George H. Richmond was an educator who introduced the concept of the "microsociety" to American primary education.
George was a painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

, teacher

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

, and an educator. He was raised by a single mother in Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

's Lower East Side. He started teaching at a Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

 elementary school

Elementary school

An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...

 in 1967, and is a Yale

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 graduate. As a rookie teacher, he coined the term "microsociety," and created the first microsociety in his classroom in 1967 to combat students' lack of interest in the learning curriculum. A microsociety learning enviornment enables students to apply classroom knowledge to real world settings,for example, starting a business, making laws, and paying bills, etc. Richmond was invited to attend Harvard for his doctorate. His thesis, The MicroSociety School: A Real World in Miniature was published by Harpers & Row in 1973.

In 1984, Richmond met his wife Carolynn King, a Harvard and Villanova graduate with advanced degrees in education and law. She researched and found microsocieties were operating in various schools across the country. Richmond and Carolynn King continued to develop the model and sought grant opportunities to support their efforts. George Richmond fell ill with Parkinson's disease. Carolynn King Richmond left her law practice to run The MicroSociety School Consortium in 1991, and together they wrote and published the 500 page MicroSociety Handbook.

George Richmond continued to write and paint despite the progression of Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...

, and in 2004 published a collection of poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

illustrated with his paintings, entitled, The Economics of Love. In 2005 George Richmond succumbed to complications from cancer.