Lucy Wheelock
American early childhood education pioneer
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Through Massachusetts and Montreal
Early life and education
Lucy Wheelock was born in Cambridge, Vermont, February 1, 1857. Her parents included Edwin and Laura (Pierce) Wheelock, and five siblings. Her father, a descendant of John Adams, had been a pastor for many years in Cambridge.
Wheelock's education began under the care of her mother. She was a student at the Underhill Academy in Vermont, and the public high school in Reading, Massachusetts, from which she graduated in 1874. In preparation for entry to Wellesley College, she studied at Chauncy-Hall School, in Boston, where she became an excellent classical and German scholar, and a writer of both prose and verse. Towards the close of her course in that school, she was drawn towards the education of very young children according to the kindergarten system, and abandoned her plans for Wellesley. Instead, she took a thorough course of instruction at the Kindergarten Training School conducted by Ella Frances Snelling Hatch, receiving her diploma in 1879 from Elizabeth Peabody. She continued her studies in Europe under Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and Maria Montessori.
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Career
Educator
Wheelock began to teach in the recently established kindergarten of the Chauncy-Hall School, remaining in that role for about 10 years. Her work made her a successful exponent and advocate of the system of Friedrich Fröbel, which she was often called upon to expound before educational institutes and conventions. For at least four years, she taught a training class of candidates for the kindergarten service, coming from all parts of the United States and Canada, increasing in number from year to year.
Established in 1888, she was the founder and head of Wheelock Kindergarten Training School. It became Wheelock College in 1939, or 1945. She served as president of the International Kindergarten Union (I.K.U., 1895–99); and was the chair of its Committee of Nineteen (1905–09) and chair, of the Committee for the Fröbel Pilgrimage (1911).
Lecturer
Her interest in young children led her into Sunday school work, and she soon became superintendent of a large primary class connected with the Berkeley Temple, in Boston. Her success in that work won her a reputation, and she became a favorite speaker in Sunday school institutes and gatherings, as well as those for general educational purposes in New England, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St Louis, Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Montreal. Wheelock devoted a great part of her summer vacation to work of that sort. She also taught a large class of adults in the Summer School of Methods in Martha's Vineyard, and gave a model lesson weekly, for eight months in the year, to a class of about 200 primary Sunday school teachers.
Writer and translator
In addition to her lecture work, Wheelock translated for Barnard's Journal of Education several important German works, and contributed many practical articles to other educational journals. She also translated and published several of Johanna Spyri's popular stories for children, under the title of Red Letter Tales. She published weekly in The Congregationalist Magazine a department called "Hints to Primary Teachers", in the same line of work. Her unpublished autobiography is titled My life story.
Personal life and death
Wheelock was a member of the Twentieth Century Club. She died in Boston, October 1, 1946. Her papers are held by Wheelock College.