Ruth Elizabeth Spence

Ruth Elizabeth Spence (, Spence; after marriage, Arndt; 1890–1982) was a Canadian teacher and historian of Prohibition. She was the co-founder of South Africa's nursery school movement, and served as President of the South African Nursery School Association. The title of her Ph.D. dissertation was, Education as Growth: Its Significance for the Secondary Schools of Ontario.

Career She was a teacher in the Collingwood Collegiate Institute, Collingwood, Ontario (1914–15); at Jarvis Collegiate Institute, Toronto (1915–19), and served as secretary of the Student Christian Movement of Canada, University of Toronto (1919–21).

Death and legacy Ruby Elizabeth Spence Arndt died in Pretoria, South Africa, on September 8, 1982.

The Ruth Arndt Early Learning Centre in Pretoria is named in her honour.

Selected works Education as Growth, 1925 (text, via Hathitrust) John Dewey's Philosophy of Education, 1929 (text) Prohibition in Canada: A Memorial to Francis Stephens Spence, 1919 (text, via Internet Archive)