Issue 12

Volume 119 Issue 12

The Record Horace Mann’s Weekly Newspaper Since 1903

Community concerned over potential Covid spread due to travel over Winter Break Allison Markman Staff Writer

In preparation for winter break, students and their families are evaluating whether traveling is safe as COVID-19 cases increase. Many families will travel and take safety precautions.

Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly sent emails to all families that outlined the school’s travel requirements, which are the same as the CDC’s. As per CDC guidelines, the school recommends that families who aren’t fully vaccinated test before and after traveling, as well as quarantine for seven days once they return. Vaccinated families should follow airline requirements if they are flying and wear masks on any public transport they take. Upon return, they should monitor symptoms and selfisolate if symptoms arise, but testing is not mandatory.

With the emergence of the Omicron variant, Loren Pretsfelder (11) is nervous about a rise in cases after winter break. “I do think that there will be a spike when we return from break because many people do not feel obligated to take COVID seriously,” she said.

All the school’s families signed the HM Promise, a document that outlines COVID requirements that students and their families must follow, Dean of Students Michael Dalo said. “Families are promising that they are going to do everything possible to protect themselves and protect our community, so we would expect that they are adhering to that promise.”

COVID was a significant factor in the Pretsfelders’ consideration of winter vacation plans, she said. They are renting a house upstate and made sure everyone had negative tests before gathering. They also chose a location

within a drivable distance to avoid crowds at airports. “We had to make sure that it would be safe for all of us to be together this year,” Pretsfelder said.

Over break, Maya Westra (11) plans to fly to Aruba to see members of her immediate family. “Since we are traveling internationally, we wanted to try to be as safe as possible,” she said.

“We are getting tested before and after, as well as staying at an Airbnb rather than a hotel.”

Westra believes that it is safe to travel this year as everyone in her family is fully vaccinated and many airlines require their patrons to be vaccinated as well. As long as people make smart decisions to wear their masks in crowded locations and practice social distancing, traveling safely is possible this winter, she said.

Conversely, Steve Yang (11) decided not to travel because of the Omicron variant, but he is worried about a spike of cases within the community since many are traveling. “As the Thanksgiving break has shown us, I do expect — though I hope not — that there will be a spike in positive cases once we return from winter break. I hope everyone follows safety precautions not only for their own health but for the health of the HM community at-large.”

Upper Division Library Department Chair Carloline Bartels has been cautious throughout the pandemic and believes that as long as people wear masks and follow precautions, people can return to a form of normalcy. “We’re at a point in our lives with the pandemic where we need to figure out how to find the balance between living and being safe,” she said.

Though Bartels will be nervous if she sees someone with their mask below their nose on her train to

Washington D.C., she believes that safety is

Dylan Leftt/Staff Artist

possible while resuming normal activities, she said.

Miller Harris (11) is somewhat nervous to travel, but his brother attends college in Europe so Miller has had to travel to visit him. He always double masks and gets tested multiple times, he said.

This year, Harris thinks traveling is safe if people are careful, since breakthrough cases are rare. “The school has outlined the rules that we must follow over break,” he said “They have been made by the CDC and health experts and I believe we should listen to experts.”

After many years of being unable to travel, Alexa Schwartz (11) is excited to take a break from the stresses of school. “I feel safe enough to see my family, and I think getting out of New York will provide a good mental health break after the first semester. ” Schwartz is also getting her booster shot this week. With all of her family being boosted before they go away, she feels like she has an extra layer of protection, she said. She also feels more comfortable knowing that the airplanes she will be on have vaccine requirements.

COVID infection rates were a lot lower when Emily Grant (10) planned her trip. As they have risen, she is more hesitant but still excited to travel.

“With the new variant, I am starting to get more worried about traveling but

I’m excited to go away and if w e wear our masks, hopefully we will be fine.”

Grant’s biggest concern when traveling is getting Covid in another state or country and having to quarantine there, she said. “I am also worried about bringing Covid back and spreading it to my extended family and friends, mostly my grandparents.”

Grant attributes her safety when traveling to all of the safety measures put in place by the airlines and hotels, she said. “There are so many more forms and precautions in the airports now than there were before.”

Some families changed their travel plans because of new COVID variants and restrictions in certain destinations. Ben Rafal (10) and his family were planning to go to London for break, but decided against it when the restrictions got too tight and they became worried about testing and lockdowns. Instead, he will visit Costa Rica. Though he is excited, he still has concerns about medical measures outside the U.S. “There’s always the worry that the healthcare will not be as good as it is in America.”

Rafal hopes that all students who travel wear masks and follow the rules over break to prevent positive cases upon return. “If the community is vigilant about preventing the spread of COVID, break can be an opportunity for students to get much deserved rest.”

Holocaust survivor Edith Eger speaks to Parent Institute Sean Lee and Rachel Baez Staff Writers

Clinical psychologist and Holocaust survivor Dr. Edith Eger visited the school last Thursday during a Parent Institute (PI) event moderated by English Teacher Deborah Kassel and English Department Chair Vernon Wilson.

Eger mainly discussed the content of her book, “The Choice,” which Kassel’s Seminar on Literary Studies: Man’s Search for Meaning through Literature and Film class studied.

Kassel has been teaching “The Choice” in her class for five years, and Dr. Eger has visited the class every year to accompany the reading, Kassel said. Eger’s book discusses how she came to terms with her experience in a concentration camp after 80 years of avoiding the subject, and how her trauma helps others in her job as a psychologist, Kassel said.

“What’s so empowering about her book is that she advocates for the idea of choice — you can’t change or revisit the past, but you can make a choice now, in this moment,” Kassel said. “In the context of the class, some of the topics we discuss are genocide, the banality of evil, and why good people do bad things, becoming complicit and complacent about participating in an immoral system. This is just one part of it.”

This year, Director of HM Parent Institute Wendy Reiter wanted Eger to speak to parents as well, due to her

background in psychology with a focus on trauma and PTSD. Previous guests at the PI have included psychologists and child specialists, Reiter said. “This year, one of my initiatives for the Parent Institute is about communication,” Reiter said. “Dr. Eger is an effective communicator and believes in the power of communication, the importance of strong, positive relationships — this is what has carried her throughout her entire life.”

In addition, Reiter wanted to incorporate presentations and books about different aspects of representation, she said. “I want to help parents become sensitized and educated far more about their peers in the community, the varying diverse cultures that are represented within our community.”

Having Eger talk to parents and students about her experience in Auschwitz helped the community understand the lives of many Jewish survivors of World War II, furthering understanding of personal connections that some members of the school community have to this tragedy, Reiter said.

Kassel believed that Eger’s visit was timely. “All history has to be preserved, especially at a time where things are being erased. There is a rise in antiSemitism and hate crimes in general, which are disturbingly ignored or underreported,” she said. “As a teacher of English, I try to instill students with a moral obligation to wrestle with any internalized bias and embrace every person’s ‘difference’ with compassion

and respect.”

Corey Brooks (12), a student in the class, enjoyed Eger’s talk about her book because it brought a new dimension to the story, he said. “Listening to a Holocaust survivor story is one thing, but being able to put a face to the story resonated a lot further to me,” Brooks said. During Eger’s visit, Brooks asked about the role of Jewish people within the media and how to keep the legacy of the Holocaust alive without tokenizing it. Corey had summarize her response as “It’s all about keeping the stories alive, because ultimately you can find out all of the facts, read a million books, or explore beyond that, but it is not until you have an emotional connection to the Holacaust that you can personally do your best to remember or care for the event,” according to Brooks.

Elliot Konopko P ‘20 P ‘25 was impressed by Eger’s intelligence and fortitude. “I thought her construct about the need and ability of everyone, especially adults, to view themselves as parents to themselves to maintain strength and balance in life was useful information for parents and students in the Upper Division as they prepare to graduate and leave home.”

Kassel’s students discussed the visit in class, Kassel said. “Some students have direct, personal connections to the Holocaust, and others were moved by her messages about mental health, resilliance, and living a giving life,” she said. “She’s an amazing human being who is the ultimate emblem of strength and compassion, whose purpose is to

empower others to help themselves.”

Kassel emphasized Eger’s belief that there is no hierarchy to suffering, as people may suffer for reasons that others may not see. “As a clinical psychologist, University of California professor, and consultant to the U.S. Navy and Army for soldiers suffering from PTSD, Dr. Eger has worked through her own past trauma in a concentration camp to help others who have experienced all different kinds of pain—no matter what the source—to help each individual to ‘free themselves from the prisons of their own minds,’” Kassel said.

Eger’s resilience and positive outlook about life stood out to Reiter. “It’s just her incredible positivity and genuine love and appreciation of life,” she said. “Anyone at that event had to be extraordinarily struck and emotionally moved by her ability to promote so much love and positive resilience during challenging times.”

Vivian Coraci/Art Director

record.horacemann.org December 17th, 2021

School mandates ‘booster’ vaccine

Emily Salzhauer Staff Writer

The school mandated the Pfizer booster shot for all eligible students, faculty, and staff following the CDC’s approval of the shot for ages 16 to 17, Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly wrote in the weekly update to the community on December 12.

All eligible members of the community must have their booster shot by February 1 in accordance with the school’s revised Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination Policy, which will be sent out today, Kelly wrote.

The school will offer booster shots on campus on January 5, he wrote.

Kelly chose to mandate the booster shot because the newest research shows that antibodies that fight COVID-19 and the Omicron variant decline at around six months for most people, he wrote in an email.

“Given the number of breakthrough cases we continue to see, the need to mandate the Pfizer booster shot for those eligible was in the best interest of the greater Horace Mann School community.”

Kelly hopes the booster shot will slow the spread within the community.

“Ideally, a herd of booster-vaccinated students and employees should slow the spread of the virus as well as stifle breakthrough cases,” he said. “I realize that we’ve been told just that before, but remain hopeful that we’re heading in the right direction as a nation.”

It is important for the community to be as protected as possible, Kelly wrote. “Based on the research available and the reality of what we’re seeing, I see very little downside with mandating the booster shot to those who have already been fully vaccinated.”

Kelly made this decision with the help of the local department of health, recent data, and community members who work in medicine, he wrote.

Ahana Nayar (11) planned to get the booster shot regardless of the mandate, as her family is traveling, she said. “My family and I think it’s best to get the booster shot just to be extra safe,” she said. Nayar got her booster shot on Wednesday after school.

Maya Westra (11) looks forward to getting her booster shot next week, the earliest appointment she found.

“Seeing the CDC’s guidance, I wanted to get the booster shot to protect myself and people around me.”

Upper Division (UD) science teacher George Epstein received his booster shot last Friday at a Walgreens, he said. “I felt that it was the right thing to do, especially given rising case numbers,” he said. “The holiday season is approaching [and] I want to spend time with family and feel like I am taking all of the precautions to make sure that I can do that.” Epstein planned to get the booster even before the mandate.

To receive one of the school’s doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and booster shot on January 5, students and faculty must sign up using the link sent in the weekly email, Kelly wrote. The doses will be available to anyone on a first-come, first-serve basis. Younger students will also be able to get their second dose for the Pfizer vaccine on campus on the same day, he wrote.

The school’s protocols will not change with the addition of the booster shot, Kelly wrote. “That said, if the CDC or our local health department changes its recommendations/ mandates we will follow suit.”

2

THE RECORD OPINIONS DECEMBER 17TH 2021

Reexamining the value of sleep: The argument for later school start times

Leo Hess The day after we lose an hour of sleep to daylight savings time, heart attacks around the globe increase by 24%. The day after we gain an hour of sleep, heart attacks around the globe decrease by 21%, according to a study published in 2014 by the British Medical Journal. When was the last time you traded an hour of sleep to do schoolwork, binge your favorite show, engage in extracurriculars, or scroll social media?

Last school year, I studied the role sleep plays in the lives of students for my Junior Research Paper (JRP).

As a part of the project, I sent out a survey about sleep habits to all Upper Division (UD) students and received 300 responses. I found that 91% of students in the UD get insufficient sleep (fewer than eight hours) each night — up from the national average of 73%. The results also indicated that roughly 45% of students are unable to get a full eight hours of sleep each night because of how early they have to wake up to leave for school in the morning and because the earliest time most adolescents can biologically go to bed is 11 pm. In addition to reducing how much homework is assigned each night, we need to implement a later school start time to provide students the opportunity to sleep a healthy amount each night.

Experts widely agree that the less you sleep throughout your life, the shorter your life will be. A study published in Psychosomatic Medicine found strong correlations between the amount of sleep one gets and the amount of natural killer cells (cells that fight off tumors, diseases, and viruses) in one’s body. When participants’ sleep was reduced to four hours for just one night, their natural killer cell activity dropped by over 70%. One’s risk of developing various forms of cancer are all heightened by sleep deprivation. Since 2007, the World Health Organization has considered nighttime shift work to be a likely carcinogen due to its effects on one’s circadian rhythm, according to “Science Daily.”

Along with upholding our immune system, sleep maintains our DNA and gene activity. In one sleep study published in 2013 by the National Academy of Sciences, after a week of sleeping six hours each night, participants had 711 genes which demonstrated altered activity — half were increased in their activity and half were decreased. The half

that decreased in activity were genes responsible for a properly functioning immune system and the half that increased in activity were genes linked with the development of inflammation, cardiovascular diseases, and tumors.

But perhaps what’s more significant to students in particular is that sleep is also necessary to sustain basic mental functions like memory and learning throughout the day. Sleep is crucial both before and after learning, as it ensures that the skills and memories absorbed throughout the day are retained long term, and that shortterm memory space is opened up for new memories to be created the following day. In a study published in “Nature Neuroscience” in 2007, without having slept at all the night before, participants demonstrated a 40% decrease in their ability to form new memories the following day compared to participants who got a full eight hours of sleep the night before. If students were tested on material they learned in school on a given day, those who got no sleep the night before would likely fail the test compared with those who got eight hours of sleep. I can certainly relate to this because I feel much more present and attentive on days when I am better-rested. But, how about those people who say that they can perform perfectly well on a mere four hours of sleep? According to sleep expert and neuroscience professor Dr. Matthew Walker, there is, in fact, a gene which grants some the ability to survive with only five hours of sleep each night. However, according to Walker, only a fraction of 1% of people have this gene, and you are more likely to be struck by lightning than to belong to this group. Sorry.

Furthermore, people actually get better at performing tasks as they sleep. According to Walker, during the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of sleep, the brain replays, or

Courtesy of Leonardo Hess (12)

practices, tasks it learned throughout the day at high speeds, improving its performance in those tasks. What’s more is that throughout this process, the brain specifically focuses on improving the most difficult parts of a task, according to Walker’s findings. His studies also corroborate previous evidence that the more one learns during the day, the more of this ‘practice’ their brain performs at night, suggesting that the more one is learning, the more they should be sleeping in order to solidify the extra information they learned.

Volume 119 Editorial Board Editor in Chief Hanna Hornfeld

This correlation should be especially concerning at schools like Horace Mann, where students are notorious for getting insufficient amounts of sleep, as demonstrated by survey data.

At this point, you may be wondering whether it’s worth studying or doing homework at all if sleep is such a powerful tool for learning. Why not just go to sleep as soon as you get home? To begin addressing that idea, it’s important to acknowledge that the benefits that sleep offers are finite. Once you sleep a certain amount, the benefits of sleep will be fully realized; sleeping more that night will not provide any additional advantage. However, in terms of valuing sleeping time over studying time, a study published in 2013 by the Society for Research in Child Development found that as soon as students sacrificed getting a full eight hours of sleep for doing schoolwork (or anything else, for that matter), they had a harder time grasping new concepts and completing assignments in school the next day. This finding challenges our society’s entire conception of the value placed on homework, especially in comparison to how much our society values sleep. At HM, I hear students every day complaining about how late they had to stay up to finish an assignment, and we’ve likely all experienced this ourselves. The results of the study discussed above indicate that getting a full night’s sleep is actually more important for one’s education than doing a full night of homework.

There are a number of ways to address the problem of sleep deprivation in schools, but the two most practical and effective are to reduce homework amounts to allow for earlier bedtimes and implement later school start times. Because homework is so different from school to school, student to student, and day to day, it is difficult to empirically test

Managing Editor Liliana Greyf

Features Mia Calzolaio Emma Colacino

News Claire Goldberg Katya Tolunsky

Opinions Devin Allard-Neptune Yin Fei

A&E Purvi Jonnalagadda Arushi Talwar

Middle Division Jade Ciriello

Lions’ Den Lauren Ho

Art Directors Vivian Coraci Lauren Kim Riva Vig

Design Editors Avani Khorana Myra Malik Arin Rosen

Photography Daniel Schlumberger Ailill Walsh Sean Lee

Online Editor Lucas Glickman

Head of Design AJ Walker

Faculty Adviser David Berenson

its effects on student sleep durations, and in my research I have not found much data or experimentation testing the effects of varying amounts of homework on students’ sleep times. However, from the UD data I collected last spring, I do know that 72% of students feel they would go to bed earlier if they had less homework, and that 69% of students feel that homework is the most important factor in determining how much sleep they get on weeknights.

In terms of implementing later school start times, there is much

more data to work with, and the effects are much clearer. In schools that have implemented later start times, results have included higher attendance rates, better grades, longer

back by one hour. Outcomes also include fewer car accidents, fewer tardy arrivals, lower amounts of depression, happier teachers, and so much more in response to additional

Karla Moreira/Staff Artist

attention spans, fewer feelings of depression, and significantly longer sleeping hours, according to research published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2014.

At the moment, many school schedules start too early to align with the natural hours during which adolescents sleep. On top of that, adolescents today have a hard time falling asleep before 11 pm, meaning students’ waking times are determined by their school and their earliest bedtime is determined by their biology. What if there isn’t enough time to sleep between 11 pm and the established wake-up time?

Unfortunately, that is the case for about half of Horace Mann students in the UD. 45% of students do not have an eight hour window between 11 pm and when they have to wake up to go to school. Quite simply, regardless of the amount of homework or other activities they engage in, nearly half the student population is not even given the opportunity to get the minimum healthy amount of sleep each night.

Unfortunately, it is widely agreed upon that the later parts of nightly sleep are also the hours during which the most REM sleep occurs.

Since REM sleep is the stage of sleep which provides the most learning benefits, starting school days earlier specifically cuts off the most educationally beneficial part of sleep.

The effects of additional morning sleep on academic performance are clear. In a 2011 study published by the American Economic Journal, Air Force Academy students who began classes after 8 am had a 15% increase in the standard deviation of all their course grades compared with those who began class before 8 am. In a 2014 study published by the University of Minnesota of six different high schools in three different states, five of them exhibited significant grade-point average improvements in math, English, the sciences, and social studies, after implementing a later school start time. In one study published in 2010 by the Social Science Research Network, reading test scores of middle school students in North Carolina increased by a standard deviation of 3%-10%, and math scores increased by a standard deviation of 6%-9% after pushing the school start time

Staff

Staff Writers Rachel Baez, Audrey Carbonell, Max Chasin, Jiya Chaterjee, Cecilia Coughlin, Owen Heidings, Hannah Katzke, Vidhatrie Keetha, Celine Kiriscioglu, Zachary Kurtz, Alex Lautin, Jillian Lee, Sean Lee, Allison Markman, Audrey Moussazadeh, Divya Ponda, Clio Rao, Emily Salzhauer, Ayesha Sen, Aden Soroca, Emily Sun, Madison Xu, Alexandra Yao, Ariella Frommer, Neeva Patel, Lucy Peck, Ben Rafal, Athena Rem, Etta Singer Staff Photographers Sophie Gordon, Amanda Wein, Emma Colacino, AJ Walker, Lucas Glickman, Lauren Ho Staff Artists Tatum Behrens, Felix Brenner, Kayla Choi, Amira Dossani, Ishaan Iyengar, Isabelle Kim, Dylan Leftt, Sophia Liu, Samuel Stern, Sammy Underberg, Aimee Yang

sleep. Significant improvements in academic performance (among many other things) await us if we seize the opportunity to let students sleep longer into the morning by implementing a later school start time.

As I researched sleep in schools like HM for my JRP, I was interested in hearing Dr. Kelly’s thoughts on this issue. In an email, he responded saying that he has, in fact, considered pushing the school start time to a later time, but that “a later start time for everyone (N-12) creates issues with busing, traffic, and how support staff are utilized in a school district or independent school, and it also dramatically alters what can be done with athletics and other after school offerings.”

“Even if HM prevailed on implementing a later start time,” Kelly said, “we’d need to have the schools we compete against do the same thing in order for us to continue to offer the full range of programming.”

As someone who is not the slightest involved with Horace Mann’s large logistical complexities such as these, I cannot make a final judgment as to what would be best for our school.

However, I will argue that while we may be able to offer a wider range of programming with the current school start time, 91% of the student body cannot fully take advantage of that programming because they are sleep deprived. Quite simply, a student, athlete, artist, or human being who is sleep deprived is not able to fully engage in the activities they are partaking in, whatever those activities may be.

If student health is a priority, if education is a priority, we need to seriously re-examine the value we place on sleep. We are a community that promotes schoolwork over sleep in a world in which sleep is more important. Sleep is more important for our ability to learn and remember things, more important for the maintenance of our health, more important for our peace of mind, and more important for the longevity of our life. *Read the full version of Hess’ article in the Special Features section of the next edition of the Spectrum.

Editorial Policy

About Founded in 1903, The Record is Horace Mann School’s award-winning weekly student newspaper. We publish approximately 30 times during the academic year, offering news, features, opinions, arts, Middle Division and sports coverage relevant to the school community. The Record serves as a public forum to provide the community with information, entertainment, and an outlet for various viewpoints. As a student publication, the contents of The Record are the views and work of the students and do not necessarily represent those of the faculty or administration of the Horace Mann School. Horace Mann School is not responsible for the accuracy and contents of The Record and is not liable for any claims based on the contents or views expressed therein.

Editorials All editorial decisions regarding content, grammar, and layout are made by the senior editorial board. The unsigned editorial represents the opinion of the majority of the board.

Opinions Opinion columns represent the viewpoint of the author and not of The Record or the school. We encourage students, alumni, faculty, staff, and parents to submit opinions by emailing record@horacemann.org.

Letters Letters to the editor often respond to editorials, articles, and opinions pieces, allowing The Record to uphold its commitment to open discourse within the school community. They too represent the opinion of the author and not of The Record or the school. To be considered for publication in the next issue, letters should be submitted by mail (The Record, 231 West 246th Street, Bronx, NY 10471) or email (record@horacemann. org) before 6 p.m. on Wednesday evening. All submissions must be signed.

Contact For all tips, comments, queries, story suggestions, complaints and corrections, please contact us by email at record@horacemann.org.

THE RECORD NEWS AND MIDDLE DIVISION DECEMBER 17TH, 2021

MD performers sing in the rain Emily Sun Staff Writer

Clad in 1920’s style glitter and glam, students shimmied on stage in the Middle Division (MD) production of “Singin’ in the Rain” last Friday and Saturday.

Based on the 1952 movie musical, the play follows silent film actors at the end of an era as the industry transitioned to talking movies in the 1930s. Cayden Tan (6), Madison Nina (7), Loewy Miller (8), and Claire Lee (6) played the leading roles of Don Lockwood, Lina Lamont, Cosmo Brown, and Kathy Selden, respectively.

They starred alongside 21 other ensemble members — there are no small roles, only small actors, as the theater adage goes, and “we did not have a single small actor in our cast,” Dance teacher and Co-Director and Choreographer of the show Patrick O’Neill said. “They were all phenomenal in every way possible.”

The cast rehearsed for over two months to perfect their characters, crafting backstories, and mannerisms they embodied in their performance, Miller said.

He watched the movie twice and blended Donald O’Connor, the original actor, with his best John Mulaney impression to capture Cosmo’s characteristic swagger, he said Nina also drew inspiration from past actors for Lina’s shrill, nasalbound speech. She cooked up her own take with a high-pitched New Jersey accent, topped with a hands-on-hips flourish for Lina’s extravagant personality, she said.

“After the show, a lot of people asked me to do the Lina voice again,” she said. “I’m happy about it because it allows me to still bring that part of me out and shine a light on it.”

The show features several full-

cast dance numbers. O’Neill drew inspiration from 1920s dance moves like the Charleston and classic Broadway moves like a kick line, “and of course, lots of jazz hands,” he said.

Ensemble songs were offset by intimate serenades, and the budding romance between Tan and Lee’s characters often devolved into fits of awkward laughter in rehearsal until the week before the show, Tan said. Keeping a straight face was a continuous struggle for Tan because of all the comedic moments, as well as the unexpected fumbles.

In their Thursday performance for the MD, Miller missed the couch when he “fainted” and fell on the floor with a “very loud bang,” Tan said. “Everyone backstage started laughing.”

COVID-19 also presented challenges as the cast sang and danced with masks, which occasionally interfered with the mics clipped on the top edge of their mask. At the Saturday show, Tan’s mic slipped into his mask and filled the stage with breathing sounds.

“After the scene, I sprinted offstage and three people were trying to fix my microphone as I did my costume change,” he said.

Masks also posed an obstacle to a central plot point where Lina stars in a talking film with Kathy’s voice dubbed over hers. O’Neill wanted the imagery of Lina moving her mouth, so he pre-filmed Nina singing without her mask and projected the video against a screen onstage during the relevant scenes.

They debuted it at the Thursday performance — “that was the first time we ever saw it and I just started laughing in the middle of the show because it was so funny, and I couldn’t stop laughing for the next minute,” Tan said.

The final days before the show were both exciting and hectic, as

students combined Courtesy of Barry Mason their songs and dances with costumes, sets, props, and lighting, Co-Director and Music Director Carmen Keels said.

“It’s all hands on deck, like ‘oh, my goodness, how are we going to get all of this together?’”

O’Neill felt similarly stressed, but the show succeeded with support from the production staff, which included 14 students as student assistant directors, stage managers, scenic and lighting KICK LINE Middle schoolers star in Singin’ in the Rain. designers, costume O’Neill worked with the assistants, master electricians, production team, including an outdeck managers, and running crew members, he said. “I wish that the of-school Costume Designer, Erin audience could see what happened Schultz, to customize the show’s backstage because it is a whole other color palette, which opened with production that’s going on,” he said. old-timey sepia and transitioned Last-minute changes during tech into brighter tones. The colors week required the production staff culminated in the post-bow encore to improvise solutions. A day before as the cast emerged in blindingly the first show, the much-anticipated sparkly outfits, complete with rain machine broke after one of its matching umbrellas.

Before each show began, the cast pipes burst, so Faculty Technical Director Caitie Miller climbed on gathered below the Gross Theater the catwalk above the stage and stage for a “Mr. O’Neill pep talk,” as showered glitter on the actors as dubbed by Tan. “I would tell them, they danced in the iconic “Singin’ in ‘you should be really proud of what you’ve been able to accomplish the Rain” scene.

Costumes transported the in such a short amount of time stage to the 1920s with feather because putting together a show like headbands, fringed dresses, and this is incredibly time-consuming suit jackets bedazzled with sequins. and labor-intensive for everyone “My favorite was the white dress involved, even if you are ensemble with the fur coat,” Nina said. “I felt member number 47,” O’Neill said.

Actors also helped one another really good about myself, like I was quell pre-show nerves, Lee said. a completely different person, and it was a really big part of bringing Lina “We even made a little handshake before we went on stage,” referring Lamont alive.”

3

to the dancers in “All I Do is Dream of You.” The cast and crew felt a huge sense of accomplishment and relief when they finished their first show on Thursday, Miller said. “Right when the curtain hit the ground, everybody jumped in the air and cheered, everybody was hugging each other,” he said. “We were all in awe of the fact that we had just done that thing in front of the entire division and everybody saw it and the whole theater didn’t burn down,” Miller said.

After the final Saturday performance and the post-show celebrations with umbrella-shaped cookies and parasol-adorned cupcakes, the cast headed out to a drizzly night — perfect for the occasion. “We were like, “wait, we have an idea: we need to gather the cast so we can all sing ‘Singin’ in the Rain,’ in the rain,” Nina said. “It was a time to remember.”

Hack the Bronx “Hackathon” makes a difference virtually Ariella Frommer and Isabella Ciriello Staff and Contributing Writers 96 students competed in Hack the Bronx last weekend, an online Hackathon where students from various Bronx high schools work collaboratively to code projects that address problems in the community, gain experience in computer science, and win prizes.

The goal of this event was to spread awareness about lack of access to technology and computer science in the Bronx. The students spent the weekend identifying a problem in their community and using code to solve it.

Twins Charlotte and Caroline Willer-Burchardi (10), as well as their sister Sophie (9), led and organized the event. They came

up with the Bronx Hackathon last January, Caroline said. They then reached out to local Bronx officials as well as the school to expand their idea and make it a reality.

The siblings attended their first online hackathon two years ago and wanted to spearhead an event for Bronx schools because they had fun and learned coding skills, Sophie said. “Hackathons are really great because they foster this creativity and you can work together with different people if you want,” she said.

During the event, students split into two groups of beginner and experienced programmers to accommodate different abilities.

All competitors submitted their projects to the three sisters, who judged them and gave prizes to the two best programs in each skill level.

“We go through every project

HACKATHON Students attend Hack the Bronx online.

and then we rank them on certain things — innovation, feasibility, implementation, and the functionality,” Caroline said.

Projects that excelled in those categories won the prize.

Students who needed help with their project, wanted to go over their solution, or wanted to learn new skills could attend various workshops throughout the weekend.

One workshop was led by Computer Science teacher Samuel Grunebaum on the basics of web design. Echo 3D — one of the sponsors — led a workshop about how to implement their artificial and virtual reality software into their own projects, Charlotte said.

One winner in the Programmers with Experience category madeDigiQ, a website that allows members of the Bronx community to generate a QR code to see their position in lines so that they can go elsewhere as wait. “This Courtesy of Sophie Willer-Burchardi they allows managers to control the amount of people waiting in a line and it’s also particularly helpful during COVID as it allows people to wait without standing in line,” Charlotte said.

The first place winner in the programmers with experience category had a choice of an Apple Watch or a $200 dollar amazon gift card, and the second winner won a gaming bundle, Charlotte said. In

the beginner category, the first place student won an Amazon Echo Show 8 and the second place student won a raspberry pi, a single board computer, she said.

To plan the event, the Vivian Coraci and Lauren Kim / Art Directors siblings reached out to Monica Major, the Director of Youth and Education of the Bronx, who put them started with Scratch, an online in contact with other organizations website dedicated to introducing and sponsors such as CS4ALL and children to coding in a fun and The Knowledge House to sponsor interactive way, in elementary prizes and provide underprivileged school, she said. “We took a few students with computers so they online courses and then we did can participate, Caroline said. summer camps, and we moved from Major sent the information about block coding to techspace coding.”

Hack the Bronx in a press release Hackathons are important to schools around the Bronx to let because students can learn and them know about the event. help the community at the same After the sisters contacted Major time, Caroline said. “Technology and the sponsors, they worked and computer science are super together to make the event happen. important, and especially in places “We all went on a few calls together like the Bronx where a lot students and talked about how we could don’t have the opportunity to be able make this hackathon for Bronx to foster their passion for computer high school students to encourage science,” she said more Bronx students to use their The sisters hope to make Hack passion for computer science and the Bronx an annual event because to create something to help their it was a great experience for many community,” Caroline said. participants this year, Sophie said.

Sponsors signed on during the Next year, their goal is to reach out summer and fall, Charlotte said. to school’s earlier to get as many The siblings wanted to incorporate students involved as possible. “If more parts of the Bronx community we teach another course for SOH so they also included Summer on students, we plan to focus on the the Hill in the Hackathon, Charlotte aspects that they partake in during said. The school gave ten computers the weekend to provide a baseline to Summer on the Hill students. of understanding for the hackathon “We also had a an elective this fall as well as revolving it around the for the Summer on the Hill kids hackathon to a greater extent,” about web design so that they could Sophie said. learn about it to prepare themselves for the event,” Charlotte said.

Their passion for coding

Lions’ Den Record Sports

DECEMBER 17TH, 2021

“We’re all losers on the Trashketball court:” Amateurs shoot hoops Zack Kurtz and Aryan Palla Staff and Contributing Writers

basketball with some modifications.

Each game is played to 11 points and teams must win by only one point.

Special shots called pod shots and super pod shots that happen in designated “Trashketball is a judgment free zone, areas are worth more points — pod an arena of healthy competition with shots happen inside the key behind the absolutely no real stakes,” Trashketball half-court line and super pod shots are Commissioner, co-captain of the Bad taken from three-quarter court behind News Berensons and history teacher the volleyball lines.

David Berenson ’95 said. “Whether This year will be the first full you win or lose, we’re all losers on the Trashketball season since 2019 due to Trashketball court.” the pandemic. The first season at the Trashketball is a basketball league school took place during the 1979-1980 for juniors and seniors who are not on school year and was created by Head of the varsity basketball teams. Each team the Physical Education Department has two senior captains and ten players Walter Beisinger, who captained a team who are drafted at the beginning of the called The Slime. season. The regular season, where all of As commissioner, Berenson is the teams play, spans from November responsible for the administrative work till February. The league also has a that goes into running the league, he playoff season in March where the top said. “I set up the draft, I organize the teams face off against each other. schedule, I make sure we have a fair and The game is only open to juniors and healthy competition, though I am open seniors because they are the only ones to bribes.” who can handle both the responsibility Berenson never played Trashketball and the heartbreak, Berenson said. as a student at the school because he “Everyone knows ninth and tenth was so terrible, he said. He has since graders are very brittle.” conquered his anxiety and played as a The game is similar to four-on-four teacher for 15 years. He became league commissioner in 2014.

In the past, the same 12 team names were used each year.

However, in recent years, the captains of each team chose their own team name. Some of this year’s TRASH CADETS Resheff serves up some mean defense.

teams are the Froot Hoops, the Ext-riamists, the Bing Bong Ballerz, Quilty’s Fanclub, and the Untouchaballs.

Each Trashketball team is captained by one male identifying or nonbinary and one female identifying or non-binary student. This rule was introduced by Berenson to encourage co-ed play, he said. “I try to make it so it’s not just toxic masculinity,” he said.

“Now there’s some toxic femininity as well.”

Berenson co-captains his team with Madi Four-Garcia (12). It is a definite conflict of interest for him to captain a team and play while serving as league commissioner, he said. “As they say, power corrupts. Truth is, I’m highly uncoordinated, so it doesn’t really help my team’s prospects for me to be on the court. However, what I lack in skill, I make up for in unintelligible shouting.”

Corey Brooks (12) and Ria Chowdhry (12) are the co-captains of the Ext-ria-mists. Brooks was excited to draft and manage a team with his friends, he said. His brother, Zach Brooks ’20, always told him stories about Trashketball drafts and games, which inspired Corey to join the league, he said.

“It’s one of the final vestiges of old Horace Mann because during the draft, you’re choosing which kids are the best and you’re picking trashy names, and it’s all about hyper competition,” Brooks said. “But there’s also a certain levity to it, and in and of itself it is a commentary on Horace Mann’s competitiveness.”

Trashketball is about seeing how serious and competitive students can make something that does not matter at all, he said.

“People expect it to be less competitive than it is, and then you get

Ski Team ventures to Vermont for a weekend on the slopes Naomi Yaeger Staff Writer Clad in trash bags to stay dry during the rain, the ski team went on their annual ski trip to Killington this past weekend, Harper Rosenberg (10) said.

“It was raining [on the second day], so the conditions weren’t ideal, and some of us wore trash bags to keep dry,” she said. “It was a lot of fun.”

The trip gave the coaches a greater sense of the team’s ability before their races in January, Ski Coach John Eckels said. Unlike with other sports, preseason for ski centers around conditioning, not playing the sport itself, he said. Players run, do agility ladder drills, hold planks, and do jumping jacks, among many other activities, he said. “You can’t really tell how good a skier someone is,” he said.

Skiing together over the weekend helped make up for this needed practice time, Lynn Egan (10) said. As there is no snow at the school, the trip gave the team a chance to practice more than just their dry land skills, she said.

Even though they were not training for races, the trip allowed the team to change from a group of individual skiers into a cohesive team, Ski Coach Rawlins Troop said. “We don’t really start practicing on the hill we race on until we get back from vacation,” he said. “The idea was to go up there, have fun, and be safe.”

The ski team left for Killington on Thursday after school, taking a five hour long bus ride, Rosenberg said.

When they got to Vermont they didn’t have time for much except to eat dinner and head to their hotel rooms, she said.

On Friday, the team headed over to the ski resort early, arriving right when it opened, Eckels said. “The first few runs we were all together, as much as possible,” he said. After lunch, everyone went skiing on their own, occasionally crossing paths on the mountain, he said.

During their free time after lunch, Rosenberg and some teammates went skiing in the woods, she said. “A trail is normally around 100 feet wide, but you can go into the woods into these small foot-long crevices,” she said. “There’s

obstacles, like rocks and stuff, but we managed to make our way around them.” After the team left the resort, they had dinner and a gift exchange, she said.

For this mini “Secret Santa Gift Exchange,” members of the team brought in a gift for another teammate and received a gift themselves from someone else, Egan said. The exchange took place across grades, giving people the chance to get to know their teammates better, she said.

These gifts were generally small items that were fun to receive, Rosenberg said.

She received a candle from her “santa,” and gave a bag of chocolates, she said.

On Saturday, the team skied for most of the day, and then drove back to school after lunch, Eckels said. “It was rainy the second day, so we were unsure if we would get very much skiing done, but everyone got out and had an awesome time,” he said.

Most importantly, the trip allowed the team to bond, Troop said. Leading up to the trip, the range of grades on the team and the team’s inability to ski last year caused many of the younger

there and everyone really wants to win,” math teacher Adam Resheff ’15 said. “I had the ball towards the end of [one] game and I felt arms just going for the ball and smacking me in the head, and I was like, ‘alright, I get it. They want to win.’”

Destiney Green (12) views Trashketball as a great way for students to bond, relax, and blow off steam after a long school day, she said. “I get to draft people and be a fake coach and play and not have any expectations,” Green said.

“It’s the one time of the week where you can be trash at something and that’s the point.”

Green and Justin Burell (12) cocaptain Manifest Destiney. Their team is very passionate about basketball, Green said. They don’t play varsity basketball, but they have now been given the chance to take their skills and focus them on Trashketball, she said. The team has even come up with basketball plays that they implement as part of their in-game strategy.

Federica Italiani (12) and Griffin Klein (12), co-captains of HM Sheffs United, chose to draft a lot of their friends, which has made the season enjoyable so far, Italiani said. Italiani was very excited for Trashketball because she loves activities where she can compete with her friends in a low pressure atmosphere, she said.

“Trashketball takes the serious parts out of playing a real sport.”

Captains can also draft teachers to be on their teams. For example, Italiani and Klein drafted Head of Upper Division Jessica Levenstein and Resheff, while Brooks and Chowdhry drafted science teacher Matthew Boller.

This year is Boller’s second Trashketball season after having been

on the faculty team in 2018. He enjoys interacting with students outside of the classroom environment, Boller said. “I came from teaching at boarding school, so I miss seeing students outside of the classroom.”

Unlike in 2018, there is no faculty team in this year’s Trashketball league.

“That was a level of greatness that can probably never be replicated,” Berenson said. “Plus they got old.”

English teacher Adam Casdin was drafted by the Untouchaballs this season. While he has been invited to play many times in the past, this year is only the second invitation he has accepted, he said. Casdin did not participate in the past to “preserve his own safety,” he said. “Teachers are asked to join as a kind of novelty act. We’re sort of like the dog in a play.”

While some teachers are only there to boost team morale, others get into the sport, Resheff said. “You need the morale, but some teachers can really play,” he said. “Even if they can’t, they just want to have fun.”

Trashketball reminds Casdin of the pickup games he would play in the park as a teenager, he said. Trashketball players never really know what is going to happen and it is a bit of a free for all, Casdin said. “You’re just in it to have fun and maybe get out a little aggression.”

Berenson is thrilled to see the excitement for Trashketball this year, he said. “There’s a lot of fan support. The heckling is phenomenal.”

Casdin has gained appreciation for Trashketball the longer he has been at the school, he said. “It’s an odd tradition, but it seems like a very Horace Mann kind of event.”

Courtesy of Ski Team

SNOW MUCH FUN Ski team poses at the top of the mountain. members of the team to lack a strong connection with their teammates, he said. “It was just nice to get everybody out, forget about Covid for a while, and go out and have a good time,” he said.

Eckels’ favorite moment from the trip happened while he wasn’t skiing himself, he said. While sitting on the chairlift, he spotted a group of skiers on the team of mixed ability levels.

“People were zipping down the hill, but then they kept getting to the next face and stopping and waiting for their teammates to show up. It was clear that it wasn’t just about themselves, that they were really focused on staying together as a team,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Even small moments allowed the team to make fun memories, Ariella Frommer (10) said. After practice at school, Frommer and some teammates usually go to the ice bath in the fitness center, she said. “Obviously we didn’t have an ice bath [at the hotel], but we were still really tired after training, so we filled up the hotel bathtub with ice and water, and made an ice bath,” she said.

Looking ahead, Troop is excited to see the team race and keep up their good spirits, he said. “We usually do pretty well on the races. I’m just looking forward to getting back out there,” he said.

LIONS’ BOX: Results from this week’s games 12/10 - Varsity Wrestling Duals -- 1ST PLACE 12/10 - Boys Varsity Basketball vs. Collegiate -- LOSS 51-52 12/10 - Girls Varsity Basketball vs. CSH -- LOSS 36-39 12/15 - Boys Varsity Basketball vs. Fieldston -- LOSS 41-66

4

12/15 - Girls Varsity Basketball vs. Fieldston -- WIN 61-32 12/15 - Boys Varsity Squash vs. Poly Prep -- WIN 6-1 12/15 - Girls Varsity Squash vs. Poly Prep -- LOSS 1-8 12/15 - Varsity Table Tennis vs. Browning -- WIN 4-1