Antioch School (Yellow Springs, Ohio)

Prior to the official founding of the Antioch School, Antioch College operated a school called "Little Antioch" for the children of faculty founded during the tenure of the first president of the college, Horace Mann.[1] It was founded to counteract traditional American education by promoting progressive education principles.[2]

In 1921, the school was reorganized as a laboratory school for the college and renamed the Antioch School by college president Arthur Ernest Morgan.[1][3] Morgan first began his path in experimental education in 1917 when he founded the Moraine Park School in Dayton.[4][3] The school was located at the mansion of Judge William E. Mills and students from elementary to high school were supervised by college faculty.[5][6][3] Student teachers, including Coretta Scott King, were able to have autonomy over their classrooms due to the distributed hierarchy of the school.[7]

The school was the first democratic school in the United States with children directing their own learning.[7] Students were involved in democratic meetings where they participate in the self governing of the school. They were divided into three groups according to social maturity and charged a yearly tuition with access to scholarships.[8]

In 1929, the school moved to Bryan High School and only enrolled elementary students.[9] In 1950, the Antioch School moved to a new building designed by Eero Saarinen and Max Mercer with three classrooms, meeting space, and porch.[8][10] It became independent of Antioch College in 1979 when the college was having financial solvency issues and ended its role in their education program.[11][7] Members of the Yellow Springs community purchased the school and it became an independent school in the 1980s.[7]

In 1969, a teacher purchased a used unicycle and it became emblematic of the school as a way for students to challenge themselves to succeed at something new, different, and difficult. Since the first unicycle, the school acquired them in various sizes for students of all ages.[12]

The Antioch School offers programs for nursery, kindergarten, and two mixed-age groups of students ages 6-12. The school is run democratically developed through the principles of child-centered learning where students create curriculum and make rules with oversight from teachers.[6] Students resolve conflicts with each other through mediation and grades are not administered.[7]

• John Lithgow[13]
• Tucker Viemeister[14]

• Antioch School