Much has been written about the Transcendentalists and their contributions to nineteenth century American literature and philosophy. Numerous biographies have related their life histories, while relatively little has been written specifically about their contributions to a field in which many of them made a living and on which several of them left their mark: Education. This project explores the teaching philosophies and methodologies of Bronson Alcott, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Margaret Fuller, and Henry David Thoreau.

The intent of this study is two-fold. One aim is to assess the educational philosophies and instructional methodologies of Alcott, Peabody, Fuller, and Thoreau through the lens of what is currently considered best practice in teaching. The second aim is to claim a place for them among the key figures in the history of progressive education reform.

Journals, correspondence, recollections of their students, and other primary source writings reveal much about the teaching methods of the Transcendentalists and the philosophical grounds underlying them. Focusing on representative examples of their classroom practices, and analyzing them in light of current understanding of several facets of best practice instruction—namely brain-based teaching, student-centered teaching, and active learning—it can be argued that much of what the Transcendentalists did in their 19 ^th century classrooms is in accord with what modern scholarship of teaching generally shows to be the kind of effective practice that leads students to meaningful learning.

Analyzing those same practices also provides grounds on which to argue that these Transcendentalist teachers arrived at many of the same instructional principles often credited to John Dewey a half century before Dewey himself considered them, therefore earning Alcoa, Peabody, Fuller, and Thoreau the right to claim an important place in the history of progressive education. Further, the analysis also shows that not only were these Transcendentalists 19^th century visionaries, their practices also offer models their modern counterparts would do well to emulate.