PICK OF THE ARCHIVES (reprinted from Spring 2008 Generations ) by Judy Sherman
It has been difficult to choose one item as the best of the archives this time. So many intense and moving essays, some as first-hand letters home, were written by those men and women who served in the Second World War and contributed to JHSUM for our exhibit and program on those veterans. And yet one of the most meaningful collections came from the family of Annie Ginsburg, a woman who did what seems like a mundane and ordinary job. Miss Annie Ginsburg was an English teacher, and later a principal, in the St Paul public schools, from 1922 to 1956. But she did so with extraordinary effort, care and love, and earned the respect and love of her students and colleagues.
St. Paul schoolteacher Annie Ginsburg on strike for better schools, early 1950s.
Annie Ginsburg earned a Masters Degree in 1926 from the University of Minnesota, writing her thesis on “A Technique for the Administration of a Large-Scale Campaign for the Improvement of the Mechanics of English Composition”. This is not a very romantic topic. But how important it is, especially for the generation of immigrants in school then, and now, with the schools struggling to comply with No Child Left Behind testing programs today. Annie kept writing, authoring workbooks and textbooks for junior and senior high school students to teach them to write clearly and accurately. Maybe many of you used these very workbooks, as they were adopted by many school systems.
Annie was a teacher at Mechanic Arts High School, and later was appointed a principal at Maxfield, Phalen Park and Franklin Schools. She had attended Franklin as a young child. When she retired as principal of Franklin in 1956 the faculty at the school paid tribute to her kindness, fairness and effectiveness as a principal. Students at the school, remembered her for “inner beauty”, for understanding and interest, particularly in those who were labeled “problems”. She promoted the school library and encouraged her students to read a lot. Her love and concern for the students in her care shines through the letters and testimonials written on the occasion of her retirement.
But Annie was not only a teacher and principal. She was a trustee of the Friends of the St Paul Public Library, active in the Jewish Education Center, Hadassah and the Jewish Home for the Aged, among other organizations. .She was honored by the Jewish National Fund on her eightieth birthday in 1967 by having a special grove of trees planted in her honor in Israel. At the recognition dinner former students, now older adults, came forward to remember her good influence on their lives. The collection about Annie, contributed to our archives by her nephew Don Mains, contains many clippings, letters, and personal reflections and memories, honoring Annie and keeping her alive for us. Maybe because I am a former teacher, and know how difficult and sometimes thankless the profession can be, that it was a thrill for me to read about her life and how she is remembered in the community.
