Abstract
Henry Caldwell Cook (1886–1939) was an innovative practitioner whose teaching at the Perse School in Cambridge sought to harness and develop children’s innate impulses towards creativity within both English and drama. This was done by encouraging them to write poetry, stories and stage-plays, many of which were anthologised, and through constructing a purpose-built theatre for the staging of their work. The chapter explores these initiatives, analyses Cook’s seminal work The Play Way (1917), and charts how his thinking contributed to concurrent educational policy such as the recommendations of the various Hadow Reports. It concludes by exploring his influence on later dramatic educators especially his appropriation by those thinkers who were to found the ‘drama-in-education’ movement.
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Howlett, J. (2021). Chapter 6: Henry Caldwell Cook (1886–1939): Play, Performance and the Perse. In: Howlett, J., Palmer, A. (eds) Unfolding Creativity. Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75738-0_7
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