Contact: Jenni Brockman
Telephone: 804-443-3357
Fax: 804-443-6781
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SMS, Girls' Schools are Incubators of Innovation
Tappahannock (April 15, 2002) - In the space of just a few generations, girls' schools have gone from being the sole educational option for most young women, to a seeming anachronism, and now to living laboratories where innovative educational concepts are put to the test.
Photo left: Girls' schools like St. Margaret's help young women develop leadership skills. These students in the "Introduction to Leadership Class" built self-confidence and teamwork by tackling a high ropes course.
That's true right here in the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula, where since 1921, St. Margaret's School has been providing young women with preparation for both college and life. The school's history is part of a timeline of girls' education posted on the National Coalition of Girls' Schools website www.ncgs.org.
"St. Margaret's was established when public high schools were rare in rural Virginia," said Head of School Margaret R. Broad. "We met a definite need in the community then, and we do today, only in a different way--by offering not only an education, but also a place where new ways of teaching and learning can be explored."
At St. Margaret's, for example, small class sizes allow teachers to tailor instruction to the different ways in which students learn, whether it's by listening, seeing or doing. Hands-on experiences in the Rappahannock River and Chesapeake Bay make chemistry and biology more approachable for girls, who often begin to turn away from math and science as teenagers. Leadership courses and the school's leadership program focus on collaboration and communication, two strengths of the way in which most women lead.
"The lessons that girls' schools have learned can guide not only girls' schools in moving forward, but also educators, parents, and policy makers in all educational settings," said Whitney Ransome and Meg Milne Moulton, co-executive directors of the National Coalition of Girls' Schools. Ransome and Moulton recently co-authored an article in the Fordham Urban Law Journal that examines the historical role of girls' schools and the remarkable resurgence of girl-centered education over the past decade. The full text of the article is available online at the Coalition's web site.
They write that interest in and support of girls' schools like St. Margaret's are increasing. The school has been at full enrollment for more than five years, and last year had to create a waiting list for day students. Graduates also report satisfaction with their educational experience. According to a recent Coalition survey of girls' school alumnae that included SMS participants, 88% would choose again to attend a girls' school.
