School of Organic Education

Despite the difficulties and primitive conditions facing the early Fairhopers, provision was quickly made for a school. A lot on the corner of Fairhope Avenue and Section Street was set aside in 1896 and a rude frame building served some 26 pupils.

Children of Single-Taxers were charged fifty cents and others one dollar. In 1902 Marietta Johnson, a native of Minnesota, was hired to teach in the tiny colony. This woman was to have a profound effect on education in Fairhope, and before her death in 1938, somewhat of an impact on progressive education nationwide. Johnson received her training at the State Normal School in Saint Cloud, Minnesota. Her philosophy of teaching was profoundly influenced by Nathan Oppenheim's The Development of the Child (1898). Oppenheim stressed tasks as well as traditional academic courses in the educational process. By the summer of 1906 Marietta Johnson was using the term "Organic Education," taken from C. Hanford Henderson's Education and the Larger Life (1902).

Organic education was schooling aimed at nurturing the whole child - spiritual, mental, and physical. As the Courier defined it, "The child is a unit; body, mind, and spirit should be developed simultaneously. Growth should be unconscious and natural, It should be joyous and continuous, unhampered by striving for marks and promotions." With this philosophy as her focus, Johnson formally founded the School of Organic Education in November of 1907. The school began in a small cottage on Church Street and was free to locals. By 1908 there were fifty students. A typical days instruction included mathematics, wood shop work, arts and crafts, history, folk dancing, science and cooking. Grades and tests were dismissed as counterproductive in that they instilled
fear of failure rather than joy of learning. This educational experiment received widespread attention and endorsement. The New York Times sympathetically followed Organic's progress for years. Dr. John Dewey, a national figure in progressive education gave an enthusiastic review in his Schools of Tomorrow (1913) and noted intellectuals nationwide were drawn to visit this "utopia" in the deep south. In 1910 the Single-Tax Corporation purchased the Bell Building and provided ten acres of land rent free for the Organic School. Constructed in 1904 as a district school for the public schools, the Bell Building was a decided step up for the fledgling experiment in Organic education. This structure had brackets, palladian windows, a belfry and "two splendidly lighted rooms and a hall ten feet wide through the middle." By 1918 there were 131 students, many' of them foreign. These students boarded on the campus, providing an important source of revenue. The school prospered during the 1920s and consisted of nine buildings, over 200 students and 17 teachers. The close relations with the Single-Tax Colony were articulated by a planner in 1922, "The logical deduction of the spiritual leadership of the Organic School on the Single-Tax Colony is that the Organic principals are paramount in community life, not only in the school, but also in the city and that the laws of Organic structure and function assert their power and rule in all the scale of social life."-' Johnson traveled extensively promoting Organic education. She taught a regular summer course at Greenwich, Connecticut and eventually established nine satellite schools from New Jersey to California. She authored two books on the subject: Thirty Years with an Idea and Youth in a World of Men, both of which which were prosaic and dull. Friends were disappointed in these work's lack of excitement, something which Marietta Johnson conveyed so vividly in person. The depression years were difficult as outside revenue slacked off and boarders returned home. The 1930s was a period of one financial crisis after another for the Organic School. In addition, the tide of progressive education left the philosophy in its wake, never.to recover. Marietta Johnson died of exhaustion in 1938 and was mourned by a significant portion of Fairhope's population.

Despite persistent funding crises, Organic continued under subsequent leaders of lesser stature. The school also began to attract problem children which in turn lowered -its image. At present (1987) there are 22 students and the campus has been sold to Faulkner State Junior College. Leaders of the Organic School have pledged to continue.