Little Red School House
40°43′37″N 74°00′17″W / 40.72694°N 74.00472°W
Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School (LREI) | |
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Interschool | |
Website | http://www.lrei.org |
The Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School, also referred to as LREI, is a school in
History
The school was founded in 1921 as a joint private-public educational experiment by reformer Elisabeth Irwin, and was well known as a testing ground for new concepts in education.
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.[1]
The Little Red School House consists of a lower school, a middle school, and a high school. In the 1940s the Little Red School House's high-school students decided they wanted their school to be named after its founder, Elisabeth Irwin, making the full title of the institution The Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School.
Buildings
The Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School occupy two separate buildings, with a third space housing athletic facilities.
The middle-and-lower-school building is located at 272
College placement
In 2017, graduates attended
Extracurricular activities
Sports
LREI's sports teams include soccer (boys, girls and MS co-ed), volleyball (HS girls, MS co-ed), cross-country track (co-ed), basketball (Varsity, boys and girls and JV boys), spring track (co-ed), tennis (co-ed), softball (girls), baseball (boys), golf (co-ed), swimming (co-ed), fencing (co-ed). The school and team colors are red and white.
Directors and leaders
Directors
- Elisabeth Irwin (1921–1942)
- Randolph B. Smith (1943–1966)
- F. Coit Johnson II (1966-1975)
- Andrew McLaren (1988–2004)
- Philip Kassen (2004–present)
Current staff
- Director: Philip Kassen
- Director of Learning & Innovation: Mark Silberberg
- High School Principal: Allison Isabell and Margaret Paul
- Middle School Principal: Nathan Sokol-Margolis
- Lower School Principal: Faith Hunter[7]
Notable alumni
- Elliott Abrams, diplomat, lawyer, political scientist
- Peter Berg, actor, film director, producer, writer
- Kathy Boudin, radical, public health expert
- Emory Cohen, actor
- Angela Davis, political activist
- Dominic DiGesu, musician
- Robert De Niro, actor
- Eric R. Dinallo, Superintendent of Insurance, New York State
- The Geffen Company
- Gus Green, musician
- Nicolas "Nico" Heller, documentary film director, social media personality
- Foster Hudson, musician
- Elle King, singer
- Peter Knobler, author[8]
- Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
- Victor Navasky, professor, Columbia School of Journalism; editor, publisher emeritus, The Nation
- Zac Posen, fashion designer
- Ronald Radosh[9]
- Doug Rauch, musician
- Rosen Hotels & Resorts
- Toshi Seeger, filmmaker and environmental activist[10]
- Dan Shor, actor
- Paul Solman, journalist
- Mary Travers, singer, member of folk group Peter, Paul and Mary
- Benjamin Drake Wright, psychometrician
- Edward Irving Wortis, author
- Daniel Menaker, editor and father of Chapo Trap House host, Will Menaker
Affiliations
The Little Red School House's companion school from 1944 to 1971 was the Downtown Community School (DCS) on the Lower East Side, whose alumni include the writers Peter Manso, Ann Lauterbach, Peter Knobler and Richard Kostelanetz. Its director from 1951 to 1970 was educator and folklorist Norman Studer.
Affiliated organizations
- National Association of Independent Schools
- New York State Association of Independent Schools
- New York Interschool
See also
- The New York Foundation
- Education in New York City
- Elisabeth Irwin
References
- ^ O'Han, Nicholas. "The Little School That Could" National Association of Independent Schools website (Summer, 2009)
- ^ "LREI Completes Purchase of 15 Vandam Street". Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School. 2018-11-26. Retrieved 2020-03-20.
- ^ "LREI | 2017 College Lists". www.lrei.org. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
- ^ "College List 2015" Archived 2016-02-28 at the Wayback Machine LREI website
- ^ ["College Placement for the Class of 2013 at Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-12-31. "College Placement for the Class of 2013 at Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School" (May 25, 2013)
- ^ "College Placement for the Class of 2012 at Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine (June 9, 2012)
- ^ "PreK-12 Progressive Independent Preschool High School in New York City".
- ^ "Peter Knobler" on Classmates.com
- ^ Radosh, Ronald. Commies; A Journey through the Old Left, the New Left, and the Leftover Left, Encounter Books, 2001. Chapter 2, "The Little Red Schoolhouse," pages 25-48.
- New York Times. Retrieved 2013-08-07.