Elizabeth Peabody
| Elizabeth Palmer Peabody | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
May 16, 1804 Billerica, Massachusetts, USA |
| Died |
January 3, 1894 (aged 89) Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts |
| Education | Tutored in Greek by Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| Occupation | Teacher Writer/Editor |
| Parent(s) | Nathaniel Peabody, Elizabeth "Eliza" Palmer |
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (May 16, 1804 – January 3, 1894) was an American educator who opened the first English-language kindergarten in the United States. Long before most educators, Peabody embraced the premise that children's play has intrinsic developmental and educational value.
Peabody also served as the translator for the first English version of a Buddhist scripture which was published in 1844.
Peabody was born in Billerica, Massachusetts on May 16, 1804. She was the daughter of Nathaniel Peabody, a physician, and Elizabeth ("Eliza") Palmer (1778-1853), and spent her early years in Salem. After 1822 she resided principally in Boston where she engaged in teaching. She also became a writer and a prominent figure in the Transcendental movement. During 1834–1835, she worked as assistant teacher to Amos Bronson Alcott at his experimental Temple School in Boston. After the school closed, Peabody published Record of a School, outlining the plan of the school and Alcott's philosophy of early childhood education, which had drawn on German models.
She later opened a book store, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody's West Street Bookstore, at her home in Boston (ca.1840-1852).
It was there that the "Conversations" were held, organized by Margaret Fuller. The first of these meetings between women was held on November 6, 1839. Topics for these discussions and debates varied but subjects were as diverse as fine arts, history, mythology, literature, and nature. Fuller served as the "nucleus of conversation" and hoped to answer the "great questions" facing women: "What were we born to do? How shall we do it? which so few ever propose to themselves 'till their best years are gone by". Many figures in the woman's rights movement took part, including Sophia Dana Ripley, Caroline Sturgis, and Maria White Lowell.
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