Miss Wood's Training School for Teachers of Young Children

Kindergarten was slow to be adopted in the USA.  It was a European idea after all. Stella Louise Woods was a pioneer advocate for early childhood education and she did more than advocate, she acted. She founded kindergarten programs in Michigan and Iowa before joining the staff of a kindergarten training school in Minneapolis in 1896. She transformed it and it became "Miss Wood's School", an innovative 2-year elementary teachers' training college in Minneapolis. She served as principal and instructor for 50 years.

Miss Wood's "Training School for Teachers of Young Children" was a "laboratory kindergarten" focusing on practice teaching. Initially, students lived in boarding houses and classes were held in a Nordeast settlement house.  Classes were taught by an assortment of instructors from the Minneapolis Institute of Art to the U of M.  In 1917 a permanent home was found on Bryant Ave So.  Her graduates taught in schools far and wide in the United States and were in great demand as the school became known for its high standards.


As you might infer from the photo, Miss Woods was the epitome of propriety and proper behavior. Her reputation grew and took on national significance, being named president of the International Kindergarten Union in the 19-teens.  She was internationally renowned for her story-telling.

In 1948 the school became an affiliate of Macalaster College when then Governor Luther Youngdahl made an appeal to Minnesota's liberal arts colleges to produce more elementary school teachers in the face of the charge of the baby boomers.  Miss Woods was in her 80's at the time and recognized this change was necessary to assure the school's continuation.  She died in 1949 before the transition had been completed.  The "Stella Wood Center" with is bright blue door and the sound of pre-schoolers at play echoing across the Macalaster campus lasted for 30 years and was the backbone of Macalaster's education department - but is no more. 

In its 40 years, Miss Wood's School graduated more than 2000 students and had alumnae in 44 states.

Ruth & 1st Grade class

One of those graduates was my aunt Ruth, who attended Stella Wood's Kindergarten Academy for two years, graduating in the class of 1947.  She taught kindergarten and 1st grade for 40 years in North Branch, Watertown and Lake Johanna Elementary in Mounds View.  She loved children, though she had none of her own but she adopted 28 each year and doted on her nieces and nephews. {Editor note: If you were lucky enough to get an overnight, you had all the pepsi and snickers you could handle}  

In the 50's and 60's, she spent nearly every summer in Lowry helping her mother Esther.

Ruthie embodied Miss Wood's tenets. It would be a far better world if more us would follow suit.

Lessons from Miss Woods

“Adjust yourself harmoniously – not with your elbows sticking out.”

“Have a voice with color in it.”

“Keep directions when teaching caution on the plane of information – not fear.”

“Place insulators between the sparklers when things seem too lively.”

“I would praise more and blame less.”

“Don’t thank God for Friday. Thank God for Monday.”

“Race prejudice is so unintelligent, so un-Christian, so dangerous. Children catch it from adults.”

“May you always keep that freshness of spirit which means love of your work, justice to the children, and a deepening respect for your profession, which we all agree is one of the noblest in the world.”

“It would be a really patriotic contribution if every teacher who finds hers a satisfying profession would say so and convince others that there are many rewards other than financial ones with which to measure the value of it to yourself and your community.”

“Life is such a wonderful adventure, and so full of richness and joy. .. Joy abounds when you are giving the best you can in service, and loving folks all along the way.”

“The measure of a person’s character is what they would do if they knew they would never be found out.” 

Ruth Hoplin was born on December 15, 1924 in Starbuck Hospital, the first offspring of Ole and Esther so privileged. Esther came home from the hospital on Christmas Eve. Would you believe 8 days in the hospital? Buddy stroked her head and said “poor pumpkin head”, a profound statement as he was only 2 1⁄2 and known at the time as “Silent Cal” {Editor note: this reference is a history test – Ruth is always the teacher.} 

Ruth attended grade school at District 30 in Lowry through the 8th grade and graduated from High School in 1943. She spent two years at Augsburg and then trained as a teacher at Stella Woods Kindergarten for two years + summer school, graduating in the class of 1947. The Woods school was later absorbed by Macalaster where Ruth received a B.A. in 1957.  

Ruth taught 1st grade for 1 year in Watertown @ $1800/year, sharing a room with the 3rd grade teacher.  She was recruited by North Branch, spending 6 years there and then and a total of 30 years in the Moundsview School system, teaching kindergarten, 1st & 2nd grade at Lake Johanna, Ralph Reeder & Valentine Hills Elementary schools, retiring in 1984.  She died in Minneapolis in 2008.

According to Olaf’s notes, she bought a Plymouth car in 1954 and later had a Buick Skylark I wanted badly to buy. No deal.

Copyright © 2016 Dave Hoplin