Mark Twain at SEM May 2014 Reviewing His 1870 “Report to the Buffalo Female Academy”

INSIDE: At SEM, STEM is STEAM SEM Firsts: Sailing and Chess Changing Course: The New History Curriculum NAIS: SEM is the Future a publication for alumnae and friends of buffalo Seminary Mark Twain at SEM May 2014 Reviewing his 1870 “Report to the Buffalo Female Academy” illuSTraTion by CaiTlin CaSS SEM faCulTy Contents Message from Jody Douglass 1 2014 Wilkinson poet: finding Mark Twain at SEM 2 Charlotte Mears ‘72 19 life after SEM 5 Mock Trial 20 Changing Course: Junior retreat 22 new History Curriculum 6 #playSforDayS 23 admissions news 9 in Memoriam 25 at SEM, STEM is STEaM 10 SEM goes To Europe 26 SEM Scene 12 report from the buffalo Seminary Sampling Colleges 13 alumnae association 28 go SEM! go red –Tailed Hawks! 14 annual fund: Trailblazer Mary-louise Hopkins ’42 29 SEM bowling 16 leadership Club 30 SEM firSTS: Sailing and Chess 17 reunion & Keep in Touch 32 naiS Was Here 18 2014 prince lecture: robert gioia 19 a publication for alumnae and friends of buffalo Seminary DirECTor of ConTribuTing WriTErS Nianci LU ’14 HEaD of SCHool aluMnaE rElaTionS, Beth AdamcZYk Kacie Mills JodY DoUglass rEunion CoorDinaTor Hiba Al-Naji ’14 CarolYn C. Clark Hannah Porter ’14 aSSiSTanT HEaD of SCHool Sharon Ammerman Benjamin Priest, Ph.D. Helen L. Marlette aSSiSTanT DirECTor MollY Armstrong ’14 Aerin Wagner ’17 of DEVElopMEnT, gifTS Erik Bertelsen DirECTor of anD rECorDS ManagEr Caitlin Cass ConTribuTing arTiST CoMMuniCaTionS NancY Miller Caitlin Cass Erin St. John KellY Jane Urban Constantine ’66 DEVElopMEnT ConSulTanT EVa CUnningham pHoTograpHErS SEnior DirECTor of Barbara Fischer Antonio and Mirna Cirillo aDVanCEMEnT McQUeene y’74 BleU RUbY Jane Urban Constantine ’66 Daniels-TaYlor ’17 Michele Goldfarb in MEMoriaM EDiTor anD Gabrielle P. DeRose ’74 KathY HUghes DirECTor of aDVanCEMEnT SEM HiSTorian SUsan DroZd Jim HealeY/Peapod SUZanne Marlette Sears ’73 GarY R. SUtton JUlia DoUglas ’15 Benjamin Joplin, Ph.D. DirECTor, annual funD Kirsten Gresko Erin KellY SUsan Beich DoUglas Hopkins KC Kratt Benjamin Joplin, Ph.D. Kim TroW Maribel LeddY ’14 Message from the Head of School BY JodY DoUglass HoW does a good school inspire stUdents to achieVe at their highest leVels? What are the most important resoUrces We can proVide for oUr stUdents? What foUndation can We giVe to oUr children that Will ensUre their sUccess and happiness later in life? These are some of the qUestions that edUcators and parents ask eVerY daY. There are no easY ansWers, bUt at SEM We aim for the best possible solUtions. An eXcellent edUcation inclUdes more than jUst a strong a school. At SEM, oUr cUltUre is bUilt aroUnd the Honor Code. academic focUs, it mUst also proVide an eXposUre to creatiVe We all sign it. We eXpect eVerY stUdent and adUlt in the eXpression, and an Understanding and practice of healthY commUnitY to be both honest and jUst – there can be no phYsical groWth. shortcUts to achieVement. The additional element VirtUallY eVerY daY oUr that seems essential to stUdents are offered a WaY creating adUlts Who Will to get inVolVed in school life thriVe and contribUte in or commUnitY serVice. CiVic a compleX World is the mindedness is not onlY deVelopment of a strong encoUraged, it is bUilt into character. Good schools oUr cUrricUlUm. can help each stUdent to In 1870 Mark TWain groW into her best traits complimented tWo of oUr and Use them Well. stUdents for “taking risks Recent pedagogical and breaking the molds thinking sUggests that of accepted composition Writing that haVe been stUdents WoUld do Well handed doWn for generations to deVelop “grit,” as it in America’s classrooms, proVides strength When We resUlting in distressing encoUnter the difficUlties sameness and staleness in of life. Grit enables Us to academic essaYs.” OUr girls find resoUrcefUlness and had grit then, and theY haVe endUrance When it todaY. challenged. SEM’s goal is to giVe Grit cannot be coerced. oUr stUdents a passion for HoWeVer, good schools, knoWledge and the abilitY to like SEM can help each keep learning. We establish stUdent to find that a safe setting to take intrinsic motiVation to liVe her best life, to get inVolVed, and to chances. We Work to help them deVelop the driVe and stamina Work hard at all she does, and indeed, to risk failUre. theY Will need for the Work ahead in college and beYond. For Finding the inner strength to pUsh beYond easY achieVements generations, a SEM edUcation has been a strong foUndation for is a difficUlt element to teach and it is not a qUalitY that can be manY Women, and it continUes to serVe as a great foUndation measUred bY tests. Instead, it comes from the cUltUre of for a life of achieVement and fUlfillment in a compleX World. 1 Finding Mark Twain at SEM Yes, that Mark Twain BY DoUglas Hopkins, historY teacher and an architect of the neW historY cUrricUlUm “It was one of those dreamy, hazy days in mid- HarrY SchooleY’s lectUre notes, “A Short HistorY of BUffalo summer, when the atmosphere had grown denser SeminarY.” It Was a thrill to discoVer possiblY the VerY pieces of paper that Mark TWain held and read in 1870. and more suffocating until dark clouds gathering Yes, Mark TWain! SEM lore has it that headmaster Albert in the sky told of a coming storm.” Chester inVited riVal celebritY BUffalo joUrnalists and friends, o began Lillie PoWell’s Whimsical storY, “The Golden TWain of the Buffalo Express , and DaVid GraY of the Daily TreasUre at the End of the BoW,” Which Mark TWain Courier , to jUdge the 1870 Writing contest. TWain Wrote a SjUdged as one of tWo Winners of the “Report to the BUffalo Female AcademY,” BUffalo Female AcademY’s annUal essaY tactfUllY critiqUing and praising the pool of contest in 1870. Miss PoWell’s storY Won top entries and eXplaining the choices of honors for the gradUating class and Lillie It was a thrill to discover Winners. GraY read the report aloUd, as KelseY’s “Little Fish” Won the priZe for the possibly the very pieces of Well as the Winning essaYs, at the school’s “Collegiate Department.” paper that Mark Twain JUne 23 gradUation ceremonY, and the SEM’s archiVes closet had Yielded these Buffalo Express pUblished the report in fUll treasUres: the original, Winning, eXqUisitelY had held and read in May on JUne 24, 1870. hand-Written essaYs in pencil, contained in or June of 1870. TWain seemed to be looking for a boUnd VolUme of 1870 essaYs bY BUffalo simplicitY of eXpression and lack of Female AcademY stUdents. (We became pretension. He praised Lillie PoWell’s storY BUffalo SeminarY in 1889.) for “the VerY rare merit of stopping when it is finished ,” and for I foUnd these original docUments on a hUnch after learning its “freedom from adjectiVes and sUperlatiVes Which is of TWain and the Writing contest from former SEM teacher attractiVe, not to saY sedUctiVe.” 2 TWain described Lillie KelseY’s storY as “nothing in the World bUt jUst a bright and fresh bit of fancY, told With a SEM Grad Was the First breeZY dash, and With nothing grand or oVerpoWering aboUt Female Journalist in Buffalo it.” It tells the storY of a small fish discoVered bY the aUthor in TWain Wrote an editorial criticiZing the ineptitUde a pitcher of drinking Water. The narrator finds that the fish of the BUffalo Streets Commissioner for failing, eXists in a compleX World, a sort of fish kingdom. SUddenlY, TWain anticipated, to preVent Memorial DaY the narrator hears someone in the “real” World call her. traffic dUst cloUds from inUndating his front RetUrning momentarilY to the room she finds the pitcher porch. A resoUrcefUl and ciVic-minded neighbor, emptY, the fish gone. She conclUdes, “...if I had spent less 16-Year-old BUffalo Female AcademY stUdent time in thinking of him and more in helping him, it WoUld Jane Meade Welch, Who had read the editorial haVe been better for the fish and jUst as Well for me.” TWain Which TWain had signed onlY “472 DelaWare,” praised the abrUpt ending to this essaY, inclUding the moral- organiZed a bUcket brigade of neighborhood kids. to-the-storY, “ineVitable,” bUt effectiVelY conVeYed becaUse TheY kept the street Watered in front of TWain’s “it is compressed into a single sentence, and it is deliVered home dUring the bUsY holidaY, and TWain Visited With a snap that is eXhilarating and an UneXpectedness that is her home that eVening to eXpress his thanks. FoUr captiVating.” Years later, Jane joined The Buffalo Express , laUnching an eXtraordinarY career and becoming In his recentlY pUblished book, Scribblin’ for a Livin’: Mark the first Woman in BUffalo to make a profession Twain’s Pivotal Period in Buffalo , Thomas Reigstad Writes of of joUrnalism. Coincidence? YoU decide. the BUffalo Female AcademY’s essaY contest. Reigstad finishes With a sUmmarY of TWain’s rant, “against the traditional, formUlas-driVen method of teaching Writing in “BUt When We of the committee [meaning himself and GraY] American schools” and his praise for the BUffalo Female take into consideration that mUch of the atmosphere of old AcademY and its forWard thinking. cUstom and tradition necessarilY lingers aroUnd this “To the high credit of the principal and teachers of this UnqUestionablY eXcellent Female AcademY, We feel that We AcademY (noW SEM), it can be said that theY are faithfUllY are more than complimentarY When We saY that the doing What theY can to destroY it and its inflUence and occUpY compositions We haVe been eXamining aVerage Well indeed.” their place With something neW and better. TWain Was right to attack the formUlaic model of composition, and he Was insistent that fiction inclUde dialect and other non-standard discoUrse.

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