UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LABORATORY SCHOOLS

byname Laboratory Schools, or Lab Schools, a pioneer school in the progressive education movement in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1894 by American educator John Dewey as a research and demonstration centre for the Graduate School of Education of the University of Chicago. Commencing operation in 1896, the Laboratory School was designed to exhibit, test, and conduct research in educational methods centring on the child. Subjects were correlated, connecting reading, writing, history, spelling, arithmetic, and science to life; emphasis was placed on physical training, music, art, and on such practical skills as domestic science and manual training. In 1902 the University of Chicago took over the Chicago Institute, a private, progressive normal school, and combined it with the Laboratory School, with Dewey's wife, Harriet Alice Chipman Dewey, as first principal (190204) of the new institution. The Laboratory Schools enroll pupils from nursery through the 12th grade.