Contemplating the nature of the “soup school”
While I was in the process of conducting research for my first book Chalkboard Champions, I learned about many types of schools that I had never heard about in the 36 years of my career as a professional educator. Industrial schools, emancipation schools, freedom schools, farm schools, normal schools. Where were all these terms when I went through student teaching? I was particularly intrigued by the concept of the “soup school.” What was that all about, I wondered?
I learned that a “soup school” was an institution established during periods of pronounced immigration to our country. Their purpose was to provide assistance to immigrant children as they struggled to assimilate within a new, dominant culture. Often times these schools were founded by charitable organizations or missionary societies. Because of the population served by a “soup school,” it makes sense that these institutions were located primarily near areas of immigrant entry. New York City, for example. The main curriculum in these facilities was instruction in the English language, basic literacy skills, and indoctrination to the American culture. Apparently, the school got its name from the fact that at noontime a bowl of soup was served to the students, a free meal which would have been most welcome to the poorest of immigrants.
In contemplating this practice, I’m wondering if our nation’s free lunch program would be considered a modern version of the “soup school”?
You can read more about soup schools in my book Chalkboard Champions, available on amazon.
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Terry Lee Marzell shares story of teacher and aviation pioneer Willa Brown Chappell
In this short video below, author Terry Lee Marzell shares the story of remarkable teacher Willa Brown Chappell, aviation pioneer and teacher of Tuskegee Airmen.
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The remarkable Eliza Mott: Pioneer teacher of Nevada
The remarkable teacher and pioneer Eliza Mott established the first school in Carson Valley, Nevada.
There are many amazing pioneer teachers who brought education and culture to the Western frontier. One of the most amazing was Eliza Mott, a remarkable educator who is credited with founding the first school in Carson Valley, Nevada.
In 1852, this enterprising pioneer wife and mother set up her school in her farmhouse kitchen. Her students sat on bare logs around a crude, wooden table. Armed with a couple of McGuffey Readers, a speller, and an arithmetic book, Eliza welcomed boys and girls dressed in plaid shirts or gingham dresses and home-knit stockings. Some were barefoot and some were wearing rough shoes with hard leather soles. The students in Eliza’ s class ranged in age from five to eleven years in age. Some of her pupils were her own children, and some were her nieces and nephews.
Eliza was born on January 13, 1829, in Toronto, Canada. Her family immigrated to Lee County, Iowa, in 1842, and it was there that young Eliza developed her skills as a teacher. She excelled at academic subjects and vowed to make great strides in the field of education.
At the age of 22, she met and fell in love with Israel Mott, and on April 10, 1850, the pair were married. As soon as they were married, Israel and Eliza decided to go West. The fledgling pioneers set out in a Conestoga wagon pulled by two sturdy oxen. In early 1851 they landed in Salt Lake City, where they joined a Mormon wagon train and headed for California, one of a party of thirty families led by the famous frontiersman Kit Carson. When the caravan stopped to rest at Mormon Station in northern Nevada in July, 1851, Israel decided he liked the area so much he wanted to stay there. The couple homesteaded a 2,100-acre section of land along the Carson River route, and on this homestead Eliza established her school.
As more pioneer travelers established their farms in the area, the name of Mottsville was given to the settlement. It quickly became apparent that a school was needed. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Eliza still had to run the farm. On an average day, she would rise before dawn to care for her children, milk the cows, cook breakfast for her family and hired hands, prepare lunches for her students, and then complete her lesson plans. By fall, 1855, the Mottsville School had officially outgrown Eliza’s kitchen, and by the next year a schoolhouse was built in town. A schoolmaster was hired from the East, and Eliza resigned as the teacher to care for her family full-time.
This chalkboard champion will always be remembered fondly as the founder of the first school in Carson Valley, Nevada. You can read more about her in this story by Chris Enss printed online in Cowgirl Magazine.
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Teacher Sarah Lerner helps traumatized students recover from Parkland shooting
Teacher Sarah Lerner uses all her teacher skills to help her students recover from the traumatic mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year.
In the aftermath of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine’s Day last year, teacher Sarah Lerner has been using all her teacher skills to help her students recover from their trauma.
Sarah serves her school as an English teacher and yearbook adviser. In this year’s annual, the perceptive and responsive educator suggested to her students that they include portraits of the 14 therapy dogs that have been welcomed on campus to help the traumatized students cope. The dogs have obviously become an important part of the healing process. “I’ll be teaching and in comes a dog and these big 18-year-old adults all of a sudden become mushy 5-year-old kids, and it’s been such a comfort for us,” Sarah explained.
Sarah has also provided her students with the opportunity to express their emotions in a book she edited and published entitled Parkland Speaks: Survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas Share Their Stories. In the book, the teens share their experiences, grief, anger, determination, healing, and hope. The collection includes poetry, eyewitness accounts, letters, speeches, journal entries, drawings, and photographs from the traumatic events and aftermath of the events of February 14, 2018. The book is filled with expressions of loss, a rally cry for change, and hope for a safe future. A large portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book go directly to Shine MSD, an organization formed by Parkland students that promotes healing through the arts. Parkland Speaks is currently being sold for $17.99 online and in bookstores across the nation. The volume is available on amazon here.
One of 14 therapy dogs brought in to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to help students cope with last year’s mass shooting examines his portrait in the school’s yearbook. The portraits were the brainchild of yearbook adviser and teacher Sarah Lerner.
