MadeiraToday

SUMMER 2007

Madeira TodaySummer 2007, Number 173

Published by The Madeira School

8328 Georgetown Pike

McLean, Virginia 22102-1200

Megan Deardourff, Editor

Photography: Megan Deardourff,

Wendy Merriman, Cade Miller,

Martin Ratagan, Megan Theiling

Board of Directors 2007-2008

Elisabeth Hadden Alexander ’46, P ’71, ’75

Richard J. Andreano, Jr., P’06, ’08

Benton Burroughs, Jr. P’03

Sarah Pettit Daignault ’66

Kimberly Williamson Darden ’75

CeCe Davenport ’89

Katharine Beal Davis ’64

Arthur T. Dean, P’07

Frances von Stade Downing ’74

Alice Ayres Edmonds ’91

Elisabeth Griffith, Headmistress

Robert K. Harriman, P’07

Laura Walton Hirschfeld ’84

Terry Huffington ’72, P’07

Priscilla Payne Hurd ’38, Director Emerita

Jane Lawson-Bell ’76

Reed Montague ’82

Nancy Montgomery ’60

Misti Mukherjee ’84

Lori E. Parker ’82

Clark Ragsdale P’07

Mary Cosby Rinehart ’57

Nancy Rosebush P’98, ’00

Jennifer Evers Shakeshaft ’91

Betsy Licht Turner ’77

Thomas Vandeveer P’07

Linda Clark Waterman ’58

Daniel Wellington P’02

Perry Carpenter Wheelock ’69, P’98, ’01

President

Madeira Today is published for alumnae,

parents and friends of the School. Please

send any letters to the editor to feedback@

madeira.org

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Contents

ABOUT THE COVERS

Members of the Class of

2007 sign the Second

Century Book.

2 Headline

4 Class of 2007 Graduation

9 Class of 2007 Student Speaker

11 Elie Weisel, Nobel Peace Prize Winner

14 Madeira Events Spring 2007

15 Milestones

16 Homecoming 2007

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nergized by our Centennial celebrations, Madeira surged into its second century in the 2006-2007 school year. Based on both numerical measures and anecdotal evidence, Madeira is healthy and thriving. Yet as an under-endowed single sex boarding school we are always at risk.

While I have a sense Miss Madeira would eschew body counts and statistics as indicators of the success of her enterprise, I’m told her successor, Allegra Maynard, appreciated such realities. Our School depends on “mission appropriate” students, girls who are not necessarily straight A students, but who are curious, eager, disciplined and mature enough to join a diverse community of girls from two dozen states (including California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Wyoming) and another two dozen countries (Belgium, Bhutan, China, Colombia, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Thailand, and Turkey). A recent trend among boarding schools, even the largest, is a narrower geographic range, the result of an increase in the number of “helicopter parents,” who are reluctant to let their children go too far away, or away at all. This impulse contributes to the ongoing decline in boarding school enrollment nationally, in sharp contrast to the growth of independent day schools.

Almost every year, one-third of our population can be classified as “students of color,” a number which includes Latinas, Muslims, Asians, African-Americans, and almost anyone with a hyphenated ethnic background. We are one-sixth international students, which we define as girls with international passports or addresses. That group would include the daughters of American and foreign diplomats. In 2006-07, we had observant Muslim students, who fasted for Ramadan and wore the hijab. About fifty of our girls have a legacy tie, a mom, sister, aunt, or cousin who attended Madeira. This year we enrolled the representatives of the two largest alumnae families, the McGowins (15) and the Donnans (12). I tell the other girls they could be matriarchs of future Madeira clans.

The estimate of the number of girls who will be enrolled on the first day of school in September and the proportion between boarding and day girls are the figures on which we base the annual operating budget. In 2006-07 we opened with 302 girls and an uncomfortably narrow margin between boarding and day populations. Our goal is to be at least 55% boarders and 45% day girls, but we had become so popular as a day school that 77% of day applicants offered admission accepted our invitation, an unexpected surge that left an imbalance between the day and boarding school in the Class of 2010.

For 2007-08, the Board challenged us not only to increase the number of boarders but also the size of the school, so we could increase income (in order to fund deferred maintenance, the “aging boilers and roofs” line item). Our effort was fueled by the success

of our marketing initiative, captured in the slogan, “Madeira Girls Have Something To Say.” What we learned in an earlier branding exercise is that girls and their parents are drawn to Madeira not by the obvious excellence of the faculty or the appeal of the CoCurriculum or the allure of the friendship and leadership opportunities in an all girls’ setting, but by Madeira girls themselves. They want to grow up to be a “Madeira girl,” who has “something to say” because she is educated, articulate, confident and ethical. Combined with the creative outreach of our Admissions Office, we succeeded in enrolling a record number of capable girls. We expect to open school with 320 students and the largest ninth grade class we can remember, 95 girls.

Almost every bed will be full. The Dean of Students asks that we reserve a few for unexpected situations. (Girls are not allowed to switch roommates until after Thanksgiving and “marital counseling.”) We will be working closely with the advisors and teachers of new girls (including about 20 new sophomores, five juniors and one senior Thai Scholar, funded by her government) so

that girls adjust well to school. Another statistic Miss Madeira probably did not measure was attrition, the number of girls who could re-enroll but do not, for voluntary (decided to go to a coed high school) or involuntary (failed two courses) reasons. We are proud of how low our attrition rate has been in recent years, in single digits, about 10 girls a year.

That low number is largely due to the work of faculty advisors. Every girl has an advisor, who is assigned her first year and selected thereafter. Advisors are assigned to grade levels, so one is expected to become expert in the issues of that age group. I

advise seniors and have learned a lot about student government leadership roles, the college application process, student separation anxiety and transitions. In contrast, advisors of ninth graders have an understanding of four-year schedules, homesickness, and parental separation anxiety. We expect advisors to know not only how girls are doing academically, but also who their friends are, if they have a date for the prom, if their grandmother is ill or the dog has died. Perhaps because of attentive adults or just good luck this year, we also had a low number of discipline cases (mostly related to drinking) and very few serious mental health crises. There was one suicide threat and one suspected pregnancy/abortion but no cases of anorexia for the first time in years.

The turnover of faculty members was higher than that among girls, which is not a surprise in the age groups represented. Two senior teachers retired. Others left to care for aging parents in a more affordable housing market, to teach in an international school, to pursue new careers (writing children’s books, engineering and military intelligence) or to follow spouses to new careers. At the School’s initiative, we reorganized the Health Center, so that in future we will have three seasoned full-time twelve-month nurses on staff, rather than a variety of part-timers.

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two to Mt. Holyoke, one to Smith), likely a first since Vassar, Miss Madeira’s alma mater, went coed.

If you were to sit on a bench in front of Main, as I do on sunny days, you would see girls dashing to class (but not crossing the Oval) or chatting with chums or lingering after lunch. On the whole girls are happy and healthy here. They are surrounded by attentive adults, both faculty and staff, all of whom have a role in their education and development. It was appropriate that our Centennial celebrations concluded in October with the gala “Tribute to Teaching,” acknowledging the role of every adult in this community.

Our school year opens and closes with rituals: Opening and Closing Convocations, Affirmation and Commencement. Closing Convocation may be my favorite. At it girls thank their teachers and staff. Having nominated an adult for Master Teacher or the Peddle Award, girls then leap to their feet to applaud the adults who serve them so well. This year we named additional Master Teachers: Charlie Barbour in English, Lynetta Binger in biology, Andy Cai in math, and Catalina Keilhauer in world languages. Physics teacher and incoming science department chair Reyna Pratt was named the Deborah Loeb Brice ’63 Endowed Chair and English department chair Paula Skallerup Osborn ’70 was named the De Sole Family Endowed Chair. Two members of the Buildings and Grounds staff, Morty Tubridy and Zach Haney, were given the Peddle Community Service award and senior teachers leaving Madeira, Karen Chaffee (chemistry), Sara Cleveland (history, Chinese), Lee Goldman (math) and Liz Heimbach (Latin), were saluted. And so it goes: girls and grown ups come and learn and then graduate and move on to new adventures.

This year seniors left Madeira, guided by the wisdom and kindness of Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel. Since every sophomore reads Night and visits the Holocaust Museum, it was a moving and memorable moment for all. We think the audience in the Amphitheater topped 1500 people.

Madeira enters its second century pursuing Miss Madeira’s mission of educating girls for leadership and engagement in a global society. We are only hampered in this endeavor by anxiety over money. Miss Madeira, who borrowed money to open her School at DuPont Circle in 1906 and again in 1931, when she moved it to the country, would understand this worry. Madeira had no endowment until 1957, the year she retired, when alumnae raised $1 million to mark the occasion. When I arrived in 1988, it had grown to $14 million. As the result of capital campaign contributions and more sophisticated investment policies, today the endowment is at an all-time high of $55 million.

But in comparison with the schools with which we compete for applicants (Choate, Episcopal, Lawrenceville, St, Andrews in Delaware and Taft – all now coed) and with our sister schools, Miss Porter’s and Emma Willard (with whom we do not really compete since girls rarely put more than one girls’ school on their lists), Madeira’s endowment is the lowest. Endowment funds earn income that underwrites annual operating expenses. With less income from earnings on a smaller endowment, Madeira depends on ever-higher tuitions, annual fund contributions and auxiliary programs to balance the budget. We have raised tuition to uncomfortable levels yet are unable to provide as much financial aid as we would like. We have increased the student body. We have organized year round auxiliary programs from summer camps to winter space rental for salsa dancing, men’s basketball and dog training. Alumnae and parents contribute generously every year. Yet still we need to ask for more, for contributions to the Centennial Campaign to increase our endowment.

If you love Madeira, if you are grateful for your education, if you revered your teachers, if you cherish your Madeira friends, even if you are ambivalent about your Madeira experience but think the world needs more Madeira girls with something to say, please support your School and secure its second century. n

We have been fortunate to identify and recruit well-qualified new faculty, even another Chinese teacher. Given our salary scale and the cost of housing in Fairfax County, it was harder to find faculty than boarders. Our failure was in not signing any African-American teachers, so for the first time in years Madeira will be without any black teacher, although we have African-American professionals on the staff. This is a loss for the School and could become a detriment in marketing Madeira to applicant families and employees of all races. We have done better in every other category of diversity.

Diversity issues at Madeira are addressed every day, formally and informally. Most of those conversations are generated casually, but some result from the work of the Diversity Council, on which I serve, and the Student Diversity Board. We plan All School Meetings, pursue recruitment strategies, work with student support services, and provide or fund training for the community. Next year we will be undertaking an assessment of multiculturalism in the entire school community, using an instrument designed for schools by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). Expectations about embracing diversity, like those about ethical behavior, are embedded in all the teaching and learning we do.

Crafting a multicultural curriculum is an engaging challenge. For example, this year we had an All School Meeting about the African and Asian roots of mathematics. In English, The Odyssey, Canterbury Tales, The Tempest, Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Letter, The Great Gatsby, Walden and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are still required, as are Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, Haroun and the Sea Stories by Salman Rushdie, Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie, and Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.

Developing a multicultural curriculum is an internal undertaking, while our global initiative focuses more on reaching beyond the campus, both personally and technologically. We can not yet afford some of the tools for global links like video conferencing, to develop shared courses and classrooms, real distance learning. We have begun to explore sister schools on other continents with which to establish such joint academic and/or service projects. This summer groups are traveling to China and South Africa to build these relationships.

This year science students at Madeira and the Cloud Forest School in Costa Rica worked together to develop fuel for school busses from used cooking oil. Madeira was one of 50 schools selected by NAIS for this “20/20” project, inspired by the book High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them by J.F. Rischard. Connecting via email and using Internet resources contributed to the success of the project.

How girls learn -- how adolescents who read less and are more distracted by entertainment technology learn – is one of the challenges facing the faculty. We are increasingly concerned about the interruptions and temptations of technology in the classroom and will be imposing additional restrictions about non-academic usage next year. Madeira girls need to be self-disciplined hard workers to get their homework done, meet their activity requirements (six trimesters of sports and/or six of theater or Model UN or chamber ensemble or yearbook), and deal with the daily life of adolescents in America. Girls continue to read a variety of literature, speak the language they are studying, do independent research in science, and prepare for Advanced Placement exams. This year 106 girls took 242 Advanced Placement exams in 20 subjects.

As the product of a strong curriculum and seasoned teachers, Madeira girls are well prepared for college. As usual, the entire senior class of 75 will attend college, although for the first time several have deferred their acceptances for a “gap year.” Another interesting trend is what prompts girls to choose a college. In the autumn, it is boys and an urban setting. By spring it is cost. Many Madeira girls turn down private colleges to attend equally excellent but less expensive state schools. One surprise this year is that eight seniors have opted to attend women’s colleges (five to Wellesley,

Good morning everyone, I’m Julia Riesenberg, a day student from Arlington, Virginia, and the president of the class of 2007. Every girl at Madeira may recall a moment in the classroom in which a teacher has said something so novel, so intellectually provocative, that it consequentially transformed her entire way of thinking. Two years ago, my ancient history teacher, Mr. Campbell, told my class about Plato’s allegory of the cave. According to this philosophical theory, all people are like prisoners sitting in a cave, with their backs to the world and a flame that lies beyond the cave. The prisoners are chained and cannot

turn back and see the world—they can only view its shadows, created by the flame, which are cast on the cave’s wall. It is only when the prisoners’ chains break, when they reach a heightened mental state—a state of Enlightenment—that they are able to turn around and face reality.

My classmates and I listened wide-eyed as Mr. Campbell talked, and it’s clear we soaked up every word he said, for in most of the humanities classes I’ve been in since sophomore year, girls who took Ancient History have always made a reference to the allegory of the cave. Mr. Campbell was a creative and adept teacher, and the way in which he taught us Plato’s philosophy captured our imaginations and shaped our young minds.

Educationally transformative moments such as this are precious, but they are not rare or isolated at Madeira—teachers here make them happen regularly. I can’t refrain from expanding on Plato’s metaphor now when I say that new Madeira girls, before they’ve received their fabulous education, are like the shadows of their true selves, not yet gussied up to their full potential. It is only when their teachers have imparted on them these transformative moments that they become Enlightened.

I know I speak on behalf of all of my fellow classmates when I say that I owe most of what intelligence I’ve gained while enrolled at Madeira to these men and women in the first few rows.There’s no way I’d rather exit this amphitheatre, and end my high school career at Madeira, than by having my last words be spoken in their appreciation.

I’d particularly like to draw attention to two Madeira teachers, who will be graduating with us on this day. Ms. Chaffee, after 18 years in the Madeira science department, and Ms. Heimbach, who has been a Latin teacher at Madeira for 19 years, will both be retiring. These women leave Madeira with flocks of admiring science and Latin disciples, any of whom could cite the moment in which Ms. Chaffee or Ms. Heimbach matured and transformed her way of thinking. Olivia Mohler, the senior class vice president, and I would like to show the Madeira community’s appreciation to these two outstanding teachers by giving them the symbols of Madeira graduation, red roses. Ms. Chaffee and Ms. Heimbach, would you please stand, so you may be properly appreciated once more.

T h E M A D E I R A S c h O O l

CLASS OF 2007

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1. do Woo Kim and arshea Whittaker 2. dana Moore 3. Kalina Francis, Naila alam, and Caitlin alderfer

4. Elie Weisel, Perry Carpenter Wheelock ’69, Elisabeth Griffith, and Caroline osherow

5. Catherine Covington, Caitlyn Gart, Julia riesenberg, and Virginia Williams

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6. alexandra Nasif celebrates with her class 7. do Woo Kim 8. Cille Meberg 9. Ella robinson

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10. anne Patton 11. Breonna Ligon-Hollinger 12. Members of the class of 2007 13. Julia riesenberg and Pegah Kazemifar

14. Chelsea Guster

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clASS Of 2007 STuDEnT SpEAkERchosen by her class, Grace Taveras ’07

When I graduated from my grammar school, I gave a speech similar to this one. My original speech did not make the cut because it criticized the administration too harshly, not that that would ever happen at Madeira. Anyway, there I stood in all my mid-pubescent awkwardness advising my class in a clichéd poem-format speech to read books, embark on an adventure, fight for a cause, and the such. But I stand before you today with no advice. I bet you are all regretting electing me your graduation speaker right now. The problem is, I hope you girls already know how utterly amazing you all are and that you can be anything you want and if not, “You girls are utterly amazing and can be anything you want.” But in all seriousness, I cannot offer you advice because I am in your shoes: afraid, wondering where the time has gone, but undaunted. All I can do in this case is reflect with you.

We leave this place, this sanctuary, remembering the difficult tasks- conjugations, college applications, and the Canterbury Tales - but the little moments we will carry with us always. We will remember the places: the path between East and Schoolhouse I that gets carpeted with pink petals this time of year, sensing your own mortality while looking upon the eddies of the Potomac River, an infinity of trees lightly dusted with pure white snow, and the shortcut between the Library and the Science Building that BARELY shortens the path. We’ll carry the special knowledge that only sagacious seniors hold: knowing that the spoons in the single container are infinitely more comfortable than the ones by the soup; knowing that preseason can be useful for meeting the new girls and faculty and preparing for the season, but mostly it is a tool for trading your mattress for a new one in some unknowing underclassmen’s room; and that hiding from your house adult is sometimes just as effective as not breaking the rules in the first place; I recommend the bath tub, no one ever goes in there.

We will remember the mishaps: think cicadas and the grease-pit, along with creative writing projects during freshman study hall. We will remember the grief: this year our class faced the death of one who was once an indestructible senior in our eyes, Ellen Watson class of 2005. We also came together as a community to honor the losses and the lives of Lizzie’s father, Mr. Armstrong, and Mrs. Marks, mother of a member of the class of 2005. On the other hand, we will remember the successes: our sophomore year the class of 2007 completely swept the Sophomore Shakespeare Festival awards ceremony and won every possible honor, and all five heads of the school are members of the senior class! Also, we will remember the plays that went off without a hitch, making the winning point in a game, and this day, making it all the way here. Perhaps we will be remembered as a class dedicated to service: we ate dinner earlier than underclassman so as to avoid long lines, we hung out in a tiny villa to help keep the student center clean, and we even decided not to check in for breakfast in order to avoid congestion in the dining hall.

Besides that we have read to children, painted fences, helped preserve historical sites, and worked with the support staff. Most importantly, we will remember the people: the teachers who always let you talk them into having class outside and opened your eyes to the passions that will captivate you for the rest of your life, the coaches that pushed you until you believed in yourself as much as they always did, the adults that took you out to dinner at the drop of a hat when you were stressed, and the inexplicably loyal and genuine friends we’ve made, the girls sitting to your left and your right, the ones who pulled all-nighters with you (whether it was to study or to watch movies), who cried when you did because it made them so upset to see you melancholy, who laughed with you (and occasionally at you), who taught you, TVO’d shows you didn’t have time to watch, took the fall for you, called you everyday over break or stayed at your house over break. A huge fear of mine is that I will never find friends like the girls I’ve had the honor to meet here. Where else can you identify someone by the way they knock on your door?

Where else can you find a group of girls to run around with you half-naked in twenty-degree weather in hope of a snow day? Only at Madeira are girls organized enough to form a coalition plotting to sabotage the grounds men’s efforts to shovel up our hard-earned snow while simultaneously infiltrating the Dining Hall and stealing all the trays to sled on without

Mrs. Morris or Mrs. Pratt noticing, (Or plot to break the water main, now that we know about the intricacies of school plumbing meeting feminine hygiene products)? These are the friends that have helped you survive, have been your rock, and above all else, these are the girls that have loved you. They are your sisters. This is our legacy; this is the gift we are leaving Madeira and the gift Madeira has given to us.

Some of us are already thinking about how much we will miss those little triangles in the dining hall that gave great life advice, and had beautiful poetry such as “noodles look east, look west,” or the feeling of fullness when you see a handmade note with your name on it on the noteboard. Others of us aren’t going to miss Madeira until we get to college and start unpacking our tiaras, framed pictures of Founder’s Day, and Beach Party Hawaiian Leis. Maybe you won’t miss this place until you have to move your class ring to make space for an engagement ring or maybe because you will be giving it to your daughter her junior year at Madeira. Maybe today was your epiphany. Or, finally maybe you’re like me. I have two confessions to make. First, I AM NOT HAPPY TODAY, I’ve been missing this place and dreading leaving it since the middle of junior year. By the way, my name is Grace Carolina Taveras and I’m a 4-year senior from Jersey City, NJ. Only the Madeira girls and faculty know this, but that just made me such a rebel. Anyway, that’s me. Grace Taveras, a senior from Jersey City, this is pretty significant because, well, I have a second confession. When I first came to Madeira…I didn’t know the difference between a goose and a deer. I grew up in a city! I didn’t see Bambi until I was fifteen! Anyway, now I know the difference, and a lot of things about me have changed since then as well.

Every girl sitting behind me knows that there is no way I would have done this, stand in front of a group of strangers and talk about my feelings and tell a bunch of jokes, when I first came to Madeira. Another lapsus linguae common to my speech is calling Madeira “home,” but then I ask myself how much of a mistake is that? I grew up here. I live here. I’ve made my best friends here. I’ve learned here. I think all of us can say, Madeira has made us more comfortable with ourselves, and has better equipped us to express that pride. We came here as slouching thirteen year olds, most of us afraid of our own shadows (or at least I was), and we leave this home brilliant and capable young women, ready for a stake in the world.

I wanted to end this speech with some really striking quote. Instead, I will borrow a concept from history. Just as it is no coincidence that these girls will graduate from high school and college, respectively in 7-11 (note that I have mentioned the dining hall more than any other building on campus in this speech), I think that it is no coincidence that the adoring nickname we have given our alma mater, “Mad,” is also an acronym for Mutually Assured Destruction. So, while we are not fighting the Cold War, both we and our school lose something today, but we have also gained immeasurably from our time together. My one hope, besides that you all post on my wall every single day (sorry that’s a bit of modern language for you older generations) is that we all realize that Madeira is a lot like a pair of old shoes. I have had these sneakers for four years, through cross-country and track seasons, to Asia and back and they look like it. But even worn-out sneakers like these keep one running around the track, keep one warm in the turbulent winter, and they’ve got their rips and tears, worn out bottoms, even writing as a result of greyhound bus-induced boredom, and though you’ve bought new sneakers (surrendering to your friends’ begging), you still reach for the old dirty pair every single time. I only wish that my sneakers weren’t now intrinsically nasty because it would make for a stronger metaphor.

Nevertheless, like old cross-country sneakers, we will seek each other out and always find a way to be together, even through the most grueling of courses.

I apologize to those of you who did not understand the myriad inside jokes in my speech, but I think a few lyrics from a song explain why I could not, and would not avoid them, “From the inside looking out, you can’t explain it. From the outside looking in, you can’t understand it.” Madeira is an unbreakable bond we will all share for the rest of our lives.

Congratulations to the class of 2007, the REAL CENTENNIAL CLASS

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15. aneesa Baig 16. Sydney dittman 17. Catherine Covington 18. Karen Chaffee, Liz Heimbach, and Sara Cleveland, graduating

Madeira faculty 19. Caitlyn Gart 20. Jane Sanders

ElIE WEISEl nObEl pEAcE pRIzE WInnER

Dr. Griffith, Reverend Bridges, Deans, distinguished members of the faculty, guests, proud parents, worthy students, and friends, I must confess that for me this is a first. I have never attended a high school graduation. I have attended and participated in more than a hundred university commencements, but never have I seen such a symphony in white that I see here.

And the confession is, I have never actually taught high school. In fact, I have never graduated from high school. Because of certain circumstances that you apparently you know, I went straight to university. What did I miss? I wish I had been here – if not as a teacher, at least as a student.

I feel today only the way I felt a few months ago. I was invited in France by the first lady of France to come and give the keynote address to a unique gathering of only first ladies: Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Putin and Mrs. Mubarak, and the queen of Sweden, and I was supposed to be the man there to give the keynote address to all of these ladies who have more power than those who have power. Well, you will have power, and I hope I will be part of your memory at least, if not of your group.

Now, after the war, I came to France, and I was in many orphanages. And I became a choir conductor. And I loved it, this power to tell the choir what to do, what to sing. Then I had to make a choice – music, and going to a conservatory; or the Sorbonne and study philosophy. I oscillated. I wanted music because I loved music; all my life I loved music.

And furthermore, all the girls in my choir were so beautiful. My problem was that I was timid. And they never knew it. I fell in love with every one of them, consecutively. But I was really too shy to tell them, and God knows what I missed. And finally, I chose philosophy. I came to philosophy because of the questions, and left it because of the answers. I remained with questions.

So I know that you are a great class. I was told that all of you have actually been accepted by your first choice in the universities. And I feel humble; has anyone chosen mine? I teach at Boston University. And I have been almost for 40 years, I have been a teacher. I love teaching. I have a passion for learning and that passion has sustained me.

At times, people ask me, how do you survive? I don’t know how, really I don’t. I’ve never known anything. But the real question is how did you keep your sanity. And the only answer I have is my passion for learning. I didn’t stop, and I don’t. And if one of you at least comes to Boston, please come and see me.

Now, in the years that you have spent here, you have absorbed ideas and ideals. You have received a lot of information, data, of people and events. Some of these topics were of great interest to you; others were not, but you had to learn anyway. That is your chore; you have to learn.

I do hope that your relationship with your teachers – I understand they were good; but I am sure that they were good and that is important. There is something mysterious about the relationship between the teacher and the student. It is as mysterious as between a father and a daughter. There is something that is special. The teacher is there to give and you are there to receive. And in fact, the teacher, in giving, receives more than the student knows.

And Maimonides, the great philosopher of the Middle Ages, he said, not only does the student have to respect the teacher; the teacher must respect the student as well. And the only way is to teach this respect is by example – never to raise one’s voice, never to be angry, and simply to be like a palm, like an open hand, not like a fist. And that is, of course, what a teacher should be and I hope the teachers here were.

Now, I heard you speak about your friendships. Friendship has been a theme in most of my novels. I even went very far and I said friendship is more important than love. Somehow, love comes and goes. Not friendship; friendship is the one that remains.

And one year, I gave a course only on friendship in ancient and modern philosophy and literature. And in the middle of the course, I had second thoughts because students came to me saying, you raise the bar of friendship so high that I began doubting my friends. Maybe they are not my friends.

Remember, Alexander the Great was accompanied in all of his battles by Aristotle. Also remember that Genghis Khan had

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kept near him a Taoist scholar. Nietzsche, the great Nietzsche, great in his poetry as much as in his philosophy if not more so, what did he say? He praised laughter, but he opposed fanaticism, believing that madness is a result not of uncertainty, but of certainties. Nothing is worse than that. Fanaticism is the enemy of culture, the enemy of education, the enemy of whatever is a symbol of freedom and the other. How do you fight fanaticism unless by education?

I say that because all of my adult life I have fought intolerance. Have I fought for tolerance? Yes, but I didn’t like the word. Tolerance is condescending. Who am I to tolerate your views? Your views are as good, as worthy as mine. And therefore, I replaced the word with respect. I must respectness the otherness of the Other.

As a Jew, I tell you, I do not believe that the Jewish people or the Jewish religion are superior to any other, nor are they inferior. But that should be said about Catholics, about Protestants, about Buddhists, and about any other person who believes in anything. And therefore, I say, I respect the Other, meaning the Other is not an enemy; the Other is a companion, is an ally, a contemporary.

When I came to America in 1956, I went through the country. When I came for the first time to the South, I must tell you, for me it was a shock, when I discovered that racism was not only functioning; it was the law, the law of the land. And to this day, I don’t understand it. How was it possible that the Supreme Court – and I have a tremendous respect for the judiciary in America – how did they accept racism? For the only time in my life that I felt shame was in the South; I felt shame for being white, literally. And that’s how I became involved later in the Civil Rights Movement. I went to South Africa to fight apartheid. Later, I became friends with Mandela.

But how can one be so stupid? Racism is not only immoral; it is stupid; it is ugly. And so, you learn that.

And there must be many things that you are learning and favor always questions. Don’t be afraid later on at the university to question whatever seems certain. I know you study Greek philosophy; how can you study philosophy without them? I do so, too. You quoted Plato’s “The Cave.” I love Plato. Who doesn’t? The dialogues – we are all for dialogues. But I remember Plato somehow disliked poets. Furthermore, Plato condoned the death sentence issued at his teacher Socrates. He also condoned race inferiorities. I don’t like that. And nevertheless, he was a very great teacher, just like Socrates, but you might ask.

You read, I’m sure, Romeo and Juliet. Don’t let simplistic commentators fool you, especially those who make films on the subject. Romeo and Juliet is not a story of love; it’s a story of hate. And look what hate has done; it killed all sides. But in Shakespeare, that’s always the case. He doesn’t know what to do with his characters; he kills them off.

Now, what will you really remember from all of these years here? I heard Grace saying that what she will remember – I am sure you will remember the questions rather than the answers. The

first are important; they remain. As a child, often my mother asked me when I came back from school, have you had some good answers to give to the teacher? And I would say, no. But then she said, have you had some good questions that you raised in class? That is the important thing.

During the war, of course, I had questions. And after the war, I had questions. And they are all open; they remained open. How could people be so evil and others so courageous, so few? How can a civilization like we had in Europe, in Germany, betray its own ideals and become a vehicle of murder, of hatred, cruelty unprecedented in history? How is it possible? Where did education go wrong there?

And what about God? I heard your prayer. And of course, I love prayer. I’ve written about prayer. I love it. And I asked once the question, why does God need prayer? And then, I have an answer. God doesn’t; I do; we do. But what about God in all that? The tragedy of that period is the tragedy of the believer more than the tragedy of the non-believer. Since God is God, where was he? Who is the human being? Are we God’s victims, God’s prisoners, or God’s associates? Who are we? Or God’s disciples?

So the questions remain open. Nevertheless, I am not bothered by it, because there is a quest in question. And I love the word quest. If we are partners in the same quest, nothing can go wrong – the quest for truth, the quest for decency in society, the quest for humility when we think we know too much, the quest for beauty, and the quest, of course, for faith. But that quest accompanies us to the end of our life.

And what about the quest for hope? Of course, you are our hope. As a teacher, I say that. As a parent, I say that. I don’t think I would be a teacher, I don’t think I would be a writer had it not been for the absolute conviction I have that we have a story to tell. And that story, if told powerfully enough, humanly enough, will help you cling to the hope that only you give us rather than us give you.

Well, the world today is not a nice world. That’s an understatement. If anyone had told me in 1945 that I will have to fight the battles I am fighting now, I would not have believed it -- against racism, against anti-Semitism, against cynicism, and more wars. My God, I thought in 1945 that we had learned what God had wanted from his creation not to wage war. Cain and Abel were the warning that whoever kills, kills his brother.

Haven’t we learned? Civil wars all over again, brother against brother? I went to Sarajevo; I went to Bosnia. I was sent by the president to do all these lands there. I asked them, why do you do all that? For God’s sake, why are you doing all that? I’m still asking why. And I shall continue asking that all the time.

Now, what can you do? Of course, you know what to do. You know what to do simply by bringing the knowledge you have received from here, the information you have gathered, the passion that you have mobilized in yourselves. Share it. God alone is alone. A human being is not alone. A human being is human only when he or she lives among other human beings.

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Of course, I cannot forget that in those dark times that I have witnessed, in those fiery places, I discovered the frailty of the human condition, but I also discovered its possible grandeur.

I am sure that you will do well with what you have learned here. From now on that you go to college, to university, you will meet different teachers. What they all have in common would be that they want to give what we have received; we want to return what we have inherited. In every classroom, your teachers will expose to you what is noblest and also the scariest in the human being. It is up to us whether the paths we follow leads you to beauty or desolation, depression or exaltation. The choice is always in our hands. An ancient Chinese proverb teaches us that when the finger points to the moon, only the imbecile looks at the finger.

Well, where to look is essential, as essential as what to grasp. Learn to look at the Other. Remember the story that a beggar told another beggar. When you are in front of the window, you see others. When you are in front of the mirror, you see yourself. What is the difference? The mirror is actually a window except it has silver or gold cover. Don’t be fooled by gold or silver. Look in the mirror and you see that it is much more important to look at yourself than to see the window, what is beyond the window.

The following principle really has governed my life, as a teacher, as a man who has seen what nobody should ever see again. Of course, we get information. If I teach Shakespeare, I give you when he was born and what he wrote and the influences of and by. Information must lead to knowledge, and there is a difference between information and knowledge. Information you can get from the computer. I don’t know how to use a computer; I still write longhand. And once a professor of the Internet asked me, why don’t you? After all, it has all the answers. I said, yes; it doesn’t have the questions.

But knowledge is something which is more metaphysical, almost more eternal. But knowledge shouldn’t stop. Knowledge should lead to sensitivity, not to be indifferent. Be sensitive. A teacher must be sensitive to the student’s desires, needs, fears, triumphs. And the student must be sensitive to the teacher’s mood, but also to his or her friends in class. There is always someone who needs your sensitivity. For that person, break the ice that apathy could produce.

But sensitivity is not enough. It should lead to commitment. Be involved. Do something with your knowledge. Do something with your sensitivity. Espouse any cause, any cause; but espouse it. It will lead you to others. You start with one, and there will be another one. There are so many people; the world will need you. And you will feel good, because they need you.

And Grace gave you a little advice; I’ll give you my own. This is what I advise actually every student in class everywhere. Whatever you do, think higher and feel deeper. I congratulate you. Thank you. n

Senior Gallop!

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Madeira evenTs spring 2007

Vero Beach, Florida: Virginia de Ganahl Russell ’49 and Charlie Kimmel hosted a private tour of the Vero Beach Museum of Art and the Wahlstrom Sculpture Garden for Madeira alumnae, parents and grandparents the evening of Tuesday, March 20, 2007. Guests in attendance included: Carolyn Coursen P’69, John Flagg, Mary Chester Moore Flagg ’47, Beth Lanahan P’01, Kendra Lanahan ’01, Charles Coyle, Julia Bruce Coyle ’43, Marvin Messex, Jean Palmer Messex ’52 (front row), Lorne Waxlax, Heidi Waxlax, Headmistress Betsy Griffith, Virginia de Ganahl Russell ’49, Charles Kimmel, Emily Brown, Jim Goddard, Judith Hoyt Goddard ’44, Fred and Helen Herlitz GP’07, and Nancy Rosebush P’98, ’00 (back row)

Boca Grande, Florida: Betsy Richmond Phelps ’52 hosted a luncheon for alumnae on the afternoon of March 22, 2007 at the Beach Club at Gasperilla Inn. Those in attendance included: Betsy Richmond Phelps ’52, Louise Holland Peterson ’75, Major Gifts Officer, and Marree Shore Townsend ’73 (seated), Sally Taylor Swift ’48, Headmistress Betsy Griffith, and Isabel Hitz Goff ’64 (standing)

Rochester, New York: Marcia van der Voort Hargrave ’52 and Sarah Strong Clapp ’46 hosted the Madeira community on Thursday, May 3, 2007 for lunch with Betsy Griffith at the Chatterbox Club. Alumnae guests included: Martha Wooster Weissberger ’42, Sarah Strong Clapp ’46, Suzy Moorhead Spencer ’58, Anne Fitch Foulkes ’52 (front row), Anne McKelvey Hargrave ’44, Nancy Strong Mangan ’42, Marcia van der Voort Hargrave ’52, Anne Davis Harrison ’66, Marcia Buss P’99, ’05, and Georgia Cox Nelson ’58 (back row)

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MilesTones Births & Adoptions1986 Lindsay Culzean to Cameron Proffitt-Taylor

and Gordon Taylor, April 6, 2007

1989 Shane Andrew to Courtney Murray Coghlan and Jack

Coghlan, April 15, 2007

Marriages1990 Christina Rodriquez to Yoshino Suzuki,

April 1, 2007

1997 Adele Cowart to Blake Nelson, June 9, 2007

Deaths1932 Virginia Burt Shick, Rochester, MN,

April 15, 2007

1935 Mary Van Dyne Skinner, Troy, PA, June 15, 2007

1939 Patricia Hurley, Albuquerque, NM, May 14, 2007

1941 Barbara Foss Markle, Wayzata, MN, March 24, 2007

1942 Harriet Harvey, Round Pond, ME, March 7, 2007

1944 Katherine Stearns Buckman, Sewickley, PA,

June 2, 2007

1956 Annmarie Hauck Walsh, New York, NY,

January 11, 2007

1965 Rebecca Rawson, New York, NY, April 2, 2007

Jack Valenti, father of Courtney Valenti ’81,

April 19, 2007

William E. Moore II, father of Janet Moore Coll ’74, Kate Moore Jeton ’77, Susan Moore Morgenthau ’78 and former member of the Board of Directors, June 1, 2007

On Campus, The Madeira School Board of Directors and Headmistress Elisabeth Griffith, Ph.D. hosted the Annual Fund Gift Club Donors, Alumnae Association Leadership Council, Campaign Steering Committee, Centennial Campaign Leadership Donors, Former Board of Directors, and Parents Association Leadership Council on Friday, May 18, 2007 in recognition of their generosity and support of Madeira. The evening included highlights from Madeira’s 2006 - 2007 Fine Arts Program. The current Madeira students are pictured singing the evening’s finale, Madeira’s version of Everything’s Coming Up Roses

Boston, Massachusetts: Caroline Parker Hoppin ’55, Katharine Beal Davis ’64 and Caroline Ray Hovey ’67 hosted a lunch on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 at The Harvard Faculty Club. The hostesses are pictured in the gardens of the Faculty Club with Headmistress Betsy Griffith

Madeira evenTs spring 2007

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HOMECOMING 2007a p r i l 2 6 - 2 9 , 2 0 0 7The celebration of Madeira’s reunion classes was the focal point of Homecoming 2007. While the weekend included alumnae from the classes of 1940 to 2006, the weekend highlighted alumnae from the classes of 1942, 1947, 1952, 1957, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, and 2002.

This celebratory weekend included a time to honor Helen Thom Edwards ’53, recipient of Madeira’s Alumnae Recognition Award, visit classes, hear from current Madeira girls about the Global and Co-Curriculum programs, enjoy a master class on Virginia Woolf by Paula Skallerup Osborn ’70, P’98, and current Chair of the English Department, learn from Elaine Reeves Padovani ’57, Deborah Bell ’67, Brooke Myers ’77, and moderator Misti Mukherjee ’84 during Saturday’s Alumnae Lives and Legacies Panel, and find out

first-hand from Headmistress Betsy Griffith and Perry Carpenter Wheelock ’69, P’98, ’01, Board Chair, about the current State of the School, which is both growing and thriving.

As you already know, coming back to Madeira reunions is much more than just the weekend program. It is seeing friends and classmates and reliving Madeira memories and stories. Since family obligations, work, and timing sometimes make it difficult for alumnae to make it to Greenway, we wanted to share with you some the favorite moments of the weekend. To enjoy more photos and memories, please visit http://www.madeira.org/alumnae_relations/homecomingshow.aspx for a slideshow created by Kelly Brown, Assistant Director of Alumnae Relations.

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1. dede Faulkner Graves ’75 with her aunt, Celia Faulkner Crawford ’54 2. B.J. Murchison Coffman ’74 with her daughter, Mary ’07 3. allie and Cille Meberg ’07, daughters of Kirsten rothe ’82 4. Liz Baird Soyster ’67, Margo Heun Bradford ’64, Wendy Berol Gifford ’66, anne Huyler Baker ’67, and addie Marshall donnan ’42 5. Melanie Stevens ’02, Jamie rotimi ’02, and Caitlin Elmore ’02 6. Current Madeira Girls have the opportunity to talk to Brandon Holley ’85 about her time at Madeira and her work in publications including JANE, Rolling Stone, GQ and Vibe. 7. Cindy Krech, Susan Mcdonald albright ’57and Wanda Brownlee ’72 8. Members of the class of 1957 celebrating their 50th reunion. Kate Carpenter Henry, Mary Cosby rinehart, dodie Jemison day, Mary davis Cooke, Gayle May Foster, Nancy Van Zandt Bolton, Jeanette Phelps Evens, Catherine McElvain Harvey, Peggy Spofford Benkard, (Standing) Mary Winters Schlendorf, Willia Fales Eckerberg, Elaine Padoviani reeves, Kit Bingham Stroh, Mary Blair Vison Koehl, Sally Hand Herren, roman Fullerton Hynson, Mary Coffman Luzzatto, amy Ellis Tucker, anne reaves dunlap, Susan Mcdonald albright, Eda darneille doyle Scoggins, Priya Kathpal 9. B.J. Murchison Coffman ’74 and Terry Huffington ’72 10. Barbara Parrot Katz ’77, Lesley rosse Foster ’77, Polly Holyoke ’77, Susan Wrampelmeier atkinson ’77, Sarah Holmes ’77 11. Mary Cosby rinehart ’57, Willia Fales Eckerberg ’57, and Jeanette Phelps Evans ’57 12. Katherine Elliott McHugh ’87, Karen Jacobs Sulek ’87, and Janet Carter ’87 13. Janet Kurland ’97, Caroline Toumey ’97, and anya Turcheck ’97

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SATURDAY

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14. afternoon activities included an opportunity for alumnae to participate in innerQuest and Zip Wire. 15. alumnae join Black Student Union members in the Fiction room of Huffington Library for a special time of tea and discussion. 16. Classmates Barbara Parrot Katz’77, Brooke Myers ’77, Betsy Licht Turner ’77, Sarah Holmes ’77, and Magdalena Cobo de ortiz ’77 before making their way to the Zip Wire 17. Panel participants: Elaine reeves Padovani ’57, moderator Misti Mukherjee ’84, Brooke Myers ’77 and deborah Bell ’6718. dodie Jemison day ’57 and Kay McElvain Harvey ’57 enjoy hearing from panelists as they share Life’s Lessons. 19. Nancy Van Zandt Bolton ’57 reads over the biographies of alumnae panelists during alumnae Lives and Legacies

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SATURDAY NIGHT

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20. alumnae and guests at america restaurant in Union Station 21. Mary Winters Schlendorf ’57 and Susan Mcdonald albright ’5722. anne Fitch Foulkes ’52, Tom Foulkes, John Hartshorne, Mary Cumner Hartshorne ’47, and ashley Prescott ’02 23. Eda darneille doyle ’57, Margaret Spofford Benkard ’57 and Caswell Cooke, husband of Mary davis Cooke ’57 24 Katie Mims ’02, Cri-Cri richards ’02, Stephanie Schwartz ’02, Tara Morley ’02, and Natalie romanoff ’02 25. Janet Carter ’87, Kate Venters duncan ’87, Nancy Cooper Coles ’87, and Molly Mullady arbogast ’87

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TRAvEl OppORTunITIESNashville Madeira’s first opportunity for alumnae travel this spring was a great success. A weekend created based on the suggestion of Nashville native, Ashley Caldwell Levi ’87, Madeira guests enjoyed a weekend of true Southern hospitality. Over forty alumnae, parents, grandparents, aunts and friends of Madeira, participated in events designed by a Nashville Committee that elegantly combined the grace of Nashville with the style of Madeira.

A special thanks to the following ladies for their dedication and support in planning and organizing the Nashville Gathering Weekend. We are grateful for their advice and expertise in creating such a successful weekend.

Jean Ann Stewart Banker ’73 / Judith La Gorce Bright ’82 / Catherine Stewart Brown ’82 / Emily Nolan Evans ’80 / Ashley Caldwell Levi ’87 / Elizabeth McGowin ’72 / Julia Reed ’78

ashevilleNovember 2-4, 2007

While Nashville was the first of Madeira’s destination Weekends, it certainly won’t be the last. Plans are already underway to spend a fall weekend at the Biltmore Estate in asheville, North Carolina. The weekend will include two nights at the inn on Biltmore Estate, a private, candlelit tour of the Biltmore - which will be decorated for the holidays, a special dinner in the Biltmore winery’s Champagne Cellar, tours of the gardens and vineyards and time to enjoy area asheville attractions – including the spa, art galleries, golf courses, and shops.

Throughout the asheville weekend participants will explore the history of the Biltmore and the Vanderbilt family with dr. William H. Becker, author and professor of history at The George Washington University and Elisabeth Griffith, Headmistress and historian. Topics will highlight

the era during which the Biltmore was being built and Madeira’s connection with the Biltmore and the Vanderbilt family through the legacy of Cornelia Vanderbilt Cecil a 1919 graduate of Madeira and

daughter of George Vanderbilt.

Space is limited. To reserve your spot today, call Laura Van Slyke, director of Special Events at 703.556.8340 or visit the Travel opportunity page located at http://www.madeira.org/alumnae%5Frelations/

Notes and Corrections:Thank you to everyone who has donated a graduation dress, prom dress or Madeira class ring to My Sisters Closet, Madeira’s hand-me-down program. Many girls take advantage of this terrific program thoughout the year, so please consider donating your dresses. Contact the Dean of Students office if you have any questions or would like to make a donation.

Alex Cooley ’99 is working in New York on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report not her sister Susie Cooley ’02, as reported in the Spring Issue. For the full note from Alex please log-in to the class notes in the Alumnae Community.

Girls First! campers who are daughters of alumnae. Sarah Glenn Grise’s ’75 daughter, Kate Griese, Vivi Carlson, daughter of Joy Johnson ’77 and Alex Frumkin, daughter of

Deb Mayer ’75.

1958 Class Secretary Leslie Meek Wileman reported in the Spring Issue about Madeira’s riding program and the trophy in memory of Ann Swift Cronin. The photo was omitted from the magazine but appears to the right.

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save THe daTeHomecoming 2008 / April 24-27, 2008

All alumnae are invited to join the celebration of the 2008 reunion classes:1943, 1948, 1953, 1958, 1963, 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, and 2003

Visit http://www.madeira.org/alumnae_relations/homecoming.aspx periodically for updates and details. Registration brochures will be mailed at the end of the year.

American University

University of Arkansas

Boston University

Carleton College

Carnegie Mellon University

Catholic University of America

University of Colorado/Boulder

Cornell University

Dartmouth College

Drexel University

Earlham College

Emory University

Furman University

The George Washington University

High Point University

Hobart & William Smith Colleges

College of the Holy Cross

Lake Forest College

Lynchburg College

University of Mary Washington

Meredith College

Middlebury College

Mount Holyoke College

New York University

UNC/Chapel Hill

Northwestern University

University of Notre Dame

University of Pennsylvania

Pepperdine University

University of Pittsburgh

Randolph-Macon College

University of Richmond

Roanoke College

Rollins College

Sewanee: University of the South

Smith College

University of Southern California

Temple University

Texas Christian University

Trinity College (CT)

Utah State University

Virginia Polytechnic Institute

University of Virginia

Washington and Lee University

Washington University

Wellesley College

Wesleyan University

Whitman College

College of William and Mary

The class of 2007 is finishing in style and heading off to the following colleges and universitites next year...

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