Luminaries

Thomas W. Valentine

The following is taken from Proceedings of the National Teachers' Association (Afterward the National Education Association), from Its Foundation in 1857 to the Close of the Session of 1870, compiled by Henry Barnard, LL.D., and printed by C. W. Bardeen in 1909.

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"Thomas W. Valentine was born in Northborough, Massachusetts on February 16, 1808. He enjoyed excellent opportunities of early elementary instruction in the district-school of his native town, where the influence of Rev. Dr. Allen, as Chairman of the School Committee, was felt for good, for more than a quarter of a century.

His father having removed to Worcester, he spent three years in the academy under the charge of Rev. Dr. Bailey, afterwords President of Franklin College, Indiana. Having a strong predilection for teaching, he gave up preparation for college and taught his first winter in a district-school in Lancaster and after a further apprenticeship of four years in the schools of Northborough and Ashland, and for a short time in Pennsylvania, he removed to Albany in 1842, and for eleven years had charge of one of the public schools in that city. In 1853 he was superintendent of the Orphan Asylum, and in 1855 became principal of a large public school in Brooklyn.

Mr. Valentine has always been a zealous participator in the educational movements of the day. Before leaving Massachusetts, he was active in getting up a County Convention of teachers in 1838; in 1844 he cooperated with Frances Dwight and others in obtaining from the legislature of New York a better organization for the public schools of Albany; he was instrumental, in connection with other teachers of Albany, in calling the State Convention of Teachers in 1845, resulting in the organization of the State Association, in which he was Chairman of the Business Committee, and of which Association he was elected president in 1856; and he was also active in originating the National Teachers' Association in 1857."