Issue - 2

The Record

Volume 119 Issue 2

record.horacemann.org

Horace Mann’s Weekly Newspaper Since 1903

September 24th, 2021

Community reactions to vaccine mandate A loss in our community: Jiya Chatterjee and Vidhatrie Keetha Staff Writers

The school issued a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all eligible employees and students during the 2021-2022 school year, Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly wrote in an email to the school community. All exemptions from the policy were reviewed by a committee headed by Kelly and the

“

“To those who object to the school’s policy, it is important to remember that attendance is voluntary [since] we are an independent day school, not a public school.”

- Dr. Kelly

school’s medical director Dr. Miriam Levitt.

The school had been considering a vaccine mandate since the beginning of March 2020. “As early as March I started informing employees and parents that we were heading in the direction of mandating the vaccine,” Kelly wrote in an email. “In doing so I was able to fold feedback — both pro and con — into our decision making.”

The deliberation process involved hearing from experts in the field, personnel from other independent day schools, and several colleges and universities about their thoughts regarding the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines, Kelly wrote. By June, it was clear that mandating the vaccine would be a necessary step in order to offer in-person instruction with minimal disruption, he wrote.

The school is allowing applications for religious and medical exemptions because the New York State Department of Health has not made the COVID vaccine a requirement for all schools, school nurse DeAnna Cooper said.

Currently, the state does not allow for religious exemptions to other vaccines that are required for school attendance, she said.

Medical exemptions from the vaccine mandate include allergies to any component of the COVID vaccine or a condition that would prevent someone from getting the vaccine. Both medical and religious exemptions were reviewed by the committee, as there was no single set of criteria used to approve or deny a request for an exemption. Families, medical practitioners, and religious leaders could participate in submitting a request for an exemption, Kelly wrote.

If the school chooses to remove the mask mandate, unvaccinated students — including those whose exemptions have been approved and those under the age of 12 — will still be required to wear masks at all times, Kelly said.

Kelly acknowledges that some members of the community are not fully on board with the mandate, he wrote.

“To those who object to the school’s policy, it is important to remember that attendance is voluntary [since] we are an independent day school, not a public school,” Kelly wrote. The school is willing to help families move to new schools if parents or guardians are against participating in the school’s vaccination mandate, he wrote.

Overall support for the vaccine mandate remains high among Upper Division (UD) students. According to an anonymous Record poll completed by 225 UD students, 91.6 percent of respondents support the mandate, while 5.3 percent do not support the mandate, and 3.1 percent of students are unsure about whether they support it. The poll found that three students out of 225, or 1.3 percent, would not have gotten vaccinated if the mandate had not been put in place, and three students were uncertain if they would have gotten vaccinated.

Although Naomi Yaeger (10) was not surprised by the school’s decision to issue a vaccine mandate, she still thought that it was a significant step for the school to take, she said. “I personally think everyone should get the vaccine — I think it’s a great protector against COVID,” Yaeger said. “But I thought that mandating was a very big step to take, and that it kind of takes away people’s individualism to make their own choices, and decide whether or not they personally want to take it.”

Yaeger had hoped the school would instead choose to strongly encourage students to get vaccinated because she believes that parents have the right to make decisions for their own children and family, she said.

“My mom’s a doctor, and she got vaccinated very early, but she was a little nervous to vaccinate me and my siblings, because she was like, ‘there’s not that much research on it, I don’t want to expose [my] kids,’” Yaeger said.

“Even though she was a doctor, she still wanted to think about it a little more.”

Peter Yu (11) also said that mandating the vaccine limits personal freedom.

“Let’s say it’s raining. If you don’t want to get wet, you can get an umbrella, but why force everyone else to get an umbrella?” he said. “I’m very pro vaccine, [but] I think that by taking away the choice [to get vaccinated or not], you’re sort of limiting people’s freedom.”

In addition to limiting personal freedom, Yu thinks that the mandate is not necessary, he said. “I feel like if the school’s point in asking people to

get vaccinated is to protect us from COVID [and] t o l o w e r t h e

Michael Loeb ‘46 Zack Kurtz Staff Writer

or irect Art D Vig/

mortality rate, kids who want to take it will take it nonetheless, regardless of the mandate,” he said.

Theodore Ganea (12) was not surprised by the vaccine mandate, and he believes the mandate is a step forward in terms of effectively fighting the virus and allowing other restrictions put in place due to the pandemic to be removed. “Compared to a lot of the other measures, like the masks or the dividers, I find the vaccine mandate to be not so big a deal,” he said. “They just put a shot into your blood and you’re done.”

Ganea does not believe that the mandate infringes upon students’ or faculty members’ individual rights to choose whether or not they want to get vaccinated, because remaining unvaccinated endangers the lives of others in the community, he said.

“It’s never been a right of personal liberty to do stuff that gets other people hurt. For example, we don’t allow drunk driving,” he said. “The reason why we don’t allow drunk driving is not necessarily because drunk drivers are on purpose trying to kill people, it’s just because they are not so aware when they’re driving, and they’re at more risk to endanger others.”

Samuel Siegel (11) thinks that getting vaccinated is not just about protecting yourself from the virus, but it is also about protecting others in the community, he said. “The school has every right to say ‘you have to get this vaccine or you can’t be a part of the community’,” he said.

Dr. Anitha Srinivasan P ‘23 ’25 also said that requiring vaccines is important for ensuring the health of the school community. “[The school] is making some bold but absolutely right moves,” she said. “Not only is this for my kids’ education, but it’s the right thing to do for public health.”

Daniela Koplin (12) said that the vaccine mandate should not be treated differently from any other vaccine that students are required to get, and that the main reason students may feel uncomfortable with getting vaccinated can be attributed to media coverage of the vaccines.

“If people do feel like [the vaccine mandate] is an infringement in not allowing them to have autonomy over themselves, it’s more because see Vaccine Mandate on p. 4 Riva

“Mike was and will always be synonymous with the John Dorr Nature Laboratory,” Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly wrote in an email.

“If he wasn’t so humble, it would be the Michael Loeb John Dorr Nature Laboratory.”

On Aug. 28th, 2021, Michael Andrew Loeb ‘46, a parent, grandparent, former trustee, and trustee emeritus (someone who has shown exemplary service as a trustee), passed away at the age of 92.

Loeb was born on Nov. 25th, 1928 and was raised in New York City.

His father, Milton B. Loeb, donated the Theresa H. Loeb library to the school in 1962 to honor his late wife, Michael’s mother.

While at the school, Loeb wrote for the HM Quarterly, a literary magazine on which he was an assistant editor, as well as for The Linguist, a journal about our changing language.

Students voted him as “Done Most for Horace Mann” in the “Senior Opinions” section of the 1946 Mannikin. After high school, Loeb attended Columbia College and Harvard Business School.

Once he graduated from Harvard Business School in 1952, Loeb joined his father and brother in running the Brillo Manufacturing Corporation which manufactures steel wool soap pads, founded by his father in 1913.

He remained at the company for 10 years, then entered the world of publishing.

Loeb started a publishing company called Grossman Publishers, famous

Courtesy of Flikr

LASTING CONNECTIONS Loeb shared his love for the community.

Editorial: Share your opinions, even with the Record The Record Editorial Board stands by Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly’s decision to mandate COVID vaccinations for eligible members of the school community. We believe that prioritizing public health is a necessary aspect of a secure and healthful environment; in vaccinating ourselves against the virus, we are doing our part to keep each other safe.

We chose to run a news article about the mandate not only due to its occurrence but because of its significance — we recognize that the mandate was a difficult decision for Dr. Kelly to make. We understand that it required careful deliberation; this mandate leaves room for disagreement within the community.

As such, we wanted our reporting to reflect the complex nature of the school’s choice. We hoped to run an article presenting the various opinions on this subject within our community and highlighting the possible dilemmas it posed for families. Although nearly everyone that attends the school is vaccinated, we know that electing to vaccinate may have been difficult for some. Even those who were willingly and comfortably vaccinated can acknowledge the complexities of the decision.

Yet, our reporters were faced with a dilemma.

Students, parents, and faculty members who were asked to speak on the record about the possible complications of this mandate — not

for publishing the 1965 bestseller, Unsafe at any Speed by Ralph Nader.

Viking Press later acquired the company. For the remainder of his life, he worked at Harry N. Abrams publishing company, where he held the position of executive vice president.

The school instilled in Loeb a passion for reading and literature which he cultivated for the rest of his life, Zachary Malter ‘09, Loeb’s grandson, said. This foundation that the school gave him helped him major in English at Columbia and pursue a career in publishing.

According to his obituary published

by The New York Times, Loeb had a passion for the outdoors and was an avid-nature lover. His love of nature began when he spent 10 summers as a camper at Camp Kennebec in Maine. Loeb later became deeply involved in the Sierra Club, the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States, ultimately serving as the chair of its foundation, according to the Times. He also worked with the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association (YM-YWHA), where he was the Treasurer of the Berkshire Hills-Eisenberg Camp.

Loeb remained heavily involved with the school over the years, taking on numerous positions and serving as the longest trustee of the John Dorr Nature Laboratory Board.

Loeb devoted much of his efforts to helping guide Dorr’s renovation for environmentally sustainability, according to a 2010 article in Horace Mann Magazine titled “Horace Mann School Alumni: Sustaining the Earth.” see Loss in Our Community on p. 4

necessarily those they personally faced — remained silent. Some chose not to comment unless granted anonymity that we could not provide, while others who privately voiced skepticism chose to publicly voice support for the decision. It was nearly impossible to find a community member willing to publicly state that they knew this mandate is in any way controversial.

Journalism doesn’t function without truth — the whole truth. We want to take the time to remind and reassure you: Volume 119 of The Record strives to publish pieces that are objective and nuanced. Our hope to treat everybody’s opinions fairly can only exist if

those opinions are shared with us.

We understand that unpopular opinions are often self-censored out of fear of backlash from peers or faculty members. We can not predict how others will react, but we can promise that we are trying to build a space for safe but challenging and critical discourse.

As long as your thoughts do not disrespect or discriminate against another individual, we will honor them with a place in the paper. We attempt to provide multiple opinions in each story and promise to present each one in a just and respectful manner. Your voice deserves to be heard, and the community will benefit from listening to it.

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THE RECORD OPINIONS AND FEATURES SEPTEMBER 24TH, 2021

The healing power of poetry

Louise Kim This past spring, I spent most of my days lost in a sea of Google Docs.

I typed tens of thousands of words for school, yet I felt disconnected from the role writing used to play in my life — a safe haven and a way for me to express my creativity. I struggled with a lack of inspiration and barely wrote in my favorite genre, poetry, for months. I wanted this summer to be a return to writing on my own terms, a chance to reflect on my experiences through poetic meditation.

This summer, I filled an entire notebook with poems, spare lines, and other scraps of writing. After months of sprinting through my to-do list on autopilot, I appreciated the newfound time to explore who I was and am — what brings me joy, what is important to me, what motivates me to do what I do. I also began to work on what I hope to be my second self-published writing collection, currently a twentypage Word document featuring topics ranging from spirituality to astrology to nature.

Through poetry, I embraced a new perspective: letting go of the

pressure to be perfect and making space for growth. I realized that in everything I did, from schoolwork to personal projects, I had been seeking perfection and my mental health suffered as a result. This constant search for excellence even hindered the way I approached writing at the start of summer break. In the early weeks of vacation, it often seemed as though the “right” words had escaped me. I would scour thesaurus.com, digging for synonyms of “tempest,” “shattered,” and the occasional antonym, sometimes despairing when none of the words embodied the expression I was looking for.

Consequently, I would end any attempt to write something by crumpling up the empty Google Doc and throwing it into the digital trash can.

Eventually, I accepted that something needed to change. I opened every internet tab I could about self-development and breaking perfectionism, discussed the topic at meetings with my therapist, and tried to write more and more. I ultimately reaffirmed a profound truth: to write from the heart, one must release expectations of completing a poem when writing it down for the first time. Only then can one relinquish stagnation to embrace evolution and positive change.

One way that I overcame this barrier of perfectionism was by returning to freewriting, a technique where one writes in a stream-ofconsciousness manner with no pauses or editing. I was inspired to try free-writing over the summer after reading Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. In adopting the method, I was able to reflect on the past year

by writing liberally on whatever ideas or memories surfaced, unconstrained by a single topic, my “inner critic,” or expectations to produce something coherent. Finally, I could see the empty page not as an intimidating space to fill, but as a blank canvas where I could determine my own rules and embrace conceptual bravery.

Tossing words, anecdotes, and reflections towards a page open to catching them also allowed me to explore my existence without restraint.

Through poetry, I discovered I could accept the intersectionality of my identity and search within myself for desires and motivations. Poetry doesn’t force me into a label, a box, an epithet; it offers me a blank canvas with limitless opportunities to explore the nooks, crannies, and crevices of myself.

Finding emotional catharsis was another driving force in my process.

For years, poetry had been a space where I could heal. By being honest with myself in my writing, I was able to find closure and better process traumatic events. After the Atlanta shooting this March, my mental and physical health deteriorated and never quite recovered. I could do no more than keep my pain, a newly reopened, festering wound, under wraps. For months, I felt empty and bitter as I went about my day-to-day life. When summer arrived, it was as though I could finally express my rage and grief properly through detailing my experience coping with the aftermath of the shooting.

Writing down my emotions gave me the clarity and strength I needed to reckon with the violence.

I also took time over the summer to reaffirm the sense of community

that is so important with literature. I participated in the Kenyon Review creative writing program, where every day for a

other than truly learning the value of words. I find that an excerpt from my poem, “sometimes my words were the only thing keeping me afloat,” Sophia Liu/Contributing Artist

week I read, wrote, and shared writing with peers in an intensive workshop, enjoying afternoon events like open mics and poetry readings.

Even though the meetings were over Zoom, people were still able to come together to revel in one another’s words. Attendees used the chat to spam compliments and favorite quotes from the piece being read.

As my screen glowed with the poets’ enthusiasm, my cheeks hurt from smiling.

I wrote my first poem in fifth grade, and it’s safe to say that writing has changed my life in many ways

best encapsulates my affinity for the art. “[A]s i kept writing/poetry became my diary, my confidante./i poured my soul onto the page and it absorbed all…now poetry has been with me for a third of my lifespan./i consider it my everything, the beauty of it all.” Scribbling down some lines, freewriting when inspiration strikes you, or recording an intriguing detail from your daily life can be the start to emotional healing, communal joy, and perpetual growth.

Welcome Back Crossword

By Managing Editor Liliana Greyf and Head of Design AJ Walker

Clues Across 1. Go-to for research-related needs 5. Freshman year Shakespeare 7. Magna est _______ et prævalet 8. “For _______ is the truth that makes us free!”

10. Preferred method of communication 15. Wild animal on campus?

16. Literary Review Publication

Volume 119 Editorial Board Editor in Chief Hanna Hornfeld

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 Rowan Mally

Art Directors Vivian Coraci Lauren Kim Riva Vig

Design Editors Avani Khorana Myra Malik Arin Rosen

Photography Oliver Lewis Daniel Schlumberger Ailill Walsh

Online Editor Lucas Glickman

Head of Design AJ Walker

Faculty Adviser David Berenson

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 Staff Photographers Sophie Gordon, Amanda Wein, Emma Colacino, AJ Walker, Lucas Glickman, Lauren Ho, Sean Lee Staff Artists Eliza Becker, Felix Brenner

18. Field in the lower division 19. 246th and ____________ 21. Birthplace of the Record 22. Dr. Kelly’s star sign Down 2. Director of Dorr 3. Last name of senior CC chair 4. Translator of Homer 5. Last name of senior CC chair 6. _______ tables are back!

9. Fall in the pool 11. Bus company 12.

13. The Record’s 119th 14. Cottage on the corner, also known as the business office 16.

17. Last name of former crossword maker 20. Alg. 2 and ____, briefly see answers on page 4

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.

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THE RECORD OPINIONS SEPTEMBER 24TH, 2021

U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan “an abhorrent decision”

Jordan Wasserberger Riva Vig/Art Director

When Joe Biden announced his presidential run in 2019, he did so under the slogan of “Build Back Better.” According to Biden, his presidency would be a unifying moment for America, a chance for our country to heal after four years of utter chaos, not only returning to a state of normalcy but also becoming a better version of itself. What Biden failed to mention is that his idea of America is a country that abandons its allies, sends hundreds of thousands of innocent people to their deaths, helps establish one of the most oppressive regimes in the world, and allows for one of the worst human rights crises in history, because continuing the fight would have been inconvenient.

It’s important to note that, as with all things foreign policy-related, there are no absolutes. One cannot say that the only good option was to treat the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan as an immovable constant, just as one cannot say that any American involvement was a tragic mistake.

Both ends of the spectrum have missed the point entirely. The United States’ entry into the country was almost inevitable in the wake of 9/11.

Only one member of Congress voted

against the move in 2001, and the vast majority of America was thrilled that the U.S. was going to fight the people who harbored the terrorists that killed 3,000 innocent Americans. The overarching goal, according to thenpresident George. W. Bush, was to not only “bring justice to our enemies,” but also ensure that nothing like the September 11 attacks could happen again. That kind of commitment requires time, resources, and a dedication to nation-building the U.S. has rarely shown.

The last time America tried to artificially construct an ally on that scale was with Vietnam, a conflict which ended much the same way as the Afghanistan War. The difference is that where Vietnam was an unmitigated disaster, America’s success in Afghanistan was more debatable. The Taliban and al-Qaeda were reduced to shells of their former selves, and, within a few years, NATO and the United States had established a shaky democratic government with a constitution, president, and a national army committed to the defense of the newly democratic Afghanistan. While a far from perfect system (plagued with corruption even in its infancy) the Afghanistan government was important; it represented the start of a movement that over time, with proper support, could become a true independent democracy. As the years went on, the pro-democracy coalition slowly took ground, and in 2018 the Afghani people elected the first female mayor in the city of Maidan Shahr. This wasn’t just a unilateral American venture, as some have claimed.

Almost 60 countries, including some of America’s closest allies, were involved in the war in Afghanistan.

The idea that Afghanistan was an act of American imperialism is frankly ludicrous, given the conflict was a global effort to establish democracy in a region which had historically

harbored hostility to the ideas therein — namely freedom and equality. While the multinational group involved certainly had ulterior motives —military aims, economic benefit— imperialism by definition involves one power exercising control over another. It’s hard to argue that America had sole and definitive control over the Afghan government, given America was but one of 60 nations involved in the region, and in 2013 NATO formally handed over full control of Afghanistan to former President Hamid Karzai.

The Afghanistan operation was an international mission to create a free, allied democracy in the Middle East.

That effort was largely successful, until President Biden burned it to ash.

Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, then, was an abhorrent decision on two fronts. First, for our allies, and by proxy, us.

Because Afghanistan was such a multilateral operation, an impactful move by any of the major players (the U.S., Britain, France, and Germany) would have destabilized the coalition and disturbed much of the ongoing efforts. As we have learned since the summer, Biden’s decision was uniquely unilateral. The President did not consult with world leaders and actually dodged calls from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for 36 hours, according to The Daily Telegraph. Biden’s actions were so blindsiding to our allies that the British Parliament held the President in contempt on August 18, condemning his “dishonor.”

The EU also convened in the wake of Biden’s decision, with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggesting the EU completely break away from the U.S. with regards to military operations and the European Council President Charles Michel espousing his fears and lamentations, albeit without any concrete proposal

of what to do next. Rightfully so, however, the spectrum merely ranges from “furious” to “ballistic.” President Biden has succeeded in unifying Europe’s foreign policy; it just happens to now be directly against him.

The second sphere of calamity resides in Afghanistan itself. In the months since America’s departure, here’s a bit of what’s happened: during heroic protests led mainly by Afghan women and minorities, the Taliban killed four protestors and injured dozens; the Taliban has conducted door-to-door manhunts, threatening journalists and executing anyone they deem an ally of the free world; a Taliban suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. servicemen and injured 18 more at an airport in Kabul.

There are too many stories like the above to count, and as the weeks go on the violence and oppression will only get more severe.

At best, Biden failed to see this coming (despite warnings from America’s highest-ranking military officers) and should be recognized as inept in the foreign policy space. At worst, Biden knew this would happen but chose to push for it, and should be held responsible, by the American people or the international community.

The plight of the Afghan people is Biden’s fault, plain and simple. Yet, is the man who claimed to be an “ally of the lightness” holding himself accountable? No! Biden has blamed the Afghan military for the entire catastrophe, making the outrageous claim that they were “unwilling” to fight the Taliban. Unwilling is a fascinating word for Biden to use, considering the Afghan army has lost 67,500 soldiers in this fight, whereas the United States lost 2,448. Still, it was the United States who pulled out without warning.

While I agree with Biden that America should never be singularly

responsible for the defense of another power, that is not what happened in Afghanistan. It’s especially hard to blame the Afghan military for this debacle, given that we trained them to fight with American support, and then took the support away from them but still expected victory.

Within this sphere of calamity lies an extra level of shame and tragedy. Not only did the act of withdrawal allow for the creation of a brutally oppressive regime with no regard for human life, but the administration handled it with the utmost level of carelessness, to the point where USA Today estimates that tens of millions of dollars worth of military equipment, ranging from armored vehicles to advanced aircraft and artillery mechanisms, has been left in the hands of the Taliban. It is bad enough that the United States stabbed its ally in the back and let this takeover happen, but the absolute lack of care taken in the evacuation is nothing short of disgraceful.

All told, the Afghanistan debacle should be remembered as one of the lowest — if not the lowest — moments of America’s foreign policy history. Never before has this nation so blatantly betrayed its allies, broken its promises, and committed acts so diametrically opposed to everything we are supposed to stand for. While foreign policy issues are often overlooked in favor of domestic crises, especially at a place like Horace Mann, I do hope that at least some discussion will be encouraged over the coming weeks and months, especially as the long term impacts of Biden’s catastrophe take shape. This fiasco will impact our lives for years, if not decades, to come. The credibility of the United States of America on the world stage has been shattered by the very man whose job it is to protect it. We can only pray he doesn’t make things worse.

students, in reality, the protection these laws provide to vulnerable individuals is insufficient. Both laws contain loopholes, such as only being required to fulfill “reasonable and rational” accommodations, stipulations which are broad enough to allow institutions to choose who and what they accommodate for. This leaves disabled students with limited options for schooling. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the graduation rate for disabled students in the United States is 58.8%, which is considerably lower than non-disabled students’ graduation rate of over 80%.

The barriers to access and the issue of attendance due to illness or hospitalization could all be minimized with a simple solution: remote schooling options. This isn’t a new concept. In fact, disabled and chronically ill students along with their parents have been pushing for a remote option in public schools for over a decade. While online public schools exist, they are not part of the same public school systems that students regularly attend. This effectively separates vulnerable students from the communities they belong to at a crucial time in their socio-emotional development.

Before COVID-19, chronically ill and disabled students were told that a remote option at their schools wasn’t possible; creating the remote infrastructure wasn’t worth the money. Then, when the pandemic hit in March of 2020, this paradigm shifted, and remote learning became mainstream in America. Schools’ newfound accessibility following the pandemic gave the chronically ill and disabled community more opportunities than ever before.

As a disabled person myself, I was able to experience a world without barriers for the first time. I competed in Speech tournaments one day after spinal surgery and organized protests in Australia from the comfort of my bed. This proved that my disability wasn’t what was holding me back.

Lack of access was.

I’m incredibly privileged to go to a private school like Horace Mann that has continuously been accommodating and has established

the challenges of learning while chronically ill. Furthermore, Mayor Bill Deblasio announced that public schools would reopen with neither a remote option nor a vaccination mandate. For many students who are immunocompromised, disabled, or chronically ill, this means that they can’t be able to be part of a learning community without being put at undue risk. This decision will almost certainly limit opportunities, harming these vulnerable students

a remote option should still remain standard in all schools. According to the CDC, 1 in 4 people are disabled.

Virtual learning gives disabled and chronically ill people access to more convenient schooling and extracurriculars--there is no reason to take that away.

The disabled community is the largest growing minority group and the only one you can join at any time. We are all one accident away from becoming disabled; statistically, according to the UN Factsheet on Persons with Disabilities, people spend at least eight years of their lives being disabled from either aging or chronic illness. Additionally, if disabled students had been heard when requesting accessibility prepandemic, our transition to remote education would have already been perfected years before. Continuing access to remote learning will generate tech innovation in this area, benefiting all students in the case of another outbreak or natural disaster.

Public schools are not truly public unless they are accessible. It’s time we listen to ill and disabled students and provide them with the opportunities they deserve. We can start by signing a petition by Daniel Alicea to have remote options in New York City public schools. Beyond public education, we can all work on making things we have control of more accessible. If you are hosting an event, musical performance, or Model UN tournament, provide a remote option. Adding a Zoom link doesn’t take much from us, but it can open a whole new range of possibilities for vulnerable students.

Schools have a responsibility to keep a remote option

Isabel MavridesCalderon Laura*, who is involved in the NYC accessible public school movement, was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease during freshman year of high school. She needed transfusions every other week, causing her to miss at least four days of school each month, in addition to the days she had to miss as a result of symptoms of her illness. Because of her absences, Laura was forced to withdraw from her public school and was offered homeschooling away from her friends and community for three hours a day.

Laura’s story is not unique. For years, if you were a chronically ill or a recently disabled public school student, you were forced to drop out, offered a limited homeschool option, or were held back due to absences. While the Americans with Disabilities Act, a law which protects disabled people against discrimination, and the Individuals for Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provide some guidance regarding education and access for disabled

Isabelle Kim/Contributing Artist

safety protocols with considerable investments. However, the majority of disabled and chronically ill students in New York do not have access to counselors and an administration that understands

exponentially.

It is important to recognize that the recent normalization of remote learning occurred when able-bodied students needed it. But even if the pandemic disappeared tomorrow,

*name purposes

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4

THE RECORD NEWS SEPTEMBER 24TH, 2021

School switches to Selby after Supertrans denies routes

from Vaccine Mandate on page 1

Allison Markman Staff Writer

forever indebted to the Selby family for having done so,” he wrote.

There is currently a nation-wide bus driver shortage, and some districts have had to delay school openings because they cannot get their students to school, Forcelli said.

“While everyone is feeling this pinch, we’ve been very fortunate — as one of Selby’s oldest clients — to see our buses staffed with permanence,” Kelly wrote.

To improve the situation, Selby will reflect on the lateness of the first week and adjust pick up and drop off times, Kelly wrote. “Over time, and with everyone’s patience, support and understanding, the Selby family will control what it can control and our bus runs will fall into place.”

of the media,” Koplin said. “I have a feeling that if there weren’t as many vaccine skeptics in the media [and] in the government, then people will not be feeling this. It’s just because it’s a publicized issue.”

Ricky Lipsey (12) believes making the vaccine mandatory was the obvious decision for the school to make because the school is a private institution that is liable for the safety of its students. Since the vaccines are effective, requiring vaccines would allow students to feel more comfortable coming to school, he said.

Isabel Mavrides-Calderon (11), who was online throughout the 20202021 school year due to a health condition that put her at high risk for contracting the virus, feels relieved about the policy, she said. Because of the mandate, Mavrides-Calderon feels comfortable attending in person for the 2021-2022 school year, she said.

“I would have definitely stayed online if there wasn’t a mandate,” Mavrides-Calderon said. “Vaccines are proven to be effective, and I feel a lot safer as an immunocompromised student.”

Anya Sen (9), who is new to the school, was also eager to return to school in-person two weeks ago. At Sen’s old school, she was one of the only students who elected to be virtual during the previous school year.

“With Horace Mann’s vaccination mandate, my family and I feel safer about me going fully in person.”

“Dr. Kelly’s informed guidance last year on masks [and] testing and social distancing proved to be extremely successful,” Cathy Trentalancia P ‘08 ’23 said. “I believe Dr. Kelly’s policies this year will once again reflect comprehensive due diligence, and we will have another successful year.”

While there has been disagreement regarding the mandate within the community, Kelly remains optimistic for the upcoming school year, he said.

“We are fortunate to begin the school year with the overwhelming majority of students and employees vaccinated against COVID-19.”

would not know about his leadership abilities in terms of casually meeting him. He is not one of these people who broadcasts their own abilities.”

Bringing together his classmates from the school, at least annually, was special to Loeb, Malter said.

“He was extremely engaged with the Horace Mann community, and was a community builder, and brought people together,” Malter said. “[He worked] towards making the school a better place my whole life, and that is a

testament to how committed he was to the things that he cares about and the people he cares about.”

Michael Loeb will always be remembered for his kind and thoughtful nature, Kelly wrote. “Hands down, Mike remains one of the most thoughtful and affable human beings I’ve ever met,” Kelly wrote. “I never saw him pass up an opportunity to speak with someone, and he had an uncanny ability to see the good in everyone. He was one of the good eggs.”

After Supertrans, the bus company the school has used as transportation for 30 years, denied service to bus routes in New Jersey, Westchester, and the Bronx, the school was forced to switch bus companies, Director of Transportation Robert Forcelli said. A new bus company, Selby Transportation Corp, took over transportation and agreed to honor the prices families used to pay for Supertrans bus service.

Whereas Supertrans and Selby previously worked in conjunction, Selby is now the only transportation company working with the school.

Selby seemed like the obvious choice for the switch, since it already transported many Lower Division students and had worked with the school for almost four decades, Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly wrote in an email. Selby will cover all aspects of transportation at the school, including Dorr, Athletics, and all charter trips.

Supertrans’ refusal to bus routes from New Jersey, Westchester, and the Bronx stems from the fact that these routes are less profitable or unprofitable for the company.

Fewer students live in these areas, so fewer students are on each bus.

Thus, in an effort to carve out the most profitable routes, Supertrans only offered to pick up students residing in Manhattan, Kelly wrote. “Allowing HM’s bus runs to be carved up from most profitable to least profitable was simply not acceptable.”

During the first week of school, many students who live in New Jersey and Westchester experienced late arrivals to school due to the switch.

Forcelli said that students should not compare the time it took them to get to school last year with this year because more people are returning to work, he said.

“What many people fail to realize is, during the pandemic last year, the roads were basically empty and the buses were running at half capacity.”

Jared Contant (11), however, thinks the bus delays are not due to traffic, but rather, are company related. “I even waited 30 minutes for my six o’clock bus while all of the others were on time,” he said.

“If the issue was traffic, there wouldn’t have been only one bus that was late.”

Rhea Patel (12), who lives in New Jersey, was not picked up until

Ailill Walsh/Photo Director

NEW ROUTES Selby buses line up on Tibbett Avenue.

8:10a.m. on the first day of school, though the bus was scheduled to arrive at 7:07a.m. “I don’t think this was related to the bus being stuck in traffic or anything, I think there was just another issue going on related to the bus company, ‘’ she said.

Though traffic is a reason Gillian Ho (9) has been arriving late in the first month of school, she thinks that the new routes cause her to spend more time on the bus daily.

Ho believes that the lateness is caused by the distance buses travel to pick each student up, she said.

“There’s someone on my bus who lives in Yonkers, which is about 15 minutes away from my house, and there’s other people who live in Mount Vernon and New Rochelle [15-20 minutes away].”

Ho has been arriving at school around 8:30 a.m., when in previous years she arrived at 8:10 a.m., she

“

P ‘23 believes the bus company could improve communication regarding delays, but is optimistic that the situation will improve, she wrote. “As we kick off the school year with a new bus company, I hope that the bus drivers are provided with training on their routes, maybe doing a ‘dry run’ with supervisors, and parents are kept updated about buses running late.”

Aware of the difficulties associated with change, Jakob Westra P ‘23 understands how hard it is to get everything right on the first try, he said. “Though the buses arriving late is frustrating, I am confident in HM’s and Selby’s ability to address the issues and get students to school on time.”

Ultimately, Kelly is grateful that Selby was able to step up and is happy that service is being provided to all students. “We’re

“Though the buses arriving late is frustrating, I am confident in HM’s and Selby’s ability to address the issues and get students to school on time.”

- Jakob Westra P ‘23 said. Ho finds the lengthy ride home from school to be unreasonable as well. The bus’ route takes her 1 hour and 30 minutes to arrive home, though her home is only around 30 minutes away by car, even in traffic.

Though some students’ buses have been arriving late, the school has been tracking routes and found that most buses arrive by 8:15 a.m, Forcelli said.

Malini Khorana

from A Loss in Our Community on page 1 Loeb and his wife Ann owned a home in Bethlehem, Connecticut near Dorr. Over the years, they donated approximately 120 acres from their own adjacent property to expand the Connecticut campus, their most recent donation being the land on which Dorr’s entrance road sits. Loeb also initially convinced John Dorr to donate his land.

The school would not have Dorr if not for Michael Loeb, Kelly wrote. “He believed firmly that there was much to be learned through one’s connection with the outdoors.”

“Mike and Ann Loeb generously gave the school the land necessary to carve out a road not only for buses to safely gain access to Dorr, but also for the construction equipment to safely enter and exit the property,” Kelly wrote. This donation gave the school the property necessary to construct one of the faculty houses, he wrote.

Loeb also allowed for the pond on his personal property to be used for

sixth graders to construct rafts during orientation, Director of Dorr Nick DePreter said.

Loeb’s contributions to and relationship with Dorr exemplifies the behind-the-scenes work that he did for the school, DePreter said. Loeb was an exemplary and supportive alumnus, he said.

Kelly remembers surveying the property with former Director of Dorr Glenn Sherrat, Loeb, and another trustee on a wet spring day, when Loeb swiftly led the group through the woods and up and down ravines on the property. “Mike loved an adventure and he loved sharing it with others,” Kelly wrote. “And if that adventure could be outdoors, it was even better.”

Loeb had a hand in every new hire, building, program, and acre added to Dorr, and his involvement can be seen everywhere, Kelly wrote. “I can’t imagine a time when discussing the John Dorr Nature Laboratory that Mike’s name won’t come up, either

Courtesy of Flikr

VISITING THE MD Loeb laughs with students.

in a story or in its founding or in a programmatic enhancement,” he wrote.

Loeb will leave behind a lasting legacy of compassion and inclusiveness in all aspects of his life, including at the school, Kelly wrote. Loeb influenced the school’s push for both a robust and effective financial aid program as well as the enrollment of diverse students, he wrote.

As a dedicated trustee, Loeb was giving, kind, generous, selfless, gregarious without being overly domineering, and just all around a lovely person, Director of Admissions Jason Caldwell ‘97 said. Loeb’s actions have impacted everyone currently at the school, Caldwell said. “He cared so much about Horace Mann and through his efforts to school at large, and also through his efforts with Dorr, the landscape of the school really changed.”

Loeb is the perfect example of someone who truly loved the work that he did and was always excited to work with the school, Caldwell said.

“For him, it wasn’t ‘oh I have to do this,’ or ‘oh I gotta do it,’ or ‘oh I should make an appearance at this,’” he said. “He did it because he loved it.”

Loeb continued to stay involved with the school community by hosting regular lunch meetings with his friends from the school over the past 10 years.

Dr. Jack Richard ‘46 attended the school with Loeb but got to know him better over these lunches, he said. “I would describe Mike as the type of a person who is a leader of people without declaring himself,” Richard said. “You

Crossword Answers from page 2

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5

THE RECORD ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT AND MIDDLE DIVISION SEPTEMBER 24TH, 2021

MD switches to semester system Athena Rem Staff Writer

This school year, the Middle Division (MD) transitioned from a trimester system to a semester system. Though the MD has used the trimester system since the division’s implementation, the change will ultimately improve MD education, Dean of MD Faculty Eva Abbamonte said.

This decision has been a possibility for over two years, history teacher Katherine Rudbeck said. When the Upper Division (UD) switched to trimesters for the 2018-19 school year, the MD was inclined to do so as well, though the change did not come immediately, Dean of the Class of 2028 Michelle Amilicia said. While the faculty had planned to implement semesters for the 2020-2021 school year, the administrator prioritized planning for COVID-19 protocols, delaying the switch to semesters by one year, Amilicia said.

When Head of the MD Javaid Khan first came to the school three years ago, he wondered why the UD was using semesters while the MD was using trimesters and started considering making a switch to semesters, he said.

To make the final decision on whether or not to implement semesters, Khan consulted the MD Leadership Team,

which. This team exists to works on MD policies, curriculum, schedules, and all other issues pertaining to MD life, math department chair Quentin Brooks said. This group of faculty includes Abbamonte, all department chairs, the three grade-level deans, service learning coordinator Caitlin Hickerson, scheduling coordinator Tom Petras, and advisory coordinator Norma Rodriguez, and Khan. The decision was finalized last spring, and the administration concluded planning for scheduling over the summer, Khan said.

Before making the change official, Khan asked all department chairs to check for any potential flaws in the plan, he said. He also spoke with Petras to confirm that scheduling would not be an issue, because the MD’s arts program is accustomed to running on trimesters.

Though the arts program has run on trimesters, the problem was resolved by splitting the year into quarters, meaning there are more opportunities to get students in and out of rotations, Amilicia said.

Khan and the rest of the faculty noted a few key advantages of the new plan, which led them to make the

decision to switch.

One of these advantages lies in grading under a semester system, Abbamonte said. If a student starts out slowly in the beginning of the year and messes up in the first trimester, it will be much harder to resolve your grades for the rest of the year, she said. Dean of the Class of 2027 Della Brooks shares a similar

make it easier for him to evaluate his performance and to set goals for his grades during the next quarter.

While having two mid semester grading periods means that students now have fewer evaluation periods than they would with three mid trimesters, Khan has made adjustments to keep proper communication with families.

Thus, families will have three new checkpoints to communicate with advisors: one meeting at the beginning of the year, one in the middle, and one concluding conference to reflect on the year.

The shift to semesters will also align the MD with the UD since the Vivian Coraci/Art Director UD already uses sentiment. “If you mess up in the semesters, Rudbeck said. Since the first trimester, rather than in the first UD shares both faculty and even quarter, it would be harder to remedy some students with the MD, it is that,” she said. better to have a singular grading Sofia Kim (10) also prefers the system, Abbamonte said. grading structure under semesters, Though helpful, the new system will because she can get feedback more take some adjusting to get used to, often from mid semester reports.

Abbamonte said. “We have a reporting Similarly, Loewy Miller (8) said that system of grades and checklists that is receiving four sets of grades — one on a trimester system,” she said. “We per quarter — instead of three will have to figure out how that makes

“Artsy Summer” gallery showcases students’ creativity Neeva Patel Staff Writer

A splatter-painted basketball, a watercolor butterfly, and a ceramic fish head are just a few of the art pieces you can find in the Fisher Hall gallery’s first show of the year: “Artsy Summer.” The show features different mediums, including photos, sculptures, drawings, paintings, digital art, and ceramic figures, all created over the summer by Upper and Middle Division students.

The gallery show is on view from September 14 through 30.

Studio Arts Manager Emily Lombardo and members of the art department have been planning for the gallery show since the end of last school year. “We decided to make this gallery show seem like a calming place to come to during the hectic first few weeks of school,” Lombardo said. “The pieces are done by students from completely different skill levels, and for the first show of the year, we wanted to display a diverse array of mediums and artistic styles.”

To curate the show, Lombardo emailed all students towards the end of the summer and connected with visual arts and photography teachers to recruit students for art submissions. Interested students then dropped off their pieces at school on September 9 and 10, and filled out a Google form with their names and grades. Lombardo planned out where each art piece would go on the walls of the gallery. “I figured out how to fill the space on our walls by starting in the middle and branching out from there,” they said.

In the middle of the gallery, Lombardo chose to place an extremely

detailed oil painting of an Indian farmer. Raghav Poddar (10), who created this piece, was inspired by the farmer’s eyes and his proud bearing.

“The eyes are so direct and eloquent that they seem to tell the story of a lifetime of hard work, honesty, and integrity,” he said. Poddar chose to use oil paint to create the piece because of the medium’s richness and its range of tonal transitions and shades. “I decided to share this artwork with our school because I want viewers to understand how hard these Indian farmers work, he said.” Poddar hopes that viewers can recognize this message in his art and spread it along.

Another of Poddar’s paintings on display depicts the head of a Greek statue called “Laocoön and His Sons.”

Poddar created this painting as he was interested in Greek art and took inspiration from the drama evident in Laocoön’s expression. “I decided to submit this piece to the gallery because I wanted to show that you don’t need to focus on the whole sculpture to deliver its emotion; you can zero in on one aspect, in this case, the head, to convey a message,” he said.

Besides paintings, sculptures and photography are also featured across the room. On the gallery’s center floor lies a sculpture created by Oscar Shah (10). It depicts a clay head with hair made of wooden sticks on a bent wire body.

When Sophie Pietrzak (10) visited the gallery, she immediately noticed Shah’s piece. “This sculpture was so interesting to look at, and I liked how the artist used many different types of materials to create it, instead of just one,” she said. Pietrzak enjoyed how she was able to examine the piece from

Ailill Walsh/Photo Director

PICTURE PERFECT Art on view in the gallery.

all different angles— something she could not do with a two-dimensional art piece.

Across the floor from these sculptures, viewers can examine an array of photographs depicting quintessential New York scenes taken by Julian Silverman (12). Over the summer, Silverman explored his surroundings and took photos to capture the energy of the city. “I was especially inspired by vintage New York — specifically the 1970s and 80s — so I tried to find scenes around the city that reminded me of this era”, he said.

Next to one of Silverman’s photographs hangs a digital art drawing of a human-turtle hybrid

by Christian Conner (9). He has been creating art all summer, experimenting with light study and drawing anatomy. “It was very fun to take a creative concept and try to apply it to my own art style,” he said.

Conner’s painting features detailed body parts, and each hair was created using single pen strokes. “I wanted to make the creature in my drawing

seem like it is actually in motion, so drawing digitally was the best option,” he said. Conner hopes viewers get a sense of exploration and a wish to discover the unknown.

Lombardo hopes that this gallery showcases students’ hard work outside of school. “I want people to understand that art is a way for people to be creative during their free time,” they said. “Without specific deadlines or assignments, students were able to create what they wanted to, and that is something really valuable that came out of this show.”

sense in a semester system.” The school has considered mid semesters as a solution, as this policy is already used in the UD. Since the start of school, Miller’s science class still seems to follow the same organization it did under a trimester system. His class will have three key units, which would have each matched up to a trimester. Thus, it will take some reorganizing to get every subject fully accustomed to semesters, he said.

As a history teacher, Rudbeck also experienced adjustments in her department, she said. “For example, with our eighth grade curriculum, we used to do three Living Color projects, and we still will, but that is the kind of thing we have to go and look at to see where it will fall,” she said. “It’s in the large structural approach that we need to look at things.”

However, the math department needed little change, Q. Brooks said, since the coursework is not divided into trimesters. This made the change much easier, he said.

Though there are some questions and issues to think about, the switch to semesters will be beneficial for both students and teachers, Abbamonte said. “It has been a long time coming, and it will be very good for middle schoolers,” she said.

THE DINING ROOM: HMTC PRESENTS COMEDIC PLAY OF FAMILY DYNAMICS

Amira Dossani/Staff Artist

Ben Rafal Staff Writer Last Friday, the cast of the Horace Mann Theatre Company’s (HMTC) “The Dining Room” sat in a circle of chairs in the Black Box, reading over their lines and becoming acquainted with their characters. For the first time in 18 months, students are preparing for a performance with a live audience.

This fall, the HMTC will perform A.R. Gurney’s “The Dining Room,” a series of 18 comedic scenes depicting different families at various time periods in the same dining room. The production will debut on November 11 with two matinées for students and faculty and two nights for parents and family.

The play emphasizes the value of coming together in a dining room with friends or loved ones, director Jonathan Nye said. “[A dining room] is a place where families would traditionally have their evening meal, and it talks about how that tradition is slowly going away,” he said.

“The Dining Room” features 67 characters throughout the production, all with unique narratives, Nye said.

Historically, the play has six actors, each playing multiple roles from scene to scene, but Nye cast 18 actors in the school’s production. A “vignette production” is a great way to teach students the skill of quickly switching between characters, he said.

The fast transition between scenes is an interesting aspect of the production, Nye said. “One scene is happening and characters from another scene start coming in during that and sometimes there is the overlapping of dialogue,” he said. “That transitional moment will need to be rehearsed and practiced quite a bit.”

Oscar Shah (10) will play three roles, including a real-estate client who appears in the opening scene of the play, he said. Shah has prior experience with productions like “The Dining Room” that consist of many small characters in short scenes, such as “Almost Maine,” a show he acted in during middle school.

“The Dining Room” is the school’s first in-person production since the start of the pandemic, so the cast and crew will have to readjust to rehearsing together. HMTC co-president Sarah Taub (12), who will not act in the production but will be involved with publicizing the show, believes the members of the theatre department learned valuable lessons from online rehearsing and performing. “Rather than being stuck in a traditional theatre experience of being on stage with an audience, cast members have really learned to be flexible and work with one another to problem solve, try new things, and experiment,” she said.

Now that rehearsals and performances are in person, the school administration had to determine the necessary pandemic safety protocols.

Though actors will be masked while auditioning, rehearsing, and performing, the process of preparing for the production is largely back to normal, HMTC co-president Bailey Hecht (11) said.

Each actor auditioned by preparing a short monologuwwwwe and reading a scene with another person to give Nye insight into the chemistry between actors, Hecht said. Since the cast is no longer rehearsing over Zoom, it is much easier to warm up and act together, she said. “It was really fun to act with my peers and be giddy about auditions,” she said.

Nye plans to rehearse two scenes per day until October. Since each scene has completely different actors, only a few cast members will be called each day.

The cast will work through the scenes individually, then Nye will call more students to rehearse together, he said.

Athena Spencer (11), who plays multiple roles including a newly divorced woman, realized that quickly switching to online rehearsing and performing gave her perspective on the value of an in-person connection.

“I think everyone has learned to be very flexible in terms of how the show is going to go,” she said. “Hopefully, we won’t have to be flexible with this one.”

6

THE RECORD FEATURES SEPTEMBER 24TH, 2021

Former Lions shine bright: Alumni spotlights W. Thomas Smith Scholarship winner Krutkovich ‘17 pursues Jewish Studies at Oxford Audrey Carbonell and Hannah Katzke Staff Writers “Horace Mann really taught me to be excited by new things, but also to scrutinize them, and at Davidson, I was given the opportunity to be exposed to a lot,” Dahlia Krutkovich ‘17 said. At both the school and Davidson College, the analytical skills Krutkovich developed while studying history and English made her stand out in her application for the W. Thomas Smith Scholarship.

Krutkovich has always been interested in politics and social theory, approaching her subjects from a historical perspective first, she said. “I took AP Euro my junior year with [former History teacher] Dr. Oldham, and we were taught to think critically about the world around us, about modernity and how social structures have come to be.”

In her AP Euro class, Eric Hobsbawm’s book Age of Revolutions opened Krutkovich’s eyes to the world around her by showing her the creation of the nation-state and the formation of different power structures, she said.

History Department Chair Dr. Daniel Link was Krutkovich’s AP United States History teacher, and he inspired her with helpful advice about the future, Krutkovich said. “He really encouraged me to make the most of my Davidson experience.”

Winning the John M. Belk Scholarship was another major part of Krutkovich’s decision to attend Davidson because it paid for all four years of her education, she said. At Davidson, Krutkovich majored in Global Literary Theory and continued to develop the critical perspective she learned in high school, she said.

Krutkovich began to approach politics and social theory from a more literary perspective during her time at Davidson. Although she focused on comparative literature, she incorporated history into her studies, she said. “With an eye towards social theory and social relations, I use literature as a mode of looking at a society at large, and in

my thesis, I used it as a window into a French postHolocaust mindset.”

Krutkovich also had a strong interest in France in college, she said. “My thesis examined French multiculturalism, essentially, with a focus on how Courtesy of The Davidsonian

Jewish identity has been influenced in the latter half of the 20th century.”

To write her thesis, Krutkovich worked with French historians such as Dr. Caroline Fache and Dr. Patricia Tilburg to understand French race relations and their constructions through the views of the Republic, she said. She also spent her junior year in Paris, where she became fluent in French and observed modern Parisian culture.

This April, Krutkovich won the Smith Scholarship, which provides her with a full scholarship for three terms of postgraduate studies at Oxford University.

Each year, the scholarship recognizes one student with distinguished academic achievements, leadership, and community service, Krutkovich said. All applicants must be seniors and have a GPA in the top 10% of their class.

To apply, students write an essay in response to a series of questions. In her essay, Krutkovich wrote about the culture shock she felt when she started school at Davidson, whose student body is predominantly Christian, while Krutkovich comes from a multiracial Russophone Jewish family, she said.

Although Krutkovich was initially comfortable in Davidson’s environment, her feelings quickly changed after a series of antisemitic incidents at the college. She wrote in her application essay. “...as I and other student leaders of color tried to find unity among different student groups who felt variously injured and unsafe, it became clear that many of my Davidson peers —regardless of whatever identity they themselves held —had no idea about how to talk about Jewish people in a larger context,” she wrote. As a student interested in cultural history, she began to study antisemitism and Jewishness.

After winning the scholarship, Krutkovich will attend Oxford University in the fall to pursue a Master of Studies in Jewish Studies. She plans to take a modern Hebrew course and an Israeli socio-politics course during her first term, she said. While figuring out if earning a Ph.D. is the right plan for her, Krutkovich wants to take this opportunity to study abroad and immerse herself in a setting where rigorous academic engagement among the students is encouraged, she said.

During her time at Oxford, Krutkovich hopes to find a balance between a historical and a literary perspective in her studies, she said. “I’m trying to figure out where I feel my disciplinary home is, so I purposefully chose a program that encourages its students to explore different methodologies.”

Nancy Rosoff ‘78 initiates return of art from Brooklyn Museum to Costa Rica Audrey Carbonell Staff Writer Nancy Rosoff ‘78, the Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator of the Arts of the Americas at the Brooklyn Museum, has spent the last 12 years working on a project that involves reviewing, deaccessioning, and repatriating the museum’s Costa Rican collection.

As part of this project, several thousand antiquities indigenous to Costa Rica in the museum’s collection were reviewed. Over 2,200 of these pieces were removed from the collection and donated to the National Museum of Costa Rica, Rosoff said.

The National Museum of Costa Rica was delighted to receive the pieces, Rosoff said. “There’s been a great deal of press in Costa Rica about the importance of this repatriation,” she said. “Archaeologists at the National Museum said that there are pieces that they had never seen before, and that it was really important to them to get this material back.”

Rosoff has participated in repatriation projects before but never on this large of a scale. “We have done Native American repatriations all the time, but it’s a very different process,” she said. While Native American repatriations are initiated by tribes who submit claims through the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the Brooklyn Museum was proactive in reaching out to Costa Rica and offering these pieces, she said.

Rosoff has worked at the Brooklyn Museum as a curator for 20 years and specializes in Arts of the Ancient Americas. Although she primarily works with pieces from Mexico, Central America, and South America, she assumed responsibility for the

museum’s Native American art collection of the entire Western hemisphere when the former curator retired in 2016, she said.

Part of Rosoff ’s job includes reviewing the pieces of the museum’s collection, she said. “Museum curators, as part of professional practice, are always looking at and examining the collections we are responsible for.”

The criteria for deaccessioning objects in the Costa Rican collection was whether or not they were of exhibition quality, had condition problems that would have been difficult to conserve, or were outside the breadth of the institution’s exhibition program, Rosoff said.

The repatriation of these antiques back to Costa Rica stood out due to the Brooklyn Museum’s willingness to donate the pieces, Rosoff said. “This collection was a product of colonial activities to build railroads and create plantations, and this material had been removed from Costa Rica in that process,” she said. “It was then distributed to all these institutions [outside of Costa Rica], so it made sense for when we were doing the deaccessioning project to reach out to the National Museum of Costa Rica and see if they would be interested in accepting these deaccessioned items as an unrestricted gift.”

The Brooklyn Museum asked the National Museum to pay for packing and shipping — costs the Brooklyn Museum was unable to finance, she said.

Beyond the effort to redress the devastating impact of the removal of objects indigenous to the country, donating these pieces to Costa Rica was a practical measure, Rosoff said. “It was unrealistic to put so

many deaccessioned objects on the art market at the same time.”

Rosoff hopes that the repatriation efforts done by the Brooklyn Museum will cause a positive change within other institutions and their deaccessioning practices, she said. “[The National Museum of Costa Rica is] hoping that other institutions will follow suit because there is a lot of Costa Rican material in the United States, and probably much of it is in deep storage.”

Courtesy of Nancy Rosoff

THE RECORD FEATURES SEPTEMBER 24TH, 2021

“I got my driver’s license last week:” Seniors start driving to school Nia Huff and Emily Salzahauer Contributing and Staff Writers Sydney Pruzan (12) looks forward to driving her friends home most afternoons after school, she said. “It’s lots of fun to drive everyone around and hopefully in the spring we can leave school during free time and go out for lunch or get coffee and I can drive everyone.”

As seniors do each year, members of the Class of 2022, such as Pruzan, are able to drive and park at school as long as they have the school’s student permit, Dean of the Class of 2022 Dr. Glenn Wallach s a i d .

W h i l e any student with a driver’s license could drive to school, a student must have the parking permit to park in an authorized spot, he said.

To receive a permit, students must fill out a form and submit it to the Department of Public Safety. Eligible seniors must be either 17 or 18 years old and must have completed a Driver’s Education course. If the student is not from New York State, they must follow the rules for driving for their home state and New York.

This requirement can be an obstacle for students from New Jersey and Connecticut as the driving rules in those states are different from those of New York, Michael Shaari (12) said.

Miles Schamroth (12) learned to drive through the New York State Driver’s Education course and practiced with his parents, he said.

The Driver’s Ed course was important for Schamroth as it allowed him to get his Driver’s License at age 17 rather than waiting the extra year until he turned 18.

However, Eliza Becker (12) did not find the Driver’s Ed course as helpful as she had expected because it is more focused on teaching the rules of driving than giving students practice on the road.

Rachel Kuhn (12) had a similar experience to Becker. “After Driver’s Ed, the more I drove with an instructor or my parents, the better I got, ” Kuhn said.

Kuhn got her license last week to avoid taking the bus and make her commute easier, she said. “I don’t like taking the bus because my bus is at least an hour long everyday and driving will cut the time in half,” she said.

Ellery Lapin (12) was excited to begin driving, especially because she watched her older sister drive, she said. Her parents also encouraged her to begin driving and work towards getting her license.

“It was

definitely something I’ve always wanted to do,” she said. “It’s slightly terrifying, but something exciting,” Having a license allowed Lapin to be more independent, especially during quarantine, as she spent most of her time at her house in Connecticut.

She found it helpful to drive on her own while in the suburbs, she said.

“If my parents were working, I could drive to go get dinner, pick up food or whatever it was.”

Seniors’ driver’s licenses have given them the flexibility in their schedules, Alejandro Espejel (12) said. Espejel was excited when he received his license so he could finally be less reliant on his parents and have the flexibility to go places by himself. “I play tennis in New Jersey, so I also need to be able to drive there,” he said.

Ella Franco (12) will begin driving to school in the spring, which she hopes will give her some extra time in the morning, she said. “Right now, my dad drives me or I take the train, so it will be much easier for him when I can drive myself.”

Pruzan got her license to avoid taking the bus to school this year, she said. “I have always hated the bus and driving gives me more flexibility to come and go when I want,” she said.

“Also, driving is much cheaper than taking the bus or an uber every day.”

Similarly, having his own car at school will allow Shaari to leave school early during his H block or stay later to hang out with friends during his senior spring, he said.

For Brooks, the ability to drive is a necessity, he said. “I got my license because I live in New Jersey so cars are essential to getting around — there are no subways or trains or citibikes for me,” he said.

Kuhn has also found driving to be a useful skill, she said.“[Driving] back and forth to school is probably the big thing as well it is a good life skill to have,” she said. “It is important to know how to drive and have your

license.”

Although he has his license, Schamroth is still practicing his driving, he said. “I definitely need more work on parallel parking.”

Similarly, Lapin is also practicing a few driving skills, she said. One thing she found during the process of learning to drive was the significant role that confidence played, she said. “When you are thinking about it, when you are learning to drive it’s not that big of a deal, but when you actually get on the road with other cars, you are kind of worried.”

While she was nervous about other cars around her, Lapin became more comfortable with practice, she said.

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Although some seniors have begun to get their driver’s licenses this year, learning how to drive and obtaining a license has been difficult for others.

Dalia Pustilnik (12) would like to get her drivers license but has not been able to get as much practice as she needs. “It’s really difficult to get good practice or the required hours because my family doesn’t have a car,” she said.

“It was definitely something I’ve always wanted to do. It’s slightly terrifying, but something exciting.”

-Ellery Lapin (12) However, Pustilnik does not feel as though she is losing out because she lives in Manhattan and can take Ubers, public transportation, or taxis.

“New York City definitely does not require a car to get around,” she said.

Emmi Zeitler (12) is very excited to get her drivers license and is looking forward to driving to school as soon as possible, she said.

Franco enjoys driving around the city with friends and having fun together, she said.

“My favorite driving memory is when my friend from South Carolina came to visit me in New Jersey and I got to drive

Lauren Kim/Art Director

her all around my town,” Myra Singh (12) said. “I remember we were talking about the multiverse and the fifth dimension, and it was just fun to be hanging out with her and chatting and listening to music.”

Kuhn looks forward to taking road trips with her friends, she said.“Listening to music while driving on the highway, it is really fun when you get into the groove of things,” Kuhn said.

Lions’ Den Record Sports

8

SEPTEMBER 24TH, 2021

Girls Soccer wins first game in three years

Sean Lee Staff Writer

The Girls Varsity Soccer Team won 2-1 in a league match against Trinity last Monday, the team’s first win in three years, co-captain Rachel Kuhn (12) said. “We were so happy, and honestly, it’s just so meaningful to us to have a team that’s passionate about soccer.” Co-captain Eliza Becker (12) said a win was a great way to start off her senior year.

From the onset, Trinity was a worthy opponent, Girls Varsity Soccer Coach Tim Sullivan said.

“Trinity was physical, they controlled the ball very well, they passed very well,” he said.

The game got off to a rough start, Kayla Choi (10) said. “During the second half when we were losing 1-0, because it was an early-on goal, the whole team kind of lost hope,” she said.

However, there were many highlights as the game progressed, Sullivan said. Becker, the team’s goalie, was “fantastic as always,”

and defenders Alexis Gordon (9) and Christine Tao (10) made some amazing plays to prevent Trinity from scoring, he said.

As the game continued, Choi made two “unbelievable” plays, Sullivan said. “She made one great play to draw everyone to her, then made a beautiful pass to Saanvi Serchan (10) who hustled to get there and score just a great goal for us to tie the game late,” he said. “And then, with about two minutes left, Kayla made one of the great goals I have seen in all my years of Horace Mann,” Sullivan said.

“She was fouled three or four times and refused to stop and beat five or six defenders, I can’t tell you how many, and then just hit a perfect ball over the goalie’s head.”

While the two goals were the highlight of the game, the energy from teammates on the bench also made the game special, Kuhn said.

“Something that really made the game was having the bench players and everyone sitting on the sidelines be really energetic and encouraging, which was very good for the team

Girls Varsity Tennis reflects on first losses of the year

spirit and made everyone want to work ten times harder,” she said.

Sullivan was surprised by the amount of energy brought to the field by both teams. “I love being out there, and I could feel the energy from every single girl on our team,” he said.

Both teams were glad to return to playing games like normal, Becker said. “Trinity [was a] good sport,” she said. “Both of the teams were so excited to be playing a real game that we both brought pretty positive attitudes, and we both respected each other a lot.”

“The team effort from every single person was just incredible,” Sullivan said. “I couldn’t be happier having people like that on the team,” he said.

“It’s an entire team that loves each other and win or lose, they’re going to play their hearts out, and they should be proud after every game.”

Kuhn is proud of how far the team has come, especially because the team did not have a proper season last year, she said. “Wins and losses and ties are just names slapped on, but honestly, it was really nice to play, and so fun

Ailill Walsh/Photo Director

DUBS Players pose post win. to play again and be with the team and having that kind of energy and spirit,” she said. “It made everything so meaningful seeing where we were freshman year to now — it’s just super special.”

However, the team can continue to improve, Becker said. “Everyone needs to work on something specific, and we really need to just dedicate time and effort into our playing,” she

Water Polo scrimmages to victory

Rani Ogden Staff Writer Last Monday, the Girls Varsity Tennis Team competed against Poly Prep in their first game since the start of the pandemic. The team lost with a score of 1-4 at the Andrew Feinberg ‘96 Tennis Center. The team also competed against Hackley on Wednesday, September 22nd and lost with a score of 0-5.

The Poly Prep game had three singles matches and two doubles matches. Diya Chawla (9), Emily Grant (10), and Allison Markman (11) played the singles matches and Jade Ciriello (12) and Bella Colacino (12), and Alexandra Yao (11) and Audrey Moussazadeh (11) played the doubles matches.

Doubles players Yao and Moussazadeh were the only ones to win their match.

Despite the loss, several players stood out during their matches. Markman skillfully returned many of the wide shots that she received, and doubles player Moussazadeh had a particularly strong serve, team member Sammy Blackman (12) said.

Despite losing her first set 0-6, Chawla came back stronger and almost took the second set, Girls Varsity Tennis Coach Kenny Burton said. Markman also had a strong comeback during her second set, he said.

Although the team lost, players gained insight on how to improve their play and the team’s skills, Grant said. Grant plans to work on her serve, which she missed during her match, and to practice hitting, she said. She also wants to focus on practicing through matchplay going forward, as the pandemic has prevented the team from playing against others, she said.

When playing, Patel uses intimidation as a strategy by observing the opposing player’s strengths and weaknesses while warming up and chanting loud and enthusiastic cheers with her teammates at the start of the game, she said.

Blackman tries not to get intimidated by anybody during games. Instead, she tries to play with the same confidence in the games as in practice, she said. “It’s really important to stay confident throughout the match, and to not get worked up about any minor things that may go wrong.”

Not being able to play for so long has motivated the players on the court this year, Burton said. However, the players have still lost substantial play time due to the pandemic. “The girls were robbed of a year,” he said.

Competing in the team’s first game since the start of the pandemic was daunting, Grant said. “It’s been a while since we’ve had matches — the last time I did was in middle school,” she said. “I just have to get back into it.”

said. “It’s not something that’s going to come easy, we really have to put our minds to it.”

While the Lions will remember the excitement of this win, every player knows that the team needs to get better, Sullivan said. “We’re happy to win, but it’s not good enough for us,” he said. “Our goal is to get better every single day, and we hope to be the best team in the league.”

Ailill Walsh/Photo Director

GAME ON Water Polo team plans for next play.

Lucy Peck Staff Writer

The school’s Water Polo team started off their season with a sweeping victory in a scrimmage against the Trinity School this Monday, making the most of its home advantage. The match began after a productive warm up session where the team practiced shooting, passing, swimming laps and stretching.

The HM squad started out strong. Once HM had a significant lead, the scorekeeper stopped racking up HM’s impressive goal count because it was just a scrimmage match. Nevertheless, HM won resoundingly, with a final score of 28-15.

Coach Duffy said that the team captains, Spencer Rosenberg (12) and Walker

McCarthy (12), led the team very well and displayed maturity. Rosenberg also credited Max Chasin as a star player, scoring four goals in this game.

Duffy said it was great to see the development of all the players when they were given some playing time. Rosenberg said that the team was able to pass the ball around, and it was encouraging that many different players scored goals.

Rosenberg said that sometimes when the team saw an easy goal, they needed to stop or slow it down so as to not “completely crush the other team” which was a challenge for the domineering Lions.

This was their first game in almost two years. During their season last year, they were able to get in the water only a few times, played no inter school games and faced many restrictions from the pandemic,

Rosenberg said. It was a lot of the players’ first real match, said Noah Castillo (9), wso it took a bit of getting used to.

To comply with the school’s current pandemic protocols, the swimmers were required to put on a mask immediately upon exiting the pool, which was a bit of a challenge, Duffy said. But, it was great finally to see another team competing at the Jeffrey H. Loria Family Aquatic Center as well as fans and parents filling the stands, he said.

Rosenberg was excited that the players all “feel like a team again.”

The team’s strategy was simply to work together and play as a cohesive unit. They also made an effort to spread out more across the pool, Duffy said. The team endeavored to get the ball to the hole set (the center position) and let that player take a shot. The hole set could score or draw a foul and pass it back out, which allowed another player to take a shot, Rosenberg said. Working the ball around and taking smart shots was also key, he said.

Leading up to the scrimmage, the team had been working out strenuously, swimming constantly, and building up their endurance.

They had also been working on what Duffy calls their “water polo IQ” meaning finding ways to play smarter.

Duffy says the team did great but hopes to help them to continue to improve on their positioning in the water. The team will keep working on their man up/man down plays, Castillo says.

Rosenberg says he predicts that they will have a great season considering the talent of this year’s team. He hopes the team “dominates the Ivy League.”

LIONS’ BOX: Results from Wednesday’s games Boys XC Ivy Developmental Meet 1 -- 5th Place Girls XC Ivy Developmental Meet 1 -- 3rd Place Varsity Field hockey vs. Fieldston -- LOSS 1-3 Boys Varsity Soccer vs. Fieldston -- WIN 2-1

Girls Varsity Soccer vs. Fieldston -- LOSS 0-3 Girls Varsity Tennis vs. Hackley -- LOSS 1-5 Girls Varsity Volleyball vs. Fieldston -LOSS 1-3 Varsity Water Polo vs. Fieldston -- WIN 21-13