NMH Magazine : Spring 2005

Leading Lines

One of the great legacies of the Northfield School is its renown for the highest academic standards. At this poignant moment in our school’s history, as we physically move off the Northfield campus, we remain committed to the inspiring academic principles that helped transform the lives of thousands of young women.

How can you measure the beneficial effects of a school's academic program? Beyond the quantitative results of AP exams and SATs are deeper measures: how fully teachers have inspired their students, how much students have grown in their sense of purpose and worth, how much the community has expanded students’ understanding of the world and their desire to contribute to it.

During the NMH Board of Trustees meetings in May, a number of trustees visited classes to take their measure of our academic experience. Their collective impressions were of delight, passion, and elevated thought.

Bill Shea ’72 attended Phil Calabria’s photography class and was struck by the students’ direct and challenging critiques. In offering and responding to feedback, our students were clearly living what Socrates calls “an examined life.”

Benita Pierce ’56 and Barbara Freedman ’64 attended the elective course Women’s Voices. Both were breath-taken by the students’ confidence, the high level of discussion, and the articulate leadership of this class, co-taught by religious studies teacher Ginny Brooks (who just retired after 36 years at the school) and Dean of Faculty Lorrie Byrom.

Jamie Bennett ’65, who confessed that he’d slept through chemistry as a student, couldn’t believe that every student in John Rees’s chemistry class was fully engaged and contributing to the lesson with energy.

Attorney John Howley ’75 has sat through countless PowerPoint presentations in his career. When he attended an economics class, he was treated to a series of student presentations. Although impressed by students’ facility with PowerPoint, he was most engaged by those who spoke without relying on that software. Those presentations, he found, were rich with subtleties—a reminder of the power of speech, which students here are learning every day, across all subjects.

NMH sets the gold standard in terms of interdisciplinary courses, particularly in humanities. Over the last few years, peer schools have asked us to share our wisdom as they look to follow our lead in this field of study. We developed our humanities program eight years ago because educating the head, heart, and hand requires students to pursue essential questions that transcend a particular discipline.

Our school’s focus on meaningful learning is the foundation of our future. At our Cum Laude Society induction ceremony in May, I asked all present to take a moment of silence to acknowledge everyone who had played a role in their academic success: peers, teachers, advisors, staff members, and so many others who wanted nothing more than students’ fullest growth and the deepening of their wisdom. After this thankful silence, I challenged the newly inducted members of this society to take to heart the last lines of “Northfield Beautiful”:

We wait with hearts courageous,
      on the threshold of life’s door,
Rememb’ring thou has taught us
      that the purpose of our strife
Is not to make a living, but nobly make a life.

In the spirit of making a life, our students continue to ask the difficult questions, seeking an understanding that ultimately binds them to others and to serving the greater good.