The Hilltopper Volume 21, Issue 1
December 2021
Logistics and Location: Winter Break 2021 ayla bernstein Covid has made a lot of restraints in our daily lives. One of those many restrictions has been on travel, and many families haven’t ventured out very far over the past 18 months. Our first big break is coming up. While many families may be hesitant to travel for Winter Break, others have no problem with it. We sent out a poll to make sense of who is going somewhere, and who is not. Are you going anywhere for Winter Break?
JSchool Dance: Hopkins vs. Hollywood caitlin fearon
This poll shows that the majority of kids are leaving the state but stay-
Middle school dances in movies are considered awkward and cringy. Often a fight breaks out or somebody ends up crying and everything is completely over the top. I will be putting this stereotype to the test by asking J-Schoolers what they expect at the first JS Dance of the year and then following up to hear about what actually happened.
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WINTER BREAK 2021
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If you are going somewhere, what are you using to get there?
ing inside the United States. International travel is also popular. However, it doesn’t look like 7th and 8th graders are going to be doing local travel in Connecticut. But with nearly a third of the respondents in the dark about what their winter plans even are, perhaps that number will grow. Part of the vacation concerns are the travel itself. All different means of travel bring their own risks and the potential for contracting Covid. If that happened, you would not be able to go to school or frankly do much at all. However, after being cooped up in the house for a year, everyone wants to get out and travel which makes it a very difficult decision. Personally, if I were to go anywhere in the world, I would go to the Maldives. It is so sunny, looks beautiful, and would be a great vacation spot especially for Winter Break to escape the cold. If you could go anywhere in the world for Winter Break, and there were no money constraints or other practical concerns, where would you go? Below is a heat map showing where JSchoolers would go.
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JSCHOOL DANCE
Before The Dance Predictions: (Collected on October 22nd)
Avani Diluna ‘26 “I am hoping it will be outside so we don’t have to wear masks.” Avani hopes there is a wide variety of songs and not just one genre. She thinks it would be more fun if people don’t go as “couples” like in the movies. She predicts that it will go relatively smoothly, a couple people will go together and there will probably be a break up like they talk about in books and movies or some sort of drama.” Bella Li ‘26 “Everyone’s going to be standing there and be bored and the music is going to be bad.” Bella thinks that movie stereotypes are over exaggerated.
After The Dance Feedback The dance was a hit. Families donated individually wrapped candy for a snack. It went from 7–9 pm. The uniform was mostly casual however, quite a few people wore dresses or skirts. The dance was in upper Heath and there were fun, colorful lights. As far as Covid safety procedures, we wore our masks and kept the big doors open. Highschoolers DJ'd and played a range of different types of music. Now here is the feedback from the same people. Avani Diluna ‘26 “It was actually really fun. It wasn't really like movies and everyone was jumping around to the songs. It was split in half into girls and guys, kind of like I expected.” Bella Li ‘26 “It was more fun than I thought it would be. It was slightly like the movies.”
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Homework at Hopkins: A Look at the Numbers Anjali van Bladel As a new student at Hopkins, one of the biggest changes for me was the amount of homework. At my old school, I had 30 minutes of homework (at most) per night, so when I came to Hopkins, I had to make a big adjustment. This made me wonder how other students feel about their assignments. Are people overwhelmed, and if so, what classes are they struggling in the most? How long are students spending on their homework? Is there a significant difference between work in 7th and 8th grade? I sent out a poll to the J School asking my questions, and got 57 responses. The majority of people said that they spend 1 ½ hours to 2 hours on homework in a night, which is around what I expected, because that is about how long I spend. When looking more closely at the results, I noticed that a lot of 7th graders spend 30–45 minutes to an hour rather than over an hour, whereas most 8th graders spend an hour and a half to 3 hours on homework. This information proves that even within J School there is a minor jump in the amount of work. This pattern repeated itself when I asked how much time students are spending on homework per class. Most 7th graders spend 30 minutes, and a few spend 45 minutes, but a lot of 8th
graders are spending 45 minutes to an hour per class. This surprised me, because teachers are only allowed to assign up to 30 minutes of homework per class, except for English, where teachers are allowed to assign up to 55 minutes of homework. My poll also revealed that almost half of the J Schoolers are not comfortable letting their teacher know they went over the limit of 30–40 minutes. A few students reported that they were comfortable letting specific teachers know and not others, but the majority of people said there were no teachers they were comfortable telling. As a follow up question, I asked what classes take the longest to complete the homework for. 49% of students said English, and 30% said Math. This makes sense, because English teachers are allowed to assign more homework than other teachers, and complicated math problems will take longer to
solve. Aside from English and Math class, many students also spend a lot of time on History and Modern Language homework. Although it is clear that J Schoolers are spending a lot of time on work, a good sign is that 60% of students said they were not feeling overwhelmed by their homework for the most part. Everyone feels overwhelmed sometimes, but as of right now most J Schoolers have their homework and classes under control.
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Keeping Up with the Coronavirus: Campus life in 2021 Saisha Singh-Ghai It’s a beautiful fall day on the Hopkins campus in 2021. Students have been living with the reality of the coronavirus for almost 2 years. They have experienced highs and lows—a full range of emotions over that time period. But where do things stand now in the junior school? I set out to find out. When I began my research, I decided to focus on one specific question: How do people feel about covid-19 this year? But before I could directly ask this question, I wanted to see how people’s opinions changed depending on how covid had affected their lives. First, I wanted to figure out how personal covid could have been to these people, which caused me to ask the more personal question of “Do you know someone who has gotten covid before?” And as it turns out, most people do. Do you personally know anyone who has gotten COVID-19 within the past year and a half?
The next question I asked was “do you feel like online school affected your school experience?” Most said yes in response, referencing how unmotivating it was and also how it made learning as a whole more difficult. One person said that they felt disengaged, and another said how they missed seeing people in person. But, those who did like it said that it gave them more time to think and do work. Once I had all the preliminary information, I shifted my focus to more current topics. After a year switching between online and in-person, I’ve heard some people say that it was odd being back in person. That really interested me, so I decided to dig a
Junior Schoolers model the right and wrong ways to wear a mask!
little deeper and find out how people felt about being on campus this year. One of the recurring topics throughout the year has been vaccinations. Because of this, I asked about how people felt on campus now that most of the school was vaccinated. A lot of people felt safe, but there were some exceptions to this. One person said that they would feel safer if everyone was vaccinated on campus but was still unsure about the variants. My next question asked how people felt about the restrictions- are there too many, or too little? The majority said that they felt as though there were too many, but a small minority said that there weren’t enough. Do you believe that there are too many restrictions or too little?
These ideas about restrictions were expanded upon in my final question, by asking what the school could do better when it came to preventing the spread of the virus. Most that responded mentioned either enforcing indoor masking, or by allowing students more time without masks, such as outside or at lunch. The coronavirus is still very real—both on and off campus, with people everywhere still aware of how different life is now. But, as things change for the better, life slowly begins to return to normal- and so does life on campus in 2021.
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Baldwin and Thompson: Is Newer Better? leila abate It’s hard to say whether or not Thompson is better than Baldwin. For example, Thompson might have better technology, but Baldwin has a more unique classroom environment. If we want to compare the buildings we have to set a criteria. On a scale of 1–10, each building will be rated in the following categories: Navigation — Is it easy to traverse without getting lost? Classrooms — Are the classrooms large or unique? Outside appearance — What does the building look like on the outside? In an effort to draw a more direct comparison we will leave out the basement floor of Thompson and the Calarco Library in Baldwin. The first building I’d like to start with is Baldwin. After some examination I rated Baldwin a total of 21/30. For navigation, I found Baldwin somewhat confusing and difficult to navigate; therefore I gave it a 4/10. Next were the classrooms which I gave 8/10. From my experience I found that the first 2 floors and basement all had very unique classrooms, each with its own distinct environment. Most classrooms had bright colored chairs which added a nice pop of color. For outside appearance, Baldwin earned a 9/10 since it is entirely brick with multiple windows. The surrounding bushes and plants complement the architecture. And, finally Thompson. I found that Thompson was overall 20/30. In navigation I rated it a 8/10, I found it quite easy to navigate class to class due to the hallways. For classrooms I gave it a 3/10. There were some slight differences between classrooms but overall the layout generally stays the same throughout the building. For the outside appearance I gave it a 9/10. The steps and pillars give a more professional appearance to the building. The clock tower adds a nice touch to the building as well and compliments the outside. The surrounding stone wall also helps boost the appearance of the building. Now here are the results. Baldwin won against
Thompson by 1 point in my rating. The unique classrooms and building design helped boost the overall score for the building. But at the end of the day, each building plays a big part in Hopkins education.
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The first girl on a historically male team: Swim Team 1969.
Were Hop Sports More Equal 75 Years Ago? avani diluna Hopkins had some very different and definitely a lot fewer sports over the years. So I went on a mission to find what sports Hopkins used to have and when Hopkins added new sports. Here are some of them: In 1944 Hopkins only had Football, Soccer, Baseball, Boxing, Hockey, Track, Tennis, and Basketball. They added all of the other sports slowly. Swimming was added in 1946, Golf in 1948, and Lacrosse in 1972. Hopkins also had hockey previously! And boxing! But now they’ve replaced hockey with field hockey, which was added right before hockey was terminated, and boxing was replaced with wrestling. Slowly but surely many more sports that we have now were added. But it wasn't until 1973 where they allowed girls into Hopkins’ sports
just after the 1972 merger with the Day Prospect Hill School. If you walk down the first floor hallway of the WCAC, you will see that Hopkins did not always label sports by gender initially and some sports were coed for a while until they started to add girls teams. Girls field hockey, tennis, and basketball were the first three girl teams added. But in 1974 they added softball. This was a huge step towards gender equality in Hopkins. They added a whole new sport that only girls
could play. There was no Boys softball or Coed softball, it was just softball for girls only. And more recently Hopkins started to allow girls on the football team and guys on the volleyball team. As we keep adding photos to the walls of the WCAC, it will be interesting to see what kinds of sports come and go and what role gender will play in how we identify teams.
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Latin: Amo, Amas, or Not? jacob richards The Hilltopper sent out a poll questioning students about their viewpoint on Latin class. Do students enjoy taking Latin? Do students believe it is worth their time? What is the best Latin word? These questions needed answers and forty-nine 7th and 8th graders participated in taking the poll to give us those answers. The first question was about the student’s favorite Latin word. Most of the words written by participants had
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only one vote such as est, facio, and minime. Only four words had more than one vote. These included clamo, porcus, and facio with two votes each and quamquam with a whopping 10 votes. The next question asked participants about the value in taking Latin. This question was one where people could vote for multiple choices. According to the data, 63% of the participants said that taking Latin will help them better understand the meaning of English words. Additionally, 57% of participants believed that it is good to know another language. From the data, we can conclude that many people believe that there is worth in
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taking Latin. But people also believed that there are disadvantages in taking Latin. 46% of voters stated that learning Latin takes away from the time that could be spent learning other subjects. 16% of voters also believe that learning Latin isn’t helpful because it is a dead language. Lastly, we asked an overarching question about whether or not students enjoy learning Latin. 65% of voters said they enjoyed taking Latin while 35% said they do not. Gratias!
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LATIN
What do you think is bad about studying Latin?
What do you think is good about studying Latin?
Do you think learning Latin in J-School will be helpful later in life?
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Modern Language Madness Walker Stollenwerck During advisory, two of my fellow advisees seem to always be thinking about some sort of Spanish homework or studying for some quiz that “no one got above a 65 on.” And as someone who takes a modern language at Hopkins myself, I know that I have been stressed over assignments for my language class, Chinese. By contrast, one of my friends who doesn’t take a modern language always talks about ALL the work he gets done in his study halls. As you all know, modern languages are not required in 7th and 8th grade. So that got me thinking: is it worth it to take a modern language at Hopkins in the Junior School? I recently sent out a poll to find out what the Junior Schoolers think. I learned that 77% of 7th and 8th graders take a modern language. Of those people, 56% of them take Spanish, 24% of them take Chinese and 19% take French. Of the people who take a modern language, 64 % of them told me they feel stressed over their homework from all of their classes. For the people who don’t take a modern language it's an exact even 50–50 split over feeling overwhelmed or not. To me, the data suggest that students who don’t take a modern language are much more relaxed on an average night. Although studying for tests and quizzes can be exhausting, in my opinion, overall I absolutely love my Chinese class! I love the kids in it and how much thought our teacher puts into all her work. Like me, 76% of the Hopkins J-Schoolers who do take a modern language say that if they had the chance to do it over, they would still take a modern language. And, when asked about whether learning a modern language was important, only 3 people say it wouldn’t be worth it. Although the modern language takers might feel a little more overwhelmed over homework, it is almost unanimous that taking the language is important to them, and their teachers always deliver lessons with the utmost thought and care. So, Allons-y, adios, 再见！Thanks for reading! One final note: Hopkins J-Schoolers are really interested in taking German and Japanese. So, maybe let's try to make it happen!
Do you take a modern language at Hopkins?
If given the option again, would you take a modern language?
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The Battle of the Buildings emily driscoll Whether you’re trying to do homework, relax, or hangout with friends, where do you go the most? Out of all the places on campus, we gave all of the different grades a chance to answer; what is the best building for academic purposes, hanging out with friends, and which building do you feel most comfortable in? With 218 responses, split over grades 7-12, we started to find some interesting trends. Here are some of the big findings. Calarco Library far outweighed any other building as the best place for school work and academic purposes. Heath Commons narrowly beat out the Athletic Center and Thompson Hall as the best places to hang out with friends. Thompson Hall won out as the place where students feel the most comfortable with a close runner up, Calarco Library. So if you’re wondering what the verdict of the school poll is, here it is.
Which building is the best for hanging out with friends?
Which building is the best for school work/ academic purposes?
Which building do you feel the most comfortable in?
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The Sweet Return of the Hopkins Café micah betts The café is a place we all hold dear to our hearts. For some it allows them to enable their sweet tooth and for others it’s a nice reprieve that allows them to get a quick snack. We can all agree that the café is a welcome addition to Hopkins that makes campus life a little bit more fun. However for the J School it was only a recent addition to life at school. Before this year the J School had no previous experience with the café and to many it quickly became a popular place to visit in between classes and during study hall. The café is incredibly popular with the J School: about half of the J School who responded to the server report they go about twice a
week and 25% saying they go multiple times a week. About half of the students think that if there was a spending limit to the café it should be around 20 to 30 dollars, however the majority of students believed that there shouldn’t be a spending limit because they do a good job regulating how much they buy on
Update on the Head of School Search jacob richards On June 15, 2021, our current head of school Dr. Kai Bynum announced that he would be leaving Hopkins at the end of the 2021-2022 school year. I interviewed Latin teacher and faculty representative for the search committee, Mrs. Carrie Shea, to learn more about this topic. Mrs. Shea stated that after the announcement, the Board of Trustees quickly formed a search committee. The search committee
their own already. Another popular idea is a spending account where parents can put in money for the café which would make it even more convenient. Everyone loves the café but also agree that we can improve upon it to make getting treats a little bit easier.
was diverse, consisting of parents, an alumni, the Board of Trustees president, faculty, and an outside consultant. The role of the search committee was to find a suitable candidate for the replacement of Dr. Bynum to become the 110th head of school. Some of the qualities that they were looking for in a candidate included proven leadership, a strategic vision for the school, demonstration for support in equity and diversity, and an educational leader. On December 1st, it was announced that our new head of school is Dr. Matt Glendinning who has all of the qualifications that the search committee was looking for. The JSchool is looking forward to meeting Dr. Glendinning soon!