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History
Elizabeth Morgan founded the Arthur
Morgan School in 1962 to provide a learning environment tailored for
children in their early teen-aged years. She believed that adolescence
is an especially crucial time in a child's development. Her chief
models were Maria Montessori, Gandhi and the innovative American
educator and activist Arthur Morgan. She also was influenced by N.S.F. Grundtvig, considered to be
the father of the Danish folk school movement, and the innovative Swiss
educator Johann Pestalozzi, whose methods
balanced three elements: hands, heart and head.
The philosophies and methods of these great educators emphasize the
development of the whole person through a combination of study,
practical experience, community living and personal responsibility. To
these, Elizabeth added her own Quaker values of simple living,
consensus decision-making, personal integrity, and nonviolent conflict
resolution.
When the Morgans organized family work camps to prepare the site for
the school, the enthusiasm that junior high students had for doing real
work became evident.
That experience confirmed for Elizabeth young adolescents' need for a
school where work, study, play and decision-making would be shared by
all. She and her husband, Ernest, Arthur Morgan's son, poured their
energies into making that dream a reality at AMS.
