Volume 5 Issue 2

The Lodge St. George’s Independent School | Collierville, TN | 4.14.22 | 5.2

what does privilege even mean, anyway?

L Editor-in-Chief Madeline Sisk

Deputy Editor-in-Chief Alanna Murphy

Photography Editor Jack Seigerman Arts Editor

Caroline Higley Design Editor Lauren Shang

Social Media Editor Ellie Christie

Copy Editor Anna Schmiedicke Staff

Trinity Cannon Natalie Howard Erin Johnson Sienna Lightman Ally Martin Peyton Monroe Mary Beth Skelton Seth Taub Bess White Advisor Dr. Margaret Robertson

Cover photography and design by Erin Johnson and Jack Seigerman

About Us: The Lodge and gryphonlodge.com are dedicated to serving as an impartial and authentic voice for the students of St. George’s Independent School. We at the Lodge strive to be an open forum for student expression, to act in the best interests of the student body and to embody the principles of journalistic excellence. The Lodge is affiliated with the Tennessee High School Press Association and the National Scholastic Press Association. The Lodge is funded by advertisers, donors and St. George’s Independent School and is published by schoolprinting.com. The Lodge prints and distributes 250 copies of each issue to 600 students and faculty on the St. George’s Collierville campus. Bylines indicate the primary writer(s) of each article, and additional contributors are indicated in the shirttail. All of our content is created by our staff unless otherwise clearly stated. The Lodge provides free advertising for student clubs, events and activities and paid advertisements for local businesses. The Lodge welcomes letters to the editor and article submissions. To submit a letter, article or request for advertising, email our staff at thelodge@sgis.org.

News

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Accept the challenge

Features

06

What does privilege even mean, anyway?

08

Privilege and prayer

09

Shades of privilege

10

Out of place

11 16

Tipping the scales Men at work

Sports

12

20

Leveling the playing field

11 09

Opinion

20 21

Uniforms All these emails

22

Dress to express

23

Protect our right to read

St. George’s Independent School

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1880 Wolf River Blvd. Collierville, Tenn. 38017

ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE It’s been year to grow for the robotics program

By Sienna Lightman

S

loan Carruth was exuberant.

“When all the awards were announced, I was with friends and started jumping around and freaking out,” she said.

It was May 2021, and Carruth had just found out she won the first VEX Robotics World Championship award that St. George’s has ever received. She was an eighth-grader at the time and is now a freshman.

“They called out my team number first, and I had memorized it. It was like utter disbelief,” she said. “After you work so hard on something for so long, for all of it to pay off is just the best feeling in the world.”

Competing on Zoom was a totally different experience for Carruth.

“I Zoomed in from my house, and I had all my [robotics] stuff,” she said. “It was a really cool way to do it because it really connects a lot of people. I had people in my division from Shanghai.”

Carruth went through several

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rounds and interviews.

First, she had to qualify for the Tennessee state competition to get into the Vex Robotics World Championship. Only then could she compete in different divisions and have the opportunity to win awards. Carruth ended up winning an award that honors the team whose robot “incorporates the most creative engineering design solution to the challenges of this season’s game.”

“I did autonomous runs, and I won an award for the design of my robot,” Carruth said. “I got the Create Award, which is basically the most creative robot in your division, how you put it together and what type of functions it’s able to complete.”

Autonomous runs are when the robot only relies on the code that has been programmed into it to move.

This was a huge accomplishment, both for Carruth and the robotics program.

According to Ms. Crista Smothers, middle and high school robotics teacher, the program faced a lack of local tournaments during the pandemic.

“COVID has been a challenge for doing robots,” Ms. Smothers

said.

Because of this, Ms. Smothers has viewed this year as a time to grow the program.

“I’m really letting it be a learning year,” said Ms. Smothers.

“The students who haven’t been able to do the metal robots yet will know how to build them, how to program them and how to work together with other students and communicate.”

However, for new students, there is still a helpful program of mentors, with many students continuing robotics from previous years.

Senior Isaiah Lewis began robotics in seventh grade and has been doing it since. He believes that robotics will be helpful in reaching his future goals.

“I want to be a mechanical engineer, ideally, so it’s nice to have tactile building,” said Lewis.

“It’s good training for that kind of work, and a big thing of that is problem-solving.”

Ms. Smothers said that robotics can prepare students for future jobs, college and real-life experiences.

“You fix one problem, and there’s another problem that comes up, so dealing with frustration and dealing with a plan to see if there are any problems. No matter if they want to be an engineer, business major or biologist, those are things that I want them to learn,” she said.

The key to learning those lessons for robotics students is the challenges that come from VEX Robotics. Every year, students are challenged to develop a robot to be able to successfully beat a

challenge.

This year, there are game pieces that the robots must pick up and put on mobile goals to earn points.

More points come from getting the mobile goals and robots balanced on a see-saw.

Challenges like this have encouraged students like freshman Griffin Davis to develop creative thinking skills. Davis started doing robotics in eighth grade and has continued the program in high school. He noted the difficulties robotics brings.

“The biggest challenge of building a robot is making sure every little thing is in the right place,” Davis said, “one screw or one wrong pole can mess up everything. You constantly have to double-check to make sure everything is right.”

Because of how tough and complex robotics can be, Ms. Smothers only asks a few things from her students.

“I think the biggest thing I want is teamwork, to communicate their ideas with each other, to solve a technical issue and learn how to problem-solve,” said Ms. Smothers. “I’m also trying to build people’s confidence. I’ve got a lot of students who maybe don’t feel comfortable in certain areas, but in this, they can.”

Robot Design and Brainstorming

Fresh man Griff in Davis works on his robot. Every ye ar, robots must be built to complet e a different challen ge.

Ph oto : Ja ck Sei ger

man

al for their ut saw met do Ri . r le Ty t’s purpose ne and ins, Travis La se to work for the robo sk A r ke al W Seniors t be pre ci rements mus robot. Measu Ph oto: Ja ck

Sloan Carruth holds her robot and Vex Robotics Think Award. Caurruth recieved the Think Award at theVEX Robotics World Championship in 2021.

Photo : Paige Carruth

Seigerman

Goal: Crush the Competition!!!

Sports | 17 Features ||55 News

what does privilege even mean, anyway?

Good question: It’s complicated and controversial

By Anna Schmiedicke

T

he National Association of School Psychologists defines privilege as “one group [having] something of value that is denied to others simply because of group membership and not based on what a person or group has done or failed to do.”

Privilege is a controversial topic.

In recent months, multiple states have passed bills banning the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) — which holds that “racism is inherent in the law and legal institutions of the United States,” according to Encyclopedia Bri-

tannica — in public schools, a teacher in Tennessee was recently fired for discussing white privilege in his classroom without providing opposing points of view.

Those who defend use of the term privilege argue that, by discussing ways in which certain groups are treated differently, we can work towards a more equitable society.

But, hearing that your life isn’t as difficult as someone else’s because of this thing you weren’t even aware of can be a jarring statement on the best of days, and feel like a direct personal attack on the worst.

People rarely have control over the privilege they receive. Our lives aren’t made instantly easier, a massive weight isn’t lifted from our shoulders and our struggles are no less valid because we may benefit from certain aspects of society.

What constitutes privilege varies widely from place to place.

A practicing Christian may not feel very isolated living in a predominantly Christian community, but drop them in the Is-

lamic Republic of Pakistan where Christians make up less than 2% of the population and that’s likely to change.

And there are many different kinds of privilege, all of which intersect in different ways.

For example, I am a white woman. I wouldn’t have the exact same experiences as a white man, just as I wouldn’t have the same experiences as a woman who wasn’t white.

I benefit from certain categories of privilege because of my race, but that doesn’t mean my life is without challenges or suffering. 45 of the 46 presidents of the United States have been the same race as me, but none have been my gender. My membership in certain groups — and not things I have done — both limits and expands my experiences and opportunities.

Determining what is and isn’t privilege, and where this privilege comes from, has raised hackles across the board. More than anything else, this conflict has developed from a misunderstanding of the complex definition of privilege. It’s anything but a one-dimensional issue, and that can be difficult to grasp.

Some may argue that discussing privilege does more harm than good. They say that — by bringing attention to inequalities — they are only being amplified instead of properly addressed.

But, if we approach conversations about privilege — even if we don’t like the term — with an open mind and

willingness to be uncomfortable, we can better understand others’ experiences.

That’s what this section is about.

It’s difficult to decide on a few aspects of privilege to discuss, and there are bound to be things that don’t readily assign themselves to a specific category. With that being said, there are a select few dimensions of privilege that we’ve made the decision to highlight in the pages that follow: race, religion, sexuality and economic status.

In no way do those four encompass the entirety of privilege as a concept, but they all are deserving of conversation in their own right.

Religious privilege can have a multitude of different definitions depending on who you ask, but being part of the religious majority in a community can have advantages, as we see in “Prayers and privilege.”

Racial privilege is determined by the way someone identifies themselves and is perceived by the people surrounding them. Personal biases — whether conscious or not — can change the way someone is treated based on their race, as we see in “Shades of privilege.”.

Gender privilege can greatly impact the ease with which someone navigates life. Being denied things of value — like marriage rights or familial acceptance — due to membership in a minority group presents a host of challenges, as “Out of place shows.’

Economic privilege determines everything from the clothes someone wears to the amount of debt they’re expected to take on, as we se ein “Tipping the scales.”

Like it or not, conversations about privilege are at the center of everything we do, today more than ever.

Features | 7

Prayers and privilege

By Seth Taub

S

t. George’s is an Episcopal school that declares an “uncommon commitment to inclusion, in an atmosphere that welcomes families of any faith,” and is dedicated “to something stronger than mere tolerance – instilling, instead, a heartfelt respect for differences in thought and belief.”

According to the data collected from families when students enroll for the first time, 46.5% of the St. George’s community identifies as Christian (50% of families choose not to answer this question.).

These numbers differ from regional statistics. According to Pew Research Center, 76% of adults in the South are Christian. This is higher than the percentage of Christians in the United States as a whole, which sits at 70%.

Alternatively, 3.5% of first-time enrolling families indicate something other than Christianity. So while many families at St. George’s are Christian, some are not.

According to Wikipedia, Christian privilege is a social advantage

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that is bestowed upon Christians in any historically Christian society like the United States. This arises out of the presumption that Christian belief is a social norm, which can lead to the marginalization of the nonreligious and members of other religions through institutional religious discrimination or religious persecution.

The dominance of Christianity means people sometimes assume others are part of the norm. Junior Aiden Curry, who is agnostic, thinks that living in the South causes people to make assumptions about his religion.

“I think most people would assume that I’m a Christian person,” Curry said. “I think most people would just assume anyone’s Christian, going to this school or just living [in the South].”

Taking a world religon class, as all St. George’s students in the upper school are required to do, can help increase awareness of other beliefs. In this class stdents “cover the historical origins, development, thought, and practices of the

world’s major religions,” according to the St. George’s website.

Associate Rabbi Bess Wholner of Temple Israel in Memphis worries that when people do not learn about other religions, terrible situations can arise, like the Colleyville Synagogue hostage crisis earlier this year, when a man took four people, including a rabbi, hostage.

“We even saw that, with Colleyville, someone believing that Jews were so connected that some random Rabbi could get someone freed from federal prison because Jews control the world,” Rabbi Wohlner said.

Rabbi Wholner said that it is hard for others to understand what is harmful to say when they do not see a problem with their words.

“Things people believe about Jews are often anti-Semitic, which is as old as Jews have been around, and I think that it’s dangerous in a way that other people don’t always understand,” Rabbi Wholner said.

The problem extends to other faiths as well.

When Mr. Taylor Cao, direc-

tor of student life, was younger, he practiced Buddhism. Other children would call him slurs and frequently ask him uninformed, insensitive questions.

“People always had questions, they were always like ‘what’s a Buddhist?’, ‘what do you believe in?’, ‘is this just some big guy who sits all the time and meditates?’” said Mr. Cao. “I was a child and didn’t really understand the full context of it all.”

Mr. Cao believes that the St. George’s community is open to having conversations about religion. He said he trusts that this community is one that has the capacity to learn about other people.

“I do appreciate that we are at a school where we can have conversations like this,” said Mr. Cao. “We have teachers and faculty and leaders and students who are like, ‘I kinda wanna learn a little bit more’.”

Shades of privilege

By Erin Johnson

T

hink about the last time you went to a history class, or read a book, or even watched a movie. Chances are, you saw faces that looked like yours–if you’re in the racial majority, that is.

For those who belong to a racial minority, however, this isn’t always the case.

For instance, a UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report from 2019 reported that seven out of 10 lead actors were white.

This isn’t just a problem in Hollywood but in all forms of media, even kids’ books.

Multicultural content in the past 24 years only makes up about 13% of children’s literature, and of that, only around 7% were written by people of color, according to research by Lee & Low Publishing Company.

That lack of representation of people of color can have some unexpected effects.

Last December, Chidiebere Ibe, a Nigerian medical illustrator, went viral on Twitter with an illustration that featured a fetus with Black skin. It was the first time that many people realized they had never seen a drawing of a fetus with anything other than white skin.

The ability to walk into a classroom, look at a textbook and see people who share the color of your skin is a privilege that some in the majority may take for granted.

And it’s one that can have unintended effects, such as feelings of inferiority and insecurity.

Representation is only one form of racial privilege, however.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “white privilege is the set of social and economic advantages that white people have by virtue of their race in a culture characterized by racial inequality.”

Historically, people of color have faced issues with housing and employment discrimination in the United States, for instance.

Everyone should know that it’s wrong to discriminate against others solely based on their race, but people have biases that they may not be aware of.

Because of this, the discrimination sometimes goes unnoticed.

People of color often report feeling pressured to present themselves in such a way that won’t make their race look bad because they are perceived as representatives of their race.

This was made especially clear to Dr. Gwen Alexander, upper school biology and anatomy and physiology teacher, while she

was attending the University of Wisconsin, a predominantly white institution.

“Going to Wisconsin, it was definitely a culture adjustment, in the classroom, worse even in my department. I was the only person that looked like me,” she said.

“Now, granted, there were other students of color, I will say that, but being the only person that looked like me, I’ve had professors who had never taught someone that looked like me.” She said she had, “One professor in particular, [a] female white professor, who said to me one day: ‘how does it feel to be the poster child?’”

“I don’t think she was trying to beat around the bush because she knew all eyes were on me,” she said. “I stuck out. There was no blending in for me at Wisconsin.”

Unlike the University of Wisconsin—whose people of color population makes up around 17.5% of the enrolled student population, people of color enrolled at St. George’s make up roughly 36% of the student body.

St. George’s states in its mission statement that the community welcomes and respects all racial and ethnic backgrounds. They affirm differences as sources of strength that create a culture of transformative diversity.

Because St. George’s is a more intentionally diverse institution, freshman Jade Olende said doesn’t feel singled out.

“I feel like even the students, most of the time, are pretty respectful and helpful, so honestly I can’t really say that I’ve experienced, or seen anybody else experience a disadvantage,” she said.

“I think the school offers an equal opportunity to all races for a better education,” she said. “I don’t feel like there are any hold backs, just because you’re black, white, or asian, or anything.”

While this is true, that doesn’t mean there aren’t places to improve as well.

Senior Karsen Ryan said she would like to learn more about all aspects of African American history in her classes, not just the negatives.

“I mean there’s [an African American history] class, I take the class, but there’s only four kids in it, and they’re all Black so it doesn’t really help other people learn about it,” she said.

One way to do this would be learning more about the history of the different minorities in not just our school community, but in our city as well.

Features | 9

Out of place

By Ellie Christie

L

esbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, genderfluid, nonbinary: the terms for people who don’t identify as heterosexual can get confusing.

Even if we know these terms, it’s tough to understand the experience from the outside. So what is privilege, or lack thereof, like for the LGBTQ+ community?

A junior who is choosing to go by the nickname Dodo to protect their identitiy is genderfluid, which means their gender identity varies (as do their pronouns. For the sake of this story we’ll use they/them). Some days they feel strongly masculine, some days they feel strongly feminine, and some days are neither or both.

Genderfluid is one of many identities that fall under the transgender umbrella, which consists of identities that don’t align with the gender someone was assigned at birth.

People who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth (sometimes called cisgender) don’t typically have to worry about risks when it comes to their gender presentation, but transgender people have to put thought into how they want to look versus what is possible and/or safe. Drawing attention to their gender by presenting differently than usual creates a risk of being outed, or having their identities known, which could lead to discrimination.

The considerations that go into gender for transgender people can also lead to complicated feelings about identity.

“I sometimes wish to not be the person I am,” Dodo said. “Because I just want to be normal and accepted. And I feel like [who I am]

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makes me not normal.”

A 2020 study published by the Journal of Adolescent Health found that transgender youth who experience discrimination based on their gender identity had more than double the odds of attempting suicide compared to those who did not experience discrimination based on their gender identity.

For transgender people, gender presentation plays a big role in comfort as well as safety. Even being able to appear more masculine or more feminine depending on one’s identity is a privilege of its own. Dodo said that they consider how others will react when they decide how to dress.

“I don’t know… if [other students] would talk behind my back and say some rude or mean stuff about it,” they said. “It would be easier [to vary gender presentation], but I feel more protected always presenting as feminine.”

Safety is a significant concern for many LGBTQ+ people. An invalidating environment can feel dangerous or at least very uncomfortable.

One freshman who spoke to the Lodge anonymously because they are not fully out to their family, explained that they hear “slur usage, at [them] or behind [their] back” at school that they usually don’t speak up about.

“I don’t want to get labeled as like, ‘Oh, these crazy queer people.

They’re always so angry all the time,’” they said. “But… there’s some things that have been said to me that are just really, really hurtful.”

Sophomore Elijah Palmer, who identifies as bisexual, agreed that sometimes students say things they shouldn’t.

“I take nothing seriously, except when it comes down to race, sexuality, that type of stuff. And people just joke around with it too much,” he said.

He said he feels that people who belong to racial or sexual majorities say careless things because it isn’t personal for them.

“Their identity doesn’t match with it, so they don’t have reason to feel anything about it,” he said.

The LGBTQ+ community is an intersectional one, counting many races, religions, and socioeconomic statuses among its members.

Different identities face different struggles.

Because it’s not only sexuality that gives some people privilege and others not. Even in the LGBTQ+ community, things are harder for people of color.

According to the Trevor Project’s 2021 National Survey, LGBTQ+ people of color report higher rates of suicide risk than white people, especially Black transgender youth with 59% seriously considering suicide and 26% attempting it.

Youth who identify under the transgender umbrella are more likely to experience depression and consider and/or attempt suicide than cisgender youth, including those who identify as LGBTQ+.

Bisexual youth report more bullying, sexual assault, physical harm and feelings of depression than youth attracted to one gender, according to the CDC’s 2015-2017 Youth Risk Behavior Surveys.

Acceptance is a privilege that can save lives— the Trevor Project’s 2020 National Survey on LGBT Youth Mental Health shows that LGBTQ+ youth who have even one space of affirmation and acceptance are 35% less

likely to report a suicide attempt.

Supportive schools and peers can play a huge role in this, helping ease anxiety and depression even if someone’s family will not support them.

School is potentially a safe space for LGBTQ+ teenagers under the right conditions. The essentials are educated and open-minded teachers, rules regarding bullying and harassment that are continuously enforced and clubs that provide opportunities for LGBTQ+ students to talk openly about their experiences.

The anonymous freshman said that they would like to see more of these opportunities beyond MySpace Alliance, a St. George’s club that serves as a safe space for people to discuss various social justice issues.

“I just feel like our school community needs to understand that queer people are here, we want to talk about it,” they said. “I’m seeing all these other schools who are exemplifying a lot more tolerance for queer people” by having groups like queer student unions, which focus on a specific minority demographic.

“I’ve had experiences where people have told me that I talk about it too much,” the freshman told us. “This girl… told me that I talk about it all the time. And that it goes against the Bible and stuff.

And that experience kind of made me talk about it less.”

Gender privilege is a complicated topic. Privilege is something that many of us have in one way if not in others. That’s not something we can control. But learning about others’ struggles can lead to better understanding and equality.

Tipping the scales

By Natalie Howard

T

ennessee has the ninth highest poverty rate in the nation, according to 2021 U.S. Census data. Seventeen percent of families and almost 21% of the Memphis population live below the poverty line.

But according to St. George’s own data, most of our students live in Collierville and Germantown.

Of the top five zip codes represented on our three campuses, three are located within Collierville and Germantown, two of the wealthiest cities in Tennessee.

It would be safe to assume that some of us are experiencing some aspects of class privilege, which the American Counseling Association defines as, “the tangible or intangible unearned advantages enjoyed by someone of higher class status.”

Even those of us who aren’t wealthy enjoy one marker of class privilege: attending an independent school.

But schooling isn’t the only example of privilege. Other forms of class privilege can be buying luxury items without need or worry, having the freedom to waste food or products, or being able to afford to see a doctor and receive healthcare when needed.

St. George’s strives to merge different economic backgrounds, and therefore differing levels of privilege, in its community.

Mr. Will Bladt, associate head of school and current interim athletic director, said that St. George’s is one of the most financially diverse independent schools in the region with “40% of our families receiving some sort of financial aid.”

It offers a campus in Memphis that is funded by a pool of anonymous donors, operates on a separate budget and serves students who would not typically have access to an independent school education for financial reasons. It also provides significant financial aid to students who begin on the Germantown or Collierville campuses.

Our school encompasses so many different backgrounds that people may not always understand one another’s struggles.

People cannot control their economic status. In the same way someone born into poverty does not have a say in their socioeconomic status, someone born into wealth isn’t able to control that either. The ability to sympathize with the living and financial conditions of others can be impaired because of class privilege. But regardless, it’s important to understand each other.

One of the most important things to remember about economic struggle is that it is more common within marginalized groups.

The American Psychology Association says that the relationship between socioeconomic status, race and gender is intimately intertwined.

Some groups are more than twice as likely to experience poverty than the average American, according to USA Today. These groups include women, African Americans, Hispanics and people with disabilities.

They face discrimination, limited work or advancement oppor-

tunities and the effects of generational poverty, all of which make it more likely they will struggle economically.

Being at an economic disadvantage can also impact how well and how long we live.

The ongoing stress and challenges associated with poverty can lead to cumulative health damage, both physical and mental, affect our ability to make healthy choices, impact the affordability of medical care and housing and limit the ability to manage stress.

Access to social support for these issues is also impacted when communities are at an economic disadvantage. When you don’t have the money to get the help you need, you have an increased risk of suffering from anxiety and depression, according to the CDC.

Take our school for example. We go to an independent school in a generally wealthy area. Due to this, we could have a better chance of seeing community resources and therefore have a higher chance of receiving the help we need.

Recognizing the amount of socioeconomic inequality around us may bring us closer to coming up with solutions to these problems.

Country Health Rankings and Roadmaps states that the greatest health improvements are made by emphasizing efforts to support disadvantaged families and neighborhoods. Even small improvements have the potential to have great impacts.

Features | 11

LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD Girls still struggle for equality in sports

12 | Features

By Ally Martin Photography by Sienna Lightman

I

n March of 2021, Sedona Price, a University of Oregon women’s basketball player, posted a video on TikTok to bring awareness to the discrepancy between the men’s and women’s weight rooms at the 2021 National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament. In the clip of the men’s area, the camera pans across expansive lines of rowing machines, power racks, dumbbells, resistance bands, kettlebells, and plates.

So, where was the women’s weight room? The camera showed a single, small weight rack that had 5, 10, 15, and 20 pound weights on it that was pushed into a corner.

At the time, the NCAA responded by saying that there was a lack of equipment for the women’s teams due to space, but the video clearly showed a different story.

Two days later, after public backlash the NCAA finally provided the same accommodations for women that were given to male athletes.

This is only one example of the many situations in which female athletes have received unequal treatment in the athletic world.

The average annual salary of a National Basketball Association player is $6.4 million, but the average annual salary of a Women’s National Basketball Association player is $78,000.

This same salary difference can be seen in other professional sports. One of the biggest differences is between softball and baseball, where women get paid an average of $45,000 and men get paid an average of $4.3 million.

Ms. Mary Lou Johns, St. George’s varsity girls’ golf coach, is familiar with this imbalance from her first-hand experiences as a coach and player. She played basketball and golf, then coached the University of Memphis women’s basketball team for 20 years.

“I mean, I’ve been where I couldn’t get in a gym because the guys [get to practice first],” she said, “so it’s probably going to always be a little like that.”

In an interview with the Lodge in 2017, Coach Johns spoke about her experiences while coaching at

“Boys sports get more support in general and are favored more in the community. But I don’t think it’s just St. George’s.

I think that’s just across the board.”

-Ms. Nikki Davis

University of Memphis.

During her first year, the team had to raise money to buy their own uniforms instead of being provided with them by the school.

To bring awareness to the problem, they bought red uniforms instead of the school’s color, blue.

While some things have changed since then, she still sees boys’ sports getting more attention than girls’.

“Everybody should know what’s going on,” she said, referring to the publicity teams receive. But that’s not always the case. “People are probably going to go to the boys’ [games], it’s just the nature of our society. I’ll bet that on my life.”

It’s a problem Ms. Nikki Davis, director of upper school counseling and head coach of varsity girls’ basketball, has noticed as well.

“Boys’ sports get more support in general and are favored more in the community,” she said. “But I don’t think it’s just at St. George’s.

I think that’s just across the board.

And I would say out of all of the sports, football and boys basketball get the most attention… They’re exciting sports to watch. And they’re the type of sports [where] the dynamics of the game could change at any second… Those sports just traditionally have been more visible to the community and in society.”

She said she thinks the solution

is “more support from the student body, from the community and even from the athletes that are here at the school.”

Alumna Adi Thrasher (class of 2020), who played both basketball and volleyball for the school, said she felt the lack of support for girls’ teams from fans.

“It was mostly the whole social aspect of attending games, especially with women’s basketball versus the men’s basketball games,” she said. “The amount of fans that would show up and cheer you on, it’s like a ten-to-one difference.”

Mr. Will Bladt, associate head of school and the interim athletic director, said he believes fan sup-

port is important.

“We know that our athletes will perform better if the crowd is cheering them on,” he said.

However, he also noticed that there appears to be a higher attendance at boys’ sporting events.

“There seems to be larger crowds for a number of guys’ sports,” he said.

For senior Maya Ibrahim, who plays for both the tennis and volleyball teams, it’s not just the crowds.

She noted the differences between the publicity that her teams received and that received by the football program.

“With the football team, [it’s]

new jerseys and stuff like that,” she said. “I mean, we haven’t gotten new jerseys in a while…When we watched [the football team receive their jerseys in 2020], I mean, they were so excited for it.”

Although Ibrahim didn’t claim to know all the details of team funding, she noticed that when teams start winning, they receive more attention.

“It was more like you have to start winning a lot for them to help accommodate you more,” she said.

She felt this first hand when her volleyball team started winning, which resulted in more support.

“I think after we won state, that started,” she said. “We got t-shirts.

We had a fan bus — we got two fan buses actually — we were only supposed to have one, but we got two.”

But for programs that aren’t winning, getting the support they need can be difficult.

Former varsity softball player, senior Alanna Murphy (full disclosure: Murphy is the deputy editor-in-chief of the Lodge), noticed discrepancies in the equipment and practice areas that her team

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had access to.

“One of the reasons why I didn’t play softball this year was because it felt like everything was working against me,” she said.

“The boys have a big building to do batting practice in, but the girls have a little sixteen-by-eight batting cage behind the field that we would only use if it wasn’t raining. And when it does rain, we would’ve used the gym, which you

can’t really do batting practice in.”

According to the varsity assistant softball coach, Ms. Allison Webb, this has changed this year, with boys and girls splitting time in the indoor facility.

Mr. Bladt said that in his new position as interim athletic director he is taking the initiative to provide each program with what they need to be successful.

“What we’re doing is having

“There seems to be larger crowds for a number of guys’ sports.”

-Mr. Will Bladt

conversations with our coaches, the athletic administrators, and I have an Athletic Advisory Council that I have put together,” he said.

The Athletic Advisory Council consists of Cindy Haddad, the parents’ association athletics liaison, senior Mac Murphy, prefect of athletics, and parents who have children who are involved in athletics at the upper, middle and lower school.

Bladt believes that not having these conversations in the past has been a main factor in the issue of sports not having enough equipment.

“I think the biggest thing that I have seen is that there’s been a lack of conversation to identify what the needs are in an individual sport,” he said.

Girls’ teams also appear to struggle more in finding consistent coaches.

Building up a program is difficult, and having a coach there for a long period of time is essential.

Mr. Tony Whicker has been coaching both varsity boys’ and girls’ soccer since the Collierville campus was founded and said he believes consistent program-building is important for success.

“As [people come] into the program, [they see] something bigger and bigger, and [they think], I want more of this. Right?

I want more of what’s going on here, whatever that intangible thing is,” he said. “It goes back to the surface. It goes back to the players. I mean, they invest so much that you can’t get out, and you don’t want to. You don’t want to, and then the next year you just can’t wait to get there and then it translates into being competitive on the field.”

Ms. Davis, likewise, feels that longevity for coaches matters to the success of a program.

“Actually, the seniors on my team this year are the women that were sixth graders when I first got here,” she said. “So to be able to see women come through my program from when they first started on this campus and hanging in there to the end is really awesome.”

She feels that having been a consistent coach for these girls is crucial to having a strong team, and in turn building bonds that help to keep her program running.

“I think that helps build a legacy, a culture of your program,” she said.

Consistent coaching has been a struggle for girls’ sports, however.

Girls’ lacrosse, girls’ soccer and girls’ softball all lost a coach after the 2020-2021 school year.

For Alanna Murphy this was a challenge.

“It was my first year playing softball, and to have a coach that hasn’t really coached before was a little awkward,” she said. “The main thing is that she didn’t continue coaching. I was only with her one year before she left.”

Similarly, junior Reese Dla-

bach, who plays both soccer and lacrosse, said she noticed the difference a consistent coach can make.

“Every year I’ve played high school lacrosse, we’ve had a different coach,” she said. “So there’s never been a really good opportunity to connect with the people who lead our team and make it feel cohesive.”

Soccer feels very different to her.

“I think what makes the soccer program so good is that the coaches are not only backed by the school community, but are dedicated to being there for the players year-round,” she said.

Looking at our yearbooks over

“Every year I’ve played high school lacrosse we’ve had a different coach.”

-Junior Reese Dlabach

the past three years, the number of coaches for boys’ sports has outpaced the number of coaches for girls’ sports.

In the 2019-20 school year, there were 16 coaches for all girls’ sports, but 23 coaches for boys’ sports.

In the 2020-21 school year, the number was closer: 24 coaches for girls and 26 for boys.

However, that number grew apart once again in the 2021-22 school year with 29 coaches for girls’ sports and 36 for boys’ sports.

“I feel like the school doesn’t always make an effort to put time and effort into making sure that we feel that we have equal opportunity as other sports, men or women,”

Dlabach said. “I think the boys’ [lacrosse] program is just better developed.”

But Dlabach emphasized that she has already noticed growth in this area, and is excited to watch it continue to grow.

“We’re starting to develop a more cohesive environment with opportunities to connect more as a team,” she said. “In the past, it feels like nobody has really taken women’s lacrosse seriously. But now I feel like we are beginning to.”

Features | 15

MENat WORK

Facilities team keeps campus running

By Seth Taub and Mary Beth Skelton Photography by Jack Seigerman, Sienna Lightman and Seth Taub

“6:30am

“6:30am on the roof ” That is what facilities manager Mr. Buzz Walthall texted me, Seth Taub, on Sept. 14 when I asked to interview him about repairs to the upper school building. Just that.

So, that’s what I had to go on when I woke up at 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning, a little confused, severely lacking information and full of questions. Most importantly, how do I get on the roof ?

Not sure how things would go, I tiredly made my way to school, where I was met with an obstacle I didn’t expect.

The gates to the school were locked. I had no way in.

So there I sat in the dark and cold for someone to come along.

Thankfully, someone did. Dr. Marianne Leung, the chair of the history department, arrived around five minutes later and opened the gates for me.

Lesson 1: Dr. Leung gets here really early.

As I waited for Coach Buzz in the student parking lot, I felt nervous. It seemed to be taking forever.

When he arrived, we silently made our way inside the building and went up the stairs by the Welcome Desk.

We entered a doorway to the right of the library. Then, I was met with a door I had never noticed before. He had yet to say much at all. Jokingly, I thought to myself, “I’m going to get kidnapped here.”

Unlocking the mysterious door, Coach Buzz and I stepped onto the roof above the dining hall.

At this point, the sun had risen, and I took in the roof for the first time. It was made of a white rubber material that hurt my eyes to look at.

Lesson 2: Don’t try to stare di-

Mr. Patton takes out boxes of trash. Part of the facilities team’s job is to keep the trash mantained.

16 | Features

rectly at the blindingly white roof for longer than a few seconds.

From there, we headed to a ladder that would take us up to the top of the roof. From the top, I saw the sky and the top of trees.

This is where our story really begins, above it all and behind the scenes.

The facilities crew that works in these spaces puts great effort into keeping the campus in the best condition possible. For Coach Buzz, the biggest priority is safety.

“I think that safety is a big issue,” he said. “A big priority is making sure the buildings are safe, the grounds, the athletic fields are safe, and keeping it clean.”

The facilities staff maintains the campus. They do everything from picking up trash after sporting events to taking care of the pool and sports fields.

Along with the day-to-day maintenance of our campuses,

the facilities team needs to be able to react quickly to emergencies around the campuses. Mr. Chris Benton, the manager of security and transportation for all three campuses, said these problems can come from anywhere.

“We have to deal with electrical problems. Anything can quickly happen,” he said. “In the pool, we will have pipes that leak so we have to quickly get on that. A lot of things require that we get on them pretty quickly so that everyone can continue to enjoy things.”

While Mr. Benton does many things across all campuses, his biggest challenge comes with the upkeep of transportation, as students rely on the buses to be working every day for them to be able to get to school.

“Sometimes having to go in between campuses is dictated by emergencies,” he said. “I have to make sure that the buses are run-

Mr. Logan makes a cutting board. This will be used for cutting on future projects.

anything that’s not stainless steel, aluminum or copper” The dome that encloses the pool is also becoming older.

“I mean [the pool dome] is a unique facility. It’s probably seen better days,” Schultz said. “It’s 20 years old, and I think it was estimated to last around 15 to 20 years, so it’s nearing its life span.”

Lesson 3: Nothing lasts forever.

Mr. Schultz said he feels the facilities team has the support they need from the school.

“Up to this point, every single thing we have asked for we have been able to get,” he said. “The pool has had issues, and St. George’s has been nothing but great in dealing with these issues.”

Mr. Walthall said that he and the other facilities members have a good time working on campus.

“We like what we do. It’s fun,” he said.

Lesson 4: There’s a lot more going on bethind the scenes than we know.

on

ent Patt Br

z

n Schult Da

z Waltha uz

Coach Buzz Walthall is the director of facilities at the Collierville campus. He is also the varsity high school baseball coach and usually focuses on the outdoor part of the campus. You can see Coach Buzz cutting the grass of the sports field, in the workshop at the fieldhouse, or even on the roof!

Mr. Chris Benton is the manager of security and transportation. He works across all of the campuses. A normal morning for him is focusing on getting students to school. After that, he cuts the grass and solves problems that occur throughout the day.

ris Bento h C

n

Mr. Dan Shultz arrives at school at 4:30 am and unlocks the doors to the school, the fieldhouse and the pool. Next, he chooses to focus on chemical work or anything that pops up during his day. Oftentimes when he arrives home, he answers messages from families. During swim seasons, he will be at the pool before and after school.

Mr. Mark Logan’s day revolves around everyone’s needs and wants at St. George’s. Teachers are comfortable with reaching out to him for anything that needs to be fixed. According to the staff, he is very dependable and is seen as “Mr. Fix-It.”

rk Log a

ll

Mr. Brent Patton is a new maintenance associate at St. Georges and serves as an assistant coach for the baseball team. He works to keep the school clean and safe, alongside the other members of the facilities staff.

Ma

n

MEETthe TEAM

Coach Buzz drives back to the workshop. The St. George’s campuses and large, spead out and keep the team busy.

B

ning and get here on time.”

Additionally, as the buses, heaters and buildings get older, they begin to require more attention.

Mr. Benton said this causes its own set of challenges.

The buses are between 9 and 10 years old, and as they age, they become more expensive.

“We are finding out, ironically, that lately, it has been costly,” he said. “We had to do a lot of air conditioning work on both of our buses this past summer, so it can get costly. We just replaced all the tires on all of them.”

The buses aren’t the only parts of the campus starting to show their age. Mr. Dan Shultz, who maintains the aquatics center, has said that the heater for the pool will likely need to be replaced in the near future.

“The heater is maybe 8 years old. It has to be replaced every five to eight years, at least the internal parts,” Shultz said. “It’s just really tough with the chlorine in the pool. [The chlorine] will rust out

Features | 17

Uniforms = ease + affordability

DO THE MATH 18 | Opinion

By Bess White

W

hen I open the door to my color-coded closet, there’s one part that’s bigger than everything else: the black pants section. Over the years, I’ve bought dozens of black skinny jeans just for school, but I don’t think they’ve ever seen the light of day outside of it. Looking back, I feel frustrated.

During my time at St. George’s, I’ve probably spent thousands of dollars on clothes that aren’t even my style to fit our dress code. If we’re already spending all this money on clothes for school, why not just spend it on a uniform?

Uniforms are something I’ve always wanted, and I wish it would have come sooner. I’m very much aware that this is not the most popular opinion, so let me explain.

A uniform is simply cheaper.

According to Dean of Students Ms. Leanne Ricketson, the uniform package will be priced at $200-250. My favorite pair of Levi’s black skinny jeans is listed at $89.50, and since I own multiple pairs…well, you can do the math.

Although a uniform still does require spending money, it’s nowhere near as much as regular clothes, and you can simply sell

it right after you graduate. Some people can’t afford dozens of clothes just to fit the dress code.

Not only are uniforms cost efficient, but they also make things easier and faster.

Every morning, I try on multiple different outfits before finding the right one. Some days, I spend so long trying on outfits in the mirror that I end up late.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been into fashion. My friends frequently come to me for fashion advice and people are always complimenting what I wear. But our dress code doesn’t go hand-in -hand with my style, and it frustrates me not to feel like myself.

Although sometimes I can show up in an outfit I really like and am confident in, that’s often not the case.

Most days I end up in a uniform skirt and sweatshirt. Although this may not exactly express my sense of style, it’s easy, efficient, and saves me lots of time and energy This is the same reality for a lot of other people, which means for a large percentage of us, things won’t change much.

But this option isn’t for everybody, and sometimes things can get awkward.

While people like me already show up in some version of a uniform, others treat the halls like their personal catwalk.

Seeing other girls dressed up when I’m not makes me feel insecure, and I find myself wishing we all just looked the same.

So while I feel good on days I’m dressed up, I often feel bad about myself when I’m not.

Although a lot of people have worries about individuality being decreased with uniforms, there’s still many ways to express it.

Jewelry, shoes, hair and makeup often say just as much as your clothes.

In fact, these things paired with a uniform skirt and sweatshirt often express my individuality much more than an outfit I’ve thrown on just to fit dress code.

Uniforms give students the opportunity to not have to worry about what they’re wearing or how they’ll look, but rather allow them to focus on their studies, which is what they’re here for.

They also create a more efficient and simple environment, overall making things easier.

So although uniforms have their flaws, there’s one thing they will always be: practical.

OPINION POLICY: The Lodge opinion section is a venue for the free expression of student views at St. George’s Independent School. The opinions represented in this section are those of the authors alone and do not nessesarily reflect those of the Lodge staff or of the St. George’s community at large. The Lodge strives to be an open forum for the thoughtful and deliberate exchange of comment and criticism and therefore welcomes letters to the editor. Letters to the editor will be printed in the opinion section of the newspaper, should not exceed 300 words and must be signed and accompanied by a verifiable email address. These letters will not be printed if the content is judged obscene, violates the privacy of others or encourages physical disruption of school activities. Disagree with something our writers said here? You can comment online at gryphonlodge.com.

Subtracting yourself

W

hen Katy Perry said, “you change your mind like a girl changes clothes,” I don’t think she was talking about St. George’s but, oh boy, does that apply now.

Call it dramatic but the amount of whiplash St. George’s experiences with dress code is overwhelming and now, we have to wear a uniform. No one saw it coming.

First of all, there’s obviously some great perks to school uniforms: fewer fights over whose outfit is the dopest or saving time from having to choose between all my cute tops. These reasons may make uniforms seem like the most practical choice.

But what’s the cost? What do we trade for uniforms?

I’m so glad you asked: our individuality. My problem with St. George’s adopting uniforms isn’t only how it limits personal freedom. My problem lies in what school uniforms represent: standardization.

Not having uniforms made St. George’s different.

It’s what drove me to come to St. George’s for my junior year.

The idea of this independent school being different from my previous experience in a polo and plaid skirt made me excited. Now, I’m conflicted.

If you standardize kids, making them look like everyone else, instantly everyone becomes no one.

One of St. George’s missions is to encourage, “the development of individual character,” thus making our school, “a place for explora-

tion and learning about others and oneself.”

If that’s the case, uniforms seem out of character for St. George’s.

How can our school, a place encouraging students to think critically and stand out from the crowd, turn around and throw kids in designated outfits that are out of touch with the real world?

St. George’s actually gives out an award named after two of the most famous nonconformists in history: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. This award is for students that “demonstrate a commitment to discipline and personal growth.” I doubt that Emerson and Thoreau would be content with a uniform.

If you want kids to actually enjoy a school day, no matter how hard the lessons might be, a great start would be letting us wear clothes that we’re happy in.

School is already rigid enough.

We already can’t even keep our phones on us, and there’s a multitude of things we aren’t allowed to have until senior year.

I came to school to learn, and nothing about my sweaters or tennis shoes is going to prevent that.

Studies show that uniforms may be more likely to get students to make it to school each day and graduate on time, but it doesn’t guarantee they’ll go from making C’s to the honor roll. Research has shown that math scores among middle and high school students increased by less than 0.01% after uniforms were adopted, while reading scores actually dropped by roughly the same amount.

I don’t understand how being

required to wear a plaid skirt or khaki pants is going to improve my education. At the very least, it’s just uncomfortable. I can guarantee you that wearing a sweatshirt would keep me focused rather than an itchy blazer.

Not only is our comfort at stake, but there’s a financial strain to having a uniform as well.

Having to buy a uniform that would cost more than what you usually wear can become a burden after awhile.

CostHelper Education reports that a full uniform outfit can cost from $25 to $200 depending on the school and retailer, with a full wardrobe of uniforms ranging from $100 to $600 for four or five mix-and-match outfits.

Families that are at a financial disadvantage and cannot afford to purchase a $600 set of uniforms for the year.

“Nevermind the appropriate clothes you have in your closet.

Buy these instead! $100 each to look the exact same!” See how weird that sounds? Not only does this upset students, but parents could also begin to feel annoyed at having to spend more money than they need to.

Uniform or not, we have a good sense of how to dress respectfully in the classroom. If St. George’s truly wants individuality in our school, keeping a steady dress code is a way to do that. Instead of requiring us to wear something, tell us what we are limited to wearing but allow us flexibility.

NO LIMITS

By Natalie Howard

Opinion | 19

Gmail

Compose

Search Mail

New Message

Inbox

To

St. George’s Independent School

Starred

Subject

Re: All these emails

Cc Bcc

Snoozed Dear St. George’s,

Important Sent Drafts Categories More

I

hope this message finds you well. In fact, I hope it finds you at all. The number of emails flooding our inboxes each day makes it nearly impossible to read all of them.

As St. George’s students, we are expected to read all of our emails, but I, for one, find it difficult to differentiate the important emails from the unimportant ones when there are so many flooding into my inbox. In one standout week, I received 36 emails from the school staff, teachers and administrators. Of those, only six actually related to me.

The rest of those emails related to topics that either don’t interest me or don’t apply to me at all like clubs I don’t belong to, sports I don’t play and the endless lost item emails (we get one of these on average every 1.75 days. I did the math). I’ve got news for you: if you lost a pair of white airpods, indistinguishable from everyone else’s, it’s hopeless.

On Jan.16, I, along with the rest of the school, received an email regarding the varsity boy’s locker room. I wasn’t there. Neither was the female population of the school (which is nearly 50% of all the students). In truth, that email was meant for such a specific group of people that it is truly baffling as to why it was sent to the entire school. However, this problem isn’t a one time thing. Time and time again, there are emails where the person who sent it was clearly just lazy and sent it to the entire school. Nearly half of my inbox is taken up with emails that don’t have anything to do with me, and while I’m glad that I was notified about a sports meeting taking place a week from now, is it necessary to receive more emails on the matter later? I didn’t reply to the first email, so why would you think I’m interested?

And then there are the reply alls. Oh, the near endless reply alls. For the congratulations emails specifically, I don’t intend this to nullify the message: I fully support and congratulate all of the St. George’s students who are doing amazing things. However, the students and faculty that reply to the email to congratulate the student(s) in question do not have to send that email to that entire school. It would make more sense to congratulate that student individually by sending them a personal email.

It would make more sense to send emails that ask students to respond if they are interested in receiving emails on specific subjects. Getting emails that don’t relate to me, along with the already plentiful emails from colleges, results in a swamped inbox for us students to check everyday.

There is a simple solution to our email troubles: figure out who is interested in your emails, then send all further information to only those people. It is very easy to create groups to send emails to. Also, just shorten emails, make them easy to read and straight to the point. Mr. Gibson does a great job of this when we have a snow day, only using 1-2 lines to inform us we don’t have school.

Staff and students alike should be more considerate towards the frequency of emails we receive.

Sincerely, Jack Seigerman

20 | Opinion

browse items by Ellie Christie

Dress to express

S

o uniforms are happening, huh? Everyone’s got an opinion on that, in one direction or the other.

It’s a big deal! How you dress is a huge part of your identity, after all. Maybe you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but if you’re designing a cover for your own book, you oughta make it good.

In case it isn’t obvious, this is a metaphor. The book is you.

“You” is all of the adolescents reading this, and maybe some of the adults, too. Though most adults have already settled on how they’d like to look, teenagers usually still don’t know, and we gotta experiment with our appearances until we do. At this point in life, we’re still figuring out our own identities, and the flesh prisons we inhabit are a pretty large part of that.

Even if we get stuck wearing uniforms that we perhaps would never choose for ourselves, we can (and should) still do what we want with the rest of our body. There’s a lot involved in a human appearance. Hair, clothing, makeup, jewelry, tattoos, everything. There’s a lot we can do with it!

If you’re me, you cut your own hair and wear big stupid handmade earrings and also maybe give yourself some tattoos. (I absolutely do not condone y’all doing the third, and you are not allowed to say I do. I am not the prime example of wise choices.)

But choices, wise or unwise, are a freedom we all deserve when it comes to our looks. Cut or dye or shave your hair, because it’ll grow back. Wear whatever you want—we’re all just trying to avoid a public nudity charge. Put on mascara and lip gloss or giant scary eyeliner if you feel like it. It all washes off. Pierce something. It will close up if you really change your mind.

Perhaps think awhile before you opt for a tattoo, but the idea that they have to be super deep and profound and sentimental and meaningful is stupid. Maybe the meaning is that it looks rad! It’s your skin, not your grandma’s. Your opinion is the only one that counts.

You’re totally allowed to present yourself in a way that your parents think you should, or in a way your grandparents approve of, or however your friends do. But that’s for you to decide. You’re not obligated to conform or fit in! Don’t let anybody else determine what you do with your appearance. Everyone has their own.

I hope this doesn’t seem like I’m saying that looks are more important than kindness or humor or intelligence or determination or anything, because that’s completely not true, I will never say that, and if I do then please contact the FBI because somebody’s holding me hostage and making me say it.

What I’m saying is that good looks are subjective. Whatever “good” is for you, as an individual, is what you should strive for. It’s your body! You’re the one who’s gotta live in it from start to finish. Nobody has to like it except you, and you deserve to love it, so make it look how you want. And take good care of it too.

No point in decorating a house if you’re gonna burn it down.

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account Opinion | 21

Protect our right to read

By Anna Schmiedicke

O

n Jan. 10, a school board in Tennessee voted unanimously to remove “Maus”

by Art Spiegelman — a Pulitzer-Prize winning graphic novel about the Holocaust — from their eighth-grade curriculum. The book was deemed “too adult-oriented” in an official statement released by the McMinn County Board of Education following public backlash due to the decision.

Why do people care so much?

What makes this book special enough to win a Pulitzer Prize and also be pulled from schools?

“Maus” follows the true story of Spiegelman’s parents during World War II and their time in concentration camps. It’s been widely praised by critics and readers alike, with over 150,000 votes and a 4.5 star rating on popular book-reviewing site Goodreads.

Taking a scroll through the thousands of reviews posted on the site will show you exactly why people love this book so much — enough for it to have shot to the top of Amazon charts when news of its removal made headlines.

Readers rave about “Maus” for myriad reasons, but most notably the clever metaphors embedded in Spiegelman’s portrayal of Nazis as

22 | Opinion

cats and Jews as mice.

The McMinn County Board of Education weren’t fans. Board member Tony Allman went as far as to claim that the book was “enabl[ing] or somewhat promot[ing] this kind of stuff,” with the “stuff” in question being deaths caused in concentration camps and the eventual suicide of Spiegelman’s mother, along with “rough, objectionable language,” according to the official minutes from the Jan. 10 meeting.

This raises all kinds of questions: Is “Maus” “promoting” the Holocaust? Should it be removed from school curriculum?

What about other books that are “adult-oriented”?

Ms. Leah Dorsett, St. George’s librarian of 17 years, doesn’t think so.

“When I went to library school,” she said, “one of the tenets that was taught to us was: if you are comfortable with every single book you have in your collection, you’re not doing it right.”

“There are things in [the St. George’s’] library that make me uncomfortable,” she said, “but they’re there because they serve a purpose.”

For the record, you’ll find “Maus” on the shelves of the middle and upper school library.

“Maus” isn’t the first book to face scrutiny within schools. Far from it, actually.

The recorded practice of literary censorship dates back to Grand Counselor of the Chinese emperor, Li Ssu, ordering a bonfire of books in 213 BC. Historian Lois Mai Chan said that this action was taken because, from a political standpoint, “nonconforming thoughts and ideas must be supressed.”

In 1933, Nazi Germany held a bonfire in which works by prominent Jewish authors were burned for being “un-German,” according to the United States National Holocaust Museum. In the 1960s, American movements set their sights on books like Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” while national fights for civil rights picked up in pace.

In times of revolution, backlash and civil uproar, opposing parties target books that don’t promote the ideas they want promoted.

In the American Library Association’s report on the top 10 most challenged books of 2020, 60% were contested because of their depictions of racism and police violence, and the remaining 40% spoke frequently about gender and sexuality.

According to the ALA’s office for intellectual freedoms, in 2019 of

the groups that initiate challenges 45% are library patrons, 13% are school board members or administration, 15% are political groups, religious groups, or elected officials, 8% are teachers, and only 1% of challengers are students.

The students, the ones being taught, aren’t the people who have a problem. Their parents, administrators and community leaders are the ones who do — the ones who attempt to control the information they can and cannot receive. Two thousand years have passed since Li Ssu and his bonfire, and literary censorship hasn’t gone anywhere.

Ms. Dorsett holds the opinion that it’s the responsibility of the aforementioned library patrons to curate their own literary experience.

“If they’re uncomfortable with something that they find in a textbook, or in a magazine, or in a book from the library,” she said, “then it’s up to them to have a conversation and then come back to me, and I can help them find something else.”

And that, it seems, is the point of all this. Not that some books aren’t vulgar or morally objectionable, because some certainly are, but that readers should be the ones to make the choice of what they read.

“THESE YEARS ARE THE BEST YEARS OF YOUR LIFE!”

By Editorial Board WHAT’S A STAFF EDITORIAL? Editorials represent the opinion of the editorial board and do not nessesarily reflect those of the Lodge staff or of the St. George’s community at large.

The Editorial Board: Madeline Sisk, Alanna Murphy, Ellie Christie, Caroline Higley, Jack Seigerman, Anna Schmiedicke and Lauren Shang.

O

ne thing every teenager hears at least once: “these are the best years of your lives!” So we should enjoy them, right?

Unfortunately, teens across the world have a pretty grim future ahead of them if that’s true. These years are actually really challenging for us.

Every day, we face an endless onslaught of challenges the world throws our way: COVID, war, school shootings, climate change and so many more awful things that teens have to worry about before we even graduate high school.

Sure, most of us don’t have to pay for a home or take care of children or work 40 hours a week, but that doesn’t mean our struggles aren’t valid and difficult.

Social media amplifies these struggles by creating unattainable standards and peer pressure that our young minds are not always developed enough to cope with.

The Social Dilemma, a 2020 Netflix docudrama, explores how AI computers’ only goal is to have people continue swiping on their phones. How can we even begin to combat a constantly developing AI with the sole purpose of keeping us online when we aren’t even fully developed humans? We’re fallible

where the machine is not, and that’s a losing battle.

How are we supposed to win?

According to the CDC, suicide rates among people ages 10-24 have increased almost 50% from 2007-2009 to 2016-2018.

Everyone deserves to attend a school that’s a safe place to learn, grow and be yourself, but for many young people, it can feel like it only judges their worth based on grades, money, looks and popularity. High school can feel can feel superficial. We spend so much time trying to measure up to others that we rarely have the energy to do anything else.

And that’s just high school.

College is difficult to get into and even more expensive to attend, with average tuition costs ranging from ten to forty thousand dollars for just one year. We can’t exactly be blamed for feeling a little bit hopeless now and again.

But rather than wallowing in our self pity, let’s not forget that we don’t have to feel like that all the time. We can find hope in our opportunities, because we actually do have some pretty cool ones.

Our generation has consistently fought for freedom and current issues more than any other. We report problems, and we fight for what’s right. We have a plethora

of music, content and access to people at our fingertips. There’s a near infinite source of information thanks to the internet, so let’s use it.

Still, we need more empathy and understanding from the world around us about our current situation. Teenagers who are anxious or depressed about their futures are often treated as something that needs to be fixed, but sometimes they don’t need help. They just need someone to say that what they’re going through is difficult, and it’s okay to be scared.

So often, we find ourselves being pushed to model our predecessors, and it’s damaging. Let our generation and future ones grow into ourselves healthily. We need love, support and compassion — not doubts and expectations.

Although we’re afraid, we can find ways to enjoy life and keep going. The future is scary, but we’re going to be okay. It’s not that these are the best years, it’s that you can make the best out of them.

CORRECTIONS AND RETRACTIONS: The Lodge strives for accuracy in all articles. However, mistakes are sometimes made. When this happens, you will see corrections here.

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