Jennie Howard graduated from the Framingham Normal School in February 1866. After graduating, she began teaching in the Worcester school system before eventually moving to an administrative position. In 1883, Howard and twenty-two other American teachers traveled to Argentina at the request of the Argentinian Minister of Education and former president Domingo Sarmiento. Upon arrival in Buenos Aires, the women studied Spanish and, after only four months, were divided into small groups and sent to different parts of the country. Ms. Howard, along with fellow Framingham Normal School graduate Edith Howe, was sent to Parana.
Having received only brief instruction in the native language proved difficult. English was rarely heard in some of the remoter areas. Along with the language difficulties, the women had to acclimate to the drastically different climate and culture. There was a considerable amount of prejudice toward the ideas of schools for certain classes. That, along with frequent changes of ministers of education, cholera, earthquakes, and revolutions, created many obstacles for Ms. Howard and her colleagues to overcome. They persevered, and by 1908, seventy-five normal schools had been established in Argentina, seventeen solely for women.
Ms. Howard remained in Argentina after many of the other women returned home. She became the regent and vice-directress of the Girls’ Normal School in Cordoba, holding the position for two years before transferring to the Mixed Normal School of San Nicholas as professor of Pedagogic Criticism and Arithmetic. Later in life, she published a book about her experiences working in Argentina, entitled In Distant Climes and Other Years. After sixteen years of service in San Nicholas, she was forced to retire due to illness, though she remained in the country after her retirement, participating in women’s affairs in the American colony in Buenos Aires and continuing to serve as an educational advisor until her death in 1931.