[5] In 1873, he joined the Science Department of Central Missouri Normal School in Warrensburg along with his wife, Emma, also an educator.
[6] After Straight returned to Missouri, he tried to put into practice the methods of scientific study that Agassiz taught, combining them with procedures he developed as a classroom teacher at Peru.
Emma was descended from Thomas Dickerman, who likely came to America from Bristol with the Reverend Richard Mather in 1636 and settled in Dorchester.
[3] Before her death, Emma moved to Tokyo, Japan, where she spent two years learning Japanese and teaching at the Normal School there.
[14] According to the Nebraska State Historical Society:[2] The success of Straight's career does not lie in his publications or even in the large number of students he influenced.
Rather he was significant because he influenced other persons who themselves became educational leaders.In the Annual Report of the Regents of the university, to the Legislature of the State of New York, Straight was described as follows: His great aim during mature years was to bring science to the people, through which he believed better thinking and better living could be secured; hence he chose to work in normal schools, rejecting higher salaries and more honored positions in other educational institutions, hoping thus to train teachers who in turn would train the children and youth of our land.