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The School Teacher Who Was Fired For Being Too Pretty And Popular
More than a century ago, a skilled educator named Genevieve McGraw lost her job because it was determined she was too beautiful
School teachers have incredibly difficult jobs. In addition to long hours, they have to put up with meddling parents, different learning styles and all manner of external distractions. Taking that all into consideration, it’s not very easy to get the respect they deserve. More than a century ago, a sixth-grade Indiana teacher was fired because she was too pretty and popular, which led to the school’s superintendent determining such positive attributes were actually a detriment to how well she could do her job.
Useless Information reported on the curious case of Ms. Genevieve McGraw of Hammond, Indiana in 1906, who was roundly considered to be the most popular teacher at her school. She was also well regarded outside of work as a beautiful single young woman, who enjoyed dating, going to dances and being social around town. To be sure, she was not accused of doing anything untoward, but living at the end of the Victorian era, the mere possibility or suggestion of impropriety was enough to torpedo somebody’s reputation.
