Caroline Pratt

Caroline Pratt was an American educator and progressive education reformer who founded the City and Country School in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, in 1914. Born in 1867, she built the school, originally called the Play School, around her belief that children learn best through play, field trips, and open-ended materials that let them direct their own investigation and problem solving. Pratt invented the wooden unit blocks still used in early childhood classrooms today, designing them so children could build and rebuild their own understanding of the world around them. She led City and Country School for more than three decades, retiring as principal in 1945 and remaining principal emerita until her death in 1954. Her 1948 book I Learn from Children set out the observations of young learners that shaped her teaching philosophy and influenced progressive early childhood education more broadly.