In honor of Women’s History Month, we’d like to pay homage today to our country’s pioneer schoolteachers. 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 Amazon. Enjoy!

Italian educator Maria Montessori developed innovative methods of child-centered instruction that are now used worldwide. Photo Credit: American Montessori Society

During Women’s History Month, we honor innovative educators who have made a decisive impact on schools. One of these is Maria Montessori,  an Italian educator and physician who spent a lifetime working towards developing innovative methods of child-centered instruction. Her prescription for education, which includes freedom of choice, self-motivation, and student autonomy, has proven surprisingly effective for many students of all ability levels.

Maria was born August 31, 1870, in the provincial Italian town of Chiaravalle. As a young woman, she broke gender barriers when she enrolled in medical school at the Sapienza University of Rome, where she graduated with honors in 1896. She became one of Italy’s first female doctors. In this role she developed a great interest in working with children who had developmental and physical challenges, and she devoted an entire career to helping them. Little did she know that long after she had left this earth, her strategies would still be used to help all children learn.

Maria opened her first school, which she named the Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House) in Rome on January 6, 1907. In the beginning, the children who attended were difficult to teach, but before long they showed increasing interest in working with puzzles, learning to prepare meals, and manipulating learning materials that Maria had personally designed. She observed how the children absorbed knowledge from their surroundings, essentially teaching themselves. From these observations, Maria developed her pioneering theories regarding educational pedagogy.

In the years that followed, Maria traveled the world and wrote extensively about her approach to education, attracting many followers. Today, there are thousands of Montessori schools in countries all over the globe. Her progressive instructional methods are reproduced in over 22,000 schools in 110 countries in schools that are known as Montessori schools.

Maria Montessori passed away May 6, 1952, in Noorwijk, the Netherlands. To read more about this amazing Chalkboard Champion, see this link at the American Montessori Society.

Ann Wager was a 17th-century school mistress who taught at Bray School located in Colonial Williamsburg, pictured above. Photo Credit: Ben Franklin’s World

In this country, an emphasis on the importance of education and recognition for the essential role of dedicated and hardworking teachers goes way back to our very beginnings. One of these early teachers was Ann Wager, a 17th-century school mistress who taught in Virginia’s Colonial Williamsburg.

Ann Wager was born in 1716. As a young girl, she was educated by her father, despite her mother’s resistance to the idea. Ann’s mother believed it was not proper for a young woman to learn or to support herself. When she came of age, Ann married William Wager of Williamsburg, and the couple lived with their children in colonial Williamsburg. After her husband’s passing in 1748, Ann was faced with the necessity of earning a living.

As a widow, Ann inaugurated her career as an educator when she accepted a position as tutor and governess to the white children of Carter Burrell of the Carter’s Grove Plantation in Williamsburg. She held this position for two years.

In 1760 Ann was hired to teach school in the Williamsburg Bray School. This move was in response to Ben Franklin’s recommendation that the town establish a school “for the instruction of Negro Children in the Principles of the Christian religion.” The Bray school was the first school established in the colony of Virginia for African American students, which was not at that time illegal. For her work as a school mistress, Bray Charities Association paid her the salary of £20 per year, plus housing. Each year, between 20 and 30 boys and girls aged three to ten years of age were enrolled in the school, where Ann taught Anglican religious doctrine, reading, spelling, grammar, writing, and general deportment. In addition, girls were taught knitting and sewing. Ann taught lessons seven days a week.

Ann taught school in Williamsburg for 14 years. Over that period of time, she taught nearly 400 students.  Even when her health began to fail, she continued to teach until her passing on Aug. 20, 1774.

To read more about this colonial Chalkboard Champion, see this article written about her in History of American Women.