death_date death_place children birth_place image_size birth_date spouse image article_title name occupation
04 march 1888 boston , massachusetts anna sewall alcott , may alcott bronson alcott , louisa may alcott , elizabeth wolcott , connecticut 200px 29 november 1799 abby may bronson alcott from nypl gallery.jpg amos bronson alcott
 amos bronson alcott educator writer
amos bronson alcott

amos bronson alcott -lrb- ; november 29 , 1799 -- march 4 , 1888 -rrb- was an american teacher , writer , philosopher , and reformer .
as an educator , alcott pioneered new ways of interacting with young students , focusing on a conversational style , and avoided traditional punishment .
he hoped to perfect the human spirit and , to that end , advocated a vegan diet before the term was coined .
he was also an abolitionist and an advocate for women 's rights .
born in connecticut in 1799 , alcott had only minimal formal schooling before attempting a career as a traveling salesman .
worried about how the itinerant life might negatively impact his soul , he turned to teaching .
his innovative methods , however , were controversial , and he rarely stayed in one place very long .
his most well-known teaching position was at the temple school in boston .
his experience there was turned into two books : `` records of a school '' and `` conversations with children on the gospels '' .
alcott became friends with ralph waldo emerson and became a major figure in transcendentalism .
his writings on behalf of that movement , however , are heavily criticized for being incoherent .
based on his ideas for human perfection , alcott founded fruitlands , a transcendentalist experiment in community living .
the project was short-lived and failed after seven months .
alcott continued to struggle financially for most of his life .
nevertheless , he continued focusing on educational projects and opened a new school at the end of his life in 1879 .
he died in 1888 .
alcott married abby may in 1830 and they eventually had four surviving children , all daughters .
their second was louisa may , who fictionalized her experience with the family in her novel `` little women '' in 1868 .
