The Natural Education of an Esperantist

Young Winifred teaching
children of wealthy parents

I’ve been delinquent. In reviewing the newspapers of the spring of 1915 that (ersatz British noblewoman) Winifred Sackville Stoner was in New York promoting her accomplishments as an educator. A year before (1914), she had published her book, Natural Education. Her daughter, the younger Winifred Stoner, was the test subject and embodiment of her mother’s educational theories. A quick glance at the book shows that Stoner referenced Esperanto about thirteen times in her book.

Her devotion to the Esperanto movement was rewarded. Despite that it’s neither in nor about Esperanto, Amerika Esperantisto gave a review of it (in English) in their September 1914 issue. It’s also clear that Mrs. Stoner pushed Esperanto as a vital part of early education, giving a bit of a promotion to the Esperanto movement. By twelve, little Winifred was set to teaching yet younger children, an activity that included instruction in Esperanto.

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Esperanto Prodigy Starts Marriage Career

Where do you even begin to correct this?

One of the advantages of looking back at history is that you know so much more than the people who had to live it. And so, with the announcement in the New-York Tribune on December 25, 1921 that Winifred Sackville Stoner had married, we know that it was just for the first time, and that she would go on to marry three more times. But perhaps we can wish the couple a happy time anyway.

By this time, the Stoners seemed to have dropped any interest in Esperanto. Winifred Sr. attached herself to the Esperanto movement as a way of promoting her theories on the education of children. By the time Winifred Jr. was nineteen, all hopes of using her as an example of “natural education” were done for. But although the Stoners seemed to have been less active in the the Esperanto movement after 1910, the association with Esperanto would continue to follow them.

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Mrs. Stoner's Doubtful Family History

Winifred Sackville Stoner, jr.
How skilled was she at
Esperanto?

Winfield Sackville Stoner, Jr. (also known as “Cherie”) was one of the early celebrities of the Esperanto movement, and although the Stoner family seems to have dropped out of Esperanto not longer they entered it, newspaper articles kept linking her to Esperanto. Her mother, Winifred Sackville Stoner was an education theorist, though other than teaching her daughter, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that she based her theories on any evidence. She did state that little Winifred’s accomplishments were not due to genius but to to “natural education” (that is to say, her mother’s doing).

As I’ve noted before, I’m inclined to disbelieve the elder Stoner’s claims, because much that can be checked turns out to be false. The woman had a genius for self-mythologizing. In August 1910, the San Francisco Call reported that Mrs. Stoner was the daughter of Lord Sackville-West, but that claim didn’t stand up to scrutiny. By October, her ancestry had changed.

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The Doubtful History of Mrs. Stoner

The mysterious Mrs. Stoner

I’ve written previously about Winifred Sackville Stoner, Jr., the early Esperantist whose skill at languages was held up by her mother (also Winifed Sackville Stoner) as proof of the older Stoner’s educational theories. The younger Stoner (hereafter “Cherie,” her nickname) was the subject of a profile piece in the San Francisco Call on August 29, 1910. The Stoners had taken part in the first American Esperanto congress in 1908, and Mrs. Stoner was the head of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Esperanto Association of North America, but they were not able to attend the 1910 Universala Kongreso in Washington, D.C.

The Stoners, alas, seem to have a casual relationship with truth. As I noted before, some of Mrs. Stoner’s claims of her daughter’s educational attainments are simply incredible. Indeed, some of their contemporaries also held her achievements in doubt. A 1915 letter to the New York Times asked “has it occurred to any one to test the child Winifred Stoner, for whom her mother makes such remarkable claims?“ But the remarkable claims were not only for the daughter.

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