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Little Red School House

Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School
(LREI)
Lil Red School Hs & Elisb Irwn HS jeh.jpg
Address
Lower & Middle School:
272 Sixth Avenue
High School:
40 Charlton Street

Manhattan, New York City,
New York

US
Information
Type Independent, Coeducational, and College Preparatory School
Established 1921
Founder Elisabeth Irwin
Faculty 50
Grades PreK–12
Campus Urban
Color(s) Red & White
Mascot The Knight
Accreditation NAIS, NYSAIS
Yearbook LREI Expressions
Affiliation NAIS, NYSAIS, Interschool
Website

Coordinates: 40°43′37″N 74°00′17″W / 40.72694°N 74.00472°W / 40.72694; -74.00472

The Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School, also referred to as LREI, was founded by Elisabeth Irwin in 1921 in Manhattan, New York City as the Little Red School House, and is regarded as the city's first progressive school. Created as a joint public-private educational experiment, the school tested principles of progressive education that had been advocated since the turn of the 20th century by John Dewey. The founders postulated that the lessons of progressive education could be applied successfully in the crowded, ethnically diverse public schools of the nation's largest city.

In 1932, after the onset of the Great Depression caused the Public Education Association to withdraw the funding that had allowed the school to exist within the New York City public school system, William O'Shea, the superintendent of schools – who had previously tried to close down the program because of its progressive ideas – announced that the school would be eliminated because of a budgetary crisis. Parents raised sufficient funds to pay for salaries, but O'Shea refused to accept the money, and the school was forced to turn to private funding. It moved to a building on Bleecker Street provided at no cost by the First Presbyterian Church and began a new life as an independent school.


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