for any
other occupation either public or private could at least be a teacher,
for many teachers of the colonies were felons and convicts brought to
America to serve as indentured servants. This egregious error,
however, was discovered by the pioneers of the new era in education,
who saw clearly enough that the strength of the nation depended upon
the _professional_ as well as the academic equipment of its teachers
and thus the training school for teachers had its birth. Its influence
has been most significant in raising the standards of efficiency in
the elementary schools and equally significant is its need in the high
schools and colleges of this country.

No one in the District of Columbia can think of the benefits derived
from the professional teacher training without immediate recollection
and sacred memory of its pioneer and benefactress, Myrtilla Miner. For
her noble character, her high ideals, her progressive methods in
education, her struggles against opposition in the pursuit of her
Godgiven task, her lasting contribution of an organized institution
for the training of teachers in the spirit of the Master to serve all
humanity, the citizens of the District of Columbia and especially the
people of color must ever revere her memory.[1]

On the 4th of March, 1815, in Brookfield, Madison County, New York,
Myrtilla Miner, of poor and humble, yet of industrious parentage, was
born. As a child, though frail of physique and deprived of
opportunity, her indomitable will enabled her to overcome the
obstacles of poverty and superstition as well as poor health. Wading
through them all she earned enough by arduous labor in the hopfields
near her home to purchase books for her further enlightenment. These
struggles against fate, however, were the rocks upon which her noble
character was built. Here were sown the seed of sympathy for the weak,
appreciation for the struggling, and respect for the ambitious.

After a year's training at Clinton, Oneida County, New York, where she
obtained the elements of education under the most adverse
circumstances of ill health and lack of funds, Miss Miner accepted a
call to teach in Mississippi in order to pay the debts incurred for
the training she had already received. Her experience in Mississippi
was indeed invaluable, for there she learned through horrible
experiences the evils of the institution of slavery. She boldly
protested against the cruelties of the slaveholders and the
i