The New Lincoln School was a private experimental coeducational school in New York City enrolling students from kindergarten through grade 12.
History
Its predecessor was founded as Lincoln School in 1917 by the Rockefeller-funded General Education Board as "a pioneer experimental school for newer educational methods," under the aegis of Columbia University's Teachers College. In 1941 Teachers College merged Lincoln School with Horace Mann School, which it operated as a demonstration school. When Teachers College closed down the combined school in 1946, parents of Lincoln School enrollees established the New Lincoln School in 1948 to carry on the tradition of progressive, experimental education, concentrating on the individual child, offering an interdisciplinary core program as well as electives in elementary grades, and emphasizing the arts. In 1956, the school acquired the former Boardman School on East 82nd Street and moved its Lower School to that campus, under the coordination of Terry Spitalny. In 1974, the school moved to 210 East 77th Street. The school merged with the Walden School in Fall 1988 to become the New Walden Lincoln School, which ultimately closed in Summer 1991.
Campus
The New Lincoln School building had previously been the 110th Street Community Center. An eight-story building that had been recently renovated and had a swimming pool in the basement, it was further renovated to meet the new school's needs of a cafeteria, classrooms, laboratories, and a library. Today, the West 110th Street site is home to the Lincoln Correctional Facility, a minimum-security work-release center. The East 77th Street campus has been occupied by the Birch Wathen School since 1989.
Curriculum
The curriculum revolved around "Core," a theme around which social science and English instruction was structured. Field trips and class plays were integrated with Core. Core topics included the Dutch in New York, China, India, Japan, and American History. Some Core programs were linked to a grade, while others varied from year to year. Science and Math were taught more conventionally, though Math classes were smaller, broken down within groups by level. Instruction was highly individualized, with individual exploration and small work groups greatly encouraged. Seating plans were generally informal, and most teachers were called by their first names, though they could choose more formal modes of address. Foreign language instruction, French and Spanish, began in the fifth grade. English grammar was not taught. The arts were stressed. An extensive studio art program was headed by Lois Lord, assisted later by Doris Stahl and others, explored many media. The ceramics program, which featured kilns and a wide range of glazing materials, was run by "Axie" Axelson. Music was taught by Hugh McElhenny. Hugh used a great variety of instruments in teaching, and students played on autoharps, temple blocks, marimbas, gongs, to mention a few. Song lyrics were displayed with a slide projector against the wall during group singing, and the range of music ranged from folk and work songs to Broadway tunes. All students, regardless of gender, took Wood Shop and Home Economics. While grade levels were conventional, the Middle School combined fifth and sixth grades and seventh and eighth into two or three groups each. Grades were labeled alphabetically, so that Group A corresponded to first grade, Group B to second... Groups K, L, M to seventh and eighth.
A benefit concert for the school on April 19, 1959 at Carnegie Hall by Harry Belafonte was one of two such concerts recorded and released as Belafonte at Carnegie Hall. The other benefit concert, for the Wiltwyck School on April 20, netted $58,000 for that school.
