The Rampage The Newspaper of the Ramaz Upper School
New York • Volume 66 • Issue 2 • November 2021 • Kislev 5782 • the-rampage.org
Club Fair: Organized Chaos Rebecca Kalimi ‘23
Every year, Ramaz holds Club Fair to present all its clubs to freshmen and to any students who want to expand their co-curricular experience. Teachers and students spoke about their experiences with the return to a live club fair. Mr. Deutsch is a faculty advisor for four clubs. Depending on the club, he likes to stay very involved in club meetings but tries to push the student leaders to be more active. Due to Club Fair being right after chag this year, Mr. Deutsch frantically sent out emails the night before to make sure people would be representing his clubs to the new students. Mr. Deutsch acknowledged that the real way he gets the word out about his club meetings or the details of his club is by posting on Schoology, and once students join, he makes Schoology groups to make sure involved students see all the details needed. At Club Fair, he likes for each of his clubs to have a poster with a description and for people to only sign up if they’re actually interested. Ideally, there would be more descriptive paraphernalia and more visuals for each student to get a more accurate feel of the club. Thinking back to last year, when Club Fair was online and each club had a five-minute slot to present on Zoom, although it might’ve been efficient, the presentations were missing the social aspect. Being online loses the informality of the event and discourages questions to club leaders.
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The students who are most interested in these clubs will ask questions at Club Fair, but being isolated on Zoom and all eyes on one person is a lot of pressure for something as informal as Club Fair normally is. Ms. Brachot is also a faculty advisor for a few clubs. She is involved in Breakthrough, the
science publication, leadership in STEM, and will be helping Dr. Rotenberg oversee robotics this year. She agrees with Mr. Deutsch in that the amount of her involvement mostly depends on how much work students leaders and even club members are putting in. For publications, if student leaders aren’t working fast enough to get out the publication, then she has to intervene to make sure they make a dead-
line. She contacts her club members through email. Depending on whether the club is like a publication, where only students who are more consistent writers are on the email list, or it’s a club that meets less often, she thinks emailing smaller groups of kids is more effective. Before Club Fair, she’ll have some time to prep her student leaders for how to address students interested in the clubs. This year she just checked in with student leaders in the morning to make sure someone would be at the stand. She agrees that Club Fair isn’t really about publicizing clubs and that every club makes an appearance on Schoology at least at the beginning of the year for people to hear what it’s about. She also thinks that a reason why club fair is inefficient is because of how crowded and loud the room is when everyone is trying to hear information- she didn’t even go this year! Although she does agree that a Zoom option may be more effective, she thinks that it’s much more helpful to talk with someone one-on-one about all your concerns before joining a club, and it’s easiest to do that in person. Samara Blatt '22 is a student leader of two clubs and a founder of one. She was able to organize shifts with other club leaders to make sure that there was always someone at the stands. But she does agree that Club Fair is more of a social event to see friends and to see new captains of each club, Continued On Page 3
Mask Mandate: Enforcement of the “Grey Area” Rebecca Silber ‘23
The ability of the administration to enforce school rules can be much more intricate than expected. There are some school rules that are extremely clear cut: they are easily enforced, clearly understood, and widely accepted by everyone in the community. However, not all school rules are so black and white. In fact, there is a wide grey area of rules that exist in our Ramaz community. School rules like these tend to be much blurrier in the eyes of the student body, and enforcing them is an everlasting challenge that the administration continues to face. When it comes to the school’s grading system, the rules are obvious to the Ramaz community: receiving a 95 will give you an A, an 85 will give you a B, etc. With the grading system, there’s no ambiguity -- everyone knows the rules, and the majority will adhere to them. A student who averages an 85 won’t ask a teacher why they received a B on their report card, because the answer is obvious: according to the school rule, an 85 gives you a B. Similarly, the school’s policy regarding lateness is clearly understood by the students. At the start of each year, the school’s strike and detention system is reinforced by the administration and reintroduced to the students. If a student taps in late to school, he or she can expect a strike -- two more, and he or she will get detention. Two more detentions, and he or she will earn Social Probation. This consistent, simple
No masks for pictures?
system of action and consequence is just as easily enforceable by the administration as it is understandable by the students. Ms. Krupka explains that when it
comes to these types of “black and white rules, there’s an immediate consequence. Black and white rules are when it is so obvious that breaking a rule is a poor choice, and the exact result of doing so will be an unfavorable outcome for the student.” Not all Ramaz policies are so easily enforced. Take the dress code, for example. Most girls in Ramaz are well aware of the fact that skirts are required to approach the knee, but many girls do not follow this rule. Sophie Schwartz 23’ explains that she knows that her skirt length is technically not in accordance with the school rule, but she has “never actually been told to change her skirt.” Most boys are well aware of the kippah mandate, requiring kippot to be worn at all times during school, yet some boys’ kippot find their way from the students’ heads and into their pockets. While the Ramaz community clearly understands the expectations of the dress code itself, not all follow it, since the administration has a hard time enforcing this more ambiguous policy. Similarly, the mask mandate is a very complex and difficult policy to enforce. Walking through the hallways of Ramaz, one can notice students whose masks are secured tightly above their nose, drooping beneath their nose, hanging beneath their chin, or whose masks are nowhere to be found. Continued on Page 4
Inside this issue... Pink Day Recap p.
2
Ramaz Open House p.
3
Mental Health At Ramaz p.
4
Mishmar? p.
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