Sebastian Hinton
| Carmelita Hinton | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Carmelita Chase April 20, 1890 Omaha, NB, U.S. |
| Died | January 16, 1983 |
| Spouse(s) | Sebastian Hinton |
| Children | Jean Hinton (1917-2002) William H. Hinton (1919-2004) Joan Hinton (1921-2010) |
| Parent(s) |
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| Relatives |
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Carmelita Hinton (née Chase, April 20, 1890 - January 16, 1983) was an American progressive educator. She is best known as the founder in 1935 of The Putney School, a progressive boarding school in Vermont.
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Hinton was one of four children. Her father, Clement Chase, who owned a newspaper and a bookstore, was a women's rights advocate and encouraged Hinton's energetic nature and belief that she could do what she wished with her life. Her mother, Lula Belle Edwards, disagreed and tried unsuccessfully to mold Hinton into a more traditional woman's role. During her years at the Omaha's Episcopal School for Girls, Hinton found herself bored with the traditional education and turned to various extra curricular activities including working as an assistant in her father's store and playing tennis. At Bryn Mawr College, where she trained as a teacher, Hinton found a greater love of reading and the type of education she had been seeking earlier in life. She graduated in 1912, then moved to Chicago, where she lived at Hull House in 1913 as secretary to Jane Addams. At Hull House she enrolled in a two-year course on the playground, and soon after married Sebastian Hinton, a lawyer.
Shortly after the wedding, she opened a nursery school based in their house and a park nearby. The school was considered a success, seeing its enrollment numbers doubling annually. Sebastian aided in her work by inventing various bits of playground equipment, and is credited with patenting the first playground jungle gym. During the first six years of their marriage, the Hintons had three children, all of whom attended their mother's school. The family later moved to Winnetka, Illinois.
Having frequently struggled with depression, in 1923 Sebastian checked himself into a clinic for treatment, but while there he committed suicide. Hinton was stunned by the events, and according to Susan McIntosh Lloyd, told only her siblings and her best friend, Jane Arms, the truth about Sebastian's death. His own children did not know how he really died until it was accidentally revealed to them by the same biographer. Hinton began teaching kindergarten at the North Shore Country Day School to keep herself busy. Feeling Winnetka was becoming a "society suburb", she moved her children to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1925 and began teaching at the Shady Hill School. She later moved again to a farm in Weston, Massachusetts.
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