‘A chrome yellow blackboard with blue chalk’: New Education and the new architecture: modernism at Koornong School

Abstract

This paper examines, through one school’s location in Australia, the international reach and nature of the networks associated with New Education; the aims and ideals of Clive and Janet Nield, the main protagonists behind the venture of Koornong School; what transformations they brought to progressive education; and the deliberate assembling of a specially selected teaching staff, governance structure and broad‐based curriculum that was enhanced by an unusual educational setting, the site specifically chosen and buildings specially designed by architects whose ideals aligned with those of their clients and facilitated the pursuit of progressive education. The community of residential and school buildings and a series of designed outdoor spaces in combination with a virtually untouched landscape wilderness played a pivotal role in complementing an educational experience that had been shaped by beliefs in the importance of psychoanalysis to the nurturing of a child’s body and mind.

Keywords:

• education
• progressive
• architecture
• modernism
• schools
• psycho‐analysis

Acknowledgments

The author is particularly grateful to Suzanne Davies and Talitha Kennedy of RMIT University, Melbourne for the original invitation to research this paper thus allowing him access to the Koornong and Overend Papers held temporarily by RMIT University Gallery as part of the Penetralia exhibition held in 2004. Special thanks must also be made to Best Overend’s son, Darren Overend, who gave the author access to the Overend scrapbooks and original drawings of Koornong at his office at 111 Collins Street, Melbourne. Special thanks also to architect Lawrence Nield, who permitted access to the family archive and whose parents Clive and Janet Nield had the vision to establish Koornong School.

Notes

¹Peter Cunningham, ‘Innovators, Networks and Structures: Towards a Prosopography of Progressivism’, History of Education 30, no. 5 (2001): 433–51.

²Rita Hofstetter and Bernard Schneuwly, ‘Contrasted Views of New Education on Knowledge and its Transformation: Anticipation of a New Mode or Ambivalence?’, Paedigogica Historica 45, no. 4 (2009): 457–8. For an example of the importance of networks of exchange within New Education, see Eckhardt Fuchs, ‘The Creation of New International Networks in Education: The League of Nations and Educational Organizations in the 1920s’, Paedagogica Historica 43, no. 2 (2007): 199–209.

⁶R. Dale, ‘Recovering from a Pyrrhic Victory?’, in Voicing Concerns: Sociological Perspectives on Contemporary Education Reforms, ed. Madeleine Arnot and Len Barton (Wallingford, Oxfordshire: Triangle Press, 1992), 203.

³Philip Goad, ‘Modernism and Australian Architecture: Part of the Critical Filter’, DOCOMOMO 29 (September 2003): 61–8; see also Ann Stephen and Andrew McNamara, eds, Modernism and Australia: Documents on Art, Design and Architecture 1917–1967 (Carlton, Victoria: Miegunyah Press, 2006), 1–27.

⁴Celia Jenkins, ‘New Education and its Emancipatory Interests (1920–1950)’, History of Education 29, no. 2 (2000): 139–51.

⁵Eric Mumford, The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928–1960 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000).

⁷Marta Gutman and Ning de Coninck‐Smith, Designing Modern Childhoods: History, Space and the Material Culture of Children (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008); Andrew Saint, Towards a Social Architecture: The Role of School Building in Post‐war England (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987); Catherine Burke and Ian Grosvenor, School (London: Reaktion Books, 2008); Amy F. Ogata, ‘Building for Learning in Postwar American Elementary Schools’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 67, no. 4 (December 2008): 562–91; Anne‐Marie Châtelet, Dominique Lerch and Jean‐Noël Luc, eds, Open Air Schools: An Educational Venture in Twentieth Century Europe (Dijon: Focale Editions Recherches, 2003).

⁸Important and well‐known books by these educators included: Susan Isaacs, Intellectual Growth in Young Children (with an appendix on children’s ‘why’ questions by Nathan Isaacs) (London: Routledge, 1930); The Children We Teach: Seven to Eleven Years (London: University of London Press, 1932); The Nursery Years: The Mind of the Child from Birth to Six Years (London: Routledge, 1932); Social Development in Young Children: A Study of Beginnings (London: Routledge, 1933); Harold Rugg and Ann Shumaker, The child‐Centered School: An Appraisal of the New Education (London: Harrap, c.1928); Cyril Norwood, The English Tradition of Education (London: John Murray, 1931); William Boyd, From Locke to Montessori: A Critical Account of the Montessori Point of View (London: Harrap, 1914); William Boyd, ed., Towards a New Education (a record and synthesis of the discussions on the new psychology and the curriculum at the fifth world conference of the New Education Fellowship, Elsinore, Denmark, August 1929) (London, New York: AA Knopf, 1930); William Boyd, ed., The Challenge of Leisure (London: New Education Fellowship, 1936).

⁹R.C. Petersen, ‘Experimental Schools and Educational Experiments in Australia, 1906–1948’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Sydney, 1968), 306–8. Petersen’s account of educational experiments in Australia in the first half of the twentieth century is comprehensive, and after 35 years still remains the definitive text on the subject.

¹⁰Books such as A.S. Neill’s A Dominie’s Five, or, Free School! (London: Herbert Jenkins, 1924) and The Problem Child (London: Herbert Jenkins, 1926).

¹¹A. Mackie, ‘Psychoanalysis and Education’, in The Groundwork of Teaching, ed. A. Mackie. 2nd ed. (Sydney: Teachers College Press and Angus & Robertson, 1923).

¹²Petersen, op. cit., 307–8.

¹³‘A New School near Melbourne’ (promotional brochure, n.d., c.1939). Koornong Papers, Nield Archive. Answering questions about Koornong in the Nields’ absence were Professor G. S. Brown, School of Education, University of Melbourne, Dr G.S. Plant, 49 Urquhart Street, Hawthorn, and Mr F. Oswald Barnet, Temple Court, Collins Street, Melbourne, who was the school’s accountant.

¹⁴For Prestolee, see C. Burke, ‘“The School Without Tears”: E.F. O’Neill of Prestolee School’, History of Education 3 (2005): 263–75.

¹⁵See Angela Nairne Grigor, Arthur Lismer, Visionary Art Educator (Montréal: McGill‐Queen’s University Press, c.2002). Lismer, at the time of the Nields’ visit to Canada, was Educational Supervisor at the Toronto Art Gallery.

¹⁶‘Education in Other Countries: Described by Returning Travellers’ (newspaper clipping, untitled and undated, c.1939). Koornong Papers, Nield Archive.

¹⁷In 1940, Dr Clara Geroe, who had been trained by Sándor Ferenczi (1873–1933), settled in Melbourne and opened the Melbourne Institute of Psychoanalysis. See Petersen, op. cit., 278.

¹⁸The Dartington Hall estate initially comprised a series of existing buildings that were in an extreme state of dereliction. Architects involved with repair, reconstruction and the addition of new buildings there included: Rex Gardner, William Weir, Oswald P. Milne, Ides van der Gracht of Delano & Aldrich (New York), William Lescaze of Howe & Lescaze (New York), Robert Hening and Walter Gropius, founding director of the Weimar Bauhaus. For history and accounts of Dartington Hall, see Victor Bonham‐Carter, Dartington Hall: The History of an Experiment (London: Phoenix House, 1958); Victor Bonham‐Carter, Dartington Hall: The Formative Years, 1925–1957 (Dulverton: Exmoor Press, 1970); M. Punch, Progressive Retreat: A Sociological Study of Dartington Hall School, 1926–1957 and Some of its Former Pupils (London and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1976); M. Young, The Elmhirsts of Dartington: The Creation of a Utopian Community (London and Boston, MA: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982); and M. Kidel, Beyond the Classroom: Dartington’s Experiments in Education (Hartland: Green, 1989).

¹⁹I am grateful to Professor Dietrich Neumann, Brown University, RI for drawing my attention to the series of Lescaze buildings at Dartington Hall. See also William Lescaze (New York: Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies and Rizzoli International Publications, 1982) and L.W. Lanmon, William Lescaze, Architect (Philadelphia: Art Alliance Press; London: Associated University Presses, c.1987).

²⁰Prior to William Curry being appointed at Dartington, he had been headmaster at the Oak Lane Country Day School. Oak Lane, Pennsylvania, with its innovative International Style nursery building (1929) by Howe & Lescaze. Lescaze also designed the Hessian Hills School, Croton‐on‐Hudson, New York (1931–1932).

²¹‘New Ideas in Schools: Progress Abroad’, Argus, July 15, 1939.

²²Quest Haven closed its doors in early 1940 after just five years of operation. Wartime and the proximity to the beach at Mona Vale (ideal for an invasion) meant that Quest Haven was particularly vulnerable at the time and parents removed students to less exposed schools, a few even went to Koornong. See Petersen, op. cit., 299.

²³It is not only possible but highly likely that Overend was also aware of Lescaze’s work at Dartington Hall through various British journal articles featuring Lescaze’s educational works, especially those such as Gerald Heard, ‘The Dartington Experiment’, Architectural Review 75 (April 1934): 119–22; ‘The Gymnasium Block’, Architects’ Journal (October 3, 1935): 481–82; and ‘Cottages at the Warren, Dartington Hall, Totnes’, Architectural Review 80 (December 1936): 263–4.

²⁴Acheson Best Overend was born on October 15, 1909 in Launceston, Tasmania. Educated at Wesley College, Melbourne, he served his articles from 1926 with H. Vivian Taylor, an architect who specialised in the design of the new and burgeoning building type, the cinema. Whilst working for Taylor, Overend studied at Swinburne Technical College then completed his Diploma of Architecture at the University of Melbourne Architectural Atelier. Like many of his contemporaries, the Great Depression was an opportunity for travel. With little or no work available in Melbourne Overend and fellow architects like Roy Grounds and Brian Lewis travelled ‘home’ to seek work in London. He took his final RIBA examinations in 1933. On his return to Melbourne in 1933, Overend entered into partnership with H. Vivian Taylor and G.A. Soilleux. The partnership, which lasted until 1936, completed a number of significant Melbourne cinemas including The Windsor, Prahran (1936) and The Padua, Brunswick (1937). For a more detailed account of Overend’s career, see Philip Goad, ‘Best Overend: Pioneer Modernist in Melbourne’, Fabrications 6 (June 1995): 101–24.

²⁵‘The Nursery: Hints from an Architect’, Argus, February 15, 1934.

²⁶Overend wrote weekly articles for the Argus between June 28, 1934 and August 29, 1935.

²⁷Best Overend, ‘The Desirable House – With Some Thoughts as to the Source and Success of Modernism’, Australian Home Beautiful (June 1938): 20–1; and (July 1938): 11–12. Best Overend, ‘House of 1960 – let us consider it merely as SHELTER’, Australian Home Beautiful (August 1938): 14–15.

²⁸W.A. Somerset, ‘Camereering Round – the Home and Building Exhibition’, Australian Home Beautiful (April 1939): 24.

²⁹Jeffrey Turnbull, ‘The Architecture of Newman College’ (Ph.D. Thesis, University of Melbourne, 2004).

³⁰Robin Boyd, Victorian Modern (Melbourne: Victorian Architectural Students’ Society, 1947), 17, 28.

³¹‘School Rising in Bush at Warrandyte’, Herald, July 24, 1939.

³²‘Designed for a Hillside Site and an Excellent Example of Close Planning’, Australian Home Beautiful (July 1939): 22–3.

³³‘Novel Planning for Bush School’, Herald, April 26, 1939.

³⁴Deborah Garland, ‘School of Free Expression’, The New Idea (October 23, 1946): 13; See also Koornong recollection by Douglas Probert, http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/-lee/era/KoornongXrecollections.txt.

³⁵These details are drawn from the most definitive account of Janeba’s Melbourne career. See Catherine Townsend, ‘Reflecting Culture Through History: Vienna, Warrandyte and Fritz Janeba’ (paper presented at the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, Launceston and Hobart, 1999), 337–343.

³⁶Ibid., 338.

³⁷Wynn Scott, ‘Stonygrad – Home in a Quarry’, Australian Home Beautiful (October 1949): 27, 76–7.

³⁸Townsend, op. cit., 338.

³⁹‘A New School Near Melbourne’ (promotional brochure, n.d., c.1939). Koornong Papers, Nield Archive.

⁴⁰Day pupils were drawn from Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. A bus connected central Melbourne, Kew, Balwyn, Box Hill and Heidelberg with Warrandyte. Fees for day students ranged between £12/1/– and £14/10/– a term depending on age, and included lunch and morning milk. Fees for boarding students also depended on age and ranged from £37/8/– to £48/6/– a term (three terms per year). See ‘Koornong School’ (brochure, n.d.). Koornong Papers, Nield Archive.

⁴¹‘Koornong School: Provisional Prospectus of a New School at Warrandyte, Victoria’ (typescript, n.d., c.1939). Koornong Papers, Nield Archive.

⁴²‘Koornong School’, op. cit.

⁴³Ibid.

⁴⁴Ibid.

⁴⁵The Nields’ deployment of psychoanalytical techniques and art instruction predated the NEF Creative Arts Summer Schools held in New South Wales in the early 1950s. See Margaret H. White, ‘Traversing Personal and Public Boundaries: Discourses of Engagement in New Education 1930s–1980s’, Paedagogica Historica 43, no. 1 (2007): 151–63.

⁴⁶‘Curriculum Vitae: Janet Blake Nield’, Koornong Papers, Nield Archive. Nield underwent further analytical training between 1951 and 1953 when she was analysed by Dr Andrew Peto.

⁴⁷Janet B. Nield, ‘Koornong School – Australia’, The New Era in Home and School (February 1947): 27.

⁴⁸Ibid., 28.

⁵¹Clive Nield, quoted in Garland, op. cit., 19.

⁴⁹Ian D. Suttie was the author of The Origins of Love and Hate (London: Kegan Paul, 1935).

⁵⁰Petersen, op. cit., 317. Petersen cites the title of this text as ‘Three Contributions to the Theory of Sexuality’. Freud’s paper was published as a chapter within A.A. Brill, ed., The Writings of Sigmund Freud (New York: Modern Library, 1938).

⁵²Ibid.

⁵³Petersen, op. cit., 323.

⁵⁴W.G. Burchett, ‘School in the Bush’, The BP Magazine (June 1, 1941): 50.

⁵⁵See Koornong recollection by Probert, op. cit.

⁵⁶Neil Clerehan, Smudges (June 1947), quoted in Robin Boyd, Victorian Modern (Melbourne: Victorian Architecture Students Society, 1947), 48.

⁵⁷Petersen, op. cit., 327.

⁵⁸J.C. Nield, ‘Koornong School, Warrandyte, Victoria. 1938–47’, Architecture in Australia (July–September 1958): 63.

⁵⁹Petersen, op. cit., 306.

⁶⁰J.A. Lauwerys, ‘Educational Pioneering in Centralized Systems’, The New Era in Home and School (February 1947): 28.

⁶¹Philip Goad, ‘Laboratories for the Body and Mind: the architecture of the Lady Gowrie Centres’ (paper presented at the Twenty‐Fourth Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, Adelaide, Australia, 2007).

⁶²Jenkins, op. cit., 149.