Sara Banzet was born in 1745 in the Alsation village of Belmont, in the seigneury of Ban de la Roche, into a peasant family.
Servant of the wife of pastor Jean Georges Stuber in Waldersbach, she bore witness to her master's efforts to improve the condition of his parishioners, particularly in terms of education.
In order to improve local incomes, Madame Stuber organised knitting classes for the women and young girls.
But it was Sara Banzet herself who, following a suggestion made by Jean-Frédéric Oberlin to Jean-Georges Stuber in the fall of 1766, about the role women could play in educating very young children, took the initiative in the spring of 1767 to gather around her at Belmont very young children, and to give them an education adapted to their age: songs, new words, observation of plants, and stories drawn from the Bible.
[4] Sara Banzet supervised them voluntarily at the beginning, then, to appease her father who complained that she was wasting her time, Jean-Frédéric Oberlin officially hired her with a small remuneration.