Henry and Clara Ford enjoyed children and had many ideas about what and how they should be taught. The Ford's donated time, talent and money to help many educational institutions, so I imagine it was no surprise to those who knew them to learn that the couple wanted to open a school on the grounds of the new Edison Institute. The concept of teaching American ingenuity in the midst of this great Museum-and-Village must have been intoxicating.
The fact that the school opened before the Big Dedication Ceremonies for the Museum-and-Village testifies to its importance to Mr. Ford. Although Mr. Ford was forced to turn his attention to business in the 1930's (Black Tuesday was only weeks after the school opened), it seems pretty well accepted that Mr. Ford’s heart was in the schools he founded during those years. He spent every spare moment on campus. The schools had the power to involve, inspire and charm him and he was their unofficial headmaster until illness overtook him.
On September 16, 1929, Mr. Ford greeted the original 32 students on their first day of school. They were in the first through fourth grades and began their education by experiencing what a one-room school house felt like, the Scotch Settlement School. Now located on the Village Green, the building had once been Henry Ford's school home only a few miles away. Mr. Ford had bought the school when it went on the market in 1923 and had it moved in the summer of 1929, arriving not long before the first students.
What fun it must have been to have attended the Edison Institute Schools in those early years! Between the 1929 dedication and the June 22, 1933 public opening, the village and museum were only used by the school children, workers and invited guests. Mr. Ford told his employees that the students were to be encouraged in their curiosity and interest in the village and museum. I have an image in my mind of skilled and dedicated workers erecting beautiful new buildings like the Town Hall, and painstakingly restoring, brick by brick, board by board, old homes like Ann Arbor House, and creating displays of all sorts of collections of Americana in the museum. I see the students climbing about, asking questions and touching everything (all things I remember doing when a new house was built in my neighborhood). I think it might have been rather challenging for the workers.
The guiding principle of the Edison Institute Schools was “to learn by doing,” a Thomas Dewey approach. Students planted gardens, learned a variety of crafts and mechanical skills in addition to their traditional book learning. They took field trips, some with Mr. Ford himself in happy attendance. He wanted some of the good parts of the one-room schoolhouse incorporated into the program such as older children helping younger ones.
I think I remember hearing that Mr. Ford wasn’t known for his childhood success with academics, but was always thinking about experimentation and new ways of fixing things or solving problems. Didn’t he only have a sixth grade education? Perhaps today he would have been diagnosed with some form of Attention Deficit Disorder. It would make sense that his own experience could have given him some insights regarding the need for both traditional and non-traditional learning methodologies.
Here are a few insights from “A Home for Our Heritage”[i]:
“Henry Ford envisioned the entire complex as an educational institution, with students using the artifacts and exhibits for practical learning experiences. Some parts of the dream came true more successfully than others…
”Ford was determined that his students would learn practical skills so that their transfer from school to the working world would be less abrupt. Not all was hard work, however… Ford at times even encouraged pranks.
“No tuition was charged. Henry Ford paid for everything. Chosen students came from a waiting list representing a variety of backgrounds and were not necessarily related to Ford Motor Company employees. Although a committee decided who would attend, Ford often added children after personal requests. He provided supplies, transportation, and lunches served on linen tablecloths with matching napkins.
“Beginning in 1930, each day opened with a brief, non-denominational service in Martha-Mary Chapel. Ford often watched from the balcony, frequently accompanied by famous guests, such as will Rogers
“Enrollment climbed from 32 in 1929, to 190 in 1937, when the first high school class graduated, and to 300 in 1940…After Mr. Ford's death in 1947, the schools sorely missed Ford’s personal interest and support. By 1952, the high school closed, ending a fascinating era during which hundreds of fortunate children had learned Ford’s byword: ‘learning is living and living cannot be learned from books alone.’”
“At its peak, the Village system would include nine school buildings, housing kindergarten through post-high school technical levels. The schools, like the Village and museum themselves, offered participants a truly unique experience.”
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