Patty Smith Hill

Patty Smith Hill (born March 27, 1868 – died May 25, 1946)) was an American nursery school, and kindergarten teacher, one of the leaders of the Kindergarten Movement in the United States. She is perhaps best known as the sister of Mildred J. Hill with whom she co-wrote the tune to the song Good Morning to All which became popular as “Happy Birthday to You”. She developed the Patty Hill blocks and in 1924 helped create the Institute of Child Welfare Research at Columbia University Teachers College.

Biography

Early life

Patty Smith Hill was born in Anchorage, Kentucky, one of six children of Dr. William and Martha Hill. Her father was a Presbyterian minister who founded Bellewood Female Seminary. Hill’s parents tried to provide their children with all possible education, encouraging them to become independent thinkers.

Patty Hill graduated from Louisville Collegiate Institute in 1887, after which she joined the Louisville Kindergarten Training School. At the time Froebel’s kindergartens were popular in United States, and Froebelian education was thought in almost every training school for kindergarten teachers. Hill’s teacher and principal of the Louisville Kindergarten Training School, Anna E. Bryan, however encouraged her students to experiment with different classroom techniques, beside that of Froebel. It is there that Hill started to develop her own educational methods.

Educator

After Ms. Bryan left the position at the school, Patty Hill became its principal and superintendent. Her unique stile of education attracted attention of G. Stanley Hall, who invited her to Clark University to study classes in child psychology. At the same time John Dewey offered Hill opportunity to study at the University of Chicago. For the next 12 years Hill served as director of the Louisville Kindergarten Training Schools, and at the same time taking summer courses with Hall, Dewey, and Luther Gulick, the founder of the playground movement.

During her stay at the Louisville Kindergarten Training Schools, Hill was very active in Kindergarten Movement. She participated in numerous conferences and organized events that discussed alternative methods of early childhood education, such as education through play, sensory and motor type of play, etc. By 1900s Louisville Kindergarten Training Schools became nationally famous as the center of innovative ideas about early childhood education.

At that time, Hill and her sister Mildred wrote the song “Good Morning to All”, which they sang to children every morning (Mildred wrote the tune; Patty wrote the original lyrics). The lyrics were as follows:

“Good morning to you,

Good morning to you, Good morning, dear children, Good morning to all”.

In 1892, Hill was among the founding members of the International Kindergarten Union (IKU), serving on different committees in its body for the next several years. She spoke on numerous conferences on alternative methods of interpretation of Froebel’s ideas. She held that educators need to study deeper Fröbel’s theory, and not only blindly accept his methodology.

Columbia University years

In 1905, dean of Teachers College, Columbia University, Earl Russell, invited Hill to join his faculty. Hill accepted and joined Mary Runyan and Susan E. Blow who were teachers there. Teachers College at the time was a stronghold of Froebelian thought, and all the ideas that were alternative were not welcomed. Hill’s early years there were thus rather frustrating, as she tried to implement some of her own methods to the Speyer School in New York, but without success.

The things however started to change, when John Dewey became the head of Columbia University’s Department of Philosophy, and Edward Thorndike head of Teachers College. In 1910, Hill became head of the College’s Department of Kindergarten Education and full professor in 1922. In 1924 she helped create the Institute of Child Welfare Research at Columbia University Teachers College.

Hill followed John Dewey’s principles of education, especially theories of socialized schools and moral education. She believed that children needed free play and socialization to develop their full potential. She introduced the “Patty Hill” blocks, bigger building blocks large enough for children to enter. In her classroom children played with cars, trucks, money, pots and pans, everything that is used in everyday life, and which helped them to learn about social life.

Together with psychologist Agnes Rogers, Hill developed a “Tentative Inventory of Habits,” which consisted of 84 kindergarten habits toward which instruction should be directed. The Inventory was successfully used first at the Horace Mann School at Teachers College, and then at the University of Chicago and other school around United States. Hill also visited Russia and helped establish kindergarten education there.

Later career

Hill continued to serve in the International Kindergarten Union and write on the topics of early education. During the Great Depression, she got involved with the Federal Emergency Nursery Schools, and started to work on her Manhattanville Project. The Project was a joint plan by Teachers College, Union Theological Seminary, Jewish Theological Seminary, and Julliard School of Music, to revive the Manhatanville area of the New York City. One part of the project was the establishment of a nursery school, called Hilltop, which run from 1932 until 1938.

Last years

Hill retired from Teachers College in 1935, but continued to give lectures and public speeches. She died in 1946 in New York City, and was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery and Arboretum, Louisville, Kentucky. She and Mildred J. Hill were posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 12, 1996.

Legacy

Patty Smith Hill introduced the progressive philosophy to kindergarten teaching, which put emphasis on creativity and natural instincts of children, in contrast to more structured educational methods of Friedrich Froebel. Her work initiated curriculum reforms that permanently changed kindergarten education in the United States.

Hill became famous as a composer of the song “Good Morning to All”, which later became known as “Happy Birthday to You”.

Publications

• Hill, P. S. 1914. Experimental studies in kindergarten theory and practice. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.
• Hill, P. S. 1931. The child builder. Chicago: Foundation Desk Co.
• Hill, P. S. 1934. The practical value of early childhood education; objectives and results of nursery school, kindergarten and first grade education.
• Hill, P. S. 1942. Kindergarten. Washington, D.C.: Association for Childhood Education International.
• Hill, P. S. & McLester, Amelia. 1936. The child activity readers. Nashville: Augsburg Pub. Co.
• Hill, P. S., Murray, G.O., & Thorne, A.C. 1937. Favorites from storyland. Racine, Wisconsin: Whitman Pub. Co.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Fowlkes, M. A. 1984. Gifts from childhood’s godmother—Patty Smith Hill. Childhood Education 61(1), 44–49.
• Gwinn, F. F. 1954. Patty Smith Hill in Louisville. Louisville, KY: University of Louisville Press.
• Patty Smith Hill. Kappa Delta Pi, on <http://www.kdp.org>. Retrieved on June 18, 2007, <http://www.kdp.org/about/laureates/laureates/pattyhill.php>
• Peltzman, Barbara R. 1998. Pioneers of early childhood education: a bio-bibliographical guide. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313304041
• Rudnitski, R. A. 1995. Patty Smith Hill, gifted early childhood educator of the progressive era. Roeper Review, 18(1), 19–24.
• Wolfe, Jennifer. 2000. Learning from the past: historical voices in early childhood education. Mayerthorpe, Alta: Piney Branch Press. ISBN 096858490X

External links

• Cave Hill Cemetery – Hill’s grave
• Happy Birthday to You - Fun facts about the song
• Happy Birthday, We'll Sue – History of the Birthday Song
• Patty Smith Hill – Biography on Kappa Delta Pi website

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