Lila Cabaniss is the third woman educator in this series. She was born in  1874 in Savannah, Georgia. This would make her a contemporary of Ramona Riley, Nina Pape and Juliette Gordon Low. Unlike Pape and Riley Cabaniss was an artist of some accomplishments. She would be a co-founder of the Savannah Art Club which had ties with the Telfair Academy. This organization which still exists today as the Savannah Art Association has as its mission ‘To develop and encourage local artists at all levels to study the arts and to provide opportunities to exhibit their works.’ She was an ardent supporter of the Telfair Academy.

She traveled to New York where she studied at the Art Students League, Columbia and Syracuse Universities. She widely exhibited her work at such venues as the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC and The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She later exhibited with the Southern States Art League of which she was a member.

It was in 1915 that she made her first contribution to the Savannah education system by starting the first art classes in the public schools. Art appreciation classes were ending in most of America in the 1920s. But Cabaniss knew the value of practicing art and through force of will helped the Savannah education system adopt art classes for their schools. For her efforts she became the first full-time art teacher in the public art schools in 1927.

​The other significant contribution to the art programs of the public schools was through her Telfair Academy connections: she started the annual visit to the Academy to see the Telfair’s art collection and exhibitions. Today every fourth grader in the public schools travels to the Telfair Academy for programs designed specifically for them.  This program benefits thousands of public schools a year. The program this year celebrates one hundred years of the partnership of the Telfair Academy and public schools to teach art to the children of Savannah. Cabaniss not only was a gifted artist but she gifted art to the children of Savannah. She died in 1969 and is buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery (North).
 

 

This week I continue following the innovative women educators of Savannah. Today I will look at Ramona Riley who was on the cusp of progressive education. Ramona Riley was born in 1873 in Augusta which would have made her contemporaneous with Nina Pape. Riley would be called “Miss Ramona.” She taught in the public schools in Savannah. When the Great Depression hit she was concerned by the amount of children who came to school hungry. Realizing that gnawing hunger did not make for great learners she introduced what has become the free lunch program. This was the recognition by early progressive educators realizing that schools needed to become more than teachers of the mind but also tending to the physical detriments students faced to their learning. She co-authored several articles on education with the most famous being “Have the Public Schools ‘Had It’?”

She became a principal of the Waters Avenue School and began to explore what were some of the prime objectives she wanted to instill in her students; with the assistance of her teachers she decided a new curriculum based on good citizenship, civic virtue, accountability, respect for each other, and other virtues were important. She called a meeting of the teachers and students. The students decided that the best model for developing civic virtue was to follow the City of Savannah. They then proceeded to hold elections for Mayor, Alders, Public Health, Safety Patrol, Fire Marshall and so on. The students and teachers shared leadership in the school. And the school was run as a city with committees to address issues and students worked in groups to complete work and help each other with their assignments and make the school a city of learning. She wrote, “We feel that children must also grow and develop in those skills and abilities which will permit them to take an active and enlightened part in the affairs of the (school). These skills are more or less useless if developed apart from actual contact with the end in view. It is our conviction that it is better to teach Mary and Johnny through arithmetic than to teach arithmetic to Mary and Johnny.” Thus in 1928 the famed Riley Leadership Program was born.  

Miss Ramona was one of those folks who thought they could retire. But the first time she retired, she accepted a position as principal of the Independent Presbyterian Church School in Savannah. Her second retirement ended as quickly as she tutored students in her home with her sister before she died.

​The Waters Avenue School was renamed the Ramona Riley School in her honor. Ramona Riley died in 1963 and is buried in Bonaventure Cemetery. Her tombstone has this biblical quote on it from the Book of Daniel (12:3): "And they that be teachers shall shine with the brightness of the firmament.”  

Savannah’s three largest universities as well as its technical school (SCAD, Armstrong, Savannah State, Savannah Tech) currently have women presidents. This is unusual as only 26% of the college presidents in the U.S. are women. So we are well ahead of the curve. Maybe the reason for this in part is that women have been on the forefront of education in Savannah. There is a habit to berate and underestimate what is going on in Savannah’s educational system. But there have been times when Savannah has if not led the way was right there on the cusp of educational progress. In the next few blogs I want to explore some of Savannah’s leading educators and keeping with our current trend the women led especially in the early to mid- twentieth century. The first of the progressive women educators I will write about is Nina Pape.

Nina Pape (1869-1944) was born into a prestigious Savannah family. Her grandfather, Edward Clifford Anderson, was the city’s five-time mayor. Pape had access to the finest education available but she never took her advantages lightly. Her first job as a teacher was at Massie School. Nina’s philosophy on education was radical for its time. She de-emphasized harsh discipline and thought memorization was not as valuable as making learning fun.  She also emphasized each child was unique and needed to be treated as such.

While at Massie she started what would become one of her lasting legacies. Pape created the Froebel Society, based on the ideas of educator philosopher Frederic Froebel. The work of the Society was to be directed toward increasing the health and happiness of underprivileged children Nina was concerned about the children who came from poorer homes. She participated in the creation of seven kindergartens in deprived neighborhoods.  Theses kindergartens were the first in Savannah and would lead to the implementation of kindergartens throughout the system. But the Froebel Society did not stop there. She was concerned about the effects of poor children born in urban Savannah not having a chance to experience the beauty, wonder, and clean air of the beach. She established the Fresh Air Home (still in existence today) to bring children to the beach many for the first time. She was also found convincing the city leaders to create public playgrounds and sponsor youth festivals in Forsyth Park.

After teaching at Massie Elementary, Nina started the Pape School. The school quickly became one of the nation’s most highly respected college preparatory schools. And as could be predicted was one of the first schools in Georgia to include a kindergarten. The school also emphasized the education of girls to the standards expected of boys. Her school used the ideas of Froebel and John Dewey and other progressive educators so it was no surprise when she was the only person from Georgia to participate in the Progressive Education Association in its founding in 1919. The ideas of this organization has led to the following teaching methods (as found on Wikipedia):

• Emphasis on learning by doing – hands-on projects, expeditionary learning, experiential learning
• Integrated curriculum focused on thematic units
• Integration of entrepreneurship into education
• Strong emphasis on problem solving and critical thinking
• Group work and development of social skills
• Understanding and action as the goals of learning as opposed to rote knowledge
• Collaborative and cooperative learning projects
• Education for social responsibility and democracy
• Highly personalized learning accounting for each individual's personal goals
• Integration of community service and service learning projects into the daily curriculum
• Selection of subject content by looking forward to ask what skills will be needed in future society
• De-emphasis on textbooks in favor of varied learning resources
• Emphasis on lifelong learning and social skills
• Assessment by evaluation of child's projects and productions

She was also a great aid to her cousin Savannah’s own Juliette Gordon Low. In 1912 When Juliette made a phone call to her cousin Nina she stated, "I’ve got something for the girls of Savannah, and all America, and all the world, and we’re going to start it tonight." The first two Girl Scout troops in the US were the Pape School’s sixth and seventh grade girls. Pape used her experience and connections to assist in training and organizing leaders.

In 1955, of the Pape School including Pape's faculty, curriculum, the majority of its student body, and its facilities east of Forsyth Park were purchased by the founders of Savannah Country Day School, one of the prominent college preparatory schools in Savannah.  

​ Pape was inducted to the Georgia Women’s Hall of Fame in 2005.Her legacy can be seen in the thriving of Savannah Country Day School, the Fresh Air Home now opened for 8 weeks a year, with each child spending eleven days enjoying the ocean, salt air, playing on the beach. The maximum capacity of the Home at one time is 92 children. Her legacy can be seen in the playgrounds and public parks across Savannah, in the kindergartens of Georgia, and also in the growth of the Girl Scouts of America. She was truly a matron saint of children from Savannah.