Kindergarten has arguably been the most successful education reform in U.S. history. But it almost didn’t happen. Its survival is owed in large part to an educator named Lucy Wheelock. As the 20th century dawned, the movement to expand education to 5-year-olds started to fissure over the most appropriate way to teach young learners. Wheelock was one of the heroes who held all the pieces together.

“The kindergarten is a big deal: It’s one more year of life added to what public taxpayers pay,” said Barbara Beatty, professor and chair of Wellesley College’s department of education.

Much of this can be attributed to Wheelock’s great gift as a compromiser and moderator, Beatty said. Wheelock helped navigate the growing divide between practitioners of the traditional model of kindergarten, adopted from Germany, and proponents of developmental psychology who criticized those methods.

Throughout Wheelock’s career as an educator, she served as president of the International Kindergarten Union, and she created her own early educator training school, Wheelock College in Boston, which this year will merge with Boston University.

Read the full article on Lucy Wheelock by Kate Stringer at The 74