Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, ( May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (137th in leap years). ...May 16, 1804 is a leap year starting on Sunday. ...1804_ January 3 is the 3rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...January 3, 1894 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...1894) educator who opened the first English_language kindergarten in the United States. She was born in Billerica is a town located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. ...Billerica, Massachusetts. Long before most educators, Peabody embraced the premise that children's play has intrinsic developmental and educational value.

Peabody was a teacher, writer, and prominent figure in the Transcendentalism was the name of a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture and philosophy which emerged in New England in the early_ to mid_nineteenth century. ...Transcendental movement, editing The Dial, the chief literary publication of the movement, for two years. During 1834-1835, she worked as assistant teacher to Amos Bronson Alcott (November 29, 1799–March 4, 1888) was an American teacher and writer. ...Bronson Alcott at his famous experimental Temple School in Alternative meanings: Boston (disambiguation) The 18th_century Old State House in Boston is surrounded by tall buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. ...Boston.

After the school closed, Peabody published Record of a School, outlining the plan of the school and Alcott's philosophy of early childhood education, which had drawn on German models. When she opened her kindergarten in 1860 is the leap year starting on Sunday. ...1860, the concept of providing formal schooling for children younger than six was largely confined to German practice.

Through her own kindergarten, and as editor of the Kindergarten Messenger (1873_77), Peabody helped establish kindergarten as an accepted institution in U.S. education. She also wrote numerous books in support of the cause.

The extent of her influence is apparent in a statement submitted to The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States of America. ...Congress on February 12 is the 43rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...February 12, Events January 1 _ Brooklyn, New York merges with New York City. ...1897, in support of free kindergartens:

The advantage to the community in utilizing the age from 4 to 6 in training the hand and eye; in developing the habits of cleanliness, politeness, self_control, urbanity, industry; in training the mind to understand numbers and geometric forms, to invent combinations of figures and shapes, and to represent them with the pencil__these and other valuable lessons. . . . will, I think, ultimately prevail in securing to us the establishment of this beneficent institution in all the city school systems of our country.

(Source: Library of Congress Today in History: May 16 (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may16.html))