Who was Lucy Sprague Mitchell...and why should you know?

Childhood Education, Fall 2000 by Smith, Mary K

And Why Should You Know?

Have you been looking for someone who could inspire you anew, and give you a fresh outlook on your early childhood career? Lucy Sprague Mitchell (1878-1967) can be that person. Reflecting on her life, which she dedicated to children's welfare, can bring inspiration and renewed vigor to today's early childhood educators.

Lucy Sprague Mitchell used her talents as teacher, administrator, and writer to advocate for children in a way that would seem familiar to any present-day early childhood professional. Mitchell's goal throughout her career was to establish the "good life" for children. She provides the description of that life:

One keeps growing in interests, in breadth of emotions and powers of expression, in depth and extent of human relations. Growth in all one's powers, step by step, up through the early stages towards maturity, leads on to an adulthood which is not static, completed, but still retains the capacity and the eagerness to grow. (Mitchell,1950, p.14)

Why look to the past for a model, however? By examining the life of an education pioneer, we not only develop a sense of camaraderie, but also learn to understand how the past is connected to the present. We discover new perspectives about our own commitment when we view that commitment through the filter of someone else's life. All disciplines have their paragons of the past to emulate. As exemplified by Lucy Sprague Mitchell, early childhood educators have a past in which to take pride.

The Impact of the Time

In order to understand the life and work of Lucy Mitchell, one must consider the time in which she lived. Between 1890 and 1920, the United States experienced significant increases in industrialization, immigration, and urbanization, with an accompanying rise in poverty. Such conditions laid the groundwork for social and education reforms, including Jane Addams's settlement house in Chicago and John Dewey's Progressive Education Movement.

Addams embodied the blossoming consensus in social consciousness that education, not just charity, could alleviate the suffering of the poor. She believed that both the rich and the poor could learn from one another, and that the same education opportunities should be available to all. John Dewey, who served on the Board of Directors for Addams's Hull House, espoused an education philosophy that moved away from subject-centered rote exercises in memorization and recitation toward a cooperative, child-centered exploration of interests. Ultimately, reformers hoped that children educated in such a democratic environment would become adults who would work for the good of society as a whole (Cremin, 1961; Zilversmit, 1993).

The Formative YearsLoneliness and the World Outside

Lucy Sprague, born in Chicago on July 2,1878, was a shy, nervous, and withdrawn child. Her early childhood experience was sometimes harsh, and even lonely despite being one of six children. Her father dominated the home with a repressive discipline style that caused Lucy to retreat inside herself. Also, her parents were away from home during a critical time in Lucy's childhood. Reflecting on her childhood, she commented that "each of us, I now know, had his particular form of tragedy. My own was extreme loneliness-loneliness within a crowd, which is, perhaps, the most poignant kind" (Mitchell, 1953, pp. 46-47).

Another factor that contributed to Lucy's loneliness was the fact that she did not attend school regularly until she was 16. Suffering from uncontrollable nervous twitches, she was placed in a variety of school settings. Eventually her parents decided to keep her at home. Lucy spent this time at home writing in her journals and reading all the books in her father's vast home library.

Her father, a Chicago businessman, was vitally interested in expanding the educational, social, cultural, and economic base of the city. He brought a vast range of people, including John Dewey and Jane Addams, into the Sprague home. While her father was interested in the economic benefit of such associations, his daughter became caught up in the social reform efforts of Dewey and Addams and soon rejected her father's upper-class status.

Although only a teenager when she met Dewey, Lucy had read all his works. And despite little experience with the underprivileged people, she began reading to find an understanding of the population with whom Jane Addams worked. She would later say that "as an adolescent, I vigorously rejected the social standards of Father and his business friends . . . I was struggling to understand the world that Jane Addams stood for" (Mitchell, 1953, pp. 62, 66).

Formal Education and Career Decisions

The Sprague family moved to Southern California when Lucy was 16, due to her father's health problems. Lugs time was consumed nursing her father. Eventually, her twitching gone, she began leaving home each week to go to boarding school. Then an old friend invited Lucy to live in Massachusetts and attend Radcliffe. Writing later about that time of her life, Lucy said that she "wanted to live a normal life. And, yes, I wanted to escape from the burdens of home . . . I took my life in my hands and said I wanted to go" (Mitchell, 1953, pp.111,115). Lucy flourished at Radcliffe, graduating in 1900 with honors. She went on to work in university positions, eventually becoming the first dean of women students at the University of California, Berkeley.