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Women’s History Month: A Tribute to the Professions
Sojourner’s
Truth Staff
Teaching
Teaching
has been part of the human experience since the dawn of time
and, as such, it is impossible to declare that any
particular individuals are “firsts” except in the sense of a
formal, credentialed educational setting.
Certainly,
however, various individuals have stood out for their
impressive accomplishments over the years such as those of Charlotte
Forten.
Forten, a
northern black teacher, was born in 1837 in Philadelphia to
an affluent family and began her teaching career in Salem,
Massachusetts, the first African American hired into that
system. When the Civil War started, Forten left the comfort
of her northern home and headed south to St. Helena Island,
SC, to teach those whose primary, and sometimes only,
language was Gullah.
She
recorded her experiences in her diaries which have been
published. She also was active in the social movements of
the day, determined to foster the intellectual potential of
all black people.
Mary
Jane Patterson, born in 1840, was the first black woman
to receive a bachelors of arts degree in 1862 from Oberlin
College. She eventually settled in Norfolk, VA at a school
for black children before moving to Washington, D.C. to
teach at the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth,
known today as Dunbar High School. She served as the
school’s first black principal, growing the attendance from
less than 50 to more than 170 students.
Mary
Jane McLeod Bethune, born in 1875, an educator,
stateswoman, philanthropist, humanitarian and civil rights
activist, started a school for black girls in Daytona Beach,
FL which would later merge with an institute for black boys.
It became known as the Bethune-Cookman School. She served as
president of the college from 1923 to 1942 and from 1946 to
1947, one of the few women in the world to serve as a
college president at that time.
Marva
Delores Collins, born in 1936, was an educator who
started the Westside Preparatory School in the Garfield Park
area of Chicago in 1975.
A graduate
of Clark College (now known as Clark Atlanta University),
Collins taught school in Alabama for two year before moving
to Chicago where she spent 14 years as a full-time
substitute teacher with the Chicago Public Schools.
In 1975,
she took $5,000 from her retirement fund and started a
private school in the top floors of the brownstone in the
West Garfield neighborhood where she lived. It became an
educational and commercial success proving that poor, black
students could learn and flourish.
Toledo –
Here and Now
Morgannia Dawson, a Toledo native, graduate of Rogers
High School and the University of Findlay, is now in her 16th
year of teaching – currently with Toledo Public Schools at
Larchmont Elementary.
The fifth
grade teacher did not grow up with the dream of spending her
professional career in the classroom. In high school, Dawson
thought health care was her chosen path. As luck would have
it, however, after looking at a number of colleges, she
discovered an opportunity to receive a scholarship offered
by TPS. Accepting the scholarship would commit her to three
years working with TPS after school.
“It was a
sign.” She realized after examining her options. And there
have been no regrets since making that choice.
“I like the
immediate feedback,” she says of the classroom experience.
“That you make an immediate difference. You can see students
grow and how much they have accomplished. As a teacher, you
have such an impact on students and can be such a positive
role model.”
Dawson
received an administrative license from Cleveland State
University where she spent six years teaching at a charter
school in between stints with TPS. However, she has grown to
so love the hands-on approach she has in the classroom, she
is not sure she will be avidly pursuing an administrative
position.
“If I leave
the classroom, I won’t have such a direct impact.”
Joyce
Lewis, on the other hand, knew that teaching was her
calling from a very early age. A special education student
herself due to her dyslexia, Lewis wanted to contribute to
other students with special needs.
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