Famous American Educators
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Eons before kindergarten became an integral part of our education system and a compulsory one at that, young children were made to slog at factories and mines, clean chimneys and work as household helps. They attended no school and were deprived of basic education. What is even scarier is that the children were considered adults by the tender age of seven. Thanks to a man named Friedrich Froebel who laid the foundation for pre-school education by inventing kindergarten. But he isn’t the only one. History is rife with many such powerful educational reformers and educators who with their vision, dedication, and hard work did everything in their power to make the world a better place. When we think of educators, names like Confucius, Aristotle, John Locke and Henry David Thoreau spring readily in our minds. But even America has homed educators who have rocked history by breaking down all barriers, opening new doors of understanding, and revolutionizing the teaching method. Dr. Temple Grandin, Anne Sullivan, Stephen Hawking, Elizabeth Blackwell, Emma Willard and Lisa Delpit are examples of some of America’s eminent educators who redefined education system in their own unique way. Let us explore their timeline, trivia, and interesting facts in the biographies below.
Vote for Your Favourite American Educators
1
Booker T. Washington(American Educator Who was the Dominant Leader of the African-American Community Between 1890 and 1915)
Birthdate: April 5, 1856
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Westlake Corner, Virginia, United States
Died: November 14, 1915
Booker T. Washington was born into slavery but rose to be an advisor to many U.S. presidents and also became the director of the Tuskegee Institute. His Atlanta Compromise, initially accepted and later rejected by black leaders, urged the blacks to work for their freedom through education and not revolt.
Birthdate: October 20, 1859
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Burlington, Vermont, United States
Died: June 1, 1952
A staunch advocate of progressive education and liberalism, the American philosopher and psychologist was the founder of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. John Dewey’s famous writings included The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology and Human Nature and Conduct. According to him, passion for knowledge and intellectual curiosity were central to a teacher. He called himself a democratic socialist.
3
Christa McAuliffe
(American Astronaut Who was Killed on the Space Shuttle 'Challenger' on Mission STS-51-L)
Birthdate: September 2, 1948
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Died: January 28, 1986
Christa McAuliffe was an American astronaut and teacher who died while serving as a payload specialist on board Space Shuttle Challenger, which exploded during STS-51-L. McAuliffe was all set to become the first teacher in space as she was part of the NASA Teacher in Space Project. In 2004, she was posthumously honored with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
4
Ralph Nader(American Lawyer and Politician Known for His Involvement in Consumer Protection and Environmentalism)
Birthdate: February 27, 1934
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Winsted, Connecticut, United States
Ralph Nader’s book Unsafe at Any Speed was his critique of the safety measures of U.S. automobile manufacturers. His activism has led to the passage of acts such as the Consumer Product Safety Act. One of Time’s 100 Most Influential Americans, he inspired the documentary An Unreasonable Man.
Birthdate: November 6, 1861
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Almonte, Mississippi Mills, Canada
Died: November 28, 1939
Canadian-American physician and coach James Naismith is considered as the inventor of basketball. He authored the first basksetball rule book and established the University of Kansas basketball team. He served as the Kansas Jayhawks athletic director and coach, and trained legends such as Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith.
6
Stedman Graham(American Educator, Author, Businessman Public Speaker and Long-Term Partner of Oprah Winfrey)
Birthdate: March 6, 1951
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Middle Township, New Jersey, United States
Stedman Graham is known to people as the partner of legendary talk show host Oprah Winfrey. He owns the marketing firm S. Graham & Associates and has also authored many business and self-help books, taught at Full Sail University, and spoken at various events. He owns a non-profit, too.
Birthdate: April 14, 1866
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Agawam, Massachusetts, United States
Died: October 20, 1936
8
Margaret Sanger(Birth Control Activist Who Opened the First Birth Control Clinic in the United States)
Birthdate: September 14, 1879
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Corning, New York, United States
Died: September 6, 1966
Margaret Sanger was an American writer and sex educator. She is credited with popularizing the term birth control. A birth control activist, Sanger established the first birth control clinic in America. She also set up organizations that later became the well-known non-profit organization Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She also played a key role in legalizing contraception in the US.
9
Betty Shabazz
(Educator and Activist Best Known as the Wife of African-American Activist Malcolm X)
Birthdate: May 28, 1934
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Pinehurst, Georgia, United States
Died: June 23, 1997
Civil rights activist and educator Betty Shabazz, or Betty X, was the wife of Black nationalist leader Malcolm X. Raised by her adoptive parents in Detroit, she met Malcolm X at a Nation of Islam event in Harlem. She died when her apartment was set on fire set by her grandson.
10
Sonya Curry(American Educator and Mother of Basketball Players ‘Stephen Curry’ and ‘Seth Curry’)
Birthdate: May 30, 1966
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Radford, Virginia, United States
The wife of NBA star Dell Curry and the mother of basketball players Seth and Stephen Curry, Sonya Curry grew up amid poverty and often had racist encounters with the Ku Klux Klan. Once a star volleyball player at Virginia Tech, she now heads the Christian Montessori School founded by her.
11
Isaac Asimov(Writer Best Known for His Hard Science Fiction Novels and Professor of Biochemistry)
Birthdate: January 2, 1920
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Petrovichi, Russia
Died: April 6, 1992
Isaac Asimov was an American writer. Best known for his science fiction works, Asimov was regarded as one of the Big Three writers along with Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein. Asimov is credited with influencing most sci-fi writers since the 1950s. Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman stated that one of Asimov's works inspired him to take up Economics.
12
Richard Feynman(One of the Joint Winners of Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965)
Birthdate: May 11, 1918
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: New York, New York, United States
Died: February 15, 1988
Theoretical physicist Richard Feynman won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965, along with Julian Schwinger and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, for his research on quantum electrodynamics. He also contributed to the development of the atomic bomb. Feyman made it to Physics World’s list of the 10 greatest physicists of all time.
13
Jane Elliott
(Educator Known for Her ‘Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes’ Exercise)
Birthdate: November 30, 1933
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Riceville, Iowa, United States
Jane Elliott is an American schoolteacher best known for inventing and popularizing the Blue eyes/Brown eyes exercise. The exercise, which was first conducted on April 5, 1968, with her third-grade class, aims at helping people understand the ill-effects of racial discrimination. The classroom exercise has inspired a couple of documentaries namely The Eye of the Storm and The Angry Eye.
Birthdate: August 21, 1907
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: New York, New York, United States
Died: February 21, 1985
Better known as former U.S. president Donald Trump’s uncle, John G. Trump was an MIT physicist and engineer. Though he had initially aspired to be an architect and join his brother Fred’s real-estate business, John later concentrated on his research that led to the invention of high-voltage generators.
15
Ruth Westheimer(German-American Sex Therapist, Media Personality and Holocaust Survivor)
Birthdate: June 4, 1928
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Frankfurt am Main, Germany
German-American sex therapist Ruth Westheimer, also known as Dr. Ruth, soared to fame with the radio show Sexually Speaking and later hosted many sexuality-related shows and wrote many books, too. She is also an ethnographer and a Holocaust survivor. Her life inspired the documentary Ask Dr. Ruth.
Birthdate: December 31, 1930
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: La Paz, Bolivia
Died: March 20, 2010
Jaime Escalante was a Bolivian-American educator. He is best remembered for teaching calculus to students at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles from 1974 to 1991. He had an illustrious career and was a much-respected figure in teaching. The film Stand and Deliver is based on his life. He received Presidential Medal for Excellence in Education in 1988.
Birthdate: November 19, 1909
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
Died: November 11, 2005
Birthdate: 1938
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Provo, Utah, United States
Lola Van Wagenen is an American historian who is credited with co-founding non-profit educational organizations like Consumer Action Now (CAN) and Clio Visualizing History, Inc. Consumer Action Now went on to establish several environmental education and consumer-oriented programs in an attempt to raise awareness about the effects of consumers' buying habits on the environment.
Birthdate: November 14, 1900
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, United States
Died: December 2, 1990
Birthdate: April 15, 1969
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, United States
Died: January 16, 1997
The only son of comedian Bill Cosby, Ennis Cosby made headlines when he was shot dead at 27, in an attempted robbery on a deserted Southern California road. He was dyslexic and discussed his disability with the children he taught as a student-teacher at the Alfred E. Smith Elementary School.
Birthdate: September 1, 1981
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Newbury Center, Ohio, United States
22
Wynton Marsalis
(Trumpeter)
Birthdate: October 18, 1961
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Birthdate: August 10, 1931
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Died: December 12, 2013
Birthdate: September 13, 1874
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Leopoldstadt, Vienna, Austria
Died: July 13, 1951
Austrian-born composer Arnold Schoenberg was part of the German Expressionist Movement and led the Second Viennese School. Being Jewish, he was banned by the Nazis and later became an American citizen. Known for his twelve-tone technique, he coined the term developing variation and formed motifs without a centralized melodic idea.
Birthdate: October 24, 1932
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Died: July 16, 2012
Birthdate: June 17, 1964
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Encino, California, USA
27
Mamie Till
(American Civil Rights Activist, Who Lost Her Son 'Emmett Till' to a Racist Attack)
Birthdate: November 23, 1921
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Webb, Mississippi, United States
Died: January 6, 2003
Following the violent lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till by a group of white men, his mother Mamie Till-Mobley made a marked contribution to the fight against racism. She became a prominent civil rights activist and established the Emmett Till Players, a group that lectured on hope and unity.
Birthdate: September 8, 1828
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Brewer
Died: February 24, 1914
Birthdate: May 4, 1796
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Franklin
Died: August 2, 1859
30
Timothy Francis Leary(American Psychologist and Writer Known for His Strong Advocacy of Psychedelic Drugs)
Birthdate: October 22, 1920
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Springfield, Massachusetts, United States
Died: May 31, 1996
Psychologist and former Harvard professor Timothy Leary was an advocate of psychedelic drugs. His research experiments included the controversial Concord Prison Experiment and Marsh Chapel Experiment. After being fired from Harvard for his actions, he continued promoting his theories through catchphrases such as “turn on, tune in, drop out.”
31
Nassim Nicholas Taleb(Essayist and Mathematical Statistician Best Known for His Books: ‘The Black Swan’ and ‘Antifragile’)
Birthdate: 1960 AD
Birthplace: Amioun, Lebanon
Lebanese-American scholar and statistician Nassim Nicholas Taleb is known for his work on risk management through uncertainty and probability. His five-volume essay Incerto included his bestselling book The Black Swan. Named to Forbes’s Most Influential Management Gurus list, he is the co-editor-in-chief of the academic journal Risk and Decision Analysis.
Birthdate: May 8, 1894
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: London, England
Died: September 21, 1976
Birthdate: May 1, 1961
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Astoria, New York, United States
Birthdate: August 9, 1956
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, USA
Birthdate: December 5, 1952
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Mentor, Ohio, United States
36
Edward Said(American Professor of Literature and Founder of the Academic Field of Postcolonial Studies)
Birthdate: November 1, 1935
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Mandatory Palestine
Died: September 25, 2003
37
Helen Keller(American Author and First Deaf-Blind Person to Earn a Bachelor of Arts Degree)
Birthdate: June 27, 1880
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Tuscumbia, Alabama, United States
Died: June 1, 1968
A prolific author, having written 12 published books and several articles, Helen Keller was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Her autobiography, The Story of My Life, made Keller famous and was adapted for film and stage. She was also an activist and campaigned for women's suffrage, labour rights, socialism and other such causes.
38
Jonathan Haidt
(Psychologist)
Birthdate: October 19, 1963
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: New York City, New York, U.S.
39
Mary McLeod Bethune(American Civil Rights Activist and Founder of the 'National Council of Negro Women')
Birthdate: July 10, 1875
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Mayesville, South Carolina, United States
Died: May 18, 1955
Mary McLeod Bethune was an American civil rights activist, educator, womanist, humanitarian, and philanthropist. She is credited with founding the National Council of Negro Women. Bethune also played a key role in the creation of the Black Cabinet while serving as an adviser to Franklin Roosevelt. In 1973, Bethune was made an indutee of the National Women's Hall of Fame.
Birthdate: November 5, 1954
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan, United States
Birthdate: February 3, 1907
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States
Died: October 16, 1997
Birthdate: October 23, 1960
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Died: July 25, 2008
43
Pedro Zamora
(Cuban-American HIV/AIDS Activist and Reality TV Personality )
Birthdate: February 29, 1972
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Havana, Cuba
Died: November 11, 1994
44
Pamela Des Barres
(Musician)
Birthdate: September 9, 1948
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Reseda, California, USA
45
Brian Greene
(Chairman of the World Science Festival Since Co-founding It in 2008)
Birthdate: February 9, 1963
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: New York, New York, United States
American theoretical physicist, mathematician, and string theorist Brian Greene is noted for popularising string theory through his books like The Elegant Universe, and The Fabric of the Cosmos and related PBS television specials. Greene taught as professor of physics at Cornell University, and presently serves as a professor at Columbia University. He is the co-founder and chairman of the World Science Festival.
Birthdate: April 11, 1939
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: New York City, New York, USA
Birthdate: February 2, 1961
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
Birthdate: December 19, 1875
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: New Canton, Virginia, United States
Died: April 3, 1950
Historian Carter Woodson was is remembered for pioneering Black studies in schools and colleges. He began the Negro History Week, which is now celebrated as the Black History Month. Poverty had pushed him to work in the coal mines initially, and he couldn’t join high school before 20.
49
Stephen McKinley Henderson
(Actor)
Birthdate: August 31, 1949
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Kansas City, USA
Best known for his work in the plays of August Wilson, actor Stephen McKinley Henderson has also impressed audiences with his roles in movies such as Lincoln and Dune. The Juilliard-educated actor has also been nominated for a Tony Award for his role in the play Fences.
50
John McWhorter
(American Linguist and Author)
Birthdate: October 6, 1965
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Philadelphia