Tag Archives: Teacher Activists

Chalkboard Champion Laura Settle, founder of CA Retired Teachers Association

Posted on by

Activist and retired teacher Laura Settle founded the California Retired Teachers Association to fight for retirement benefits for educators. Photo credit: CalRTA

In US history, there are many examples of hardworking educators who continue to work towards improving the lives others, even after retirement. One of these is activist Laura E. Settle, the founder and first president of the California Retired Teachers Association.

Laura retired as a teacher from the Pasadena School District in Pasadena, California, while the country was struggling through the Great Depression. At that time, a retired schoolteacher received just $500 a year in pension benefits. To rectify this, a small group of teachers led by Laura Settle banded together to fight for better retirement incomes for their colleagues who were living in poverty after a lifetime of teaching.

In 1927, Laura contacted Los Angeles politicians with the goal of forming a local retired teachers’ group. Interested individuals held their first meeting in Sycamore Grove Park. Laura was elected president, and she immediately launched into her work to expand the organization in other California communities. For years, she drove the dusty highways all over the state to help organize teachers in their common cause. All were welcome to join for the annual dues of $1.

After several years, CalRTA made its first major breakthrough in 1934, when pensions were finally boosted, and by 1943, Laura’s work had resulted in the formation of 17 divisions throughout California. Today, CalRTA is one of the nation’s largest retired teacher organizations with more than 43,000 members in 86 local divisions throughout the state.

In all, Laura served 16 years as the president of CalRTA, from 1929 to 1945. This amazing educator passed away on May 11, 1951. To honor her, a scholarship has been established in her name, and is given to deserving high school students who have declared an intention to go into the teaching profession.

Laura E. Settle: All California teachers, whether currently retired or still in the classroom, owe her a great debt.

Margaret McCulloch: Teacher, author, activist, and philanthropist

Posted on by

Many excellent classroom teachers work diligently to better the lives of others in their community. One of these was Margaret McCulloch, a New Jersey teacher who earned a name for herself as an author, activist, and philanthropist.

Margaret was born on Jan. 16, 1901, in Orange, New Jersey. As a teenager, she graduated from the Beard School, which is known today as the Morristown-Beard School. That was in 1919. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, in 1923. While there, she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest honor society in the United States. She earned her Master’s degree in History from the University of North Carolina. She also completed graduate courses at Columbia Teachers College. and the University of Virginia.

Once she earned her degrees, Margaret launched her career as an educator by returning to her alma mater, the Beard School, where she taught for two years. For the next nine years, she taught at the Penn School, a Quaker school for African American students located on St. Helena Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina. Then she accepted a position as a professor of history and sociology at LeMoyne College, a historical Black college. She also taught at Fisk University, another historically Black college located in Nashville, Tennessee. While at Fisk, Margaret assisted socialist Charles S. Johnson publish an important study on racial integration.

Margaret wrote several scholarly books and articles on race relations and segregation. Her most well-known books include Segregation, a Challenge to Democracy and Integration: Promise, Process, Problems. She also wrote two biographies. The first was The Work of Dorothea Lynde Dix for the Insane, 1841-1861, published in 1933. The second was Fearless Advocate of the Right: The Life of Francis Julius Lemoyne, M.D. (1798-1879), published in 1941.

In 1948, Margaret moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she immersed herself in trying to improve the lives of African American residents. She was active in the Community Council of the Memphis Welfare Federation Memphis and the first Black chapter of the League of Women Voters.

In Nov., 1962, Margaret addressed the South Carolina Council on Human Relations. In her speech, she talked about segregation and desegregation, offering causes and solutions to the ongoing racial problems in the South and imploring her audience to understand the complexities that race relations entail. Later she worked for the Department of Race Relations of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, and she founded the Opportunity Foundation Corporation, which provided financial support to educational, health, and social services in Memphis.

Sadly, Margaret passed away on March 8, 1996. She was 95 years old. Her papers, including articles, speeches, and correspondences, are housed at the The Amistad Research Center at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

 

Remembering Freedom School teacher Sandra Adickes

Posted on by

Intrepid New York City English teacher Sandra Adickes spent the summer of 1964 teaching in a Freedom School in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Photo credit: University of Southern Mississippi

The anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington earlier this week gives us the opportunity to think about the courageous and dedicated teachers, both Black and White, who tirelessly worked towards creating a more equal society in our country. One of these was Sandra Adickes, an English teacher from New York City who taught in Mississippi’s Freedom Schools during Freedom Summer.

Sandra was an energetic and idealistic thirty-year-old New York City English teacher in 1964, the year she ventured south into Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to teach in a Freedom School. The goal of the summer program was to empower the Black community to register to vote, and to help bridge some of the gap of educational neglect that had long been a tradition in that Jim Crow state. Both educators and Civil Rights activists realized that only through education and participation in the democratic process could African Americans hope to achieve their long-denied American Dream.

The enterprise was not without danger. On the first day of Freedom Summer, three workers involved in the program disappeared while investigating the firebombing of the church facility designated for their voter recruitment activities. Six weeks later, as Sandra Adickes conducted her classes in Hattiesburg, the badly beaten and bullet-ridden bodies of the three missing men were discovered buried in an earthen dam in nearby Neshoba County.

At summer’s end, Sandra’s fearless students decided—on their own—to integrate the Hattiesburg Public Library in what became, in effect, a graduation trip with an emphasis on civic reform. Sandra was arrested in the effort. Read her riveting story, and what became of her courageous students, in her book Legacy of a Freedom School. You can also find a chapter about this remarkable teacher in my book, Chalkboard Champions.

Mississippi Freedom Schools helped Southern Black Americans vote

Posted on by

Freedom Schools were opened in southern states as part of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The most famous ones were established in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964. Photo credit: Civil Rights Teaching

The anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington today gives us the opportunity to think about the courageous and dedicated teachers, both Black and White, who tirelessly worked towards creating a more equal society in our country. Some of them dedicated their teaching expertise to teach in Freedom Schools during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, particularly during the Freedom Summer of 1964.

Freedom schools were the brainchild of New York City math teacher Bob Moses, an African American educator with unique vision. Under his direction, these alternative schools were organized and staffed by White political activists, teachers, and college students. They came from all over the United States to participate in the endeavor.

The goal of the summer program was to empower disenfranchised African American community to register to vote and to exercise their Constitutionally-guaranteed rights to political participation. Volunteers also hoped to help bridge some of the gap created by educational neglect. The neglect had long been rampant in states ruled by Jim Crow laws. Both Black and White citizens realized that only through education and participation in the democratic process could African Americans ever hope to improve their lot.

The enterprise was not without danger. On the first day of Freedom Summer, three volunteers involved in the program—Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney—disappeared. They were investigating the firebombing of the church facility in Mississippi designated for their voter recruitment activities. Six weeks later, the badly beaten and bullet-ridden bodies of the three missing men were discovered buried in an earthen dam in nearby Neshoba County, Mississippi.

To learn more about freedom schools and Freedom Summer, click on this link to the History Channel.

Amos Bronson Alcott: Progressive educator, philosopher, and reformer

Posted on by

Amos Bronson Alcott was a supporter of the Progressive Movement in the early 19th century. Many of his practices are commonly implemented in schools today. Photo credit: National Park Service

In the early 19th century, the Progressive Movement was responsible for great changes in the field of education. One progressive educator from this period was Amos Bronson Alcott, a teacher, philosopher, and reformer from Connecticut.

Amos was born in 1799 in Wolcott, New Haven County, Connecticut, the self-educated son of a farmer. When he grew to manhood, he became a prominent proponent of the Transcendentalists, a philosophical movement that emphasized the value of nature and the inherent goodness of people.

Even as a young man, Amos was interested in a career as a teacher. He disliked the rote memorization, lecture, and drill so prevalent in the schools of his day. Instead, he focused on the students’ personal experiences, advocated a more conversational style of interaction with pupils, and avoided traditional corporal punishments. He was one of the very first teachers to introduce art, music, nature study, and physical education into his curriculum. He engaged his students in Socratic dialogue to bring their ideas to the forefront. He treated children as adults, and would allow the class to address disciplinary problems as a group.

In 1834, Amos founded a “progressive school,” the Temple School in Boston. Under great skepticism and criticism almost from the start, the school still managed to stayed open for six years. Eventually it was closed, not because of its unorthodox methods, but because Amos, an ardent abolitionist, had enrolled an African American girl in the predominantly white school.

In 1859, Amos returned to Connecticut, where he was appointed the superintendent of Concord Public Schools. There he revamped the curriculum by introducing calisthenics, singing, and physiology. He insisted that his teachers use the Socratic method in their classrooms. He also established the first parent-teacher association. His work inspired later educational reformers. In fact, many of his practices are commonly implemented in schools today.

Amos was also an advocate for women’s rights. This remarkable Chalkboard Champion is probably best known, however, for being the father of Louisa May Alcott, the author of the classic American novel Little Women.

Amos Bronson Alcott passed away from natural causes in 1888. To read more about him, click on this link to the National Park Service.