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On February 24, Russia officially invaded Ukraine, inciting the largest war in Europe since World War II. To address the large amount of Ukrainian refugees that have been left in need of supplies, many students from the High School Democrats of America (HSDA), LM Amnesty International, and teacher Thomas Reed’s Global Citizenship class joined together to run a supply drive. According to Reed, “I don’t understand how we could sit back and watch. This is an invasion of a sovereign nation where war crimes and genocide are taking place....Get off of the damn couch and do something.” Noah Barkan ’24, one of the main people organizing the drive added that “The goal was to help initiate action and catalyze further action towards providing aid and support to Ukraine from the LM community.” He believes that this is important “because we are interconnected individuals in a globalized world and the struggles of people across the world affect us all.” The fear of another Russian annexation of their homeland has caused Ukranians to take up arms and fight back against Russia, much harder than Putin seems to have expected. Among other actions taken by Western nations, sanctions have been placed on many Russian banks and oligarchs. The Russian ruble has fallen almost fifty percent in value since sanctions were first placed on Russia. Additionally, this war is the first in history to contain a cyber theater, which is when governments launch coordinated attacks aimed to terrorize and misinform civilians through the spreading of disinformation and the taking down of government websites. While the crisis has also led to numerous Russian protests, Putin’s regime has cracked down on dissent. Ukraine is not the only country that Russia had plans to invade. Recently, numerous blunders have culminated in a Russian general announcing plans to move large amounts of soldiers into Moldova as well. Russia’s economy being isolated has had a ripple effect across the globe. Russia’s main export was cheap gas and oil. Thus, the price of gas has spiked— evident even here in Ardmore. LM students will see the price of everything go up. The cost of gasoline has already risen almost ten percent since the war began. Teacher Scott Seibert says, “For me personally, the cost of filling up my truck with gas has increased by $70. Over the course of a month, this accounts for nearly a $300 increase in my expenses. Teachers like many Americans are employed on a fixed wage and these unexpected increases can dramatically affect a household budget.” He continues, “My financial pain at the pump is real but the human pain in war-torn Ukraine is devastating. It is past time for the US to once again remove the barriers to domestic oil and gas production in order to alleviate our dependence on foreign energy.”

LM’s geographical removal from the violence does not stop families from being personally affected or concerned. Ivan Sanchez ’24, whose uncle’s wife and daughter are still stuck in Belarus, a nation that is increasingly seen as part of Russia’s new Iron Curtain, thinks that people in LM should accept that the sanctions are necessary. He says that while many in the United States may have some economic pain, it is nothing compared to the heartbreak experienced by Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian citizens. He elaborated, “The people of Belarus and Russia do not want to fight Ukraine and are being forced to suffer. Sanctions won’t be the be all and end all but they are the best we can do right now without a world war.” Additionally, he believes that ordinary people should try to get involved. One way this could be done is through drives such as those led by HSDA or Amnesty International. However, Sanchez makes sure to say that “helping doesn’t necessarily mean donations. It means getting informed and talking about the issues. This will help others and yourself to better understand the problem.”

Photo courtesy of Sean Capkin

It was not long ago that we were all stuck learning from inside the walls of our bedrooms while quarantined from the rest of the world. However, despite all the progress we have made since March 2020, we are all stuck learning from inside the walls of LM. Prior to the pandemic, field trips were an integral part of the “transformative curriculum” that the district sought to execute as part of the “All Forward” strategic plan in 2014. The team of seventy administrators, teachers, students, parents, and other community members set goals to finish implementing the plan by 2020, expecting that “every student participates in at least one local service program and a workplace internship by the time they complete high school” and “students have the opportunity to study abroad as part of their development as global citizens.” However, the sum of our out-ofschool experiences seems to have diverged from the 2020 expectations. Instead of expanding our reach further beyond the Main Line, education has been confined to the school building, limiting the cultural and developmental progress the Strategic Plan called for. Physics teacher Jeffery Heller notes, “I think it was one of the real strengths of the school that we had a lot of field trips.” While some of the restrictions on field trips have tightened due to the precarity of the pandemic, others have existed long before we were sent home in 2020. For instance, a field trip committee made of administrators has regulated every field trip request for at least four years. Additionally, while teachers were previously permitted to submit their own requests for field trips, they have been required to submit them through the Activities and Athletics Office for the past few years. This extra barrier between teachers and district administrators further filters the activities that are even considered for off-campus experiences.

However, even if field trip requests make their way through administration, finding nurses that could provide necessary services on trips has become increasingly difficult for the district, especially at LM. Now, with a staff of only four nurses to balance everyday needs with those related to COVID-19 (e.g. contact tracing, testing, etc.), there are not enough services to accommodate the multitude of people in the building in addition to anyone going off-campus. Another blow to field trips has been the insufficient amount of bus drivers since 2020, which remains too low despite district emails looking for applications. Beyond transportation, other constraints limit the types of trips allowed off-campus. At present, according to Activities and Athletics Director Jason Stroup, field trips are only being considered if they involve service, performances, or competitions. For instance, the music department traveled to Disney for a performance this March. Due to these constraints, most trips are taken for extracurricular activities rather than curriculum-based learning. This directly contradicts the plan set out by the Strategic Plan in 2014, as it prevents learning from expanding to other settings and shrinks the field of education. One of the most well-known and anticipated trips at LM was the one to Six Flags that used to take place annually in late spring for physics students. However, the trip has not run since 2019 due to the pandemic and current restrictions that inhibit curriculum-based trips. When Heller requested to run the field trip this year, he “got kind of a vague response at first from the Athletics and Activities Office.” Eventually, Stroup told Heller to put through an official request and sent it to the Central Administration Field Trip Committee, who told Heller that “they’re not approving field trips this year other than competitions.” He still has not found out the reason why only competitions are being permitted as off-campus excursions, but plans to investigate it in the future. The Six Flags trip was formerly a highlight after a grueling year of extremely difficult subject matter and made for a revered LM tradition. Sophie Roth ’20 recalls that, beyond the physics aspect, “it [was] a great thing the school [did] to promote balancing stress!” Experiencing the topics learned in the classroom in a different setting gave students perspective on the real applications of the work, but it was done in a way that students enjoyed and looked forward to as an alternative form of learning. Physics teacher David Vinci speaks to his own experiences going on the trip with his physics students: “I went to college for engineering so applications of what we do are super important to me... [at Six Flags,] you do see real world applications.” To him, it was a crucial way to culminate the topics on the curriculum in an understandable and fun fashion. Roth proclaim that it’s “always important to take the time to do enjoyable things and reward yourself for working hard,” as the students of LM so characteristically do. With local policies allowing masks to be optional and global discoveries enabling people to be safer, COVID-19 is no longer as prominent of a limiting factor in our lives. Students and teachers alike are eager to resume the unique learning experiences valued at LM, but barriers of health, transportation, and administrative oversight have made field trips seemingly a thing of the past.