principalship of a prominent school in New York City, which would pay
her a large salary. The other letter asked her to become president of
the Chicago branch of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Because of
the meager funds of this organization no salary was offered her.
Although she had no means besides her earnings, Miss Willard chose the
latter position. Later, discovering that she had no private income, this
organization provided a sufficient salary for her.
Frances Willard felt sure that she should devote her life to the cause
of Temperance. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union needed a leader
badly, so with all the energy with which she had planned her play city,
Miss Willard developed this organization.
From that time on, Frances Willard gave her whole life to the Cause. She
pleaded eloquently for Temperance in every large city in the United
States and in many small ones. She became the president of the National
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and later of the World’s Woman’s
Christian Temperance Union, which was organized through her efforts.
In the National Capitol there is a hall where each state may place the
statue of two of its most beloved leaders. Illinois erected there the
first statue to a woman—a marble figure of Frances E. Willard. In the
year 1910 Frances E. Willard’s name was selected for the Hall of Fame.
To-day, we have that for which Miss Willard dreamed and worked: a nation
in which the sale of intoxicating drinks is prohibited by law. The
passing of this milestone on the road to Temperance has greatly
benefited the world. To Frances E. Willard, who contributed so much to
the success of this movement, humanity is indebted.
[Illustration]
Ella Flagg Young—
Whose Slogan Was “Better Schools for Girls and Boys”
“What does that mean, Ella?” The boy lifted his eyes from his weeding as
he put the question to his sister. Ella, seated on a chair between the
garden rows, rested her open book on her knees a moment and sat
thinking. Then, choosing her words carefully, she explained what she had
just read aloud.
“Oh, I see now,” the boy exclaimed. “Go on.”
Ella resumed the reading.
Ella Flagg was in poor health as a little girl, so her mother chose
gardening as the best means of keeping her outdoors. Ella found that
while her fingers were busy pulling weeds, down one long row and up
another, her active little mind was eager to be busy too.
She and her brother decided to combine reading and gardening. The plan
worked well for these two children, as it relieved the weeding hours of
monotony. Ella then made the discovery that whatever she tried to
explain she must first understand very clearly herself. It was in this
way that Ella Flagg Young, who became a famous educator, did her first
teaching.
For the first thirteen years of her life Ella Flagg lived in Buffalo,
New York, where she was born January 15, 1845. On account of ill health
she was not allowed to go to school with her sister and brother. Her
mother and father believed that there would be plenty of time for
regular lessons when her body had grown stronger.
She was eight or nine years of age before she learned to read and then
she taught herself. One morning Ella’s mother was reading in a newspaper
an account of a fire. Ella was so much interested that she took the
paper and tried to read the article. She remembered the exact beginning,
but she did not know any of the other words. With some help, however,
she was finally able to read the entire article.
Even though this little girl did not have regular lessons, there was
much to be learned in a home such as hers. Mrs. Flagg was an energetic,
capable woman. She was skillful in managing household affairs and much
in demand among her friends and neighbors, when there was sickness or
trouble in their homes.
From her mother, Ella learned how to settle household problems for
herself. Because of this training she was able always to look squarely
in the face the big problems that confronted her, when she was at the
head of the Chicago school system.
Little Ella could learn a great deal, too, merely from hearing her
mother and father talk, for they were thoughtful, intelligent people.
Mr. Flagg had had to leave school when he was only ten years old to be
apprenticed to the sheet-metal trade. However, by reading and study he
had educated himself.
Sometimes Ella used to go to her father’s shop and sit for hours
watching him at work at his forge. She asked questions about all the
processes that he followed so that she really understood what he was
doing. From these pleasant hours in the shop came her love of handwork
and her interest in having it taught in the public schools.
When Ella began to go to school her father took a great interest in the
way in which she studied. He had always done his own thinking and he did
not want his daughter to depend on other people for hers.
Once Ella discussed with her father a drawing in her textbook of an
hydraulic press that she was studying. She realized that he was
displeased with what she said so she immediately decided to study the
drawing more thoroughly. Soon she discovered that an important part had
been left out. In the examination on the press the next day the papers
of all the other students, who had blindly followed the book, were
marked zero, while Ella’s received a perfect mark.
Ella Flagg graduated from a Chicago high school and also from the
Chicago Normal School. This ambitious girl began to teach when she was
seventeen years of age. She first taught in a primary grade for six
weeks and then in a higher grade where some of the pupils were larger
and older than she. In a year she was made head assistant of the school
and in two years principal of the practice school, where she helped to
train the normal-school students.
Ella Flagg married William Young in 1868. However, she did not give up
her work. She climbed steadily up the ladder of the teaching profession.
Even though she had become very successful she felt that she needed more
education. Consequently she studied at the University of Chicago from
which she received the degree of Ph. D.
Mrs. Young became assistant superintendent of the Chicago schools, then
professor of education in the University of Chicago. Later she was made
principal of the Chicago Normal School, and finally superintendent of
schools in Chicago.
As soon as Mrs. Young became superintendent of the Chicago schools she
began to work for the children. She ordered the windows to be opened,
top and bottom, in the schoolrooms to do away with the foul air produced
by a poor system of ventilation. She organized fresh-air classes for
pupils who needed an extra amount of oxygen.
She asked the teachers to help her improve the course of study.
Handwork, in which the hours at her father’s shop had given her an
interest, she introduced into every grade. A new study, which she called
“Chicago” brought the children into closer relation with their own city,
teaching them its geography, history, and government.
The fame of Mrs. Young’s work in education spread beyond her own city.
The National Education Association, which had never had a woman in
office, made her its president. Mrs. Young wrote many books about
education.
When Mrs. Young was asked how she managed to accomplish so much, she
always said that it was through systematic work. The first year that she
began to teach, she planned to devote three evenings a week to study,
three to seeing her friends, and Sunday evening to church.
For a long lifetime Ella Flagg Young worked to solve the problem of
educating the girls and boys of Chicago and the nation. The clear and
independent thinking that she had cultivated as a girl helped to give
her a place as one of the great educators of our day.
[The end of _When They Were Girls_, by Mabel Betsy Hill.]