The Modern Schools, also called Ferrer Schools, were American schools formed in the early 20th century around the ideas of educator and anarchist Francisco Ferrer and modeled after his Escuela Moderna. They were an important part of the free education, socialist, and labor movements in the U.S., intended to provide education to the working-classes from a liberating, class-conscious perspective. The Modern Schools had classes for children during the day, and lectures were given to adults at night.

The Modern School in New York City

The first and most notable of the Modern Schools was founded in New York City in 1911, shortly after Ferrer's execution in Spain. Commonly called the Ferrer Center, it was started by a group of notable anarchists including Leonard Abbott , Alexander Berkman, and Emma Goldman. The school first met on St. Mark's Place in Greenwich Village (a street now considered part of the "East Village"), but moved twice to other locations in Manhattan, with the second move taking it out of the Village into Harlem. It opened with only nine students, one of whom was the son of the contraceptives-rights activist, Margaret Sanger.

Philosopher Will Durant was an instructor and principal of the School starting in 1912. Ashcan School painters Robert Henri and George Bellows were also among its instructors, and writers and activists including Sanger, Jack London, and Upton Sinclair gave lectures. Artist Man Ray also studied there.

In 1915, a group of men who were loosely associated with the School's adult education program plotted to detonate a bomb at the mansion of tycoon John D. Rockefeller. The bomb's premature explosion launched a series of raids and investigations into New York City labor and anarchist organizations, and the School's organizers decided that the city was an unsafe environment for their school. 68 acres (275,000 m²) were purchased in Piscataway Township, New Jersey, and the school was moved there in 1914 as the center of the Stelton Colony .

The Modern School magazine

The Modern School magazine had started as a newsletter for parents of students when the school was still in New York, and was printed on the hand press used in the School to teach printing. After the move to Stelton, the magazine was expanded to contain poetry, prose, art, and articles about libertarian education, with a cover emblem and many of its interior graphics were designed by illustrator Rockwell Kent. Many artists and writers, including Hart Crane and Wallace Stevens, praised The Modern School as "the most beautifully printed magazine in existence."

External links

• The Modern School at the Anarchist Encyclopedia
• A history of the Stelton Modern School