Education is always a hot issue in Derby, but only our
fearless quiz participants knew that Derby native Josiah
Holbrook was the a founder of an educational reform movement
that swept the country in the nineteenth century. That movement
was known as the Lyceum Movement.
Holbrook was born in Derby and graduated from Yale. He
returned to Derby and married a daughter of a local minister who
died a few years later and left him with two sons to raise. He
had inherited the family farm and shortly thereafter (1824)
established a school (Agricultural Seminary) dedicated to
natural science and manual labor. Though the school failed after
two years, Holbrook had established his basic educational
beliefs.
He published his ideas in the American Journal of Education
and moved on to Massachusetts where he established his first
Lyceum in Millbury. He moved on to Pennsylvania, New York and
Washington D. C. spreading his ideas for educational reform.
While walking alone collecting minerals one morning in
Lynchburg, Virginia he fell into a creek from a cliff and was
drowned.
Correct answers were received from:
John Kowarik, Normand Audet, Jack O'Callaghan, Joseph Pinto,
Joan Driscoll, Jack Skelding, Angelo Diruba, Dominick Thomas,
MaryAnn Meyer, Raymond Petrillo, Kimberley Shelton, Jane Papale,
Ray Allen, Mary Lou Boroski, Paul Comkowycz, Michael J. Flora,
Sr., Eileen Krugel, Walt Mayhew, Don Grailich, Joe Laskowski,
Robert Loftus, Kevin Henri, Bernie Conlon, Ben Jones, C. F.
Douglass, Eddie Calvert, Markanthony Izzo, Howard Bradshaw, Ann
Searles, Mayor Marc J. Garofalo, Randy Ritter, Millie from
Ansonia, |