....continued
Laurentine's humor and escapades help us shed our misconceptions of the dark and dour cloaks of the lives of youth at this time in
history. While it may be difficult to imagine, Laurentine's descriptions of prairie life as a schoolteacher in Janesville, Wisconsin
preceded those many of us have known from the lives in the Little House books by more than a generation!
She helps us realize that much of human experience, including that of schoolteachers, is timelessly repeated from one generation to
the next. After all, who cannot resist the look inside the life of a teacher's diary, his or her innermost thoughts and motivations
about teaching?
To know ourselves is to know the roots of U.S. public education; and to know that is to know the hearts of schoolteachers. To know
teachers well is to begin by understanding at least one. By reading Views From My Schoolroom Window readers will feel that they, too,
have walked a few miles across the prairies in this teacher's shoes.
 Major Themes & Topics
- Family Life and Responsiblity
- Importance of Internalized Quest for Education
- How Far the Joy of Reading took a mid-19th Century Scholar
- Challenges Growing up mid-19th Century
- Insecurities of a Girl Becoming a Woman
- Manifestation of Socioeconomic Class Distinctions
- Lasting Friendships versus Temporal Ones
- The Conflict of Civil War and One's Personal Duty
- Normalcy of Death and Customs Associated
- Role of Church, Religious and Spiritual Reflections
- Imagining the World Beyond Home
- Interpreting Teaching as Both a Calling and a Burden
- Growth of the Teachers' Professional Community
- Education Accountability (teachers & students)
- Wide Variety of Women's Roles
- Deliberations on the Institution of Marriage
- Absorbing the Physical Environment & 'Mother' Nature mid-19th Century
- Building of a Community -- Infrastructure, Leaders, Character
- Evolution of Culture, the Arts and Society
- Love and Courtship
- Financial Roles & Independence
- Development of Mite Societies (Philanthropy)
- Roles of Secret Societies (Masonic & Temperance)
- On the Cusp of Technological Advancements
- Demonstration of the Entrepreneural Spirit
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