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Do your best, and your best will be growing better.Emma Willard
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Rocked in the cradle of the deep I lay me down in peace to sleep.Emma Willard
3 Quotes & Sayings By Emma Willard
An American educator, author, and activist, Emma Willard (1802–1878) was the founder of one of the first schools for girls in the United States. Though Willard's life was short, her work was long-lasting. Born into a family that valued education for women, Willard graduated from her father's alma mater, Andover Hall in 1818. Following graduation she became a teacher at schools in New Haven, New York City, and Rochester until 1827
In 1828 she opened her first school for girls in Troy, New York. She struggled to run this school until 1833 when John Fairfield joined her as an assistant teacher. Fairfield withdrew from her teaching position in 1835 because his wife found it too demanding.
Willard continued to teach alone until 1840 when she added J.E.B. Stuart to her teaching staff. The relationship between Willard and Stuart has been the source of great debate among scholars of women's education.
After Stuart left Willard in 1841, she traveled to Boston to study for two years at the Boston Female Asylum with Dr. Mary Lyon before returning to Troy to lead her school again. While leading this school she studied religion and became an advocate for women's suffrage and abolitionism which led to her involvement with abolitionist John Brown during the Civil War.
After Brown's arrest and execution, Willard returned home where she taught briefly before becoming a professor at Bowdoin College beginning in 1853 where she taught until her death on December 10, 1878 at age 81.