Margaret Young

Margaret Majora Young (1855 – 1940, in ) was a Canadian missionary to Nagoya, Japan. She dedicated her life to the education of women there, and laid the foundation of St. Mary's College, Nagoya. Birth and education Margaret Young was born in Vienna, Ontario, Canada in 1855. She was the third daughter of the six siblings. After studying at the Hamilton Normal School, she started to work in 1890 at a public kindergarten in Elma, Ontario, where she was exposed to Friedrich Fröbel's early childhood education method and practice. Missionary in Japan In 1895, she was sent to Japan as a missionary of the Anglican Church of Canada, and arrived in Nagoya, Japan's third largest city, where J. Robinson and his wife had begun their missionary work in 1888. In 1898 she started education of child care workers at her own home, with one student. In 1999, she established Ryujo Kindergarten in Higashi-ku, Nagoya. (Ryujo, meaning the willow castle, is one of the nicknames of Nagoya, well known for its magnificent castle.) In 1903, she started to emphasize education of mothers, by establishing the “Mothers' Association” at the kindergarten.