NECTFL: Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

The Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

In Memoriam

Millicent Carey McIntosh

Millicent Carey McIntosh, who died at 102 on January 3 of this year, is best known for her educational leadership and for her advocacy on behalf of women attempting to combine career and family. She was headmistress at the Brearley School for 17 years and led Barnard College from 1947-1962. She received numerous honorary degrees, served on the boards of directors of several corporations, foundations and civic groups (including Bryn Mawr College and the United Negro College Fund), and was awarded many prizes (the M. Carey Thomas Award from Bryn Mawr in 1977, the Roosevelt Medal for youth leadership in 1948, the Gold Medal Award of the National Institute of Social Sciences in 1960, for example). Her obituary appeared in the New York Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and in Barnard and Brearley publications. Why do we at the Northeast Conference note and mourn her passing?

Those who have read James N. Davis' chapter in the 2000 volume of the Northeast Conference Reports will know that the organization owes its very existence to Millicent McIntosh. As Davis writes:

Mrs. Millicent McIntosh, then headmistress of the Brearly School in New York, sent each of her five children to a different school, where each studied French. Mrs. McIntosh was surprised by how little the five French classes had in common. Each one appeared to be driven by its own combination of techniques and its own set of objectives. To say that this experience created a lasting impression is an understatement. In 1949, as president of Barnard College, McIntosh organized the first Barnard Conference on the Teaching of French (...) Four more conferences were held, later jointly sponsored by Barnard and Yale. In 1954, the meeting was renamed the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and was expanded to include the modern and classical languages taught in the northeastern United States.¹

Mrs. McIntosh's goals for these initial meetings were simple: to establish agreement as to the objectives of foreign language instruction and the best methods for achieving those objectives. To our ears in 2001, these goals may appear overly rigid: surely the objectives of instruction depend upon the learners and their purposes, the setting, the time frame, the available materials, and so on (in fact, by 1961, the Conference endorsed a statement rejecting the notion of a "single method"). But in 1949, the realization of Mrs. McIntosh's goals would require a development whose significance cannot be overemphasized. It would require that teachers at all levels of instruction and in all languages come together to attack problems collaboratively. This commingling of elementary, secondary, and postsecondary educators focusing not on one language, but on language, and doing so out of concern for students, is the characteristic strength of the Northeast Conference.

Millicent McIntosh was born in 1898 to a Quaker couple in Baltimore. She attended the Bryn Mawr school there and then earned a degree in English and Greek from Bryn Mawr College. Following her graduation, she took a job as a social worker, then studied at Newnham College, Cambridge University. She received the Ph. D. from Johns Hopkins University. She was an English instructor, department chair, and administrator at Bryn Mawr prior to her selection as head of the Brearley School in New York. Brearley's curriculum and programs expanded enormously during her tenure, and she introduced a number of innovative courses and policies. McIntosh, who preferred to be called "Mrs. Mac," was named Dean of Barnard College in 1946 and became its first president in 1952. In her early years there, she worked to increase the endowment, expand facilities, raise salaries and reduce budget deficits, but also to focus Barnard's attention on the national teacher shortage and on the importance of teaching. True to her family's activist tradition (her mother was a suffragist who also worked on prison reform; her aunt, M. Carey Thomas, founded the Bryn Mawr School and served as president of Bryn Mawr), Mrs. McIntosh used Barnard endowment to provide scholarships for needy students and for the children of World War II refugees. She retired from the college in 1962, but continued to serve as a trustee of Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr School and other institutions, and to sit on the board of directors of a number of corporations and foundations. Mrs. McIntosh was committed in general to a balance between academics and life, and in particular to helping women maintain both careers and families (the alternative, in her view, was to live "incompletely"). The recipient of seven honorary degrees, she is remembered by many for her insistence upon simplicity and common sense. As her son, J. Richard McIntosh implied in a letter to James Davis, she also approached "sacred cows" with humor, creativity and determination. Those qualities are part of Mrs. McIntosh's legacy to the Northeast Conference and have helped us to stay on the cutting edge, to value what is on the margins, and to take risks. We hope that the results have been worthy of her vision.

The Northeast Conference expresses its sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Millicent Carey McIntosh. We are grateful for her intelligence, her generosity, and her convictions. We wonder which college or university president (or school superintendent or headmaster/mistress, for that matter) will assume the mantle of leadership on behalf of our profession as she did?

¹ Davis, J.N. (2000). Perspectives on an Age: Forty-five Years of NECTFL Reports. In R. Terry (Ed.), Agents of Change in a Changing Age (pp. 23-46). Northeast Conference Reports. Lincolnwood IL: National Textbook Company.

Philip Arsenault

The Northeast Conference was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Philip E. Arsenault, February 16, 2000, at the age of 86. Dr. Arsenault retired in 1981 after 22 years as foreign language supervisor for the Montgomery County (MD) Board of Education. He has also taught at Princeton University, Rollins College, and the University of Maryland. Originally from New England, Philip Arsenault received his master's from Clark University and then studied in France for a year. He also conducted graduate study at Middlebury College prior to earning a doctorate in romance languages and literature from Princeton. He worked as an interpreter of French for the Army in Europe during World War II. The French Government awarded Dr. Arsenault the Palmes académiques, an honor richly deserved and richly appreciated.

Dr. Arsenault's involvement with the Northeast Conference rivals that of any of his contemporaries. In 1961, he contributed to the Reports, devoted that year to "Modern Language Teaching in School and College," as a participant in Working Committee I: The Preparation of Secondary School Teachers. He became Local Committee Chair of the 1967 Conference and served in that capacity again in 1970. Phil was elected a Director of the organization for the years 1971, and 1973-1974. In 1975, he acted as consultant to the Committee on Curriculum for that year's Reports. He was chosen to chair the 1976 Conference, the theme of which was "Language and Culture: Heritage and Horizons." Phil is remembered by his colleagues as "a true gentleman," "very professional and competent," "articulate." Helene Zimmer-Loew recalls him as "a solid leader and mentor, especially with neophytes."

The Northeast Conference extends its deepest sympathies to the family of Dr. Philip E. Arsenault.

Celestine Gail Carr

Celeste Carr lost a courageous battle with cancer on January 28, 2001. Her funeral later that week was a testimony to the love, integrity, and completeness that are possible even in a life cut so cruelly short. An entire section of the large church was filled with Howard County Public School teachers and administrators. Family literally spilled over into the aisles. Doctors, nurses, friends, colleagues, students, and admirers were all amply represented. Celeste touched so many lives in so many ways. It was a true privilege for the Northeast Conference to have enjoyed her friendship, her dedication, and her professional abilities during and after the years of her service as a Board member and as our representative to ACTFL. We mourn her passing and feel deeply this terrible loss.

Celeste was awarded the B. A., the M. S., and the Ed .D from Morgan State University in Maryland. She taught both French and Spanish in Baltimore City Schools and at the Baltimore City College. She also held positions at Johns Hopkins University and at Loyola College. For ten years, from 1990 to October of 2000 when she retired, she was the Supervisor of Foreign Languages and ESOL in the Howard County Public Schools. She was an active and involved educator: a long-time member of the Maryland Foreign Language Association (MFLA) where she served as president, a Director of the Northeast Conference for four years, NECTFL's representative to ACTFL for three years, and in 1995 a member of the Selection Committee for the Disney Teacher of the Year Award. She received a number of awards and honors herself, but was generally too modest to share the news.

Celeste's wide-ranging interests ensured that she would see every issue from a number of perspectives, and she was thus an excellent teacher, an excellent administrator and an excellent friend. Her friends and colleagues remember the dinners she and her twin sister, Clem, held over the years. Celeste's love for the people she knew was expressed as delight in their stories, as generosity-both professional and personal, and as loyalty. She had the ability to make people feel as though their request or question was the most important thing she had to consider. As her good friend, Joe, wrote: "Celeste was a teacher of many sorts. As a colleague, she always built up those around her, seeking out an individual's strengths, and encouraging him to capitalize on them. She loved good food [except bananas!], good teaching, and good people. The first time I met her, her first words to me were 'I heard you really like kids! Me, too!' She encouraged me to immerse myself in the profession, to write, and to explore what teaching was really all about. I think of Celeste often, and a part of her emerges each time I connect with a class. My only regret is that I can no longer thank her in person."

The Northeast Conference wishes to convey its most heartfelt condolences to Celeste Carr's family, colleagues, and friends. We share in your sorrow.

Eleanor Lien Sandstrom

"I don't think education should be punitive. You have to have a teacher who knows how to instill confidence, who doesn't mock them, who doesn't insult them and make fun of them. There are some teachers that just about bite your head off if you make a grammatical error... [but] you are not supposed to take whatever hurts you inside out on the students. You're supposed to be inspiring and helping them. (...) I don't believe in humiliating anybody who is learning anything. That's very important to me."

Eleanor Sandstrom, in an interview for Voices from the Field: Experiences and Beliefs of Our Constituents, 1995 NECTFL Reports

The news of Eleanor Sandstrom's passing was received with deep regret and nostalgia. Eleanor Lien Sandstrom served the Northeast Conference as a Director from 1975-1978. Her primary commitment and orientation as a foreign language educator are illustrated in her work as chair of the committee that wrote the chapter titled "Foreign Languages for All Students?" in the 1970 Reports. Thirty-one years ago, Dr. Sandstrom's committee wrote that "Second language learning should be an integral part of the basic education of every child," and that "The concept of FL study for all children necessitates a new orientation for students, parents, counselors, administrators, and the FL teachers themselves."

Dr. Sandstrom's life reflects her goal of bringing humanistic education to all. In addition to her myriad contributions to our own field, as Director of Foreign Language, ESOL and Bilingual Education for the School District of Philadelphia and as president of a number of language associations, Dr. Sandstrom's impact was felt in the larger community. She designed a Spanish program for police officers in Philadelphia. She created the "Adult Evening School for Cultural Studies," which was open to working class people in a city neighborhood who, according to Sandstrom "wanted to take course other than just the drill press and typing courses that were normally offered." The school's program included art, music and over 25 languages. As Eleanor's beloved German Shepherds guarded the cash box on the first night of classes, she and her husband were stunned when 1,000 potential registrants appeared. They had been expecting fewer than 100. Subsequently, Dr. Sandstrom worked on behalf of non-anglophone students, both professionally and in her private life. She created programs for teacher recruitment, elementary school instruction, and bilingual education. Her creativity and motivation in these endeavors were legendary.

A permanent memorial in Dr. Sandstrom's name is being established at the Thomas-Potter Bilingual School in Philadelphia. Tax deductible contributions may be sent to the Dr. Eleanor Lien Sandstrom Memorial Fund, c/o Marco Zanoni, 105 Chaucer Court, Lansdale PA 19446. The Northeast Conference sends its sympathies to Dr. Sandstrom's husband, Arthur, who was instrumental in ensuring that her words appeared in the 1995 Reports mentioned above, and to all her family, friends and colleagues.

Milton Hahn

The Northeast Conference informs its readers of the death of Milton Hahn in August 2000 in Virginia Beach. Mr. Hahn chaired the Working Committee on Foreign Languages in the Secondary School in 1964 and helped to author its chapter in that year's Reports. Thirty-four years later, he participated as a teacher-storyteller in the Stories Teachers Tell project, penning a story titled "Memoirs of a Former Spanish Teacher." The first line of his story?: "I always wanted to be a teacher."

As one of his colleagues stated, "He was known for his wonderful wit, his affable personality, and his dedication to the profession."

The Northeast Conference expresses its sincere condolences to Mr. Hahn's family and friends.