Honorary Reflections – Nancy Kussrow (for Connie Pratt)

Several years ago a decision was made that it would be very nice for the membership to hear from some of the long-term members of NAPSG with some reflections on their experience and their perspective on NAPSG over the years. And we are going to hear now Constance Ballou Pratt's reflections. She reminded Bruce that she could not be here, but she's enjoying her 88th year, and as she said, she and NAPSG are the same age. So she's not going to be with us, but her reflections are going to be read by Nancy Kussrow, who is one of the honorary members of NAPSG. Thank you.

MS. KUSSROW: A number of years ago, when I was just a regular member of this organization, I was riding in a shuttle with Connie Pratt -- we were going to or from an airport for this meeting -- and I said, "Connie, the job that you have is just wonderful. Will you let me know when you're ready to retire? Because I would like to apply for it."

Well, sure enough, in 1981, she let me know that she was retiring, and I took over as executive director after that and served in that position for 15 years. It was wonderful, and I have been coming to these meetings since 1966. I think I have missed just one, but have thoroughly enjoyed them.

Well, let me read you Connie's reflections.

"I am honored to have been invited to share some reminiscences about the National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls. The NAPSG and I have a God-given affinity. Both of us were born in 1920. That leads me directly, of course, into a reminiscent mode. I have been a member of NAPSG for 60 years. I have seen its development from a number of vantage points. For the first ten years of my membership, I was dean of admissions, first at Bradford Junior College, then at Radcliffe College. For the next 22 years, I served as the first executive director, working closely with 11 presidents over two-year periods. For the past 28 years, I have been an honorary member. During these last two decades, my work as an educational consultant has brought me the pleasure of meeting with literally hundreds of young people and their families as they select schools and colleges. This profession has kept me aware of changes in this organization and in the educational world in general.

"Here are some of my earliest recollections of NAPSG. The Founding Mothers, to borrow Cokie Roberts' book title, first met in 1920 to form an organization addressing the concerns of secondary schools for girls. Their use at the time of the term 'national' was more a brave assumption than a description. The founders were all from the East Coast. Now, in 2009, with over 600 members, its founders' hopes have been clearly fulfilled and all this growth has not destroyed the close relationships which characterized its beginnings. I was still in my 20s when I joined, so it was my good fortune to know some of the founders. Here are a few vignettes.

≥Marian Coats Graves, one of the founders, was also the president of NAPSG for its first four years. She and I had adjacent offices at Bradford. How I wish that I had asked her about those early years. But of course, I had no idea then that I would be having her views now in 2009.

≥Another of the Founding Mothers was L. Gertrude Angell of Buffalo Seminary, always referred to as L. Gertrude. No one knew what the 'L' stood for, but she made it plain what she stood for. I happened to visit her school on a bitterly cold January day immediately after the Christmas holidays. The heat had not yet been turned on in the large auditorium where we met. After Miss Angell had introduced me and another shivering guest, we all rose to sing a hymn. The collective breath of the half-frozen student body rose in a visible cloud to the ceiling of the auditorium. Yet, undeterred by everyone's discomfort, Ms. Angell motioned to the students to rise, and chant with her phrase by phrase, 'This above all, to thine own self be true,' a maxim she exemplified to the hilt.

"When I joined the NAPSG in 1949, many of its original members were still regular attendees. We of a then-younger generation viewed them with respect, awe, and often amusement. Lucy Madeira Wing was a revered presence. None of us knew that ten years after she graduated from Vassar, she was the head of both the Potomac School and Madeira, which she founded in 1906. Nor did we have any reason to know that this woman whom we knew as an octogenarian had once performed as 'Two-Gun Dick' in a wild west show at Madeira.

"Another memorable NAPSG stalwart was Charlotte Noland, always known as Miss Charlotte, who founded Foxcroft in 1914. By the time I joined NAPSG, she was already a legend in her own time, to use a cliche. Every year at the annual meeting she gave a cocktail party for a favored group. Nobody ever would presume to turn down an invitation from Miss Charlotte. She greeted her guests standing with one foot on the floor and the other foot on a chair seat, as if she were about to climb into a saddle, which of course, she regularly did at Foxcroft.

≥My recollections of the early meetings of NAPSG included a dining room filled with distinguished ladies dressed in full-length evening attire with sturdy oxfords peeping out from the bottom folds of their skirts. Many with white hair had tinted it in a particular shade of blue. All were serious in their dedication to their schools, but many had warmth and humor, as well. An expression they customarily used was 'our girls," which carried the implication of a very special category, an

expectation of poise, good manners, serious goals, and gloves and hats.

≥Some of us young admissions officers were amused by a custom at these early meetings. I made fun of it then; I look back fondly on it now. Someone read the full roster of members at the opening meeting. As each name was read, the person named stood up, repeated her name, and the name of her school or college. Her posture, tone, and identification were so distinctive that I can still hear some of the voices in my head. 'Beatrice Constant Marvin, Columbus School for Girls' was unforgettable. Only she could give the word 'girls' two distinct syllables.

≥On a more important level, the NAPSG has always been memorable for its concerns for the best in education. Programs included then, as they still do, small group discussion sessions and outstanding speakers. Eleanor Roosevelt was a speaker in 1935. Her subject: 'The Participation of Women in Community Life.' As one-time head of the Todd Hunter School in New York City before it merged with Dalton, Mrs. Roosevelt later became an honorary member of NAPSG.

"Turning now from the past to the present, how can anyone adequately list the benefits of membership? Small discussion groups and outstanding speakers are still hallmarks. These are among the very reasons for your having chosen to join. In contrast to other important national education organizations like NACAC, the relatively small size of NAPSG enables every member to be heard. The interaction of members in any small group generates trust, and from that trust, the rare quality of candor. From my own experience as a college member of the association, I vividly recall speakers and events in years past which made a difference in my professional world.

"These generalizations about the virtues of NAPSG membership are inadequate but true. No doubt you know more specifics about the current organization than I do, so I'll move on to my own brief conjecture about the future. As I make it, I am borrowing President Obama's title, The Audacity of Hope. Here is my audacious suggestion. Thinking back over 60 years of my own membership in NAPSG, I note that the number of college members rose consistently into the 1980s, and has declined steadily in the past 20 years. No doubt there are many reasons for that decrease. To begin with, neither the name nor its acronym carries any implication that college members are important and included. It is already clear that the Obama era will be stressing the importance of college education for ever-increasing numbers of high school graduates. Newspapers and journals regularly address the complexities of the transition from school to college. Together with the Chronicle of Higher Education, university publications on the Stanford University campus, where I have lived for the past 40 years, abound with such articles. The ramifications, emotionally, financially, and intellectually, are mind-boggling. Perhaps the time has come for NAPSG to enlarge and diversify its college component. If that is so, there might need to be some active recruiting and perhaps even a rewording of the name of the organization. Benefits to both school and college members seem obvious, at least to me. If these issues point to such a development awaiting the NAPSG in the future, I feel sure that you and your successors will rise to the occasion just as your predecessors did almost a century ago.

"I appreciate having had this opportunity to remind you about the past direction of NAPSG. Future paths are yours to determine. Thank you."

Thank you, Connie.