Sarah Porter

Sarah Porter (August 16, 1813 – February 18, 1900) was the American educator who founded Miss Porter's School, a private college preparatory school for girls.

Biography

She was born in Farmington, Connecticut, to Rev. Noah Porter (1781 – 1866) and his wife, Mehetable "Meigs" Porter (1786 – 1874). Her older brother, Noah Porter, was President of Yale College from 1871 to 1886. in New Haven, and, uncharacteristically for women of the time, studied privately with Yale College professors. She taught in Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania, and returned to Connecticut to found a female counterpart to Simeon Hart's Academy for Boys. Porter opposed women's colleges and "discouraged her students from attending college". She also did not "hire college-educated teachers" – in a 1883 letter, Porter wrote "I do not want one college trained woman—they are narrow, arrogant—and do not infuse the spirit which I want".