You are a product of public education and you are from the Midwest. What attracted you to becoming a part of an independent school that is in the Northeast?

Norris: I have to go the late 1970s when I received a Master’s in music. I wanted to be a classroom teacher but there weren’t enough jobs. A neighbor said that there was a girls’ school nearby. I knew nothing about independent schools or the industry and I have been in girls’ schools ever since. After my first girls’ school experience, I suppose I could have worked in any independent school, but I embraced the philosophy of girls’ schools, and I am committed to addressing gender inequity.

I have been on the East Coast since 1968. Are there differences between the Midwest and the East Coast? Absolutely - by in large, the Midwest has a public school ethos, so single-sex options are not as available for families.

Much has been written on what an all-girls school can offer to girls: a more nurturing environment than a coeducational setting to help foster growth in independence and confidence. Would you recommend an all-girls school to specific types of people?

Norris: I would recommend an all-girls school to all girls. At some point, a girl needs to be in an all-girl setting – whether in a school, college, girl scouts, or girls camp - because it is tremendously important for girls to think about themselves as attached to their authentic selves.

Our culture sends powerful messages about how a girl needs to fit the ideal. These messages are about how a girl needs to change her weight, or her hair, or how to think or who she is. A girl early on begins to get a sense that others are directing her actions and her thoughts. A girl trades confidence in her own ideas for social acceptance and compromises her truly authentic self for the reward of fitting in.

The worrisome tradeoff for a girl is that the locus of control moves outside of her. In our larger social environment, a girl would think “what should I be saying?” or “what should I be thinking?” In girls’ schools, we provide the counter-culture message. We are interested in who the girl is and how she thinks as an individual. We affirm the uniqueness of girls.

Are there particular kinds of girls who likely would be better served by coeducational environments?

Norris: No, I believe so strongly that any girl benefits from having an experience where she can be back in touch with her authentic self. Are there coed settings where they are tuned in to issues of gender stereotypes? There may be and, if so, then fine. But culturally-dictated stereotypes for both girls and boys are so loudly broadcast, so pervasive, in our culture that it takes an extraordinarily sophisticated setting to help kids resist these tendencies.

What do you see to be the main differences in approach when educating girls in an all-girls environment versus a coeducational environment?

Norris: When boys and girls are separated during the teen years, you eliminate that sexually-charged undercurrent during the academic day. You take the spotlight off the external in a girls’ school. In girls’ schools, girls are not spending an hour getting ready to go to class and this is symbolic of the emphasis placed on appreciating and developing girls’ ideas, decision-making skills, and problem-solving skills. We always are communicating to a girl that she is competent, more than capable of taking charge of her life, and able to exert influence for good in the world.

At Miss Hall’s we take the part of our mission that is about educating girls to be leaders in our society seriously. What are the requirements of leadership? You need to have confidence in your ability to speak and act on what you know to be true, right, and just. You need to possess a strong personal value system and be able to do the right thing when nobody is watching. You need to be broadly educated and able to engage in complex issues that face our society. We emphasize these requirements in everything we do. College admission directors, teachers of freshmen, say they always know who has gone to an all-girls school. She has a different air that is marked by confidence. She is used to be taken seriously, and takes herself seriously.

Of course it is essential to provide a challenging academic program. But we must also convey that the world needs what girls have to offer. For example, all-girls schools are making science and math a priority as these subjects have long been non-traditional areas for girls. We want our students to envision themselves in these careers. Norman Augustine, the retired CEO of Lockheed, has said that we cannot compete as a country if women do not rise in fields of math and sciences.

How are the differences in educating girls in an all-girls school vis-à-vis a coeducational environment manifested in your courses?

Norris: In girls’ schools, we make sure that a girl can find herself in the curriculum. When I was studying years ago, I remember hearing only about Madame Curie, Betsy Ross, and Joan of Arc. I didn’t even know that I was missing half the population. When we studied World War II, it never occurred to me that women played any role. But in a girls’ school, a student will find herself and her gender in all aspects of the program.

We have 20 years of research informing us about gender differences and adolescent girls’ development. We now know that there are differences in cognitive functioning based on gender. Girls and women tend to have less direct cognitive routes than boys and men. In a coed classroom, if a teacher is not aware of those differences, the discussion can bypass girls because boys will tend to answer immediately. Girls will tend to sit back and not be a part of the discussion. This tendency may direct girls to become passive learners. The subtle message to girls in that dynamic is that girls have nothing to share and that their opinions are not needed. We cannot have women who will lead this society believing that others don’t need their opinions. We encourage students to be self-authorized. We believe that they must contribute to the conversation.

We are in the fourth year of our Girls’ Leadership Project. This is about girls designing and undertaking their own research around issues that prevent girls from reaching their full potential. We know so much about the causes that make girls hesitate at the door of leadership – conflicts between loyalty to self and loyalty to others and personal feelings versus the greater good, deferring to others instead of relying on one’s own judgment; standing up for one’s own views against disagreement; dealing with authority. The Leadership Project puts girls in charge of research to discover those issues on their own and to design programs - curricular, extra-curricular, etc. - to address them.

How does a school like Miss Hall’s draw out the creativity and intellectual prowess of an individual who is hesitant about demonstrating these assets?

Norris: You encourage girls to speak up and you take every opportunity to validate that voice and confirm the uniqueness of that contribution. In mathematics, for example, a student will arrive at a solution in a unique way. The teacher will say, “What an interesting point, I never thought of that before,” or, “I never have seen the problem approached that way.” In my generation, a lot of women never heard that affirmation until they were in their 40s.

I talked with a 75 year old alumna recently and I asked her when the first time was that someone responded to what she said with, “What a good idea.” She replied, “Jeannie, I don’t think anyone ever did.” What do you think about yourself if you don’t have that validation? The important thing is that the validation is happening to teenaged girls at a time when they are figuring out who they are and are beginning to individuate and establish their identity. I think the impact of an all-girl environment that confirms the brilliance in each girl is significant for these teens because of all the development that is taking place.

I am assuming that there are people who are not hesitant about demonstrating their capabilities as well. How do you suppose these students might develop differently in a coeducational environment?

Norris: I am always a little suspicious when a parent says “My daughter has no problem with confidence.” Research shows that the highest achieving girls graduating from high schools (valedictorian, class president, soccer captain) do not have the same upward trajectory as their male counterparts. What happens is that girls lose their confidence because they had actually never taken charge of their life. A young woman may have been doing great work but her efforts were based on what others wanted her to do. The important work of envisioning her future and taking ownership of her life hadn’t occurred. Girls are good at playing the roles we want them to play. They are great at being able to say what they know others want to hear.

The all-girl environment encourages girls to reclaim their authentic selves, to take the healthy risks: risking the answer in class that you are not sure about, going out for a team sport you have had not much experience with. In girls’ schools, girls are encouraged to be bold and be courageous.

How would you capture the essence of Miss Hall’s in a sentence or two?