Laura Ingalls Wilder on Her Early Years Spent as a Teacher
When Laura Ingalls Wilder was just a little girl, she started getting her education to become a teacher. She decided to start her career in education two months before her 16th birthday and took her first teaching position. For dramatic effect in the Little House books, Laura earns her teaching certificate on Christmas Eve. Still, in the novels, this is only a coincidence. In the books, however, it was a plot point.
Even though Laura was honest about the fact that she did not enjoy being a teacher, her family had significant financial responsibilities forced her to do what she could to assist them in meeting those obligations, putting a lot of pressure on her. Laura could go to high school because she was a teacher at a primary school; however, she did not complete her high school education.