The Picador: Volume 11, Issue 8 by Holderness School

Volume 11, Issue 8

1.18.2016 A PUBLICATION BY HOLDERNESS STUDENTS FOR THE HOLDERNESS COMMUNITY

HOLDERNESS CELERBATES GENDER & SEXUAL ORIENTATION, HONORS LEGACY OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

AJ Chabot ‘16

his year, within the cycle of race and ethnicity, class and privilege, religion, ability, and gender and sexual orientation, we find ourselves focusing on the last. The upcoming MLK Day will be the seventh Holderness celebrated day since Mrs. Pfenninger began the program. Between a variety of speakers, an allschool film on Tuesday night, a spoken word poet, and a variety of workshops, Ms. Glew expects this year to be, “our richest MLK Day in recent times.” Formally begun last Thursday night with the Alliance’s chapel talk and this morning with Mrs. Sparkman, next will come a Tuesday night advisor-advisee dinner discussion following the movie, The Mask You Live In (The Masculine). The Diversity Committee chose to focus on masculinity, especially in the upcoming days because males have

felt attacked as many past discussions have focused on feminism and women’s rights. As it may seem “easier” to talk about these more feminine issues,

the committee has decided to try being more “inclusive on our examination as the movie examines gender from both sides.” The movie will focus on how masculine culture is portrayed through the media, and the ramifications for being told what the social norm is versus what is actually socially acceptable, or should be.

A member of the committee expressed her hope for the next few days saying, “when we talk about diversity on campus, people tend to shut down and not talk about it because it’s uncomfortable. I hope that people are willing to sit in discomfort, and to realize that all of us – faculty or students – feel uncomfortable in different ways. I don’t think we can change and grown as a community unless we deal with this discomfort and have productive discussion.” Ms. Sparkman is excited for the events because she feels “many people don’t realize how much we need to have these conversations, and in light of numerous events this year, it’s important that we provide a forum for students and faculty to both speak and to be educated.” A member of the alliance hopes that people “walk away from it feeling more comfortable talking about controversial issues.”

WOODWARD DORMITORY EXPERIENCES FREAK FLOOD, STUDENTS DISPLACED UPON RETURN FROM BREAK Dougie DeLuca ‘16

n Tuesday, January 5th, the first day of school following Christmas Break, everything was progressing normally until sometime between 10:30-11:30 AM water began to pour from the ceiling in two downstairs rooms in Woodward Dorm. As more and more water flooded into the rooms, a few students with frees noticed and ran to get help. By the time help arrived and stopped

the flow of water, four dorm rooms were impacted as well as a lower hallway. Luckily, due to the quick response from students and staff, much of the furniture and other items in the rooms were removed and avoided damage. Two hours later, a firm specializing in dealing with water damage arrived on the scene and identified what needed to be fixed and replaced. Due to the alertness of the students in the dorm and rapid response by the staff, the damage

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Woodward Cont. Pg. 6

PAYBACK FOR A MESSY ROOM...? STUDENTS RESPOND IN OUTRAGE

Taylor Dobyns ‘16, Mary Nugnes ‘17

I sat in assembly, half listening when

suddenly I felt Mr. Galvin’s eyes on me… What was he saying, something about payback for a messy room?! Many students were alarmed to hear at assembly that Mr. Galvin will not only be rewarding students for room cleanliness, but he will be punishing students who do not meet his standards of cleanliness by granting them a payback. In response to this, we have interviewed various students to see how the community feels about this new rule, and what they feel are the benefits and detriments to having a messy room. 1.Is your room messy or clean? 2.What do you think are the benefits of keeping your room messy or clean? Joe Gillis 1. I don’t have a room. AJ Chabot 1. It fluctuates 2. I like to organize my desk and school stuff because it helps me focus. Ellie Teare 1. Messy 2. It gives me comic relief every time I walk into my room. My room’s messy state has also lead Ms. Berry to reward me with McDonald’s every time I clean,

so I get Mcdonald’s. Beckham Bayreuther 1. Messy 2. There’s more time to do other stuff. Henry Sheffield 1. It fluctuates 2. I don’t have time to keep it neat. Aly Axman 1. Neat (except when Logan vi. 2. Having a messy room makes me 40x more stressed than I need to be. Nick Grammas 1. My room is neat, but closet is messy. 2. It’s faster, you can just take it off and throw it in your closet [takes off jacket and throws it on ground]. Jessie Montague 1. Neat. 2. You know where your things are, you don't step on things, you feel calm. Maggie Cunha 1. Usually sorta clean. 2. I can find my stuff, but I won't waste time cleaning. Alexa Dannis 1.Messy 2.Convenience - everything is on the floor and easy to find. Thoughts on Mr. Galvin’s new rule? AJ Chabot It should only be a rule for rooms that are a health concern and promote the

spread of diseases. Nick Lacasse I would skip pay back if I got a payback for my room being messy. Lila Schibli It's just going to make everyone more stressed than they already are. Some people have a ton of stuff, and they don't necessarily get to choose where they live. Alexa Dannis Day students can't get a payback for messy rooms, it’s broadening the gap between day students and boarding students. Maggie Cunha I really don't see how taking away sleep from people who are struggling to organize their room is a relevant or helpful response to this issue. Some of those interviewed agreed with what seems to be the general consensus on this new role, and the various dorm parents on campus, that having a messy room is detrimental to a healthy lifestyle. What remains less talked about is the responses by the majority of those interviewed, the unlikely benefits of having a messy room. Highlighted on the next page are the top ten reason, and the many benefits, for having a messy room.

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TOP TEN REASONS FOR MESSY ROOMS 1.It Improves Academic Performance. If you spend ½ hour per day cleaning, organizing, doing laundry, vacuuming, etc this adds up to almost 4 hours per week. Those 4 hours could have been used to study or do homework. Less time cleaning means more time devoted to schoolwork and, thus, higher grades. 2. It Improves Athletic Performance. As many with messy rooms can confirm, having a messy room requires extreme amounts of coordination and athleticism. To navigate a room in its messiest state with speed, one must jump, leap, slide and occasionally roll. These skills, are directly correlated to improvement in athletic endeavors, as a result of my enhanced coordination and athleticism. Coaches should be encouraging their athletes to keep their rooms messy. 3. It Improves Memory. This system of organization requires phenomenal memory skills. I can remember where I last left my calculator, whether it’s in the pocket of my grey sweatshirt in the bottom of my hamper or underneath the pillows and blankets on my couch. I never fail to find my hair tie from 4 weeks ago and can tell you exactly where in my piles of clothes my favorite T-shirt and left sneaker is. This skill is exercised only in students with messy rooms. 4. This Rule is Forced Conformism In many ways your room is a reflection of who you are, from the posters on your wall to the tidiness of your closet. Forcing me to keep my room clean, is forcing me to conform to society’s standards to cleanliness. 5. Know Who Your Real Friends Are. I think of keeping my room in its current state, unrivaled by even the messiest of rooms on campus, helps me discover who my real friends are. The people

who have seen the state of my room and not only choose to stay friends with me but also choose to spend time in such a space just so they can talk with me, I know, are my real friends. 6. Builds Dorm Parent Relationships. From Ms. Berry changing my roommates sheets for her after sleeping in a sleeping bag for over a month to our monthly McDonald's trips we are rewarded with after cleaning, the relationship my roommate and I have with our advisor has without a doubt been strengthened by messy room. Many other students on campus can attest to this as well, including Kristina Wolf and Alexis Anastos, who claim their strong relationship with dorm parent Mr. Houseman is due largely to their messy room. Dorm parent relationships are strongest in the messiest rooms. 7. No One Borrows Your Stuff. While those with clean rooms struggle with the never ending “borrowing” problem, those with messy rooms frequently have living conditions so horrific that the thought of borrowing something from such a space is nauseating to others. Your favorite sweatshirt stays safe at home under the wet towel in the middle of your carpet, not across campus in your best friend’s room. Never having to worry about others borrowing your stuff is yet another added benefit to having a messy room. 8. Restricting Freedom Now Will Lead to Problems in College. Most students at Holderness are going to be living in a dorm with a roommate for 6-8 years. I think we can all agree that this can be challenging. But, learning to get along with your roommate and learning to talk about and make compromises regarding the small quarters you share is important. By giving us the freedom to keep our rooms as we like you are fostering negotiation and communication skills that will be help-

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ful in college. This principle is similar to the idea behind putting freshman on mandatory study hall with Ms. Stigum and having no study hall for seniors. We need to prepare students for life after Holderness in the dorm environment as well as the academic sphere. 9. Organization is Subjective. By forcing me to keep my room clean you are making unfair assumptions about how I best live and work. I thrive in chaos. If I am most at peace in a messy room I should have the right to keep it this way. What you call a mess, I call organized chaos. This system of organization is what works best for me, and you do not have the right to tell me otherwise. 10. Why Should the Messiest Students be in Charge of Cleaning Weld? If Mr Galvin is looking to make sure Weld is well cleaned, gathering together the messiest students on campus to do the job probably isn't a great idea. This could lead to Weld becoming increasingly dirty as the group of students attending payback expands to consist largely of students whose rooms are so dirty that Mr. Galvin deems it worthy of punishment. The drop in quality of work will lead to either an increased workload for the housekeeping staff or our dining hall becoming dirtier resulting in sickness. I hope Mr. Galvin and others take our proposals seriously and recognize that a clean room is different from, but not superior to, a messy one and there are, in fact, many benefits that come with both of these lifestyles. Additionally I hope you realize the negative consequences that will occur with the implementation of a policy that allows teachers to grant absences for messy dorm rooms. If not, I fear I will experience a new side of Holderness: the final semester of my senior year, I will be regular at payback.

WHY NORTH KOREA SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN AS A JOKE Chae Hahn ‘17

January 6th, North Korea announced that it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. The question of how the rest of the world should respond to the news baffled world leaders, as North Korea clearly seems more than willing to go against previous sanctions and treaties. This particular nuclear experiment, allegedly done in response to the United States’ hostile policies against the nation, bears more significance than North Korea’s previous tests with atomic bombs because a hydrogen (thermonuclear) bomb is exponentially more destructive than an atomic bomb. If North Korea’s claim is true, this would signify a major advance in its nuclear power. However, the claim seems highly questionable, answered nuclear experts from all around the world. Evidences about the size of the explosion suggest that there’s a high chance that it wasn’t a hydrogen bom, but rather another atomic bomb. When this somewhat assuring information surfaced, alongside with the compelling argument that the experiment was done to celebrate Kim Jong Un’s birthday, people all around the world could not help but, once again, laugh at the absurdity of North Korea’s actions. It is to no one’s surprise that people today are inclined to take North Korea as a joke. Frankly, there are so many ridiculous aspects of Kim’s regime that their tendency to make fun of him appears justifiable. It seems abnormal that there is a ruthless, communist dictator in today’s world who stays in power by brainwashing his population with absurd information designed to portray him as a god-like figure. It seems quite bizarre that Kim is so desperate to be acknowledged as a legitimate leader that he constantly emphasizes how nuclear-armed his nation is. Perhaps

most ludicrous of all is the fact that he would act outrageously to gain whatever he wants from the international community. He is exactly like a three year old boy, wailing and hollering for more candy, just how the media enjoys depicting him. Yet, no matter how ridiculous or “weird” North Korea is, the nation really shouldn’t be taken as a joke. And here’s why.

Korea’s nuclear ambition is growing, given its track record. North Korea’s unexpected actions in the future, if left alone, could lead to seriously dangerous situations not only for South Korea but also for the world, especially given South Korea’s political and military allies (notably, the United States). Aside from military and diplomatic aspects, there is another significant yet often understated reason behind why North Korea shouldn’t be taken as a joke: North Korea’s brutality on its own people and the terrible conditions under which the North Korean people are forced to live. While Kim and his party members live in prosperity, millions of his people are impoverished and starving, resulting in severe malnutrition. Forced prostitution is just one of many examples of human rights abuse. Freedom of expression is restricted, and those who oppose the regime are publicly executed or sent to prison camps, where over 10,000 people die every year. The refugees who are repatriated after unsuccessfully attempting to escape North Korea are severely beaten and are also sent to prison camps. The North Korean government is terThe New Yorker’s cover following the H-bomb rorizing their people, and taking it as a test depicts Kim Jung Un as a child and not as joke, while completely neglecting those a ruthless and unhinged dictator. who are literally dying in the nation, is utterly unethical. Although North Korea’s claim that Refusing to take North Korea seriit had successfully detonated a hydroously simply means allowing its leader gen bomb experiment seems false, its to continue doing what he is doing toexperiment, possibly on another atomday. Instead, it needs to be recognized ic bomb, unquestionably shows Kim’s that the North Korean regime is not a defiance of international treaties. Yes, joke, but that it’s rather an alarming, it was another experiment on atomvolatile force that is currently driving ic bombs, and, yes, the world already its people into endless misery and can knew North Korea has nuclear weappotentially cause an extremely dangerons. But, a “yet another” experiment, ous international conflict. If the people despite denunciation by world leaders who consider North Korea a joke beand multiple sanctions on North Korea, come more educated on the grave issues suggests Kim’s unchanging disregard surrounding the nation, they will come for diplomatic rules. While it may seem to the realization that it is definitely not that Kim’s actions are done merely to something to laugh about. seek attention and extract gains from other nations, it is evident that North

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ATHLETES’ BELLIES GROAN, $7.00 NOT ENOUGH

Maggie Barton ‘16

Every Holderness athlete knows the

feeling. Your muscles are sore after a tough game against Hebron and your stomach groans, upset that the last thing it was fed was a wrap six hours ago. As you stagger your way off the bus in a delusional fog of hunger and exhaustion, the familiarly disappointing weight of a five and two ones hits your palm. As if choosing a meal is not hard enough while in the early stages of starvation, that process is elongated by the lack of sufficient funds. The few seasoned vets who remembered to bring extra money are relaxed as they head up the cashier and order, but those of us who are not so lucky tremble as we scan for options under $7.00. Indeed at McDonald's $7.00 can

go far, but at Panera or Boloco – two healthier options – an entire meal for that price is quite hard to find. I have never heard a nutritionists suggest that a ten-piece McNugget and fries is the optimal recovery meal after a game. There are things on the menu at Panera and Boloco that are under seven dollars, but I urge you to find a Girls Varsity Hockey player who is satisfied by a side salad and half a sandwich. Of course traveling athletes could always bring extra snacks from Weld, but I can tell you from experience that banana bread does not travel well. Not only does the $7.00 meal money encourage athletes to choose the cheaper unhealthier food, but it draws a distinction between those who can pay for more food and those who cannot.

A few extra dollars does not seem like much at a time, but after fifteen games it adds up. My argument for more post-game meal money is a lot more complex than that we want to be able to buy high quality food. Holderness should encourage and support students in healthy eating habits, especially as athletes. The fullness of a student's belly should not rely on how much spending money their parents are able to give them. Adding just one extra dollar to the meal money Holderness students receive after a game could make a difference in the future health and athletic performance of student athletes and level the playing field between kids of different socioeconomic backgrounds.

TO CHIPOTLE OR NOT TO CHIPOTLE, THAT IS THE QUESTION.

Maggie Cunha ‘16

Following

the food poisoning outbreak at Chipotle (see article in December issue of The Picador), many people are wondering if the deliciousness at Chipotle is worth the risk. The cause of the outbreak in Boston that sickened more than 100 Boston College students was norovirus, a virus that does not originate from the food itself, but rather from a sick employee who came to work with the virus and spread it via food handling. (Gross, right?) The problem for Chipotle is this isn’t the company’s only case of consumers getting ill after eating at the chain’s restaurants. There have been food poising incidents in 11 states. The culprit in most of those cases is e. coli, but in more than half of the e. coli cases, food safety experts and the Centers for Disease Control haven’t been able to identify which ingredients caused the outbreak, making it difficult for the chain to guarantee that it has responded adequately. Tomatoes were deemed responsible in one case, so the chain has started having its tomatoes chopped in centralized

kitchens with strict food safety measures and then shipped to the restaurants. The problem with this solution is that the hallmark of the chain is “fresh, locally-sourced ingredients and no preservatives.” Will Chipotle still be Chipotle if the food isn’t freshly made?

Would YOU eat at Chipotle? Send responses to picador@holderness.org According to the website fastfoodmenuprices.com, a burrito from Chipotle can cost as much as $11.43 (steak burrito with guacamole). For Chipotle, the first hurdle is seeing if people are willing to risk eating their product, and if they are, what will happen if the chain ships in its ingredients instead of making them onsite. Will people be willing to pay restaurant prices for food that seems more like, well, Taco Bell? The company’s stock has plummeted from a high of $750.42 per share on October 3, 2015 to today’s close at $404.26, a fall of $346.16 per share.

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This may be an opportunity for re-branding. There are cases of companies coming back after crashing and burning. After a disturbing history of poor safety records, budget airline ValuJet had a devastating crash in 1996 that killed 110 people. In the wake of the crash, which was caused by improperly stored cargo, ValuJet’s horrible safety record was thrust into the spotlight. The company, which had been known for its affordable flights, found itself grounded by the F.A.A.. When the company was allowed to fly again, customers were unwilling to risk life and limb for a discount airline ticket. To stay afloat, the company merged with another airline, AirTran, and the tainted ValueJet name was scrapped. The airline survived and budget-minded consumers returned once they were sure that management no longer allowed such lax safety standards. Chipotle’s public relations and strategy teams are probably scrambling in the wake of this latest setback. Whether the chain survives remains to be seen. Would YOU eat Chipotle?

STUDENT ENTREPRENEURS LAUNCH 60TREE Who's idea was it to start a company? Ryan Houx: The original idea was mine, but Quinn helped me expand it. Quinn Houseman: When Ryan mentioned this idea of a company over the summer, it really just flew right by me. He then mentioned it again, and I thought about it and we made it work towards the end of the summer.

Carter Bourassa ‘17

his fall, Ryan Houx ‘18 and Quinn Houseman ‘18 began talking around campus about a clothing company that they wanted to start. They named their company 60Tree, a play off the New Hampshire area code, 603. They began by asking friends and classmates if they wanted to buy shirts and showed off some designs. They placed their first order of shirts, and after a while they arrived. 60Tree shirts are now a common sight around campus, and with another batch of shirts ordered and a big stack of stickers that just came in, 60Tree is gaining momentum and hoping to expand their company even further. You can follow them on Instagram @60treeco, and their products are available online on Etsy under the name “60treeNH”.

Woodward from Pg. 1 was limited but the students whom belonged to the rooms that were impacted had no choice but to relocate to various parts of the dorm. The cause of the leak has been traced back to a radiator but what exactly caused the radiator to leak is still unknown. The possibilities vary between it being simply a defective radiator or it being deteriorated by water with high mineral content (unharmful to humans) that caused the radiator to wear down and finally leak. As the investigation continues, the end result will determine whether this event was

What made you want to start a clothing company? QH: The company is based off of New Hampshire, so we thought that opening it up with some shirts would be helpful. We had many different ideas for our first shirt and came out with the one we are selling now. As of now we are expanding to different products, not just in the clothing world. How did you come up with the name? RH: We came up with the name last winter but never really thought much of it until this summer. QH: When Ryan mentioned the name to me a lot of thoughts went into my mind about what the display on our products should look like. We went through lots of trial and error and have a logo that is quite solid. Did you imagine you would have the success that you've had? Did you caused by something that affects more than that one radiator or simply that one specific radiator. Following the flood, another problem arose: what to do with the students whose rooms had been damaged? Joe Gillis, one of the displaced students, said that over the time in which he was “roomless” he slept everywhere from the floor, a futon in another room, and the hallways. Some of the other displaced students have even built what Mr. Peck described as a “refugee camp” in the common room. Although not ideal, these displaced students quickly became as comfortable as possible,

think it would be more successful or less? RH: To be honest [I] didn’t think we would make it this far at all. QH: At first I thought we would make it pretty far, but then when we were starting our first order of shirts it became really hard to get the name out there. After a couple weeks with the shirts, we started to get around the kinks and our business picked up. We are now going strong. Where do you see the company going next? RH: I’m hoping our shirts can start getting into more and more local shops around New Hampshire and start being known more and more. QH: Right now we have two products (stickers and Shirts), we are brainstorming more ideas that people may like and have run into the idea of hats. I hope we can keep selling what we are making but also have more products come in stock. Have you run into any troubles with other similar companies? RH: Yes, one company has threatened us with copyrights and such, but the name does belong to us so we shouldn’t be running into anymore problems. QH: We got the name, we win!! setting up almost the entirety of their rooms in the common room. Due to the flexibility and creativeness of Woodward Dorm, this event, which could have been extremely problematic, went as smoothly as possible. If all goes as planned, by the time this article is released, the students who were displaced should be back in their rooms as their return was projected for Saturday, January 16. Many thanks to Mr. LeMenager and members of the Buildings and Grounds staff for their hard work in quickly remedying the situation.

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SURVIVING vs. PROSPERING

Katie Campbell ‘17

When you were little, I’m sure you

were asked, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” You must remember all of the ambitious answers that you and your friends would give, such as astronaut, fashion designer, or even president. Now that all of us are older, we are at a point where choosing a career is becoming a greater focus. In an ideal world, we would already have an idea of the type of career we want and be ready to pick a college to fit that interest. However, as we are fickle and unsure beings, this is usually not the case. The majority of us start thinking seriously about our careers as juniors and seniors in college, being that at this point, the working world is just one or two years away. Currently, my brother is going through this process, as he is a junior at St. Lawrence University. Webb is 21 years old and, as I said, he is a college junior. He is a year older than his class because he needed to repeat kindergarten due to his learning disabilities. He is severely dyslexic, ADD and slow to process. Honestly, he probably could not get through high school if his computer could not read and write for him. But, with all of these, as some may say, “negative” traits, I truly believe that an equal amount of positives accompany them. All my life, I have noticed more of the “positives” in Webb. He has learned to work incredibly hard to keep up with school and he carries this discipline into everything he does. He has an array of great quali-

ties like creativity, sociability, and decisiveness. To put it simply, he could not be less book smart, but he also could not be more street smart. Thus, I was always completely certain that he would do something amazing with his life. Over this past Christmas break, Webb spent a lot of time sharing his thoughts on his impending career. At first, I was excited to hear about his plans, expecting to be blown away. Yet, to my surprise, our conversation mainly consisted of him doubting himself, questioning himself, and expressing his fear of being in the real world. Most of all, he talked about having no idea what direction to take. One path he was considering was participating in what he called the “rat race.” He defines this as the fight that nearly every Ivy League, money hungry, 20-something year old takes part in to start their career. They beat out the competition to get the best internships, the best connections, and eventually land the best job working in the financial world at places like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley or JP Morgan. Essentially, the majority of these jobs consist of sitting behind a desk for twelve hours a day, obeying your boss and analyzing spreadsheets or proposals. When I heard Webb say this, my first response was to laugh and sarcastically say, “Ha, I never knew you had such a knack for meaningless desk work”. He responded in frustration, “but what else am I going to do?”. I asked, “Do you even know what you're passionate about?” He just

shook his head. What makes us think differently from those little kids who wanted to be president? Is it society’s definition of a “stable job”? Is it our inability to recognize our strengths? Or, is it out of fear? We are afraid of the risks, and people cannot admit to themselves that they know they can do something amazing. When you were a little kid, you had no fear. You could confess your dreams, but now it is much harder. Whatever your dream may be, it is your job to not let external and internal forces instill fear or self doubt into your mind so that you can preserve that boundless ambition you had when you were a kid. Because, when you let those thoughts creep in, you stop yourself more and more from using your full potential. Just like Webb, everyone has their own amazing attributes. It is an extreme mistake to go a second without recognizing them, taking advantage of them, and then applying them to what you love to do. Alan Watts, a famous professor and advocate on this subject, explained the flaws in making a career out of something one is not passionate about. He said, “You're doing things you don't like doing in order to go on living that is to go on doing things you don't like doing.” Your career, and life for that matter, is not about joining the “rat race” and following the rules. Life is about maximizing what you feel is your best self while doing what you're passionate about, and I don’t see how it can be viewed in any other way.

WELCOME WILLOW ADALEE PLOURDE! CONGRATULATIONS MS. PLOURDE AND FAMILY! The Picador: Volume 11, Issue 8

BURSTING THE BUBBLE

WHY HOLDERNESS NEEDS TO BE ENGAGED IN WORLD NEWS Erica Ashby ‘18

Before you continue reading this ar-

ticle, think about your knowledge of the current world news. The Holderness culture has created a bubble that deprives students from the knowledge of innovations and issues in the outside world. This lack of knowledge may not currently affect students, but once we leave Holderness School, most students will not be able to have in-depth conversations about world events. Holderness has its own culture that we learn and grow in, but it is vital that we have an understanding of the society outside our campus. It's imperative that Holderness students get an opportunity to be informed of world events and have a chance to discuss these events. This will help students be well rounded as it pertains to what’s going on in the world outside of our “bubble.” Outside of Holderness School, news stations and channels surround us: the car radio news stations that our parents play, the TVs tuned into news channels at airports, doctor’s offices, and the newspapers lying around our parent’s house. In the outside world, it seems as if we can become informed on current events without even searching. However, due to the fact that Holderness lacks these unintentional methods of spreading news, it's up to students to search for news themselves. And how many teens are really willing to give up time to search the web for the latest news stories or go to the library magazine and newspaper section when they could be watching Netflix? Outside of Holderness, I find not

only the TVs, radios, and newspapers spreading news but also people like my dentist, grandparents, parents, siblings, and people at church. For me, family dinners at home were the time when we shared the news stories we heard throughout the day. When I asked Mr. Durnan if he would ever bring up a current news situation in class or at his sit-down dinner table, he responded by saying, “I would find it brutal and it's also almost considered rude in this student culture.” He feels students would respond by thinking, “Why would you be so presumptuous in a news situation when you know we weren't informed of it?” Mr. Durnan also agreed with the statement that faculty and students wouldn't bring up a current news situation at sit-down dinner because they assume that the students are not aware of the breaking news. The fact that current events are consequential to future events suggests that being informed of what is happening today is necessary for us to become more active members of our society in the future. Imagine a Holderness student entering the workforce. That person goes out to lunch with their boss and news of world events or a new innovation is discussed. How will that alum respond? Imagine a former student at a business meeting trying to create a plan on how the company will react to a national issue affecting the company. Due to the fact that the alum lived in a culture where discussing current events was never done this will be quite the challenge. How are they going to learn how to act in these situations when their colleagues, who lived out-

PURPOSE STATEMENT The Picador is a publication that serves to inform the Holderness School community and stimulate discourse through the thoughtful and respectful exchange of ideas, featuring the dynamic and insightful voice of the Holderness student body.

Editors Maggie Barton AJ Chabot Maggie Cunha Dougie DeLuca Carter Bourassa Chae Hahn Brooke Hayes

side the “Holderness bubble,” were expected to be engaged in these current events? So if it is so important, how can Holderness School burst this bubble? As mentioned before, the most effective way to inform teens of current news is to feed it to them because it’s unlikely they will go out of their way to search for current news. Mr. Durnan suggested having the current events during assembly become more in-depth and also having newspapers placed in more areas than just the library, such as dorm common rooms and the tables in Weld. Also, it would be effective if History and English teachers show a five to ten minute simple news summary clip in class such as CNN student news or the BBC summary clips. Another solution is to play the news with subtitles in the East Wing of Weld and lower Weld for a few hours of the day. Also the current events job team could send out a weekly email containing a summary of the weekly headlines. After all, the main cause of the issue is the lack of media being fed to students. Once students become more exposed to the news, it might be natural to discuss the news outside of the Holderness bubble. We are living inside a bubble with a culture that has little knowledge of the happenings in the outside world. As students, we need to have an understanding of “real world society” because soon we will be living in it. It is critical that we burst this bubble and come to the realization that what's happening at Holderness School is just as important as what's happening outside of it.

Visual Editors Moti Jiang Yiyang Mao Yoomi Ren Keying Yang Faculty Advisor Mr. Herring

Holderness School Chapel Lane PO Box 1879 Plymouth, NH 03264 603-779-5200 picador@holderness.org

The Picador: Volume 11, Issue 8