Last year during a Board of Trustees retreat, our Head of School, Allison Gaines Pell, connected Wheeler's vibrant past to its dynamic future through research about the founders of The Wheeler School and their educational philosophies. Using memorable ideas and quotes as a framework, Allison guided the Board of Trustees, Division Directors, and a number of faculty to engage with the challenging and exciting task of developing a forward-thinking path for Wheeler. What was intriguing to learn is that by following a path toward student-centered learning experiences of inquiry and innovation we were fostering the belief of Miss Wheeler and second Head of School Mary Helena Dey "that all real teaching must concern itself with individuals" (Carmichael).
How had these early women leaders of Wheeler developed a learning experience for young women that celebrated their individuality while preparing them for college and life in the wider world? Among the essays, newspaper articles, as well as tributes in our School Archives, the answer was found in the work of Miss Dey "who effectively brought about reforms in which she was interested. She did not just talk about them"(Carmichael). A very astute Miss Wheeler, inspired by Dewey's work as something "quite revolutionary," recruited Miss Dey to her new progressive school in Providence with an opportunity to plan a school life "in the light of newer educational theory and practice, with girls as the center of interest." Miss Dey left her graduate studies and deanship at University High School in Chicago and with Miss Wheeler's endorsement and a "free hand with the educational planning of the school" followed her own unique ideas incorporating the best of the "new movement" of John Dewey with her own emerging philosophies of education. As a result, Wheeler School came "to stand for something soundly new in the East"(Dey 17). According to Miss Dey" in reorganizing the school, we set before us the goal of making it not a world apart, but a real world with the world and in contact with the world "(19).
Working closely with the faculty, Miss Dey orchestrated changes that are still part of the DNA of Wheeler and make a clear connection to the metacognitive and constructivist qualities embedded in the current strategic innovation initiatives of the school. Miss Dey faced some of the challenges of broadening the curriculum, modification of the schedule to create “ a very uncramped sort of school day and a course of study which made room for keeping alive special interests which vivified all of a student’s intellectual life” and “infusing all work with new interest.” Miss Dey, who died September 7, 1949, was an intellectual and brilliant educator who manifested progressive ideas in an individualized curriculum that prepared young women for college and the world. Mary Helena Dey believed that “life in a school has to a marked degree the element of continuity, the past is gathered about us and we are constantly and readily looking into the future” and that “the spirit within which we seek knowledge and share our findings gives life to our learning” (Dey 23).
Bibliography
Blosser, Myra H. "Alcott was right about his friend Mary C Wheeler: for she did prove an unusual teacher at the school here." Providence Sunday Journal (Providence), April 9, 1939, 2-3.
Carmichael, Leonard. Memorandum, "Mary Helena Dey; a brief appreciation," n.d. Mary Helena Dey #2 1920-1940. Wheeler School Archives. Wheeler School, Providence.
Dey, Mary Helena. "The Second Quarter of the Century." 1939. In Half a Century of Girls 1889-1939, 17-23. Providence, RI: The Mary C Wheeler School, 1939.
