Manumit School

The Manumit School ("manumit" in Latin means freedom from slavery) was an "experimental" Christian socialist boarding school in Pawling, New York. and, in 1944, Bristol, Pennsylvania.

Founded on purchased farm land in 1924 by Rev. William and Helen Fincke, it was formally called The Manumit School for Workers' Children. Its teachings were meant to provide a "progressive," "workers education" slant during a time of increasing soclialist optimism in America. Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn worked here as an English and Drama teacher until 1929.

History

in 1924, Rev. William Mann Fincke and his wife, Helen Hamlin, founded Manumit as an elementary level, co-educational, boarding school on a working farm in Pawling, New York. It was closely associated with a number of NYC labor unions. A. J. Muste was Chair of Manumit Associates/Board for a number of years.[1]

In 1926 Henry R. Linville became interim director upon illness of Rev. Fincke.[2]

In 1927 Rev. Fincke died.[3]

In 1927/28 Nellie M. Seeds became director.[4]

In 1933 William Mann Fincke (son of Rev. WMF & Hamlin) became co-director, with wife, Mildred Gignoux. [“By 1933 the school was debt-ridden…and only a half dozen pupils remained....” “Sometimes the children’s welfare seemed subordinated to indoctrination of pet political and social ideas favored by directors or staff members…”[5]

In 1938/39, the Progressive Schools' Committee for Refugee Children formed under leadership of Mildred and William Fincke. At least 23 Jewish refugee children attended Manumit.[6]

In 1942, the first two years of high school added to the elementary school.[7]

In 1943, William I. Stephenson became director. WM Fincke attended Yale University to pursue doctorate.[8]

On October 25, 1943, fire destroyed the major school building, the “Mill”. Most school records weredestroyed.

In 1944, William M. Fincke resumed directorship with wife, Amelia Evans.[9] The school was moved to Bristol, Bensalem Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.[10]

In 1947, Benjamin C.G. Fincke, son of the founders, with wife, Magdalene (“Magda”) Joslyn, became co-director.

In 1949, the fFinal two years of high school were added.

In 1950, the school adopted the “work project” experiment.[11]

The first full high school graduation took place in 1951. From 1950-57, there were between 43 and 52 graduates: of 42 on a list, 29 attended colleges, 3 art schools, 1 technical school.[12]

In 1954 Benjamin Fincke resigned.[13] John A. Lindlof, student at Pawling and teacher at Bristol, became Co-Director.[14]

In the mid-1950s, “Negro children had reached 14%;” children of Asian descent had reached 8%.[15]

In 1956, overt external attacks on school began, including fire hazard inspections: “Local political manipulations are suspected because housing projects have recently surrounded the school and certain residents may object to the interracial status of the school, or local promoters may see the value of the school property.…”[16]

In 1957/58, the school was closed following denial of license renewal for 1958 by the State Board of Private Academic Schools, Pennsylvania Department of Public Instruction. Subsequently, school records were destroyed. The Board inspector ”has singled this school out for complaint over a long period of time, and there is every reason to believe that she is prejudiced against an integrated school, and against its director….” [17]

William Mann Fincke died on January 4, 1968 in Stonington CT. He had been teaching remedial reading in the area since 1963.[18]

Notable students

Sources

Manumit School Web-Site <manumitschool.com> & Manumit School Archive, New York University, Tamiment Library] [much of Wikipedia posting by Mike Speer, former Manumit student,1945-49.]

References

  1. ↑ “A New Community School,” The Survey, 10/15/1924 & Rev. W. M. Fincke, “Elsie Wins a Point and We Get a View of Manumit,” Labor Age, 11/1925. “an alliance of progressive labor and progressive education” See: Scott Walter, “Labor's Demonstration School: The Manumit School for Workers' Children, 1924-1932,” 1998. 26 pp. (ERIC: ED473025) See: Threescore: The Autobiography of Sarah N. Cleghorn (1936) p. 253-81. Cleghorn, a poet, taught at early Brookwood, then Manumit, 1924 to early 1930s.
  2. ↑ “The Manumit Yearbook: 1927,” 38 pp., includes group activity descriptions, lists of Associates, staff, and of current and former students, Web-site][Linville a founder of, and active in, NYC Teachers Union/TU (one of the precursors of the UFT) from 1916 into the 1930s
  3. ↑ “GALLANT SPIRIT passed from us…” The Nation, 6/15/1927. New York Times, 6/1/1927. Memorial Service notes, 24 pages, June 7, 1924 at Timiment Library.
  4. ↑ Nellie Seeds: “Democracy in the Making at Manumit School,” The Nation, 6/1/1927; “Labor’s Laboratory School,” The Survey, 6/15/1927; “Manumit’s Contribution to Social Reconstruction,” Progressive Education, 5/1931. Annual Conference of the Manumit Associates: ”Learning Through Doing;” (1928); “Creative Education,” (1929); “Educational Groundwork for a Changing Social Order,” (1931); NY University Tamiment Library.] [Seeds resigned in 1933; joined NY State Education Department. Died, 1946.]
  5. ↑ William L. Stephenson, “A Brief Note on Manumit School,” 1943, Web site)] [William & Mildred were both experienced with “experimental/ progressive” education in NYC. On his background re progressive education see: Fincke, “History” in “Manuscript,” 1949. Web-site.
  6. ↑ Time magazine, 3/27/39). (See also: records of German-Jewish Children's Aid, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, NYC.)
  7. ↑ “Broad Meadows” campus. See: Barbara Dutton Dretzin 2006 Web-site & 2/21/12 e-mail recollections; Steve Stevenson, “Manumit,”11 page recollections, Web-site.
  8. ↑ “Theory of Knowledge,” selections from blank verse paper, 100+ pages, c. 1944, NY University Tamiment Library
  9. ↑ W. M. Fincke, “A Philosophy of Discipline” (1941) & W. M. Fincke, “Memorandum on Manumit School” (n.d. probably late 1940s), Web-site.] [On Amelia re Manumit see WMF, “History” in “Manuscript,” 1949, Web-site. In mid-1960s Amelia was Superintendent of Eastern Star Home for the Aged in Somerville, NJ. Died, 12/1972.
  10. ↑ Barbara Dutton Dretzin e-mail, 5/5/2006, Web-site.] [W. M. Fincke: “The staff is as cosmopolitan as the student body. It … has included Chinese, Nisei, American Negro, American Indian, English, Czechoslovakian, Scandinavian…German and Austrian anti-nazis [sic.] along with many members of the so-called old American group…. Judaism, Catholicism, Quakerism and Ethical Agnosticism as well as Protestantism are stimulatingly included in the backgrounds…” (W. M. Fincke fund-raising document, c. 1945-46, Web-site)
  11. ↑ report by W. M. Fincke to Board of Directors of School, Nov. 27, 1950; & Dixon Addison Bush, “An Experimental Study of Techniques for Instituting Cooperative Work Programs with Adolescent Students," Education Doctoral Dissertation, New York University, 1951. 313 pages.
  12. ↑ Alumni list, “Manumit Closes,” Web-site) Note: one student graduated in 1950.] [Also see report (2/2012) of July 2011 reunion Symposium on the value of a Manumit Education & Speer comments (Web site and Timament library)
  13. ↑ Manumit Board resolution of appreciation, 1956, Web Site.] [Later: Co-Director then Director of Buxton School, Williamstown, MA. Died in Williamstown, MA, 2/18/2003. (See: New York Times, 6/1/2003). Magda, co-director and art teacher at Buxton, died 8/13/2004.
  14. ↑ John died in 1982 in Maine. He had become Professor of Education at the University of Maine at Orono in 1961, where there is now (2010) a “John A. Lindlof Learning Center.”
  15. ↑ fund-raising memo by WMF, c. mid-1950s, Web-site). “The complete respect for human beings as human beings and for their backgrounds as important parts of their personalities, the lack of prejudice of racial nature… are so taken for granted that the administrator whose job it is to maintain this enriching heterogeneity is often the only person who continues conscious of it.” (WM Fincke, fundraising document, c. 1945-46, Web-site)
  16. ↑ Telegram to President Eisenhower, September 26, 1956)
  17. ↑ “Respondent’s Brief” and testimony by William M. Fincke, December 1957. See: Mike Speer (c. 2006 email) link of attacks to Brown v. Bd. of Ed, backlash, “Manumit Ends,” Web Site.
  18. ↑ W. M. Fincke, "The Effect of Asking Questions to Develop Purposes for Reading on the Attainment of Higher Levels of Comprehension in a Population of Third Grade Readers," Education Doctoral Dissertation, Temple University, 1968. 140 pages. Completed in 1967.)

Scott Walter, “Labor's Demonstration School: The Manumit School for Workers' Children, 1924-1932,” 1998. typescript, 26 pp. (ERIC: ED473025)

Manumit archive, New York University, Tamiment Library

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