Issue 9

Record The Horace Mann

NOVEMBER 8TH, 2019 || VOLUME 117, ISSUE 9

HORACE MANN’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER SINCE 1903

RECORD.HORACEMANN.ORG

A loss in our community: Mitchell Francis Amelia Feiner and Samuel Keimweiss News Editors Teacher Heaven. That’s how former Math Teacher and Registrar Mitchell Francis P’03 P’09 P’11 described the school community to anyone who asked. And after 28 joyful years at the school, Francis died peacefully in his sleep last weekend at the age of 69 after a long battle against cancer.

On Wednesday evening, Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly hosted an event at his home to honor Francis. Among the speakers were Francis’s wife, Dorr Administrative Assistant Lorna Francis and other friends and family members.

“It’s nice to see that a lot of people were there to support the family, and I think to support each other too,” Computer Science Teacher Jason Torres said. “When you’ve worked with someone for a long time and they pass, you want to have a moment of closure.”

“Mitch was an exceptional husband, father, teacher, and friend,” Kelly said in his remarks during the event.

Francis was thought of as essential to the fabric of the school community; his decades as the advisor for Model UN, his work as registrar, his teaching, and his role as snow day guru will be remembered for years to come.

Francis joined the school in 1989 as a math teacher. In 1993, he became the Assistant Director of Scheduling for grades seven through twelve before he was promoted to Director of Scheduling for grades nine through twelve the following year. Francis would hold that position until 2008, when he became the school’s inaugural registrar.

“It is a testament to his intelligence to be able to juggle the complexities of the Upper Division schedule for so many years,” Middle Division Scheduling Coordinator Tom Petras said. “It is a job you have to care about to put the time and effort into it.”

Upon retiring due to progressing illness in June 2018, Francis moved to Dorr with his wife.

“He had always planned to do that, regardless of what his condition might have been at any point in his life,” Torres said. “He always loved Dorr. He loved the peace and quiet in the woods and so on, so that was always in the plan regardless.”

“Hanging out with him at Dorr was one of the most fun things, ever. He loved Dorr so much.

Before Ms. Francis started working at Dorr they Courtesy of Sheryl Baker

LOVE AND SUN Francis and his wife Lorna on vacation. would still come for Senior Dorr every year, and he just loved being at Dorr. I have strong memories of the two of them walking around with flavor ice,” Head of Upper Division Jessica Levenstein said. “He didn’t need to be there for any reason, he was not asked to come. This was just a thing he loved, which was to hang out with students informally at Dorr.”

Before retiring, Francis was a catalyst for many administrative changes at the school. “From assisting with the creation and implementation of the first nursery through twelve student database specific to our academic program, to working with the UD Math Department on placement

decisions and course offerings, to assisting the administration at Dorr with the design of a rule governed approach to assigning shifts and recording hours, to his unwavering support of our well regarded Model UN program, to being a much admired and often sought out advisor to employees and students alike, Mr. Francis was

a driving force behind the team’s success for so many years.”

“Horace Mann would not have had the number one Model United Nations team in the country for so many consecutive years if it were not for Mr. Francis, who fought for his students and cultivated a culture of commitment and intensi-

Stacy Ganina/ Staff Photographer for Volume CIV

CLASS TIME Francis poses for the Record in 2003. systematically involved in the life of HM for all the right reasons,” Kelly wrote in an email.

Francis also contributed immensely to the Upper Division Math Department and was very vocal about his love of teaching AP Calculus AB and BC. “When he got a hold of Calculus class, he never let go,” math teacher Chris Jones said. “He fell in love with those two classes.”

Francis cared about whether or not his students understood the material, and didn’t judge anyone based on their test grades, Ben Parker ‘18 said. “He knew a hundred different ways to explain any subject because he taught for so many years and knew every possible mistake that could be made,” he said.

“Mr. Francis believed that when Horace Mann students put their heads together, they could solve anything, and he empowered students to do so by giving them the freedom to explore their interests unabated,” Erica Cantor ‘16 said.

“It meant a ton to him just to be able to teach really interested, engaged kids in his math classes,” Registrar Chris Garrison ‘04 said. In addition to being a student of Francis, Garrison was also a member of Francis’s ski club when he was in middle school. After he graduated from college, it was Francis who convinced him to come back.

“I can confidently say I would not be at HM without Mr. Francis. I’m super thankful I’ve gotten the chance to get to know him in so many different ways and see how he contributed to the school.”

Outside of the classroom, Francis served as a friend and adviser to his fellow teachers. “He was especially kind to me when I was department chair,” math teacher Charles Worrall said. “He talked to me about things that were difficult and that I could use advice about.” Francis even gave Worrall two beds for his daughters when Francis’s children outgrew them, Worrall said.

“He was really proud of his students,” Levenstein said. “It was really important to him that his students do really well on the AP, and when those scores came out he was very interested in noting how his kids did versus other teachers. He was deeply invested in the success of his students.”

This was true of Francis’s decades long involvement with the Model UN team. “Mr. Francis was such an integral part of the HM MUN team for all of my four years in high school,” Jenna Freidus ‘18 said. “Everyone on the MUN team knew how much he cared about us, and he truly was

ty,” Cantor said.

“He often kept in touch with his students after high school, and it brought him such joy to see his students succeed after graduation,” Daniel Rosenblatt ‘16 said.

While Francis was deeply invested in the success of his students, he was also fun, Parker said.

“In class, he was very relaxed and conversational.

While he always covered the material that had to be covered, he would always go off on tangents and share some of his fun stories,” he said.

“He was just a funny guy. People that didn’t know him might not see that. They might just see the teacher. For those of us that knew Mitch, knew that he had an amazing sense of humor and a zest for life. He loved Horace Mann,” Director of Admissions Jason Caldwell ‘97 said.

“I’ll never forget the morning when we had a late-August storm that resulted in significant flooding in Rose, Pforhzheimer and Fisher Hall.

In the midst of total chaos and a mad dash to find workers to help control and clean up the mess, Mr. Francis just appeared out of nowhere, rolling a mop and bucket toward us asking how he could help,” Kelly wrote in an email.

Francis made a point to keep math class light and fun, taking his sections of Calculus on a bowling trip every school year, Jones said. Francis had each grade of his students sign a bowling pin.

These pins are still in the Math Office.

Francis and his faculty friends formed a close knit group at school, Levenstein said, eventually accruing the moniker of the “corner table,” as they always sat together at lunch. The members included people from many different parts of the school, from middle school like Petras to Admissions with Caldwell and multiple members of the computer science department. They always welcomed new additions to the table, technology department member Sheryl Baker said.

Francis’ friends travelled to St. Croix for Francis’s beach wedding over spring break in 2017. “It was just a beautiful setting and a very casual but warm and loving and, again, a lot of laughter. It was their dream wedding to be married on the beach, and it was absolutely glorious,” Baker said.

“It’s a very bonded group, a really close knit group that he was right at the center of. When he first got sick it was really moving– the group would order lunch and come over here and eat with him in the Deans’ conference room. When

it got hard for him to walk to the cafeteria, that whole corner table brought the lunch table over here to join him,” Levenstein said.

The group of friends all stayed in contact with Francis after he moved to Connecticut, making frequent trips up there to visit. “He was sick, he wasn’t doing well, but he still had the same personality. He was still the kind and warm person who would greet you with a smile and positive energy,” Caldwell said.

Unfortunately, the group began to decline in numbers as faculty such as former Middle Division science teacher Dora Barlaz and former Tutoring Center coordinator Lionel Garrison retired. “We are feeling like we have a lot of empty chairs, sadly, but it is always a very special time of the day for us,” Baker said.

Francis was a father first, Baker said. “His beloved wife and kids are the most important people to him in the world,” she said.

“The thing he was most looking forward to when I hung out with him in September was getting to his daughter’s wedding, and he was able to make it to the wedding. That was what he was pushing toward, and he was able to make it to that wedding, and I was so happy for him,” Caldwell said.

This love spread to other faculty members’ children as well. Levenstein has strong memories of the bond he formed with her children when they visited her in the Deans’ office. “He had a stash of dark chocolate that he kept in the fridge that he would bring out whenever the kids came around,” she said.

Francis was well known on campus because of his legendary Horace Mann Possible Snow Day Index (HMPSDI) Twitter account.

“I, like the rest of Horace Mann, lived for Mr. Francis’s HMPSDI predictions. but they were always more than just snow day predictions to me—they were a numerical way of looking at data everyone had their hands on, and flipping them around (occasionally adding a constant here and there) until you could look into the future—that, to me as a kid, was mind blowing,” Jacob Shaw (10) said.

Upon Francis’s retirement in 2018, Shaw set up a new HMPSDI account, this time on Instagram, in homage to his legacy. After [Francis] retired, I stated the page for a few friends, but almost overnight it blew up among the community—not because of anything we were doing, but because of the amazing thing Mr. Francis had built up before me,” Shaw said.

Even before Twitter, Francis was constantly checking the weather and making predictions, Torres said. “Not so much the students but definitely the faculty and staff during free periods would run down stairs to Mr. Francis’s office and be like ‘what’s the HMPSDI?’ So it existed before there was a Twitter handle. And he would tell us at lunch. We would be looking forward to go to lunch to figure out if we were gonna have a snow day or not. And that’s how it was for many years, and then it became more popular once it became something on social media,” Torres said.

Above all, Francis cared about other people, Torres said. “It’s not about him. It’s never been about him,” he said.

“He did a lot here and he interacted with tons of people while he was here,” Garrison said. “I think there are so many alums that have similar, incredibly fond memories of Mr. Francis.”

“We’re going to miss him very much,” Baker said.

Courtesy of Mitchell Francis / Volume CXII

WINNER’S CIRCLE Francis with the first place Model United Nations Team in 2015.

OPINIONS

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Editor-in-Chief Julia Robbins

THE RECORD OPINIONS NOVEMBER 8TH, 2019

Independent Study: A chance to learn what i want

Charles Simmons Last year, I wrote an opinion piece on the role that religion has played in my life and how central it is to my identity. This year, I have continued to explore the complex theme of religion and have even connected this with my love of English. For my senior year Independent Study, I chose my topic to be the role of religion throughout the works of Shakespeare. With my mentor Mrs. Little, I’ve examined the role of religion in

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Shakespeare’s time and how it relates to his works. I have focused on five of his plays: The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Measure for Measure, The Tempest, and Hamlet.

My inspiration for my topic came as a result of reading and watching Hamlet in my English class last year. While I found the entire play very profound, the most interesting aspect to me was the role of religion in Hamlet. Throughout the play, religion is central to our understanding of both Hamlet and those around him. The lingering of Hamlet’s father’s ghost after his murder parallels the Christian concept of purgatory. Additionally, at one point in the play, Hamlet’s unwillingness to kill Claudius while he’s praying out of fear that his soul being at its “most pure” would send Claudius to heaven is even a critique of the belief perpetuated by the English Church during Shakespeare’s time that one can be absolved of any sin so long as they confess it. In an interview with the Royal Shakespeare Company, I learned about the “Great Chain of Being, a hierarchy that governed much of Elizabethan England, the time period in which Shakespeare lived. During the time period, there was a massive belief in religion as a form of social order, and for many, religion was something was feared more so than embraced.

In my Independent Study, I have used various forms of media including audiobooks, movies, and live performances to help supplement the original texts and have looked for common themes and clues

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in which Christianity relates to the other Abrahamic religions and how the people of Shakespeare’s time dealt with this, it is not clear whether Shakespeare himself agreed with these sentiments and it remains one of the largest unknowns as the only record we have of him is his plays.

For my end-of-year project, I wanted to do something that was both creative and engaging so I decided to write and stage my own production, building off of the various ways in which religion is present in the works I have read to create a new and original piece of art. My Independent Study has given me the ability to design my own curriculum that is tailored to my interests, granting me a unique freedom to pursue topics that I am interested in and design my own curriculum. For me, it is a passion project that grants me independence to conduct my own intellectual journey. Whenever I find myself interested in a new idea I am able to take my Independent Study in a somewhat different direction, entirely customized to my own interests. This is the embodiment of our core value Life of the Mind, and it has been an extremely rewarding experience so far.I would strongly recommend this class to anybody. The ability to have the creative control to study what you are passionate about is a special opportunity and I’m grateful for the chance to have it.

Religious holidays are for religion, not academics

Lions’ Den Darius McCullough Mark Fernandez Ranya Sareen Andrew Cassino

Middle Division Ben Wang Isabella Zhang

to help offer insight into how religion influenced Shakespeare. I recently finished reading The Merchant of Venice and Othello, and I spent a lot of time looking at how Shakespeare’s own beliefs are expressed in them. Nobody truly knows what Shakespeare believed, and it remains a fierce topic of debate. Central to this debate is the problematic characters of Shylock and Othello. The Merchant of Venice was written between 1596-1597, roughly three hundred years after King Edward I had banned all Jews from England in 1290, meaning that Shakespeare most likely had no interaction with Jewish people while writing the play.

Shylock is referred to for the most part as “Jew” and is portrayed as a caricature of Jewish stereotypes. The play’s ending with Shylock’s conversion to Christianity, something that would have been viewed as an act of salvation by the Christian audience of the time, is remarkably humiliating for Shylock and is indicative of the cruelty towards “the other” in Venetian society, and more covertly, Christian England. Othello, the titular character, is portrayed as a caricature of ethnic and religious stereotypes and is referred to as “the moor” for the majority of the play. Moreover, in the initial performances of Othello, the actor playing him would be painted in blackface to contrast the purity of their skin with the “smut” acquired from the “sin” of being African or impure, a widespread belief at the time. While both Othello and The Merchant of Venice offer a glimpse into the way

Jack Crovitz Horace Mann’s policy on homework exemptions for religious holidays (or lack thereof) is seriously in need of improvement. It puts extreme pressure on religious students of all backgrounds and betrays our values of openness, equality, and respect.

In essence, the current policy says that students have the sole responsibility to contact all their teachers to avoid being assigned homework or assessments on religious holidays, and that students failing to do so may be penalized for missing work. This policy takes responsibility away from teachers and the administration to avoid assigning homework on religious holidays and puts all the burden on religious students to explain why they require an exemption. In practical terms, this means that hundreds of reliLauren Kim/Contributing Artist

gious students, from both common and uncommon religious backgrounds, have extra pressure to reach out to each and every one of their teachers before every holiday. Since our school already puts enormous academic pressure on every student, the added stress this policy causes can be very harmful—and it harms members of

minority faiths even more since their holidays are less widely known and some teachers may require further explanation.

Another issue is that missing homework or getting an extension can be a major issue in many classes, because it can lead to a student missing class material or falling behind. Thus, encouraging teachers to disregard religious holidays when assigning homework can lead to increased stress and lowered wellbeing for religious students even if they do manage to contact all their teachers. The reality is, many students will simply choose to sacrifice their religious needs rather than fall behind in their classes.

The Horace Mann administration should not be forcing students to make that choice.

In addition, some students—especially from less common religious backgrounds—may prefer to keep their religious affiliations less public.

Under the current policy, students are forced to describe their religious beliefs to their teachers, no matter whether they want their beliefs to be public or private. Forcing students to explain to their teachers their personal religious beliefs is uncomfortable for all parties involved, and, for a school that likes to think of itself as a liberal, welcoming place, frankly hypocritical.

The school’s student handbook this year says that “Horace Mann School recognizes the diversity of religious traditions represented among the students of the school and the value such diversity adds to the educational program.” In fact, that quote appears four times in the handbook.

However, if the administration really “recognizes… the value” of diverse religious traditions, then it should do all it can to ensure that students can practice their faith openly and comfortably.

To do this, they must acknowledge the ill effect that our current religious policy can have on observant students and try to correct this error.

There are other potential models for religious homework/assessment exemptions that the school could institute. Perhaps the school could use the NYC public-school calendar of religious holidays—far more extensive than ours. Perhaps students could anonymously request school holidays at the beginning of the year. Perhaps teachers could give a set number of exemptions, to be used on religious holidays—or for other needs, such as mental-health days. Whatever the changes eventually made, the fact is that we need a schoolwide conversation about the topic.

Annabelle Chan/Art Director

Op-Humor

by Kiara Royer

3

HORACE MANN NEWS NOVEMBER 8TH, 2019

Safety Update: Last Tuesday’s Fire Evacuation Claire Goldberg Staff Writer

Katya Arutyunyan/Art Director

Faculty take advantage of nature at Dorr Mind/Body Retreat Alison Isko Staff Writer Last weekend at the John Dorr Nature Laboratory Mind/Body Retreat, faculty and staff had the opportunity to bond with each other by participating in a variety of activities designed to help them take a break from their daily lives. The workshops were designed and led by Middle Division (MD) history teacher Caitlin Hickerson, Director of John Dorr Nature Laboratory Glenn Sherratt, and dance teacher Denise DiRenzo.

For the past five years, DiRenzo has been working with Sherratt to organize the retreat, she said. English teacher Dr. Deborah Kassel said that Hickerson has led activities at three out of the five retreats she has attended.

Six teachers attended this year’s retreat, which is fewer teachers than in past years; however, attendance varies from year to year, DiRenzo said.

The retreat was created with the intention to give teachers the chance to relax, Sherratt said. Celebrating its 10th year, this year’s retreat was open to all teachers and staff from every division of the school.

“I think it is very important for the adults in the school to have time to recharge and relax,” Hickerson said. “It helps us all be better

teachers and better humans to each other.”

Academic Center Associate Kristin Rowson said that she attended the retreat both this year and in the past because it’s a good break from the routine to get to experience Dorr and to see people in a different context.

Every year, the retreat has physical, spiritual, and mental components, but the specific activities vary from year to year, Kassel said. For example, while this year’s attendees learned a tap dance routine, last year, attendees were taught how to step dance.

During the three days of the retreat, the faculty and staff enjoyed everything that Dorr had to offer. The retreat started with a dinner on Friday night, which was followed by icebreakers by the fire before the teachers went to sleep in the dorms, Rowson said.

Because the retreat was designed to “provide a time for rest and relaxation for faculty and staff,” throughout the weekend, attendees had the opportunity to meditate, hike, do yoga, and participate in creative activities and personal reflections, Sherratt said. Teachers also climbed the new treehouse structure, Rowson said.

Pre-Kindergarten teacher Samiyrah Kellman’s favorite part of the retreat was climbing to the top of the 50-foot tall treehouse and relaxing there, she said.

The ropes course was one of Rowson’s favorite parts of the retreat as well, she said.

On Saturday night, she and Hickerson slept inside the treehouse “just because [they] could,” Rowson said.

Sherratt said that he enjoyed the camaraderie between members of the faculty and spending time with his colleagues over the course of the weekend.

Likewise, getting to know her colleagues was one of the best parts of the retreat for Direnzo, she said. “It is a wonderful opportunity to get to know colleagues at a deeper level and perhaps learn something new, while relaxing and taking in the beauty of nature.”

“The Mind/Body Retreat allows faculty members to spend some time in nature and appreciate the beauty of the outdoor and indoor space,” Kellman said.

While the teachers enjoy each other’s company and become closer while at the retreat, after leaving, they don’t have reunions, Rowson said. But, they retain some of the familiarity gained from the retreat, leaving with closer relationships to the other colleagues that attended, she said, adding that she will definitely attend the retreat again in the future.

An unplanned fire evacuation last Wednesday made for a chaotic E period on the school campus. Two alarms were triggered: at 12:47 p.m., a fire alarm went off in Tillinghast Hall, causing students to evacuate the building; two minutes later, a trouble signal went off in Rose Hall.

The first alarm in Tillinghast was caused by water work in the neighborhood, performed by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Assistant Director of Public Safety, Peter Clancy, said. The DEP is a New York State organization that works to ensure the wellbeing of New York residents by supplying drinking water and disposing of waste water, according to its website.

The work caused an abnormal water pressure, Director of Public Safety Michael McCaw said.

“This abnormal water pressure tripped a pressure switch on the sprinkler system of our fire alarm system, thus generating an alarm.”

However, the second alarm in Rose Hall was not actually a fire alarm. “Trouble signals do activate a loud alarm bell but do not raise to the level of the need to evacuate,” McCaw said. “Due to the loudness of the trouble bell, the Middle Division evacuated the building.”

Meanwhile, while the fire department arrived at the scene, students in Lutnick Hall did not hear the alarm. “I had class in Lutnick, and when I left the building I was super confused,” Mia Calzolaio (10) said. “I had no clue what was going on.”

The students and faculty who evacuated gathered on Alumni Field and followed fire drill protocol. Armed Public Safety personnel responded to both alarms set off in Tillinghast and Rose Hall.

This is the first year where all fire drills are announced. “Thus far, any fire alarm activation, which has been unscheduled, has been the result of a fire alarm system equipment issue,” McCaw said. However, when students aren’t sure of what to do, they should always evacuate, he said.

School hosts 34th annual Horace Mann Model United Nations Conference Julia Goldberg and Vivien Sweet Staff Writer On Saturday, October 14th, the school welcomed over 900 high school students from the tri-state area to debate global issues at the 34th annual Horace Mann Model United Nations Conference (HoMMUNC).

Preparations for the conference began in June, when juniors on the Model United Nations (MUN) team began to draft their background guides, said Charlie Shapiro (11), a moderator of the Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC). The background guides, all around 20 to 25 pages, were sent out to all of the participants of the conference to provide them with information on potential topics as well as possible solutions and questions to consider, MUN Secretary General

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT Photos taken on the streets.

Arman Kumar (12) said.

Once the delegates arrived at the conference, they divided into respective committees which fell under one of three categories: general assemblies, specialized agencies, or crisis committees. In Kumar’s committee, DISEC, it did not take long for the delegates to choose to debate on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as opposed to orbital security, which was the other option, he said.

“I let them set the agenda because, in my opinion, it seemed like 99 percent of the committee wanted to talk about UAVs,” Kumar said.

“There was no point in wasting time talking about a topic no one wanted to talk about.”

After deciding on a topic, the committees typically split their time between moderated caucuses, or series of speeches, and unmoderated caucuses, in which delegates work in

groups called blocs. Each bloc then collaborates on a set of working papers, which is an early form of legislation, which states the delegates’ approach to the issue at hand. “At the end of the day, we just want to make sure that everyone’s ideas are well-represented,” Kumar said.

Based on speaking quality, work during unmoderated caucuses, and the final resolutions, delegates are judged and earn awards accordingly, he said.

DISEC was a double delegation (meaning that all of the countries were represented by two people). Audrey Moussazadeh (9), who participated in DISEC, and her partner Maya Nornberg (10) worked together to convince other delegates to join their bloc, which focused on increasing safety regulations on unmanned aerial vehicles. Unlike the crisis committees, DISEC took place in the modern day, and delegates were not interrupted with “crises,” random announcements about issues affecting the delegates viewpoints.

Though the upperclassmen are evaluating the delegates, they still serve as resources during the conference. Cebula enjoys giving advice to the younger delegates specifically during HoMMUNC because she knows it’s a stressful time for them, she said. “The conference is about teaching people.”

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) chair Sonia Shuster (11), for example, was on DISEC when she was a freshman, and had “no idea what [she] was doing” at the time, she said. Once Shuster had participated in her first away conference, though, she was able to understand the nuances of working in committee.

However, the style of discourse that occurs among the delegates varies based on the type of committee. In HoMMUNC’s crisis committees, for example, delegates adopted personas of historical figures from the French Revolution, such as Jean Paul Marat or Maximilian Robespierre, and represented their respective figures’ viewpoints.

Two of HoMMUNC’s crisis committees, French Revolution: The Rebellion and French Revolution: The Estate, worked in tandem with one another, meaning that delegates’ actions in one committee could affect delegates’ actions in the other.

In the French Revolution: The Estate committee, Diya Mehta, a junior from Riverdale, played the role of John Paul Rabaut, who was a French politician and Protestant advocate working to pass propaganda directives to frame French rebels of the church. Due to the spontaneous nature of crisis committees, however, it was difficult to pass directives, which are a form of legislation specific to crisis committees that delegates vote on, Mehta said. “We haven’t had any [directives] that significant because we’ve been dealing with crisis after crisis.”

Many of the current chairs and moderators attended the conference as delegates; in fact, this was Shapiro’s sixth year in attendance. Shapiro enjoyed charing this year because it took out much of the pre-committee stress that inherently comes with any debate club, he said.

“I was also very excited to do this because I’ve always been on the other side. It’s interesting to be on the side of the people chairing now—to see how committees runs and the different tactics people use that I’ve used in the past.”

see HoMMUNC on pg. 7

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THE RECORD NEWS NOVEMBER 8TH, 2019

Inaugural poet Richard Blanco advocates activism

Andie Goldmacher Staff Writer Richard Blanco, Barack Obama’s inaugural poet in 2013, issued a call to political action through his poetry at an Upper Division Assembly last Tuesday in an Upper Division assembly.

Blanco read many of the works from his newest book “How to Love a Country” during the assembly, such as Seventeen Funerals about the 2018 school shooting at in Parkland, Fl., Complaint of El Río Grande to discuss the arbitration of national borders, and Easy Lynching on Herndon Avenue, about the last recorded lynching in America, which took place in 1981.

Blanco left Tiger Moreno (12) in awe of his poetry performance skills. “The way he spoke, every pause he took, and the way he enunciated his words was super captivating,” she said.

“In some ways, this book was a departure from his other work, in some ways it was a natural extension of his interest in identity and thinking about America as home and what that means,” English teacher Dr. Wendy Steiner said. The 2016 election specifically prompted Blanco to start writing more political poetry.

Blanco’s powerful poetry evoked feelings of both unity and awareness of the plight of minority groups in this country, Moreno said. “The feelings that I get from his poetry is a great sense of unity in the midst of division, and inspiration to love thy neighbor.”

History teacher Ricardo Alvarez-Pimentel said he felt a personal connection to a few specific poems. “I particularly liked the poem he wrote about his mother and the difficult decision she had to make to leave her home country, not knowing what would happen,” he said. Alvarez

could empathize with the poem because he imDuring the talkback, Blanco described his migrated to Miami with his family as a child, and writing process and how he balances poetry with as a parent he understood how difficult it must being an engineer. “It was really interesting to see have been to leave family behind and enter a new how his brain works when it comes to writing, society. and how his own identity affects his style,” MoreMoreno’s favorite poem was The U.S. of US, she no said. said. “I thought it was very impressive for him to Blanco also visited Steiner’s AP English class write a poem that is so unifying and covers all of and English teacher Rebecca Bahr’s twelfth grade Latin America and Latin American people, since Poets of the Moment class A period, during being Latino means so many things,” she said. which he held a Q & A session autoIn addition to speaking at the assembly, graphed books, Zachary Brooks (12) n o asn ry M Moreno hosted Richard Blanco’s said. f Bar o y s te Cour D-period talkback ses“The most compelling thing he sion. She said talked about was how he became a poet while he was also an engineer,” Brooks said.

Blanco mentioned that he had discovered his talent for poetry after writing a poem about a daffodil, never having seen

the talkback had a different energy from the assembly since Blanco was able to be more descriptive and show his personality more than he did in the assembly.

“I was honestly really nervous going into it, considering how outstanding his career is, but he was very cool and down-to-Earth, which I was very surprised by,” she said. It was one of the most memorable experiences I’ve had at Horace Mann.”

one, Brooks said. “He came to realize that his voice as a poet was to answer the question that is essential to him–the question of national identity, culture, and finding belonging.” Blanco also discussed his relationship with his parents growing up and added more personal experience about what it was like coming out as gay later in life, Brooks said.

“In our AP class he talked a little more about his life and the fact that he didn’t come to poet-

ry until he was about 26 or 27 years old,” Steiner said. “He spoke well about leaving yourself open to different possibilities in life, and that you do not need to have everything figured out in high school.”

Blanco also attended an event in the evening for parents, faculty, and donors. The event started with a cocktail party, then everyone went to the Recital Hall where Moreno, along with Jaylah Thomas (12) and Adrianna Hernandez (12), introduced Blanco. Blanco did a more in-depth version of his assembly speech, where he focused on the Grab the Torch foundation, a nonprofit meant to enhance youth leadership skills, and signed books for the attendees after, Moreno said.

“He gave us big hugs at the end,” she said. “He was so grateful we spent all that time with him that day.”

Alvarez praised Blanco for his efforts in incorporating Latin American culture in his poetry, such as the seamless integration of Spanish words and phrases in his poems, he said.

“As he evolved as a poet he Courtes y of Bar learned the ry Mas on struggles of others, not just Cub an - A m e ricans, and how to convey those struggles without speaking for other people,” Alvarez said. When he and the students in the Latinx club suggested joining this event to October’s Latinx Heritage Month, Caroline Bartels, Upper Division Library Department Chair, and the English department were all very supportive, he said.

Blanco’s visit was meaningful for both students and teachers, because not only Latinx students or students with parents or grandparents that were immigrants but almost everyone could feel represented by Blanco’s words, Alvarez said.

NYT Los Angeles bureau chief holds Q&As John Mauro Staff Writer Last Thursday, Los Angeles Bureau Chief of the New York Times Adam Nagourney visited the school, answering questions about journalism and commenting on the current status of the media. Nagourney is a former political correspondent for the New York Times during the 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns, and has covered key stories such as President Obama’s election and the obituary for George H. W. Bush.

Nagourney, a long-time friend of History Department Chair Dr. Daniel Link, offered to come to the school during his time in NYC. “Given all the current questions about the trustworthiness and reliability of the media, I think it’s important that students get a chance to interact with journalists as much as possible,” Link said.

While at the school, Nagourney led a discussion in a question-and-answer style format in Link’s AP U.S. History class.

“Usually, speakers come to assembly and you don’t have a chance to interact with them in a classroom setting,” said Mandy Liu, a member of Link’s APUSH class (11). “It was nice having someone like him come to school.”

She said that Nagourney’s story was

inspirational because he first started working at a small paper, but by pursuing his passion he was able to reach his dream job.

“Everyone needs to start somewhere,” Julia Goldberg (11) said. “It doesn’t matter where you start, but that you start.”

In a subsequent I period discussion at the Berger Faculty Dining Hall, Nagourney answered questions from a group of roughly 25 students, most of whom were on The Record. Students asked about his career path, job responsibilities, and ways to improve student journalism abilities.

Nagourney started his career from an interest in college student journalism, he said. “I instantly knew journalism was something I wanted to do.”

“I was attending Purchase college, and one day an editor of the paper, the Load, came over and asked if I would like to write a story,” Nagourney said.

The publication had a small budget and we had to type our stories into columns around two inches across. “Back in those days, we used an electric typewriter - a substantial technical challenge because of the inability to easily format layouts.”

Once Nagourney broke into the field of journalism, he had sudden realizations about the people working at the Times, he said. “Inevitably, you realized that everyone is fallible and human. You realize that the Times is

really good because if one person has a bad day, five other people will have a good day. There’s nothing like watching these very honest and fair people work.”

Nagourney also shared tips for aspiring writers. “When doing an interview, take a recording, and shut up and let the person talk,” Nagourney said.

“When you’re out covering something, you want to capture the moment.”

“Nagourney stressed the tactic of not only using factual statements, but statements that convey powerful emotion,” said Conner Dwin (10), who attended the I period discussion. “I’ll be using these skills in my journalism practices.”

Nagourney said one of the most important things to do was to observe your surroundings, a tactic that Goldberg said she is using in her student journalism career,.

Furthermore, Nagourney spoke about maintaining relationships with contacts to keep up-to-date and accurate information. “The contact list is one of the most important tools you have as a reporter,” Nagourney said.

Besides discussing his career path, Nagourney also addressed the current state of the media with respect to bias and unfair criticism, as well as the imminent future of newspapers.

“Fox caters more to conservative viewers and MSNBC to liberal ones, and that might influence story selec-

tion and how they are framed, but I don’t think anyone distorts facts, not intentionally.” Nagourney said.

These stations also have commentators who express their opinions quite openly, Nagourney said.

Nagourney spoke about the changing state of journalism, Yesh Nikam (11) said. “With advances in technology, more people have gotten their word out, but that’s not necessarily good.

You can’t always differentiate what’s factual and what’s wrong,” Nikam said.

The Times, however, has built a reputation over the years for accuracy.

“It’s just in the basic DNA of the paper,” Nagourney said. “When we get stuff wrong—which we do—we write corrections and let people know. And stories, especially sensitive ones, are carefully edited and fact checked.”

With the utilization of social media platforms such as Twitter, one can state what immediately pops into their mind, Nagourney said.

Nagourney’s discussion reflected ideas shared in the history department about source validity “We think it’s crucial for students to look at a variety of sources, read widely, and ask themselves if there other news sources they could be looking at,” Link said.

Part of the reason that the country is in the state that it’s in is because you have a large number of people who are only getting their news from one source, Link said.

Nagourney discussed how for many outlets, it’s important to break stories as quickly as possible, Eli Bacon (11) said. “The news cycle has become quick and composed of countless blogs, and it’s difficult to find sources you know are trustworthy. Nagourney showed us a new perspective of how journalists from the Times go on about verifying stories.”

Nagourney also commented on how language shapes the perspective of readers and how newspapers have adapted to the circumstances. “[The word] ‘liberal’ was demonized by opponents of Bill Clinton, so many newspapers have adopted the word ‘progressive’. For the topic of abortion, if you’re against abortion, are you anti-abortion, or anti-choice? Pro-abortion, or pro-abortion rights?” Nagourney said.

The discussion was an opportunity to think about what it’s like to write for a general circulation newspaper, Link said. “For the Record students, I hope the discussion gave them a sense that what they’re doing now might be something to do in highschool, or something as a career.” “[For highschoolers interested in journalism and politics], read newspapers. Read the Times, the Washington Post, the Economist; figure out who you think are good writers and follow them,” Nagourney said.

HORACE MANN FEATURES NOVEMBER 8TH, 2019

To Read or Not to Read A look at the school’s four year English requirement

Julia Goldberg Staff Writer If you stepped foot into an Upper Division English classroom twenty years ago, students would not be invested in their copy of a modern novel like “Purple Hibiscus” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; rather, each would be dutifully working their way through classics such as Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre or Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.

“We had the worst kind of tokenism: only one book per year by a non-white author, as if to say that’s enough for actually addressing other voices,” English teacher Adam Casdin said.

“When I [became] chair, my first order of business was to change the curriculum.”

When Casdin stepped into the position a decade ago, the Department spent a year and a half talking about ways to change the curriculum so that it would reflect a variety of voices. Ultimately, they concluded that standardizing a curriculum of such perspectives would be impossible, he said.

“It would really look like [one author] from Category A and one from Category B,” Casdin said. “There would always be someone left out, and the English Department would be seen as ratifying a certain set of texts as if those were the only ones.”

Thus the current model was born: each faculty member in the department would be deeply invested in their own curriculum, and each curriculum would reflect a different set of voices from various time periods, Casdin said. Since the redesign he spearheaded as Head of the Department, he believes the English department has worked to help students negotiate a much more sophisticated view of race, class, gender and sexuality, he said.

Despite the freedom granted to English teachers, certain requirements for the course still remain. A few books, though not required, are “frozen” at one grade level: Frankenstein is a book for freshmen, The Great Gatsby a book for sophomores, and Hamlet a book for juniors, Head of the English Department Vernon Wilson said. A few more general requirements include the teaching of grammar for the ninth and 10th grades and Junior Research Papers (JRPs) and an eight week long study of poetry for the 11th grade.

Moreover, the first semester of every ninth grade English class must be graded as pass/ fail. Alex Nagin (10), a new student as of ninth grade, thinks that this semester helps freshmen adjust to to adjust to the rigor of the Upper Division. “It also allowed me to experiment with what I wanted my writing to be,” he said. When Nagin entered 10th grade, he felt he could build upon the foundation he formed and apply lessons from risks he learned during that first trimester, he said.

“At the beginning of ninth grade, a lot of students don’t really have their bearings,” Corey Brooks (10) said. “[The pass/fail semester] is an opportunity to participate in class and give it your all without a focus on the grade.”

Throughout the remodelling of the curriculum, English has remained the only subject in the Upper Division required for four years, as mandated by the New York State Education Department. According to their website, all nonpublic New York schools must include a four-year course of study in English or the equivalent.

For the school specifically, the current purpose behind the four-year program is to expose students to a wide array of literary texts to help them become critical readers, writers, and thinkers, Wilson said. “Beyond that, we’re trying to bring them to an un-

derstanding of the ways in which their own lived experiences are paralleled in literature,” Wilson said. “Almost no matter what line of work you go into, there’s an importance of empathy. Being able to speak and write empathically is of real consequence.”

Leonora Gogos (12) supports the decision to require the class for four years, since it is the most applicable subject to everyday life, she said. “We speak in words, and being able to understand what’s meant behind words, how they form together to make a coherent narrative, and how that affects the way we view life—I think those are skills everyone needs to have.”

However, the choice is not unanimously supported. “Given that no other subject is required for four years, I don’t see why English should be,” Helena Kopans-Johnson (12) said. “I feel like for consistency’s sake, it’s unnecessary. That’s not to say English isn’t important, but I don’t understand why other classes wouldn’t be required for four years if English is.”

Gabby Fischberg (11) sees the skills English provides—namely, critical thinking and appreciation of art—as intrinsic values to build within students. She nevertheless wishes she could drop the class in favor of science, which interests her more, she said.

Even though the school offers many high level courses, it’s often difficult to fit them into her schedule, Fischberg said. “I think being able to be selective when you’re older and have a better idea of what you’re interested in just makes more sense,” she said.

Like Gogos, Jordan Ferdman (11) believes that English should be required for all four years. “No class is more essential than English,” she said. “It teaches compassion, it teaches understanding, and I’ve found that I’ve grown most as a person in my English classroom.”

Within the four years, the faculty strive to consider the growth of each individual student engaged with the text and with their own growing identity, English teacher Sarah McIntyre said. However, the way teachers try to help students cultivate those different points of engagement can vary greatly depending on the texts, assignments, and class dynamic, she said.

“We want there to be some kind of shared experience for ninth through 11th grade, but within that, we really all have different teaching styles,” Wilson said.

Fischberg has noticed a lack of consistency in her English classes across years, and is often irritated by it, she said. “The curriculum will be widely different, and the level of difficulty will be widely different as well,” she said. Fischberg believes that her English experience has depended on her teacher, and by this reasoning, the grades she receives in English are less of a distinction of her competency and more of a general marker, she said.

Ferdman has picked up on these same fluctuations, though she sees them in a positive light. “I’ve taken away lessons [from English 9, 10, and 11] that have varied greatly, and I think that in large part had to do with my teacher and my relationship with [them],” she said. “Depending on the texts a class is engaging with, the teacher and students are vulnerable in a different kind of way, and I think that has in large part informed my English experience.”

According to Wilson, the variety is a part of the identity of the English department, and a quality which the teachers pride themselves on. The goal of the curriculum is not to have each senior be able to mark off books from a checklist but rather for them to leave with a set of skills and an outlook on reading, writing, and their place in the world, he said.

Despite this lofty goal, both students and teachers have observed a tendency to undervalue the subject.

“Most of us are native English speakers, so understanding the nuances of our own English languages sometimes seems to not be of priority,” Wilson said. “But the fact that we are surrounded by this language makes it easier to not understand its inner workings, to just swim in it.”

“I’ve heard people say that you can do whatever you want without being wrong in English; it’s this easy-A mentality,” Gogos said. She perceives this mindset as more of a mentality than a truth, and also as quite problematic because it devalues students’ efforts. For this reason, she appreciates the experience she’s had in her AP English class all the more; the class is full of people who are passionate about English and are actively trying to push themselves to understand other people’s points of view, she said.

Kopans-Johnson said that senior year electives generally promote engagement in class discussions. “English is a broad context, so the nice thing about electives is that you can choose which area you want to focus on,” she said.

Roey Nornberg (12) believes that choosing an area of interest is an opportunity all students should have in their high school careers, he said. Personally, Nornberg decided to enroll in AP English because he wanted to read and discuss texts he otherwise probably wouldn’t. “The fast pace and level of discussions is what really drove me to take it.”

However, because essential aspects of the curriculum such as the concentrated focus of poetry and JRPs are situated in English 11, electives are only available to students beginning their senior year, or as juniors who wish to double on English, McIntyre said.

Nagin has never heard anyone say English is their favorite class, he said. “I’ve said that before, but I feel like English feels like a burden to some people.”

Nagin predicts that this perspective could be changed with a heavier emphasis on creative writing, he said. “I think when students are given a little bit more freedom, they might not view English as a requirement, but something they can enjoy.”

The department is aware that there are more opportunities for critical writing than for creative, and is currently trying to expand the creative aspect of the curriculum, Wilson said.

Dora Woodruff (12) said that in her English class last year, she had equal opportunities for creative and analytical assessments. “[Dr. Kassel] let us express a theme from a book or a poem that we had read in any medium that we wanted,” she said. “I really liked music, and that’s not something I’m often able to express in my academic classes.

I ended up writing a piece [of music about Mrs. Dalloway].”

Ultimately, Woodruff felt proud of her work because she thought she had been able to put more of her own personality into it, she said.

Ferdman said that as a whole, she believes English is often seen as a secondary to STEM courses, which holds more weight both in college applications and in the real world.

There is a perception that English is the class you can put the least effort in and still receive the highest grades from, she said.

Despite these perceptions, English is still very much a necessary course, Ferdman said. “I think that the takeaways of English, if you’re willing to engage with the texts and engage with your class are incredibly beneficial, not just on an academic level but on a human level.”

All art by Gabby Fischberg and Annabelle Chan / Art Directors

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THE RECORD ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT NOVEMBER 8TH, 2019

Richard Blanco shares poetry with MD Courtesy of Barry Mason

AFTER THE ASSEMBLY Juliet Burgess (8) speaks with Blanco.

Rowan Mally Staff Writer Last week on Tuesday, critically acclaimed poet Richard Blanco was featured at a Middle Division (MD) Assembly, speaking on global issues. Blanco used his past experiences as a gay man and the son of immigrants to draw connections to today’s topics, including gun violence, climate change, and racism.

“Schools don’t get special opportunities like this all the time and I hope we realize how fortunate we are to have speakers like Richard Blanco come through to our school,” Head of the MD Javaid Khan said.

Blanco’s ability to artfully dissect global issues resonated with Ariella Frommer (8), she said. “I found the assembly to be very deep and thoughtful. It didn’t feel like he was just reading a poem–it felt like he was performing them.”

Ashley Kuo (6) also found Blanco’s performance to be “really interesting and eye opening,” she said.

Blanco’s words were able to evoke various emotions among the students, even well after the assembly was held, Ashely Scherer (8) said.

“I feel that [Blanco’s] poems brought about a feeling of sadness,” she said, referring to one of Blanco’s poems addressing the rapid climate change. While his work left her with a heavy heart regarding issues pertinent to the globe, “I also felt his poems brought about feelings of hope and determination,” Scherer said.

Frommer also found his poetry to be informative. “His poem about the Parkland shooting really reinforced the dangers of gun violence,” Frommer said. “I thought his poem outlining the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest really opened my eyes to the situation,” Scherer said.

Yash Chowdhry (7) was “really surprised to learn about how recently the last lynching in the U.S. was–I found it pretty scary,” he said.

“In terms of the event itself, he was really phenomenal, he brought his poetry to the level where middle schoolers could access it,” Khan said. “When Mr. Blanco and I spoke beforehand, I told him that he could really push the envelope with these kids as we have a really vibrant and bright academic community.”

Blanco was incredibly impressed with the MD students, Khan said.

“He even relayed to myself and Dr. Kelly how impressed he was with

From HoMMUNC page 3

Charlotte Cebula (12), the chair of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women committee, said that her role as chair has provided her with new insight into debating. “It helps me in other committees [at other conferences] because now I know what chairs actually care about and what they don’t like to hear at all, because I know what I don’t like to hear,” she said.

“It’s totally different being on the other side of things,” said Ari Salsberg (11), the moderator of Cebula’s committee. “It’s nice to be able to direct the flow of debate to what you think is the most interesting. It’s about what delegates and the people that are debating want, but at the same time, it’s about making sure we’re getting done what needs to be done.”

None of the upperclassmen from the school’s MUN team participate in committees, in part because HoMUNCC’s focus is on high schoolers from other schools who have little to no previous experience as well as the team’s underclassmen. For instance, a handful of delegates from York Prep were able to work with their bloc in the UNEP Committee to try to figure out how to clean up marine debris, despite HoMUNCC being their first conference.

Even though Myra Malik (9) had never been to a conference before, she made two speeches in the Economic and Financial Affair Council, one specifically about the capacity that certain places

our students and felt that they were fully immersed in his poems. I think that definitely speaks to the types of students and teachers we have,” Khan said.

In preparation for the assembly, Khan and Blanco also discussed Blanco’s poems and their central theme of social justice, Khan said. “[Blanco] wanted to focus on work regarding social justice, and I told him that we as a community did a lot of similar work as well. I added that any topics that he brought up could always be followed up in advisory,” Khan said.

“In advisories we discussed what we thought about Blanco’s poems, and how they connected to greater societal issues,” Scherer said. They also talked about Blanco’s past achievements, highlighting his work as the 2013 Inaugural Poet for President Barack Obama, she said.

“A couple classes even sat down and wrote really thoughtful thank you notes to Mr. Blanco. Students discussed what spoke to them from Blanco’s work and how their own stories that related to [those themes],” Khan said.

Khan hopes that “each student took away what they needed from Mr. Blanco’s poems and the assembly. Whether it be resonating with his story or being inspired by his words, I hope each student took away something that was meaningful to them,” he said.

“I found it really interesting that he did not even consider becoming a poet growing up, and rather wanted to be an engineer. This just shows that true dreams and callings may not arise until later in your life. It’s really never too late to follow your dreams,” Scherer said.

Annabelle Chan/Art Director

can hold economic migrants based on that region’s development, Malik said.

“I actually thought [HoMMUNC] would be really boring because [I knew I would] be at school for 9 hours, but I [had] a lot of fun,” Malik said. Similar to the other two general assemblies, DISEC and Special Political and Decolonization Committee, her committee was relatively large, consisting of 79 delegations and around 140 delegates.

Though the conference is modelled for inexperienced delegates, its impact is nevertheless significant. “HoMMUNC holds direct responsibility for our personal delegation success,” Vincent Gao, a junior at Stuyvesant, said. Many members of Stuyvesant’s team enjoyed the experience so much last year that they decided to stay on the team, leading to an exponential growth in membership, Gao said.

The school’s MUN team raised over $40,000 in the process of planning HoMMUNC, primarily through the fees that were required of participants. However, according to Fawer, the money raised in delegate and school fees from HoMMUNC doesn’t actually go to the funds needed to run HoMMUNC. The school covers the funds for the food and the Flik staff, the transportation which the school’s MUN team provides for some schools, the maintenance staff, and the faculty chaperones.

Annabelle Chan/Art Director

Oliver Steinman Staff Writer “I want to get the word out,” Carson Eisner (7) said.

“The youtubxe channel is very underrated and they post really great content and I’m sure a lot of people will really enjoy it,” he said.

After watching Epic Rap Battles, popular channel on Youtube, Eisner and Caleb Sharkey (7) were inspired to start the MD Epic Rap Battles Club. Eisner said that the process for starting the club was not very hard. “I already knew a few people who wanted to join so I applied and got accepted,” he said.

The Epic Rap Battles youtube channel, uploads videos of rap battles between famous historical figures. The channel started in 2006 and now has over 14 million subscribers. The content creators on Epic Rap Battles create new lyrics and beats for each battle.

Eisner started this club after he found out people in his grade enjoyed the videos. He knew how great the quality was and knew he had to do something about it, he said.

His favorite part of the videos are the lyrics. “There is so much thought that goes into the lyrics and they all have triple or even quadruple meaning,” he said. Eisner also enjoys the video quality and the repetition of style. “Each video is kind of always similar and you know what to expect but they also have their own special factor,” he said.

Jaiveer Gupta (7) joined the club because he is friends with Eisner and finds the videos funny and entertaining.

“It’s a fun club and people should join,” Gupta said.

Sharkey, Eisner, and Oliver Guyer (7) collaborated and wrote their Epic Rap Battles in the studio in Fisher Hall.

Guyer came up with a Thanos v.s. Voldemort rap battle and all of them came up with some beats to incorporate into later rap battles, Eisner said.

Currently the club is preparing to perform Teddy Roosevelt versus Winston Churchill based off of the Epic Rap Battle video. Eisner will play Roosevelt in this performance. “We’re dressing up as the characters and making slight adjustments to make it more relatable for middle schoolers,” he said.

“I also want to have fun exploring the possibilities regarding these rap battles. I expect it to turn into us creating and performing our own lyrics,” Eisner said.

At the conference, the school’s MUN team raised another $600 by passing around an envelope among the delegates in each committee for a charity called Solar Sister, which provides women in Sub-Saharan Africa with economic opportunities, training, and technology to distribute clean energy throughout communities, Fawer said.

“We’re going to donate a portion of the leftover HoMMUNC funds to that organization, which depends on how much we spend throughout the year,” Fawer said. The school’s MUN team’s expenses include hotel rooms, transportation to and from conferences, dinners, and conference fees.

Although the team’s Secretary Generals are in charge of tracking the funds raised for HoMMUNC, the team’s advisor, biology lab manager Alison Woolford, and the administration are the only ones involved in allocating the $40,000 after HoMMUNC. The $40,000 specifically came a collection of fees from the schools and from delegates: each school had to pay $80, and each student that attended had to pay a $45 delegate fee. However, this fee was waived for the South Bronx Preparatory School.

“That’s one of the benefits of raising so much money for HoMMUNC,” Fawer said. “It’s can be expensive to attend these conferences for some

people; there’s always enough money throughout the year to cover financial aid when needed.”

And for these schools, HoMMUNC is an essential conference. “If HoMMUNC weren’t around, there would be quite a lot of local public schools that would not have an opportunity to do any Model UN conferences at all,” Head of Upper Division Jessica Levenstein said. The school understands the significance of HoMMUNC in the larger community, and as such it is currently the only exception to school policy, which states that no club may host an event on campus more frequently than biannually, she said.

Courtesy of Arman Kumar

HOMMUNC Delegates gather in Gross Theater.

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HORACE MANN ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT NOVEMBER 8TH, 2019

HMTC presents...

Comic potential

A Review on Metatheater of the future

Emily Shi Staff Writer

The Horace Mann Theater Company (HMTC) lived up to the name “Comic Potential” in its quirky, melodramatic, and paradoxical portrayal of a technologically advanced future where robot “actoids” have replaced actors.

The play, written by Alan Ayckbourn, tells the story of Adam Trainsmith, a playwright who visits a struggling TV studio and falls in love with JCF31333, an actoid at the studio that Trainsmith dubs “Jacie Triplethree.”

Director Joseph Timko expands Ayckbourn’s vision into a meta interpretation of how artificial intelligence may overcome human abilities. The show’s set, designed by Ashley Dai (12), features a completely white backdrop with pink and blue colored lights projected by lighting designers Naomi Kenyatta (12), Bernard von Simson (12), and Reena Ye (12), contributing to the production’s futuristic aura.

The production opens with two doctors treating an injured patient, next to his crying mother. With a quick stop, the technology director of the TV show, Prim Spring, played by Jordan Ferdman (11), fumbles at a console before the director Chandler Tate, played

by Jacob Chin (12) angrily yells at a mistake in the scene. After minutes of back-and-forth conflict, Chin urges more and more emotion from Janet Christian’s (11) character of the mother, whose tears quickly escalate to aggressive sobbing.

The cast did justice to Ayckbourn’s vision of robotic but charming “actoids.” With just a push of a button, the TV show organizers easily manipulate and adjust the character’s emotions. Throughout the show, sporadic TV excerpts break up the tension of more serious moments. In a particularly emotional scene of Adam towards the end of the play, believing that Jacie had been “melted down,” or reduced back to a blank robot, he begins to yell in anguish. In his despair, he accidentally presses the console, setting off another lively scene between actoids playing the roles of farmers.

Jacie Triplethree stars as a 19 year old actoid whose “flaws” lead to her feeling complex human emotions. Since actoids are essentially blank robots, they learn by watching and repeating others with increasing complexity.

In Act One, Sarah Acocelli’s (12) portrayal of Jacie Triplethree manages to seem robotic in its monotony while also hinting towards a lively and passionate character gaining more human traits that are later carried out by Yana Gitelman (10) and Kiara Pielli

(12).

After noticing Jacie, Adam decides to put on his own nested production based off of her story, depicting an actoid playing an actoid. Through lighthearted moments of Adam teaching Jacie how to do a double take, and out-of-context recitations of monologues, the audience becomes captivated by Triplethree’s innocence and curiosity, just like Adam Trainsmith, played by Adam Frommer (11) and Henry Owens (11) in the play.

Apart from the main plotline, the workers at the TV studio create their own story as well. Jordan Ferdman’s (11) plays Prim Spring, a calm and coordinated technological director of the play who keeps everything under control. Her relaxed nature provides a stark contrast to the explosive energy of director Chandler Tate, the TV show’s director. Meanwhile, Lilliana Greyf (10) plays Carla Pepperbloom, a stern and poised leader of the TV studio company who dictates the narrative of the directors.

From bringing out a can of whipped cream and tea canister rather than the planned glass of wine for a fancy dinner, to lively presentations of actoid malfunctions, the cast’s quirky humor and wit shines through each vignette.

Between each role transition, Kyra Mo (12) plays the Architect, a produced role by Timko to create a “production within a production,” alluding to the fact that the actors in “Comic Potential” themselves are actoids.

Throughout the play, the Architect manages to assert her control over the room. With just a simple snap and hand wave, the actors freeze and change roles with a blank look on their faces.

While Comic Potential tells the story of an actoid learning from humans, Mo’s character, revealed to be a robot conducting an experiment with artificial intelligence, alludes to the idea that robots may soon acquire a higher level of consciousness than humans.

After two and a half hours of watching humans control robots, Mo’s final monologue delivers the lasting idea that robots may soon become the ones with more power. Standing in front of a silent, still room, Mo utters: “I am nothing but a machine, but I am everything but a machine. Action.”

With the resounding silence, the audience is taken aback by the uncomfortable realization that humans had little control over the play. The eerie and deliberate depiction of the Architect, acting as a god controlling the production itself, forces the audience to reconsider the surface level message of the play- that artificial intelligence rose from human intellect. Timko’s interpretation of the

finale, then, shifts the overall power dynamic between the cast and the audience.

Jake Shapiro / Photo Editor

HEART AND SOUL Actors show their emotions on the stage.

Set Design: Shining a light on the Black Box Hannah Hornfeld Staff Writer At the start of Tuesday’s rehearsal, the air was filled with excitement and laughter as actors hurriedly dressed in shining, futuristic costumes, had their hair done, and prepared to run through Act Two for the second-to-last time before their performances yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Since mid-September, the cast and crew have been working to perfect every detail in the HMTC’s production of Alan Ayckbourn’s Comic Potential.

The HMTC hit a small road bump a few days in when it changed its fall production from the Good Person of Szechwan to the sci-fi romantic comedy due to concerns over cultural appropriation. Most of the students who had already made a commitment to the play decided to remain a part of it despite the change, the play’s director Joseph Timkó said.

Like most of the productions Timkó has directed, Comic Potential didn’t have cuts, Dylan Chin (12) said. After reading through the script together during the first two days of rehearsal, Timkó assigned them parts based on his knowledge of each person. “I have worked with most of the actors in the past, and

SLEEPLESS STAGE Set design steals the show.

many of them have worked together before, so they’re already a company,” Timkó said.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the cast began with warm ups involving vocal work, stretches, and games, said theater teacher Haila VanHentenryck, the production’s associate director.

VanHentenryck then rehearsed with cast members one-onone or in small groups and worked with them on fight and romance choreography, or simply with understanding their characters better. “She made rehearsals more efficient; it was like we were having two rehearsals at once,” Timkó said.

Because Comic Potential is a comedy, it came with unique obstacles. Timkó, VanHentenryck, and the cast had to work to make sure that all of the jokes—both physical and verbal—were timed and delivered properly to keep them funny. Frommer says he has the opposite problem: he sometimes struggles to avoid laughing while onstage.

For Chin, conveying deep issues and themes through comedy was a challenge, he said. “In a comedy, you have to ask yourself ‘Why am I laughing?’ and when you think about it, it’s actually troubling.”

Many actors contributed other talents to the production as well. Actress Yana Gitelman (11) worked with Theatre, Dance, and Film Studies Department Chair Alison Kolinski to choreograph an original dance for the play, Gitelman said. The choreography did not require a lot of work, since they primarily used pre-existing dance moves such as the robot and the wave, but was a lot of fun, Gitelman said.

Another example is actress Kyra Mo (12), who plays a character whose part she conceived of and wrote completely from scratch. Figuring out how to add an entire part while keeping everything organic and harmonious with the original written text required hard work and research. “It’s my first time writing for a play, which I have always acted for, so I’m really excited to see how it will come to life,” she said.

While the actors rehearse, members of stage crew have built the sets, which were designed by Ashley Dai (12). Dai drew inspiration from circuitry, computer motherboards, and Louise

Nevelson’s artwork in her designs. Although the lost time from the play change limited the amount of thought she was able to put into certain aspects of the set, it also forced Dai to trust her creative instincts and go with her gut, she said.

The stage crew, which includes Dai, then followed her design to create the sets. “The first day it was kind of messy because nobody knew what they were doing but after a while everyone got the hang of it,” said Lian Aydemir (10).

Matthew Aponte (10) is a member of both the stage crew and running crew. The running crew is responsible for helping the production to run smoothly, and each of its members has a different job, from working the light board to operating sound; Aponte will move set pieces on stage during the performance objects on stage, he said.

Aydemir is the properties manager, meaning that she keeps track of the actors’ props and ensures that the actors have access to them when they are needed.

Timkó said he loved shopping for quirky objects to serve as props. Because Comic Potential is set in a futuristic world filled with robots, he could stretch his creativity with them. For example, a glowing, color-changing baby rattle with red and yellow polka dots and black and white stripes will serve as a scientific device.

This week, the cast and the crew came together for a six and a half hour technical rehearsal on Saturday and four hour dress rehearsals Monday through Wednesday, in which they have been fine-tuning details to make sure that everything runs seamlessly. Before this week, rehearsals were only one and a half to two hours long.

For stage manager Spencer Kahn (12), the managing process started out slow, he said. However, Kahn is now calling light and sound cues, and making sure that all of the cast and crew are doing the right thing at the right time. “He is running the rehearsals at this point,” Timkó said.

“For a play to happen is the same as keeping a person alive: a zillion things have to be working correctly at the same time,” Timkó said. “I’m just looking forward to seeing that happen and to the audience enjoying it. I hope everyone laughs!”

Lions’ Den Record Sports

NOVEMBER 8TH, 2019

8

Sports Debate

Does football belong at Horace Mann?

Avi Kapadia and Adam Frommer Staff Writers The school is one of the safest possible places to play football, Assistant Athletic Trainer Amy Mojica said. “If you want to play football, this is where you should want to play.”

According to a study conducted by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), high school football has the most head injuries out of all high school sports with approximately 11.2 concussions per 10,000 games and practices. These concussions can force students to miss classes for days, weeks, or even months at a time.

Despite these concerns, the football team never discussed the long-term cognitive effects of playing football during his tenure on the team, Zach Brooks (12) said. Brooks played freshman, sophomore, and junior year, but is no longer on the team this year due to the dangers of the sport as well as having a large workload, he said.

High school player football participation has dropped 6.5% from 2010 to 2018, a Forbes article said. This year, the team had around 40 members, which is lower than usual for the school, Varsity Football Head Coach Matthew Russo said.

“The impression might be out there that the program is trending downward but we are actually in pretty good shape,” Russo said. He believes the numbers should be rising once again.

Football remains popular within the Ivy Preparatory league. Including Horace Mann, six out of the eight league schools continue to field football teams, with Trinity and Collegiate as the exceptions.

The school has taken serious safety precautions in terms of equipment and practice techniques, member of the Varsity Football team Isaac Baez (11) said.

“We have top of the line helmets that have sensors in them that act as a second set of eyes to track potential big hits, Mojica said. “We have a dedicated athletic trainer that sticks with football so he knows all of the ins and outs of how the players act and behave, so if there are any differ-

ences, he can spot them.” she said.

Meanwhile, a report by Frontline suggests that the use of NFL standard helmets could still leave players with a 95% chance of sustaining a concussion.

The school uses USA football tackling techniques that limits the use of head-on contact during games, and “hit restrictions” only allow the players to participate in live contact once a week for under thirty minutes, Mojica said.

When Jack Klein (11), member of the team, first learned to tackle eight or so years ago, the style of tackling was completely different in terms of where athletes put their head in relation to the opponent’s body, he said. Now, the goal is to avoid head contact, Klein said.

“I really don’t think it is that dangerous,” Klein said, referring to the sport. “I’ve never been injured playing football in any way that has damaged me.” he said.

For Nick Potash (12), another member of the Varsity Football team, the buzz around football is out of proportion. “Soccer, statistically, is more dangerous for [concussions], fun fact,” he said.

“People think of football as the sport where you will get a head injury, but at Horace Mann and high schools around the country, that’s not necessarily true.”

“There is education for the student athletes and parents so that everyone is aware of and watching for any signs and symptoms,” Mojica said. Each coach is highly trained, first aid and CPR certified, and the school hires an ambulance for every game.

In practice, the team tries to avoid physicality as much as possible, and the coaches try to make sure that high risk only occurs during games, Potash said.

Football is a sport that fosters community and a team mindset above all else, Klein said. “I think you have to work together more so than in any other sport, and all of that makes it a great team game and a great game to play as an individual.”

However, there is some debate over whether football should be a sport within our community.

Jordan Ferdman (11) doesn’t believe that students have the ability to make that decision. “There is a difference between making a choice for yourself at age 18 and making a choice for the rest of your life,” Ferdman said.

There is plenty of debate throughout the school over whether football should exist at the school, and proponents of the team argue that students should be at least given a choice to play.

“Everyone has their own threshold of what they are willing to accept, and that should be their choice,” Klein said. “If you are afraid to play it, that is up to you, but I think that just because you don’t think it is safe doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t be able to play it.”

Everyone on the football team knows exactly what they are signing up for, Potash said. “When I chose to play football, I chose to play a very physical sport, and that’s just how it is.”

“It is really important to appreciate everyone’s extra-curricular activities, especially because Horace Mann can feel like an environment in which you are really valued by your academic achievement, Yana Gitelman (11) said. “Appreciating people for whatever they do is important.”

For Klein, it really comes down to the freedom to choose. “The school could not allow us to do a hundred things that are dangerous,” Klein said.

“If you start saying that you can’t choose to do things just because they pose a danger to yourself, where does that stop?” he said.

Brooks said that a football team fits within the school’s core values. “To say that [football players] are dumb brutes is not fair to them,” Brooks said. “Horace Mann is about expanding your horizons.”

Nonetheless, football can be dangerous to play.

During and after the games, players have to be alert and take care of their bodies, Jonas Jacobson (11), a member of the Varsity Football Team said.

Brooks thought everybody on the team got injured in some way last year. The minor bumps and bruises of football are constant, he said.

“When you get home after practice and everything hurts, those have weight too.” he said.

A former member of the team, Oliver Lewis (10) has a parent who didn’t support his playing because it was dangerous. “This year, one of my best friends at school got a concussion,” Lewis said. “It’s scary. And then, two weeks later, my other best friend on the football team got a concussion.” he said.

When Baez injured his leg and could no longer play, he learned how much he loved the sport.

“I just didn’t enjoy much of anything else when I was not able to play.” Baez said.

Zach Brooks’ younger brother Corey Brooks(10) is on the Varsity Football team. “Obviously I am worried for him, I want him to make sure that he’s safe,” Zach said. “And I’d be lying if I said that every time that he says that he’s going to start in a game I’m not at least a little concerned.

I know how stressful it was for me, and I didn’t even get a head injury.” Zach said.

There are certain parts of the game that are inconsequential and unsafe that could definitely be taken out, Potash said. During kickoffs, people tend to get injured the most, and the play doesn’t really matter. “Taking plays out of the game where people get hurt for no reason, I’m all for. Why should I get hurt for literally no reason when it won’t matter to the rest of the game?” Potash said.

Lewis though doesn’t believe that you could fix football by making it safer. Doing so would change the essence of the game, he said.

To effectively play football, it is important not to think of the dangers of the game, Potash said. If you play football scared, you’re going to get hurt, he said.

“Combat sports have been a little bit around for thousands of years, and I think it’s part of our culture,” Zach Brooks said. “I think that they’re just not going to go away because there’s a risk associated with it.”

Football has a historical American significance that students wish the school fit into a little more, Gitelman said. “It is nice to have something that feels quintessentially high school,” Ferdman said.

“But the costs outweigh the gains.”

Annabelle Chan/Art Director

Still on the courts: Girls Varsity Tennis’ Post-Season Lucas Glickman and Emma Colacino Staff & Contributing Writer After a 7-6 season, the Girls’ Varsity Tennis team continues to practice for the upcoming Mayor’s Cup tournament.

The Mayor’s Cup brings together public, private, and Catholic schools in the New York City area. In order to be invited, Ivy Preparatory League schools need to place first or second in the Ivy League.

With so many schools participating, the Mayor’s cup consists of three rounds; the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. This year, the event is being held indoors at the Cary Leeds Center in the Bronx and the team’s quarterfinal match is against Brooklyn Tech on Wednesday, November 6th.

Throughout the season, the team has overcome many challenges and will continue to do so in preparing for the Mayor’s Cup. One major challenge is adjusting to new courts. While having to play indoors instead of outdoors might present a difficulty to the players, it shouldn’t be much of a problem, Varsity Tennis Head Coach Rawlins Troop said.

Post-season practices differ slightly from regular practices, Troop said. “We have been doing more drills instead of just rallying” Sabrina Freidus (11) said. “Postseason practice really consists of hitting and keeping in a tennis rhythm,” Troop said.

“The doubles teams have been focusing on drills to improve our net game,” Bella Colacino (10) said. Overall, the practices have been focusing on some of [the team’s] weaknesses they noticed during the season, to improve them for our postseason matches, Captain Isha Agarwal (12) said.

During the regular season, Troop saw a lot of improvement from the team. The players who may have not gotten to start, but were cheering on their fellow teammates, were a key factor in the

team’s success, Troop said.

However, the team has adjusted to play on different courts in the past. A change in practice venue at the beginning of the season from the school’s courts to Van Cortlandt Park and TCR, an indoor tennis facility in Riverdale, disrupted the team’s practices, Agarwal said.

“One of the things that slowed us down was that we started tryouts at school, but then the courts were closed down to get resurfaced,” Troop said. The team “struggled a little at the beginning of the season with the lineup, as we had lost some integral players last year,” Agarwal said.

Postseason practices also posed another challenge as the team needs to adapt to a new style of practices.

Once the team started playing consistently at the school’s courts there was a big difference in the success of the team and Troop doesn’t believe that their record well reflects the team’s ability, he said.

As the season progressed, the team grew closer, helping them succeed in their matches. “As the season went on, the team bonded, which I think really contributed to our success,” Colacino said.

“I was so proud of them because, by the time that [Ivy Leagues] hit, we did really well,” Troop said. “There was a new energy on the team,” Agarwal said.

Despite their previous losses, Coach Troop remains optimistic about the outcome of the Mayor’s Cup, which began on Wednesday.

The team beat Brooklyn Tech 5-0 and will now compete in their semifinals against the Beacon School this Sunday.

“I think our team has improved a lot since the beginning, so I hope we can end the season with a strong finish in the finals,” Colacino said.

Sophie Gordon/Staff Photographer

READY STANCE Amelia Feiner (12) prepares to return a serve.