Sylvia Ashton-Warner

Sylvia Constance Ashton-Warner MBE (17 December 1908 – 28 April 1984) was a New Zealand novelist, non-fiction writer, poet, pianist and world figure in the teaching of children.

As an educator she developed and applied concepts of organic, child-based learning to the teaching of reading and writing, and vocabulary techniques, still used today.

When Francis's health deteriorated, Margaret became the sole breadwinner, thus needing to take the younger children to school with her to sit in her classroom while she taught.

Ashton-Warner was invited to the Aspen Community School in October 1970 and to present at the University of Colorado's third annual reading conference the following June.

[2] She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to education and literature, in the 1982 Queen's Birthday Honours list.

[2] As a young woman, Ashton-Warner trained as a pianist, practising up to five hours a day for years before she turned to teaching.

Ashton-Warner's ideas for a child-based, organic approach to the teaching of reading and writing, including her key vocabulary techniques, are still used and debated internationally today.

Earlier papers of Sylvia Ashton-Warner are held in the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.