Nathan Isaacs worked in the metals trade, but after his marriage to Susan Sutherland Fairhurst, they were partners in her work on early education.
20 Facts About Nathan Isaacs
1.
2.
Nathan Isaacs's father was Orthodox, had philosophical interests, and did not work: his mother traded in garments from Eastern Europe.
3.
Nathan Isaacs was the middle child of three, having two sisters.
4.
In 1907, when Nathan Isaacs was aged 12, the family migrated to the United Kingdom.
5.
Nathan Isaacs was in the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 with the 51st Highland Regiment, was gassed, and was invalided out of the army.
6.
Nathan Isaacs married Susan, after her first marriage to William Broadhurst Brierley ended in divorce, in 1922.
7.
Nathan Isaacs rented a flat in Hunter Street, Bloomsbury, and she carried on a psychoanalytic practice there.
8.
Susan Nathan Isaacs became principal of Malting House School in 1924.
9.
The Isaacs' rented a flat on Hills Road, Cambridge in autumn 1924, but Nathan continued to work in London, where he spent most of the week.
10.
Jean Piaget, the Swiss educator and theorist with whose thought Susan and Nathan Isaacs were closely involved, paid a visit to the Malting House School in 1927.
11.
Nathan Isaacs, subsequently, had an affair with Evelyn Lawrence, who joined the staff as psychologist in 1926.
12.
Nathan Isaacs became her lover in August 1927, as Susan knew at the time.
13.
Nathan Isaacs continued to work as a metals merchant, and during World War II was a civil servant in the Ministry of Supply.
14.
Nathan Isaacs saw little of Evelyn during this time: she had been evacuated at Torquay.
15.
Nathan Isaacs was awarded the OBE for his war work, in 1948.
16.
Nathan Isaacs made clear her wish that Nathan, her carer, and Evelyn should support each other.
17.
Nathan Isaacs gave evidence to the committee compiling the Plowden Report on education, as an authority on Piaget.
18.
Over a long period, Nathan Isaacs worked on an essay that would be a major statement of his views.
19.
Nathan Isaacs admired both James Mark Baldwin and John Dewey for their approaches.
20.
Nathan Isaacs wrote Children's Why Questions, as a response to, and criticism of, Jean Piaget's The Language and Thought of the Child.