You have to love daytime talk show host and actress Ellen DeGeneres for her unwavering support for teachers. In this video clip from her show aired January 3, 2019, Ellen singles out fourth grade special education teacher and cheerleading coach Jenna Albi from Lawrence Township, New Jersey. Watch:
Frontier teacher Anna Webber of Kansas leaves a diary that describes her classroom experiences and conditions in her prairie school.
There are many fascinating stories in American history of remarkable young women who taught school on the Western frontier. One of these was Anna Webber, an elementary school teacher from Kansas. Anna left behind a diary of her classroom experiences which describe the typical conditions of prairie schools.
Anna Webber was born in Breckenridge, Kansas, on September 16, 1860. Her parents, William Ellsworth and Thankful Delila Webber, moved to Iowa shortly after Anna’s birth because of economic pressures. They lived there until Anna’s mother passed away in 1872. Anna’s father remarried and moved his new wife and children back to Kansas the following year.
Not much is known about Anna’s childhood. Historical records show that she attended school in Mitchell County, and in the spring of 1881 she travelled to Beloit where she passed her teacher’s examination.
The young teacher inaugurated her professional career in 1881 in a small town in Mitchell County, Kansas. The town was was a growing community of farmers and railroad workers. Eleven boys and five girls were enrolled on her first day at Blue Hill School. Her students ranged in age from six to thirteen years, and the school term was three months in length. Anna’s one-room school house was constructed from sod, and the furnishings were sparse. There was one chair for the teacher, and the students sat on benches made of lumber boards balanced on rocks.
Anna taught school in Blue Hills and in two nearby Kansas counties throughout the 1880’s. In June, 1890, she accepted a position at the Kansas Industrial School where she taught home economics courses. That same year she met Robert Gravatt, and the two were married on February 5, 1891.
Anna kept a diary of her experiences as a frontier teacher which has been edited by Lila Gravatt Scrimsher. The diary was published as “The Diary of Anna Webber: Early Day Teacher of Mitchell County” in Kansas Historical Quarterly in 1972. You can read the publication online at Anna Webber’s Diary.
You can read more about this remarkable teacher in the book Frontier Teachers: Stories of Heroic Women of the Old West by Chris Enss. You can also read the article “Wild Women of the West: Anna Webber,” also by Chriss Enss, published online at Cowgirl Magazine.
Author Terry Lee Marzell shares the story of the remarkable Mary Tsukamoto, strawberry farmer cum elementary school teacher. She was incarcerated along with many other Japanese Americans in a US relocation camp during WWII. View the video below to learn more:
Oregon Territory teacher and pioneer teacher Mary McLench in her Tualatin classroom (circa 1852).
Mary Almira Gray was born in the Green Mountains of southern Vermont, the oldest of four children. Mary had already been teaching students to read and write at a one room school house in the village of Grafton, not far from her home. As a young woman, Mary helped her siblings with their lessons, and when she was old enough she decided to turn her knack for teaching into her profession.
Although she had never ventured far from her home town, Mary was full of pioneer spirit. She was 25 years old in 1850 when she ventured into the Wild West to teach on the frontier of Oregon Territory. She was one of five young women from all over New England that had been recruited for this work by Vermont Governor William Slade. In addition to serving as governor, Slade was an agent with the National Board of Popular Education. The organization was created to train and sponsor teachers and encourage them to go West.
In April, 1851, Mary finally arrived in Oregon Territory after a long and arduous sailing to Panama, a grueling overland trek to the Pacific Coast, and then another sailing north to her final destination. At the time, Oregon Territory included what is now Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and the total population was only 14,000 people. Mary was assigned to inaugurate a school in Tualatin, a town 13 miles south of Portland. There she taught five terms.
While teaching in Tualatin, Mary met and married Benjamin McLench in 1852. Through the Oregon Land Donation Act, the couple established a farm on 160 acres of land in the Willamette River Valley. There they raised their children, along with wheat, apples, onions, potatoes, and honey bees.
You can read more about this pioneer teacher in the book Frontier Teachers: Stories of Heroic Women of the Old West by Chris Enss. The volume is available on amazon. You can also read an online article published in Cowgirl Magazine, also written by Enss.
Kirkland Babin, a fourth grade teacher at Ellinwood Grade School in Ellinwood, Kansas, describes a lesson in valuing yourself which he taught to his class on the last day of school.
I saw this on Facebook yesterday. It appears to have been written by Kirkland Babin, a fourth grade teacher at Ellinwood Grade School located in Ellinwood, Kansas, in May, 2019. Such a powerful lesson for kids. Here’s what the post said:
“Today was bittersweet. My last day of my first year(semester) of teaching ever. My last day with my 4th graders. My last chance to leave an impact on them since unfortunately, I might not ever see them again. In order to hopefully leave an impression on them that would last a lifetime, I went to the bank last night and asked for the most crisp, without flaw, never been folded $100 bill they had. I would be using that $100 bill today in my final lesson of the semester. After our awards ceremony this morning, we returned to my classroom where I delivered my final lesson for this school year.
I took the $100 bill out of my wallet, held it up, and asked the class to tell me what it was. Obviously they knew what it was, who wouldn’t? I then asked them how much it was worth, to which they responded, “$100!” I began to explain how $100 is a lot of money, no matter how rich or poor you are in this world. I then asked them who wanted the $100. 14/14 students raised their hands before I could even finish the sentence.
The next part of my lesson required me to explain how a simple $100 bill can be related to our lives. I explained that this perfect $100 bill is like all of us when we’re born. No flaws, no imperfections, no negative thoughts being thrown at us by others. I had the students pass the $100 bill around and share something mean someone has said or done to them and how it made them feel using the $100 bill as visualization. If it was something minor, they’d fold it maybe once, if it was something more hurtful they’d maybe fold it a couple of times.
At the end, when all students were done sharing, I looked at the $100 bill(now crumpled, folded to what looked to be a million times) and held it up again. I asked my class “How much is it worth now?” They replied, “$100 still”. I asked, “Who wants it?” Again, 14/14 hands flew up. So I asked “Why? It’s all crumpled, folded, and it doesn’t even look like a $100 bill anymore.” I explained to them that no matter what anyone, or this world says about you, your abilities, your worth, your value or your flaws, you’re still worth something. The same as you’ve always been worth.
I ended my final lesson by saying this, “What you say and do to people matters. You may not see it, but I can promise you it matters. No matter how many times this $100 bill was folded or crumpled up, it’s still worth $100. It’ll still spend the exact same as to when it was brand new, with no folds or imperfections. That’s the same with all of you. You’re all still very valuable. My task for you is to find someone around you who doesn’t feel so valuable, pass on this lesson I’ve taught you, and be the difference. Be the difference you wanna see in this world. Be hope to those whose lives are far from easy.
By the end of it, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.”
Love it, Kirkland. Thanks for sharing! To see Kirklands Facebook page, click here.
