Sarah Louise Arnold

Sarah Louise Arnold (February 15, 1859 – February 26, 1943) was an American educator, author, and suffragist. She was better known in the schoolroom and among teachers than any other woman connected with education in her day. In 1902, she became the first dean of Simmons College. In 1925, she became the national president of the Girl Scouts. Arnold was also a writer of books for teachers and texts for schools.

Early life and education

Sarah Louise Arnold was born in Abington, Massachusetts, February 15, 1859. She had 14 siblings.

Arnold read Latin at the age of eleven and graduated from high school at the age of thirteen, before graduating from Bridgewater Normal School (now, Bridgewater State University).

Career

Arnold was the Supervisor of Primary Education in Minneapolis, Minnesota. From 1895 to 1902, she was the Supervisor of Schools in Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1902, Arnold became the first dean of Simmons College (now Simmons University). Until then, no woman had occupied so high a place in the U.S. educational system for the same length of time. She stated that she owed much of her success to Emerson E. White's course of lectures at the Martha's Vineyard Summer Institute when she was a young teacher, these courses showing her how possible and important it was to think clearly and vigorously.

In 1922, Arnold resigned the responsibilities of active leadership in Simmons College in order to become an educator-at-large. Her highest inspirations were given through public speech. She spoke in nearly every state of the U.S. During World War I, the Federal Food Administration sent her to the colleges and universities of the country to make addresses, including several at the state and national meetings of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. An address made in the early 1920s in the Cincinnati Music Hall was heard by an audience of more than 3,000.