Tag Archives: Pioneer Teachers

Alaska’s Lorene Harrison: Pioneer music teacher

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Lorene Harrison, pioneer teacher, ventured to Alaska while it was still a territory. She was the first music teacher in the Territory. Photo credit: Anchorage Legends and Legacies Project

I love to share stories of courageous teachers who have earned a name for themselves as intrepid pioneers. One such teacher is Lorene Cuthberton Harrison, a music educator and singer who ventured to Alaska while it was still a territory.

Lorene Cuthberton was born in March 7, 1905, in Sterling, Kansas. After her high school graduation in 1922, she enrolled in Sterling College in Kansas, where she majored in Home Economics. She earned her Bachelor’s degree and her teaching certificate in 1928. At the time, she was 23 years old.

The same year she graduated, this pioneering lady traveled to Alaska Territory, where she became the first music teacher in Anchorage schools. She also taught courses in home economics, general science, and geography. When she arrived, Anchorage had only 2,500 residents and the high school had only six teachers. Her salary was $180 a month, compared to the $60 per month that her friends were paid as teachers in Kansas.

Two years after her arrival, the pioneer educator married Jack Harrison, a local railroad engineer. The couple had two daughters. While raising her children, Lorene continued to teach music and theater. She also continued to sing for others, performing at private and public events such as weddings and funerals. When World War II erupted, Lorene worked for the United Service Organizations (USO).

After her husband passed away in 1968, Lorene opened her own boutique which she called Hat Box. The store sold clothing and hats that she personally designed. The former teacher ran her store for 30 years. She also launched herself into various cultural activities in Anchorage. She organized the United Choir of All Faiths, which was the forerunner of the Anchorage Community Chorus; she served as the first president of the Anchorage Concert Association; she was on the founding boards of the Anchorage Arts Council, the Anchorage Civic Opera, and the Anchorage Little Theatre, and she served as the director of the First Presbyterian Church Choir for 29 years.

This amazing Chalkboard Champion passed away at the age of 100 in 2005 in Anchorage, Alaska. She was interred in the pioneer tract of the Anchorage Memorial Park. In 2009, Lorene Harrison was inducted into the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame. You can read more about this intrepid lady at the link AlaskaHistory.org. You can also purchase Mostly Music: The Biography of Alaskan Cultural Pioneer Lorene Harrison, which can be found on amazon.com.

Oregon teacher Sybil Plumlee was a pioneer policewoman

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Oregon teacher Sybil Plumlee earned acclaim as a police officer specializing in the Portland Women’s Protective Division. Photo credit: The Oregonian

Many fine educators also pursue careers outside of the classroom. One of these was Sybil Plumlee, an Oregon teacher who earned acclaim as a police officer specializing in the Portland Women’s Protective Division.

Sybil was born April 29, 1911, in Seattle, Washington. When she was a young girl, her family moved to Portland, Oregon. There she attended from Jefferson High School. After her graduation from high school in 1930, she earned her Bachelor’s degree from Oregon Normal School, now known as Western Oregon University. Once she earned her degree, Sybil accepted a position as a school teacher in a one-room schoolhouse located in Clarno, Oregon. Later, during world War II, she worked as an educator with the Ellis Mining Company in Bourne, Oregon.

In 1946, the former school teacher competed against 300 applicants to fill one vacant position on the local police force, an organization predominantly male-oriented. In fact, Sybil is recognized as a pioneer in the law enforcement field. She served in the unit known as the Women’s Protective Division, and worked on cases involving child abuse, rape, and domestic violence. Her service on that unit spanned from 1947 to 1967.

In addition to her careers as an educator and a police officer, Sybil was a published author. When she was 96 years of age, she published a collection of family stories and history entitled Stories of Hester Ann Bolin Harvey and Her Family. She also wrote Badge 357, an unpublished memoir of her career on the police force.

This amazing educator passed away on January 6, 2012. She was 100 years old. To read more about Sybil Plumlee, see her obituary published by The Oregonian.

New Jersey’s Ethel De Long Zande: Founder of settlement schools

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New Jersey English teacher Ethel De Long Zande helped establish a settlement school in rural Appalachia to educate mountain children. She is seen here with a mountain dulcimer. Photo credit: Pine Mountain Settlement House Collections.

Throughout American history, many fine educators have worked tirelessly to advance the cause of progressive education. One of these was Ethel De Long Zande, a teacher from New Jersey who helped establish a settlement school in rural Appalachia in the early 20th century. The school was established to educate mountain children.

Ethel was born in Montclair, New Jersey, in 1879. When she was young, her father and younger sister were disabled, and Ethel became their caregiver. As a teenager, her family moved to Northampton, New Jersey, and Ethel enrolled at nearby Smith College, where she attended from 1897 to 1901. She earned her Bachelor’s degree there. During her college years, she worked as a tutor and a teacher at Easthampton High School.

Once she earned her degrees, Ethel worked as a teacher at Central High School in Springfield, Massachusetts. Her career there spanned five years. In 1905, she relocated to Indianapolis, where she taught English at Manual Training High School for five years. It was then that Ethel was appointed principal of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union Settlement School in Hindman, Knott County, Kentucky. The school was later known as the Hindman Settlement School. In 1912, Ethel became one of the founding members of the Pine Mountain Settlement School located in rural Harlan County, Kentucky. There she established a reputation for creating especially stimulating lessons, asking her students to write and read letters, and to engage in lively conversation, discussion, and debate.

To read more about this Chalkboard Champion, see this biography about her printed in Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections.

John Dewey: Teacher and influential educational reformer

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John Dewey

Teacher John Dewey was an influential educational reformer. Photo credit: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

One of the most influential educators of all time was John Dewey, a visionary, social reformer, psychologist, and philosopher. This chalkboard champion was one of the most influential voices for change in the classroom during the Progressive Movement of the early 19th century. The Progressive Movement emphasizes the importance of student participation, experiential learning, and meaningful activity in the classroom. This approach was in stark contrast to the practices of rote memorization and discipline that were so prevalent in his day.

John Dewey was born to parents of humble means on October 20, 1959, in Burlington, Vermont. As a young man, he attended the University of Vermont. After his college graduation, John inaugurated his career in education as a high school classroom teacher in Oil City, Pennsylvania, where he taught for two years. After earning his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University, John became a university professor at the University of Michigan, where he taught for ten years. In 1894 he transferred to the University of Chicago, where he founded the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. During this time, he wrote his landmark book School and Society, where he argued the importance of collaborative experimentation in the classroom. He also emphasized practical skills and learning by doing.

Later, John relocated to New York City, where he joined the faculty of Columbia University. There he founded the New School for Social Research, a group that advocated for democracy as the foundation of a free and enlightened society.

Over the course of his long and distinguished career, this extremely influential educator published 40 books and 700 articles covering a wide variety of topics. He influenced classrooms throughout America with his meaning-oriented, democratic approach to teaching and learning. John Dewey died from complications of pneumonia on June 1, 1952. He was 92 years old.

Prudence Crandall: The intrepid teacher named Connecticut Female State Hero

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Prudence Crandall

Teacher Prudence Crandall: The Chalkboard Hero who taught African American students. Photo credit: Public Domain

There are many courageous teachers who have made great sacrifices for the sake of their students. One of these was Quaker Prudence Crandall, a Connecticut teacher who lost everything she owned in order to educate African American girls in a time when doing so was unheard of.

In 1831, Prudence opened a boarding school for young ladies in Canterbury, Connecticut. By the end of the first year, she had earned the praise of parents, community members, and students throughout New England.

Then one day an African American student named Sarah Harris asked to be admitted to the academy. Sarah said she wanted to learn how to be a teacher so she could open her own school for Black students. Prudence knew admitting an African American student would generate some resistance from her neighbors, but after some soul-searching, she decided her conscience and her religious convictions would not allow her to refuse the request. Unfortunately, Prudence had severely under-estimated the resistance she would encounter for this decision.

Figuring the complaint from her detractors was that she was operating an integrated school, the intrepid teacher closed her academy for white girls and re-opened as an academy for “misses of color.” That just made the situation worse. Her action caused ripples all the way up to the US Supreme Court and resulted in Prudence’s brief incarceration in the local jail. After lawless community members set fire to her school, Prudence was forced to close the academy and leave town.

Years later, however, the courageous stance taken by Prudence Crandall resulted in the intrepid teacher being named the Female State Hero for Connecticut. You can read more of the gripping account of what happened in my second book, Chalkboard Heroes, now available on amazon.com.