Biography:

Teacher; pioneer of the progressive education movement. Born–October 8, 1864, St. Paul, Minn. Parents– Clarence D. and Rhoda Matilda (Morton) Pierce. Married– John Franklin Johnson, June 6, 1897. Children– Two. Education– State Normal School, St. Cloud, Minn., graduated 1885. Critic and model teacher, St. Paul Teachers’ Training School, 1890-1892; critic teacher and department supervisor, Moorhead State Teachers College, 1892-1895; department supervisor, State Teachers College, Mankato, 1896-1899. Moved to Alabama, 1902, and founded the School of Organic Education, Fairhope, 1907; director until 1938; director, Edgewood School, Greenwich, Conn. and conducted summer schools there and in Fairhope, Ala. Based her pedagogy on a concept of “organic education,” influenced by the theories of Nathaniel Oppenheim, John Dewey, and Frederich Froebel. Founder and honorary vice-president, Progressive Education Association. Died December 23, 1938.

Source:

Biographical Dictionary of American Authors.

Publication(s):

The Child, the Parent, and the Teacher.  New York: John Day, 1929.

Teaching without Failure.  Fairhope, 1996.

Thirty Years With an Idea. Tuscaloosa, Ala.; University of Alabama Press, 1974.