Tag Archives: Pioneer Teachers

Pakistan’s Sister Zeph garners prestigious Global Teaching Prize

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Congratulations are due to Sister Zeph, a teacher and community leader in  Pakistan. It was announced last month that she has garnered the prestigious Global Teacher Prize for 2023. Sister Zeph was selected from ten very deserving finalists from around the globe.

The award is presented annually to an exceptional educator who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession. The prize, created in collaboration with UNESCO, comes with a $1 million purse. But the award is not just about the monetary reward; it’s about instilling pride, dignity, and value in a profession that plays a vital role in influencing the future of our societies. The prize champions the crucial significance of educators and their contributions towards a better, more informed, and enlightened world. To learn more, click on this link to Global Teacher Prize.

As the winner of this year’s prize, Sister Zeph is highly qualified. For 26 years she has been educating young people in her community, mostly at her own expense. She became interested in teaching when, as a 13-year-old, she became dismayed that education was not a priority in her community. In response, Sister Zeph founded her own school for underprivileged children in her own home, even though she was so young. According to the Global Teacher Prize website, she worked eight hours a day to earn the money to fund the school, then taught students for another four hours, and then stayed up at night to teach herself. Today, her school provides free education for more than 250 underprivileged children. She also runs self-defense classes for girls and established a vocational center that has helped over 6000 women gain skills in information communication technology, textiles, and the English language.

Sister Zeph’s dedication to education and empowerment has touched countless lives and earned her numerous awards. She is recognized as a true change-maker and advocate for women’s rights and children’s education around the world.

View the short YouTube video above to learn more about Sister Zeph’s inspirational story.

Industrial schools educated abandoned and orphaned children

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Ohio Reform Farm, also known as Boys Industrial School, established in 1857.  (Photo credit: Grandview Heights/Marble Cliff historical Society)

Many times while I am reading biographies about remarkable teachers or conducting other research, I come across a description of a type of school that I am unfamiliar with. I always enjoy learning about various types of schools, and I am eager to share my newly-acquired knowledge with others.

One school I have been reading about is the industrial school. An industrial school was an institution commonly established around the turn of the twentieth century. Although these schools were popular way back in history, they are not unheard of today.
An industrial school is a boarding school that provided for the children’s basic needs for housing, food, and medical care. Often these schools were established to provide a means for caring for children who had been orphaned, neglected, or abandoned. Sometimes these institutions provided for those youngsters who were deemed incorrigible.
Today, these children are typically cared for through adoption or placement in foster homes, and they are educated in regular public schools. But in the past century, industrial schools served a valuable service for these needy kids.
In the industrial school, students were taught vocational skills that would allow them to seek gainful employment once they came of age. Girls typically received training in the domestic arts or needle trades, and boys were taught vocational skills such as carpentry, shoe-making, or box-making. In addition, the young people were taught fundamental literacy skills in such subjects as reading, writing, and mathematics.
You can read more about various industrial schools in my book, Chalkboard Champions, available from amazon.

Farm schools, both at the turn-or-the-century and in modern times

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Boys work the farm at the Lyman School for Boys in Massachusetts. In 1890, 190 boys lived at the school. Photo credit: Westborough Public Library

When we think of schools today, I think most of envision the standard classroom with one teacher and 30 or so students, a chalkboard or white board, students desks, a bulletin board, playground, and so on. But while I was conducting research for my first book Chalkboard Champions, I learned a great deal about various types of schools that I had never heard about in my 36 years as a teacher. Industrial schools, emancipation schools, farm schools, normal schools, specialist schools—just to name a few. In our nation’s past there were many types of schools that didn’t look like the picture of a standard classroom. One type of school I learned about that I found particularly intriguing is the farm school.

A farm school was a boarding school which primarily served teen-aged boys. These schools were most often established by missions or charitable organizations during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The purpose of the farm school was to care for orphans and homeless youth, while simultaneously giving these youngsters the opportunity to learn a marketable skill which would enable them to find employment on farms in the Midwest or the South.

The farm school provided housing, food, and medical care. In addition to room and board, the school offered training in agricultural skills, and in fundamental literacy skills in such subjects as reading, writing, and mathematics.

Today, a farm school offers outdoors programs that teach learners to appreciate the importance of farm-to-table practices, healthier eating habits, preparation of our natural environment, and becoming active agents of change in their communities.

Teacher Marietta Johnson founded experimental school during the Progressive Movement

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During the Progressive Movement of the early 20th century, teacher Marietta Johnson (above, at left) founded an experimental school that earned national and international acclaim. Photo credit: Public Domain

Many exceptional educators spearheaded the Progressive Education Movement in our country in the early 20th century. One of these was Marietta Johnson, the founder of an experimental school which earned national and international acclaim.

Marietta was born on Oct. 8, 1864, in St. Paul, Minnesota. As a young woman, she graduated from the normal school now known as St. Cloud State University in 1885. In Marietta’s day, the purpose of a normal school was to educate and prepare teachers for teaching in public schools.

Marietta launched her career as an educator in rural elementary and secondary schools in Minnesota. She even served as a trainer of new teachers in various normal schools. Marietta was recognized as an exceptional teacher using established teaching methods, but during these years, she embraced the emerging philosophy of progressive education. She came to believe that children should be exposed to child-centered environments, immersed in nature, studying outdoors, and learning at their own pace.

In 1902, Marietta moved with her family to Fairhope, Alabama. Five years later, she founded a progressive school she named the School of Organic Education. The school was built near the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, a location selected for its natural beauty, temperate climate, and potential for growth. The modernized curriculum emphasized learning in outdoor environments and offered crafts and folk dancing in addition to traditional academic subjects. There were no final exams, no homework, and no failing grades.

Marietta’s school was so successful it was profiled and praised by the leading educational philosopher of the day, John Dewey, in his book Schools of Tomorrow, published in 1913. As a result of this notoriety, education professionals from all around the country and in Europe visited the school to observe progressive education in action. A powerful and charismatic public speaker, Marietta toured the United States and overseas on the lecture circuit to promote her progressive educational practices. Today, Marietta’s school still operates and is known as the Marietta Johnson School of Organic Education.

Sadly, Marietta passed away in Fairhope on Dec. 23, 1938. She was 74 years old. She is buried at Colony Cemetery in Fairhope. To learn more about the Marietta Johnson School of Organic Education, click on this link to the school’s official website.

Celebrating the birthday of first teacher in space Christa McAuliffe

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New Hampshire Social Studies teacher Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space, was lost when the space shuttle Challenger exploded seconds after lift-off on Jan. 28, 1986. Photo credit: NASA.

Today we celebrate the birthdate of Chalkboard Champion Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher to go into space. I remember well the day she climbed aboard the space shuttle Challenger, with excitement and a huge smile, when it was launched on Jan. 28, 1986. In only my fifth year of teaching, I was so proud that a fellow educator had been selected to represent the teaching profession as the first civilian in space. I was more than a little star-struck by the professionalism, intelligence, and infectious enthusiasm of the chosen candidate, who was selected from among 11,000 other highly-qualified applicants.

Christa was born on Sept. 2, 1948, in Boston, Massachusetts. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Education and History from Framingham State College in 1970, and her Master’s degree from Bowie State University in 1978. At the time of her space flight, she was working as a Social Studies teacher at Concord High School in Concord, New Hampshire.

During her mission in space, Christa planned to write a journal of her experiences as an astronaut from the perspective that even an ordinary citizen can take center stage in the making of history. She was to have been the perfect example of that. In addition, the intrepid educator was scheduled to perform lessons and simple scientific experiments aboard the space shuttle which would be viewed by students in classrooms all over America.

Tragically, Christa was one of seven astronauts killed when the Challenger exploded on that fateful day, just 73 seconds after lift-off. The journal she never got to finish was replaced by A Journal for Christa: Christa McAuliffe, Teacher in Space, written by her grief-stricken mother, Grace George Corrigan. This book is a tender tribute to an extraordinary teacher. A Journal for Christa can be ordered from amazon. I have also included a chapter about Christa McAuliffe in my second book, Chalkboard Heroes: Twelve Courageous Teachers and their Deeds of Valor, also available on amazon.