May 2022

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EDITORIAL

IHS TATTLER MAY 2022 | VOL. 129 | NO. 9

ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO TATTLE.

Established in 1892 Published Monthly www.ihstattler.com Ithaca High School 1401 North Cayuga Street Ithaca, NY 14850 FREE

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EDITORIAL

Independent Study: Broaden Students’ Horizons

By THE TATTLER BOARD

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t’s no secret that IHS students have many diverse talents and interests. Students here throw pots with clay, create entire websites out of code, and bring fictional universes to life with their performances. Although this diversity is acknowledged— and often encouraged—by teachers and by peers, academic structure here at IHS remains painfully rigid.

For the most part, IHS students are shepherded through their classes. Students follow course sequences for classes in English, Math, Social Studies, and Science—with opportunities to take electives mostly as juniors and seniors—to meet graduation requirements, even when these classes may not align with their future interests or goals. Thus, students generally receive a balanced education that grants exposure to a variety of different academic disciplines but isn’t conducive to exploring their interests outside the standard curriculum. To permit students to explore their diverse interests while at school, the Tattler Editorial Board proposes the expansion of Independent Study opportunities at IHS. Here’s what Independent Study could look like at IHS. Students would have a period in their schedule marked as “Independent Study” during which they would pursue their interests.

Students might spend the time drafting and editing their writing, creating and refining their artwork, or even working through a textbook at their own desired pace. Then, every week (or every other week, depending on student preference), students would meet with a teacher well-versed in the independent study’s focus (for example a biology teacher for a study that is related to vaccine function), reporting on their progress since the last meeting.

Finally, every quarter, students would write a reflection on their work, which would leave a written record of the progress made during their Independent Study. Grades would not be assigned to students for their work in this system. Instead, students would receive a pass or fail simply based on their demonstrated effort during each quarter and a credit potentially contributing to graduation requirements. And while students would still receive a pass or fail, the final product of these Independent Study courses could be a meaningful collection of work done rather than a number on a report card. Although similar exploratory programs exist in IHS currently—some students, as aforementioned, are independently studying languages, and the WISE elective available to seniors allows for the pursuit of an independent project in any field—none are available or accessible to all IHS students.

The introduction of the Independent Study program, as proposed here, would grant an exploratory experience to many more students.

Further, Independent Study at IHS could give students the opportunity to engage in active, hands-on learning. For many students, days at school are passive, spent sitting at desks facing a whiteboard while a teacher lectures about literary techniques or differential equations while many of their peers are completely tuned out. Days like these not only become increasingly monotonous as the school year progresses but also take a mental toll on students who would benefit from learning in non-traditional

educational settings. Expanding Independent Study classes would be a solution to this lack of pedagogical diversity at IHS and would give students academic agency. Students would no longer be sponges, expected to unconsciously absorb the material given to them. Instead, students could create and grapple with a portion of their curriculum and education, suited specifically to them.

Like students who are currently a part of TST-BOCES programs, students who engage in Independent Study could gain greater individualized experience in their intended career field or simply explore fields of potential interest. Aspiring poets could work one-on-one with English teachers to create personalized curricula based on different poetic styles. Aspiring artists could spend their periods creating and refining their art under the guidance of teachers. Aspiring athletes could analyze game films and learn the history behind their sports. The program could even include opportunities for students to engage with local businesses and organizations to gain greater real-life experience in a specific field, whether that be anything from architecture to social work.

Independent Study wouldn’t only be useful to those with interests outside the classroom. For example, students with interests in business, political science, or sociology would be able to earn a credit for subjects not typically taught at IHS. Further, students with a desire to delve deeper in a subject commonly taught in high school—such as math, chemistry, or world history—could use the time to truly explore the subject, or a subset of the subject, rather than simply settling for an introductory class.

While students would benefit academically from a robust Independent Study program, they would also benefit socially.

Independent Study could connect students with similar career or intellectual interests. The relationships and bonds formed between students participating in the same Independent Study program could also grow beyond just that specific course and lead to a host of future explorations and collaborations. Essentially, Independent Study programs could create more active niches in IHS, where students could work together to pursue a common interest. Teacher-student relationships can also be formed as there is greater chance for individualized education and dialogue in an Independent Study format. The same can be said for relationships between students and community members if an Independent Study were focused outside of the ICSD community.

Critics of the proposed Independent Study period might argue that some students would take advantage of the unstructured system by doing less work than in a standard class. However, students electing to do an Independent Study will likely be passionate about their area of study, leading to higher engagement with the work. Further, even if some students end up spending a period disengaged—because they don’t actually enjoy their field or because they struggle to stay motivated or because they simply have too much going on—this is not a problem. After all, individual reflection and unstructured time is necessary for student success.

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Editor-in-Chief

Jinho Park ’22

editor@ihstattler.com News Editor Mukund Gaur ’24 news@ihstattler.com Opinion Editor Louisa Miller-Out ’22 opinion@ihstattler.com Features Editor Ruby LaRocca ’24 features@ihstattler.com Arts Editor Katie Lin ’22 arts@ihstattler.com Sports Editor Aitan Avgar ’22 sports@ihstattler.com Literary Editor Raia Gutman ’22 literary@ihstattler.com Back Page Editor Adowyn Ernste ’22 backpage@ihstattler.com Center Spread Editor Frances Klemm ’23 centerspread@ihstattler.com Copy Editor Adam Saar ’22 copy@ihstattler.com Photography Editor Hannah Shvets ’23 photo@ihstattler.com Graphics Editor Yasmeen Alass ’24 graphics@ihstattler.com Layout Editor Ella Keen Allee ’22 layout@ihstattler.com Business and Advertising Sammy Deol ’22 business@ihstattler.com Webmaster Tania Hao ’24 web@ihstattler.com Distribution Managers Evie Doyle and Addie HouleHitz ’23 distribution@ihstattler.com Archivist Alice Burke ’23 archive@ihstattler.com Social Media Kadek Nawiana ’22 sm@ihstattler.com Faculty Advisor Deborah Lynn advisor@ihstattler.com

While an augmented Independent Study program wouldn’t miraculously erase the disengagement that pervades classrooms at IHS, it would certainly grant students the potential to pursue passions and interests that should be engaging.

Today, students contort their academic individuality to fit into the rigid confines of our course

sequences. In contrast, Independent Study would allow students to redefine the curriculum that entraps them and gain agency in their own education. In other words, Independent Study periods could let them do work that they look forward to, the work that brings out their curiosity—the work that truly matters.

Beyond the Land Acknowledgement: IHS Needs an Indigenous History Class

By THE TATTLER BOARD

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very day at the beginning of first period, we hear a statement that begins with “We gather here today on the traditional homeland of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ people” over the loudspeaker, an acknowledgement of the historical and continued presence of the indigenous people of this area. We hear this acknowledgement because non-Native settlers, who comprise the majority of IHS and Ithaca as a whole, often erase the history of Indigenous inhabitants of the land in many of our discussions of Ithaca and Tompkins County. The impact of this exclusion reaches beyond thoughtlessness—it represents the history of violence borne from colonialism across the United States and all other settler colonies. It is important that we formally recognize the Cayuga Nation’s relationship to the Ithaca area, especially at school. However, in order to rectify this injustice, we need to take further steps. Ithaca High School as an institution must initiate meaningful, accurate learning about the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ people and other Indigenous peoples of this region.

The narratives about Indigenous populations currently presented in IHS history classes disproportionately focus on Indigenous suffering at the hands of white settlers. They neglect preco-

lonial history, social and cultural details, and discussion of contemporary Indigenous groups.

In our textbooks and curriculum, Native people barely exist outside of their relationship to settlers. This approach is dehumanizing—it reduces Indigenous people to victims of violence and completely excludes the rich cultural traditions and accomplishments of Indigenous societies.

Other history classes, especially those whose content centers around white people, such as European and U.S. history, give students an avenue to connect with past events by detailing the human stories and accomplishments of illustrious individuals. IHS courses also teach nothing about contemporary Indigenous groups, which speaks to the widespread erasure of Indigenous identities and cultural genocide at the hands of settlers.

Joaquin Lira, an IHS library aide who is of Yaqui, Mayo, and other Indigenous Mexican descent, told the Tattler he’s noticed a recent push among Indigenous communities to rediscover their history and culture after decades of alienation from it: “My mother didn’t know much about her Yaqui and Mayo ancestry because for generations she had been taught to adhere to Spanish culture… Now, I see more young people Continued on page 4

The Tattler is the monthly student-run newspaper of Ithaca High School. All currently-enrolled students at Ithaca High School are welcome to submit writing and photographs. As an open forum, The Tattler invites opinion submissions and letters to the editor from all community members. Email submissions to editor@ihstattler.com or mail letters to: The Tattler 1401 North Cayuga Street Ithaca, NY 14850 Send submissions by May 14 to be included in the June issue. The Tattler reserves the right to edit all submissions. All articles, columns, and advertisements do not necessarily reflect the views of editorial staff.

To read The Tattler online, visit our website at www.ihstattler.com.

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EDITORIAL / NEWS

Beyond the Land Acknowledgement: IHS Needs an Indigenous History Class Continued from page 3 asking about [Indigenous culture] when I go back to my hometown. I wish we would all have grown up learning everything we could about our culture and traditions.” IHS can—and should— do more to support this cultural rediscovery and reconnection.

The Tattler Editorial Board proposes a comprehensive curriculum about Indigenous history and culture with emphasis on Indigenous peoples who have resided in what is now Tompkins County and surrounding areas. One place to start is the creation of a single-semester Indigenous history elective open to all students, which would provide a Social Studies credit. Local Indigenous leaders have put together initiatives through organizations like the Traditional Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Healing to invite non-Native community members to learn about their cultures and recognize their presence and contribution.

It’s time IHS students and staff engage with them. The syllabus of the new elective would be designed in conjunction with these groups and taught by Indigenous educators if possible. Alternatively, current IHS teachers could take on this course, but it is crucial that Indigenous voices be uplifted and honored throughout the curriculum in this scenario. Creating a class dedicated to learning about Indigenous peoples would not absolve other classes of the responsibility to cover Indigenous topics thoroughly, accurately, and respectfully, but it would ensure students are provided with sufficient instruction on these topics in a setting where they are not a sidebar conversation or detour from the main content.

Encompassing far more than just history, an Indigenous History class at IHS would incorporate Indigenous knowledge in areas such as farming and medicine. Mr. Lira emphasized the sustainability benefits of Indigenous agricultural practices in particular. “When the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ farmed beside Cayuga Lake, when the nutrients had been depleted from a particular area of soil, they would move on to another section of land and let the other land lie dormant and enrich itself again,” he said. “That’s something that probably present-day farmers could learn from.

I don’t think we fully appreciate how focused all the tribes were on taking care of the land, the trees, the air, the water.” He also mentioned the importance of learning Indigenous science and its applications, such as the use of slippery elm bark to heal inflammation. Exploring Indigenous knowledge would allow students to integrate more respect for humanity and the planet itself into their scientific education, cultivating a more holistic understanding of the world and how to solve its many problems.

In addition to informing students on history, agriculture and medicine, an Indigenous history class should seek to connect them with the Indigenous people who maintain a presence on this land. Mr. Lira suggested bringing in guest speakers from the Onondaga and Gayogo̱hó:nǫ nations to foster interpersonal discourse and a deeper appreciation for Indigenous cultures. Both students and local Native groups would benefit greatly from the mutual understanding and respect such experiences promote.

Connecting IHS students with local Indigenous groups would inform them about local efforts to regain land sovereignty and encourage solidarity and active support for Indigenous communities in reclaiming the rights they have historically been denied.

Last summer, residents of the area, including several IHS students, camped in solidarity outside the homes of Gayogo̱hó:nǫ

people under threat of eviction. They also participated in marches to protest their self-proclaimed representative Clint Halftown as part of the Halftown Must Go movement. The Gayogo̱hó:nǫ people have repeatedly called for Halftown’s removal, and his leadership is not recognized as legitimate by the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ Council of Chiefs nor the Clanmothers. “Until this summer, I had never met a Gayogo̱hó:nǫ person, even though I’ve lived on their ancestral homelands for sixteen years,” said a student involved in the movement. “This experience has really opened my eyes to the ongoing effects of colonization, and forced me to interrogate my own role in it. Listening to Indigenous perspectives and actually engaging with the community has provided me with ways to replace performative allyship with concrete action.” In order to be better allies to Indigenous people in reclaiming autonomy and land sovereignty, it is necessary that non-Native people be informed about local tribal history and politics, and that starts in the classroom.

Learning about Indigenous history is crucial for all students.

It will empower both Native and non-Native students alike to delve into the rich history of this land and its peoples, foster solidarity and connection across cultures, and promote healthier relationships with the planet. As Mr. Lira said, “I think we were put here to enjoy the beauty of nature, and we haven’t been doing that. That’s what Indigenous people can teach us.”

PMCs: A Threat to World Peace

By COLBY BITTNER

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t doesn’t take a genius to tell you that global peacefulness is deteriorating. Trends from the Global Peace Index show that the world is growing more militarized and that violent conflict is increasing globally. Although the fear of all-out nuclear war has kept most countries from going to war, certain kinds of armed conflict still remain a simple way to achieve objectives worldwide. Enter the PMC (Private Military Company): PMCs are not national armies, rather private companies employing mercenaries to fight abroad. While traditional armies are restricted to “lawful warfare” (e.g. not bombing civillians or attacking the Red Cross), PMC “employees” are usually not considered combatants under the Geneva Convention, and as a result have reduced liability for crimes they commit. This has made PMCs wildly popular for conducting secret operations in foreign countries, especially considering that they have few ties to national governments, giving whoever contracted them plausible deniability for any atrocity a company or its employees may commit.

Such organizations include Wagner Group, a PMC based in Russia, owned by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin. It has historically operated in Africa, Syria, and the Donbas region of Ukraine, and is currently operating in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While Wagner Group frequently operates under Russian interests and with Russian orders, they don’t wear marked

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uniforms, making their identification difficult. This anonymity makes it hard to tie their operation back to Russian President Vladimir Putin, giving Wagner Group the freedom to commit atrocities while not politically implicating Putin. Wagner Group has been identified in multiple assassination attempts on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and members of the group allegedly posed as a Ukrainian defense unit—which would constitute a war crime if they were considered combatants under the Geneva Convention. However, use of PMCs is not exclusive to authoritarian governments, and their operation has shown to be a general threat to all civilians, not just in Ukraine. A notable American PMC known as Blackwater has been the subject of controversy for dangerous and criminal behavior in the past. One of Blackwater’s atrocities includes the Nisour Square massacre of

2007, where Blackwater contractors shot and killed 17 civilians in Baghdad, Iraq. This event garnered global attention but those responsible weren’t convicted until 2020, and were subsequently pardoned by Donald Trump.

Since Private Military Companies have the ability to act outside of the law, their actions can often be dangerous to civilians. PMCs’ high levels of autonomy coupled with political deniability makes war crimes hard to punish. These companies give excuses to world leaders by letting them hide tragedies and atrocities such as the aforementioned Nisour Square massacre, and since they operate where they please, they pose a threat to many globally. While the chance of sparking global conflict with small private militaries may seem low, many disasters caused by berserk armed forces could be prevented.

More than Macron vs. Le Pen: A Detailed Look at France’s Presidential Election

By VALENTINA LEBRET

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n April 24, 2022, millions around the world watched the announcement of the French presidential election’s results. As Emmanuel Macron was declared the winner, many on the Left heaved sighs of relief. Their relief was not generally caused by direct support for Macron’s policies—instead, it was caused by the avoidance of what could have been: a far-right presidency under Marine Le Pen. However, many experts agree that the political landscape in France, and Europe as a whole, is not so easily explained. Indeed, although it was the same two candidates in France’s last election, April’s was categorically unique. Thus, to truly understand France’s political situation, one must examine both the candidates and the greater social context in which they operate.

Emmanuel Macron was the incumbent candidate in the elections, first coming to office in 2017 after having won with 66 percent of the vote. In April, however, the race was much closer—Macron only came away with 58 percent. In the past, his generally centrist policies have focused on strengthening France’s connection with the rest of Europe, particularly through the European Union. This has left some French voters dissatisfied, as they believe he should prioritize the country rather than the continent as a whole. Macron is mainly known for having led many European de-escalation efforts in order to provide support to Ukraine.

Opposing him was Marine Le Pen, who garnered 42 percent of the vote. Her party, known as the National Rally, was founded by her father, Jean-Marie. While it was once associated with Islamaphobia and Holocaust denialism, she has worked consistently to soften its image. Indeed, Le Pen has often cited

her policies as essential in protecting the interests of LGBTQ+ people and French women. Nonna Mayer, a French political scientist who specializes in conservatism, believes these efforts to be effective in reaching wider audiences. “She has given a new electoral dynamic to the party because she’s a woman and she has managed to speak to and to rally female voters, which were repulsed by the father,” Mayer stated. Additionally, Le Pen has positioned herself as focused on, and working for, the average French citizen.

Despite this reframing of her party, Le Pen still called for massive reductions in immigration, and wished to ban the hijab.

Her ties to Russia have also been a cause of controversy after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In 2014, for instance, her party was loaned 9 million Euros by the First Czech-Russian Bank. Le Pen also has ties to Vladimir Putin, the Russian President. Additionally, while she has stated that she supports American and European sanctions on Russia, she opposes close cooperation with NATO. She fears that Russia’s isolation from the West might lead to a dependency on China, saying, “This could be a huge risk for the West, for Europe, and for France.”

Of course, there were many other notable candidates. Among them was Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a far-left candidate who came in third in the election’s first round. Known for his radical social programs, he had much support from young people and low-income communities. He was also consistently endorsed by climate activists, health workers, and feminist campaigners, and praised Continued on page 6

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More than Macron vs. Le Pen: A Detailed Look at France’s Presidential Election Continued from page 5

by Macron for his long-term environmental planning. After his failure to win a place in the runoff, he expressed interest in running for France’s prime minister in June of 2022. Mélenchon acts as a rare symbol of hope for France’s left, especially as it becomes more divisive and racialized.

Finally, the fourth major candidate was Eric Zemmour, another prominent far-right candidate in the election. As a former journalist, Zemmour is known for his Islamaphobic and racist positions in politics. He first gained traction through a heavy backing from the media hub Canal+, owned by Vincent Bolloré, a French billionaire businessman.

Despite the importance of understanding the different candidates, the timing of the election is what makes the election so influential. Conservatism has been steadily growing in Europe; for the world’s political experts, France became a sort of canary in the coal mine, a marker of just how much power the right has gained. Growing conservatism has taken place in many forms, with one of the most obvious examples being the reelection of autocratic leader Viktor Orbán in Hungary this April. Experts theorize this shift towards conservatism is largely due to economic instability, the coronavirus pandemic, the refugee crisis, and increased immigration. Despite Macron’s win, the election in France does not suggest a large push to oppose this movement.

For instance, votes for far-right candidates made up more than 30 percent of the votes in the first round, most notably for Le Pen and Zemmour. Additionally, 50 percent of voters admit-

ted they did not fear Le Pen’s presidency, which experts believe is due to a normalization of conservative and Islamaphobic rhetoric in the media, which can be seen in the very outlets that supported Zemmour in his candidacy.

Despite Mélenchon’s platform, few from the Left have combatted the gaining traction of Islamophobia and xenophobia.

Some are even the most vocal critics of Muslim visibility, repeatedly calling for increased Islamic “discretion.” Le Pen has reaped the benefits of this newly racialized left, with many supporting her platform.

When examining this conservative wave, it is also important to note that Macron is not directly in opposition to it; indeed, his party has embraced similar positions in the past. Macron’s minister, Gerald Darmanin, has spoken repeatedly of the need to “halt the wilding of society” and even criticized Le Pen for being “too soft” on Islam.

When considered as a whole, this election showed the world the fragility of the status quo and the subtleties of governance.

On the surface, Macron and the Left avoided the coming of a conservative leader. When one examines the situation more closely, however, it is clear that Europe has been and continues to be operating within a system of conservative control. Indeed, many fear what the next election will bring, especially when Macron cannot run again. The world must learn from the French elections: power is always shifting, in both the news breaking and the mundane.

Ithaca Introduces IPD Reform Plan

By MUKUND GAUR

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n the wake of national protests against police brutality in the summer of 2020 following the death of George Floyd at the hands of two Minneapolis police officers, Ithaca has introduced a plan to reform the Ithaca Police Department (IPD).

Police departments across the nation have come under fire for unfair treatment of minorities—according to a study from the Harvard School of Public Health, Black Americans are 3.23 times more likely to be killed by police than white Americans. Ithaca’s new proposal for the IPD—first completely released in March of 2022—aims to “center the experiences of [Ithaca]’s marginalized and vulnerable populations,” according to the City of Ithaca’s Reimagining Public Safety Working Group. The release of the proposal followed months of discussion and deliberation regarding its implementation and structure.

The proposal itself would provide for the creation of a new “Division of Community Solutions” (DCS), in addition to the current police force, staffed by five unarmed responders, known as Community Responders. A new agency called the “Department of Community Safety” would be responsible for both the DCS and the current armed police force (Division of Police), led

by a civilian “Commissioner of Community Safety.” Furthermore, the proposal suggests that Community Responders would be civilians, as compared to the Division of Police, which would be staffed by current police officers. The Division of Police would continue some of the current responsibilities of the IPD, such as responding to calls that represent a “serious threat” to public safety or those situations in which state law requires the presence of a police officer. Some “serious threats to public safety,” according to the proposal, might include bomb threats, burgalaries, shots fired, et cetera.

However, the new Community Responders would be able to react to “quality of life” situations—such as dog bites, traffic collisions, or the administration of fines and penalties, in which the presence of a police officer is not required. Beyond these matters, some incidents are classified as depending upon the particular situation—where police officers or Community Responders may respond, such as disorderly conduct, drug use, or trespassing.

The goal of this new division of responsibilities is to direct police resources to incidents that may require them, while utilizing civilian responders to “address public safety issues that would be

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better served by a different expertise and approach,” according to the proposal. De-escalation, crisis intervention, and referral to social services are some tools that Community Responders may utilize. Budget-wise, the new division would cost around $1.15 million per year, while the current IPD budget of $12 million would remain the same. No police officer positions would be removed under the new plan.

Reactions to the new plan have been mixed. Though the Ithaca Police Benevolent Association has been critical of the plan in the past, the union president of the association took a fairly neu-

tral stance after the release of the report, stating that, “It is important that this report is scrutinized by the public and that the Common Council thoroughly review and contrast the contents of the report with the wants, needs, and expectations of the public we all serve.” The proposal is also criticized by those who believe that it is not enough—arguing that it is a token gesture that will not actually reform the police department. Despite the 120-page report released on the proposal, many questions still persist, and only time will tell in what form the plan will be implemented—if anything is implemented at all.

The Ithaca High School Climate Exposition

By CAEDMON SETHUPATHY

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HS’s first Climate Exposition is taking place on May 22, from 1:00-5:00 p.m., at Ithaca High School. This event will feature several prominent local climate change activist organizations, such as Sunrise Ithaca, Green Team, Youth Farm Project, and the Supporting Women Impacting Society (SWIS) Club.

These organizations are a mix of student run (such as SWIS) and non-school-affiliated groups (Youth Farm Project). They will give various presentations on climate change awareness and climate justice. In the words of co-organizer Eden Lewis ’23, “We’re hoping to provide a space for people to understand the importance of achieving environmental justice through practical and ethical steps.”

Lewis is a junior at IHS and organized the exposition with the help of fellow student Kylie Golden-Appleton ’23 and staff member Armin Heurich. The idea for this event has been in the works since the beginning of the school year, when Mr. Heurich mentioned to Lewis and Golden-Appleton the idea of a large event devoted to activism and equity in the wake of the climate crisis. Both students had previously worked with organizations such as Sunrise Ithaca on rallies and were interested in pursuing his thought. After months of planning and contacting activist groups, they have managed to turn this idea into a reality.

The IHS Welcome Center will be used for the aforementioned presentations by activist groups. The open-air space between the quad and the performing arts building (A building) has also been reserved for the exposition’s use. If it rains, the Welcome Center can be used to house all attendees and presentations.

This ensures that the event will take place regardless of weather conditions.

The expo is also being held in collaboration with the Junior Solar Sprint, which will take place in Q gym or outside on the high school tennis courts. The Junior Solar Sprint is a yearly solar-powered car racing competition, where middle school students design and build their own miniature solar-powered vehicles and race them against each other. Students from DeWitt Middle School are scheduled to participate in the competition.

Those who attend the race are highly encouraged to visit the exposition as well, considering that both topics surround the issue of climate change and potential solutions.

According to the organizers, most logistical details have been resolved and the remaining action items center around publicizing the event and finalizing a set list of attending organizations.

Anyone who wishes to become involved and help in any way should contact Lewis, Golden-Appleton, or Mr. Heurich at their respective email addresses (eden.lewis@icsd.k12.ny.us, kylie. golden-appleto@icsd.k12.ny.us, aheurich@icsd.k12.ny.us). Mr. Heurich can also be found throughout the day in the IHS library.

For those who are unable to help publicize, all are warmly welcomed to attend and no tickets will be required. The event is entirely free and purely meant to educate the Ithaca community on climate change justice and awareness. Anyone interested in learning more about climate activism initiatives in the Ithaca area and how to become involved in ensuring both social justice and the safety of the planet during global warming is encouraged to attend.

Love by Grace Lim

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NEWS / OPINION

Palestinians Suffer from Israeli Violence during Ramadan

By RAIA GUTMAN and ELI McKENZIE

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hroughout April, Muslims all over the world observed the holy month of Ramadan by abstaining from food and drink during the day and focusing on worship. The practice of fasting for Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, and is one of the most sacred observances in the faith. Another holy practice of Muslims is pilgrimage—the Al-Aqsa Mosque is a notable destination. Located within the Dome of the Rock on Al-Haram Al-Sharif (“the Noble Sanctuary”), the site holds significance for Jews as well as Muslims, as it is the site of the Temple of Jerusalem and the plaza is known to the Jewish population as the Temple Mount. Despite its religious significance, the plaza (no matter what one may refer to it as) holds a history of violence.

During Ramadan of May 2021, Israeli forces launched strikes at Gaza for 11 days in response to Palestinian protests over Israeli expansion into East Jerusalem. Deemed “ruthless” in an Amnesty International report, these attacks killed 232 Palestinians, many of whom were children. Attacks like these during Ramadan have been a pattern for about a decade. In addition to 2021, more than 100 people were killed in 2014, 600 were injured in 2018, and 20 were killed in 2019. The attacks on places of worship, coupled with the effects of the destruction of homes and vital infrastructure, has made Ramadan in Palestine a time of worry and fear.

The tragic trend has continued this year: on Friday, April 15, 2022, Israeli riot police entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque and attacked Palestinians inside, injuring around 158 individuals and arresting between 300 and 400. Police used rubber bullets, stun grenades, batons, and tear gas in the attack, which police claimed was provoked by Palestinians throwing firecrackers and stones at officers, three of whom were injured. Hours later, hundreds of Gazans gathered in Gaza City to protest this incident of police brutality and pledge to protect the holy site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Friday was perhaps the most drastic development in a particularly violent month, which saw countless instances of violence enacted by Israeli forces against Palestinians—including a raid on a refugee camp and the shootings of a human rights lawyer who worked for the Palestinian Liberation Organization and an unarmed mother of six who approached Israeli soldiers in a “suspicious manner.” The death toll of Palestinians executed by Israeli forces since the beginning of Ramadan now exceeds 20.

Israel maintains that these military actions are “counterterrorism” operations to “restore a sense of safety, security and normal life for everyone,” according to a tweet posted by the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) on April 14.

Palestinians are not the only ones in the region experiencing recent violence: 14 Israelis were killed in a terror wave in the end of March and beginning of April, including a shooting in Tel Aviv that killed three civilians and wounded 12 others. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for at least one of these attacks.

Following the shootings targeting Israelis, Prime Minister of Israel Naftali Bennett granted “full freedom of action to the IDF” to combat terrorism. While this is clearly related to Israeli military attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, it should be noted

that the IDF’s violence, particularly against children, is well documented independently of incidents of terrorism against Israel.

Photographs and videos taken at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on April 15 reveal scenes of violence and fear. They create an interesting contrast with images taken later in the day of Palestinians both protesting Israeli police brutality and the occupation, and Muslims praying at the site of the mosque. This exemplifies the Palestinian people’s unique position with regards to the religious and political conflict that has developed since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem in 1967.

Within the “Free” Press, State Propaganda is Rampant

By WINTER KNUTSON

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hroughout Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the main focuses of Western governments and media has been the role of Russian state-controlled media in glorifying the invasion and spreading pro-Russian disinformation. In early March, the EU (European Union) imposed sanctions on stateowned Russian media outlets, banning the broadcasting of Russia Today in member states. The High Representative of the EU, Josep Borrell, justified this by voicing concerns over the threat to the European Union’s public order created by “information manipulation and disinformation by the Kremlin.” Major social media platforms and cable companies operating in the EU have cooperated by blocking access to Russian state-controlled media content. The Canadian government has taken similar measures to the EU, and despite the US government not taking action themselves, streaming networks such as Spotify and Roku have blocked Russian content anyway, with many other platforms also limiting the accessibility of Russian media.

While the actions of Western governments and corporations today are a direct response to the Russian invasion, these decisions reflect an overarching mindset about state-controlled media: that it’s a tool of authoritarian governments abroad to spread propaganda and misinformation to promote a political agenda. Meanwhile, the independent media in the Western first world offers plurality, a diverse range of perspectives and analy-

OPINION ses, and grants people the freedom to draw their own informed conclusions. The free press supposedly lacks the pro-establishment bias of state-controlled outlets of Russia, China, or North Korea, and the free flowing information from independent sources guarantees that, despite the political bias of individual media outlets, the mainstream media will report an accurate and nuanced worldview. This sounds logical, and one could certainly argue that the independent media in the US, UK, or other countries provides a more nuanced and accurate depiction of national affairs than state media outlets abroad do for their own nations.

However, when it comes to the reporting of international affairs, mainstream media outlets across the political spectrum consistently report a one-sided, blatantly pro-establishment perspective despite their independence from the state.

Many clear-cut examples of establishment bias exist in the media coverage surrounding the US and UK’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. For over a decade before the beginning of the Iraq war, the United Nations had maintained a crippling trade embargo against the country. UN sanctions were estimated to have contributed to the deaths of over one million Iraqi citizens, including over half a million children under the age of five, resulting primarily from a lack of food, water, and medicine. On March 31, 2000, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Humanitarian Coordinator Hans von Sponeck resigned from his office. Von Sponeck had been the head of the UN’s “Oil-For-Food’’ initiative, a “humanitarian” program established in response to concerns that international economic sanctions were harming Iraqi civilians.

The program allowed Iraq to sell oil to provide for its essential services and infrastructure, but only allotted a paltry $190 a year per capita to do so. Von Sponeck described the program as “wholly inadequate” and stated that describing the UN’s embargo policy as genocide was “unavoidable.” Just two years earlier, Von Sponeck’s predecessor Denis Halliday resigned for the same reason, saying that he “had been instructed to implement a policy that satisfies the definition of genocide.” Despite this, the US and UK governments argued that the sanctions needed to remain in place to prevent Iraq threatening its neighbors. Both the administrations of former President Bill Clinton and former Prime Minister Tony Blair repeatedly blamed the suffering of the Iraqi people on Saddam Hussein.

Within the mainstream media, the genocidal impact of the UN’s embargo went virtually unrecognized, and in the cases where it didn’t, the sanctions were presented favorably from the Western establishment perspective. For example, the UK-based Independent Television Network (ITN) reported on the UN’s “[targeted] sanctions to help ordinary people,” and claimed that “Saddam Hussein [had] eleven thousand million dollars for food” that he had been intentionally withholding. While UN diplomats and humanitarian organizations had accused the US and UK of killing Iraqi civilians with sanctions, the ITN disregarded this accusation and reiterated that the crisis was Hussein’s fault.

In the US, the UN correspondent of the New York Times had been devoting considerable attention to the “Oil-For-Food” initiative, echoing the State Department’s claims that the humanitarian disaster was the fault of Hussein withholding supplies to sabotage relief efforts. This wasn’t the only case where the perspective of the State Department was reported as the only version of reality. In their coverage leading up to the invasion of Iraq, media outlets were happy to unquestioningly report the US and UK governments’ propaganda surrounding Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). State officials such as

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former Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell repeatedly claimed Iraq was in the midst of developing WMDs, the latter doing so in front of the UN Security Council to justify US preparations for invasion. It’s now known that these claims by the Bush and Blair administrations were invented as pretext for the invasion, yet even at the time, UN weapons inspections repeatedly showed no evidence of Iraqi WMDs or programs for their production. Scott Ritter, a previous UN weapons inspector, emphasized that years of sanctions, inspections, and bombing had destroyed Iraq’s capacity for nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

The mainstream media presented the State Department’s line as factual, lacking critical examination or contrary perspectives.

For example, the Observer did almost nothing to challenge state narratives on Iraq, failing to report successful UN weapons inspections and even suppressing a report repeatedly submitted by journalist Ed Vulliamy revealing that the CIA knew the WMD narrative was fabricated. In January 2003, the Observer and its sister paper the Guardian mentioned Iraq in over 700 articles.

While the voices of warmongers including Bush, Blair, Cheney, and Powell had tens or hundreds of mentions each, leading anti-war voices such as Scott Ritter’s were only referenced 36 times, with Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck going completely unmentioned. The Guardian’s reporting of UN weapons inspections included the absurd suggestion from the government that inspectors were unable to turn up evidence due to advance publicity on inspection sites. Today, a BBC radio program, gave its top attention to a claim that Iraq was preparing to use chemical weapons sourced from unsigned handwritten documents presented by an Iraqi opposition group with a vested interest in seeing Hussein overthrown. The Independent ran a front page news story on three “mystery ships” in the Persian Gulf alleged to be carrying Iraqi WMDs, with a short follow-up restating the concerns of security experts, but suspiciously never followed up or referenced the story again. David Cromwell, a British mainstream media critic, emailed the author of the original article months later questioning what happened to the story, with the only response being that the Independent was “confident with [its] sources” and “continuing to pursue the story.”

The British mainstream media’s worst offender was the BBC, the UK’s state-funded but “operationally independent” national broadcaster. From its founding, the BBC has been used as a propaganda weapon by the British government. For example, during a general strike in 1922, no union representative was allowed to speak on the BBC. The founder of the BBC, Lord Reith, made its establishment-friendly nature clear in his diary, stating “[The British government knows] they can trust us not to be really impartial.” Independent journalist John Pilger reported that “journalists with a reputation for independence were refused BBC posts because they were not considered ‘safe.’” Before the Iraq War, while other media outlets would give minimal attention to anti-war voices, the BBC actively excluded members of the Stop The War Coalition from appearing on their programs, despite the group being one of the most influential in the anti-war movement. In addition to all this, it’s impossible to ignore the direct role of the British government in using British media to promote pro-war propaganda. “Operation Mass Appeal” was an operation carried out by Britain’s secret intelligence service MI6, in which MI6 agents aimed to plant false stories about Saddam Hussein’s WMDs. While propaganda was shared due to direct state interContinued on page 10

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Within the “Free” Press, State Propaganda is Rampant Continued from page 9 vention, the mainstream media were still directly complicit by failing to critically examine government sources and reporting dubious state claims as facts. While these examples are from British media, the situation in the US was comparable. A year after the war, the New York Times admitted to promoting US government propaganda in the leadup to the war, criticizing their coverage as lacking rigor and failing to challenge questionable information. The Washington Post admitted to not providing contrary perspectives to the State Department ones being reported. Dan Rather, a CBS news anchor, described the Iraq war as having made “stenographers out of [journalists]” who would regurgitate the government propaganda they had been fed. Some British media outlets likewise expressed regret after the Iraq war, but many still doubled down on the “fairness” of their coverage.

Iraq is only one example of a repeated trend in the Western mainstream media. Less than ten years after the Iraq war, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a report claiming that Iran was working to obtain nuclear weapons. The same mainstream media outlets that were supposedly regretful over their Iraq war coverage reported the establishment claims as an unquestioned fact, and once again, counter-evidence from leaked US diplomatic cables discrediting the IAEA chief as a US puppet went virtually unnoted. In 2011, the Glasgow University Media Group published More Bad News From Israel, a detailed analysis of media coverage of the Middle East that indicated major biases surrounding the portrayal of Palestinians and Israelis in the media on a variety of fronts. This was certainly not unrelated to Israel’s role in the region as an ally of the West. The mainstream media has a clear pattern of reporting international affairs with a definite bias towards the perspectives of Western governments, while minimizing or ignoring alternative viewpoints that challenge state propaganda.

But there’s no conspiracy behind the scenes that creates this establishment bias in the mainstream media. Rather, it arises from a variety of systemic issues. “Media impartiality” has come to mean reporting commonly accepted views, but as Dan Hind notes, balance and impartiality favor the views of those who have “secured some degree of power already,” and that “balance will marginalize information that would strengthen calls for changes to the structure of power.” This results in what Noam Chomsky calls the “fundamental principle” in discussions of international relations: “that ‘we are good’—‘we being the government, on the totalitarian principle that state and people are one.’” The Western establishment is benevolent, peaceful, and just, and simply makes occasional errors when pursuing these ideals.

In Chomsky’s book Manufacturing Consent, he puts forward the idea of the “propaganda model” of the mainstream media, specifically noting the reluctance and even fear of the mainstream media to confront political elites. Senior journalists aren’t instructed that they have to support their governments’ political agendas, but have gained their respected positions through their willingness to do so. Journalists who don’t wish to comply don’t have much of a choice. Aforementioned CBS news anchor Rather noted that journalists avoided challenging state narratives on the Iraq war because “There was a fear in every newsroom in America [of] losing your job.” Some journalists may try their best, but they work within the confines of a system that makes posing serious challenges to mainstream views impossible, and potentially a

death sentence for their career.

While the Western media currently demonizes Russia’s state-controlled media for promoting propaganda and disinformation on the invasion of Ukraine, its coverage of international affairs similarly demonstrates glaring state bias, and the willingness of private media outlets to spread misinformation by their own governments is almost indistinguishable from that of state-controlled media. The free press of the Western first world may even be more dangerous than the state media of countries like Russia or China due to its insidious nature. US political writer Michael Parenti expresses the belief that “the most repressive forms of social control are not always those we consciously rail against, but those that so insinuate themselves into the fabric of our consciousness as to remain unchallenged.” The failure of mainstream media to hold the government accountable while presenting itself as fair and impartial enables corrupt governments to pursue their own interests without being challenged by a complacent and uninformed public, and if we allow this to go unrecognized, the problem only worsens.

We Can Edit the Human Genome: Should We?

By LOUISA MILLER-OUT

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n October of 2018, the first genetically modified humans entered the world. The twins, born in an undisclosed location in China, have been given the pseudonyms Lulu (露露) and Nana (娜娜). While they would normally have been at risk of HIV because their father was positive for the virus, their DNA had been edited to include a mutation in the gene for a protein that some forms of HIV use to invade cells. This would confer innate resistance to those forms of HIV, reducing the twin girls’ risk of suffering. But what became of the scientist who made these modifications, Dr. He Jiankui? One would think he’d be in the running for a Nobel, but he’s actually languishing in prison. He’s served nearly three years for the crime of giving babies better immunity to a debilitating virus.

In order to understand why Dr. He’s research enraged the Chinese government and created international uproar, it’s important to understand that his actions were more consequential than they may appear. The changes to Lulu and Nana’s genomes will not only affect them, but reverberate through their descendants. The HIV-resistance modifications to the embryos were germline edits, a term which simply means they affect reproductive cells and can thus be inherited. This type of change contrasts

OPINION

with somatic editing, in which some of the non-reproductive, or somatic cells, of a living person are altered. The key difference is that germline editing, even if it’s just a drop in the bucket, permanently changes the human species, whereas somatic edits die with the organism that harbors them.

The predominant gene-editing technology currently available is a mechanism known as CRISPR-Cas9: the molecular “smart scissors” that He Jiankui used to snip Lulu and Nana’s genes for the HIV anchor protein he was targeting. CRISPR-Cas9 consists of two key components: a guide RNA sequence containing instructions for which DNA sequence to cut, and an enzyme, Cas9, that executes these instructions. Afterwards, cells’ preexisting repair enzymes reassemble the modified DNA. The applications of this technology are practically limitless, and its effectiveness is constantly increasing as scientists study and develop it. It’s not a matter of whether human genetic editing is possible—Lulu and Nana are living proof—but rather a matter of ethics. When Dr. He gave the twins HIV resistance, he also spawned perhaps the biggest bioethical debate of all time.

Some feebly argue for complete abstinence from germline gene editing on the grounds that pregestational gene therapy is harmful or risky to embryos. This is not a concern; in order to avoid mosaicism, in which someone ends up with two genetically different sets of cells, embryos are edited as close to fertilization as possible, when they are mere single-celled zygotes or minuscule two-cell clusters. They are scarcely more than eggs and sperm, no more sentient than your average microbe. They lack the capacity to feel pain or anticipate their own death (unlike other fully developed, intelligent animals such as monkeys and pigs which are commonly used in genetic experiments).

Others make the moral argument that we are “playing God” by attempting to modify our own genome. However, humans have few qualms about making germline edits to other species, especially in livestock; it’s already been done in pigs, goats, and cattle, among other animals. Somatic editing, while less controversial, has been successfully performed in monkeys, dogs, mice, rats, pigs, and rabbits. Our skittishness when it comes to altering our own genome is somewhat hypocritical; we’re happy to make heritable modifications to non-human animals in order to create more fertile livestock, or pigs with organs that human donors can accept. But this is hardly surprising in a society that slaughters millions of certain sentient animals a day for meat and keeps others as pets along arbitrary lines. It speaks to the issue of human exceptionalism that we’re content to “play God” as long as it’s not our own DNA we’re messing with.

Some opponents of germline gene editing emphasize the lack of consent on the part of the unborn fetus. But fetuses don’t consent to being conceived in the first place. They don’t consent to the random genetic shuffling that occurs when their parents’ chromosomes recombine, nor do they get to select which egg and sperm provide the basis for all their cells. In addition, countless factors during pregnancy affect gene expression and fetal development, including diet, stress, and other aspects of the parents’ lives. Embryos already don’t get a say in their own DNA and their parents’ decisions profoundly impact their development long before they can give any sort of consent. There’s no reason to argue against further modification; the only difference is that human beings are presiding over it instead of throwing our hands in the

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air and letting nature randomly decide.

It’s a well-established scientific fact that genetic variation is crucial to the biological and social health of a population. We don’t want to diminish the variety in the gene pool; this will only detract from our ability to adapt to environmental change (a particularly pressing issue), not to mention increasing the rate of recessive genetic disease. It would be disastrous to lose the diversity that our species boasts. Making too many unnecessary or aesthetic edits has a chilling resemblance to the eugenics of the 1940s. But the public overestimates the extent of scientific knowledge about the human genome. We don’t understand it nearly enough to go around snipping genes arbitrarily; part of why Dr. Jiankui has been so broadly maligned is because of the risk of off-target effects (which he screened for, but cannot fully predict). We don’t want to rush into this, and focusing all our efforts on safe, regulated research and development will reduce the long term risk of permanently adding devastating mutations to the human genome while keeping gene editing tools out of the hands of racists and ableists.

Nevertheless, this technology is the harbinger of endless possibilities, like the creation of completely novel human genes that could actually increase genetic diversity. We could use gene editing to rapidly adapt to the inevitable damage caused by climate change. We could greatly increase the quality of human life and reduce unnecessary suffering; it’s a utilitarian dream. The major caveat is that we acknowledge our limitations and think critically about the real-world implications of germline gene editing once it is widely introduced and we understand the human genome enough to consistently predict the outcomes of our modifications.

Similarly to how richer people have more reliable access to safe abortion even in areas where it’s illegal, germline gene editing will be disproportionately available to those who can pay top dollar until it’s developed enough to be widely affordable. There will be a period of time in which extremely affluent families could use this technology to entrench traits that will massively benefit their offspring, creating a sort of genetic generational wealth.

In this way, germline gene editing could preserve the existing privilege of the wealthiest members of society and engrave class distinctions permanently into our very genome. As with abortion, the procedure will happen regardless of legality, meaning that clandestine or DIY attempts at gene editing will be more dangerous and disproportionately harm economically disadvantaged populations.

Therefore, this technology should not be made available to the public until it is accessible to everyone who desires it.

Some criticisms of Dr. He Jiankui are legitimate; he did sidestep safety regulations, standard procedures, and Chinese laws (albeit discriminatory ones) in the process of creating the world’s first genetically modified humans (although Lulu and Nana’s parents did provide informed consent). But he doesn’t deserve to be in prison for these violations; some kind of probation would suffice. The international community is merely using him as a punching bag for daring to open Pandora’s box, because now the rest of us have to grapple with incredibly difficult questions that strike at the very heart of human nature. Now that gene-edited humans walk (or toddle) among us, it’s become more clear than Continued on page 12

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We Can Edit the Human Genome—Should We? Continued from page 11 ever that we are living in the distant, intangible future of sci-fi writers’ wildest dreams. We’ve taken our evolutionary trajectory

into our own hands, and now it’s up to us to decide who wields the CRISPR-Cas9 scissors—and where to cut.

The Case Against Grammar Policing

By VALENTINA LEBRET

Content Warning: This article contains mention of racist violence.

“T

hey’re,” not “their.” For years, this was my motto, which I would brandish like a flag whenever I entered a room, scanning the discussion for errors to correct.

With my motto, I could dispel arguments with a few words and a condescending laugh, paired with the care of an expert sommelier. Like others with similar mindsets, I held very real power.

However, unlike spelling and punctuation, grammar is an innate part of any language, which speakers acquire from birth. Why, then, is a grammatical error—and its subsequent correction—so powerful? What are the consequences of correcting someone’s grammar? And why does it matter?

The obsession with grammar is relatively new, beginning at some point in the 18th century, when a frenzy of English grammar books was published, most notably Robert Lowth’s Short Introduction to English Grammar in 1762 (which had gone through more than 40 editions before 1800). Lowth’s success prompted imitation by others, who quickly filled their books with rules they formulated themselves. The explicit goal of these guidebooks was to aid the study of Latin and, as Lowth put it, “teach us to express ourselves with propriety.” The implicit goal, of course, was profit.

The problem with these books and their kind is that they glorify a single form of English, even though our speech is constantly changing. John McWhorter, an American linguist, explains this phenomenon in his book Words on the Move: “One of the hardest notions for a human being to shake is that language is something that is, when it is actually something…becoming.

They tell you a word is a thing, when it’s actually something going on.” So, when we wonder why anyone ever cared about split infinitives, for example, or why Shakespeare is so hard to understand, it is really because those people spoke a different language.

It is also important to understand grammar policing within the context of greater linguistic prejudice, especially against non-standard vernacular dialects. McWhorter classifies these dialects as “nonstandard but not noncoherent language” which are generally used within an oppressed or minority community.

When members of these communities engage with speakers of the standard dialect, they generally encounter linguistic prejudice. In other words, they face discrimination purely for how they speak. For instance, studies have shown that when people

dislike a speaker’s dialect, they stop actively listening. Additionally, speech in a non-native accent is considered less credible, which has tremendous consequences in legal settings, where misunderstandings and mistranscriptions are more likely to occur against those who speak stigmatized dialects.

In America, these prejudices play out most markedly against speakers of African American Vernacular English, or AAVE. AAVE is a complex and legitimate form of speech, with deep roots in West African languages and Caribbean Creole dialects.

However, AAVE in particular is subjected to condescension and erasure, which further marginalizes its speakers.

For instance, one can look to George Zimmerman’s trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin. Martin was an African American teenager who was shot by Zimmerman while he was walking, unarmed, near his relatives’ home. He had been speaking on the phone with his friend, Rachel Jeantel, who later testified against Zimmerman’s claims of self-defense. However, Jeantel spoke in AAVE, and was dismissed, reportedly called “hard to understand” and “not credible” by the court. Her testimony, which should have made her the prosecution’s star witness, was never even mentioned during the 16-hour jury deliberation, her voice completely ignored.

This is only one example out of thousands. Even wage inequality can be linked to speech patterns. A study by economist Jeffrey Grogger pointed to a 12 percent gap in earnings between workers who “sound Black” and those who do not, regardless of the worker’s actual race. Another study by linguist John Baugh found that when one “sounded white,” they were more likely to be accepted by prospective landlords. This pattern was, again, unrelated to the speakers’ race.

In this way, one can see that the analysis of others’ speech directly contributes to their perceived intelligence and worth.

Policing grammar is nothing if not a calculated way to humiliate and dismiss others, originating from nostalgia and greed, and it has too often been used against minorities and low-income communities. I will not take part in it anymore.

None of this is to say that grammar is unimportant, unworthy of attention, or even uninteresting. But when we use grammar to enforce a “right” way of speaking, we silence everyone outside of the norm, created and perpetuated by a capitalist, classist, white supremacist society. Our actions do not exist in a vacuum. So the next time you catch a grammatical error in someone else’s work, especially if you disagree with that work’s contents, try to refocus your attention. Just listen. Listen to what their saying.

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Make Breaks Breaks Again

By CLARA WEBER

C

oming out of the hybrid (or in some cases, entirely virtual) 2020-21 school year, it’s become abundantly clear that doing schoolwork in a home setting is actually more taxing than doing so in a school setting. We don’t have our home environments tailored to the learning experience like we do at school, and we’re removed from the presence of peers and teachers that encourage us to stay in the work mindset. This year particularly, with all of the increases in global stressors and distractions, many students are finding it hard to keep up with their regular academic workload. When we have a break from school, we want to be able to actually take that break. The simple factor of not physically being in the school building does not cover that need.

Being able to take a real break means not only an escape from the school environment, but also from school work and other school-related expectations. Giving students work over school breaks is an extremely effective way to defeat the purpose of a break in the first place.

In my mind, the best example for how having work over breaks affects students is the practically universal experience of distance learning last year. All of us in the district were effectively “working from home” at least 50 percent of the time, if not always. For some, this was a benefit, but for many students and teachers alike, it was a huge disruptor to the coveted “work-life balance.” Teachers scrambled to create and distribute materials and lessons from home, and students struggled to learn in their home environments, some without reliable internet or quiet homes. Students with assigned work have these same struggles to deal with, just on a shorter schedule. Because last year prompted such a shift towards digital work, students with unreliable internet are struggling more, now that accommodations for the “distance learning” setup are not a priority. Hectic home lives most likely have not changed, and for many students, school breaks mean taking care of younger siblings while parents remain at work.

Another consequence of assigning work over break is the ruining of the “break mindset.” I’m sure you’ve noticed, whether as a student or a member of the staff, that as breaks get closer, motivation and school-related energy levels tank. In such a stressful time period, students eagerly take any rest offered to them. We need the relaxation and time off that breaks promise; being required to finish assignments in this theoretical “free time” can be defeating. Just one assignment can detract from the benefits of a break. Even if it would only take ten minutes, the immediate inclination is to put it off until it absolutely needs to be done.

This leaves us with the nagging knowledge that we have things to do eating away at our intended relaxation. As an upperclassman, another factor of breaks is the expectation of college visits. All of our school breaks come before final college decisions are due, and many upperclassmen take school breaks to travel and gather information on potential college choices or to narrow down their final options. In these cases, fitting in other school work can be difficult to manage alongside packed daily schedules and the

time-sinks of travel. Maintaining a “break mindset,” in which students are free from the pressure of schoolwork and can fully relax, is an essential part of the function of school breaks.

I’m sure a lot of you are thinking, “Well what about homework? We do that at home, right?” Sure, we all have some amount of work that we take home from school, but this is something that we’re all used to. We know that we’ll have work to do, and there isn’t the anticipation of relaxation to battle with to the same degree as with work over break. Lots of homework, often due the next day, also has a shorter time frame than work assigned over week-long breaks, making it harder to procrastinate.

The point is, homework is part of our regularly scheduled program. Homework is more of an extension of the school day than it is an added thing to do, and many of us plan for its existence anyways. Work over break? Not so much. We plan on having free time, and on being able to escape the school week. Emerging from the proverbial wreckage of last year’s distance learning and focusing on mental health, I hope that you, as students, staff, and community members, can step back and look at the roots of student displeasure with being assigned work over break. We’re not lazy, and we’re not trying to shirk responsibility. We only ask that the time given to us for rest and de-stressing be taken seriously, not only in these stressful times but always. We need our breaks to be breaks.

The Johnson Museum of Art (1) by Hannah Shvets

The Johnson Museum of Art (2) by Hannah Shvets

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OPINION

Age Is Just a Number, and You’re Just a Pedophile…

By HANNAH SHVETS

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t’s 8:35 a.m. and I’m just trying to get to my French class in peace—which I would be successful in doing were it not for the couple walking at one mile-per-hour in front of me, holding hands. To make it worse, I know from nights of mindless social media stalking that the guy is a whole two grades older than the girl he’s with. The question that really begs to be asked is this: why are you so incapable of finding someone your own age?

Age gaps in high school (and even middle school) relationships are sickeningly normalized, both in media and in real life.

It seems as if every young girl wants an older guy because the ones her age can’t treat her right. Although it is true that the options for heterosexual women can feel limited, it’s concerning that we’ve adopted the mentality that because girls tend to be more mature than their male peers, they should have romantic relationships with someone in a completely different stage of development.

The common argument against large age gaps in relationships is that the difference in maturity can set people up to be exploited or pushed into things they’re not yet ready for. Although this is true, it leaves leeway for someone to say, “Well I’m just as mature as them even if they’re older!” As everyone knows quite well, the correlation between maturity and age isn’t perfect. It’s completely true that a 15-year-old girl can be more mature than an 18-year-old boy, however, there’s still room for the relationship to have a significant imbalance of power, leaving the younger person vulnerable to abuse. The thing is, it isn’t just about “maturity” because plenty of adults are less mature than teenagers, yet they still shouldn’t sleep with children. There’s this idea that with experience comes maturity, and while that can be true, the main thing that comes with experience is authority. Even if a partner is less emotionally mature than their younger partner, the fact that they’re older already creates a dynamic in which one is above the other and so has control over where the relationship goes. They’re seen as more knowledgeable because they’ve lived through more, and so, the younger member of the relationship may choose to trust them implicitly because they “know what they’re doing.”

So how much of an age difference is too much? Does it really stop mattering after high school, as some people say? There isn’t a number or a rule to live by that I could possibly provide you with, but I will say this: many factors must be considered, including age, grade, life experiences, financial and general stability, and future plans. The good old saying, “if the grades don’t touch, neither should you” doesn’t really apply when there are juniors at IHS who just turned 16 and seniors who have been 18 for a decent amount of time. Legal or not, the power imbalance due to difference in experiences still very much exists. Another popular way to quantify how much age difference is too much is the “divide your age by two and add seven; that’s the minimum age you can date” rule, which tends to give reasonable results but definitely does not work out all that well when you’re older. For example, should a 60 year old date a 37 year old? Some would

say it’s fine, because there’s this mentality that at a certain age it stops mattering. However, even as an adult you’re still learning and experiencing things, so the life you have could be drastically different from that of your partner. Even when both partners are adults—or even out of college—there are still stages in life they need to reach on their own terms. If a 30 year old is married to a 40 year old, they may feel rushed into starting a family when, if it was up to them, they would still be focusing on becoming financially independent and enjoying their 30s.

At the end of the day, there are people I know in happy and healthy relationships with people significantly older than them, and it’s not my business to stop them. Personally, it’s not a decision I would make, and I believe it can lead to all sorts of problems, but everything really does depend on the situation. Sometimes the younger partner is being taken advantage of and isn’t aware of it, but sometimes—because of maturity and dynamics and how good the person is at setting boundaries—it doesn’t turn out all that bad. This, of course, applies to relationships between consenting adults only. If you’re 15 and dating an 18 year old, please don’t fall into the trap of romanticizing the fact that you’re being used. And keep in mind: not everything is about legality. A relationship can be technically legal in your state but if you have to wonder or double check if it is, it’s probably safe to say it’s not a great idea.

TrichotilloWhat?!

By LORELLI CERVANTES

Y

ou probably don’t know me personally, but you have likely seen me around the halls. I am the bald kid. “Mr. Clean,” “Dr. Eggman,” “Professor X,” and my personal favorite, “Yassified Jeff Bezos.” I have heard them all. I have had people ask me, why did I do it? Was it for a fashion statement? Am I sick? No, no, and no. I have trichotillomania. Most people don’t even know what that is, let alone how to pronounce it. It’s also known as TTM or trich (pronounced like trick). Trichotillomania is a compulsive hair-pulling anxiety-related disorder. About five to ten million people in the U.S. have trichotillomania; roughly 3.5 percent of the population suffers from trichotillomania, according to research done by Suzanne Mouton-Odum in 2003.

Sometimes it can even lead to a more severe disorder called trichophagia, where people will consume the hair they pull out.

This can lead to physical problems such as trichobezoar, the formation of hairballs in one’s stomach.

Because trichotillomania is a compulsive disorder, even though I want to stop pulling, I can’t. I don’t know if there was a

OPINION trigger for this disorder, if everything going on in life made my anxiety so high it resorted to this. Half the time, when I would pull at my long hair, I didn’t even realize I was about to pull my hair until I already had. I would be sitting in class or at home and twirling my hair until I had already pulled. At first, it was only a few strands, then it was chunks, and then you could tell I was pulling. There were very obvious bald spots on my head. For those wondering, yes, it does hurt. Yes, my head did bleed a few times. I actually cannot control it. I cannot stop. So telling me to just stop is not going to help. I went from a side part to a middle part. I thought the middle part would hide the spots completely, so I was happy with that for a few days. But then someone asked me during lunch if I was going bald. I freaked out and found the G-Building gender-neutral bathroom—luckily unlocked—and hid in there. After a few minutes of sitting on the floor, I got up, looked in the mirror, and realized that the spots will always be noticeable, no matter how I part my hair. No matter what I do, they will always be there, and people will always ask. Not everyone has a filter and knows what is and isn’t a rude question.

Not everyone knows what is and isn’t a funny joke. That was the day I decided to shave my head. I was tired of the questions I was being asked about the spots, I was tired of having this long line in the middle of my head that had no hair. So I texted my moms

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and said that, after the last Legally Blonde show on Sunday, I wanted to shave off all my hair. They accepted my decision. So on Sunday, April 3, when I got home, my moms helped me shave off all my hair. It sucks that I had to shave it all off because I loved my hair, but I figured it would be the best solution.

Of course, my moms were nervous. They were worried that shaving my head was only going to be a temporary fix. Like a Band-Aid, and that I might move on to my eyebrows or eyelashes. I hoped that somehow I had tricked my brain into thinking that there was nothing else to pull at. Unfortunately, that only lasted for about a week. Even though I shaved my head, I still get urges to pull at my other body hair, such as my eyebrows or underarm hair. The urges for those feel different; they feel like an itch or a sudden, localized coldness. That is the best way I can describe it to people who do not have it.

Someone made a rude comment about me having cancer, so this is my response; I want others to know they are not alone because I did not know it was a disorder that can get treated until I talked to my moms about it. When I explained to my friends why I actually shaved my hair, more than half of them had no idea what trichotillomania was. Therefore, I am writing this for more awareness of this compulsive disorder, and hopefully, someone reading this who has trichotillomania will feel less alone.

The Slap Heard ‘Round the World: When Conflict Escalates

By ADDIE HOULE-HITZ

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he 2022 Oscars brought many amazing moments, including Ariana DeBose becoming the first Afro-Latina to win best supporting actress, and Troy Kotsur becoming the first deaf male actor to win an Oscar (for his work in the movie CODA). However, Will Smith slapping Chris Rock in response to Rock making a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, overshadowed these accomplishments. Whether or not this event challenged your opinion on Will Smith—for better or for worse— it has undeniably brought to light important questions: how does conflict escalate from verbal to physical so quickly? And is it ever justified?

For those who are unaware, here’s the general story: during his speech before announcing the award for Best Documentary, Chris Rock tried to get some laughs by poking fun at Jada Pinkett Smith. He stated, “Jada, I love ya. G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see ya.” Rock was, of course, referring to Pinkett Smith’s bald head, which is a result of her alopecia. Cameras first cut to Will Smith looking annoyed and Jada rolling her eyes, then to the former walking on stage and slapping Chris Rock across the face.

Although the audio was cut out in America, Japan and Australia got the uncensored version, in which the audience could hear Rock exclaim,“Will Smith just smacked the sh*t out of me,” as well as Smith’s response of “keep my wife’s name out of your fu*king mouth!”

So how did this escalate so quickly? Will Smith has since apologized for his actions, claiming that anger overtook him. Personally, I believe that while anger is a completely valid response to

being mocked, violence is not the right answer, and should only be used as a last resort. However, part of me can also understand Smith’s response. Not only has Jada been very open about her battle with alopecia, but it is also very publicly a touchy subject.

Additionally, Chris Rock did not run the joke by anyone prior to the Oscars before making it on a worldwide televised event with over 23.6 million viewers (according to the Academy numbers for 2020).

These actions make for a particularly strange scenario. Although Chris Rock is renowned as a comedian, he is also often associated with contention, especially at the Oscars. The last time that Rock was involved in an Oscars-related controversy was in 2016 when he also mocked Pinkett Smith for boycotting the Oscars that year, claiming that “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited.” Many Black stars—including the Smiths—had decided to not go to the Oscars that year to bring awareness to the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, but Rock’s comment on Jada’s hair wasn’t even the one to land him in hot water that year. He had an extremely racist quip involving three Asian children who were ten years old and younger. Further back, in 2005, Rock had another bit in which he shamed Jude Law for being a “second choice” and stated, “[Law is] in everything. He’s gay. He’s straight. He’s American.

He’s British. Next year, he’s playing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in a movie.” Although some of these problematic “jokes” were pre-approved by the Academy, and the Academy released a stateContinued on page 16

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The Slap Heard ‘Round the World: When Conflict Escalates Continued from page 15 ment in which they made it clear that the Oscars do “not condone violence in any form.” But they endorse jokes which are insensitive at best and then flip their positions when someone rebels against them? Not to say that violence is ever justified, however, the irony is not lost on any viewer.

Ultimately, is what Will Smith did honorable to some extent?

I personally think that the message could have been conveyed without a slap, but Chris Rock—admittedly—did need to be taken down a peg. If the comment at Jada had been his first offense, I think this would have been a different story altogether, but, this clearly isn’t the first time that Chris Rock has made fun of

something that should not be mocked on national television.

What is even more interesting is that in 2009, Chris Rock made a documentary titled Good Hair, which is all about the importance of Black hair, specifically women’s. So why would he think it was okay to make fun of Jada for her hair when he knows its emotional and cultural significance firsthand? Personally, I think that everyone is focusing far too much on Will Smith’s reaction when we should be focusing on the problem at hand: how the Academy is and has been letting hurtful and racist remarks slide and how no punishment has been dealt to those making them.

Green vs. Green

By CAEDMON SETHUPATHY

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limate change has created a great need for a reduction in greenhouse gas (i.e. carbon dioxide) emissions. The pollutants released by fossil fuels such as oil and gas are the main contributors to these emissions. Society is becoming increasingly aware of the need to transition away from fossil fuels and toward cleaner, more renewable energy sources. One of the main options for new sources is electricity. Electric energy releases no greenhouse gasses while being used and this makes it much more efficient and environmentally friendly. However, there are problems with the usage of electric energy, such as high costs and poor storage capabilities.

Firstly, electricity is not as “green” as it may appear. Electricity is produced from fossil fuels, nuclear energy, and renewables (in that order) in power plants. Mining fossil fuels releases a lot of greenhouse gasses before the electricity has even been generated. Furthermore, both fossil fuels and uranium (from which nuclear energy is made) are in limited supply on the earth. Thus, fossil fuels and uranium are not viable options—once our current supply runs out, electricity shortages will follow. The only option is to increase the amount of electric energy generated from renewable sources (i.e. wind and solar power) from the 19 percent of electricity generated today.

Other problems surrounding electricity stem from poor battery and energy transportation technology. Batteries store electrical energy and cables transport it all around the world.

Unfortunately, while being stored or transported, most of the electricity generated (65 percent) is released as heat. Because less electric energy is being preserved, companies generally charge a higher price. When supply decreases and demand remains stable, prices increase. Thus, the only way to drop electricity prices would be to increase the supply. The supply would be increased by the development of improved battery and cable technology. One way to improve cable transport’s efficiency is to build cables that can transport a higher voltage of electricity.

However, high voltage cables are far more dangerous than the ones currently used. If a cable were to break, the damage done to anyone who touched it would be far greater.

Clearly, there is a technological need to develop more ways to store and use electricity. In the midst of all these problems many people may look to nuclear energy as a means of buying more time. Nuclear power sources nine percent of the energy

in the US and the technology used to create it has been around for quite some time. Despite the proliferation and refinement nuclear energy has undergone in the last several decades, there remain three main problems with nuclear energy, one of which being that it is highly dangerous if a leak occurs and power plants must be kept under constant surveillance with consistent need for renovations and repairs. The dangers of nuclear energy were put on full display during the Chernobyl disaster, when the city in the Soviet Union (modern-day Ukraine) faced radioactive meltdowns caused by nuclear plants. Secondly, nuclear energy is made from the fission of uranium atoms—the process by which atomic bombs are made. Like oil, coal, and gas, there is only so much uranium on the planet. Thus, relying on nuclear energy for too long of a period could result in shortages. This is not to say that nuclear energy is not preferable to fossil fuels, but relying heavily on it would require massive efforts to improve infrastructure to ensure the power plants are reliable and up to date (a major problem in the UK energy crisis of 2021). However, the biggest problem with nuclear energy is that all of it is used for the production of electricity. As already mentioned, electricity’s storing and transportation capabilities are currently not very efficient. Using more nuclear energy would not solve any problems with electricity but instead make us even more dependent on it.

Unfortunately, storage and transport are not electrical energy’s only problems. Heating people’s homes with electricity is highly expensive. Per billion British Thermal Units (a unit that compares various energy sources by the amount of heat they release) electricity from a heat pump costs $10.75. The cost of electricity is more expensive than natural gas ($8.24) but far cheaper than petroleum. The catch is that an electric heat pump requires a lot of equipment that must be purchased and installed before electricity can even be used. The equipment adds a large amount of upfront costs to electric heating and explains why many people are unable to afford it. In fact, an electric heat pump can cost anywhere from $4000 to $10,000 to purchase. Before electric heating can become widespread, the upfront costs of equipment must drop drastically. One way that widespread electric heating could be achieved is through government subsidization of clean energy technology (such as electricity), which would provide some cushion on the upfront costs.

On a positive note, the usage of coal has greatly decreased in

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America over the last ten years. The hope of many climate activists is that just as natural gas took the place of coal, renewables will oust natural gas. Electric car batteries have lately become more efficient and inexpensive, but it may take some time for these innovations to catch up to all methods of transportation. If so much electric power was not wasted (due to storage and transport inefficiencies) then supply would go up to match the high demand and prices would eventually be driven down. Also, the

production of electricity needs to become more environmentally friendly, with fossil fuels taken out of the equation.

It’s important to recognize that the world runs on money, and idealistic hopes for a clean energy takeover have to be backed up by the pocketbook. The future of the planet depends on how fast technology can be improved to make electrical energy more efficient and cheap. If not, then the struggles of “green vs. green” will continue, a battle of “money vs. planet.”

From the Archives: Excerpts from the Tattler Issues of Yesteryear

By ALICE BURKE

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eep within the halls of IHS, at the end of the E-wing, one can find a very small, very pink room. This room is hidden to most—the number of students who have stepped foot in the room can be counted on a single hand. Although small and overlooked, this room holds some of the most enticing and unknown secrets of our school. For within these walls lie four average-looking filing cabinets that contain the annals of Tattler history, dating all the way back to 1892. Here follows a small selection.

Read more online at https://tattlerarchive.wordpress.com/ Note: The current Tattler does not necessarily endorse the opinions published in historical Tattlers.

May 20, 2011 “Global Linguist: Commonly Used Words of Arabic Origin” admiral amir al-bihar, “commander of the seas,” a title in use in Arabic Sicily and continued by the Normans in Sicily in a Latinized form, and adopted successively by the Genoese and French. algebra al-jabr, completing, or restoring broken parts. The mathematical sense comes from the title of a book by the 9th-century mathematician al-Khwarizmi. When translated to Latin in the later 12th century, the book’s Latin title contained the newly minted word “Algebrae” representing al-jabr. algorithm al-khwarizmi, a short name for the mathematician Muhammad al-Khwarizimi. The appellation al-Khwarizmi means “from Khwarizm,” which, in Latin, became “Algorismi.” Until the late 19th century, both algorismus and algorithm simply referred to the “Arabic” decimal number system.

arsenal dar as-sina’a, house of manufacturing. In English the word originally meant “a dockyard for repairing or building ships.” From Italian and specifically from Venice, the word spread to every European language. cipher, zero sifr, zero. Cipher came to Europe with Arabic numerals. Original meaning “zero,” then “any numeral” then “numerically encoded message? In English, cipher was also used as another word for zero until the 19th century. harem harim, women’s quarters in a large household. Arabic root-word means “forbidden,” and thus the word carried the connotation of a place where men were forbidden. A 17th-century English word; probably entered English through Turkish. magazine makhazin, storehouses. Used in Latin with that meaning in 1228. Still used that way in French and Italian. More commonly, in English, a “magazine” was an arsenal, a gunpowder store, and later a receptacle for storing bullets, A magazine in the publishing sense of the word started out in English in the 17th century, meaning “a store of information about military or navigation subjects.” syrup, sherbet, sorbet sharab, a word with two senses in Arabic: “a drink” and “syrup.”

Medieval Arabic medical writers used it to refer to a medicinal potion. It was passed into medieval Latin in the 12th century.

Separately, the same root word re-entered the West via Turkish as “sherbet,” a sweetened fruity drink. tarif tarif, notification, specification. In late medieval Mediterranean commerce, it meant a statement of inventory on a merchant ship,

Continued on page 18

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From the Archives: Excerpts from the Tattler Issues of Yesteryear Continued from page 17 or any tabular statement of prices and products (or services) offered for sale. In use by Italian-speaking merchants in the 14th century. emith samt, al-ra’s, zenith, vertex. Origin in texts of astronomy in Medieval Islam. In English, it dates back to the late 14th century.

“THE INSERT” In 2007, a Nebraska State Senator sued God. Senator Ernie Chambers filed the intentionally frivolous lawsuit to make a point that anybody can sue anybody else. This was in response to a lawsuit against a district court judge that Chambers thought was inappropriate.

In Chambers’s suit against God he claims that God has made terroristic threats against both him and his constituents and has caused “widespread death, destruction, and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth’s inhabitants.” In addition, he was suing Him for causing “fearsome floods, horrendous hurricanes, and terrifying tornadoes.”

Each Pringles potato chip is a hyperbolic paraboloid.

Each of the (non-broken) chips are in this same double-saddle shape, which is actually a special kind of quadric surface in mathematics. So, if you ever wanted to know the equation for a Pringles chip (and I’m sure you have) it’s z=x^2/a^2 - y^2/b^2.

Now, who would’ve thought math would be so delicious?

Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham after his editor bet him that he couldn’t write a book using 50 words or less.

Not long after publishing The Cat in the Hat at 225 words, Bennett Serf challenged Seuss to see if he could write a book using even FEWER words. Seuss was able to deliver and win the bet.

Green Eggs and Ham uses exactly 50 words!

Another interesting Dr. Seuss fact: Yertle the Turtle, the turtle that orders other turtles to stack on top of each other, was actually based on Adolf Hitler! Despite the strong political message, the only thing that bothered the publishers about the book was the fact that a character burps in it. There used to not be burping in children’s books.

May 13, 2009 “Understanding the ICSD Budget Process” Of late, there has been a great deal of talk throughout the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) about the current budget crisis, and about creating a budget for next year. Clearly, given the state of the economy, the formation of a budget for the following years is crucial. But how is a budget formed? What does the budget process involve? Many people, publicly or otherwise, have asked such questions, and they deserve answers.

A budget is basically a plan for the future written in terms of money. Its purpose is to predict coming revenues and expenses,

and to react accordingly so that the given business, or, in our case, school district, may continue to operate and avoid bankruptcy. Especially for a business, the creation of a budget is also a good way to maximize profit.

In a given school district, the superintendent will propose a budget after examining projected tax revenues and necessary expenditures for the coming fiscal year. The annual profit from income tax, a certain amount of state aid, plus other less substantial revenues make up the district’s funds. A budget has to be finalized at a specific time, and since states usually announce their quantity of aid fairly late in the game, oftentimes, the superintendent will have to estimate the amount of aid the district will get, using information from previous years to help in the prediction.

Once the superintendent has come up with a budget, it is presented to the Board of Education (BoE), who then passes it on to the public. In the next few days or weeks, at public meetings, the community may discuss the budget with the BoE in an attempt to make the desired changes. This is always beneficial for community members, as the Superintendent and the BoE are willing to listen to what locals have to say, and to take their statements into account.

Once all the necessary revisions are made, the budget is finalized, and, assuming everything goes according to plan, any obligatory cuts will be made and the district will progress through the coming fiscal year with ample money to run its operations. If things do not go according to plan, the district will usually have what is called a “contingency budget” set aside. This is a budget that is only spent if a given emergency occurs. With a contingency budget, a district, or business, can be ready for the unexpected.

“Dear Genghis: Fashion” Dear Genghis, What should I wear to attract the attention of my crush?

-Spring Fashion ’11 Dear Spring, My advice to you is to go primitive. Instead of wearing a hideous pair of Ugg boots, get an even more hideous pair of boots made from yak hide. They’ll knock the socks off of your popped-collar, plaid-shorts boy-band wannabe love interest. Also, don’t shave your pits. The long arm hair of Kenyan female chimpanzees produces a pheromone that drives the males of the troop wild with sexual desire. A similar pheromone has been discovered in humans by a researcher at Cornell. My last bit of advice is to stop brushing your teeth. Why wipe away the evidence of you two’s making out the previous night with dental hygiene products?

-Genghis Khan

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May 1973 “THE UNKNOWN SPEAKS” ―1― Why did they choose my dust?

I was not braveNo braver than the rest; And yet my grave Lies at the nation’s heart.

Potomac’s wave Shuts me from those apart I died to save. ―2― They laid me in a vault Where mothers kneel And armored heel Comes to a solemn halt. ―3― I shuddered at the shell That rent the night; I knew the living hell That washes white The souls of men, or shows Their truer light.

All had the strength that goes To win the fight. ―4― Why did they lay my dust In this fair grave?

I was not brave— No braver than the rest.

May 1993 “Senior Supplements” Note: The May issue of The Tattler was the last one published during the 1992-93 academic school year, and as a result, senior quotes and memories were added to this issue, rather than the June issue. Here follows a few selected “Senior Supplements,” which were written by students in the graduating Class of 1993 as they bid farewell to Ithaca High School.

NAME: Danielle Roeser NICKNAME: Dani FAVORITE OBJECT AND/OR PERSON OF LUST: Hey! That’s privileged information!

FAVORITE AND/OR FUNNIEST MEMORY: Dancing, acting, singing, etc. in “Pippin,” 1991.

LEAST FAVORITE MEMORY: Dave Bock confronting me in front of the class after I finally showed up for his 4BC tests.

IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT IHS, WHAT WOULD IT BE? That the jacket hooks in the top lockers would

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be easier to reach!

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE KNOWN FOR? Great performances, good hugs, laughing till my belly aches, poking boys in the stomach, and miles of smiles to anyone who needed them.

WHAT IS THE BEST THING ABOUT BEING A SENIOR, BESIDES GRADUATING? I can look down on the underclassmen who are miles taller than me.

BEQUESTS: I do hereby leave my valley girl imitation to Emily Eshelman, my superior calf muscles to Bogdan Grigoriu, my witty comebacks to William Nee, the many lunches I was prevented from eating to the teachers monitoring H-Courtyard, and my mogul skiing ability to Brian Moravec (may he get on those skis once again).

NAME: Brian Slattery FAVORITE OBJECT AND/OR PERSON OF LUST: I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I sure would like to.

FAVORITE AND/OR FUNNIEST MEMORY: When Mike Ramage sneezed, belched, and farted all at the same time.

LEAST FAVORITE MEMORY: When he vomited on me afterwards, getting screwed.

IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT IHS, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Kiddie rides in H-Courtyard and a ferris wheel in the quad WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE KNOWN FOR? I don’t remember.

WHAT IS THE BEST THING ABOUT BEING A SENIOR, BESIDES GRADUATING? It’s a surprise.

BEQUESTS: A smelly hairball of unknown origin to someone brave enough to eat it.

NAME: Brian Schultz NICKNAME: Bud-Wee FAVORITE OBJECT AND/OR PERSON OF LUST: Volkswagens, Chrie White, Bud, Fosters, Becks, etc.

FAVORITE AND/OR FUNNIEST MEMORY: Party, Party, Party!! Purge, Purge, Purge. Can’t change my clothes now.

LEAST FAVORITE MEMORY: Passing out in strange places, I don’t feel good, I’m calling into work, why am I broke? Who put the dent in the side of my car?

IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT IHS, WHAT WOULD IT BE? I would want to be able to sign in late all the time, skip my classes and get away with it, and make my own rules.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE KNOWN FOR? What I have always been known for―change, but not a lot.

WHAT IS THE BEST THING ABOUT BEING A SENIOR, BESIDES GRADUATING? Kickin’ back, doing as little work as possible to pass, graduating!

BEQUESTS: NO MORE SNOWSTORMS!!

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Check Your Source: The Origin of…Birthday Candles

By ADDIE HOULE-HITZ

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Image provided by author

s I’ve gotten older, my parents have taken it upon themselves to carry out the balancing act of fitting the greatest possible number of birthday candles on a cake for my birthday. Even if you stopped adding on candles at age 10, or if you don’t use them at all, birthday cakes and the candles adorning them are something we’re all familiar with… but where did the tradition of birthday candles even start? When you think about it, isn’t it odd—and a little dangerous—to light the top of a child’s birthday cake aflame?

Although the origin of humans using birthday candles can’t be proven for sure, the most common theory is that the tradition stemmed from the Ancient Greeks. Every spring the Greeks had a festival called Mounichia (or Munichia) during the full moon of the month Mounichion in the Athenian calendar. This month roughly corresponds to spring, and is estimated to have taken place around our Gregorian calendar’s April or May. The festival began in order to honor Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and the moon, at her temple in Athens. Athenians wished to commemorate Artemis for their victory over the Perisians in the Battle of Salamis, a primarily naval battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece.

During this festival, the cakes were placed at the base of Artemis’s temple in hopes of appeasing the goddess. The fire on top of the cake was supposed to resemble the moon. The candles would be blown out at the end of the night so that the smoke could carry wishes up to the gods. But the cakes used then were much different from the ones we see today. It wasn’t until the 1600s that layered, frosted cakes became well-known, and even then they were the preserve of the incredibly wealthy. At that time, such extravagant cake required high-quality production teams, and up until the 1760s, that kind of work simply wasn’t available. Once the industrial revolution rolled around, the mass production of both ingredients and equipment made cakes easier to be made by common folk.

The first trustworthy record of candles being used to adorn a cake comes from Germany in 1746. Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf had decided to hold a lavish birthday party for himself in his castle in Saxony (Eastern Germany). The Count—who was known to do wild things for the entertainment of his guests—decided to bake a grand cake and top in with the number of years he was turning in candles. When the night was dying down, the Count blew out the flames, hoping to ward off any evil spirits which were attracted by the bright light. Amazed by his spectacle, the Count’s guests began to copy his idea, and the practice of birthday candles spread throughout high-class Germany, and eventually to the rest of Europe. By the 1850s, full records of everyone from low-class to aristocrats using candles atop cakes.

Over the years, cake candles developed into the safer, non-toxic, paraffin wax we use today. Although COVID hasn’t allowed them to be used for quite some time, birthday candles are still a fun way to enjoy celebrating someone close to you, and make quite the spectacle—all thanks to Artemis and Count Zinzendorf.

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Good-bye to All That: One Student’s Experience of the Transition to Homeschooling

By RUBY LaROCCA

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hy did I switch from the social but predictable daily life at high school to a largely solitary but variable daily life learning at home? Even to begin to answer this question, I have to be so honest with myself that it makes me uncomfortable. But I’ll try to be honest. I’ll write it all down. Just the truth. No rhymes, no embellishments, no adjectives. …

Part I: Books Without books, I’d be just a bit of toast, my friend. Floating about unmoored and listless. When homeschooling, books are your real grounding force—to your study and yourself. One of the reasons I’ve been able to homeschool in the first place was because I’ve used books to learn things I would’ve never learned on my own. Last year, when I was attending IHS remotely, I was baffled by the lack of books in my humanities classes and upset to see the worrying direction that classrooms across the country have taken.

On April 12, the National Council of Teachers of English wrote, “The time has come to decenter book reading and essay writing as the pinnacles of English language arts education.” The NCTE’s new position statement will probably not be disconcerting or unwelcome to IHS students, many of whom have lobbied for the decoupling of book reading and the ELA curriculum.

Many IHS students, and even their teachers, have recently argued for the benefits of shorter, often digital, resources that can be easily digested and used as the basis for class discussions. For these students, books simply take too long to read and involve matters beyond students’ own everyday occupations. But of course pushing students beyond themselves, in uncomfortable and productive ways, is the main reason to read books. In his book Inconvenient Fictions, Bernard Harrison reminds us of the importance of book reading: “What literature in general, and narrative fiction in particular deals in is…dangerous knowledge: knowledge the price of whose acquisition is the risk the reader runs of being changed in his or her self by what he or she reads.

My suggestion, indeed, is that the peculiar value of literature in a culture such as ours, the thing which really does make it essential to a civilized society, is its power to act as a standing rebuke and irritant to the dominant paradigm of knowledge.” To Harrison, books are important to read because they change us—they allow us to see things we would have never otherwise seen, become people we would’ve never otherwise been. In our classrooms, books are being replaced with extemporaneous discussion of our own feelings and the lives we’re currently living. But the reason to read books is to expand our world, deepen our feelings, broaden our views—not limit ourselves to a life without “dangerous knowledge.”

What students are missing when they don’t read books isn’t a lofty sense of self-importance or accomplishment; it is the cognitive experience of growing and changing. And though book learning is not an entire education, as Allan Bloom writes in The Closing of the American Mind, “it is always necessary, particularly in ages when there is a poverty of living examples of the possible high human types. And book learning is most of what a teacher can give—properly administered in an atmosphere in which its relation to life is plausible.” In order to resist the deforming forces of convention and prejudice, education should be centered around great texts, and teachers ought to be eager and prepared to help students engage with those texts. Only then can students discover the “dangerous knowledge” found in books— the kind of knowledge that transforms us as we read.

When I began the homeschooling process (for it is a process, not a track, because it is constantly evolving), I was thrown back upon my own resources. I was cut off from the school in two ways: first, the physical removal of my school account and email; and second, I no longer had the convenience of accepting the content administrators and teachers had devised for me. Becoming discerning about what content I put into my curriculum is a huge part of the actual education I am getting as a homeschooler.

I accept this is partly my responsibility and see that as an advantage. The trouble, naturally, is how much there is to choose from.

Today teachers and students talk a lot about “relatability,” by which I think they mean that they want to see their own lives and experiences reflected in the books they read. Fair enough. I’d put this hope for shared feeling a little differently, though, and say that I am most satisfied and electrified when I find a book written by someone who is not at all like me, a book from a very different time and place, that nevertheless speaks directly to me—that feels (absurdly!) written for me. Many readers have tried to describe this feeling, but one of my favorite examples comes from Alan Bennett’s wonderful play and film The History Boys. One of the characters in this story is a cultured, knowledgeable, humane and profoundly human (i.e. imperfect) teacher, Hector, who reminds his students: “The best moments in reading are when you come across something—a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things—that you’d thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you’ve never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it’s as if a hand has come out and taken yours.” Books can feel as if they were written for you, even if they were written two thousand years ago in a world that is nothing like yours.

Of course, books aren’t the only guides—you need people too (but I’ll get to that later). The nature of a good book is that it will lead you to another book, another author, another subject you’d never before considered. Often your greatest interests come from Continued on page 22

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Good-bye to All That: One Student’s Experience of the Transition to Homeschooling Continued from page 21 a very superficial place. For instance, last spring, I read a play

by John Patrick Shanley called Prodigal Son because Timothée Chalamet was in the original cast. Silly, I know. But I ended up loving the play and using it as a reading list: the protagonist was reading the poems of Siegfried Sassoon, a prominent Great War poet, and so I decided to read a bit of his poetry. After a few days, I had read every poem he’d ever written and was working to assemble my own collection of his work, typed by typewriter and bound in green board. My mom was charmed by my odd pursuit and recommended I read Pat Barker’s fictional account of Sassoon in the Regeneration trilogy—the three best books ever written about neurasthenic war poets. Since then, I’ve gone on to read many books about the Great War, both fiction and non-fiction (The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fusselll, Good-bye To All That by Robert Graves, Parade’s End

by Ford Madox Ford, Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain, Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence, A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr…). While this pursuit might have started in a foolish place, the combination and order in which I leapt from text to text—each about war, poetry, language, history, and the nature of fiction—was intellectually compelling and has formed a great part of my life for the past year. At the end of the day I long to read my books—I get antsy if I don’t have a morsel of Graves or Bloom or Ford every so often. And when I am not reading these books I am thinking about them, employing their ideas and characters in my decisions and language, and using the text to inform the educational choices I make. Once you read a book wholeheartedly, you’re never really through with it and it is never really through with you.

Part II: Time Now all this leaping about from text to text, having the liberty to study what I love and what interests me, feeds into a common conception that homeschoolers are too free and flighty, or that we spend our days doing whatever we want. Au contraire, mon frere! As anyone who values real freedom must discover, obligations, commitments, and constraints are generative and anchoring. Indeed, I feel better when I have obstructions and constraints. When I feel least lost or adrift is when I have a test to study for, lessons to prepare for, meetings to attend, deadlines to meet, math formulas to learn, and Latin grammatical concepts to study. So you need constraints and restraints, deadlines, limits, rules and you need moments of freedom and time to explore and the chance to do something you don’t have to justify. Effective homeschooling rests in this delicate balance between liberty and structure.

Time feels different at home. My days are both slower and faster than they used to be. The modern American high school day seems full of inefficiencies: the school day is populated with the highest number of the shortest possible periods and students return home to mountains of homework which they can only start after other extracurricular commitments (sports, jobs, instruments, clubs, et cetera). Homework hours standardly range from six p.m. to one a.m. (or so I’m told by my bleary-eyed, gray-skinned friends). By staying at home I have eliminated the time I used to spend primping in front of the mirror in the morning, picking out outfits, the time waiting for the school bus, the time lolling about in the cafeteria, and the time unpacking and repacking my backpack in eight different classes. I’ve taken

back the daytime, essentially. I start studying early, around seven a.m., work almost constantly throughout the day, and except for special occasions I’m done by five p.m. Then I spend time with my family, watch great television, practice my instruments, work on my little projects, or read for pleasure, and go to bed at a very reasonable, grandmotherly hour. All this efficiency leaves a little room for unexpected adventures, good and bad.

Homeschooling allows for movement between the big picture and the small project, a fascinating and fraught shuffle similar to the balance between liberty and structure. I spend a lot of time doing what I call the Homeschool Shuffle: focusing on the details of some specific lesson, burrowing down, and then stepping back, looking at the big picture (what am I doing, how am I doing it). Once I started doing the shuffle, I found other people who were doing it. Take the mathematician Terence Tao, who has written, “It is only with a combination of both rigorous formalism and good intuition that one can tackle complex mathematical problems; one needs the former to correctly deal with the fine details, and the latter to correctly deal with the big picture. Without one or the other, you will spend a lot of time blundering around in the dark.” To take you back to my Siegfried Sassoon example: my AP European History course requires me to have a brisk, general knowledge of European history from the Renaissance to the present, but I found a period that interested me deeply (the Great War) and have given special attention to gaining a deeper knowledge of it, outside of the textbook.

I used to think that speed equaled competence. If you’re a motivated student, you may find yourself on the “accelerated” track.

Instead of learning things that challenge you and are different from what you would have otherwise learned, you are simply rushed through the curriculum, “covering” concepts at a faster rate than your peers. While I do take on courses of study at home that require me to cover certain topics in history and math, I am never required to move on before I have understood. I find the pleasure of knowing, in your heart, that you really understand something (or at least, have spent time trying to know it, and thus expanding your mind) far greater than the fleeting frisson of being the first to be done. This lesson did not come easy, for I tried for years to be the speediest. Sometimes it takes a pandemic to realize you work better when you’re not comparing yourself to others.

The philosopher Simone Weil said that any time spent trying to figure out a math problem, even if you spend three hours and don’t reach a conclusion, has been time spent broadening your mind. Making space for those thoughts, and honoring the mathematical process—it brings you closer to God, in the philosophical sense. High school does not allow for extended periods of time spent on something that may not produce a set answer or product; you simply cannot spend the day thinking about a single problem and not finding a solution. But I’ve found that I can do my best thinking and learning when I make that shift between my goal of completion and my attention to a detail such as a single math problem.

My own system certainly isn’t ideal. There are real gaps and problems and demons to deal with. I don’t have nearly as much time as I’d like to devote to English, writing, reading, or my ancillary projects. There are days when I look up and think, What have I done all day? Every day changes—one day ‘clearing the

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decks’ is productive, and the next simply thinking thoughts and asking myself the big questions counts as productive. But my aim, and the aim of my teachers (whether that is distant teachers like books or tutors that come to my home or speak and listen online, or my much-published mother) has been to build up a real, solid foundation in the areas I do study, and for that, you need time.

Part III: Self-reflection Homeschooling partly transforms you into a teacher. Like a teacher, you start to think constantly about education. It’s always at the back of my mind; I’m always thinking about the approach, what I’m doing, for what reason, in what order. Homeschooling means you have to want to be thinking about education all the time—which is not for everyone. It’s not always for me, either.

Constant self-reflection makes life incredibly difficult and filled with choices and complications and hard questions. I’m trying to do things that are useful—but I don’t always know what’s going to be useful. In another scene from Alan Bennett’s History Boys, one English school-boy preparing for Oxbridge entrance exams, Timms, asks his teacher, Hector, why they are reading poetry (A.E. Housman’s) instead of doing something that is practical and preparatory, something he can understand in the moment: Timms: don’t always understand poetry!

Timms: I don’tI always understand poetry!

Hector: You always don’t always understand it? Timms, I Hector: You don’t understand it? Timms, I never unnever understand it.

But learn it now, know it now derstand itBut learn it now, know it now and you will understand and you will understand it...whenever. it...whenever.

Timms: don’t seewe how can understand it. of Most Timms: I don’tI see how canwe understand it. Most the of stuff the stuff poetry’s about poetry’s about happened to us yet. hasn’thasn’t happened to us yet.

Hector: will, Timms. will.then Andyou thenwill youhave willthe Hector: But it But will,itTimms.

It will.ItAnd have the antidote ready! antidote ready!

Like Timms, I sometimes don’t understand what I’m learning or memorizing, but I believe Hector when he says that poetry prepares us for the very real events of the world—going to war, falling in love, falling out of love, making a friendship, losing a friendship, having a child, losing a child. As powerfully as long, transforming novels, poetry prepares us for what we encounter in life. Once you learn something in your body, you can draw on what you’ve learned whenever you do understand or require it.

Homeschooling also requires living guides. I am exceedingly lucky that my mom is a teacher and that she was willing to give up her own time and projects for me. What she mostly does now (which is a waste of her profound and particular talents) is act as a conductor. When she described to me what she does, she referred to Rancière’s Ignorant Schoolmaster, in which he says you don’t really need to be an expert to be a guide. Without speaking a word of German, she can help me in my study of the language by saying, “From now until dinner, speak only German and write down all the words you come across that you don’t know how to say.” We do not have the money to hire a fleet of tutors for each subject. The teachers I do have are remarkably generous with their time, which they give out of love or for the

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good of the subject. I also draw upon people saying new and exciting things out in the world, but whom I’ve never met. I spend a good deal of time with living guides such as John McWhorter, Sam Harris, Andrew Sullivan, Cornel West, Anne Applebaum, and Jaron Lanier…on podcasts and in articles.

But unless I am working with a teacher, I am working alone.

There can be no denying that homeschooling is profoundly lonely at times. I’d say I’m happy, or at least contented, most of the time but must admit to having one to three very sad, despairing days a month. However, the homeschooling life has brought me undeniable joys: spending hours and hours lost in thought or messing about with my homemade printing press while blasting music or staying up late watching great films. I may never know if it was the right choice to sacrifice the jostle and pleasure of high school for my quiet and scholarly existence. But as Alexander Nazaryan writes, “We must employ our private intellects to conceive forms that are, as Plato would have it, both timeless and universal.” And there is no better way to employ my private intellect to conceive of the timeless and universal than working independently at my own desk, which no longer seems small because I am supported by books and family and living guides.

COVID-19 in Morocco

By ELI McKENZIE

I

arrived at Marrakech Menara Airport on the morning of February 7, the day the country reopened to foreign visitors.

The Moroccan government had closed its borders in December as part of their effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even though the ban was lifted, the Moroccan airport still had plenty of measures in place to fight the spread of the disease in the country. Every employee in the airport was masked and all the arriving tourists were urged to follow their example. I had to fill out a few forms and take two PCR tests, one on each end of the flight.

Outside the airport was an entirely different story. I was quickly informed that “Corona is over” and that I no longer needed a mask. Since leaving the airport, I wasn’t asked for proof of vaccination and was only once asked to wear a mask inside.

Since my initial arrival, transportation requirements have been loosened. Even in state-run buildings, there is little concern for COVID safety. It seems as though people are keen to act as if the pandemic isn’t ongoing.

The effects of COVID-19 have been quite different here compared to America, but it has been no less destructive. Around a third of the Moroccan GDP (gross domestic product) is from tourism, so the decision to close the country had devastating effects. The government did little to help Moroccan families; whole towns were left to starve in the industry’s absence. Compounding the problem is, surprisingly, the success of the shutdown. With Continued on page 26

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CENTERSPREAD

Teachers on Changing Expectation for Students, Academic Gaps and Teacher Support

By FRANCES KLEMM After over eight months of students being back in the classroom, fully this time, with no added 20 students attached to the presentation screen, I sat down with three teachers to discuss teaching post virtual/hybrid year and its effects on students and teachers academically, emotionally and socially. *Responses are shortened for clarity and space Frances Klemm ’23: Has coming back from a virtual and hybrid year led you to adjust your expectations for students?

Arti Jewett, AP Biology, Department Head: Before the pandemic it was all about my content areas. Always about my subject, which did not necessarily make me the kindest person maybe, or the most sensitive person, and I’m still not, but the pandemic, by forcing us to slow down and by forcing us to realize that there is so much variation in our student population, and by forcing us to approach our content in different ways, it does make me look a little bit more closely at the people in front of me.

Instead of seeing them as science students, seeing them as people who are trying to get by, and you know science is just one of their many classes. And so I would say that’s a positive.

Steve Weissburg, Precalc BC and Geometry: In the past I had class wide expectations for what everyone should be able to do. And now it’s a little more individual based. There are some students who like ‘OK, you’re coping. This is what I want you to be able to do.’ And I feel like they’re making progress towards it.

And then there are some students where it’s like ‘Okay. My goal for you is to be able to work with the person next to you and talk about what you’ve done for homework.

I’m just trying to come up with a process where they can actually show what they know. I have students this year who failed every single test in the first semester and now they’re finally starting to pass stuff. So to me, that’s like substantial progress to get them to that point. I’m sort of less concerned about the curricular knowledge they have and more concerned about their ability to cope with school in general.

Sarah Thomson, English 10 and 11, War and Literature: What I’ve done is, and what I’ve always tried to do is seek to see the whole child and not just the academics. These kids are more than just the essays they’re giving to me. I think I’ve altered some of my expectations because some of the skills that I can give these kids are the things that matter in the real world like accountability, communication and so those are the things that

my expectations are firm on. But in terms of kids blowing off assignments or skipping classes or whatever. At the end of the day if they don’t care- I can do everything in my power and they still won’t. My expectations are: be accountable and if you’re not accountable there’s not much I can do to help you and that’s kind of like the real world too. Fine, you don’t like the task you’re doing at work, but if you choose not to do that task- that’s on you, you’re not going to keep that job. So I tend to try to grade [assignment] mostly for completion, and I send things back as many times as I have to until they’re revised the way I need them. I think that’s part of the learning process too.

FK: Without in-person teaching, being around classmates, and generally a normal workload and classroom, many students didn’t learn the content that they normally would from last year. How do you deal with that as a teacher, how did you adjust your classroom and curriculum if you did so?

AJ: I feel like for myself it’s been a big positive because what it did, last year especially, is it forced me to pair things down and maybe do less… I’m not even sure that I’ve cut a whole lot but I think I’ve repackaged it and cut away a lot of the frills and kind of gotten to the point of, okay ‘What is the point of this activity and what do I want students to take away from it?’ and so you take away some of the frills or the extra writing or the extra typing and still have that, but have it be part of discussion instead.

Do we need to write pages and pages of notes? Probably not.

Less is more. I think that’s been a big help. I don’t know that any labs have gone away either. We’ve done all the labs and dissections we’ve done in the past. I have to say, I feel fortunate from my perspective. If you ask other science teachers they may feel as though they’ve had to cut things out, I don’t know. But from my own experience I actually feel like it’s been a really enriching thing.

SW: I’ll say that there was an anticipation that students would have curricular gaps, but I think what was not anticipated was that in addition to the gaps students had issues with workload and speed of comprehension. So it’s not just that students were further behind, but it was taking them longer to learn material and they had less capacity to keep up in all of their classes because the preceding year, you basically had math class twice a week.

Like on the one hand, everyone recognizes that students are really overloaded and struggling with that. But at the same time, if you reduce the homework, then you’re not really helping. The students aren’t catching up on stuff, they’re actually doing less

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CENTERSPREAD than they need to be doing.

A lot of that stuff is like problems with good solutions. Unfotunately, I think pretty early on we’ve recognized there were lots of issues, but it’s been harder to address those issues. I would say as the year has progressed, most of us have decided that sort of like the social emotional well being of students is more important than the content knowledge. But that has meant trying to pull back a little bit on the content, so in a way we’re not filling in all the gaps that we would like to be filling in. But I mean, students have just been burning out, so.

ST: So for me I wasn’t looking at where their skills were as much.

I was more looking at how do we get habits back? How do we sit in a chair for 45 minutes? How do we focus on one thing without being able to get up and go to the bathroom or multitask on the screen while you’re in class? So my goal was just to teach kids how to be in the building again before I could even teach them.

In terms of gaps I’m sure my colleagues would say they’ve seen them, but my view and perspective this year has just been like; I’m still teaching the things I’m teaching, but sometimes there’s more scaffolding that needs to go into things.

sions down the road that we’re not really thinking of yet, and I’m seeing that in a lot of colleagues who like they’re just emotionally drained. Teaching is a pretty emotional experience. It’s not just knowing your subject ‘cause you also ideally want to have connections with students, and especially when you have so many students who are in crisis that actually takes a lot out of you. And if you are yourself emotionally exhausted, that has a cumulative effect. So I know that the district has lots of initiatives like changing our schedule for the third year in a row. They’re talking about changing grading practices, and I think there’s just a lot of teachers who are like at this point they’re like I just can’t deal with anymore changes. I just want one year that’s like a normal year, just like I’m sure there’s lots of students who feel like that.

And we’re limited in our ability to create a normal year, but I think we can at least recognize that sort of at all levels of the system like people are just struggling to do the basics. So maybe we need to relax our expectations for everyone a little bit so that everyone can sort of have a breather and try to catch up to where they were.

With kids not having to take the Regents for two years and now taking it this year, what are they going to do with the score and how that will affect students? I’d say stamina was one of the big things that kids were missing, and in my class we hand write for the first 10 minutes of every class twice a week because that wasn’t something that was done much last year. Kids are great typers. They’re great digitally, which is good for us. That’s actually like a boosted skill over time. You know, when I asked my students, “do you know how to do XYZ on Google Slides” they always know because they had to do those things and learn those things last year.

FK: How best can we support teachers right now?

AJ: When a teacher says, ‘it seems like this student may need Special- Ed services and they ask for help.’ Help them do the outreach instead of creating this weird red tape. Listen to teachers about what they need because I have found time and time again. They are focused on their students and that feeds back to them. They’re also focused on their own survival, so yeah, treat the classroom as an ecosystem, and that also means taking care of physical spaces, making sure that teachers can move, making sure that temperature is regulated. Making sure that water fountains work and bathrooms are unlocked are physical space feeds into how we can relate to each other and it makes for kinder spaces as well and kinder teachers. Honestly, you know, more relaxed people.

SW: I think it’s not widely acknowledged that the last two years were really hard on students. It was also really hard on teachers and I know there’s a lot of teachers who are really struggling and and you know, it started with teachers being expected to teach remotely and also simultaneously with kids in the class.

And having no training with that and really not any support. The same thing with dealing with this year when there are so many students in a crisis and so many issues with curriculum. I think there’s a real teacher crisis. Also, that’s largely unrecognized and un-dealt with and, and I think that’s also going to have repercus-

Tiger = New Tattler Mascot? by Grace Lim

The Johnson Museum of Art (3) by Hannah Shvets

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COVID-19 in Morocco Continued from page 23 a 75 percent vaccination rate (which is even higher in major cities) and no outside visitors, Morocco has had far fewer deaths than most of its neighbors. The combination of the strict shutdown and the high vaccination rate has left Moroccans feeling that the pandemic was overblown, or even faked.

Many of the conspiracy theories are not at all dissimilar to those back in the US. Government overreach and evil pharmaceutical companies remain staples of the genre. There has been some reason to distrust those entities. In 2021, a Moroccan company called Gigalab lost its medical authorization for its COVID tests after months of controversy. The company was in trouble for its suspicious advertising techniques, lack of public data, and instances of illegal sales of their tests. But while the theories may be the same, the actions of their believers couldn’t be more different. In Morocco, even those who don’t believe in the disease are vaccinated. Everybody with whom I discussed the pandemic said that the disease was exaggerated, but they also admit that they got the original vaccine as soon as it was available. The reason for this divide in thought and action seems to lie, surprising-

ly, in monarchy. People to whom I’ve talked have cited the advice of the king of Morocco, Mohamed VI, as one of the main reasons they got the shots.

But his trustworthiness seemed to fade as the travel ban continued. While many got the first round when it became available, the reception of the booster shot has been far less eager. To many people, it seems unnecessary because they are already vaccinated or assume they will get COVID anyway—they just want to be done with it. To others, it seems like a ploy to keep them dependent on the government. If they get the third, they say, they’ll be forced to get a fourth and a fifth and so on. The king’s advice now seems to fall on deaf ears.

How do government policies shape our reactions to crises?

Why are some reactions constant even across thousands of miles of ocean while others are surprisingly different? These are not questions that I’m equipped to answer but they are important to think about. By thinking about them, we can better fight this pandemic, the disinformation surrounding it, and all the crises to come in the future.

The Ultimate IHS Bathroom Survival Guide

By TANIA HAO and MUKUND GAUR

I

HS is notorious for its gruesome, odious, and, in many cases, forbidden bathrooms. In an attempt to shed light on this serious issue and aid IHS students in their search for non-life-threatening places to do their business, we made it our mission to evaluate every bathroom at IHS—there are a total of 23, if we didn’t miss any. Our survival guide is organized by building and you will find detailed examinations of the four essential aspects of each bathroom: general cleanliness, air quality, sink quality, and functionality. We ranked each of these features out of five points, with one being completely abominable and five being the ideal paradise. Our thorough scientific investigations of the environs in which students are forced to do their business are recorded below.

G-Building Upstairs G: Girls Cleanliness: 4 - Floors and walls were slightly dirty. Toilets were clean.

Air Quality: 4 - The window was open and the breeze was able to mask any unfriendly smells, but the bathroom was still very hot and something kept making a suspicious rumbling noise.

Sink Quality: 3 - Two out of the three sinks work.

Functionality: 3 - The soap dispenser was unusually high off the ground. The lighting was very dim, which is potentially hazardous if you want to maintain a clean bathroom….

Overall: 3.5 - Not bad, as far as IHS bathrooms go, if you’re in a

hurry or are close by. As one student earnestly put it, “The atmosphere is nice.”

Upstairs G: Boys Cleanliness: 4 - Cleaner than expectations might suggest; a curious, faded, “No unauthorized vehicles at any time” sign sits above one of the urinals. It is unclear what vehicles the sign is referring to.

Air Quality: 3.5 - Fresh air from an open window was able to dispel a faint smell of urine.

Sink Quality: 3 - For some odd reason, the sinks in this bathroom are entirely different from the sinks in any other bathroom.

On a more pressing note, the sinks all spew scalding-hot water.

Beware if you prefer your fingers unburnt.

Functionality: 4 - The bathroom stall has an open window into the courtyard—great for enjoying the tranquility of fresh air while you answer the call of nature, not so great for your privacy.

Through some miracle, all urinals are functioning.

Overall: 4 - Though the removal of a graffiti masterpiece on the stall door has left some displeased, it is impossible to deny that this bathroom is a high-quality location.

Downstairs G: Girls Cleanliness: 4 - Fairly clean overall, although a bit dusty. This seems to be a common theme in IHS bathrooms. Who knows, you might find a new friend in the form of one of the insects that inhabit this bathroom’s corners.

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Air Quality: 4 - The window was open, but the bathroom was still warm and stuffy.

Sink Quality: 5 - Shockingly, all of them work.

Functionality: 5 - All stalls had sanitary napkin disposals, which is not the case for most IHS bathrooms.

Overall: 4.5 - All in all, a pretty good choice if you’re a fan of doing your business in a place that somewhat resembles a closet.

Remember to beware of couples engaging in suspicious behavior in the big stall.

Downstairs G: Boys Cleanliness: 1 - Though you might be able to ignore the stains of bodily fluids on the walls and the pizza in the urinal, the suspiciously blood-like stains on the mirror guarantee this bathroom’s placement at the bottom of the cleanliness scale.

Air Quality: 3 - A faint smell of strawberries pervades the air.

Perhaps pleasant for a moment, until you realize it is the distilled essence of eight continuous periods of freshmen vaping.

Sink Quality: 4 - All three sinks are functional, though the water pressure is… unpredictable.

Functionality: 2 - One urinal, clearly on its last legs, is incapable of flushing. Another urinal is cracked down the side and appears to be moments from falling apart. Meanwhile, the designers of the toilet stall appear to have taken their inspiration from a prison cell.

Overall: 2 - This bathroom has few, if any, redeeming characteristics. If you really have to go, visit its friendlier cousin up the stairs.

Downstairs H Boys bathroom, image courtesy of the authors

Downstairs G: Gender Neutral Cleanliness: N/A Air Quality: N/A Sink Quality: N/A Functionality: 0

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Overall: 0 - Despite multiple attempts made by the authors to get into this bathroom, it remained locked throughout the school day. We don’t actually know what it looks like on the inside.

Don’t even bother checking here if you need to go.

H-Building Upstairs H: Girls Cleanliness: 3 - Dusty and crusty. If you go early in the morning, you are likely to find a group of spiders holding a rave in the far corner.

Air Quality: 1 - This sweltering, sorry excuse of a bathroom is more of a sauna. We do not advise staying in this bathroom’s hazardous conditions for more than two minutes.

Sink Quality: 3 - Two out of three sinks work.

Functionality: 1 - In the ceiling above one stall is a terrifying hole that begs the toilet-user to wonder what kind of creature is living in it. Maybe this is the entrance to IHS’s own Chamber of Secrets.

Overall: 1.25 - This bathroom is potentially life-threatening.

Enter at your own risk and be prepared to fight off the monster in the ceiling hole.

Upstairs H: Boys Cleanliness: 3 - This bathroom is well-lit, but that only serves to better display the state of ruin it is in. Like almost every other men’s bathroom in the school, it appears to have last been cleaned during the Middle Ages.

Air Quality: 1 - The smell of this bathroom is absolutely putrid. It would be unsurprising if a dead skunk was found rotting inside the plumbing.

Sink Quality: 4 - Admirably, the three sinks have somehow managed to continue functioning amidst the general chaos of this bathroom.

Functionality: 2 - The radiator in the toilet stall is in total disrepair and appears to be emitting several different types of dangerous radiation. However, this is of no concern as the toilet is perpetually clogged by various items.

Overall: 2.5 - A short trip to this bathroom might be survivable on your own with the proper equipment. Any longer stays will have to be made in groups, with professional guidance and industrial sanitation materials if possible.

Downstairs H: Girls Cleanliness: 3 - Mediocre. Not dirty but not clean either. Still, be wary of brightly-colored stains on the toilet seats.

Air Quality: 4 - Temperature is passable, but a nonstop buzzing noise like the one in Upstairs G will render your bathroom experience intolerable and may result in a loss of sanity while you are on the toilet.

Sink Quality: 1 - Only one out of three sinks actually stays on for more than two seconds.

Functionality: 2 - One stall does not contain a sanitary napkin disposal, which is quite problematic.

Overall: 2.5 - Not the worst, but try to make it to the more secure Downstairs G bathroom if you can.

Continued on page 28

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The Ultimate IHS Bathroom Survival Guide Continued from page 27 Downstairs H: Boys Cleanliness: 3 - The large bacterial colony under the toilet has gone through several stages of evolution and is most likely now sentient. The presence of various nasty liquids on the ground and a general dampness makes using this bathroom a very uncomfortable experience.

Air Quality: 3.5 - As mentioned above, a stale dampness hangs in the air in this bathroom. It’s survivable, but unpleasant.

Sink Quality: 5 - Sinks are all functional, soap and paper towels are also present.

Functionality: 4 - Against all odds, this bathroom possesses five functioning urinals. The stall is decidedly subpar, but usable.

Overall: 4 - You won’t enjoy doing your business here, but this bathroom presents no active threats to your safety.

Suspicious blood-like stains on the mirror in downstairs G boys’ bathroom, image courtesy of the authors

K-Building

Gender Neutral Cleanliness: 5 - As the only open bathroom in the entirety of K-building, the student body seems to be determined to keep this one-stall toilet clean.

Air Quality: 2 - Stuffy and muggy, which is expected for a place that gets no ventilation.

Sink Quality: 5 - One out of one sink works.

Functionality: 1 - Seriously, why are all the students in K-building at any given time forced to share one stall?

Overall: 3.25 - This toilet is good on its own. If only there were a few more.

Boys and Girls Cleanliness: N/A Air Quality: N/A Sink Quality: N/A Functionality: 0 Overall: These bathrooms are never open, despite being the largest and cleanest in the school.

Gym Bliss Gym: Girls Cleanliness: 1 - First, the floor is always sticky. It is never not sticky. Try to stay off it if you can—maybe bring some stilts. The walls and stall doors are caked with what we hope is dirt. Somehow, there are always wet globs of unrecognizable substances glued onto the mirror.

Air Quality: 2 - Not bad, if you don’t mind the overwhelming smell of perfume mixed with feces.

Sink Quality: 1 - The three sinks are all different sizes and the faucets are crusted with white splotches. The leftmost sink leaks out of the bottom when you use it. Use these sinks only with proper protection (goggles from a science classroom are recommended).

Functionality: 1 - This bathroom is almost always locked during gym classes. You would get more exercise just by walking to H. Overall: 1.25 - There are so many problems with this bathroom that it would be more productive to tear the entire thing down.

Bliss Gym: Boys Cleanliness: 3 - Surprisingly for its location, this bathroom isn’t entirely unclean, despite various paper towel and toilet paper fragments scattered on the ground. The color scheme, however, is abysmal. Who decided that a bathroom in a high school that would almost certainly be well-permeated with bodily fluids should have white walls?

Air Quality: 2 - This bathroom smells like people… and not the good smells.

Sink Quality: 4.5 - Functioning, and that’s pretty much all you can expect of sinks at IHS. Functionality: 4.5 - Everything… works? That doesn’t mean it’s enjoyable to use, however.

Overall: 3 - If “average” was personified as a bathroom, this would be it.

Q-Gym: Girls Cleanliness: 5 - One of the cleanest bathrooms in the school, although the toilets here seem to be a popular spot for dumping pizza.

Air Quality: 5 - Clear as a summer breeze with no traces of vaping, despite the apparent popularity of this bathroom as a hangout and lunch spot.

Sink Quality: 5 - They all work. This bathroom is too good to be true.

Functionality: 5 - The three stalls are squeaky clean (minus the occasional pizza slice). The lighting is just right. You could take a nap in here.

Overall: 5 - This bathroom is a portal to another world. When you step in, you’ve left IHS and entered an alternate universe where the school actually pays attention to students’ hygiene needs. If you’re ever having a bad day, spend a few minutes in this bathroom and all your worries will be gone.

Q-Gym: Boys Cleanliness: 4.5 - It appears an honest effort was made to keep this bathroom clean, against the best attempts of students to dirty it. Thank you to our custodians!

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Air Quality: 3 - The bathroom may be clean, but the smell of urine persists.

Sink Quality: 4 - A little bit dirty perhaps, but they work.

Functionality: 5 - There are … two stalls? That on its own is enough to garner this bathroom a 5 on the functionality scale.

There is only one urinal, but at least it’s clean.

Overall: 4.5 - A great bathroom and refuge from the harsh world outside. Sadly, it’s so far out of the way that few students can access it during the school day.

Music Building Outside orchestra room: Girls Cleanliness: 4 - Arguably the most crowded bathroom at IHS (at least during music class periods), it’s unfathomable how this place stays clean.

Air Quality: 1 - There’s a pervasive smell of bodily excrement that seems to have been absorbed into the floors and walls. Hold your breath or bring a gas mask—these toxic fumes are no joke.

Sink Quality: 5 - There’s only one sink, but it works.

Functionality: 2 - Too-small bathrooms seems to be a common issue at IHS. Two stalls and one sink are not nearly enough for our huge music classes. There also seems to be a shortage of sanitary napkin disposals at our school—definitely something for ICSD’s budget masters to consider.

Overall: 3 - Unless you’re willing to spend your entire music class period waiting in line for the bathroom, we advise you to begin training your bladder. If you’re having difficulty with bladder training, put on the most recent IHS Connects for some motivational background noise.

Outside orchestra room: Boys Cleanliness: 5 - Surprisingly … clean! Sometimes the occasional milk carton finds its way into the toilet, but this flair of unpredictability enhances rather than detracts from the bathroom experience.

Air Quality: 3 - Usually not noxious, unless someone has forgotten to flush the toilet (which is unfortunately a common occurrence).

Sink Quality: 1 - Yes, the only sink is functional, but the soap dispenser is MIA. After it was left empty for two months, it appears that the administration has made the cost-saving decision to simply remove the soap dispenser altogether.

Functionality: 5 - The urinal and the bathroom stall work.

Overall: 2.5 - A bathroom with much potential, but a lack of a soap dispenser altogether is an unforgivable offense.

Kulp Lounge: Girls Cleanliness: 5 - Everything is so shiny you can see your reflection.

Air Quality: 5 - Fresh and crisp. You could stay in here all day.

Sink Quality: 5 - They all work and there are more than three!

Functionality: 5 - For once, there are actually an adequate amount of stalls in one of these bathrooms.

Overall: 5 - This bathroom will bring a tear to your eye. It’s that incredible. Unfortunately, it only seems to be open on Sunday evenings.

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Kulp Lounge: Boys Cleanliness: 5 - Absolutely lovely.

Air Quality: 5 - You’ll take one breath of this bathroom’s air and faint. Yes, it’s that nice.

Sink Quality: 5 - Functional, not at extreme temperatures, and clean.

Functionality: 5 - Functioning urinals galore! Multiple bathroom stalls! This bathroom has everything you need and more.

Overall: 5 - This bathroom is the Rolls-Royce of IHS. One could not ask for a more luxurious paradise to perform their sacred activities.

E-Building Girls Cleanliness: 1 - The entire place is crusted with various green and brown substances. Perhaps a Biology class could make this their next investigative project.

Air Quality: 2 - The faint smell of after-vape mixed with other toxic gasses lingers in the air. Do not bring matches or lighters here. The air is very likely flammable.

Sink Quality: 1 - The sinks here will introduce you to a new level of disgust. In addition to the aforementioned green crust, there are some brown and red liquids staining the sink bowls.

Functionality: 1 - One of the stalls is exceptionally large while the other is illegally small. Soap does not exist in this bathroom.

Overall: 1.25 - Avoid this place like the plague. We do not recommend coming here—you might not be able to leave.

Boys Cleanliness: 1 - It appears that some type of illegal biological experiment has been performed here. Sometimes, a large pool of urine can be found on the floor of the bathroom.

Air Quality: 1 - Either a small mammal has found its way into the plumbing and died, or several years of accumulated bodily fluids have not been cleaned off the various locations upon which they are encrusted.

Sink Quality: 3.5 - Probably the best part of this bathroom is that the sinks actually work.

Functionality: 2.5 - One of the only boys’ bathrooms in the school with two toilet stalls. Unfortunately, this is meaningless, as one of the bathrooms could barely fit a kindergartner.

Overall: 2 - The only good thing I have to say is that a usable bathroom probably exists under the three inches of filth present here. We do not recommend trying to test this hypothesis.

Gender Neutral Cleanliness: N/A Air Quality: N/A Sink Quality: N/A Functionality: 0 Overall: 0 - Wait, there’s a bathroom here? This door is so inconspicuous that most students run right past it on their mad dash to find a bathroom. And surprise, surprise—this place is locked, too.

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The Ultimate IHS Bathroom Survival Guide Continued from page 27 Cafeteria Girls Cleanliness: 5 - Perfectly clean. You can even enjoy faded wholesome messages left behind on stall doors while you do your business.

Air Quality: 5 - The cool temperature and crisp breeze make for an enjoyable experience.

Sink Quality: 5 - They’re actually of sufficient size for most students.

Functionality: 5 - Hand dryers and paper towel dispensers?

What universe is this?!

Overall: 5 but it really should be a 1 because, as with all the other good bathrooms at this school, this place is locked for most of the day.

Boys Cleanliness: N/A Air Quality: N/A Sink Quality: N/A Functionality: N/A Overall: 0 - Despite several attempts, the authors could not access this bathroom.

Conclusion: After extensive research, we have reached the conclusion that many IHS bathrooms are not only horrific, they are true safety hazards. The actual usable bathrooms, meanwhile, are locked because IHS takes vaping prevention more seriously than kidney infections. The students of IHS must band together and call for improved bathroom conditions. It would be a crime for these sacred places of reflection and introspection to be treated this way any longer.

Mama’s Comfort Camp Introduces “How Are The Caregivers?” Festival

By ELLA AVGAR

Image courtesy of Mama’s Comfort Camp

H

ow are the caregivers? How are the people who enable us to thrive in our community feeling? How are the mothers, teachers, farmers, fathers, nurses, grandparents, and all others who take care of us, truly doing? This is the question that Ithacan mother and activist, Yael Saar, is raising.

Saar is the founder of Mama’s Comfort Camp, an organization that has

been working for over a decade to provide support for mothers in the community, giving them a safe space to share their struggles, successes, and stresses. “Mama’s Comfort Camp is a safe space for brave conversations, whether those conversations are about motherhood, or about what society looks like,” Saar explained in an interview. What started out as a Facebook group connecting mothers across the area has turned into a vibrant community that is actively engaging in art to empower themselves and each other. A few years back, Mama’s Comfort Camp partnered with the Kitchen Theater to work with mothers to create a comedy show highlighting the way the hardships of motherhood can be turned into liberating comedy acts. The show, slated to premiere in March of 2020, was canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Last year, the show took place at an outdoor venue with the families of the participants invited to watch. This year, Saar has taken the foundation of the event—a mother-led comedy show—and turned it into something that the entire Ithaca community can participate in. On May 7, the comedy show will take place … but that is only the beginning.

Saar has been working to pronounce the second Saturday in May—the day before Mothers’ Day,

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which falls on May 7 this year—”How Are the Caregivers?” Day in Ithaca, commemorating all the people in our community who work tirelessly for the benefit of others. As Saar explained, “There will be speeches, including one by the mayor…that designates the Saturday preceding Mothers’ Day as ‘How Are the Caregivers?’ Day, a day of coming together to ask the question, ‘what are we, as a society, doing to care for the caregivers?’” By prompting a celebration of those who often go unrecognized, we can work to shift our culture from one that values vocal people in power to one that values the people who provide society with a necessary foundation: caregivers. “We are basically proclaiming that we’re making a new day, we’re adding a day to the calendar and we’re saying, this will be a day of considering this question and, hopefully, if people will consider this question again, it will change how they make decisions. How do you spend your time?

How do you dedicate your attention?” According to Saar’s vision, this attention can be put towards those who truly need the support; after all, what can we do but try to make things better for those struggling? “We are trying to make a world in which everybody is supported and people are truly seen, heard, and held, and that will only happen when we ask this question: how are the caregivers? So we’re offering this big community festival and we’re telling the same story over and over again, with every art form.”

This day will be celebrated with numerous festivities beginning at 1:00 p.m. in Press Bay Alley, including performances by the GIAC Jumpers and reggae band Bead and Bone, vendors, poetry readings, the aforementioned comedy performance, and more. Open to the public, the festival, which also celebrates Mama’s Comfort Camp’s 10 year anniversary, will bring together people all over Ithaca in a celebration of those whose labor, all too often, goes unnoticed. More information on the event can be found at https://bit.ly/caregivers-day, and information on Mama’s Comfort Camp’s various programs can be found at motherup.org.

Image courtesy of Mama’s Comfort Camp

“As It Was”: Upbeat Trauma Dumping

By HANNAH SHVETS

T

From Harry’s new music video, “As It Was”

here are times at which I’m very happy I’m not British.

One of those times is when the Brits have to wait until midnight for the release of Harry Styles’ new song, and we in the Eastern Time Zone get it at 7 p.m. The music video for “As It Was” premiered on April 1 as the first song off of his third solo album, Harry’s House, which releases May 20. Needless to say, I was listening to the song within minutes of its release.

The beat that Harry had shown in teasers was very much misleading; the song was not the cheerful, upbeat, early 2000s pop that fans had expected. I can’t say it was a letdown, although many felt it wasn’t his best work. I will admit the tune is one that may appeal to some and not others, or is just an acquired taste (I found myself enjoying it more and more every time I listened to it). The one thing, however, that can’t be said about Harry is that his lyrics don’t have any meaning. You can comment on his mediocre fashion Style that he’s praised for simply because it goes against gender norms, criticize his music or his voice, or decide he simply isn’t your thing—but where I personally draw the line is when time and time again people comment on his lyrics, and make it completely clear that they missed the point. This is a phenomenon that was not lost on “As It Was.” No, it is not just another romance song; it’s actually not a romance song at all. Fans online misinterpreted the lyrics to be Harry singing about a lover from the past. While yes, the music video features a young woman seemingly involved in something intimate with Harry, and yes, he sings “Leave America, two kids Continued on page 32

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“As It Was”: Upbeat Trauma Dumping Continued from page 31 follow her” which could be interpreted to be about his current girlfriend, I’m here to say this interpretation is incorrect.

In the music video, there’s no reason to believe the woman starring alongside Harry (Mathilde Lin, a talented actress, and dancer) is a lover, a girlfriend, or an intimate partner. Throughout the short video, Harry runs after her, hugs her, holds her hand, and walks alongside her, all things that could easily represent his relationship with his big sister Gemma Styles. Given the repeated lyric, “It’s just us,” it seems the 28-year-old singer-songwriter is sharing how throughout his parents’ divorce in 2001 and troubled home life, his sister was the one constant presence.

Additionally, the album to which the song belongs is called Harry’s House, which already hints that it’s about more than just a relationship. The title implies that the upcoming album will be potentially focused on navigating home life and childhood.

On the album cover, Harry stands upside-down on the ceiling of a living room, demonstrating how his home life may have been turned around as a result of his parent’s relationship.

The first words of the song are from an actual recording of Harry’s niece saying, “Come on, Harry, we wanna say goodnight to you!” over the phone. No song about romantic love starts like that. Furthermore, the first lines of the song are about abandonment: “When everything gets in the way / Seems you cannot be replaced” and “In this world, it’s just us / You know it’s not the same as it was.” The “us” in question includes Harry and Gemma. From interviews to Harry waving to his mother while on stage during his Love on Tour concerts, it can be inferred that despite the trauma the divorce may have brought upon 7-yearold Harry, he is still close with his mom.

Harry also includes lines like “Your daddy lives by himself / He just wants to know that you’re well,” perhaps reminiscent of a mother trying to convince her child to interact with a father that may have come across as neglectful earlier in life. There’s nothing online to confirm that Harry had any hard feelings toward his father, Desmond Styles, but the lyrics seem to speak for themselves.

While listening to this song, everything seemed relatively cheerful—which was backed up by the vibrant music video and dancing—until one minute and 11 seconds in, when he shockingly throws in, “Answer the phone / Harry, you’re no good alone / Why are you sitting at home on the floor? / What kind of pills are you on?” This is followed up by “Ringin’ the bell / And nobody’s coming to help.” I wasn’t the only fan who was completely taken by surprise; listeners all over social media shared how their jaws had dropped at that sudden dark twist.

In the same way that women in the music industry are often sexualized and objectified, male pop stars that have been famous since their teenage years also often encounter this. Examples include Justin Bieber, members of the K-Pop group BTS, and of course, Harry himself. He’s been made incredibly uncomfortable around fans on multiple occasions, including when teenage girls at concerts throw their bras on stage. This behavior wouldn’t be seen as acceptable toward a woman in the industry, yet this blatant sexual harassment is completely glossed over when it happens to a man.

Extremely sexual and over-the-line comments are left on Harry’s videos, Instagram posts, and tweets. Fans attack the women Harry’s romantically involved with, showing a disturbing sense

of jealousy and possession. Given this, it’s completely unsurprising that everything he says and does is interpreted in this hyper-sexual and romantic manner. Analyzing “As It Was,” fans jumped to the idea that it was about a failed relationship instead of paying attention to the obvious clues Harry dropped throughout the song and music video. Near the end of the video, Harry begins to slowly undress, which prompted discourse online about his body. I interpreted this scene as Harry taking off all his “armor” and showing himself in a vulnerable state, since he’s finally sharing this very personal part of his life with the world.

His upcoming album will be different from all other music he’s made; it will be his most raw and intimate thoughts and feelings, presumably about his home (and how it became just a house) during his childhood. Until the full album is released on May 20, all these theories are just that: theories. There’s no telling where Harry Styles will go with his music, but I for one am thrilled to find out.

From Harry’s new music video, “As It Was”

Views from the Johnson Museum of Art by Hannah Shvets

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A City Covered in Art: The Murals of Kyiv, Ukraine

By NATALIE PATRONE

A

s the Russian invasion continues in Ukraine, the world looks to not only the horrors that are currently befalling Ukrainian people, but to their spirit and culture as well.

Despite the hardships that Ukrainians face today, the streets of Kyiv (the capital of Ukraine) are still filled with ornate murals that demonstrate the lasting resilience and soul of the Ukrainian people.

Across Kyiv, there are hundreds of murals painted by many different international artists, ranging from hyperrealistic portraits to surreal abstractions. Many murals use blue and yellow, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, and others use sunflowers, the country’s official flower. While some celebrate Ukrainian pride and others commemorate specific people, many are simply beautiful works of art. The diversity of art styles and stories shown in these murals is just one of the things that makes this city so special.

While many of the mural artists hail from countries across the globe, a large number of the artists are Ukrainian. In fact, the most famous mural in Kyiv was painted by the Ukrainian-French artist duo, Seth x Kislow. The piece is called “Revival,” and is about 50 feet tall. The colorful mural shows a woman, said to be the spirit of Ukraine, with a wreath of flowers standing over a city. With its stunning palette and powerful meaning, it is no surprise that this mural is said to be the most recognized in Kyiv.

Other notable murals created by Ukrainian artists include 3D-Graffiti by artists from Anozer Studio, and Freedom by Alex Maxiov. 3D-Graffiti is a gargantuan nine story piece that is one of the largest 3D murals in the world, while Freedom is a hyper-realistic mural depicting a songbird hanging from a lightbulb in great detail. Both works successfully use techniques to emulate 3-dimensionality while still exhibiting completely different styles.

Studio Anozer’s “3D-Graffiti,” found on Marshala Tymoshenka Street 29а. Courtesy of kyivmurals.com

Alex Maxiov’s “Freedom”, found on Ivana Franka Street 12.

Courtesy of kyivmurals.com

Seth x Kislow’s “Revival,” found on Borychiv Tik Street 33/6.

Courtesy of kyivmural.com

The task of documenting all the murals across Kyiv is not an easy one. Recently, a project called Kyivmural, an online mural catalog, has surfaced. It features a homepage that has an interactive map of the city with the locations of the artworks marked.

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A City Covered in Art: The Murals of Kyiv, Ukraine Continued from page 33 Currently, Kyivmural has 171 murals and 35 artists recorded, and is still working to add to its expanding compilation.

The street art in the city of Kyiv is only one example of Ukraine’s strong cultural and artistic legacy. While Ukrainians

face the terrors of war, their strength and spirit shine through.

Supporting Ukrainians includes recognizing and appreciating their beautiful works of art—to see the many murals of Kyiv in color, visit kyivmural.com.

Kahnpilled: Six Daniel Kahn Songs You Should Be Listening to Right Now

By RAIA GUTMAN and ELI McKENZIE

F

or those of you not yet in the know (or Kahnpilled, as they say), Daniel Kahn is a Detroit-born, Hamburg-based musician. With his band The Painted Bird and a plethora of other collaborators like Psoy Korolenko, he plays a “mixture of klezmer, radical Yiddish song, political cabaret, and punk folk,” according to The Painted Bird’s website. His music is inspired by songs of Jewish struggle, the plays of Bertolt Brecht, and American folk music. While distinctly Jewish and political in nature, Kahn’s music is enjoyable to all. His discography spans nine albums and songs in English, German, and Yiddish, speaking to topics such as Marxism, the immigrant experience, and historical events. Whether you’re in it for the language exposure, klezmer feel, political poetry, or any other feature of his music, check out Daniel Kahn—you won’t regret it. Here are six songs to get you started:

and non-Jewish alike, to embrace the part of their identity that is shaped by diasporic trauma and the hope for global unification— he calls this part the Jew in you. “There is only one Messiah,” he sings, “and she is buried inside you.”

“March of the Jobless Corps” from Lost Causes (2010)

Kahn’s take on the sea shanty genre, “Rats,” is not to be overlooked. This song uses all of Kahn’s trademarked klezmer influences and political allegories. Achieving its haunting yet upbeat vibe like it’s the final hoorah of people on a ship as their captain leads them blindly to their doom, all we—the crew—can do is sing and enjoy the sunrise.

“March of the Jobless Corps” is the quintessential Daniel Kahn song. It’s a bilingual (English and Yiddish) klezmer assault on your ears and the institutions of wage-slavery. “Unemployment marches on so we’ll sing a marching song,” he encourages the listeners. “There’ll be work for every hand in a new and better land.”

“Freedom is a Verb” from The Butcher’s Share (2017) In another vibrant call to action, Kahn warns the listener to be wary of myths told about freedom and defines the word as he sees it: a verb. He employs the imagery of revolution to inspire opposition to the violence he observes in the world—“lower pay and higher rents / … the violence of silence and of greed”—and to rouse listeners to seek freedom through action.

“The Jew in You” from The Unternationale: The Fourth Unternational (2020) with Psoy Korolenko “The Jew in You” is the clearest and most beautiful of Kahn’s expressions of his thoughts on Judaism, internationalism, and the diaspora. In this song, Kahn encourages listeners, Jewish

“The Butcher’s Sher” from The Butcher’s Share (2017) Described as “Marxism: The Musical,” “Butcher’s Sher” explores the unseen horrors of the capitalist system and how we shield ourselves from knowledge of their existence. The Butcher represents the people “whose filthiness provided you the privileges you bear,” and if this arrangement is going to continue, they need to get their share of the pie.

“Rats” from Partisans & Parasites (2009)

“Good Old Bad Old Days” from Bad Old Songs (2012) “Good Old Bad Old Days” is Kahn’s partly ironic ode to the German Democratic Republic. He attacks both “the microphones listening under the floor” of old East Germany and the pain of “nobody know(ing) who you are anymore” in the unified country.

All this is wrapped in a love story of two people from each side of the wall who risk their rights and lives to be with each other.

Scan this to listen to the whole playlist on Spotify!

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Shmoop’s Scoop Continued from page 35

The Strokes Concert Review

By MANU BOSTEELS

The Strokes, courtesy of Britannica

I

’m a fan of The Strokes. For this newspaper, I’ve already written a review of their debut album Is This It, about which I only had good things to say.

Well, last month, I was able to go to their rescheduled New Year’s Eve concert at Barclays Center, and to start: it was perfect.

The night began with the Hinds, a band from Madrid who are lesser known but were a lot of fun to watch rocking out on stage.

I can’t say I loved their music, but their energy and enthusiasm made it all the more fun. After the Hinds, Mac DeMarco came on, who is more popular than the Hinds (though I don’t know his music super well). He was a lot of fun too, jumping around on stage accompanied by great music. The crowd was really into it, and the energy in the venue was definitely building.

Then came the main act, though not before a substantial wait—there was a 45-minute break or so between DeMarco and The Strokes. When the lights finally dimmed back down, The Strokes’ logo came up on the screen, and “New York Groove” played in the background, the anticipation reached its peak.

For a second, the stage went dark. The background screen lit back up and the band began one of their hits from The New Abnormal, “Bad Decisions,” which could not have been a better start to the concert. Followed by “Juicebox,” the two tracks introduced the feel-good (but somewhat nihilistic), high-energy feeling that dominated the night. Julian Casablancas pulled off a spirited yet chill performance, Fabrizio Moretti was fantastic on drums, and Nikolai Fraiture, Albert Hammond Jr., and Nick Valensi all pulled their weight. I will say that the mixing drowned out different parts of the band at different times, but as a production the show was fantastic.

“Juicebox” was succeeded by “Eternal Summer,” which gave way to what Casablancas proclaimed an “ode to law enforcement” in the form of “New York City Cops.” Quite bold, in fact, to play a song talking about the not-so-smart officers of NYC in the middle of Brooklyn, but not wrong, either. It starts energetically and only builds throughout, and it was with this song that the crowd started getting truly engaged, jumping around and dancing. Afterwards, they played my all-time favorite; “Hard to Explain” met all my expectations, and the fact that my entire section was singing along made it very special. When the song paused two minutes in, everybody fell still and the guitar’s reintroduction was utterly unreal. The energy had reached its tipping point and from this point onward it was clear that people were having a good time.

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About halfway through “Razorblade,” they began a cumbia improvisation which they first started doing on their Latin American tour. It was fresh and rhythmic, and I hope they eventually release some version of it officially. The Strokes made it through 18 songs, which were all great additions to the setlist. “Last Nite” was a notable omission, though hits like “Reptilia,” “Hard to Explain,” and “The Adults are Talking” all made it in. Hearing the crowd roar along to the words of “Reptilia” was probably my favorite moment of the night. Probably.

Since the concert was initially planned for NYE, the band began a countdown timer with footage from this year’s ceremony in Times Square after playing “Under Cover of Darkness” for the first time in years. The confetti cannons went off. The crowd went wild… …and The Strokes walked off the stage.

At this point, the crowd was a raucous mass, all clamoring for an encore, for more music, for some sign that the band was coming back out. A few minutes passed before The Strokes returned, accompanied by Mac DeMarco and the Hinds, launching into “Take It Or Leave It.” Even in the seats, people were jumping, screaming, and singing along, and the lights were flashing in every direction while matching the drums’ beat. The song came to its inevitable end, and the night was over.

I made sure to read other opinions on the concert afterward; it was a great night, and I wanted to see if other fans agreed.

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For the most part, they did. There was some disappointment at the omission of “Last Nite” and “Someday,” and others weren’t convinced by the slower tempo of “Under Cover of Darkness.”

I didn’t mind any of these decisions, however. Coming into the concert, I wasn’t expecting exact reproductions of any particular playlist or recording, and I was thrilled with the showstopper The Strokes produced.

Initially, I was unsure whether or not to buy tickets. This was my second concert (The Rolling Stones’ No Filter tour being an excellent starter), but this was the first time I had found an artist independently and thought to check for their concerts. In the age of high-fidelity streaming services and immersive audio modes on earbuds, is there really a case to be made for live performances? Yes, yes there is.

No amount of playback, noise-cancellation, or volume can recreate being surrounded by fans while watching real-life people play your favorite music with more energy and fervor than you could ever find online. Concerts have an entirely new factor in their spectacle. Beyond the manner in which the music itself changes, they also benefit from a special enthusiasm and excitement that is worth experiencing at least once with your favorite artist. If there is a concert you’ve been eyeing, go for it.

It won’t end up on your list of “bad decisions,” and hey, you only live once.

How Accessible are Athletics?

By MARLEY THOMSON

A

t Ithaca High School, we have an array of sports options ranging from golf to basketball and tennis to wrestling.

There are hundreds of students who play a sport for one or more seasons. Having so many sports options is something that many people admire about schools. There is just one question that is not talked about enough: How accessible are these sports to students?

At Ithaca High School, sports are held after school Monday through Friday, with standard practices taking place from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. after school. Many sports, such as track, also have meets or games on the weekends. In theory, a sport with a high time commitment is not a bad thing. The problem is that a majority of students do not live within walking distance from school. This forces students to find alternate transportation home from after-school practice. IHS late buses leave at approximately 5:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday, which student-athletes can’t take home without sacrificing half of practice every day—effectively excluding them from the team.

Transportation is not the only accessibility barrier. Many sports for the fall season require students to attend practice at school for three to six weeks before school even starts. This means that for some sports, such as volleyball, soccer, or football, a student-athlete must be available for most of the month of August in order to be on the team. Now this may work for some students, but not all students are able to cut out that much of their summer. There is also a blatant gender divide in sports such as swimming. Girls’ swimming is a fall sport while boys’ swimming is a winter sport. This means that girls must allot a

chunk of their summer for the swim team while boys don’t have to. The same thing goes for tennis as girls’ tennis is a fall sport while boys’ tennis is a spring sport.

If one is a transgender or non-binary student, they may face even more barriers. Most schools, including IHS, have a majority of their sports gendered (girls and boys). Since transgender and nonbinary identities are not respected by many school administrators, transgender and nonbinary students are forced to choose between being on a gendered team that invalidates their identity or not playing sports at all.

Issues such as these do not only affect the student-athletes of Ithaca High School, they affect student-athletes all over the United States. Fifty-five percent of American K-12 students ride the school bus to and from school. If a school district does not provide transportation to students’ homes after practice or tournaments, these students must get an alternative ride. The type of students that are able to get an alternative ride have their own car or have a parent that can take time off work to pick them up.

Having a personal car as a teenager is very expensive due to high insurance rates and the overall cost of the car, which means the people who have cars likely either have more well-off parents or are working long hours themselves.

A solution for accessibility in athletics is providing buses for student-athletes. Having buses ensures that these athletes can play their sport without having to depend on a peer or parent for a ride home. Especially considering how much of the IHS budget goes into athletics, there is more than enough funding to do this.

Every student deserves to have equal access to sports.

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My Dream Physical Education Class

By NORA GIBBONS

I

n the past, I have looked forward to P.E. class; it was fun, freeing, enjoyable, and community building. But this enjoyment only lasted until I reached eighth grade, when I moved from a private school in Ithaca to a stricter, unexciting public school in Chicago for two semesters. My physical education experience has gone downhill ever since. Ithaca High School’s physical education system is ableist and targets people with mental illnesses, when in fact it should be doing the exact opposite.

In my dream P.E. class, teachers would provide students burdened with mental illnesses, disorders, and physical disabilities with ways of exercising that won’t contribute to self hate, injury, or overall discomfort. Community and friendship building would be prioritized, and teachers would also ensure that all students are comfortable both physically and emotionally.

At that private school, we had many choices of activities to participate in each class: bowling, capture the flag, walking the track, jump roping, passing a ball, playing tag, badminton, soccer, and so on. We had the opportunity of choosing our own teams and partners, which enriched friendships and enabled us to make bonds with all students in the class. Our P.E. teacher was kind, never yelled, and participated in games, which helped students to respect and trust him. Although we did have to occasionally run a mile and complete other unpleasant tasks, he made those tasks fun, rewarded us, and encouraged us to do our best, instead of shaming us when we felt incapable. I remember loving exercise and being proud of my body and its capabilities during my time at that school—a feeling I will forever miss.

Today, I have distressing health anxiety that stems from years of feeling physically unwell and doctors brushing off the struggles that inhibit my daily function. In recent years, I have struggled with feelings of being physically and mentally unable to complete any sort of task after exercising, even simply taking off my sweaty clothes, which has caused me to form a hatred for exercise and P.E. class. I was surprised to learn (from my therapist, not even my primary care physician) that this occurrence is most likely due to my blood sugar levels dropping drastically during exertion, something I never knew could happen simply because I wasn’t taught this effect in P.E. class and teachers at IHS have always invalidated my feelings. I can’t even begin to imagine the feelings and invalidations that others with mental illnesses, disorders, and physical disabilities worse than mine experience daily. I constantly feel uncomfortable and unsafe in P.E. class because teachers neglect to recognize that not all students are as interested in competition or intense games as athletes. Teachers continue to hold all students to the same standards as athletes, even as students like myself advocate for an in-class separation of those who are aggressively competitive and those who are not as much. I have seen too many instances of peers getting injured from an aggressive participant without any consolation from a teacher or consequences for the injurer.

Another aspect of IHS’s physical education system that has

greatly harmed the mental health of me and so many other people is its romanticization of losing weight and being fit. I feel that I am not valued by P.E. teachers because I am not an athlete or am in “perfect shape.” I have seen little to no representation or value placed on people with larger bodies, and also very little recognition that people may have genetics that prevent them from becoming the Barbie body that IHS, blatantly or not, pushes for. These aspects of IHS’s physical education system have contributed to my disordered eating and body dysmorphia, both being lifelong struggles that I, and so many others, will now have to battle.

My dream P.E. class would encourage students to explore new ways of exercise and fun ways to use their bodies without being forced into a game or situation they find overwhelming or unsafe. It would teach students important survival skills for both urban and rural life including defensive skills, first aid, water purification, and situational awareness. This class would also teach people with uteruses how to use exercise and food to benefit their health throughout their hormone cycle, which is drastically less stable than that of people with testes. My dream class would also prioritize friendship-making and bond-building because having friends would make people more willing to participate and would help them have fun. P.E. classes would also be smaller so that students can feel more connected to their peers. Students would also be given several options to choose from each class to ensure they are able to find an activity that suits their abilities.

My dream class wouldn’t just praise athletes, but would validate and represent all students, no matter their capabilities and body type. Teachers would actively participate in games, encourage and reward students, and also listen to each students’ needs and wishes. My dream P.E. class wouldn’t punish students for prioritizing their school work over physical activity, but would instead help them realistically balance the two. The class would work to better each student’s quality of life through enjoyable activities, hygiene and self care routines, and building relationships.

The physical education system at Ithaca High School today teaches students that they are not worthy of support or representation, promotes disordered eating and body dysmorphia, and fails to teach students relevant life skills. I know that P.E. class could be a wonderful opportunity to make friends and learn important information about one’s health, but it will take a huge shift in the system to do so. P.E. teachers must take on the responsibility of shifting the system’s goals and priorities in order to prepare students for adult responsibilities, communication and socializing, and balancing aspects of life. Teaching these skills is extremely important for students to succeed because they will not have the opportunity to gain such knowledge anywhere else. By having a fun, safe, and comfortable experience at P.E. class, students will go on to have positive associations with exercise and will learn to love and accept their bodies.

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Running: The Best and Worst Thing That Ever Happened to Me

By ALICE BURKE Content warning: This article contains discussion of eating disorders, suicide, and depression. While there is no mention of specific numbers (such as calories or body weight), select disordered behaviors are described.

M

y mom says that I have always been running. This, obviously, is not true. I did not leap from my mother’s womb dressed in a track uniform and spikes, ready to race the mile or outsprint other newborns in the 100 meter dash.

I could not even walk for the first year of my life, let alone run, so there is no way I have always been running. Perhaps, then, my mom meant that I’ve always loved running. While, based on my memories and experiences, this might seem more accurate―I began sprinting around the house almost as soon as I could walk, and now I participate in three separate running sports―my mother’s statement still remains untrue. Although running has brought me joy, laughter, and many new friends and experiences, it has also been the source of tremendous pain. For three years, I absolutely hated running, and yet, all I could confidently say about myself was that I was a runner. Solely identifying myself in this way ruined my life for years, and only within the past month have I fully been able to reclaim the happiness that running stole from me.

Based upon my favorite activities as a young child―freeze tag, hiking, and endless hours of chasing my dad around when he stole my favorite book or toy―one would expect me to join the Ithaca Youth Bureau children’s running program as soon as I was old enough. Instead, my parents encouraged me to try a plethora of other sports, especially soccer, hockey, basketball, and swimming. The only sport that really stuck with me when I was younger was soccer, which I played for 11 years before quitting in the fall of 11th grade. Looking back, it is very likely that I enjoyed soccer as much as I did because of the amount of running I was able to do. My favorite moments at practices, besides spending time with my teammates, were the crazy-long sprinting drills and “conditioning work” our coaches would require of us when we were unfocused. My whole team hated sprints, but I loved them; I cherished those moments of freedom as I raced the wind to the other side of the field, and I loved the competition that drove me to outrun all of my teammates as I reached the opposite endline. For most people, soccer is a ball game that includes running, but for me, the opposite was true: soccer was a running game, and only happened to have a ball to kick around out of coincidence.

I had always been apprehensive to start a new sport while I was playing soccer, as I had been participating in the latter for years and I felt a deep sense of loyalty to my teammates, coaches, and the sport in general. However, in eighth grade, I decided to try track out for the first time, rationalizing my decision as necessary in order to increase my fitness for soccer. The first moment I stepped on the track, though, and smelled the oddly

pleasing burnt rubber aroma of the red lanes, I immediately fell in love with running, and my years of loyalty towards soccer began to fade away. Everything about this new sport was enticing: the burn of a good workout, when my legs went so lactic that all I could do was lay on the grass and watch the sky; the feeling of freedom and separation from reality I experienced every time I went on a long run; and the excitement of racing, when I finally reached the last 100 meters of a race and would be hit with a wall of sound as people cheered me on. During that first track season in eighth grade, I was undefeated, which prompted admiration from my teammates and praise from my coaches, and for about two months, I was on top of the world, winning meets, securing personal records every race, and falling more in love with the sport every day.

Eventually, I reached a point from which my ever-present improvement began to slow. I was no longer beating previous race times each meet, and my training had become stagnant. Looking back now, I realize that I was overtraining and in desperate need of rest; not only had I been running almost every day for about two months by then, but I was also still participating in long soccer practices every other school day after my runs. Instead of listening to my fatigued body and taking time off, though, I decided that I could continue to run faster and race better if I lost weight. I began to cut out entire food groups and restrict the number and size of meals I ate every day in an attempt to “be faster.” At the time, I thought I was simply being a good athlete and that my behaviors were healthy and well-intentioned. I could not have been more wrong. In fact, it was this thinking and these behaviors that allowed a crippling eating disorder to worm its way into my brain, ultimately destroying my health and therefore ruining my chances of truly running faster.

The unfortunate truth about eating disorders and sports, especially endurance, physique-based, or aesthetic sports like running, bodybuilding, or dancing (to name just a few), is that often they go unnoticed and untreated. In these sports, an eating disorder might be disguised as an athlete’s dedication and discipline, and might even be praised by those ignorant of the illness simmering beneath the surface―at least, this was the case in my experience. For the months my eating disorder remained undiagnosed, I was constantly complimented on my speed and figure.

These comments, although well-intentioned, had the effect of pushing me further into the depths of my eating disorder, which was only exacerbated when the school year ended and I gained newfound autonomy to train and eat on my own. During the summer before ninth grade, I ran twice a day, barely consumed any food, and forced myself to do crunches until my abs were weak. No longer did I even pretend my actions were to improve my running performance; in fact, I probably hated running by then. All I wanted anymore was to become thinner.

That summer, I obsessively overtrained and underate, growContinued on page 40

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Running: The Best and Worst Thing That Ever Happened to Me Continued from page 39 ing weaker each day that passed and eventually even losing my period. I was miserable, isolated from friends and spending every day alone with my hateful thoughts. Running, which used to be a source of joy and freedom in my life, no longer provided relief from the pain I felt every day. Instead, the sport was just another strategy I utilized to punish myself. Eventually, the physical and mental damage running was inflicting caught up to me, and I suffered two overuse injuries within the span of a few months. Neither should have been serious, but because I was so weak and underweight, both injuries lasted for over a year. Even when I finally was diagnosed with anorexia and received help for my eating disorder, fully gaining weight back and recovering my strength again, my injuries persisted and I couldn’t consistently run until the spring of 10th grade.

For over a year, until the end of 10th grade, I dealt with onand-off injuries. The strength imbalances and changes to my gait caused by months of overtraining and underfueling meant that even after I was weight restored and healthy again, the injuries remained. Pain came and went in waves, and with it followed my mental health. During my pain-free running weeks, I could smile again, and I even began to feel love for the sport once more. Each run brought me closer to the feelings of freedom and relief that I had cherished when I began running. However, these pain-free weeks were just that―weeks. I never made it to even a month of painless running before one of my injuries flared up again and I had to take another break from the sport. Every time this pain forced me to put down my running shoes, I would spiral out of control. Each time my injuries returned I would cry for hours, screaming at the walls in my room and even seriously considering taking my own life. I was completely lost―after all, I had sacrificed my happiness and entire existence to running, and all I was left with were injuries and the painful ghost of an eating disorder. I felt that I could no longer define myself as a runner, as I had not consistently run in over a year, but I was unable to label myself any other way. I found myself asking over and over again, Who am I? What am I without running?

Unfortunately, I never answered these questions before my injuries healed and I leapt headfirst into running again, sprinting away from the uncertainty of who I was without the sport and instead dedicating myself to my training. During spring track in 10th grade and the beginning of cross country in 11th, I began to obsess yet again over my races and times, letting a good run boost my happiness and a bad run spoil my mood for days. I stressed for hours before every race, terrified that I would not run quickly or I would give up and stop in the middle of my race, embarrassing myself and my teammates. During the cross country season this year, my stress led to bad race after bad race, and ever so slowly, I felt my hatred of running seeping back into my mind. Because I still only thought of myself as a runner, the idea that I was no longer mentally fit to race was incredibly devastating to me. I had put in so much effort, endured years of an eating disorder, and battled through countless injuries, seemingly just to give up in every race. No matter how hard I tried to persevere in my racing and training, I simply could not; there was just no motivation left.

Then, in December of this year, I injured myself again, except this time, instead of feeling panic and devastation, I was only relieved. Finally, I could stop running and just rest, without my

eating disorder whispering in my head and the perfectionist within me forcing me to overtrain. The three months I took off from running were imperative for my mental health and approach to the sport. I was able to give my mind a break from the constant pressure of racing and training perfectly, and finally I could see myself as separate from my sport. I realized during these three months without running that I am not worthless. I am not just an athlete, but neither am I just a daughter, writer, student, k-pop fan, or violinist. The truth is that one singular feature or activity cannot define a person; we are all complex, multifaceted individuals with so much more to give than our sport, favorite hobby, or relation to another person.

As soon as I realized that I was more than my sport and let go of my unrealistic expectations and the immense pressure to compete perfectly, I began to love running again. Finally, I missed the sport not for the way it allowed me to control my body size or for the continuous personal records I used to achieve, but instead for the happiness it brought me and for the people with whom I could surround myself on every run. After three months of waiting and hoping for the days when I could return to running, my injury healed, and the current season of outdoor track began.

Although now I am physically out of shape due to my threemonth running hiatus, I have never been as mentally strong as I am now, which may even be more critical for my performance than my physical fitness is―with patience, the right mindset, and kindness towards myself, I can create a solid base on which physical strength can be built. In contrast, if I am only physically fit and lack mental stamina, I risk burning out and being unable to push myself during races. Thus, although I am no longer running sub-five-minute 1500 meter races like I was last year, I now do not expect myself to. As long as I show up, present my best effort, and am still in love with the sport by the end of the race, I do not care about my times.

I wonder, now that I can look back on my running journey, if it is insane that I still participate in and love this sport so dearly, despite the pain it caused and will continue to cause in the future. After all, my path to becoming the best runner possible is not linear―there will always be peaks and valleys and long stretches of flat ground where no progress is made. I will be hurt again by this sport in the future and will want to burn my running shoes and never look at a track again, but during these moments, I will remember the smell of burnt rubber from the first day I stepped foot on a track in eighth grade and realize that my love for the sport still exists. This fact alone―that the smell of a track is enough to remind me of my love for running―proves that, no matter the hardships I must face because of this sport, I will always love it. Running has been an intrinsic part of my life for years now, and although I no longer view it as my entire identity, there is no way that I could ever give it up.

LITERARY

An Unlikely Gathering

By Louisa Miller-Out My tires sweep over the spray-painted dandelions on the ground. I’m almost there. The sunlight seeps into every pore of my skin and for just a moment, I can swear I’m photosynthesizing. Another song later, I squeeze the brakes, hop off, and manually lower my kickstand (I’m too short to actually kick it).

I squint through the solar glare at the pavilion ahead of me and make out five shapes, clustered around a picnic table. It’s finally safe to gather in groups without a double layer of surgical-grade protection obscuring three-fourths of our faces, and it’s glorious.

I’ve never had the best hand-eye coordination. Often, I have the worst hand-eye coordination in a given group, and this was one of those circumstances. Ultimate Frisbee, KanJam, spikeball; these are the types of games that cater to people with natural or acquired athleticism, not me. I was afraid; both of embarrassment itself and that the fear of embarrassment would prevent me from having fun. But as I’d come to find out, I had nothing to worry about.

I overthink everything, overanalyze social situations to the point where it sometimes feels like I’m a spectator and not a participant. A perpetually benched member of the team, disposable, unwanted. But today I feel truly included. It doesn’t matter if I trip and fall on my face and the other Ultimate team beats us 21-2, it doesn’t matter if I fumble the KanJam disc a thousand times and mess up endless spikeball serves. None of it matters because I’m with my friends, and they’re smiling and I’m smiling and for the first time in almost two years, we can see the entirety of each other’s joy and not just the small fraction of it conveyed by our eyes.

If I were playing anthropologist and overanalyzing this situation as I’m liable to do, I would immediately see it as incongruous. I am the outlier, singled out by my gender, my height, my physical capabilities (or lack thereof). But I’d be dead wrong in that assessment because this group of people have always made me feel like I belong. They have never once judged me even through all my mishaps and missteps and bad days; they remind me to be kinder to myself. A year ago, I would never have predicted our friendship. A year ago, I would never in a million years have imagined us playing Cards Against Humanity together and sipping ice-cold San Pellegrinos on the sunniest day ever, never would have imagined I’d play spikeball and like it. But here we are and I feel whole and valued and accepted (aside from being chastised for liking La Croix). I don’t feel like an outsider or spectator, I just feel like a teenager with other teenagers, my herd, my pack.

This is the first real day of summer I’ve had in two years. It’s the kind of day your Seasonal Affective Disorder tells you will never happen, the kind of day worth staying alive for.

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HEIST

By Addie Houle-Hitz “I am fully convinced you never graduated from kindergarten,” she said as I desperately tried to climb over the wire fence.

“You idiot, you’re going to get us caught.”

If anyone was going to get us caught, it was her. Connor never talked quietly, even after being warned by our boss—I’m not sure she knew the meaning of the word silent.

“Yeah well, darling, if you hadn’t lost sight of the target, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” I replied, heaving as I lifted my body over the gate and dropped to the ground on the other side. “Your turn.”

“Maybe,” she said, gracefully scaling the six-foot barrier, “if you weren’t such a coward, I could have gotten him in time.” She landed next to me and struck a mock-gymnast pose.

“It’s not my fault; he was already too far. You would have missed.”

“And here I was thinking you didn’t know how to shoot.” She winked at me. “No shit you would have missed, but I, on the other hand—” “Will you shut up?” I hissed as I clapped my hand over her mouth, narrowly avoiding a figure that had appeared in the window of the manor above.

As the silhouette moved away, Connor pushed my hand away from her face. “If you wanted to touch me, you only had to ask.”

I rolled my eyes and pulled up my mask to hide the fact that I was turning red. It ticked me off that she knew how to get to me so well. “Look, let’s just get in, do the thing, and get out.”

“That’s what she said,” Connor retorted as she followed me around the base of the building.

“Seriously, what are you, twelve?” I heard her snort behind me. At least she was trying to be quiet.

I knelt down to search for the plastic hide-a-key that I knew would be there. Sure enough, I emerged from the flower bed with a plastic rock, holding it proudly like a trophy.

“Aren’t we a little old for smashing windows?”

I shook the rock and a silver key fell out of its false bottom. I saw Connor’s eyes glimmer. “You’re sure I’m the one who didn’t graduate kindergarten?” That playful gleam that I’d come to both love and fear returned to her face.

We snuck around the house to where we knew there would be a servant’s door. It was late enough that no one would be awake, or if they were, they’d be upstairs. We wouldn’t have any major problems getting to the target and getting out.

I turned the key in the door and with a satisfying click felt the handle jiggle free beneath my grasp.

“What’s taking so long?” Connor asked, rocking on her heels behind me.

I struggled for a minute to open the door without letting it creak and saw her shoot me a quizzical glance. “It’s hard to open a door with gloves on,” I said sheepishly.

As we slunk against the wall through the kitchen I tried my best to make every movement as silent as possible. Every time a floorboard creaked above us Connor moved closer to me, on one Continued on page 40

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HEIST Continued from page 39 occasion gripping my arm to hold me back from going further.

“Look who’s all cautious now,” I teased.

“Will you shut it, Leanne? Look.” Connor gestured with her chin toward the open door leading into the hallway in front of us where a large doberman lay with its head resting on its paws.

“Is it asleep?”

“Let’s fucking hope so.” If you were to ask Connor if she was afraid of dogs she’d say no, of course not, and then probably threaten to kill you if you suggested she was scared of anything again. Then again, she was known to be a liar.

“I call upstairs.” She said, when we reached the bottom of the staircase.

I groaned—she always wanted to be at the center of the action. We both knew what would happen if tonight didn’t go as planned.

As she headed up the steps two at a time, I grabbed her arm before she could go further.

“Hey.” “What?”

“Be careful.”

A look of understanding overshadowed her usually playful expression. She nodded and disappeared into the darkness and I was alone.

Well, alone is relative. There was a massive doberman sleeping less than ten feet away from me. I could only pray that Connor knew what she was doing.

A creak echoed through the empty hallway from the stairs and I saw the dog’s ears twitch. Please, I prayed, please don’t let us get caught, if we don’t get caught I’ll make the move just please keep the dog asleep.

A light turned on at the top of the staircase. I dove behind a large potted plant and counted the seconds. The safe was two doors over from the main bedroom, if she was careful she should be fine. I ran over the floorplan we’d spent hours memorizing in my head. If she got us killed I’d kill her.

Footsteps padded on the floor above me and the dog rustled.

It was closer now, maybe four feet, not ten. I held my breath.

A door closed upstairs. The light turned off and a second turned on only to be blocked by the bathroom door. Connor crept down the stairs holding a large bag. When she reached the landing I stood up from behind the plant, scaring Connor and provoking a loud gasp.

The dog’s ears perked up.

It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Connor started to sprint for the kitchen door with the bag and I was hot on her tail with the dog hot on mine. I saw the light behind us flick on and my only thought was well, he caught us, we’ve been caught by our boss, we’re dead.

I ran until my lungs burned, nearly crashing into the wire fence I had scaled just thirty minutes prior. Connor scrambled up it with ease, throwing the bag first and then vaulting over herself. I heard the dog barking behind us and tried to do the same but landed flat on my face on the other side.

She dove into the bushes that made a barrier around the property, and I wasn’t far behind. I peeked through the branches to see our now ex-boss appear in the doorway of the kitchen, groggily calling for his dog to come back.

I finally relaxed and tried to allow myself to catch my breath,

but before I could Connor’s mouth was on mine, making me breathless all over again.

“What was that?”

“When I heard him come out of his room I thought to myself, fuck, if we get caught we’re dead. So I made a deal with myself that if we didn’t get caught I’d make the move I’ve been wanting to since I met you.”

I felt the same red creep up my face as it had before. The idea that she had had the same thought as I had took away all the fears I had about whether or not it would work. I kissed her back.

The Librarian

By Tania Hao

There’s a librarian who keeps a record of all the meaningless things.

Books of any appearance imaginable fill the librarian’s shelves: crumbling papyrus scrolls, a peachy perfumed diary, a thin-sheeted textbook with a glossy finish. The books are the only things that let this librarian claim the title of librarian. Real libraries are meticulous and precise, organized with purpose: cookbooks on this shelf, the Animals section in the small room in the back. This library’s books are shelved at random and new ones are written, without end, in the library itself. Real libraries are open to children’s prying gazes and the studious fingers of professors and all of those in between. The books in this library are not meant for anyone’s eyes.

The librarian facilitates the creation of new books for this library. It’s barely a job by the standards of most. There is a table in the center of the spiraling shelves, one of the only items in this library with a purpose. The librarian stands at the table with the blank sheets of paper and watches words fade into existence, the ends curling into wisps of smoke. The librarian does not know how fast the words come or how artificial time is passing. The librarian only knows that the words always appear at precisely the right speed to read.

Why didn’t I ask him at the time? Now I’ll never know the answer.

I should have done it sooner, before someone else had the same idea.

If only I had realized she was struggling. I would have been able to do something.

I should have let them go.

No matter how frivolous the words are, the librarian remembers it all. Every lost chance, every small twinge of regret that settles like dust but can’t be blown away. They are all here, in this library, safe from anything that might want to forget about them.

They will never leave, inked into existence in the library whose spirals and spirals contain the world’s regrets.

Open a book at random and read the lines. Each string of words will blend and contort until a memory accompanies it: a row of stained lockers, bodies crushing into each other, a question left hanging on the lips. Water trickling down a car window, leaving behind strings of glass beads and a life’s dream. The blue light of a dusty laptop reflected in grief-rimmed eyes, scrolling through endless, useless articles claiming to reveal signs of a

LITERARY

friend’s distress. The librarian sees it all.

The librarian’s sole purpose is to oversee the library, reading lines of words without beginning or end. All identity has been lost, replaced with a duty to be fulfilled until all returns to dust.

Sometimes, during a lull between words, the librarian will strain and recall a shivering sun, spidery black fingers of winter-coated trees, and a solid warmness that is fragile and dependable all at once. Then the next line of words will appear, and the librarian

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will read them and see a snapshot of someone losing their chance forever.

Maybe someday, the librarian will leave the table in the center of the library and search through the spiraling shelves for the end of the library. And maybe, going out, the librarian will look up and see a weak sun and sleeping trees and find that warmth once more.

Letters to a Friend

By Vicky Lu Content Warning: themes of suicide.

Dear V, You asked how I have been Between two rounds of Valorant So I tell you at the end That I just got kicked out of it

Dear R, You know that I know How to read between the lines So if your mom sent you packing Then I have to ask you why

Dear V, I’m a failure Bombshells dropped like failing grades

Dear R, Your words are short And I know that you’re afraid—

Dear V, Is there room In your house for a lost soul?

Dear R, There’s not The dead have no lodgings in my home

Did you know that just this morning I passed a traveling exhibit Arrived before the warning sign So I crouched down for a minute?

Did you know that just this morning A hundred ghosts passed by Staring balefully at backpacks That organizers toss to cry?

Manhandled and lined up Down the hallway floors By people with ghosts of their own Who drift from door to door?

Continued on page 44

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Letters to a Friend Continued from page 43 Dear V, won’t you tell me the future I deserve (Dear V, won’t you tell me something to stop this hurt)

Dear V, can’t you see that I’m nothing nothing nothing Dear V, can’t you see there’s no reason to keep living?

Dear R, I have spent Sleepless nights on this just talking (Dear R, I have given To a dead man walking)

Dear R, I have searched For therapists and crisis centers Dear R, I have told you Exactly what you deserve

Dear V, I only promise That I’ll say goodbye when I leave this place.

Dear R, Won’t you promise That this backpack will never hold your face?

King of Kings

By Maggie Bonassar

Weep, ye who wander, Through hill and glen and desert, Who see me, my creations, Standing alone in ruin, Testament to the futility of time,

They are artistry of a forgotten era, My own name lost to history, Once written in every book, Sworn by in every tongue, Feared by all who dare oppose me

I was a mortal man, once, For many years I did rule, ‘Twas for centuries that great prosperity, Taken from the hand of the Goddess herself, Was awarded to me on bended knee

Weep, ye who read of my sorrows, Weep, for lost empire, for lost kings and bloody crowns, For stories and songs and dances, For battles lost and won

I sit alone, now, forgotten by Time, By my children, and their children after them, They leave me and my cities to rot and decay, And find them after centuries, My statues stand, steely as they are, Though no one dares approach them

I weep, for my name is Ozymandias, And nothing beside remains.

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Untitled

By Valentina Lebret

The text of this blackout poem comes from the April 2022 edition of The New Yorker, in an article entitled “Murder, He Wrote.”

Self next to these two exceptional parEnts, crushed by so much strength and Power?” she said. “He was happy to discover all at once that he had two Sisters, and we started to communiCate amongst ourselves.” They sent Long letters between their father’s two Households, written in violet ink.

The incident may have been BourGoin’s initiation into the power of Secret lives. “Back to my childhood Ia Felt I didn’t do enough compared to My parents,” Bourgoin told me. “So I Had always an inferiority complex.”

Cuny echoed the sentiment. “I decided very early on that having a normal life Means boring, and that would be the Most horrible thing that could happen to me,” he told me. “My bet is Stephane would prefer this outcome To being a local accountant who never Left town.”

In “My Conversations with KillErs” Bourgoin wrote, “The immense majority of serial killers are inveterate Liars from a very young age. Isolated, Marginalized in their lives, they take Refuge in the imaginary to construct a Personality, far from the mediocre reAlity of their existence.”

Futility

By Maggie Bonassar They say ‘all the world’s a stage,’ So what are we, then?

When we walk so briefly on this earth, Do we too walk in the lights of the stage, The eyes of the cosmic audience on us?

What kind of applause, I wonder, Will I receive it when I die?

When the scenes are done, The players called forward, Will we see the light in the eyes of cheering fans?

Our life is brief, Our lines and numbers cut and amended, But what came before those cuts?

How long was the play, the life of man?

How much of my life did I cut away by my own hand?

I like to stand in the wings, It’s where I feel most comfortable, Watching, seeing, pulling invisible strings, But now, I wonder, Who pulls those strings for me?

When my life is done, The curtain called, The sets destroyed, Will I leave the limelight and start anew, Pulling the strings of someone else’s show?

Student Snapshots, featuring Chess Club, Cascadilla Boat Club, and photography class, by Ruby Zawel

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Horror-Scope

Cool :)

By Natalie Patrone Taurus (Apr 20 - May 20): While you are brushing your hair in the morning, large clumps will start to fall out. To your horror, the discarded clumps of hair will slither away like snakes and dive into your sink drain, never to be seen again.

Gemini (May 21 - June 20): Throughout this month, you’ll hear the echoey laugh of a child. Originally, it will be as quiet as a whisper. However, as the month continues, the laughter will grow louder and more threatening.

Cancer (June 21 - Jul 22): Everywhere you go, you’ll see a tall, pale man with a giant, toothy smile and the eyes of a goat. You’ll try not to look at him for too long, but he will progressively creep closer and closer to you every time you look away.

Leo (Jul 23 - Aug 22): You’ll check your email to see an email from Mr. Trumble, announcing next year’s six-period schedule.

Virgo (Aug 23 - Sep 22): When you get up in the middle of the night, you’ll step on something in the dark hallway that squishes under your foot. The object will let out an animalistic shriek, so you’ll quickly turn the lights on. The floor of the hallway will be completely empty.

Libra (Sep 23 - Oct 22): You’ll find yourself running in a dark forest. You won’t know what is chasing you, but you’ll know that you can’t let it catch you.

You’ll turn around to see it’s close behind you when you’ll catch your ankle on a tree root and fall to the ground.

The Coolness Spectrum

Scorpio (Oct 23 - Nov 21): You’ll have a sore and itchy throat all week, no matter how many cough drops you take. During your social studies class one day, you’ll cough violently. In doing so, a swarm of ants will crawl out of your mouth and onto your notes.

Sagittarius (Nov 22 - Dec 21): You’ll discover that the chances of you falling down a sinkhole into an ancient tomb, waking an angry horde of vampires in the process, is low, but never zero.

Capricorn (Dec 22 - Jan 19): While you are pulling an all-nighter to study for your unit test tomorrow, you’ll hear your doorbell ring. When you get up to see who it is, you’ll fail to notice the headless figure materializing in your room.

Aquarius (Jan 20 - Feb 18): As you are lying in bed one night, you’ll hear the soft rattling of your closed closet door.

After you watch the rattling closet door in terror for a few minutes, whatever’s in your closet will finally figure out how the doorknob works.

Pisces (Feb 19 - Mar 20): During your seventh-period class, all of the bones in your body will simultaneously disappear.

Aries (Mar 21 - Apr 19): You’ll wake up one day to find yourself completely and utterly alone. Every single person in the world will have disappeared overnight, so why do you still feel like someone’s watching you?

Mr. Lira

AAPI History Month

Eid

Martha Duckesty

Florida

IHS Naptime

Elon Buying Twitter

Disciplinary Crackdown

AP Exams Cover photo by Arno Smit on Unsplash

Uncool :(