and meaningful inquiry possible. From the earliest grades our students are encouraged to become critical thinkers, makers of meaning and solvers of problems. They observe, question and consider alternative points of view, they develop theories and gather evidence to support them, they search for connections within and across disciplines, and they share, perform and communicate the products of intellectual inquiry and creative endeavor with members of the school community.

LREI is an exciting place to go to school. Our curriculum is learner-centered, problem-based and inquiry-driven. Eighty years ago Elisabeth Irwin revolutionized American education by taking students out of the classroom and into the world — and by bringing the world into the classroom. Our students are still learning from experience, and from the critical reflection, practical application and creative transformation through which unmediated experience matures into authentic understanding and personal knowledge. The arts are a fundamental dimension of this experience. And so is technology. Rich opportunities for creative expression and aesthetic experience are integrated throughout the curriculum and provide students with distinct and rigorous forms of knowing and being in the world. The technological skills that have become basic tools in today’s world — personal, professional and academic — are learned and practiced in every subject and at every grade level. The people who make all this possible are our faculty — experts in their fields who are skilled at developing each child’s unique potential. And the continuing proof of our approach lies in our graduates, who for generations have gone on to lead accomplished, personally rewarding lives that make a difference in the lives of others — and the world a more creative, humane, just and inclusive place in which to live.

Educating for Democracy…

The progressive tradition of education has always been inextricably connected to the purposes of democratic society. “The foundations of democracy are built by daily habits of recognizing the rights of those who differ from ourselves,” Elisabeth Irwin wrote. “For the teacher whose eyes are open to the many human situations arising in group life, there is ample opportunity to discover and discuss problems of democracy in children’s own terms.” LREI retains its historic commitment to social justice, to inclusion and diversity, and to preparation for lives of active citizenship. This commitment is reflected in the school’s respect for the dignity of each person, its weaving of individualism and community, its honoring of creativity and hard work, its recognition and celebration of racial, ethnic and religious diversity, its egalitarian spirit, and its pervasive ethic of trust and cooperation, mutual assistance and group decision-making. Starting with our very youngest students, we take care as a community to resolve problems justly and rationally and to appreciate each individual’s unique qualities, needs, rights, and responsibilities. In the classroom, in the life of the school community and through service to the larger community of New York City and beyond, personal independence, achievement and self —awareness are nurtured in a culture of interdependence, cooperation, compassion and connection to others.

The Living Legacy of Progressive Education…

“The complacent formalism of schools,” Elisabeth Irwin wrote, “its uncritical and therefore uncreative spirit, must be replaced by an honest hospitality to experimentation.” Indeed, until the end of her life, long after it became one of the most famous schools in America, she continued to refer to LREI as the “experiment.” She believed that in order to remain relevant, guiding educational principles must be continually revisited, tested in the context of contemporary issues and reaffirmed by current practice. This may be her greatest legacy. Critical and collaborative experimentation and ongoing application of theory to practice continue to characterize progressive education at LREI today.

When viewed through the lens of our school’s lively history and significant contributions to the development of progressive education, familiar phrases like “educating the whole child,” “learning by doing,” and “educating for democracy” come vividly and compellingly to life. From our youngest children to our high school seniors, students at LREI develop and mature within an atmosphere of high expectations and mutual respect. They experience the satisfactions of working hard and doing difficult things well, of being part of a supportive group of classmates and friends and of celebrating one another’s unique qualities of mind, spirit and imagination. In 1941 John Dewey wrote that the story of the Little Red School House provided “much-needed proof” that the progressive movement in education had “come of age.” But in a very real sense, progressive education is always coming of age, always responding to the needs of children and contemporary society and to the findings of emerging research in teaching and learning. LREI continues to play a significant role in the ongoing dialogue about the methods and purposes of American education. In the educational climate in which we find ourselves today, this role has never been more important. We invite you to learn more about us and to participate in this important conversation.

Nicholas O’Han, School Historian

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