Flora Juliette Cooke
, 1864 - 1953
Flora Juliette Cooke (b. December 1864, Ohio) was an American progressive educator and author. Cooke’s mother died when she was five, and she was sent to live with family friends who eventually adopted her in 1881. She became a teacher and in 1885 began her career at Hellman Street School in Youngstown, Ohio. Here, she formed a close bond with the school principal, Zonia Baber, at whose house she would stay when bad weather made it harder for her to travel home from the school. Baber mentored Cooke, and approved of her teaching methods, which involved creating games to keep some of her large class of children busy whilst she taught others. Cooke became school principal in 1887. From 1901 to 1934, Cooke was principal of the Francis W. Parker school in Chicago. She appears to also have been director of the School of Education at the University of Chicago.
In addition to Nature Myths, Cooke is also the author of One Year's Outlines of Work in First Primary Grade (1897?) and Colonel Parker: Paper Read Before the Parents' Association of the Francis W. Parker School (1910?). Goodreads further attributes to her name Complete Guide to Greek Mythology for Young and Old and A Brief Guide to Norse Mythology for Young and Old. These are seemingly more recent publications by A.J. Cornell Publications compiled from contributions of Cooke to World Book: Organized Knowledge in Story and Picture (1920). The same publisher has also republished the Greek sections of Nature Myths as Greek Myths for Children.
Sources:
Green, N. S., "Cooke, Flora Juliette (25 December 1864–21 February 1953)", https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0900195 (accessed: April 20, 2020);
goodreads.com (accessed: April 20, 2020);
Online Books Library (accessed: April 20, 2020);
Wikipatia, tweet: twitter.com (accessed: April 20, 2020).
Bio prepared by Robin Diver, University of Birmingham, RSD253@student.bham.ac.uk
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