Bronson Alcott

American transcendentalist philosopher Amos Bronson Alcott developed a theory of education, based on mutual respect and Socratic questioning rather than authority and rote learning.

He fathered Louisa May Alcott, a daughter.

This teacher, writer, and reformer pioneered new ways of interacting with young students, focusing on a conversational style, and avoided traditional punishment. He expected to perfect the human spirit and to that end advocated a vegan diet before people coined the term. He, also an abolitionist, advocated for rights of women.

Alcott with only minimal formal schooling attempted a career as a traveling salesman. Worried about potential negative effect of the itinerant life on his soul, he turned to teaching. With his controversial innovative methods, however, he rarely stayed in one place very long. He turned his experience at his most well-known teaching position at the temple school in Boston into two books: Records of a School and Conversations with Children on the Gospels. Alcott, a major figure in transcendentalism, befriended Ralph Waldo Emerson. People heavily criticize his incoherent writings on behalf of that movement. Based on his ideas for human perfection, Alcott founded Fruitlands, a transcendentalist experiment in community living. After seven months, the brief project failed. Alcott continued to struggle financially for most of his life. Nevertheless, he continued focusing on educational projects and opened a new school at the end of his life in 1879.

Alcott married Abby May in 1830, and four daughters eventually survived. Their second daughter, Louisa May Alcott, fictionalized her experience with the family in her novel Little Women in 1868. Alcott, often criticized for his inability to earn a living and to support his family, often relied on loans from other persons, including his brother-in-law and Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was never financially secure until his daughter became a best-selling novelist.

(From wikipedia.com, link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_Bro...)