The head of St. Margaret's School in Tappahannock, Margaret Broad, speaks to teachers during lunch before attending a leadership class with students. Broad has led the private school for girls for 19 years. SUZANNE CARR ROSSI/THE FREE LANCE-STAR

Margaret Broad, headmistress at St. Margaret's School, is in charge of the school's vision for the future, but she still enjoys talking with students. She tries to know each girl's name by the second week of school. SUZANNE CARR ROSSI/THE FREE LANCE-STAR

Heading into 19th year, St. Margaret's School head finds rewards in preparing women for life

Date published: 9/25/2007

TAPPAHANNOCK--Margaret Broad, head of school at St. Margaret's here, would be the first to say that the mission of "educating young women for life" takes every member of a dedicated faculty and staff.

But the administrator heading into her 19th year at the helm of the nationally recognized private school for girls would agree that her own educational experiences have affected how she's seen the job.

A key experience: the college math teacher who wouldn't talk to her in calculus.

"I was one of two girls in the class, and had planned to major in math until I was ignored that way," said Broad, from her office overlooking the Rappahannock River. "I quickly realized I didn't want to spend my life being ignored. I moved on to French."

She succeeded in that new academic track. But the memory of having her talents ignored because she was female became a motivating lesson once she found herself teaching young women.

"A single-sex high school allows a girl to define herself, instead of being defined by the culture or other people," she said. "That self-definition will sustain her through life."

The educator, who has taught French and other subjects at the school for girls in grades eight through 12, is sold on the advantages of a single-sex environment.

She's also a strong advocate for a program that teaches the 150 or so girls there skills from healthy eating to good decision-making to filling out tax forms.

Broad, who grew up in the the Chicago suburbs, also believes in the value of an expanded world view.

For Broad, that came from visiting France as a college student, a trip where she met her husband, David, an Englishman who grew up in France.

As a result of that trip, Broad put stock in "giving girls a large exposure to the world, at a younger age."

That can happen for St. Margaret's students in overseas trips and exchanges.

But the opportunity for an expanded world view also is embedded in the school itself.

By design, 17 percent of the student body is made up of international students, and another 17 percent are American students of color.

Date published: 9/25/2007