Susan+Elizabeth+Blow+Essay

x __Intro__ x __Perspective__ x __Hero__ x __Hero__ x __Hero__ x __Legacy__ x __Advice__ Susan Elizabeth Blow opened the first successful kindergarten center. It was the first educational opprotunity for young children of the public of Missouri. She dedicated the majority of her life to learning and passing her knowledge on to others for generations onward. The average poor family gave their children three years of education before pulling them out of school to work for the family. Susan helped deal with this by offering kindergarten classes earlier, provoking families to keep children in school for a longer amount of time. She is a hero by my definition because she used her strengths in knowledge to teach others.

Susan Elizabeth Blow lived from 1843 to 1916. She lived in St. Louis, Missouri for the majority of her life. She moved five miles to Carondelet after her family suffered from a tragic fire, losing most of their possesions. Susan had to buy new study materials to continue her education. During a trip to Germany, she observed the first European kindergarten classrooms of Friedrich Froebel. This inspired her to move these kindergarten classes to America, so she could educate the young children there. Susan started her first classroom in 1873, located in St. Louis. She taught the children about many things in life such as fractions, colors, shapes, and staying healthy. The children got a head start on education.

Susan is a hero in my eyes because she helped create a strong and impenetrible foundation of learning for the young children who couldn't afford private schools. She was always enthusiastic about learning, and enjoyed every second of it. She wanted to pass that feel for education on to other adults and students. Learning, reading, writing and determination were all personal strengths of hers. She helped make those grow on other people. As she grew from childhood to adulthood, she knew she wanted to pursue a life of infinate learning. What better way to do that than by sharing your knowledge with others?

Susan had a quick eye, easily picking up on the benefits of early education privilages. Kindergarten would have never become as importan to our society, let alone to our future if it weren't for her. She once said //"Let us live for the children." S//he dedicated over eleven years of her life to proving that she truly does live for the children. Once she decided that children in America should have the same if not similar instruction, too, no one disagreed with her. Many children were enrolled

She took what she knew and passed it on to others by opening the first public kindergarten center. She also trained other women to teach kindergarten around the state. Susan made learning bright and colorful, pushing children to never want to stop. She made St. Louis the model and focal point of the kindergarten movement. She ran her kindergarten class without accepting payment or requiring children to enroll with payments. She always knew that if children loved to learn, they would never want to stop even beyond their school days. After all, there is so much more to learn than what is taught in a classroom.

Only six years after Susan opened her kindergarten classroom, over fifty-three classrooms in Missouri had kindergarten classroms. Most of these classes were taught by the women she had trained herself. By 1883, every school in Missouri had kindergaten programs and many outside of the state did as well. All of these classes were spinoffs of Susan's, teaching all of the similar importances. She also wrote two books about kindergarten teaching which helped expand the kindergarten movement across the country. Soon she received the title as "The Mother of Kindergarten." If Susan were alive today, she would tell our youth to never stop pursuing better education. She would encourage the student's of today to be all we can and to spread what we know with the world. She tried so hard to get her messege of the importance of education, for all social classes, across to everyone in the country.