Little Red School House Founded by Elisabeth Irwin
Elisabeth Irwin founded the Little Red School House in 1921 in the attic room of the P.S. 61 Annex at 535 East 16th Street as an alternative public elementary school. Parents and students loved the new dynamic learning community. It..Read More
First June Camp
From 1925 through the early 1960s, all LREI students spent the month of June in the country. This was called June Camp. LREI continues this tradition with a four-day trip for lower school students we now call the Farm Trip.
LRSH at P.S. 41
The Little Red School House at P.S. 41 on Greenwich Avenue in the heart of the Village opened in February of 1929 with 4 classes: two kindergartens and two first grades, numbering 90 children. Elisabeth Irwin felt the circumstances were..Read More
Roosevelt and Dewey Help LRSH
Upon reading the news, John Dewey fumed publicly that the Board’s decision to eliminate Elisabeth Irwin’s public-private partnership was “reactionary and an outrage.“ Eleanor Roosevelt, then First Lady of New York State, worked behind the scenes to gain support for..Read More
Board of Education Cuts Funding to LRSH
The Great Depression prompts the New York City Board of Education to announce that it will no longer fund Elisabeth Irwin’s progressive experiment at P.S.41. In the spring of 1932, the Great Depression was hitting every institution in American life..Read More
Parents Save LRSH
Parents meet at an ice cream parlor on Sixth Avenue and resolve to raise money to continue Little Red School House as an independent school.
Classes begin at 196 Bleecker Street
We opened that first fall with five groups of children, from 5 to 9 years old — 161 children in all. The next year we added a 10 year-old group. Each year we added another group, taking all children who..Read More
First Parent Association Meeting
The first parent association meeting is held in LRSH’s new building at 196 Bleecker Street.
International Exhibit of Children’s Paintings Benefit
In 1934, LRSH organized the first International Exhibition of Children’s Painting at Rockefeller Center, representing work from forty countries. It honored the creativity of children on a scale that had never been imagined before, let alone attempted. Eleanor Roosevelt, the..Read More
Children Experiment with Life
Students examine farm equipment at June Camp in the 1930s. “Just this, I should say is the task of education today – to change our school from monasteries into laboratories, laboratories not where educators experiment with children but where children..Read More
LRSH Purchases Bleecker Street Building
The Little Red School House purchases 196-198 Bleecker Street from The First Presbyterian Church, who had let the school use the building free of charge until then.
Critical Thinking
Students work independently, together, and with their teacher in this 1930s science classroom. Critical thinking must involve complete freedom of speech in the classroom. The child is not told what to think but rather is challenged to think straight. An..Read More
Democracy Pamphlet
As is promised in LREI’s mission statement, “Students graduate from our diverse community as active participants in our democratic society,…” Elisabeth Irwin and three of her early colleagues, in the language of the times, shares their thoughts on this important..Read More