Article 2: Using Microbiography To Understand The Occupational Careers of American Teachers, 1900-1950

Ida Noll was a determined and energetic young woman. After attending a one-room school in the country, she graduated from high school in 1936 in Menomonie, Wisconsin, completed a one-year program for rural teachers at the county normal school, and then spent a second year at the teachers college in nearby Eau Claire. With this background and training, she began to construct a teaching career that spanned almost a half-century. She taught for 14 years in country schools, and then secured a post 30 miles east of Menonomie in Chippewa Falls, a city of about 11,000 in 1950. In 1955 she completed a bachelor’s degree at the Eau Claire State College, and in 1965 took a position in St. Paul, a metropolis of over 300,000 people 90 miles west of Chippewa Falls. Noll never married, and after retiring from the classroom in 1985 she returned to Menomonie to live for 24 years (“Ida Noll” 2009).