Miss Anne Healy, former RPCS Headmistress from 1950-1975, in preparation for her Celebration of Life service on December 4 (her 98th birthday), I am overcome by so many emotions. Miss Healy meant so much to our beloved School and generations of alumnae; and she meant even more to me personally. She was my Headmistress when I was a student and taught me English as a senior. I have thought often over the years of her indomitable spirit, her compassion and her ability to laugh and love. She was a wonderful role model for me. Each September, on the very first day of the new academic year she would send me a dozen red roses with a note: I’m with you in spirit as you begin a new school year. I will deeply miss her her presence, her wise and thoughtful manner and her love, but I know that her legacy will continue to influence me and all Roland Parkers into the future.
The Head Mistresses Association of the East (HMAE) was founded in 1911 by a group of headmistresses of schools in Boston, New York and Philadelphia, “to provide an opportunity for the furtherance of mutual acquaintance among heads of secondary or elementary schools… for the interchange of ideas of common interest or looking toward the advancement of standards.” Anne Healy was its President from 1954-56. Days after Anne’s death, I attended the HMAE Centennial Conference That Was Then, This Is Now - Looking Back, Looking Forward. The keynote speaker, an exemplary scholar and leader in the tradition of HMAE's founders, Shirley Tilghman, President of Princeton University, stressed the need to continue to provide leadership opportunities and mentorship for girls at both the pre-collegiate and college levels and in the workplace. It was also exciting for me that one of my personal favorite authors, Anna Quindlen led a conversation, in her role as a Trustee of Barnard College, along with Barnard President Debora Spar. Anna remembered RPCS from 2001 when she delivered the RPCS Centennial Anne Healy Lecture in 2001. As she and I walked from my home to our campus, she talked about how important attending Barnard was for her. She believes that she would never have become the opinion journalist that she is without that single gender educational opportunity. She repeated that message at HMAE, as she charged all of us who lead girls’ schools to ensure that we were finding multiple ways – in and out of the classroom – to help our students develop their voices and sense of self (and self-respect) as girls and young women so that they could, as adults in college and beyond, truly be on equal footing with men. All the speakers at HMAE and Sally McMillen, our November Crane lecturer, pointed out that the United States is far behind many other nations – including 3rd world countries – in the number of women in visible leadership positions.
When I listen to our students from K to 12th grade speak in front of their classmates or all the students in their respective divisions or in front of the entire school; when I know of their accomplishments and passions as students and as school leaders; and when I hear back from alumnae about what they are doing, then I am confident that we are preparing and graduating our students to lead successful and purposeful lives.
Roland Park, too, is a leader and thus, models and mentors leadership for our students. I am excited to report that RPCS will be participating in an important and prestigious research project that represents a partnership between the Center for the Study of Boys’ and Girls’ Lives, a University of Pennsylvania affiliate research organization and the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools. This Teaching Girls study will inventory effective teaching practices for girls by administering student and faculty surveys at a representative sample of NCGS member schools. We were invited to join this two-year investigative undertaking because they considered us to be an exemplary girls’ school. We are the only independent school in the Baltimore area to be included.
While RPCS is known for innovations in teaching and learning for the 21st century, December is also a time of many honored traditions. I paused in completing this letter to you so that I could attend the 11th Birgit Baldwin International Poetry Festival during Upper School Assembly where sixty-seven students recited poetry and sang in fifteen foreign languages – those that we teach and those that represent cultures within our diverse community. Sponsored by the RPCS Department of Foreign Languages, this event began twenty years ago and is held every other year. Named in memory of Birgit Baldwin, 1978, an accomplished linguist who was tragically killed in 1988, the event is meant to inspire and broaden intellectual, cultural and linguistic understanding. It was awe-inspiring and uplifting. I am hurrying to finish my message so that I can attend the Lower School holiday concert. Their voices, their shining faces and their enjoyment in performance inspire me and affirm my commitment to girls’ education. My December wouldn’t be complete without hearing them sing, “Peace is a Gentle Dove.”
Two of our oldest traditions – both dating back to 1922 – happen in the next few weeks. The first is our fun-filled annual Holiday Fair. I hope to see you here for the event on this Saturday! My wreaths are already hung at my house, and I am planning on enjoying the food and trying to win a raffle prize! My granddaughters will be playing all the games (I still have fish from 3 years ago!) and checking out the vendors. On December 15th – the day before we close for winter break – we will hold two performances of our traditional Upper School Christmas Program. This beautiful program combines the voices of our Upper School chorus, Gospel Choir, employee singers, Somettos and Semiquavers, poetry read by members of our Footlights, and the figures are represented by our own Middle School students holding the correct pose for an unbelievably long time. If you have never seen this program, I urge you to come. Words cannot fully describe this moving and aesthetic performance. It is awesome in the truest sense of the word.
A very joyous holiday season to each of you and all the best in the coming New Year.
~J.W.B.