HISTORY

The history of The Carroll School dates back to 1967, when Dr. Edwin Cole and a small group of concerned individuals, founded a school for children with language-based learning differences. Today, Carroll is a thriving community where children come together in an environment that values their differences and remediates their learning difficulties. Carroll's tradition is rich and its mission firmly grounded. We have outstanding leadership and faculty, and the strong partnership among teachers and families creates a community that has long been an important hallmark of the school.

Dr. Edwin Cole, a neurologist with the Massachusetts General Hospital, and Samuel Lowe and F. Gorham Brigham, successful Boston-area businessmen with considerable experience on educational boards, were the benefactors of The Carroll School.

Trained at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Cole had seen dramatic results working individually and in small groups with dyslexic children using methods developed by neurologist Samuel Orton and educator Anna Gillingham. The Orton-Gillingham language-training method continues to form the basis of the curriculum employed at Carroll today.

Dr. Cole personally interviewed and approved all members of the administration and faculty of the new school, many of whom had been trained at a clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital that dealt with children with language-based learning disabilities.

The school opened in September of 1967 in West Newton with seven students and ended the year with 28, as word about the program spread throughout the area. With enrollment approaching 50 three years later, the school moved to a property in Lincoln, once used by Massachusetts General Hospital as an extended care facility. Formerly known as Storrow House, that location on Baker Bridge Road is the current site of The Carroll School.

Over the years, the school's emphasis on Orton-Gillingham was supplemented by programs designed to bring added dimension to the lives of the students, including arts, music, drama, woodshop, and athletics. Bounders was inspired by the activities of Outward Bound. It gave the students of Carroll the opportunity to discover the challenges and rewards of working together as a group in demanding physical situations and to help them develop a more confident sense of themselves and their abilities.