Tag Archives: Carleton Washburne

Winnetka Public School Nursery

Gazette Article by: Mary Bell Appeared in the Gazette: Winter 1999 In 1926, when Henry Ford was still making parts for the Model T and Charles Lindbergh had yet to fly solo across the Atlantic, two educational pioneers, Dr. Carleton W. Washburne, superintendent of the Winnetka Public Schools, and Rose Alschuler, a national leader in […]

How Progressive Education Came to Winnetka

Gazette Article by: Susan Crowe Whitcomb Appeared in the Gazette: Spring/Summer 2009 Winnetka’s educational landscape looked like that of many small towns in America g uring the middle of the 19th century. A one-room school house opened on October 1, 1859 at the southeast corner of Maple and Elm streets. The first teacher was paid […]

Carleton W. Washburne

Carleton W. Washburne

Gazette Article by William Meuer & Jan Tubergen, 1998 Updated July 2022 This is a three-part series on Carleton W. Washburne, renowned educator and Winnetka Superintendent of Schools from 1919 to 1943. Part I chronicles Washburne’s early life and career before arriving in Winnetka. Part II describes his innovative Winnetka Plan and how it changed education […]

“J” is for Jungle Gym

Article is an Excerpt from a University of Chicago Master’s Thesis by Sheila Duran Appeared in the Gazette: Fall 1997 Hired in 1919, young Winnetka school superintendent, Carleton W. Washburne, blazed new trails in educating the “whole child,” considering not only young children’s intellectual development, but also their social, emotional, and physical development. To that […]

Skokie WPA mural

WPA Mural at Skokie School

Gazette Article by: Juanita Nicholson Appeared in the Gazette: Summer 1996 The Skokie School is the location of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) mural that was never displayed because the 1934 School Board deemed it “communistic in character… sinister and threatening.” According to a school paper he wrote in 1982, Peter Wittleder—then a Washburne student—reported […]