Lesley University
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| Motto | Perissem Ni Perstitissem (Latin) |
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Motto in English
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I Had Perished Had I Not Persisted |
| Type | Private, coeducational |
| Established | 1909 |
| Endowment | $189.8 million |
| President | Jeff A. Weiss |
| Provost | Selase Williams |
| Students | 9,625 |
| Undergraduates | 1,857 |
| Postgraduates | 7,768 |
| Location | Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Campus | Urban; 13.76 acres (5.57 ha) |
| Calendar | Semester |
| Colors | Green and White |
| Athletics |
NCAA Division III New England Collegiate Conference |
| Nickname | Lynx |
| Website | www |
Lesley University is a private, coeducational university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers education, expressive therapies, creative writing, counseling, and fine arts programs.
The university is a member of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges,National Association of Schools of Art and Design, New England Collegiate Conference, and the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design.
The modern Lesley University is the result of a merger between two institutions and their subsequent integration into a single institution. History prior to 1998 is of the two formerly independent institutions.
The Lesley School (also known as Lesley Normal School) was founded by Edith Lesley in 1909 at her home at 29 Everett Street, Cambridge. The school began as a private women's institution that trained kindergarten teachers. As such, it espoused the work of Friedrich Froebel, who invented the concept of kindergarten as a complement to the care given children by their mothers. Teacher and writer Elizabeth Peabody opened Boston's first Froebel-inspired kindergarten in 1860; more kindergartens followed. Central to the Froeblian philosophy is the idea that individuals are important and unique, a focus that remains today at Lesley University.
Edith Lesley, after having lived in Panama and Maine and studied in Freiburg, Germany, moved to Boston and became involved with public school teaching. She completed kindergarten training, took courses at Radcliffe College, and then began to plan her own kindergarten training school. She wanted a school that would "consider the individual of basic importance; to inculcate the idea of gracious living; and to foster the tradition of American democracy." [quote from "A Century of Innovation," Brown and Forinash, eds.] Now married, Lesley and her husband expanded the school by constructing an addition at the rear of their home, which today is known as Livingston Stebbins Hall.
Around 1913, the Lesley School began training for elementary teachers. In 1941, the Lesley School reorganized under a board of trustees; in 1944, it received authority to award baccalaureate degrees and became known as Lesley College. In 1954, the college began to award graduate degrees; it later added majors in the fields of education, counseling, human services, global studies, art therapy, and management.
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