| "The
story of Carson College is one of many stories that, taken together,
answer the question, What happened to progressivism? . . . Contosta
tells this story clearly and succinctly while avoiding the trap of
excessive detail that characterizes many institutional histories.
Based solidly on primary materials and interwoven with relevant secondary
literature, Philadelphia's Progressive Orphanage is a model
institutional study."-Journal of American History
"The Carson Valley School has been an institutional embodiment
of Progressivism. David Contosta is very effective in making the
links between the larger Progressive ideology and the specifics
of Carson. He has cast the story of this unique institution in a
way that will maximize its interest for the history of education,
social work, philanthropy, and urban institutions."-Robert Fishman,
Rutgers University, Camden
For more than seventy-five years, the Carson Valley School has
served the needs of orphaned girls and other dependent children
from Philadelphia and neighboring Pennsylvania counties. Its hundred-acre
campus is remarkable for its rolling terrain, neo-medieval buildings,
and design as a fantasy village.
A legacy of the progressive education movement of the early decades
of the twentieth century, the school was formally opened in 1918
as the Carson College for Orphan Girls. Its first president, Elsa
Ueland, was a former settlement house worker who was a student of
John Dewey and Maria Montessori, and her life story is closely intertwined
with that of the school she oversaw for nearly half a century.
The institution was originally endowed by the $5 million estate
of Philadelphia trolley magnate Robert N. Carson, who had stipulated
in his will that it could receive only white, parentless girls.
Over the decades, Ueland and her successors were able to remove
these restrictions, so that by the 1970s Carson Valley was admitting
children regardless of race or gender, as well as neglected and
dependent youths whose needs were every bit as pressing as those
of orphans of earlier times.
David Contosta's history of Carson Valley shows that it has long
been a model of progressive education. Its faculty is dedicated
to serving the individual needs of each child, preparing students
to enter the workplace, and breaking down artificial barriers between
school and the outside world. Drawing on Ueland's personal papers
to communicate both her hopes for the Progressive era and her achievements
during the early years of the school, Contosta tells how teachers
and housemothers forged a unique collaboration that joined home
and school in ways that other progressive educators could only dream
of. He also notes the architectural significance of its enchanting
facilities, which have played an integral part in the institution's
treatment program.
Philadelphia's Progressive Orphanage clearly shows not
only how Carson Valley has been shaped by a multitude of social,
cultural, and political forces, but also how many of the reforms
of the Progressive era remain in place today. It establishes Carson's
place in the history of education and child welfare and makes an
important contribution to renewed debate about orphanages and dependent
child care. |
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