Life of Ella Flagg Young
Ella Flagg Young was born in Buffalo, New York to her parents, Theodore and Jane Flagg. It was not until the age of ten that she first attended school and taught herself how to write and read before officially entering school. At age of fifteen years old, Ella took the teachers Certification Examination in order to become a teacher and passed; however she was constantly told that she was too young to teach. She later went on to graduate in 1862 from the Chicago Normal School and married William Young in 1868. Their marriage was cut short when William suddenly pass away; Ella was only twenty-seven years old. Under the supervision of John Dewey, Ella received her Ph.D. in 1900 from the University of Chicago.
Career and Later Life
In 1887, Ella became the first female Superintendent of schools located in Chicago, Illinois. After taking the position as a Superintendent, she also accepted a job offer at the University of Chicago in 1889. Her love for the city of Chicago continued in 1905 when she became the Principal and Superintendent at the Chicago Normal School 1909 until she resigned in 1915. With fifty-three years of experience in education, she served on the Board of Education for the state of Illinois from 1888 through 1913; making her the first woman in the history of the United State to head a large city's school system. The National Education Association appointed her their first woman President from 1910 to 1911. Her determination to change history did not stop with education, she was also an active activist of the Woman's Suffrage Movement. Ella Flagg Young died on October 26, 1918 at the age of seventy two year old from the flu.