Evelyn Dewey

Evelyn Riggs Dewey (March 5, 1889 – March 12, 1965) was an American education reformer and social activist and author of several books on education. Prior to her education work, she was involved in the Women's Trade Union League, particularly concerning the New York shirtwaist strike of 1909. She was the daughter of the philosopher, psychologist, and education reformer John Dewey and the educator Alice Chipman Dewey.

Life and work Dewey was born in 1889, the second of six children born to the educationalists John Dewey and Alice Chipman Dewey. In 1909, she was studying at Barnard College, New York City, during the time she was involved in the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) and supported the New York shirtwaist strike of 1909.

Evelyn traveled in Europe with her parents, visiting Montessori schools, and in the winter of 1914, she and her parents met Maria Montessori, to whom they were introduced by Evelyn's college roommate, the Montessori teacher Margaret Naumburg. While satisfied by what they saw at the schools, neither Evelyn nor her mother seemed impressed by Montessori herself.

Around the time of the publication of Schools of To-Morrow Evelyn Dewey started working administering IQ tests at the Public Education Association of the City of New York (PEA) Psychological Survey, where she was one of several supporters of the WTUL who worked under Lucy Sprague Mitchell.

Dewey left the BEE in 1919, and worked on editing her parents' Letters from China and Japan. She was married in 1932 to Granville Smith Jr., and continued to speak and write on education in the 1920s and 30s under her maiden name.