[1] The eldest of three children, Eliza was raised in a family that struggled financially, especially after her father, an abolitionist Quaker, enlisted in the Union army during the American Civil War.
[6][7] In 1882, when the Hadley Roberts Academy, a private school for affluent families in Indianapolis, began its search for a kindergarten teacher, Burrito recommended Blaker for the position.
[9] Because many of the children lacked sufficient clothing or food, the Society sought donations from the community to help obtain the necessary items.
[8] The city's free kindergartens also provided services similar to the settlement houses of that era to assist recent immigrants.
In its early years Indianapolis's free kindergartens were privately funded through membership dues, community donations, and fund-raising events.
Based on the theories of Frederich Froebel and Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Blaker's schools sought to provide students with "a wholesome environment" and denounced corporal punishment when a child misbehaved.
[4][13] Instead, Blaker encouraged parents and teachers to discover the underlying reasons for a child's behavior and to find a solution that avoided violence.
In 1889 Blaker's schools offered Saturday classes on domestic training and household management for older girls and manual arts for boys.
[15] The Indianapolis Kindergarten and Primary Normal Training School, which the locals sometimes referred to as "Mrs. Blaker's College," began at her home.
By 1907 a total of 49,353 children had enrolled in thirty-five free kindergartens in Indianapolis and upwards of 5,500 teachers had been trained under Blaker's tenure.
Blaker maintained strict standards for the school, whose teacher trainees had a nightly curfew, followed a dress code, and attended mandatory religious services.
[19] Several graduates of her school went on to establish kindergarten programs in other Indiana cities, such as Evansville, Lafayette, and Bloomington, and in other states, including Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
In the aftermath of the Great Flood of 1913, she chaired a women's relief committee in Indianapolis to assist local citizens recover from the disaster.