{{Short description|Anarchist educator (1893–1995)}} {{Use British English|date=October 2022}}{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Nellie Dick | birth_name = Naomi Ploschansky | birth_date = {{Birth date|1893|05|15|df=y}} | birth_place = Nr. [[Kyiv]], Russian Empire | death_date = {{Death date and age|1995|10|31|1893|05|15|df=y}} | death_place = [[Oyster Bay, New York]], US | occupation = Educator | movement = {{Plainlist| * [[Anarchism|Anarchist]] * [[Ferrer movement|Modern School movement]] }} | spouse = {{Marriage|James Hugh Dick|1915|1965|end=d}} }}
'''Nellie Dick''' (born '''Naomi Ploschansky'''; 15 May 1893 – 31 October 1995) was an [[Anarchism and education|anarchist educator]] and for 40 years was at the forefront of the [[Ferrer movement|Modern Schools movement]].<ref name=":2" /> Alongside her husband, Jim Dick, she worked at the American Modern Schools in [[Ferrer Center and Colony#Stelton colony|Stelton]], [[Mohegan Lake, New York|Mohegan]] and [[Lakewood, New Jersey|Lakewood]].
== Biography == Dick was born Naomi Ploschansky to a Jewish family near [[Kyiv]] on 15 May 1893, she was one of eight children.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Whitehead |first=Andrew |date=14 May 1993 |title=A real anarchist |url=https://www.andrewwhitehead.net/uploads/3/5/0/5/3505647/published/ns-dick.jpg |journal=[[New Statesman & Society]] |language= |volume=6 |issue=252 |pages=22–23 |access-date=17 October 2022 |archive-date=19 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519004534/https://www.andrewwhitehead.net/uploads/3/5/0/5/3505647/published/ns-dick.jpg |url-status=live }}</ref> While an infant her family moved to [[Whitechapel]] in the [[East End of London]], then [[Leeds]], [[Glasgow]], and finally [[Stepney|Stepney Green]] in London.<ref name=":2" /> Her father was active in the Jewish trade union and [[Anarchism|anarchist]] movements and worked as a baker and a capmaker.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |others=[[Internet Archive]] |date=29 May 1993 |title=Nellie Dick 100! |pages=7 |work=[[Freedom (British newspaper)|Freedom]] |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/freedom_54.11/page/n17/mode/2up?q=%22nellie+dick%22}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Avrich |first=Paul |url=https://archive.org/details/modernschoolmove0000avri |title=The Modern School Movement: Anarchism and Education in the United States |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |others=[[Internet Archive]] |year=1980 |isbn=0-691-04669-7 |location=Princeton, N.J. |language=en |oclc=5726404 |author-link=Paul Avrich}}</ref>{{Rp|page=240}}
From 1907 until 1911 Dick organised a [[Sunday school]] at the [[Jubilee Street Club|Jubilee Street Anarchist Club]], and in 1912 opened the Ferrer Sunday School in Whitechapel.<ref name=":4">{{Citation |last=Gidley |first=Ben |title=Spaces of Informal Learning and Cultures of Translation and Marginality in London's Jewish East End |date=2018 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8100-2_11 |work=Learning Cities: Multimodal Explorations and Placed Pedagogies |series=Cultural Studies and Transdisciplinarity in Education |volume=8 |pages=169–182 |editor-last=Nichols |editor-first=Sue |place=Singapore |publisher=Springer |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-981-10-8100-2_11 |isbn=978-981-10-8100-2 |access-date=2022-05-19 |editor2-last=Dobson |editor2-first=Stephen |archive-date=17 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221017231617/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-8100-2_11 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":0" /> In 1913 on a May Day march she met Jim Dick, an educator who had started a Ferrer school in [[Liverpool]], and he subsequently joined her school as a co-director of the Sunday school.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" />{{Rp|page=242}} They married in 1915 so he could avoid conscription and then moved to the United States in 1917.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Avrich |first=Paul |url=http://archive.org/details/anarchistvoiceso0000avri |title=Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |others=[[Internet Archive]] |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-691-03412-6 |pages=282–290 |language=en |author-link=Paul Avrich}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Index entry |url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=ftfszpxSxBdPrDoILlzvbg&scan=1 |work=[[FreeBMD]] |publisher=[[Office for National Statistics|ONS]] |access-date=19 May 2022 |archive-date=19 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519013452/https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=ftfszpxSxBdPrDoILlzvbg&scan=1 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":5" />{{Rp|page=242}} Her family moved to Russia after the revolution, with her sister Bertha later spending 15 years in a prison camp.<ref name=":2" />
From 1917 until 1924 Nellie and Jim Dick both worked at [[Ferrer Center and Colony#Stelton colony|the modern school]] in [[Stelton, New Jersey]].<ref name=":1" /> From 1924 until 1928 Nellie and Jim Dick directed the Mohegan Modern School in [[Mohegan Lake, New York|Mohegan, New York]].<ref name=":5" />{{Rp|page=|pages=293–296}} From 1928 until 1933 they were co-principals at Stelton.<ref name=":5" />{{Rp|page=312}} In 1933 they founded their own school in [[Lakewood, New Jersey]], which they ran until it closed in 1958 – the last of the American Modern Schools to close.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />
She retired with Jim to [[Miami, Florida]], with Jim dying in 1965. In her retirement she was active in the [[Senior citizen's rights|senior citizens movement]]. In 1990 Dick moved to [[Oyster Bay, New York]] where she died on the 31st of October 1995, aged 102.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Leeds |first=Barbara |date=12 May 2021 |title=Pioneers in alternative education: Nellie Dick |url=https://www.libed.org.uk/index.php/articles/588-pioneers-in-alternative-education-nellie-dick |access-date=29 June 2022 |website=Libertarian Education |archive-date=17 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221017231617/https://www.libed.org.uk/index.php/articles/588-pioneers-in-alternative-education-nellie-dick |url-status=live }}</ref>
== Bibliography ==
* {{Cite book |last=Avrich |first=Paul |url=http://archive.org/details/modernschoolmove0000avri |title=The Modern School Movement: Anarchism and Education in the United States |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |others=[[Internet Archive]] |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-691-04669-3 |location=Princeton, N.J. |language=en |author-link=Paul Avrich}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
== Interviews ==
* {{Cite book |last=Avrich |first=Paul |url=http://archive.org/details/anarchistvoiceso0000avri |title=Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |others=[[Internet Archive]] |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-691-03412-6 |pages=282–290 |language=en |author-link=Paul Avrich}} * {{Cite web |last=Halvorson |first=Christine |date=27 February 1993 |title=Nellie Dick |url=https://digitaltamiment.hosting.nyu.edu/s/lesoh/item/592 |access-date= |website= |publisher=Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archive}} * {{Cite video |title=Nellie Dick and the Modern School Movement |date=1990 |last=Mintz |first=Jerry |type=VHS |language=en |publisher=Alternative Education Resource Organization |place=Roslyn Heights, NY |oclc=77680760}} * {{Cite journal |last=Pether |first=John |date=October 1988 |title=Conversation with Nellie Dick |url=https://archive.org/details/raven_anarchist_06_1988/page/154/mode/2up?q=%22nellie+dick%22 |journal=The Raven |publisher=[[Freedom Press]] |issue=6 |pages=155–166 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}} * {{Cite web |last=Whitehead |first=Andrew |date=6 January 1993 |title=Political Voices: Nellie Dick |url=https://www.andrewwhitehead.net/political-voices-nellie-dick.html}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dick, Nellie}} [[Category:1893 births]] [[Category:1995 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century American women educators]] [[Category:20th-century American educators]] [[Category:20th-century anarchists]] [[Category:20th-century British Jews]] [[Category:20th-century British women educators]] [[Category:20th-century Ukrainian Jews]] [[Category:American women centenarians]] [[Category:British anarchists]] [[Category:British women centenarians]] [[Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Ferrer Center and Colony]] [[Category:Founders of American schools and colleges]] [[Category:Jewish anarchists]] [[Category:Jewish centenarians]] [[Category:Jewish educators]] [[Category:Jews from the Russian Empire]] [[Category:People from Kyiv Oblast]]