Emma Willard Raised Educational Standards

Author: Craig Brown

Emma Hart Willard, an early advocate and pioneer for women's rights, found her roots here in Middlebury, Vt. Born on Feb. 23, 1787 as one of 17 children, Willard grew up on a small family farm in Hartford, Conn.

Her father, Samuel Hart, recognized his daughter's inquisitive and dynamic nature right away, when at age 12 she began to teach herself geometry. It was due to her father's forward thinking that Willard was educated, considering the male-dominated system available during her life.

As a teenager, Willard taught at several institutions then referred to as girls' academies, which were essentially finishing schools. In 1805, Willard was asked to direct the town of Middlebury's institution for young women. During this time, the girls' academy was housed above the boys' grammar school, with Willard in charge of both.

Willard's experience in Middlebury spawned many of her innovative ideas about creating an exciting and provocative learning experience for students. "My neighborhood to Middlebury College made me bitterly feel the disparity in educational facilities between the sexes," Willard said around 1805.

In 1809 she married Dr. John Willard, a widower 28 years her senior. She withdrew from teaching, apparently having no further professional designs. Like Willard's father, the younger Willard was not put off by his wife's intelligence, but rather enjoyed it.

While raising the doctor's children and her own baby, Willard studied the books her oldest stepson brought home from Middlebury College, which was then open only to men. She began to get a very strong taste of the breadth and depth of the educational opportunities off limits to women.

Willard's husband managed a bank, which was robbed in 1812. Driven by this economic crisis, and fueled by her desire to teach, Willard decided to open a school.

The school, a small, unassuming enterprise open to women, was located directly across from what was then the Middlebury College campus. Now the Emma Willard House, home to our admissions office, the school was only in existence for a short period of time.

Willard's request that Middlebury allow women to take classes at the College was rejected, and she realized that her goals for female education would not be realized in Vermont.

"Even though she was turned down by the College, Emma influenced Middlebury's growing attachment to furthering women's education. We were one of the first small liberal arts schools to become co-ed in 1886, and Emma no doubt had influenced this in previous years," said Jim Ralph, associate professor of history at Middlebury.

After her defeats in Vermont, Willard traveled to Troy, N.Y., where she founded the Troy Female Seminary in 1821. This seminary eventually became the Emma Willard School.

The success of this school was decisive in her long career. She began to teach the higher subjects, notably mathematics, which had not been systematically introduced to women before that time, and she invited scholars and prominent citizens to witness the girls' proficiencies at examination time.

Amid growing public awareness of her work, Willard formulated her ideas about women's education in a draft she called "A Plan for Improving Female Education." Willard envisioned not a private academy, such as those that already existed, but a publicly endowed seminary supervised by a board of public men, precisely as the best institutions for young men were governed.

Willard is quoted as saying, "Genuine learning has ever been said to give polish to man; why then should it not bestow added charm on women?"

For a few years the Troy Female Seminary was the sole beacon of education for women in the United States, but its success soon spawned many competitors, some by example, others by the labors of its graduates. Willard remains today one of the most influential catalysts for female education in history.

Willard's experience in Middlebury is seen as an influential phase of her life where she realized that she needed to raise the standard for female education.

The College and the town of Middlebury's attachment to Willard is ever present. The College's admissions office bears her name, a portrait of her is displayed at the Henry Sheldon Museum and a marble monument sits in the Middlebury town green.