Category Archives: Education

Elaine Goodale Eastman, the “Sister to the Sioux”

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Teacher Elaine Goodall Eastman, who described herself as a Sister to the Sioux, established a day school on a Sioux Indian reservation in the territory of South Dakota. Photo Credit: Public Domain

Many talented and dedicated educators have devoted themselves to working for disenfranchised groups of students. One of these was Elaine Goodale Eastman, who often described herself as a “Sister to the Sioux.”

When she was just a young woman, Elaine, originally from Massachusetts, established a day school on a Sioux Indian reservation in the territory of South Dakota. Contrary to prevailing opinion of her day, she believed very strongly that it was best to keep Native American children at home rather than transport them far away from their families to Indian boarding schools. She hadn’t taught on the reservation very long when she was promoted to the position of Superintendent of Indian Education for the Two Dakotas. In this capacity, she travelled throughout the five Dakota reservations, visiting the more than 60 government and missionary schools within her jurisdiction, and writing detailed evaluation reports on each school she visited.

It was because of her work that Elaine just happened to be visiting the Pine Ridge Reservation when the tragic Wounded Knee Massacre took place. As a result of this tragedy, more than 200 men, women, and children from the Lakota tribe were killed, and another 51 were wounded. In addition, 25 government soldiers were also killed, most by “friendly fire,” and another 39 were wounded. Following the massacre, Elaine and her fiance,  physician Charles Eastman of the Santee Sioux tribe, cared for the survivors and wrote detailed government reports to accurately describe what happened.

In her later years, when America was experiencing a back-to-nature revival, Elaine and her husband operated Indian-themed summer camps in New Hampshire. Read more of the life story of this fascinating educator in Theodore D. Sargent’s biography The Life of Elaine Goodale Eastman, or an encapsulated version in my book,  Chalkboard Champions: Twelve Remarkable Teachers Who Educated America’s Disenfranchised Students, both available on amazon.

Teacher and activist Julia Flisch fought for equity for women

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History teacher and social activist Julia Flisch fought for equal education for girls in the late 19th century. Photo Credit: Georgia College

In my opinion, teachers are among the most dedicated proponents of social change in American society. Julia Flisch a Georgia teacher who fought for equal education for girls in the late 19th century, is a fine example of this.

Julia was born on Jan. 31, 1861, in Augusta, Georgia, the daughter of immigrants from Switzerland and Germany. She was raised in Athens, Georgia, where her father operated a candy store and ice cream parlor, and her mother was a homemaker. As a young girl, Julia had always dreamed of attending the all-male University of Georgia, but when she applied in 1869 she was denied admission because of her gender. Instead, she enrolled at Cooper Union New York City, where she studied secretarial skills. But it was the rejection from the University of Georgia that inspired her life-long campaign for women’s rights and higher education, as an educator and scholar, and also as a journalist and author.

While still a student, Julia spend her summers working as a school teacher. Eventually she was able to take courses at both Harvard University and the University of Chicago. In 1905, she opened a school at the University of Wisconsin, where by 1908 she had earned both a Bachelor’s and a Masters degree in History. After earning her degrees, Julia accepted a position at Tubman High School in August, where she taught for 17 years. Until the 1950s, Tubman was the area’s only public high school for girls. Later Julia served as the first female instructor at the Junior College of Augusta.

Throughout her years in the classroom, Julia was a hardworking teacher dedicated to the success of her students. During this period, she advocated for collective bargaining rights for teachers, which had been unheard of before her time. She also actively lobbied for women’s suffrage and state grants to pay for women’s higher education. Her rallying cry was “Give the girls a chance!”

To advance her campaign for women’s education, Julia published an anonymous letter to the editor in 1882 in the Augusta Chronicle which called for opportunities for women to pursue financial and social independence. She also spread her message through fiction, and her first novel, Ashes of Hopes, which depicted the story of three young women searching for independence, was published in 1886. The effort earned wide acclaim.

Julia Flisch passed away on March 17, 1941. After her passing, this Chalkboard Champion was described as having accomplished “more than than any other person to advance the cause of women’s education in the state of Georgia.” In 1994, she was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement.

To read more about Julia Flisch, see this article about her published in the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

Chalkboard Champion and activist John “Wolf Smeller” Fredson

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Chalkboard Champion John “Wolf Smeller” Fredson was also an activist and US veteran. Photo credit: National Park Service

Many times dedicated teachers commit themselves to the important social causes of their day. This is true of John Fredson, an Alaskan Native American educator and hospital worker who labored tirelessly on behalf of the Neetsaii Gwich’in people of the Yukon.

John was born in 1896 near Table Mountain by the Sheenjek River watershed in the Yukon. He grew up speaking Gwich’in as his first language. His Gwich’in name is Zhoh Gwatson, which translated means “Wolf Smeller.” Orphaned at a young age, John attended a mission school operated by the Episcopal church.

As a youngster, John became exceptionally skilled in climbing, hunting, and following trails. At age 14, he became a member of a 1913 expedition that climbed Mount Denali, the highest peak in North America. For this expedition Johnny served as the base camp manager. While the older men climbed, John  remained at the base camp for 31 days by himself, feeding himself by hunting caribou and sheep. The young boy’s experiences are documented in the book Ascent of Denali by Archdeacon Hudson Stuck, another member of the expedition.

With the Archdeacon’s encouragement, John decided to continue his education beyond elementary school, becoming the first native of Athabascan descent to complete high school. He earned a scholarship to attend Sewanee, the University of the South, an Episcopal college located in Tennessee. He was the first Alaska native to graduate from a university. While there, John worked with renowned linguist Edward Sapir to classify Gwich’in as part of the Na-Dene language family. This work is documented in the book John Fredson Edward Sapir Ha’a Googwandak (1982).

After he graduated from college, John served his country in the US military. When he was discharged, he returned to Alaska, where he worked at a hospital in Fort Yukon. In his later years, he built a solarium for Native American tuberculosis patients. At that time, his facility was the only hospital in the far north, and was utilized by many native Alaskan patients, primarily from the Gwich’in tribe. Most of these patients suffered from communicable diseases introduced by Europeans and Asians to which the natives had no immunity.

John also taught school in the village of Venetie, teaching how to grow household gardens to a community who had previously supported themselves through hunting. In Venetie John became a tribal leader and worked to establish the Native Alaskan rights to traditional lands. He was the primary founder of the Venetie Indian Reserve, the largest reservation in Alaska, which earned federal recognition in 1941, before Alaska was admitted to the Union as a state. The reserve was approximately 1.4 million acres at the time of its establishment. There the John Fredson School of Yukon Flats has been named in his honor, and the school remains there to this day.

All his life, John “Wolf Smeller” Fredson was a Native American rights activist, writer, hunter, skilled debater, musician, artist, and more.  He is said to have lived his life with integrity, passion, and a great sense of humor.  He always exhibited a great love for the land and for his people, and he made many significant contributions to his tribe in his relatively short life. Sadly, this Chalkboard Champion died of pneumonia on August 22, 1945.

Author Terry Lee Marzell presents her books at 2025 CalRTA convention

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Author Terry Lee Marzell was invited to present her two books about remarkable teachers at the 2025 Annual Delegate Assembly and Convention for the California Retired Teachers Association (CalRTA). Photo credit: Hal Marzell

Author Terry Lee Marzell was invited to present her two books about remarkable teachers at the 2025 Annual Delegate Assembly and Convention held by the California Retired Teachers Association (CalRTA) in Los Angeles on May 14—16. She was part of a panel of three authors who spoke about their books, their inspiration for writing, and their experiences with the writing process.

In addition to her presentation, Terry represented CalRTA Division 80, which serves retired teachers in the cities of Corona, Norco, and Eastvale in Southern California. She currently fills the role of President of that Division, and editor of their monthly newsletter, and was also selected to serve as a delegate for the division at the convention.

CalRTA is a statewide organization in California that advocates for the protection of retirement benefits for retired teachers, supports active teachers and public education through classroom teacher grants, and assists future teachers with scholarships.

One of the other two authors were fellow CalRTA member and retired teacher Antonio Duarte, who spoke about the two volumes of poems that he has published. His books are Vida! Life’s Moments and Memories and Pensamientos: Life’s Emotions and Dreams. (Both volumes are available on amazon.com at the links provided above.) His poems cover topics such as relationships, family, love, and philosophical topics. Antonio, who prefers to be called “Tony,” was a teacher in Santa Ana, California, for 38 years. As a member of CalRTA, Tony serves as the Director for Area VIII, and also as a member of the IDEA Committee (Involvement, Democracy Engagement, and Awareness).

The third member of the panel was journalist Paul Gullixon, one of two authors of the nonfiction book Inflamed: Abandonment, Heroism, and Outrage in Wine Country’s Deadliest Firestorm. (The other was Anne E. Belden.) The book tells the dramatic story of hundreds of senior citizens who were left without help in the path of a killer firestorm. The volume details the search for accountability and reveals the increasing risks to one of America’s most vulnerable populations. This volume, too, is available on amazon.com.