Chapter 3

Scranton, PA

September 1870

Annie walked through the empty classroom one last time before retiring to her home for the evening. She straightened a desk to ensure it aligned with all the other desks in the row, made sure all the inkwells were capped tightly so they would not leak or dry out, then took a deep breath. She had spent the last two years formally training for this moment, and had spent ten years prior to that learning all she could from spending every day under the tutelage of one Miss Judith Harlan – mostly learning what kind of teacher she did not want to be. Tomorrow would be her first day at the front of the classroom, completely thrown out there on her own.

She paused for a moment, bowing her head. Although she was a woman of some faith, it was not her normal habit to pray on her own, but she felt strongly led to do so in this moment. She prayed for her students, and to be the kind of teacher they needed her to be.

After she was finished, she paused to re-read the letter of encouragement she had received last week from the former Miss Michaela Howard ... now Mrs. Fields, the mother of five children, the wife of a well-regarded lawyer, and the woman who had inspired her to view teaching as a calling rather than a mere profession.

In her letter, Michaela reported that her husband had accepted a professorship at a newly-established university in Syracuse, and had been effusive in her enthusiasm about the school being inclusive of both sexes. Of this, she said,

Annie, I think of that conversation you and I had so many years ago, when you were a little girl quietly angered by the rules that forced me to leave the classroom when I married. I was angry as well, but I accepted it as the way of the world. Now my husband will teach at a school established with the promise that they will give my girls the same opportunities that my boys will have to stand tall and make a difference. I believe other institutions of learning will eventually follow their lead. I know you will equip the girls in your class to pursue the opportunities that will be presented to them, and will prepare the boys to support and even encourage that pursuit. Though they don’t admit it, teachers have favorites. You were always one of mine, and remain so. I eagerly await tidings of the successes that I know you and your students will have in the months and years to come.