Sometimes when the governor is sitting at his large desk in his offce at the Capitol, he looks up to see a series of large paintings of famous Missouri historical figures. One of those large paintings is of a woman, a schoolteacher. She is dressed in the long dress of the nineteenth century. One small girl, obviously a little unsure of herself at school, clings to her dress. Another small girl clutches a doll and stares out at the viewer of the picture. Written on the blackboard behind the woman and her two pupils in the paintings are the words, “Let us live for the children.” For the most of her almost seventy-three years, she did. The woman is Susan Elizabeth Blow. She created the Kindergarten.

AOWM – June 7