Marietta Johnson

Radical Educator

and

Instrument of God‟s Peace

I‘d like to make clear from the beginning that I do not fashion

myself an authority on Marietta Johnson‘s spirituality. I have

simply prepared a presentation of my interpretation of readings

about her work that I have come across and how they seem to me

to indicate a very spiritual perspective. Many of you may have a

greater understanding of Marietta Johnson‘s work having

attended the Organic School yourselves and quite possibly there

are those of you who have differing perspectives on her work. I

thank you for allowing me to present mine to you here.

Just as the philosopher Jean Jacque Rousseau paved the way

for the French Revolution and Tolstoy, the Bolshevik

Revolution, Marietta Johnson at the turn of the last century

dreamed of paving the way for a revolution in the education of

children. Education was life itself to Marietta Johnson and

should be a growing, changing, life-long process which she

chose to call ―Organic.‖ Her radical philosophy of education was

indeed revolutionary and was made practical in the experimental

school she founded in Fairhope, Alabama. In 1907, believing that

organic education was the ―salvation of the day‖ Mrs. Johnson

said, ‖Let the triune organism – body , mind, spirit – develop

today and tomorrow we will approach perfection.―

Let me back up a bit here and tell you a little about how

Marietta Johnson came to believe so strongly in her organic

method of educating children. Born Marietta Louise Pierce on

October 8, 1864, near St. Paul, Minnesota, she grew up in a

closely knit, farming family that included a twin sister and six

other siblings. Marietta attended public school in St. Paul and

graduated in 1885 from the State Normal School at St. Cloud.

She began her work as a teacher with five years of service in

rural Minnesota schools and taught every elementary school

grade and several high school subjects on her way to becoming a

"training" or "critic" teacher in the normal schools at St. Paul and

Moorhead, Minnesota. She had an enthusiastic and charismatic

personality and her faith in herself was always a hallmark of her

personal style.

That faith was shaken however to its foundation in 1901,

when she had an epiphany of sorts which she called ―a

conversion experience." Marietta Johnson used this religious

imagery to explain the intensity of her experience which began

when she read the 1898 book, The Development of the Child, by

Nathan Oppenheim. Dr. Oppenheim was a pediatrician at Mt.

Sinai Hospital in New York City and one of the country‘s first

child developmental theorists. He wrote, "The world has a wrong

idea of its children." Parents and teachers who think of children

as "adults in small" and of childhood as a time for mastering

adult behavior are causing children harm--in some cases

irreparable harm.‖

According to Dr. Oppenheim, children are "absolutely

different from adults, not only in size, but also in every element

which goes to make up the final state of maturity." Seeing

children as constantly changing, Oppenheim wrote that they

needed "special treatment and a special environment" to guide

and encourage their development.

As Marietta Johnson read on, she began to question virtually

everything she had ever learned about teaching. She felt remorse

and shame at what she had been teaching teachers and convinced

herself that her efforts had violated the "order of development of

the child‘s nervous system". Marietta Johnson‘s revolutionary

method of educating children resulted from this awareness and

she called Dr. Oppenheim's book her "Educational Bible."

Supplemented with works by John Dewey, Friedrick Froebel and

other child-centered educators as well as the spiritual writings of

Emmett Fox and philosophers Thoreau and Rousseau, Marietta

Johnson‘s philosophy took its shape.

I‘d like to call your attention to lines written by some of the

spiritual writers and philosophers whose works influenced

Marietta Johnson‘s philosophy of education. Along-side these

quotes are ones by Marietta Johnson which demonstrate the

similarities in their thinking.

“What you get by

achieving your

goals is not as

important as what

you become by

achieving your

goals.”

Henry David Thoreau

“Why is it that

with increased

intellectual power,

we often have

tremendous

spiritual poverty?”

Marietta Johnson

”We should not

teach children the

sciences; but give

them a taste for

them.”

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“All teachers and

parents should use

the motto:

„Direction without

domination; liberty

without license.‟

Marietta Johnson

“Make no

comparisons with

other children – no

competitors.”

Jean-Jacque Rousseau

“I want him to learn,…

not from books but

from things,”

Jean-Jacque Rousseau

“Any school system in which one child may fail while another succeeds is unjust, undemocratic, uneducational.“

Marietta Johnson

“Instead of being taught facts, children should be helped to understand their experiences.”

Marietta Johnson

“One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken.”

Leo Tolstoy

“In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”

Leo Tolstoy

“All children need

nature and to enjoy

and experience

things out of doors

– all this is highly

educational for

younger and also

for older children.”

Marietta Johnson

“The letter killeth

but the spirit

giveth life.”

Jesus

“Love one another.”

Jesus

“The child should be saved from creeds and doctrines. He should be helped to grow in unselfishness.”

Marietta Johnson

“True spiritual consciousness rejoices in the presence of an infinite love, a love that includes all life.”

Marietta Johnson

“Orthodox

Christianity seems

to be made up of

attempts to enforce

all sorts of rules

and outward ritual

observances.”

Emmet Fox

“Life, and life more

abundant, is ours for

the taking. This does

not mean we should

teach religious dogma

to the little child. It

means we should

merely let him live

sincerely, frankly, and

child-like.”

Marietta Johnson

”The art of life is to

live in the present

moment, and to make

that moment as

perfect as we can by

the realization that

we are the

instruments and

expression of God

Himself.”

Emmet Fox

“True spiritual consciousness is a consciousness that reaches out with perfect confidence and joy toward the finer, higher life that is man‟s by right of his divine essence.”

Marietta Johnson

Marietta Johnson recognized man‘s divine essence and called

this spirit ―Love.‖ She wrote, ―Love is spirit and no child

prospers in spirit except its spiritual needs are fed by Love.‖ In

choosing the teachers for her school Mrs. Johnson insisted on

three fundamental requisites and the first and most important to

her was ―that they love, understand, and be sincerely interested

in children.‖ The second was that they have sufficient

scholarship and the third, that they be interested in all matters of

social welfare.‖

Marietta Johnson‘s life‘s work took on such zeal that it

bordered on the religious and it is my opinion that she served as

―An Instrument of God‘s Peace.‖ In the educating of children,

where there had been rigidity, she introduced flexibility and

creativity, where there had been criticism, she offered

acceptance, where there had been fear, she encouraged self-

confidence and where there had been competition, she modeled a

spirit of cooperation and mutual respect. She may not have

espoused a particular religious philosophy for her students to

follow but Marietta Johnson‘s faith in children and her zeal and

dedication to their education translated into her passing on to

them what she felt were important spiritual values.

My sister in law Mary Lois Timbes confirmed for me that the

spirit with which Marietta Johnson founded the Organic School

still prevailed during her years at the school. A member of the

Organic School‘s 1958 graduating class, Mary Lois told me that

there were no classes in religion nor were there any classes in

self-confidence. Her exact words were, ―We had a spirit of love

for each other and for our school that transcended the ability to

articulate it. In her book Youth in a World of Men, Mrs. Johnson

wrote that the mention of God -- the entity that might sit on a

distant throne -- was not the way to imbue young children with

such a spirit. She felt spiritual awareness would thrive in a

healthy, loving atmosphere.‖

It was in this healthy, loving atmosphere that Marietta

Johnson provided children a place where they could be

appreciated for who they were and enjoy their childhood free

from the fear of not measuring up as well as from the pressures

that can accompany reward.

Grades were never used to motivate Marietta Johnson‘s

students nor were they revealed to the students or their parents.

Teachers did keep records and grades were sent to the State as

required by law for high school students. In fact, while speaking

with Frankie Laraway recently, I learned that he had come across

his records many years after graduating from the Organic School

and to this day cannot understand why he did not get an ―A‖ in

Dr. Campbell‘s Physics class. I‘m sure it must have been an

oversight, Frankie.

For the younger students up until high school, there were no

tests or grades at the Organic School. Each child was expected to

simply show up and do his or her best. Because of this nurturing

atmosphere of acceptance, Marietta Johnson‘s students came to

love learning for its own sake rather than for the grade it might

earn them. As strongly as she believed children should not be

manipulated into behaving in a prescribed way through strict

religious teachings, Mrs. Johnson believed that assigning grades

to students‘ work encouraged them to be manipulative and

insincere. It was her intention that her students find the

experience of learning to be its own reward.

Marietta Johnson‘s revolutionary and radical method of

educating children gained her the attention of many prominent

individuals of the times. Among those individuals who lent their

support to the visionary educator was soap magnate Joseph Fels

whose $11,000 gift underwrote much of the school's early

growth and helped the school move in 1909 to a new location

one block off Fairhope's main street, to the school building and

ten-acre site the Fairhope Single Tax Colony provided rent and

utility free. That same building now houses the Marietta Johnson

Museum.

Mrs. Alexander Graham Bell, Mrs. Woodrow Wilson and

Mrs. Henry Ford were among other prominent patrons who

helped sponsor Mrs. Johnson‘s lecture tours which took her all

across this country and abroad. It was on one such trip abroad in

1925, that Marietta Johnson was a presenter along with Dr.

Maria Montessori at a conference in Heidelberg, Germany.

Visitors to the Marietta Johnson Museum often ask me how the

two educators‘ philosophies compare. Both women founded

schools in the same year, 1907. Dr. Montessori, a psychiatrist,

started her experiment in an inner city neighborhood in Rome,

Italy while Mrs. Johnson started her school in Fairhope,

Alabama. While both philosophies were child-centered, from

what I have read, Maria Montessori‘s philosophy of education

called for a more specific curriculum than did Marietta Johnson‘s

method which put into practice Mrs. Johnson belief that a child

should have the freedom to be guided by his or her own natural,

instinctive curiosity.

As far as our topic this morning is concerned it is interesting

to note that Dr. Montessori was a Roman Catholic and my

understanding of her method in its early days is that it reflected a

Catholic orientation. While Marietta Johnson considered herself

a Christian, she espoused no particular religious philosophy at

her school. Rather she encouraged reverence in her students for

nature and all of creation as well as compassion and honesty in

their dealings with one another.

Because of her lecture tours and her particular popularity in

the New York City area where the New York Times regularly

gave Marietta Johnson positive publicity, including a full-page

interview in March of 1913, the radical educator gained

widespread attention. Soon after the 1913 interview ran, a group

of socially prominent women in Greenwich, Connecticut, formed

the Fairhope League which was later to be called The Fairhope

Educational Foundation. The Foundation served as a fund raising

entity for the fledgling little school in far off Fairhope, Alabama.

These same women supported Marietta Johnson‘s Fairhope

Summer School which was also known as The Edgewood

School where she conducted an ongoing summer school in

Greenwich for teachers, parents, and others interested in organic

education.

Interestingly enough, Henry Ford considered endowing Mrs.

Johnson‘s Organic School in Fairhope, but ultimately decided

not to lend his financial support - it is thought - because of its

lack of religious instruction. Throughout Marietta Johnson‘s

writings, we see illustrated her belief in the importance of

spirituality over organized religion.

In her first book, Youth in a World of Men, Mrs. Johnson

wrote very pointedly about spirituality and religion in the lives of

children. She states that ―being taught to live a sincere, frank and

open life is the best way to bring out a child's innate spiritual and

moral sense,‖ and continues to add that ―a child's interpretation

of so-called religious teaching can lead to the idea of an

anthropomorphic god who is merely a big man off on a throne

somewhere, who may or may not be good to him.‖ ―This, she

writes, is probably the worst thing that can come to a child."

In Marietta Johnson‘s Organic School, a child would be and I

quote, ―allowed to live in such a simple, sincere way as

eventually to develop the idea that his relation to God is

expressed in his love for his fellow men and his relation to his

fellow men indicates his relation to the Divine." She wrote, "He

grows in this thing called love, the essence of which is giving;

his religion will be one of devoting himself utterly to causes and

objects of his affection, and this affection will grow in

confidence in himself, in his fellows, and in the universe."

Also on the subject of religion in her book Youth in a World

of Men, Mrs. Johnson writes, ―Man is too apt to meddle; he is

too anxious to make others do right. This, of course, is an

egotistical self-consciousness, very far from a true religious

spirit. In our zeal to 'save souls' we may be anything but

religious. Too often our 'love of God' makes us quite intolerant

and critical of our fellows."

Social Justice was another important dimension of Marietta

Johnson‘s philosophy of education and is clear evidence of the

deep spirituality that lay beneath it. I use the term spirituality

here in the sense that I believe Marietta Johnson used the word –

as it connotes unity and inter-dependence rather than

separateness or distinction. Fairhope, being an experimental

community founded in 1894 on ideals that fostered a more

equitable opportunity for all members of society— not simply

the wealthy, was an ideal setting for Marietta Johnson‘s

experimental school. The early single taxers appreciated Marietta

Johnson‘s philosophy of education which recognized the value of

fostering those ideals early in a child‘s formation and as I

mentioned earlier, they supported her efforts by donating the 10

acre parcel of land and the school house in the center of town.

Again in her book Youth in a World of Men Mrs. Johnson

writes, "Education must prevent prejudice, and preserve the open

mind. If education ministers to growth, the reward at each step

will be capacity for more growth. This capacity will be

evidenced by keenness of interest, by strength of concentration,

by spontaneity and sincerity, by a growing appreciation of others

and a consciousness of interdependence – the developing of the

socialized mind."

And she adds, "Every subject in the curriculum should be

studied, not to prepare for college, not to master the subject, not

even to ―prepare for life,‖ but rather for the joy of clear thinking,

for the development of power, the establishment of a center of

thought and understanding and a love of truth that cannot be

shaken by prejudice or greed."

In 1910, along with NAACP founder W. E. B. Du Boise,

Marietta Johnson spoke to members of the Twentieth Century

Club in Buffalo, New York. Founded in 1894, The Twentieth

Century Club was the first social club in this country run by

women for women. No doubt at that meeting in 1910, Marietta

Johnson and Dr. Du Boise exchanged ideas on the equality of the

races.

Sadly back in Fairhope, because of the cultural norms of the

times, the ideals inherent in Marietta Johnson‘s beliefs and her

Organic Philosophy of Education as well as those of the early

Fairhope Single Taxers were deemed impractical and believed to

jeopardize both Fairhope experiments. Unfortunately as a result,

both the Organic School and the Colony were segregated despite

the intentions and ideals of their founders.

It was not until the high school years that a prayer was

introduced into school life at Marietta Johnson‘s Organic School.

A non-sectarian prayer of reverence for the planet believed

written by Mrs. Johnson was said at each morning‘s assembly.

You will find it printed here.

Organic School Prayer

Give us thy harmony, O Lord,

That we may understand,

The beauty of the sky,

The rhythm of the soft wind's lullaby,

The sun, the shadows, the woods in the spring,

And thy great love

That dwells in everything.

We find no dogma nor strict religious teaching in Mrs.

Johnson‗s prayer. What we do find is a deep respect for the

handy-work of the Creator as well as a plea that we might live in

harmony and be ever mindful of the presence of love in all of

creation.

At Marietta Johnson‘s School of Organic Education, children

found that presence of love. It was expressed in the respect and

acceptance they were shown and encouraged to show to one

another. Children were encouraged to enjoy their childhood and

because each child was allowed to grow at his own individual

pace and expectations were simply for him to do his best, there

were no failures at Mrs. Johnson‘s school.

The ―Prolonging of Childhood,‖ Mrs. Johnson said was the

―Hope of the Race.‖ I believe those words are as true today as

when Marietta Johnson spoke them. After-all, a child‘s sincere,

open, honest and accepting nature along with a child‘s sense of

wonder and curiosity encourage an atmosphere which brings

about what we most need in today‘s world and can best be

described as harmony – where all people live with mutual

respect, beautifully blending together as ONE.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts on

Marietta Johnson and her beautiful, nurturing philosophy of

Organic Education and I invite you to come by and visit me soon

at the Marietta Johnson Museum which is located at 10 S. School

St. Fairhope, Alabama in the west wing of the historic Bell

Building.

Maggie Mosteller-Timbes, Director

Marietta Johnson Museum

January 24, 2013