As you know Charlie has graduated but that doesn’t mean learning should stop. When I was looking up #Holidays this month I found out September 1 was Emma M. Nutt Day—which was a #teachingmoment for my family. I must admit until I started learning about this holiday, I had never heard of Emma M. Nutt. Had you?

Well, Buttercup… There I said it. I had never heard of her. Neither had David or Charlie. And that turned into one of those unexpected teaching moments in our family where Mom learns something right alongside everyone else. Because I’m never to old to learn something new. Are you?

Because sometimes I think we assume that if something happened a long time ago, we probably already know the story. Then somebody like Emma M. Nutt comes along and reminds us that there are so many people who helped shape everyday life whose names never became household names.

Emma’s story begins with something most of us have used every single day of our lives: The telephone and now it is time to find out what Is Emma M. Nutt Day and why we celebrate her.

Emma M. Nutt Day is observed on September 1 to recognize Emma M. Nutt, who became the first female telephone operator in the United States in 1878. Think about that for a minute.

Today, we pick up a phone and call somebody almost instantly. We don’t have to think about who is sitting at a switchboard. We don’t have to wait for someone to manually connect our call.

We don’t have to ask an operator to connect us to another person. We certainly don’t have to stand beside a telephone waiting for someone else in the house to finish using it. We don’t have to deal with a party line another #teachingmoment for Charlie.

But in 1878, the telephone was still a brand-new technology. And somebody had to figure out how to connect those calls. That somebody included Emma M. Nutt a lady I wish I had the opportunity to meet.

Emma M. Nutt began working as a telephone operator in Boston on September 1, 1878. She wasn’t simply sitting beside a telephone answering random calls. Telephone operators worked with early telephone exchanges and helped connect callers.

Imagine sitting at a switchboard and physically connecting one person to another. No touchscreen. No contact list. No “Hey Siri.” No caller ID. No texting somebody, “Where are you?”

You had a job to do, and that job helped make this brand-new technology useful. And here’s where my family has another #teachingmoment to share with you. Emma had a sister named Stella who was also a telephone operator.

In fact, Stella followed Emma into the telephone business only hours after Emma began working. Would this be a teaching moment for your family Because my family didn’t know that.

And I love discovering those little pieces of history that make you stop and say, “Wait…what?” This part of Emma and Stella’s story really made me think. Can you imagine working with your sister day in and day out?

I can. I’ve done it. And that’s another story I’m going to have to tell you one day Buttercup. Because learning about Emma and Stella brought back memories of my own life and the time my sister and I worked together.

Sometimes history has a funny way of opening a door to a memory you haven’t thought about in a while. You start with a woman who worked at a telephone exchange in 1878… and suddenly you’re remembering your own sister.

That’s one of my favorite kinds of teaching moments. The kind where the lesson doesn’t just stay in a book. It connects to your life. Do you like those kinds of teaching moments or not and why?

Now, I would like to share another A #TeachingMoment with you. Something that surprised me while learning about Emma was realizing just how much work went into something we eventually considered completely ordinary.

Today, a child can pick up a phone and make a call before they really understand what a telephone even is. At least that’s how it was in my house. #Homeschool families, every single child has had a phone—usually before they could even walk. At least mine did! Was it this way with your children?

I’m laughing because you know exactly what I mean. The toy telephone. The pretend telephone. The telephone they wanted to carry around. The telephone they wanted to push buttons on. And eventually the real telephone.

But Emma lived in a time when the telephone itself was something new. That gives us an opportunity to stop and ask: How did we get from Emma’s telephone exchange to the phones we carry in our pockets today? That’s where the next part of our Emma M. Nutt series will take us.

The story of the telephone didn’t stop with Emma. Telephone technology continued changing. We went from early exchanges and operators to rotary phones. Then push-button phones. Then cordless phones. Then answering machines. Then cell phones.

And eventually smartphones that can make calls, take photographs, send messages, play music, give us directions, connect us to the internet, and do more things than the people operating those first telephone exchanges could probably have imagined.

But Emma’s story gives us a place to begin. Because every piece of technology has a history. And every piece of history has people behind it. Which is why were celebrating #EmmaM.NuttDay

When I find a book about a person or subject we’re learning about, I love sharing it with families. But there’s an important distinction here. If I haven’t personally read the book, I’m not going to call it a GreatfulMoments review.

Instead, I’ll identify it as a learning resource that families may want to investigate for themselves. That’s especially important when we’re talking about homeschool lessons. I want families to know whether I’m recommending something because I’ve actually used it or simply pointing them toward something that may help them learn more.

And that’s going to be part of this series as we continue looking at Emma, Stella, telephone history, and the people who helped connect us. Now I want to hear from you. Had you ever heard of Emma M. Nutt before today?

Did you know she had a sister named Stella who also became a telephone operator? And here’s my favorite question: Have you ever worked with your sister or another family member?

What was that like? Did you love it? Did you drive each other crazy? Maybe a little bit of both? I’m going to share my own story about working with my sister because, honestly, learning about Emma and Stella brought it right back to me.

And that is why I love a good teaching moment. Sometimes you start out learning about somebody you’ve never heard of… and end up remembering a piece of your own story which is half the fun for me. How about you?

I hope you will come back tomorrow because this is is only Day 1 of our four-day Emma M. Nutt telephone series. We’ve met Emma. We’ve discovered Stella. We’ve started asking questions. And we’ve opened the door to the history of the telephone.

Tomorrow we’re going to step away from the history book for a minute and talk about something many of us actually remember: the telephone we grew up with. Rotary phones. Party lines. 411.

Calling the weather. Telephone cords. Sleepovers. Crank calls. Grandma’s telephone which could only be a black #roteryphone. And yes… my teenage princess phone. Because if you think today’s kids have interesting relationships with their phones, wait until you hear what we did with ours.

Grateful, Thankful, and Blessed.

🐸 Fully Rely on God • ✝️ Faith, Friends & Family • 🦋 Suzanne, Flying Free • 🎮 Charlie

Thank you,

Glenda, Charlie and David Cates