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"Each child had a garden, in which he planted what he pleased and as he pleased; he cultivated it or not as he pleased; he did what he pleased with the product. Unless he asked for help, he got no help. he was not compelled to follow rules by fear of punishment. but you may feel quite certain that as soon as his interest was aroused (and that grew with magical rapidity ) he was eager in his quest for information, and information which he got by asking for it he respected, remembered, and would follow. He, himself, had individually acquired that information. It had not been thrust on him." (Marietta Johnson)
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These words come very close to describing the foundation on which Mrs. Johnson built her concepts for the "Organic School." Each child would respond at their own pace to the need for information. If the child were presented with a challenge and the information needed to accomplish the task, they would, on their on, absorb the necessary tools. In doing so, because it was their idea and their accomplishment and wasn't forced on them, they would not forget the lesson. A very novel idea for the early 1900's. This concept was not totally new. It was gleaned from her own experience as a teacher and a study of the great education revolutionists of her time such as John Dewey who wrote Schools of Tomorrow and Nathan Oppenheim in his 1898 book, The Development of the Child. Mrs. Johnson made these concepts reality however, by creating the School of Organic Education in 1907 at Fairhope, Alabama. Her legacy lives on in the school today.
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