w w w . m a d e i r a . o r g

My friend, Jeannie Norris, who used to be Director of Admissions at Madeira and is now Headmistress

at Miss Hall’s School in Massachusetts, jokes that the two of us combined would make one formidable and prob-ably better rested head of school. We could alternate “internal” and “exter-nal” roles and share writing assign-ments. She suggests that we each write two graduation scripts and recycle them over a four-year span.

Actually, Madeira’s graduation program has not changed much since 1907, when our founder sent her two seniors off to Vassar and the University of Wisconsin. Nor, in my eighteenth year, have my welcome back opening day remarks varied much. My talking about backpacks and book bags has become such a ritual that when I’m slow to get to the point some senior will prompt me from the front rows.

The book bag talk will become part of my “legacy,” and is usually featured in any skits about me. When a student leader pulls a Madeira red and white L.L. Bean boat tote from behind the podium and says “metaphor,” Madeira girls get the joke. Other instances of

imitation include former Assistant Dean of Students Cristin Redwine deRonja ’89 wearing red knit and glasses and proclaiming, “Miss Madeira…single sex…women’s rights…Carol Gil-ligan…using one’s voice…Elizabeth Cady Stanton,” or Assistant Academic Dean Andrew Sharp, cross-dressing one Halloween in my red and white sundress and parading around the Oval carrying a diet coke and a Madeira book bag.

A book bag, as I reiterate to stu-dents, faculty, and families annually, is a metaphor for hope -- how we hope the new school year will turn out, how we hope to be accepted, how we hope to make friends and do well.

Every “book bag” represents an individual style, whether a boat tote or backpack or satchel or briefcase of some kind; one student distinguished

herself by using a small suitcase on wheels, another a plastic milk

crate attached to her bike with bungee cords. I use Madeira

book bags in every size and sometimes feel like a bag lady toting my homework from office to house and back. I reserve my leather briefcase and laptop case for

traveling.What we pack in our back-

packs is also individual. When I came in 1988 mine included diapers, Spring-steen tapes and diet coke. Today there are my laptop, 2 pairs of glasses, Bach CDs, and diet coke. Only my caffeine

demands remain constant: the tod-dler is now a 6’5” college sophomore who prefers black backpacks for an I-Pod, cell phone and Gatorade bottle. Whether navy canvas or gold sequined, my daughter’s book bag is an accessory that she changes daily, but always fills it with the New York Times crossword puzzle and extra bobby pins.

But more than new binders or assignment books, each of us packs our history and future hopes. We know that every girl wants to do her best, achieve her personal best, but such goals require patience and perse-verance. Schools allow us to start over again and again. One of the rea-sons I love September is that it represents a peren-nial fresh start. The metaphor and reality of a “clean slate” will remain powerfully appealing long after laptops have replaced blackboards, or white-boards or smart boards. For students, parents and teachers alike, September marks the beginning of a new year.

Everyone comes to Madeira as a “new girl,” eager, nervous, excited about new teachers, new friends, new adventures. When Miss Madeira wel-comed “her girls” from 1906 to 1956, she always cautioned them not to rush into friendships, rather “to make haste

What’s in Your Bookbag?Elisabeth Griffith, PhD, Headmistress

Nota BeneA newsletter of The Madeira SchoolSeptember, 2005

continued on page 4

2 S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 5 N o t a B e n e

It’s in the Bag!Apart from unfinished problem sets, highlighted French novels, Student ID cards, The Washington Post, and the ubiquitous I-Pods and cell phones, what are the accoutrements du moment of a Madeira student? Here is a sample of what you might find.

Flashcards for Mrs. Heimbach’s Latin I class. Freshmen read The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd in English I.

In 2005-2006 girls will need to traipse from Schoolhouse I to math and language classes in the new Schoolhouse II as well as to the Student Center, the Science Building, the Library or their dorms, come rain or shine. It is good to carry an umbrella.

Mini Pharmacy for all imaginable student ailments.

Function in Disaster – All Madeira boarders need to have a flashlight to navigate the dorms during power outages…or to play flashlight tag.

Tennis Balls – The Madeira tennis team went 9-1 in the Spring 2005 season and were Co-League Champions during the regular season.

3T h e M a d e i r a S c h o o l

Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

1776 by David McCullough

Five Days in Philadelphia: Wendell Willkie, Franklin Roosevelt and the 1940 Election That Saved the Western World by Charles Peters

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson

Huck’s Raft by Steven Mintz

The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad, Ingrid Christophersen (Translator)

The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod by Henry Beston, Robert Finch (Introduction)

Spiral Staircase: My Climb out of Darkness by Karen Armstrong

Winterdance by Gary Paulsen

The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling by Ross King

Six Names for Beauty by Crispin Sartwell

How I Spent My Summer Vacation (An Amanda Pepper Mystery) by Gillian Roberts

The Bluest Blood (An Amanda Pepper Mystery) by Gillian Roberts

With Friends like These... (An Amanda Pepper Mystery) by Gillian Roberts, Alan Dean Foster

Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class by Ross Gregory Douthat

Vineyard Enigma: A Martha’s Vineyard Mystery by Philip R. Craig

Deception on His Mind by Elizabeth George

The Chocolate Bear Burglary by JoAnna Carl

How to Do Everything with Photoshop Elements 3.0

Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar

Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand

Oh the Glory of It All by Sean Wilsey

Time and Tide: A Walk Through Nantucket (Crown Journeys Series) by Frank Conroy

Our Red Sox: A Story of Family, Friends and Fenway by Robert Sullivan

Echo House by Ward Just

Leeway Cottage by Beth Gutcheon

Snobs by Julian Fellowes

Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Feed (YA) by M.T. Anderson

Am I Blue? comp. by Marion Dane Bauer

180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day, comp. by Billy Collins

In the Shelter of Each Other by Mary Pipher

Plan B: More Articles About Faith by Anne LaMotte

Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier

Faculty and Staff Summer Reading ListFiction and non-fiction, from novels to biographies, self-help to how-tos, Madeira faculty and staff spent the summer with books in their beach bags.

LThe ist

THE MADEIRA SCHOOL8328 Georgetown PikeMcLean, VA 22102-1200www.madeira.org

slowly,” because there would be so many opportunities for friendship and learning.

At Madeira we subscribe to the ABCs delineated by Spelman Col-lege President Beverly Daniel Tatum, author of “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” And Other Conversations About Race (Basic Books, 1997). Affirming identity, Building community, and Cultivat-ing leadership are part of what we do here. I hope every girl will feel safe and secure enough here to reveal her genuine self.

I emphasize to girls that they need to leave the baggage of bias and preju-dice at the gate, to enter Greenway with an open heart and a curious mind. We don’t expect girls to deny who

they are, from whatever background or culture or faith or class, but we do expect them to allow others to be who they are too, without hasty labeling or dismissing anyone with a stereotype.

Another appeal of September for me is the nostalgia. The smell of chalk dust and floor polish, the squeak of new sneakers and the clank of old pipes evoke the memories of every other first day of school and of earlier genera-tions who have studied or taught in our school house. Starting school is a multi-generational experience. We remember

our own first days and our children’s. In our family we always take a first day photo, from front, side and back, and measure height on a wall chart, tradi-tions carried over from my childhood.

This year each of us will be part of Madeira’s centennial and an even older tradition of single sex education for girls. In the next year we will be cele-brating Miss Madeira’s mission, saluting alumnae, applauding faculty and staff, emphasizing community connections and service and honoring our legacy of rigorous academics and ethical leader-ship in a residential setting. Indeed, legacy, with its multiple meanings, will be our theme for the year. How appro-priate that the title of our centennial history is Strong in Her Girls.

So once again I look forward to welcoming all girls, faculty and families to Madeira on the first day of school and to a very good year.

Bookbagcontinued from page 1

“But more than new binders or assign-ment books, each of us packs our history and future hopes.”

Nota Bene SEPTEMBER 2005