Tag Archives: Pioneer Teachers

The instructional strategies Miracle Worker Anne Sullivan Macy used to teach Helen Keller

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Anne Sullivan Macy with Helen Keller Photo Credit: Public Domain

Anne Sullivan: this teacher’s name is synonymous with Miracle Worker. Anne is the remarkable teacher who worked with Helen Keller, an extremely intelligent blind and deaf child from Tuscumbia, Alabama. The relationship between the teacher and the student is explored in the play The Miracle Worker by William Gibson, an iconic piece of American literature that is frequently taught in public schools. This award-winning play depicts the exact moment at which, due to Anne’s expert instructional efforts, Helen was able to grasp the concept of language. This knowledge unlocked a world of isolation for the little girl, allowing her to connect with her fellow human beings, and making it possible for her to earn a university degree at a time when educating women was rare. The scene is sweet. But what strategies, exactly, did the miracle-working teacher use in order to achieve this breakthrough? After extensive reading on the subject, I think I may be able to identify a few of them.

First of all, Anne read every bit of published material available in her day about the education of handicapped students. Knowledge of pedagogy is the first step to effective practice. In addition to this, Anne had the “advantage” of personal experience, as she herself had wrestled with severe vision impairment as a result of trachoma. I’m sure at one time or another, we’ve all met an educator who is particularly effective at working with students who are facing the same challenges the teacher himself faced as a youngster.

Second, Anne was a keen observer, and she made it a point to watch the normal processes of language acquisition. She then replicated those processes as best she could to fit the particular circumstances and needs of her student. Today, we would probably call this strategy recognizing brain-based learning, and coordinating teaching strategies to fit the way the brain naturally learns.

Also, experts generally agree that much of Anne’s success in teaching Helen language was attributed to the fact that the teacher always communicated to her student with complete sentences. Concrete nouns such as water or spoon, verbs such was pump or run, or adjectives such as hot or smooth,  may be easy to convey. But abstract ideas such as beauty or truth, or certain parts of speech such as pronouns and some prepositions are much more difficult to impart to an individual unable to see or hear. Yet Annie always used these words in her everyday communication with Helen anyway.

Fourth, Anne was especially adept at incorporating experiential learning into her lesson plans. The effectiveness of “learning by doing” has been well documented, but in a day and age when most instruction consisted of rote memorization without necessarily comprehending, Anne’s insistence on teaching through constructed experience was truly innovative. Wading through the creek water, climbing the tree, holding the chick as it hatched from the egg—experiences like these were the staples of Anne’s instructional program.

To learn more about Anne Sullivan Macy, I have included an abbreviated but concise biography of this amazing teacher in my book, Chalkboard Champions: Twelve Teachers who Educated America’s Disenfranchised Students, which can also be found at amazon.com at the following link: Chalkboard Champions.

Teacher Lorene Harrison: Alaska’s Cultural Pioneer

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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 teacher 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. 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 beloved 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, and 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.

Mary Elizabeth Post: Pioneer teacher in the Arizona Territory

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I enjoy sharing stories about talented and daring teachers who were also pioneers. One such teacher was Mary Elizabeth Post, one of the first teachers to work in the Territory of Arizona. In fact, Mary was only the fifth teacher in Arizona.

Mary was born on June 17, 1841, in Elizabethtown, New York. Her father was a carpenter, but he instilled a strong love of learning in his seven children. As a youngster, Mary attended Burlingtron Female Seminary. She was so proficient in her studies that she was landed her first teaching position in 1856, when she was only 15 years old.

In 1872, Mary traveled to the Arizona Territory by stage coach. The trip was rugged, and conditions in her new environment were rough. She established her school in a building that had formerly served as a saloon. Her lessons were sometimes interrupted by thirsty cowboys looking for an alcoholic drink.

Mary soon discovered, to her dismay, that regular attendance at school was not valued by either the students or their parents. Often the intrepid teacher felt forced to track down the truants and virtually drag them back to the school, much to the disgruntlement of their parents. To overcome the hard feelings, Mary ordered a collection of sewing patterns and taught the mothers how to sew new clothes for their children. The mothers were delighted with how fashionable their children looked, and, before long, Mary saw a marked improvement in her daily attendance. It didn’t take long for the dedicated educator to become an integral part of the lives of her students and their families, almost all of Mexican heritage. She was often invited to their family events and celebrations. “I was in love with my work, Mary once expressed. “I think I was born to be a teacher.”

In addition to her untiring work in the classroom, Mary was active in local women’s organizations, and she was an outspoken proponent of the women’s suffrage movement. Mary retired from teaching in 1912, at the age of 72. She became the first recipient of the Arizona state teachers’ retirement fund. Her pension was $50 a month. In 1918, this chalkboard champion and pioneer was awarded an honorary master’s degree from the University of Arizona in recognition of her humanitarian work in predominantly Spanish-speaking communities.

Mary Elizabeth Post passed away from natural causes in 1934. She was 93 years old. You can read more about this amazing educator at tucson.com in the article Western Movement: Mary Elizabeth Post.

The Fearless Maria Fearing: The Teacher from Alabama Known as the “Mother from Far Away”

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There are many stories of dedicated educators who can boast of extraordinary accomplishments. One of these is Maria Fearing, an African American teacher and missionary who was born into slavery but went on to become a beloved teacher in the Congo.

Maria was born on July 26, 1938, on a plantation near Gainesville, Sumter County, Alabama. As a youngster, she was employed as a house servant, spending much of her time with her mistress and the other children. Maria completed the ninth grade, but didn’t really learn to read and write until she was 33 years old.

When the Civil War was won, Maria worked her way through the Freedman’s Bureau School in Talladega, Alabama, to become a teacher. (This school is now known as Talladega College.) The neophyte educator taught for a number of years in rural schools in Calhoun County in Alabama. But in 1894, at age 56, Maria was inspired to travel to the Congo on the African continent, where for more than 20 years she worked tirelessly as a teacher and Presbyterian missionary. While there, Maria established the Pantops Home for Girls (1915). Pantops took in girls who had been orphaned and those who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery. The intrepid teacher used trinkets, tools, and even salt to barter for the freedom of these girls. She taught reading, writing, arithmetic, homemaking skills, and gardening in the mission day school, and she worked with the women of the surrounding villages. Her appreciative students nicknamed her “mama wa mputu” (“Mother from Far Away”). At the age of 78, because of failing health, Maria was encouraged to retire. In 1918, the Southern Presbyterian Church recognized her many years of dedication and hard work by honoring her with the Loving Cup.

Maria wasn’t ready to quit working, though. After returning to her native Alabama, she continued to teach, working at a church school in Selma, Alabama. She later returned to Sumter County, where she passed away on May 23, 1937. She was 100 years old.

Maria Fearing, a true chalkboard champion, was inducted into the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame in 2000. You can read more about this amazing teacher at Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame.

America’s Wild West tamed by frontier schoolmarms

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America’s Wild West was tamed in part due to the talented and dedicated women who served as frontier schoolteachers. The pioneering women who became teachers during this period of our nation’s history were indeed a special breed. At the turn of the century, females were expected to be dependent upon their husbands, fathers, or other male relatives. It was extremely unusual, and not at all encouraged, for a woman to support herself and function independently. Nevertheless, many intelligent and self-reliant women in search of personal freedom and adventure joined the Westward movement as schoolmarms.

The stereotype of a frontier schoolteacher was that of an unattractive spinster or a prim and proper young miss. In reality, she was often neither of those. Many of these ladies came from influential and affluent Eastern families. A few were filled with burning ambition, and others were seeking a better life, and perhaps some were seeking a husband of like mind. In general, though, they were dedicated practitioners of their profession. Despite primitive working conditions, uninviting classrooms, low wages, and overwork, these stalwart women introduced literacy, culture, and morality to the roughneck communities they served. A few of these teachers became missionaries, others became suffragettes, and one of them—Jeannette Rankin of Montana—even went on to become the first woman to be elected to the United States House of Representatives!

Our society owes these frontier schoolmarms a great debt. Read more about pioneering teachers in my book, Chalkboard Champions, available through amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. Click on the link to find out how to get a copy of the book. Enjoy!