Nellie Dick (born Naomi Ploschansky; 15 May 1893 – 31 October 1995) was an anarchist educator and for 40 years was at the forefront of the Modern Schools movement. Alongside her husband, Jim Dick, she worked at the American Modern Schools in Stelton, Mohegan and

Lakewood Lakewood may refer to: Places Australia * Lakewood, Western Australia, an abandoned town in Western Australia Canada * Lakewood, Edmonton, Alberta * Lakewood Suburban Centre, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Philippines * Lakewood, Zamboanga del S ...

Biography

Dick was born Naomi Ploschansky to a Jewish family near Kyiv on 15 May 1893, she was one of eight children. While an infant her family moved to Whitechapel in the

East End of London The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

, then Leeds, Glasgow, and finally

Stepney Green Stepney Green Park is a park in Stepney, Tower Hamlets, London. It is a remnant of a larger area of common land. It was formerly known as Mile End Green. A Crossrail construction site occupies part of the green, with Stepney Green cavern below ...

in London. Her father was active in the Jewish trade union and

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

movements and worked as a baker and a capmaker. From 1907 until 1911 Dick organised a

Sunday school A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Su ...

at the Jubilee Street Anarchist Club, and in 1912 opened the Ferrer Sunday School in Whitechapel. In 1913 on a May Day march she met Jim Dick, an educator who had started a Ferrer school in Liverpool, and he subsequently joined her school as a co-director of the Sunday school. They married in 1915 so he could avoid conscription and then moved to the United States in 1917. Her family moved to Russia after the revolution, with her sister Bertha later spending 15 years in a prison camp. From 1917 until 1924 Nellie and Jim Dick both worked at the modern school in

Stelton, New Jersey Stelton is an unincorporated community located within Edison Township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. Established in 1689, the Stelton Baptist Church is the state's second oldest baptist congregation. The present-day NJ Transit ...

. From 1924 until 1928 Nellie and Jim Dick directed the Mohegan Modern School in Mohegan, New York. From 1928 until 1933 they were co-principals at Stelton. In 1933 they founded their own school in Lakewood, New Jersey, which they ran until it closed in 1958 – the last of the American Modern Schools to close. She retired with Jim to Miami, Florida, with Jim dying in 1965. In her retirement she was active in the senior citizens movement. In 1990 Dick moved to Oyster Bay, New York where she died on the 31st of October 1995, aged 102.

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Interviews

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dick, Nellie Jewish anarchists Ferrer Center and Colony British anarchists People from Kyiv Oblast 1893 births Women centenarians British centenarians 1995 deaths Jewish educators British women educators 20th-century British educators Founders of schools in the United States 20th-century American educators American women educators American centenarians