ABSTRACT
This presentation attempts to recreate a portrait of the remarkable life and career of Frances Arnold, teacher of mathematics at Brearley School for girls from 1898 to 1930. The primary objective extends beyond recounting the narrative of an educator; but also aims to illuminate Ms. Arnold’s pivotal role in shaping the academic and cultural landscape of Brearley School.
Brearley School was established during the Progressive Era with a founding mission to deliver education that will not only answer the standards of the high school instruction, but also will ensure that the quality of the education offered paralleled to the one provided to boys (Spectre, 2015). Furthermore, Brearley did not give in to the pressure to change the mathematics curriculum to meet the vocational needs of the girls at the time, as opposed to many other high schools that followed this trend (Allen, 1950).
Frances Arnold’s association with Brearley began in her early years as a student, where she returned to teach mathematics and then became a headmaster. Hence, Ms. Arnold’s connection with this school during such a crucial era in girls’ education presents an absorbing subject for exploring how an educator’s actions have shaped the mathematical learning experience for young women. Drawing from the recollections written by one of her pupils: “Miss Arnold believed firmly that the Brearley had been founded to challenge women to achieve their full capabilities, and she wrote empathetically of the importance to the students of the School’s being run by a woman, as role model in position of authority and responsibility.” Even in the later years, long after her departure from Brearley, her commitment to this cause remained evident (Colby & Atkinson, 1996).
In thinking of Ms. Arnold as a teacher of mathematics and a headmaster of a school, one can think of the historical perspective. When she started teaching, women were still not allowed to vote in the United States. Therefore, for Ms. Arnold teaching mathematics was more than just a material to deliver, it was an empowering experience that girls could rise up to.
In researching the narrative of Ms. Arnold, the aim is to review the multiple layers of her impact, exploring not only the excellence she brought to the mathematics education, but also the profound mark she left on the educational principles of female mathematics. This work primarily relies on the examination of the primary and archival materials.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allen, A.W. (1950, January 15). Brearley School correspondence, 1932–1950, Series II. Papers of Annie Ware Winsor Allen, 1818–1993, MC 322, 165. Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
Colby, V.R. & Atkinson, J. B. (Eds.) (1996). Footprints of the Past: Images of Cornish, New Hampshire & the Cornish Colony. Concord, NH: New Hampshire Historical Society.
Spectre, M.B. (2015). Mabel Choate papers regarding Naumkeag. The Trustees of Reservations, Archives & Research Center.