Amos Bronson Alcott
(1799-1888)

American Educator, Transcendentalist

birthdate: November 29
birthplace:
Wolcott, Connecticut

Amos Bronson Alcott is best remembered as the father of Louisa May Alcott, whose famous book, Little Women, was a fictional account of their family life. But Amos Alcott, along with his friends Emerson and Thoreau, was also a leader of 19th century idealism, expressed in the Transcendentalist movement. Alcott, like the other transcendentalists of the 1830 and 1840s, believed that people and nature were basically good, but are corrupted by society and its institutions, particularly politics and religion. As a teacher, Alcott was highly controversial in his conversational method of teaching. He advocated against the strictness and reliance on reinforcement through punishment popular in his day, but instead sought to make learning interesting and fun by engaging students in dialogue, and exposing them to art, music and nature, in addition to traditional subjects. He also stressed the need for physical education, and advocated a vegan diet, because his goal wasn't to develop intellectuals, but to help students to become better people. Alcott was actively involved in the many movements for change of his time - he was a strong supporter of the suffrage movement working for women's right to vote, and an abolitionist seeking to abolish slavery.

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