Founders Day
March 14, 2025
Dear LREI Community,
Happy Founders Day! Today, the day before a well-earned Spring Break, is the day that each year we celebrate the founding principles of Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School, the present day expression of that mission, and, proudly, our founder – Elisabeth Irwin!
Founders Day celebrations include little/big buddy time, a really fun assembly with singing, a band, the Founders Day Play, and ice cream!! If you haven’t ever asked, make a point of asking your child about the play. It is quite meaningful – focusing on the school’s origins and our current mission – and it is fun. Today’s assembly was just so joyful!
Why do we have ice cream? Well, at one point in the school’s history after the NYC board of education decided not to support the school anymore, members of the parent body gathered in a local ice cream parlor owned by a school family to pool their resources. So each year we remember this act of generosity with ice cream. This year we had a special flavor made just for us – Little Red-berries and Chips. So delicious!
It is important to take a moment to recognize the amazing woman who founded LREI. Researcher, journalist, educator, Elisabeth Irwin was a pioneering teacher and leader in the early part of the last century. When not starting a school or writing articles about her travels in the wilds of New Jersey (!), she was an active member of a group of Village intellectuals and activists. A gay woman who led a full life with her partner and her adopted children, she was on a mission to prove that what she called “the new methods” were a better way to learn than more traditional education, setting us on the course we continue on to this day. Think about the headwinds she faced as she challenged the structures in place at the time. In this Women’s History Month, join us in celebrating Elisabeth Irwin, our founder, who along with her contemporaries, who were mostly women, started progressive schools, looking ahead to the future, caring for children, and imagining a better world.
Thank you to all of my colleagues who follow in Elisabeth’s footsteps each day. It is an honor and a pleasure to work with you.
A final thank you. For many years you have had the opportunity to experience life at LREI, in all three divisions, at every athletic event, and every special occasion, thanks to the expertise and creativity of Jorge Marron. Today is Jorge’s last day at LREI. He is off to new creative adventures. We will miss his eye for that perfect LREI moment and are grateful for the many lasting images of life at LREI that he has shared over the years. Thank you, Jorge.
Wishing you all a restful and restorative Spring Break,
