IS Issue 4

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The Parker Weekly, Page 1

THE PARKER WEEKLY Merry Thanksgiving!

Volume CVIII, Issue 4

PULITZER WINNER AND SOCIAL CRITIC SPEAKS AT PARKER

TWO TRAINS AND A BUS

Author, Social Entrepreneur, TV Producer, and Decorated Veteran Wes Moore Speaks at Parker

DKG and Paglia Present at Humanities Festival

By Avani Kalra

“T

he truest joy and the truest hope that we have as a larger collective society is a society where everybody feels embraced and supported, and prideful of who they are,” Wes Moore said.

Westley “Wes” Watende Omari Moore, a New York Times bestselling author, social entrepreneur, television producer, combat veteran and and CEO of Robin Hood, the most expansive anti-poverty nonprofit in New York City, travelled to Parker on Friday, November 2 to convey this message to Parker’s third through twelfth grades at a Morning Ex. “Whether I’m talking to high school students, college students, or elementary school students, my message is relatively the same,” Moore said. “It is to embrace your power. Understand your power. Never hide your power. You all as young people have a chance to force conversations that people have no choice but to listen to and to act on.

The question then becomes: how will you then use that power.”

When presenting these ideas to the student body, Moore forwent a podium, a presentation, or a microphone. Instead, he opted for an informal interview with Upper School Head Justin Brandon, his childhood best friend.

Brandon opened the MX by reading Moore’s Wikipedia biography to the student body. “I have known Mr. Brandon since third grade, sitting in your exact seats,” Moore said, gesturing to the third and fourth grades, “Hearing him read my bio is actually really funny. I’m enjoying it.”

Brandon believes that Moore is an important person to bring to the student body. “The ideas he stands for, his story, that’s important to share,” Brandon said.

“It’s his experience with dealing with adversity and learning from your mistakes and righting the path when you’re off it completely. There are a lot of students that have struggled or are struggling, and are probably wondering if they’re going to make it out okay. Having him share his story of

Continued on page 19

November 21, 2018

J.B. Prizker Celebrates his win. Photo Courtesy of the Pritzker Campaign.

PARKER PARENT ELECTED GOVENOR OF IL J.B. Pritzker Wins Illinois Governor Race

By Julia Marks

O

n November 6, J.B. Pritzker, a Parker parent, was elected Governor of Illinois and will officially take office in January.

“It’s been so exciting to spend the last year and a half on the road, meeting people in every corner of the state and visiting dozens of countries,” Governor-Elect J.B. Pritzker said by email. “While I’ve spent the campaign listening to voters from Chicago to Cairo and sharing my vision and plans for the state, when I become governor, it’s time to get to work to fix our state’s problems and move Illinois forward.”

“I am so proud of him,” sophomore Teddi Pritzker said of her father. “I think he deserves it more than anyone, and I think it’s really motivating for me being his daughter because I can see as evidence that hard work does pay off.”

According to Principal Dr. Dan Frank, Parker has had many parents who have been elected officials including alderman, state representatives, congressman, state senators, and governors, so it is not unusual for the school. Frank said, “We have many students who have parents that do many things in the public eye, and we just want to be sure that the students themselves can feel that this is their school, and that they can come to school like an other student.”

The Pritzker family has a longstanding history at Parker and has been a part of the school for many generations. According to Frank, Abram Pritzker was on Parker’s board more than half a century ago, when his three sons Jay, Robert, and Donald

Pritzker (J.B.’s father) attended Parker.

The building that includes the Draft Gym, math classrooms, Harris Center, and Kolver Library is named “Jabodon Hall” after Jay, Robert, and Donald Pritzker for donations by the family. Robert Pritzker, graduate of Parker ‘44 gifted the school a fund for visiting scientists to visit Parker annually, known as the “Robert A. Pritzker Visiting Scientist.”

“Both my parents attended Parker and I’m now the parent of a Parker student,” Pritzker said. “The value of a Parker education is evident to me now just as it seemed evident when I would listen to my parents speak of it. My enjoyment as a Parker parent comes from watching my daughter become an even more authentic, effective, responsible, and empathic citizen.”

There is overlap between Pritzker’s campaign and Parker ’s values.“The progressive philosophy of Francis W. Parker around authentic, effective, responsible and empathic citizenship are the values my parents instilled in me and in my brother and sister,” Pritzker said. “My campaign has been centered around lifting up working families and being a servant leader who can bring people together to solve the hard problems we face in Illinois. Fundamentally there is strong alignment between the values I’ve discussed as a candidate, those I’ve carried out through my life thus far, and those espoused by Francis W. Parker.

The decision for Pritzker to run for governor was also affected by a member of the Parker community. Lucy Moog, a

Continued on page 14

H

By Ian Shayne

ours after young students scampered out of the building, numerous senior citizens, armed with books and a fervent passion for the humanities, wrestled for vacant seats in the congested auditorium. They safeguarded their jackets and copies of “Leadership in Turbulent Times” by Doris Kearns Goodwin, and conferred with their spouses. They surveyed the stage as Goodwin advanced to its center with former radio host Alison Cuddy.

Goodwin, a Pulitzer-Prize winning historian, and Camille Paglia, an academic and social critic, separately addressed Chicagoans in the Diane and David B. Heller Auditorium, on Tuesday, October 30.

Goodwin, a scholar of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson, came with the intent of using “her presidents” to provide context for present-day politics and provided the audience with optimistic insight on current political and social affairs.

“There are a lot of young people now, lots of women—more women than ever before— teachers and doctors getting into politics,” Goodwin said. “Maybe that’s a hope in the terrible turmoil we’re living through now: that they will be coming in, not just to assume power, but to want to change the nature of our culture.”

Paglia, who gained national attention for her criticism of the modern feminist movement, delivered a different message about political and social affairs— referencing specific aspects of both.

“Journalism is dead,” Paglia said. “It’s a big stinky corpse in the United States right now.”

Paglia and Goodwin each addressed the change in the American political climate in recent years. “Discussion of politics on TV has become ugly,” Paglia said. “You’re either on one side or the other. Everything is pitched on the shows in terms of opposites.”

Goodwin addressed the translation

Continued on page 19

The Parker Weekly, Page 2

T HE P ARKER W EEKLY

“The Weekly” is supported by an endowment created in memory of Brad Davis ‘98 “Weekly” Staff ‘96-’98, “Weekly” Editor-in-Chief ‘97-’98

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Inside This Issue

staff

Editor-in-Chief Editor-in-Chief Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Online Editor Online Editor News Editor Features Editor Opinions Editor Photo Editor Political Liaison Political Liaison Culture Critic Columnist Columnist Columnist Columnist Illustrator Copy Editor Copy Editor Copy Editor Copy Editor

Sammy Kagan Avani Kalra Sophia Saker Grace Chang Ian Shayne Molly Taylor Ava Stepan Paige Shayne Alex Ori Sarah-Jayne Austin Emma Butler-VanderLinden Natalie Daskal Galia Newberger Lindsay Carlin Oliver Marks Felicia Miller Matthew Turk Christian Navas Lauren Hughes Julia Marks Celia Rattner Nick Skok

The Editorial Board of “The Parker Weekly” consists of the Editors-in-Chief, Managing Editor, News Editor, Features Editor, Opinions Editor, and Online Co-Editors.

writers

WSammy Kagan ‘19 Felicia Miller ‘19 Galia Newberger ‘19 Nathan Satterfield ‘19 Abri Berg ‘20 Lindsay Carlin ‘20 Natalie Daskal ‘20 Jack Laser ‘20 Avani Kalra ‘20 Oliver Marks ‘20 Alex Ori ‘20 Michael Pitts ‘20 Celia Rattner ‘20 Ava Sato ‘20 Ava Stepan ‘20 Ian Shayne ‘20 Paige Shayne ‘20 Ava Stepan ‘20

In Alex Carlin’s Issue 3 article “New Senior Tribute Book,” we mistakenly printed that Senior Grade Heads, rather than Senior Grade Chairs, were in charge of the Senior Tribute Book. “The Weekly” apologizes for this error.

Letter From The Editors Happy Thanksgiving Parker!

Molly Taylor ‘20 Matthew Turk ‘20 Julia Auerbach ‘21 Alex Feitler ‘21 Zach Joseph ‘21 Rosey Limmer ‘21 Julia Marks ‘21 Ava Ori ‘21 Lilly Satterfield ‘21 Alex Schapiro ‘21 Leila Sheridan ‘21 Nick Skok ‘21 Gabe Wrubel ‘21 Jacob Boxerman ‘22 Talia Holceker ‘22 Emma Manley ‘22 Ruby Radis ‘22 Tess Wayland ‘22

contributing faculty

Faculty Advisor

Corrections

Kate Tabor

We hope you’re all still alive after the past few weeks!

Congratulations on making it to the first break of the school year :) Eat some really good food for us this weekend, and don’t forget to catch up on your sleep!

We’ve got some great content in this issue you won’t want to miss.

Make sure you check out Alex Ori’s article about the Young Men of Color Symposium we hosted at Parker this fall and Tess Wayland’s update on the (still) empty Così property across the street.

We’re also excited to announce there is a new way to log-in to the Weekly website with your Parker email––take a look if you haven’t already.

As always, keep an eye out for anything you read that sparks your interest. If you’ve got something to say, write us a Letter to the Editors!

Much love and Happy Turkey Day! Sammy, Avani, and Sophia

Quote of “The Weekly”

“Can we put an angel in the centerfold? ” - Sophia Saker

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The Parker Weekly, Page 3

Letters To The Editors

IN RESPONSE TO “THIS NEEDS TO END” Dear Editors, I am a huge fan of “The Weekly.” I wish more students, faculty, and staff would make use of the “Letters to the Editors” section as a forum, an opportunity, and a teachable moment. Thank you for publishing the editorial and I hope more within our model home will feel comfortable supporting, disagreeing, or providing a different lens with regard to many of the allegations and frustrations that have been presented.

As a school, we have leaders, students, and a curriculum that is supposed to be inclusive and guided by the framers of our education. Our goal is to teach and make use of our city and our world’s current events as our living classroom as we navigate a series of disciplines all suited in preparation for creating graduated, well educated and culturally literate voters. We hire people who believe and share in that mission. Over time, we adjust our mission to “fit the needs of our school.” In time, we have tried to be a more inclusive society with our faculty & staff and within our student body. With that in mind, if we do change the annual senior tradition to “Big Siblings,” our classmates who do not necessarily identify as a sister or brother and remain more fluid, will feel more welcomed in our model democracy. Not all traditions need to remain simply because they existed. In terms of County Fair, we used to have a dunk tank and a petting zoo. The dunk tank is rooted in a horrific history which relates back to the era of Jim Crow; once realized and brought to our attention, we replaced it with a mini-golf course. When it was brought to our attention that petting zoos can be traumatic and go under the category of animal cruelty, they were replaced with therapy dogs.

I would like to invite the editors to have a conversation with me about the last eight years I have co-lead this traditional and annual event, the varied traditions that have come and gone, and the purpose of County Fair, a school wide event that is designed for our entire community, from our youngest students through our eldest member of our extended families. It is supposed to have a theme and a series of events which are safe, inclusive, fun, appropriate and support the mission of our school. You are more than welcome to come by anytime and if you like, the anonymous donor is welcome to join the conversation. I believe in a conversation before a confrontation. I welcome the opportunity to discuss various decisions that have been made in the past and recently to protect the sanctity of our mission, the diversity statement and County Fair.

I also would like to speak with you about what I heard (from students and adults) happened during a discussion in senior grade room. I am deeply troubled by the way in which two of my Parker heroes and mentors were spoken to in a public setting. I am worried that the mannerisms and language used in grade room did not support the mission of our school, especially our diversity statement.

My door is always open (usually during D, G, H, and F periods and universal lunch).

Mr. Bigelow

Have something to say about what was published in this issue of “The Weekly”? Email our Managing Editor at gchang@fwparker.org and write a Letter to the Editors to be published in our next issue!

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Symposiums

PLANTING A SEED AT PARKER

Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity at Parker

By Lilly Satterfield

Seated around a conference table every month for three hours with open minds and the excitement to share and learn from their peers, three different groups of Parker community members meet to further develop their understanding for diversity, equity, and inclusion within the community.

According to its website, the National SEED Project is a “program that creates conversational communities to drive personal, organizational, and societal change toward greater equity and diversity.”

The website adds, “Nearly 2,600 educators, parents, and community leaders from 42 U.S. states and 14 other countries have been trained as SEED leaders by National SEED. The majority of SEED staff members are people of color.”

SEED, more formally known as “Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity,” is a national program that focuses discussing diversity, identity, and equity issues in schools.

In the 2014-2015 school year, Senior Kindergarten teacher Kirkland LaRue brought SEED to Parker teachers and faculty members. After learning about the program, LaRue spoke to Vice Principal Ruth Jurgensen about the idea of bringing it to Parker in different ways. Among teachers and faculty members, LaRue was one of the first facilitators of the SEED program.

“It started out with a small group

In July, SEED Co-Facilitator and Parker Parent Barry Taylor attended the National SEED Project Training in Seattle along with leaders from all over the country. Photo Courtesy of Barry Taylor.

of staff and faculty members who were interested in having conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion,” LaRue said. “Now it is in its fourth year and much bigger than that.” Since then, this program has grown within the walls of Parker to now include two faculty groups and one parent group, with a total of around 40 members.

At Parker, unlike most teacher workshop groups, SEED is completely voluntary.

When commiting to join, teachers were asked to agree to be fully present at the meetings that occur once a month. Eighth

grade english teacher David Fuder has been a member of the SEED faculty group since last school year. He decided to join the group because he felt the topics being talked about were things that would benefit him and his classroom. “When it is voluntary, it is on us,” Fuder said. “We take the initiative to do it because we want to, because we see the value in it and the importance of it for our own growth as educators.”

Last year, Parker teachers and administrators decided to expand the program beyond just staff members and

include parents of the Parker community.

At the start of this program, teachers were working among parents to facilitate these conversations at each monthly meeting. The program ran similarly to those involving staff members only but drew to a larger audience. This school year, the parent program is being run by two Parker parents for the first time.

Currently, The SEED parent group is run by two Parker parents: Barry Taylor, father of junior Molly Taylor and eighth grader Hudson Taylor, as well as Chi Jang Yin, mother of a first grader at Parker.

Taylor and Yin were both approached in the spring of last year and asked if they would be willing to facilitate these conversations. Taylor happily accepted.

“Being a gay man, I have also sort of had personal experiences of issues that come up in SEED about privilege and oppression,” Taylor said.

Taylor works as civil rights attorney.

He has gained experience working with a diverse group of people through his work.

“I have a lot of professional experience with working on diversity issues related to not only people with disabilities, but people of color, and low income,” Taylor said. Taylor believes that this background allows for him to facilitate conversations in a much easier and free flowing manner.

Currently, there are around 25 parent members representing children of different

Continued on page seven

YOUNG MEN OF COLOR SYMPOSIUM Parker Hosts First Annual Conference

By Alex Ori

Despite it being 9:00 a.m. on a Saturday, Parker’s lobby was buzzing. 120 young boys from fifth through twelfth grade were scattered throughout the front hall. Some of them donned white shirts that read, “Name, Define, Create & Speak.” Others came in wearing Patagonias.

On Saturday November 3, young boys, teenagers, and volunteers took part in the Young Men of Color Symposium, hosted at Parker. The symposium was open for “young self-identified men of color, who attend independent schools in the Chicago area,” according to the Parker website.

Over 120 students from different independent schools and volunteers were in attendance, with 16 independent schools represented. In addition to nearby institutions like Latin School of Chicago and Chicago Laboratory School, students from The Blake School flew 600 miles from Minneapolis to attend.

Inspiration sparked after Upper School Head Justin Brandon and Middle and Upper School Director of Studies Sven Carlsson attended a similar symposium last fall, hosted at Riverdale Country School in New York City.

Riverdale’s Director of Hill Campus

Community Engagement and Middle School and Upper School english teacher Dwight Vidale started the symposium ten years ago.

“Through various workshops, we challenge the young men to interrogate both their racial marginalization and their gender identity privilege,” Vidale said.

Brandon remembers leaving the symposium in New York with ideas. “After we experienced it, we said, ‘this is definitely something we should have at Parker,’” Brandon said. Soon after, he reached out to Vidale and suggested they recreate one in Chicago. Later that spring, Vidale flew to Parker and met with Carlsson, members of the Men of Color Heritage Affinity group (MOCHA), and Athletic Director Bobby Starks.

Author and Robin Hood’s Chief Executive Officer Wes Moore kicked off the symposium in the Heller Auditorium.

Moore forwent a podium or slideshow and instead addressed his audience with raw authenticity. To start off, he asked a simple question: “Why are you here?”

Like many of the young men at this conference, Moore was enrolled at a predominately white, independent middle

school in the Bronx. There, “I found myself trying to be a chameleon trying to fit in every where I was,” Moore said. “But if I was never honest with who I was, I was never going to fit in anywhere.”

As Moore walked around on stage, he matched with most of the audience as he wore his “Name, Define, Create & Speak” long sleeve over his button down. He told the crowd never to be apologetic about who they were.

As he finished, he asked the crowd to, “take [your power], use that, and go out there and live a really interesting life.”

After the presentation, students were split up by grade to meet in “group sessions.”

These sessions were led by volunteer facilitators. All facilitators had to take part in a combined six hours of training prior to the program. Members of faculty, such as P.E. teacher Terry Davis, health teacher Dr. Gary Childrey, and eighth grade math teacher and department co-chair Kam Woodard were some of the many Parker faces. In these hour long group sessions, students talked about “what it’s like to be them at their school and community.”

“Part of my hope for the day was to provide a space for young men of color just

to talk and to be,” Brandon said. “Just to be heard and be seen.”

In room 185, 18 fifth through seventh graders were asked to think of words they thought coincided with “man.” As they shared, their words were written on a whiteboard. By the end, the board was covered with characteristics, including “son,” “muscle,” “mature,” and “facial hair.”

They were then asked to add characteristics if the category was changed to “man of color.” New additions included “not respected” and “stereotypes.” A ten year old wearing a Compton hat contributed, “oppressed, with an ‘o!’”

Despite the discussion facilitators being equipped with long scripts, they rarely had to use them. “Vindale told us if you just start with one question you’ll be amazed to see what happens,” Brandon said, “and how students will take ownership of the experience and really get into it––and that’s what happened.”

Vidale remembers his past experience when thinking of the inspiration of the symposium. “I often wished, as a student,

Continued on page 19

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VAMUN

News

Parker Students Travel to Virginia for Model UN Conference

By Celia Rattner

As the fall months come and go and multicolored leaves are replaced with heaps of snow, it’s clear that a new season is underway. The late months of autumn are filled with talk about Parker’s sports teams, particularly boys and girls basketball.

However, the drop in temperature is a sign that another Parker team’s season is fully underway: Model United Nations.

Model United Nations, otherwise known as Model UN or MUN, is a global club in which students simulate the actual United Nations, an international government organization that maintains international cooperation and order. From October 1418, students from Parker’s Model UN team travelled to Virginia for a three-day long conference in Charlottesville.

Hosted by the International Relations Organization at the University of Virginia (UVA) for 38 years, Virginia Model UN (VAMUN) is a premier high school Model UN conference located on the UVA campus and organized by a group of the university’s students. This year’s conference, lasting from November 16-18, was attended by nearly 700 delegates from schools across the country.

“Model UN is a wonderful learning by doing simulation,” Upper School History teacher and faculty co-sponsor of Model UN Jeanne Barr said. “It’s a chance to get students out of their textbooks and off the internet into dialogue with each other.

Parker’s delegation was comprised of 11 Upper School students: two freshmen and nine sophomores. Among these 11 delegates, three received awards based on their performance, including sophomore Sam Meiselman-Ashen, who was awarded “Outstanding Delegate” for his work as a delegate from the United Kingdom in the UNICEF committee.

“I thought really fun to be in a large

delegation with a lot of people,” MeiselmanAshen said. “Most people in my committee were really good, and everybody talked. In pas conferences, that hasn’t been the case so that was really fun. ” Apart from their work in individual committees, delegates were treated to a session with Charles Blaha, the conference’s keynote speaker. Currently, Blaha works as the Director of the Office of Security and Human Rights in the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Prior to his current role, Blaha served as the as Counselor for the Political and Specialized Agencies Section of the U.S. Mission to the UN in Geneva, where he worked on issues related to the UN Human Rights Council.

Aside from the events of the conference, Parker delegates enjoyed two days of sightseeing in Charlottesville, a seven minute drive from the UVA campus.

Students toured Monticello, the estate of Thomas Jefferson, and went to the movies.

Other activities were cancelled due to poor weather.

“It’s really cool to be on a college campus,” sophomore Grace Conrad said.

“You can walk outside and see everybody in their dorms, which makes it feel like a very unified experience because all of the committee chairs go to the college there.”

Barr, who has been the faculty sponsor of Parker’s Model UN club for nearly two decades, acknowledges applicable skills a student can learn from Model UN. “There are lots of alums of my program who are doing this stuff now,” Barr said. “They’re out in the world, engaged in things that I know they first encountered through Model UN, so that’s really gratifying. If I want the world to be a better place, what better role for me than to train the next generation of leaders?”

Sophmores Lilly Satterfield and Grace Conrad Pose before Committee on Friday.

Photo Courtesy of Grace Conrad.

The Parker Weekly, Page 5

GOOGLE IT!

Parker Alum and Head of Industry at Google Speaks at Parker

By Ava Stepan

Adam Smoler ‘97 speaks at Parker. Photo Courtesy of Nick Saracino.

In 1996—the dawn of the Internet and the first bulky Macintosh computer— alumni Adam Smoler sat in the computer room on the third floor experiencing, first hand, the birth of the iconic Parker website.

Although software has updated, paper printers have developed into 3D printers, and the Macintosh has undergone dramatic changes in order to become the lightweight Macbook Air, fwparker.org has endured the test of time.

A majority of Parker students can say proudly that they are familiar with the myths of legendary artists, musicians, and actors to have walked through these very halls. Yet, as students flip through yearbooks, it is a rarity to see images of Parker alumni who have become successful in the math and science sectors of business. “It’s interesting to hear a success story for someone who has based their entire life around technology — something you have only been able to witness in this new generation,” junior and Computer and Technology Committee head Andy Wessman said. “It helps us to see what you can do as a Parker student.”

As Parker students have been given unique opportunities to grow and develop alongside new technologies, it comes as no surprise that a Parker graduate, nonetheless the original creator of the Parker website, has returned as an employee for one of the largest growing tech companies in the world: Google.

Smoler is a former Parker student who, after graduating in 1997, went to college at Brandeis University and, thereafter, worked for Doubleclick, a startup was acquired by one of the youngest managers at Google to have held the position of Head of Industry, is gaining traction in the tech community.

“At the end of the day if you were to ask me: what do you do? I try to help people tell better stories,” Smoler said. “I think stories are important so that we can have a better

understanding of new ideas in the world. My job is to make sure that stories are free and accessible to everyone.”

Smoler credits Parker for his abilities to problem solve and think creatively.

“Sometimes I wonder, what were the things that led me to work at a tech start-up?”

Smoler said. He claims the launch point to be his AP European History class in 12th grade with John Leary. Each student in the classroom was asked to choose a topic that interested them about the industrial revolution and to read about it. “We had to think about what’s interesting as a compliment to learning dense textbook information,” Smoler said. The book he chose was “The Lever of Riches: Technology, Creativity, and Economic Progress.”

“One of the themes that I took away from reading that book was the change in people’s behaviors and the notion of large societal change. At Google, we ask ourselves: how do we change with that?”

Smoler said. “Working at a tech startup, as people are using media and understanding and talking with each other very differently, how do we create products that get ahead of those changes?”

According to Smoler, the theme of choice, creativity, and following his passion fostered in this building. “In my senior year I did an independent study, as Parker was trying to start getting on the internet,” Smoler said. “I had a passion, I had a curiosity for computers, so I was like, hey, let’s do an independent study with that.”

Smoler can recall entering Dr. Dan Frank’s office with trepidation, nervous to pitch his idea. After Frank agreed and approved this proposal for an independent study, Smoler began work alongside the computer teacher to determine how the birth

Continued on page 19

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Sports

PARK HERS ARE KICKIN’ IT

New Chances to Play for Female Soccer Players at Parker

By Ruby Radis

In the past, the Parker community could only cheer on its girls soccer teams in the springtime. Now, the Parker community can also cheer them on during the winter, too! Now, without dealing with the cold weather, one can still watch a soccer game.

The girls soccer indoor team brings more opportunities to watch the players run down the field as the ball rushes past the enthusiastic crowd with the teams sprinting after one another.

The girls soccer indoor team is a new addition to the Francis Parker athletic community. The team is called the “Park Hers.” While the team is made up of Parker students, the Park Hers is not a sponsored Parker sport and is not a part of the athletics program that Parker offers. The team will consist of many girls in the high school who are deeply invested in playing soccer. “I think that it is a great way for me to get to know the players that I will also play in the spring season,” freshman Alex Carlin said.

The captains are senior Abby Smith and junior Senna Gardner. Smith and Gardner are also going to be the captains of Parker’s sponsored girls varsity soccer team.

Although Park Hers, is newly-formed, the idea has been circulating in the back of the minds of both Smith and Gardner. This year they finally pushed and made it happen.

“I know we kind of have been talking about maybe doing that on the girls side for a while,” Smith said. However, until this year, no girls indoor soccer team was ever

established for Parker players. The captains are excited for the season, optimistic about the team’s chances, and want more players to sign up.

Since this this indoor team is not controlled by the athletic department, the captains hold a lot of power. “A captain holds a great deal of responsibility,” Gardner said. This is Gardner’s first year being captain. She is alongside Smith who is a returning captain. Smith believes that she is up to the challenge of the responsibilities of being captain. “If re-elected captain next year, I would work my hardest to bring this excitement to the rest of the team, including girls who may not consider themselves an important member of the team or soccer their first sport,” Smith said in her 2018 captains application.

The two captains seem to have similar hopes for the team. Gardner also recognizes the importance of the players being engaged and enthusiastic. “Every single player on the team needs to feel valued. Every single player is necessary in order to win,” Gardner said in her application. This team will give opportunities for players not always valued to be seen and heard before the actual season starts.

The winter season will give the girls soccer team the chance to develop the chemistry that is needed for their upcoming spring season. “Good teams develop from strong practices, good relationships that extend beyond the field, and trust,” Gardner

said. The winter season will help prepare the players for the upcoming spring season while also getting extra chances to play against other people who are passionate about soccer. “It provides us with a fun way to improve our skills and stay in shape” Carlin Said. Thus, the girls soccer indoor team will help improve the chances of the Parker sponsored girls soccer team going farther in their league.

Indoor soccer is very similar to outdoor soccer with a few exceptions. Some of these accommodations are that each team has seven players, either team can’t be up by six points, there is no offside, no punting, and the games are only 40-45 minutes.

“It’s warmer, there are less people on the field at once, it’s less running, and it’s easier to get to know people,” freshman Ivy Jacobs said.

The Park Hers team will practice and play games at the CIBC Fire Pitch and have weekly games. The team consists of about 22 girls. Unlike the Parker school teams, the Park Hers will not be split up into two different squads and it will be one full team.

“I want this team to be successful and that will only come through hard work and determination,” Gardner said. Both Gardner and Smith have figured out a way to make this team a reality by working around and with certain rules.

“No school belonging to this Association shall organize its Girls Soccer teams, practice, or participate in interscholastic

contests earlier than Monday of Week 35…”

IHSA (Illinois High School Association) handbook said. Even though CrossFit trainer and spring coach Neil Curran is forbidden by IHSA rules to coach this indoor team until the official start of the season, the team still plans to work hard.

The coach for the 2018 indoor soccer team will be Zuri Mabrey Wakefield. Even though there will be two separate coaches each season, it will give the team the time to gel and have the unofficial preseason they want. Even though there is a coach for the team, it will be mainly run by the captains and the players.

This team will be a way for students at Parker to do what they love a little bit longer. This won’t only be the returning spring soccer players but the new players who can see how things work and build new relationships before the start of the official season. “I think it will be a great way to establish and get to know some of the girls on the spring soccer team,” Carlin said.

“It starts now, by working on the team dynamics off season by getting ready for next year together,” Smith said. “We plan to play on Friday nights sometime between six and ten!”

develop a winning culture. We can reach our goals but it’s gonna take time and

our teammates is what makes the team so special to me.” With high hopes going into the season, the team feels confident. “I think our team is going to do great,” Heltzer said.

“We have already improved so much from last year.”

At Parker, the White Out and Blue Out games against Latin are a big deal. They are the games that a lot of the Parker community looks forward to as Parker plays its big rival.

Sophomore Noah Keim said, “The White Out and Blue Out games are games I really look forward to going to during the season.”

The stage is set for this big-time showcase at the Sullivan Athletic Center at Depaul University. Historically, the games are known for having a large turnout for the boys game but not the girls. Many students and teachers are upset by turnout for the girls. “We work so hard, and lack of turn out is very disappointing,” Heltzer said. “It feels unfair that the boys get a lot more attention between the two teams.”

Keim agrees. “I don’t think it’s fair,

A SECOND HOMECOMING Parker Basketball Preview

By Griffin Kass

The sounds of balls bouncing, the squeaking of sneakers, and basketballs swishing through the net are all signs to the Parker community that basketball season is commencing. As the leaves start to fall off the trees and snow takes it place, the girls and boys basketball teams prepare for a highly anticipated season.

“Pre-season is going well for the girls and boys teams, and it’s an essential part of the program and season,” Athletic Director Bobby Starks said. “Those early impressions help establish the climate and culture of what that team will look like.”

One of the most exciting aspects of the season is playing in the White Out and Blue Out games. “Winter has that component of the White Out and Blue Out games serving as a second homecoming,” Starks said. “It helps create an exciting environment when we play our rival, Latin.”

Many of the coaches and players are excited for the upcoming season. Coach Jerrick McGee of the boys basketball team said. “We are excited to repeat the success of last season because we made it to the

championship game of the ISL last season for JV,” he said. “It was huge for Parker

The Varsity Boys Basketball Team Practices in the Big Gym. Photo by Sofia Brown.

because the last time Parker made it to the Championship game was 2002.

Parker hasn’t performed well in the ISL in the last few years on the varsity level. But with a new young team for varsity, things are bound to change. “Parker is striving to

hardwork.”

The girls team is also optimistic for the season. “I think this team is on the right track to success,” junior Estelle Heltzer said.

“Everyday we come into practice ready to learn new material. The bond between

Continued on page 14

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Thankfulness!

The Parker Weekly, Page 7

BE THANKFUL THIS YEAR A Playlist for your Dining Room Table

By Alex Schapiro

Gratitude - Earth, Wind & Fire

Gratitude by Earth, Wind & Fire is a funky, soulful songs about giving thanks. They just wanna thank you and give gratitude! And of course, thank the lord.

Thank You - Kehlani

Thank you is meant for all the people that have affected Kehlani’s life. No matter the effect on Kehlani’s situation, she thanks them for shaping her into the person she is now as “With no support, this wouldn’t be as great”.

Nothing Without You - The Weeknd

In Nothing Without You, The Weekend credits his lover for making him who he is today. “‘Cause I’d be nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing without you”, he says in this song that gives thanks to his partner.

The Thanksgiving Song - Adam Sandler

This classic Adam Sandler song embodies all that is good and pure about Thanksgiving.

Originally a comedy skit, this song has gained a cult following and is a must-listen this holiday season.

All That Meat And No Potatoes - Louis Armstrong

This Armstrong quintessential is about coming home to a Thanksgiving feast. Featuring some amazing horns, play this around your grandparents to impress them with your music taste.

Stuffy Turkey - Thelonious Monk

This is Thanksgiving jazz. Hearing it makes you wanna sit down with the family and eat until you’re gonna burst! Monk’s genius strikes again with this quirky Thanksgiving tune.

Dear Mama - 2Pac

Dear Mama is dedicated to Tupac’s mom. He recognizes that even though they didn’t have the best relationship, he owed his life to her and would be nothing without her. It was the third hip-hop act ever (after Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message”“ and Public Enemy’s album, Fear of a Black Planet) to be placed in the Library of Congress.

Thanksgiving Theme - Vince Guaraldi Trio

The classic theme from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Enjoy the movie this holiday season!

I Want To Thank You - Otis Redding

I Want To Thank You by Otis Redding is another song giving thanks to a lover. He thanks her for giving him his pride and for the kisses, but sadly he has to say goodbye.

Visit This Playlist at: https://open.spotify.com/user/bearsyankees/playlist/1Y XRukbjOVaUdj6xuNLBZp?si=DkYiroTzRhqpQmdfP_ V7OQ or scan this code by clicking the camera icon in the top right corner of the “search” tab in the Spotify app.

Give Thanks & Praises - Bob Marley & The Wailers

This Bob Marley song is dedicated to the Rastafarian god, Jah. Jah is the same god that Abrahamic religions believe in. Marley wants to give praises and thanks to Jah as “He will not deceive us my brethren, he will only lead us again.”

ANNUAL TURKEY DRIVE

Parker Lends a Hand During the Holiday Season The holiday season begins. People are anticipating the spirit of the season and the enthusiasm of celebrating Thanksgiving.

Two weeks before the holidays, Parker joins together with the Midwest Workers Association (MWA) to help the less fortunate. The drive is organized by Upper School history teacher Kevin Conlon.

The Midwest Workers Association is an independent workers’ advocacy association that has operated out of the south side of Chicago since the late 1990s. Conlon became acquainted with the organization after they presented in a Morning Ex six years ago, and the drive occurs once a year.

“A Parker student was doing civic engagement work with the organization and invited them to an MX,” Conlon said.

“After the MX I introduced myself and said I was teaching an economics course.”

Conlon wanted to bring his students to the MWA to see how they provide support for workers through relief programs, such as job referral and medical care to basic needs.

“Our school is oriented to helping others,” said Conlon, “everyone in our school has a sense of giving.”

All recipients of the food drive are

By Alex Feitler

members of the MWA. “The Thanksgiving Food Basket Distribution is a benefit for active participating members of the MWA, which is an all-volunteer independent organization of some of Chicago’s lowest paid workers,” Operation Manager of the MWA Virginia Miller said.

“They also have an emergency food supply,” Conlon said, “if they run out of food and at the holiday they do more extensive food drives.” This was an opportunity for Parker to give back and join the effort in giving food for the holidays. “I have attended the arrangement of the food,” Conlon said, “and the Tuesday before Thanksgiving they have all the food brought in and they start putting addresses of the needy residences. The food is delivered by volunteers. People are so friendly and it is such a great vibe.”

Every year the amount of food Parker donates varies. “One year we were able to collect over a hundred turkeys whereas other years we have had less,” Conlon said.

This year is different as many members of the MWA are struggling with more

than just putting a Turkey on the table for Thanksgiving. “The pressing thing right now on top of other issues members are facing is that they are being shut off from their water,” Miller said. “Water rates have tripled over the past few years and our members can’t keep up. Our members are getting cut off which puts even more pressure on them around the holidays.”

“I reach out to advisors and recommend that they each have a few students in charge to be the leaders in putting the food together,” said Conlon, “I have set up quotas and see which advisory brings in the most turkeys because it is important to have fun while you are trying to help people.”

“I’m very excited to be helping out with turkey drive this year,” sophomore and member of Conlon’s advisory Jonah Gross said. “It’s great to know that people who wouldn’t have been able to celebrate Thanksgiving in the first place can now have a great time celebrating the holiday.”

PARKER SEED

Continued from page four grades, races, and genders. As such with other SEED groups at Parker, a hope for Taylor is to see consistency among each meeting, in order to have the best conversations as possible.

A key aspect to all parts of SEED is the free flowing, story based discussion forum that is seen in each meeting. One idea that is used to express agreement and new insights is the idea of “Windows and Mirrors.” When listening to peers’ stories, if something that is said among the group specifically resonates with a unique experience that one has had, they tend to acknowledge this by saying that the story they just heard is a “mirror” that reflects how they feel or what they have experienced. A window is when someone in the group says something that is new to someone and that they had not thought about before.

“I like the fact that SEED gives an opportunity for both “windows and mirrors” and that people can learn about things they didn’t know about through other people’s experiences,” Taylor said. “But also feel supported because other people are going through or have had similar experiences to what you have had.”

The Parker Weekly, Page 8

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Features

ARE GAP YEARS WORTH IT? The Many Possibilities a Gap Year Can Garner

By Gabe Wrubel

For many students, the end of senior year brings stress and anxiety. The pressure of going through the application process for colleges takes people on different paths––some that they never thought they would take. The team of college counselors at Parker work so that each of around 80 students in a Senior class are aware of all of their options.

Susan Weingartner––The Joan Feitler ‘49 Director of College Counseling––works directly with students while they are going through the college application process, and she has guided many students who have taken gap years. “In terms of my personal opinion,” Weingartner said, “I’m certainly not at all against a gap year. In fact, I’ve said over and over again to many people that the people that I know that have taken a gap year have really enjoyed and benefited from it.”

In the application process, the option of a gap year is not neglected. It is presented to students as a valid option that should be considered. “In the junior questionnaire, we actually ask the question about taking gap years,” Weingartner said, “just so that the idea is at least considered by kids and their parents, and we want to know how people feel about it going in.”

Many colleges provide their own gap year options. The application for Middlebury College, for example asks if a student is interested in applying to delay their start of school to the second semester.

This allows for the college to accept more students into their class, but at a later point in time. Grace Buono ‘18 found herself

Grace Buono ‘18 stands at the Mount Everest Base Camp. Buono visited Everest at the start of her gap year.

Photo Courtesy of Grace Buono.

in the situation of being deferred a year.

Buono was accepted into one of her top choice colleges, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., but for the 2019-20 school year.

Buono, who wanted to attend Georgetown, decided to attend a year later, allowing her a year to travel, explore, and grow before attending college. “If someone had asked me right after I submitted my college apps if I was going to take a gap year, I would have automatically said no,” Buono said, “but it’s been really, really great, and I think being exposed to a lot of stuff I would not see in college has been really beneficial.”

There are many companies that work with students in order to help them plan their gap years, such as Gapforce, City

COMPOSICIÓN EN CLASE Spanish Department Changes Exam Format

By Nick Skok

50 minutes.

2 prompts.

2 paragraphs.

200 words each.

Go. This is how Upper School Spanish teacher Julia Garner’s Spanish 3 course conducted its first unit assessment on a set of vocabulary terms: not a test split into a vocabulary section, true or false section, sentence structure section, and writing section, as one would usually see. It was a composition which is what the Spanish department is steering towards moving forward.

After each future unit or chapter, students will write a composition where they must apply the vocabulary and grammar points covered in the unit. Even two years ago, students wrote compositions in Garner’s Spanish 3 course, but they were in addition to unit tests. Spanish 2 has always had compositions at the end of a test, but not as its own test. “I wouldn’t say it’s anything

new,” Garner said, “but we are emphasizing skills that are required for students to apply the material. We are moving away from more of a fill-in-the blank kind of format.”

Spanish 4 and 5 have always done inclass compositions, so it’s nothing new to the upper levels of Spanish. It’s the lower levels, like Spanish 3, that are starting to write these compositions to show they can apply grammar into their own writing.

Garner believes the students from Spanish 3 will be more prepared for the later levels of Spanish because of this.

For some students, learning vocabulary isn’t a problem, and it has become almost the norm to be assessed through fill-in-the blank style tests and quizzes. “For students who feel more comfortable with a highly structured kind of test,” Garner said, “there’s still quizzes to prepare the students for the more open ended assignment.”

Garner has noticed that there is a trend of students memorizing all the vocabulary the night before a quiz and spitting it out above a blank line to finish a sentence, only

Year, and the Center for Interim Programs.

These programs all offer various travel opportunities that range from week long to semester long trips. Each offers assistance to students when planning their gap years and provide some sort of financial aid for students who qualify.

“I started to look around, and through my mom’s friend I found the Center for Interim Programs that works with kids who are taking gap years,” Buono said, “and they helped me plan my trip to Nepal and to Tanzania.”

For many, the opportunities that gap years offer are hard to experience while students are in high school because they do not want to miss school by taking a year abroad. to forget the word after the test. “This is not for the goal of filling in the blank,” Garner said, “but to able to express something.”

“I really liked it because if you forgot a vocab word, it didn’t really affect you,” freshman Leila Sheridan, who is in Spanish 3, said. “I also think it’s more beneficial because, in life you’re never going to have to fill in the blank, but you’re going to have to construct sentences from your memory.”

That’s the kind of learning the Spanish department is trying to steer away from: less fill in the blank style learning. “We are not so focused on the grades so much as the skills that students are building,” Garner said. “I don’t anticipate big changes in the grading outcome.”

The Spanish department has been thinking of making the switch for some time now. “We were thinking, ‘what is the best way to help students develop the skills that we have defined as the skills they are building at this level,’” Garner said, “and we also think the compositions are a better way to assess a student’s mastery of those skills.”

Spanish teacher Liz Villagomez also uses compositions in her Spanish 2 class. “I’m using shorter versions of it,” Villagomez said, “because I am also

Junior Ava Sato has been faced with the issue of wanting to travel abroad and experience things in new ways that cannot be found at Parker, but feels constrained having to balance her school work and attendance.

“Having the chance and opportunity to take a gap year is amazing because it’s such a great way to learn from and experience other cultures and parts of the world,” Sato said. “It’s also great because on a gap year I wouldn’t have to worry about catching up on my schoolwork once I got back, so I would have a chance to relax and enjoy it.”

Sato, currently two years removed from a potential gap year, sees the option as a possibility for her future. “It would be a fun way to expand my horizons and spend some time learning things we aren’t taught at Parker.”

Taking gap years can allow for many new experiences for students in the time between high school and college. These experiences can provide students with valuable life experience that they can take with them for the rest of their lives. Many times, taking a gap year can come at an extra cost for students. “It is not always easy for people who do not have the money to take a gap year,” Weingartner said, “but it can be done by working with the many different resources available... Students often will choose to get a job or an internship during their gap year that will provide them with valuable work experience going forward.”

trying to make sure they are mastering the grammar points we are learning and the vocabulary points we are learning.”

Similar to Spanish 3, the fill-in-theblanks have not completely gone away in Spanish 2 exams. “They are still seeing a lot of the fill-in-the-blanks, writing sentences more thoroughly, especially with more detail because that’s what I’m pushing for,” Villagomez said, “and then at the end there is a short composition they have to write.”

Villagomez agrees with Garner on the importance of translating the material they learned into full complete sentences. “I like the composition at the end of the test because that shows me if they can really apply the material they have learned, and that’s what you want to do anyway.”

Filling in the blank is only a small part of mastering grammar. The level Garner wants her students to get at is speaking about a topic, such as the news, and being able to converse on the spot. “If you look at the way language instruction is moving, the emphasis on meaningful expression, whether that’s in writing or speech, actually communicating something is the direction it’s going.”

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Student Government

ONE YEAR LATER

Implementing the Accessible Grading Proposal

By Zach Joseph If a current high school student wants to check their grades in their classes, then they can go to the Portal and find their grade for their desired class. However, last year’s students did not have this opportunity and wanted to find a new way to view their grades. In order to ensure that students could view their grades without conflict, the Accessible Grading Proposal was created.

In 2017, a proposal was implemented in Student Government by then-Senate Heads Felicia Miller, Sammy Kagan, and Jenna Mansueto, in Student Government in order to make grades more accessible to students. The intent was to allow students to see their grade for all of their classes without

get an understanding of how it would be implemented. “Last year I began having meetings with the Senate Heads last year, as a recommendation from Ms. Barr, as traditions have been at Parker for a while, that had been lost for a couple of years,” Brandon said. “And I thought it was a good idea to start meeting with them.” By traditions, Brandon meant the meetings of the Senate Heads and the Upper School Principal, which had not been continued for the past couple of years.

The meetings concerning this proposal went on for a substantial amount of time. “In our weekly lunch meetings, they brought it up, and they shared, you know, ‘this is what

If used properly, the Parker Portal can offer students quick and easy access to their grades.

Photo by Anna Fuder.

any issues. According to the proposal, the purpose was to “ensure that students have an accurate picture of their performance in all of their classes while further increasing clarity and transparency between them and their teachers.”

While the Portal was meant as a central homework site for students in addition to a virtual grade book, the implementation of the Portal has allowed students to see their grades for certain classes. However, not all teachers have made grades available to view. While some teachers do so, others do not, and they are not bound by the proposal to give grades to students whenever they ask for them.

The Senate Heads created this proposal based on feedback from students. At a Senate meeting, a common complaint from students was the lack of ability to access their grades, due to either the teacher not posting the grade or refusing to show the student their grade. The proposal was supposed to either make teachers have grades available at all times throughout the semester or three specific times during the semester.

This proposal was then introduced to Head of Upper School Justin Brandon, who met with the Senate Heads in order to

we’re talking about’,” Brandon said. “So we talked about it, we ended up talking about it for a while, and the Senate Heads presented to the Upper School faculty and staff in the fall, with a rough draft, just to kind of get a read of the community.”

Brandon feels that there are reasons why the proposal will be beneficial to the student body. “I thought it was worthwhile to have the dialogue with the faculty and staff at our divisional meetings,” Brandon said. “It was something that I think could help the community overall. I just witnessed that there was some tension between students and their teachers, kind of not understanding where they were in terms of their grade in the class, and this would create some opportunity for discussion.”

However, Brandon does feel there is room for error if the proposal is not implemented properly. “I think we just need to be careful with how the conversations occur,” Brandon said. “I just want to make sure that this is a learning opportunity, and not necessarily just someone wanting to know their grades, and to question their grade in a negative way.”

The Parker Weekly, Page 9

WATCHING OVER OUR [STUDENT] GOVERNMENT Are Our Officials Living Up to Their Promises?

By Nathan Satterfield

Every April at Francis Parker, the Upper School and Eighth Grade halls are filled with a flurry of posters and graphics advertising students’ candidacy for Student Government positions and committees. In addition to the campaign posters that engulf the school, candidates write platforms that outline goals and agendas that they plan to carry out the following year, should they be elected. As the first quarter of the year has passed, Student Government officers and committee heads have been busy working to meet their agendas and implement change at Parker.

“The point is embryonic democracy.

That is the mission of the school,” Student Government Faculty Advisor Jeanne Barr said. “Parker’s Student Government is our Upper School’s most vibrant and direct implementation of that mission.”

The election process consists of declaring candidacy in April through obtaining 25 signatures from peers in order to have a spot on the ballot, similar to the process of gaining signatures should one want to run for public office. Students then campaign for around a month while debates occur in Student Senate Meetings and Student Government Plenary sessions.

Finally, the Wednesday before the election, all candidates are given the opportunity to campaign in-person at “Democrafest” with their student peers to share their ideas and platforms. At Democrafest, students from 8th grade through 12th grade make their final decisions on who to vote for.

This year’s elected Student Senate Heads –– Matthew Turk, Lauren Hughes, Alex Ori, and Lindsay Carlin –– ran on the promises to “ensure that Senate topics are reflective of the needs of the student body,” “remain in constant communication with the student body and administration,” and “hold additional pop-up Senate meetings.”

“So far this year, we have talked to Mr. Brandon about the portal and that people don’t know how to use it, ” Hughes said.

“He talked to CTC and set up graderoom teach-ins about the portal. We have had a lot of teach in’s and groups come in.”

When asked about pop-up senates that have occured this year, Hughes was unsure of its success. “We did a pop-up senate at the beginning of the year for freshman who didn’t really know what Senate was,” she said, “but we didn’t really have a great turn out, so we didn’t know how effective it was.”

“The Senate Heads are doing an awesome job so far.” Sophomore Carter Wagner said. “As someone who attends every week, I see that they put in lots of thought and time into making sure that the meetings are run effectively.”

The Director of Committee Affairs

(DCA), senior Chad White, wrote that he would “push for more combined committee events,” “increase committee member participation,” and that he would have “bi-semester face to face meetings with committee heads” in his platform.

“So far this year everything is going well,” White said, “and I am trying to get the first events off the ground. I have met with all the committees one-on-one and I am planning on meeting with them again.”

Last year the Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) committee was the only one that had a failing grade at the end of first semester due to them not meeting the minimum requirement of hosting two events each semester. White has one main goal for this year which, “is to make sure that no one fails.”

“I think he is doing a great job,” senior Film and Pride Committee head Olivia Garg said. “It’s nine weeks in and not that many committees have had events so it’s kinda hard. I like how he has us lay out what we want to do, to him. He’s prepared and he wants people to succeed. He doesn’t want to fail anyone.”

The Treasurer for this year, senior Jack Maling, campaigned with the goal to “increase student interaction with the budget,” Increasing “emphasis on the use of student government funding for a diverse range of initiatives,” and to “engage students through effective use of the student government budget.”

“This year I have facilitated participatory budgeting, I have helped set a budget for the year,” Maling said, “and I have facilitated the day to day payments for certain things for committees, Senate, and other organizations.”

The first participatory budgeting (PB) did not happen this year during the originally planned time. “The issue was that we only had five proposals, which is not a lot.”

Maling said. “There were certain proposals that were not feasible, and other proposals that were automatically given money due to the nature of the request.”

“I think Jack is doing pretty good,” senior Zen Lynch said, “and he is doing all he can. Putting out participatory budgeting which everyone needs. He is also telling people what everything means, and informing the freshman who will be taking over after us.”

The Student Government President, senior Annette Njei, promised that she would work on “building a community,” “fostering empathy,” and on “increasing transparency & communication.”

“I think I have done a better job of communicating with the student body about what Plenary will be on Friday,” Njei said,

Continued on page 14

The Parker Weekly, Page 10

With clubs ranging from Red Cross and Economics to Model UN and Debate, the Parker Upper School club landscape has expanded significantly in the last few years as high schoolers grow more and more passionate about expressing their interests.

As clubs continue to grow, however, the regulations and rules surrounding them do as well.

Upper School Dean Christian Bielizna’s first year at Parker in 2016 brought a slew of new club rules and regulations, most significant of which was the Club Charter.

The Charter asks about club elections, management, leadership, finances, and more. According to the Charter, POCA (Parker Organization of Clubs and Activities) “requires that all Upper School organizations have a Club Charter on file with the Upper School Dean of Student Life Office,” and “Clubs must have Club Charters on file in order to be recognized

by POCA.” As a Committee in Student Government, Pride Committee’s bylaws outline the rules under which they host affinity meetings for students. According to Head Emma Adelstein, under Pride Committee is Pride Affinity, which queer or questioning students can attend. Separate from these meetings are ally meetings, which are open to the entire high school.

According to Pride Heads sophomore Carter Wagner and senior Olivia Garg, these bylaws create confusion over the expectation for clubs to have a roster and email list to submit to their advisor.

“We can’t have a list of all queer kids in the school because that’s a safety issue,” Wagner said. “We have kids in the closet on our email list, and if someone else sees their email, it could be really dangerous for someone else to tell people that that student is gay.”

Garg shared similar concerns. “Hate against people in the queer community is Images of the wristband clogged social media feeds from Snapchat to Instagram: a white paper bracelet stamped with “I Voted!

Did You?” in patriotic red and blue ink.

For the first time in their lives, much of the senior class was eligible to vote in the 2018 Midterm Election on Tuesday, November 6, and post the evidence of their own civic engagement.

During the election, 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, and 39 state and territorial governorships were contested in addition to hundreds of local elections. While the Republican Party maintained majority control of the Senate, Democrats riding the “blue wave” won control of the House of Representatives in addition to securing support in state and local elections.

In Illinois, Democrats Sean Casten and Lauren Underwood successfully flipped District 6 and District 14 to win thirteen of the eighteen House of Representative seats up for election. Democrat J.B. Pritzker beat incumbent Republican Bruce Rauner in the most expensive gubernatorial race in national history. Democrats also saw

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Features

TOO LITTLE PRIDE?

Pride Committee Controversy Over Restrictions

By Paige Shayne

Senior Olivia Garg distributes PRIDE bead necklaces at Student Government. Photo by Sammy Kagan

prevalent, and you can’t just look at people and tell,” Garg said. “We want other people to come to our meetings too, but if we have a list then anyone who is questioning their sexuality wouldn’t always get the email.”

According to Garg, the Pride Committee Heads (which includes Garg and Wagner, as well as senior Emma Adelstein and sophomore Aidan Weinberg) sent Bielizna an email listing the various reasons why there should not be a definite list, and Bielizna accepted that various affinity groups may not have an explicit set of members.

Wagner believes that in aiming to regulate clubs, the Club Charter enforces rules that subdue the otherwise sporadic characteristic of a club. “The Charter works

as one club fits all, and that doesn’t work for every club,” Wagner said. “It’s trying to regulate something that is inherently chaotic.”

Pride Committee’s issues with the new club regulation span outside of the Club Charter. An email from Bielizna cornering regulations on Halloween costumes stated, “gender identity is not a costume–don’t dress trans if you are not trans,” and “sexual identity is not a costume–don’t dress as a gay figure if you are not gay.”

According to Wagner, the biggest problem with the rules was the prohibition of presumably straight students dressings as gay icons or characters. Wagner believes that when the rules prohibit students from dressing or acting a certain way, it hurts

ELECTION REFLECTION

Students Share How They Prepared for Midterms

By Emma Butler-VanderLinden

success in the elections for Attorney General, Secretary of State, Treasurer, and Comptroller.

Junior Jared Saef was the only student in his class eligible to vote. “It honestly felt a little surreal because I had just turned eighteen in early October, so I still hadn’t grasped the fact that I was a legal adult now,” Saef said. “It was a really cool experience walking into my voting precinct and thinking that, ‘Wow, I’m an adult, I can make these decisions for our democracy on my own.’”

For senior Lilah Schatz, the legalization of marijuana, supporting Democrats, and tax policy were key issues. “Voting for the first time was a very liberating feeling,” Schatz said. “The process was almost underwhelming because I thought that I would be waiting in a line for two hours, I thought that I would be filling out all this

paperwork, I thought that I couldn’t bring my phone in, for example, but it was actually really easy and simple. Something I really enjoyed was seeing so many female names on the ballot because I want more women in politics.”

“I’m not a person who’s into politics,” senior Zen Lynch said. “Politics is absolutely, like, the worst thing for me to focus on. But this time I knew that I was going to be eighteen when the election rolled around. I had to be informed.” While Lynch said she felt prepared after reading Vote411.org and watching informative YouTube videos, she felt overwhelmed by the number of judges on the ballot and the different language used in that section.

Senior Audrey May voted for candidates who shared her stance on gun reform, marijuana legalization, and abortion laws.

“When I was an election judge, we had a

those who may not be out or those who merely wish to express themselves. “If a straight person wants to dress as Elton John, they shouldn’t get pulled aside,” Wagner said. “When you compare that to saying you can’t dress as someone of another race, it’s a problem because someone may be in the closet and you can’t tell them how they identify.”

In compiling the original email to the Upper School, Bielizna had taken information from a nationally recognized source that provided a “no-no list” of sweeping blanket statements regarding costumes. After corresponding with the Pride Heads, Bielizna recognizes the difficulty in making such statements.

“There’s no person in the community making judgement calls about how Parrker students are representing themselves,” Bielizna said. “In conversation with them, there was a heightened sensitivity to what we were communicating to the community,” While Pride Heads respected the statements from Bielizna email, it was in the underlying message that they found issues. “Regarding being a gay figure for Halloween is simple: gay figures would love to know that they are accepted and people can dress up as them,” Garg said.

“We just don’t want people dressing up as a stereotype, and if you dress as a gay figure, people would know you’re gay.”

Bielizna understands the restrictions the email placed on students, especially after a discussion with the Heads. “A gay figure can be a hero or somebody that a student wants to emulate, and that shouldn’t necessarily be suppressed,” Bielizna said. “Instead of excluding people whose sexuality or gender conformity meets those requirements, everyone should be included.”

The Pride Heads, according to Garg, would rather have someone offend with

Continued on page 18 view voters who signed up, said they were going to vote, received the ballot, and said, ‘Oh no, I change my mind, I don’t want to vote at all.’” May said. “So I think that being an election judge, it’s interesting to see how people react when they get the ballot and see the other side being a voter.”

Saef cites reading the Chicago Tribune’s endorsements, conducting independent research on the candidates, and supporting the legalization of marijuana as the primary influences in how he cast his ballot. “If marijuana is legal, I think the government can regulate marijuana much more easily, instead of it being illegal, like in the Prohibition of alcohol where you saw all these black markets and illegal sales of alcohol occuring.”

May is one of a handful of Upper School students who was able to vote in the primaries last April and the Midterm Election. “For the governor, it’s not by electoral college or electoral votes, it’s by popular vote,” she said, “so it’s more important to vote in a midterm or primary election if you’re in a bigger state than it is to vote in a presidential election.”

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Features

After the loss of Così’s toasty bread and warm soup, members of the community have been waiting for a permanent replacement.

Located at 2200 N Clark Street, on the corner of Clark and Webster, the former Così property is currently owned by Newcastle, a company with various properties around the city, and managed by the ARC real estate group.

The Parker foot traffic and environment of affluence was not enough to save Così from closure as the business took a major hit around 2012. The property has been vacant for quite some time now -- around seven years. “I think they as a company were not doing too well. It’s similar to the reason a lot of Einstein Bagels closed down their locations, ” Leasing Representative and member of the ARC group Courtney Darin said. Così’s has four remaining locations in the Chicago area, which are clustered in River North. “It just speaks to the density they have downtown, which is the reason they were able to stay open there,” Darin said regarding sales downtown. “They have a lot of density and sales and they were able to justify keeping that.”

Freshmen and former Così’s patron Eli Moog misses the location and looks forward to new development. “I do miss Così a lot,” Moog said. “In SK I remember my Mom got me a Così’s gift card and I would always get the warm bread. Very crispy, toasty, and delicious. When I was in second or third grade and it closed, people were questioning why. There was a pop-up shop there two years ago and last year, but I’m hoping that something turns into it. Something that would be amazing is a Blaze Pizza.”

While Moog is waiting for a replacement, Darin and her partner have moved forward with a client. “We are at lease right now,” Darin said. “We have a finalized deal but as far as the lease process goes we’re just negotiating some of the more legal terms that go into it.” The deal is likely to move forward, but is still at a state where both parties are able to back out before the deal gets completely finalized. “I can’t disclose who the user is yet. I don’t want to say too much because saying what it is will kind of give up who it is but it will In the Spring of 2018, Parker students were given the results of a climate survey taken a few months earlier. Shortly afterwards, a group of 20 students were appointed to lead a student Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee for the Upper School. Little do most students know, their parents have been also been working on these same issues for the past couple of years.

A few years ago, the Parker administration saw a need to talk with parents about issues regarding diversity and inclusion. The administration reached out to parents, making it clear those who were interested were welcome to join. Thus, the Community Committee for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) was born.

Last year, the committee focused on generating questions for the student survey and looking them over with Dr. Derrick

COSÌ-ING UP TO CLARK ST. The Longtime Vacancy at 2200 N. Clark

By Tess Wayland

2200 N. Clark Street has been vacant for years. Photo Courtesy of Google Maps.

be something that is complementary to the school.” Previous clients have mostly been restaurants attracted to the property knowing that the last client to lease the space was a restaurant as well.

Darin and her partner worked on the property for about a year before moving forward with this client. Darin said, “We’ve been working on that for about a year but the space itself has been vacant for quite some time.” Sometimes, she notes, striking out like this is just a matter of timing.

“You can have someone working on this and trying to lease it for three years, and you can have someone new come on and have it done in three months,” Darin said.

“It really depends on timing and what kind of tenant’s pop-up in the area.”

“We were brought on as third-party brokers,” Darin said. “Our client is the shopping center owner and they bring us in to help fill the vacancies.” Darin, along with another representative Matt Cavanagh, currently manages the leasing of this space.

The two are advertising the property online at the ARC website as a “rare end cap

opportunity with outdoor seating.” The brochure boasts of “131 feet of frontage” and “dramatic 13 foot ceilings.” In total, there are 3,840 square feet up for lease.

The amount of space available has not been an asset to Darin and her partner.

Besides timing, the biggest obstacle has been finding a client who is willing to utilize the entire space. “3,800 feet could be too small for some of the tenants that are going to be a bit larger but kind of the biggest hurdle that you see is often times it’s just too large,” Darin said. “We’ve had one other offer that we were looking at but that space is a larger space. We’ve had people that have come forward and have wanted half of it.”

Darin is moving forward with their most recent client specifically because they’re taking the whole space.

Darin noted that Parker was “mostly an asset” to potential tenants. “A lot of tenants we spoke with really liked being across the street from Parker,” Darin said. “Obviously, with all the students and the drop-off and pick-up from parents, most people we talked with really liked it. I think the only

PARENTS TOO

A look at the Parker’s Parent DEI Committee

By Sophia Saker

Gay. This year, however, they are crafting a strategic plan as to how to go about addressing issues that were brought to light in the survey. In addition, the parent group has been looking at different strategic plans from other schools in addressing issues surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“It started out as a more conservational group,” Vice Principal Ruth Jurgensen said, “but now it is much task oriented.”

There are around six meetings each school year, and they are open to anyone who has a general interest in the topic. The meetings last from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm so the school can ensure that childcare will be provided through Parker P.M..

“Often a topic will be raised,” Parker

parent and committee member Barry Taylor said, “and as parents from diverse backgrounds, we will be asked for our perspective, including on how new families can be better integrated into Parker, how social events can be more inclusive, and what strategies can be used to increase Parker’s diversity.”

Taylor has spent the majority of his professional career as a civil rights attorney.

He currently works at Equip for Equality where he advocates rights for people with disabilities. One of his goals is “to ensure that disability issues are included in Parker’s DEI priorities.”

“In addition to having a disability, most of our clients are also poor and many

The Parker Weekly, Page 11

concern was parking, especially during prime school hours.” The ARC website points out a few other retails meant to attract potential tenants to the space -- names like Urban Outfitters, European Wax Center, The Dailey Method, Riccardo Enoteca and Sushi Para.

According to materials published by the ARC group on their website, the median household income in Lincoln Park is around $86,763 with an average of $141,567. There’s an average of 32,000 pedestrians who pass the property weekly.

The website identifies this as a “premier location in Chicago, an atmosphere of high density retail” that Parker is a part of in what the website calls a “very upscale, highest income demographic area of the city.”

Since Così’s closure, The Chicago Fair Trade organization had hosted their annual holiday pop at shop at 2200 N Clark Street for two years in a row. Two years ago, executive Director Katherine Bissell Cordova was, as she puts it, “pounding pavement,” to find vacant spaces that would allow them to hold the pop-up shop. Most places say no, but they got lucky with the realtors at 2200. “It turned out to be a great location,” Bissell Cordova said. “The neighborhood was really, really open and supportive and it was wonderful when we went back the second year. People were thanking us for being back... Our sales were up 50%.”

Bissell Cordova thinks Parker helped create community excitement around the pop-up shop. “There were some Parker teachers that were there a lot,” Bissell Cordova said. “There were a couple that were there everyday. They helped spread the word too, so we had students come and it was awesome. We’d love to come in to Francis Parker and talk to classes and student groups. We’d love to help you become a fair trade school.”

This year, the pop-up shop has relocated to 5207 N Clark in Andersonville and will run November 23 to December 29. Bissell Cordova didn’t move the location due to

Continued on page 13 are people of color,” Taylor said, “so I’ve witnessed the wide range of barriers and discrimination our clients face on a daily basis. So, I was pleased to be able to bring my professional experience and my personal perspective to Parker’s DEI Committee.”

Senior Hannah Kershner was appointed to the student DEI group last spring. They, too, have been focusing on addressing issues that were brought to light in the climate survey such as the antisemitism and classism that exists at Parker. Although she was unaware of the parent group until recently, she thinks it’s a great idea.

“I think it’s important that parents are in sync with issues going on in the student body because at the end of the day they are just as much a part of this school as we are,” Kershner said.

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The Parker Weekly, Page 12

Politics and Pop Culture

PARKER TO THE POLLS

Upper School Students Once Again Election Judges

By Michael Pitts The midterm elections took place on November 6 as Americans from coast to coast came together in the first federal election since the beginning of the Trump era. The Chicago Board of Elections recruited 2,000+ Chicago high school juniors and seniors to serve as student election judges for every election this year.

Among the thousands of teachers advising their students to become election judges was Upper School History teacher Andrew Bigelow. “My mission was to make sure that we have students who were able to participate in our democracy and witness our democracy in action,” Bigelow said. “Students were able to learn who was running and what wards and precincts were.”

There were certain required criteria that high school students needed to become a judge, which included completing a four hour-long training session, having a grade point average of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale, and being able to work the polls as early as 5:00 a.m.

“We were supposed to be there from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m.,” junior Kushmir Onisemoh said. “I didn’t finish until nine. I put in 16 hours. Boy was that brutal. But at the end of the day, it’s nice to know I participated in helping citizens perform their civic duty.”

The responsibilities of being a student judge centered around three key points, the first being that they were required to set up the voting equipment at 5 a.m. on Election Day. The second requirement was that the judges had to conduct a fair and impartial election in the precinct polling place from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. The last task was tabulating the vote totals for the precinct after the polls close at 7 p.m.

“This election was very important for the future of the country,” junior Anna Fuder said. “Since I’m not old enough to vote, helping run the polls was the perfect way for me to get involved, whether that was by helping people register to vote or making sure voters were at the correct polling place for their precinct.”

Celebrities all over the country urged eligible citizens to vote. Many aimed their attention towards young voters, encouraging them to cast their vote on November 6.

In a first-of-its-kind event, more than 50 actors, comedians and YouTube stars joined a two-hour, live-streamed telethon on Monday, November 5. The telethon was aimed at firing up young voters, the age group least likely to cast a ballot.

Stars such as Amy Schumer, Adam Devine, Lil Rel, Chelsea Handler, and Jeff

The 8th precinct of the 32nd ward was one of many election sites across Chicago aided by Parker students.

Photo by Sammy Kagan.

There are five judges in each precinct.

In odd-numbered precincts, there are three Republican judges and two Democratic judges. In even-numbered precincts, there are three Democratic judges, and two Republican judges.

Only one high school judge per political party can be assigned to any precinct. Even though most junior judges are not eligible to vote, they were able to experience helping others vote.

“Being an election judge was a great and rewarding experience,” junior Nicole Feitler said. “Although I wasn’t able to vote, having some contribution to the process and exercising my civic duty was important to me.”

Ross, urged viewers to call in to a celebrity phone bank and pledge to vote the next day, as turnout in midterm elections is traditionally lower than in general elections.

In October, only 25% of people from ages 18 to 29 said they were certain to vote in the midterm election, the lowest percentage of any age bracket. Approximately 49.2% of eligible voters or 116 million US citizens voted in this midterm election, the highest recorded rate for the midterms since 1914.

GALIA IN WNDR-LAND Science, Art, and Instagram

By Galia Newberger

The author stands inside an artistic model of the human cytoskeleton during her visit to the wndr museum.

Photo Courtesy of Galia Newberger.

Upon arriving at the “wndr” museum in the West Loop, my friend Sadie Heller and I were greeted by a 20-something man in a silver, reflective, floor-length parka.

“Do you guys have a reservation?” he asked calmly, seemingly oblivious to the shining beams of light reflecting off of his coat.

He was stationed at the doorway of an inconspicuous white building. The line of people stretching around the corner made the location noticable. The museum has been hugely popular since it opened in September. I told the man in the mirrored coat that we had reserved a spot, and we were ushered inside.

“Welcome to The Lobby,” a perky woman in a pale purple lab coat said as she greeted us at the door. Before we could look around, she steered Sadie and me to a massive wall of multi-colored string.

“Which color is speaking to you today?” she asked, as though it should be perfectly obvious that today I am feeling utterly teal. Slightly bemused, I picked out a coral thread, which she promptly tied around my wrist.

Now, she said, we were prepared for our experience at wndr. She laid out the rules: we could mill about The Lobby as we pleased for as long as we wanted, but once we entered the exhibits, we couldn’t re-enter it. We nodded, and set out about our tour.

The Lobby is a series of two rooms connected by small staircase. It includes bowls of Sweet Tarts and Swedish Fish, chairs swinging from the ceiling, and a poet (also dressed in a purple lab coat, along with the rest of wndr’s “Ambassadors”) who will write about anything you ask her to.

Lining a wall are squishy light bulb-shaped apparatuses that change to the color of whatever you hover them over and a mirror in which you can view yourself from every angle is mounted on the opposite wall.

As you walk through The Lobby, you can vote––using ping pong balls––in various polls, ranging from the mundane (Cubs or White Sox?) to the profound (reality or fantasy?), watch an artist work as he splashes pastels across a massive white

canvas, and check out a full wall exhibit on the intersection of art and science. But leaving The Lobby is where the real fun begins.

Once we decided we were ready to enter the exhibits (the point of no return!) we were guided by an Ambassador to a wall of microscopes. They displayed beautiful, kaleidoscope-like images of a bizarre array of selections: pieces of onion skin dyed blue or a tiny string of cotton.

Past the wall of microscopes lay 19 rooms of exhibits––each created by a different artist––relating to wndr’s science and art theme. In one room, the walls are completely covered with tiny, reflective prisms, shining with iridescent rainbows that change as the room’s lighting shifts from green to blue to purple to pink. Some exhibits display the science side of the theme more obviously (a giant model of human DNA made out of transparent straws, a jungle-gym like model of the human cytoskeleton), some seem more artistic (a floor that lights up where your feet hit as you walk across it) and some are just fun (a giant room full of air vents and balloons).

Finally, after exiting the maze of exhibits, you are allowed to enter wndr’s crown jewel: the Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirror Room. It is entitled “Let’s Survive Forever” and supposedly represents Kusama’s take on human mortality.

Before entering visitors are required to remove their shoes and wait their turn: only six people are allowed in at a time.

We were allotted two minutes in the room.

Any more is considered overwhelming, the Ambassador manning the room’s door told us.

Once I stepped into the room, I understood why: the whole thing was mirrored. Mirrored balls hung from the ceiling, littered the floor, and filled a column in the middle. Inside the infinity room, it’s impossible to tell how big the space is, although from outside it’s clearly no larger than an average bedroom. It feels endlessly

Continued on page 14

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Musings on Morals

The Parker Weekly, Page 13

MORALITY IN ACADEMIC INTEGRITY The Dilemma of Where to Draw the Line

By Molly Taylor

After sitting through hours and hours of the PSAT a few weeks ago, I was in desperate need of a good laugh. Logically, I entered a Google search for memes about the test to find jokes made and shared by thousands of other high school students around the world. As I scrolled through posts about electromagnetic bees and neighborhood chat rooms, smiling, I still felt some hesitation — hadn’t I promised not to participate or support the dissemination of information about the exam just hours earlier?

Before taking the PSAT, I, along with other high school students around the world, signed a pledge promising to keep its content confidential—we promised not to make memes. Yet, they popped up across the internet in the following days.

The justification? The contract was unreasonable, that memes don’t really give

anything away about the test. Students didn’t make them to cheat, they made them because they thought they’re fun, lighthearted, and harmless.

But who are we to decide?

Maybe the consequences of a joke are basically nonexistent. Maybe the College Board was overreacting.

The fact is, though, that we still broke a promise.

The problem mostly lies in that we students give ourselves the authority to determine which rules are worth following.

Many of us consider ourselves about the law. We let our personal opinions influence our actions, regardless of our previous

commitments.

But when we’re guided by our morals, which vary from person to person and can be flawed, it’s hard to define a line. Most Parker students would agree that copying the answers to a test is unacceptable. But what about sharing the level of difficulty or general content of a test with a friend who has yet to take it? What about Googling a translation of a reading for your foreign language class that you tried but couldn’t seem to understand, or reading Sparknotes instead of the actual book because you didn’t have time?

Though my teachers have stressed the importance of avoiding each, I see these situ-

“When we’re guided by our morals, which vary from person to person and can be flawed, it’s hard to define a line.”

ations play out fairly regularly—almost as if they’ve been normalized by the ease and unlikeliness of being caught.

The reason that these common violations occur isn’t that Parker students are immoral cheaters, eager to break academic integrity standards. It’s that generally we’re diligent students who care about our grades. Many of us are busy, and we’re not always able to study enough or devote the time to an assignment that it deserves.

Some of us just might be lazy. Regardless, if there’s a small action that can make our lives a little easier, we take advantage of it —as long as we don’t think it’s too wrong.

Still, Parker students must be conscious of the fact that we aren’t exactly qualified to determine what’s right or not. We should consider not only the explicit consequences of our actions, but also what our defiance reveals about our character.

CLASSROOM DISCOMFORT

How Students Unrightfully Take Credit For Others’ Ideas

By Leila Sheridan and Julia Auerbach “Did you notice that?”

This is a common phrase we often find ourselves saying to one another in the classroom setting.

The first time we recognized ourselves saying this phrase was when I, Leila, raised my hand in class with a confident answer to another student’s question. I was immediately called on by the teacher and as soon as I started to explain my response, a male student interjected in a louder and more powerful tone. He then got credit for my original thought simply because he heard what I was saying and was able to say it louder. However, the teacher did not call out this interruption, but rather applauded the male student’s answer.

I, Julia, automatically recognized how the male student stole a female student’s thoughts. I quickly preceded to point this out to her, specifically the fact that our teacher failed to call out this behavior. Instead, our teacher only acknowledged the male student for coming up with “his” answer.

After talking, we came to the realization that this form of intellectual theft hap-

pens quite frequently in our classes and more prominently in our advanced classes.

Teachers frequently are not calling out this behavior which allows for it to continue.

This along with the fear of being judged for a wrong answer contributes to female hesitation to actively participate with confidence and assurance in class.

An evident product of people feeling uncomfortable or uncertain while in class is up-speaking. Up-speaking is when people end their thought in a higher voice than they had been speaking in before. By finishing speaking in a higher voice or question-like tone, it allows room for error. If a student states something with assurances they may feel more uncomfortable or embarrassed if they were incorrect. However by reformulating one’s statement to sound like a question allows other students to recognize uncertainty and decreases pressure from the person who made the initial comment. We’ve noticed that those who up-speak are normally females.

There are always quiet students, both male and female. However, amongst the normally outspoken “confident” students,

STOREFRONT VACANCY rent, but the rent’s not the biggest cost,” Continued from page 11

any dislike of the location but just because the realtors told her the space was no longer available. “At first they said yes, but then it turned out it didn’t work out,” Bissell Cordova said. “I’m not exactly sure why -- I don’t know who’s going in there.” The realtors, she said, did set them up with other space in Andersonville, which is managed by the same group. “We get a good deal on

Bissell Cordova said. “A lot of the cost is staffing it. It’s a big venture, so you need to have people who are there consistently.

They’re not making money on this, but it’s been empty for so long, and they were very happy, we were like, ‘Hey, we can breathe some life into this.’”

Overall, Darin says real estate in Lincoln Park, both around Parker and generally, is thriving. “This specific part

males usually speak with more assurance than females.

Although not every boy contributes to an environment where girls feel uncomfortable sharing their opinion, we have noticed that it tends to be boys who interrupt girls and “steal their thunder”. Perhaps, they view this behavior as humourous, or they have an inner desire to always be correct, but many girls interpret this behavior of “jumping in”, and cutting girls off, to mean that their opinion is meaningless.

When someone laughs out loud at your answer, it can be rather impossible to distinguish whether they are laughing “with you” or “at you.” Every individual internalizes feedback from a situation differently, whether the feedback is verbal, physical, or social. Many girls have experienced a situation where a guy has laughed at them in class after they made a comment or wrote an answer on the board. The reality is that no matter how benign the intentions of the guy, the girl in some way or another internalized this laughter or mockery as negative feedback. They choose not to share their comment or write something on

the board again for fear of the same thing happening.

For the past few weeks, we both have noticed these behaviors happening at least once in each of our classes, and everyday we have done our best to call it out and have conversations with people about the environment created.

When it comes to our experiences, we have recognized males taking the ownership of female’s knowledge more often than females doing so to males. This is not an issue unique to Parker or even school in general. This is a growing issue throughout society and the only way to overcome it is to call out intellectual theft and any other unfair treatment. We need to make people aware that small interjections or amplification of ideas are not minor issues. We need to address what is going on when we see it in class or see it in the entertainment industry. No matter where we see unfair treatment, we must speak up, raise questions, and create change.

of Lincoln Park is kind of more off the beaten path,” Darin said. “Obviously you have Parker here but a lot of the retailers and tenants want to be closer to Clark and Fullerton. This is a little far away from that so that has been one of the issues. But for the most part, Lincoln Park is pretty lively.

There’s a lot going on. There’s a lot of new deals happening. It’s pretty vibrant. There are lots of new developments in general.

You have Lincoln Common, which is just under construction. There’s about six acres of mixed use, so there’s going to be

residential as well as retail. That’s going to be really invigorating to the neighborhood.

There’s a lot of new retail in the Armitage corridor. One of the more struggling areas is definitely Halsted. That’s probably where you’ll see your most vacant storefronts.”

The Parker Weekly, Page 14

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Perspectives

PARKER POST-POLITICS

Comparing Life After Elections in 2016 and 2018 On Wednesday November 9, 2016 Parker held classes, but also held group therapy sessions. Throughout the halls, students, teachers, and parents were crying, embracing and looking as if they hadn’t gotten a minute of the sleep the night before.

“Students collectively mourned the results of the election,” senior Grayson Garelick said. “Tears could be seen in each hallway, and even teachers seemed a little shook that day.” Many classes were cancelled. Every minute, two friends would find each other for the first time that day and hug each other, stronger than most Wednesday mornings.

The school stopped. “After the 2016 election, the environment at school was pretty somber and sad,” senior Annette Njei said. The normally lively halls of the school had been rained on.

In 2016, Donald Trump won the Presidential election, and Republicans took control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. These results were seen as a surprise, as most polls suggested the results would be different. A common misconception is that the polls were wrong. They were not. However, they did favor Hillary Clinton and the Democrats.

J.B. TAKES IL

Continued from page one

Parker parent and the 43rd Ward Democratic Committeeman has known Pritzker for more than 20 years, after she met him in Washington while working on Capitol Hill. According to Moog, she encouraged Pritzker to run after Hillary Clinton lost in the 2016 presidential election. “I was a very early supporter,” Moog said. “I helped him organize the lakefront community and the women’s community and did some outreach with other local elected officials.”

Moog is also in agreement with Pritzker’s policies. “I just think his priorities are exactly what the state needs,” Moog said. “I think J.B. is going to work with republicans and certainly work with Democrats to help make the state a better place.”

Additionally, this election provided an opportunity for learning for both the Pritzker

By Natalie Daskal

This only added to the shock factor. “It was just so surprising,” freshman Eli Moog said. “No one really saw it coming, and so people were rattled.” For the past two years, the topic of polling generated a great debate. Some people trust polls, and understand the margin of error. Others blame the polls for the 2016 outcome.

This year was different. The night went similarly as predicted. The Democrats currently have gained 37 seats in the house, and Republicans have gained two seats in the Senate. Additionally, a few governor’s mansions were flipped, like in Illinois, where Democrat JB Pritzker unseated incumbent Republican Governor Bruce Rauner.

Following this year’s midterm elections, the mood throughout the school was different compared to 2016. No one was crying in the hallways. No teachers were cancelling class to talk about their emo-

tions. The community just went on as with any other day. “Everyone was super happy, no one was crying like in 2016,” Moog said. “It just wasn’t much different from a normal day.” School continued as usual.

Few would argue that the Parker community leans right, so the drastic difference between these two days at school are not especially surprising. “This year, I personally didn’t notice a change in terms of the environment at school,” Njei said, “but I know that some students were really happy about the outcome.” Around the building, people were having conversations about the election, which, for the most part, were positive. The negative comments were generally about the Senate, as people chattering were more pleased with the outcome of the House.

The school stepped in heavily following the 2016 election, from class cancellations to watching Hillary Clinton’s

family and Parker.

“Sometimes I would come to campaign events with him just because it’s a really cool opportunity I have, and it’s a really interesting experience, and to see all the different parts of the state,” Teddi Pritzker said. “You see this whole campaigning and politics through a different lens by being a part of the family.”

It also provided an opportunity for the students.“I think that in a positive way it might show students what is a public figure, running for elected office -- what does it take, how does one get involved in local politics or state politics, or national politics, what does it mean to run a campaign,” Frank said. “I think it overall, regardless of the political party that the person represents, it gives the school the opportunity to have students learn about what it means to be an engaged citizen and leader.”

This victory also resulted in excitement and hope for his family and friends.

“I’m most excited about watching my dad help the people who need it most, and it just makes me so proud of him, that he decided to run for all the right reasons,” Teddi Pritzker said. “He saw a problem that needed fixing.”

Moog said, “I think that he is a person who is going to work and fight to make change.”

When Pritzker takes office, he still hopes to have an effect on Parker’s community.

Pritzker said, “I hope the effect of my governorship on Parker will be to improve the standards of living and opportunity for people across the entire Parker community and create more and better educational and job prospects in Illinois for Parker graduates.”

“The school stepped in heavily following the 2016 election, from class cancellations to watching Hillary Clinton’s concession speech”

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE Continued from page 12

expansive and constrictingly tiny. Two minutes later, I was spit back out into reality, dizzy and impressed. I called my editor, asking him to write about the museum for this issue.

“Is that, like, an Instagram museum?” he asked upon my description of wndr. The term Instagram museum has recently risen to prominence in light of places like New York’s Museum of Ice Cream or Chicago’s (now closed) Happy Place. Ranging from criticism to praise, public perception of

these “Instagram museums” often revolves around the question “is it art?” These museums are often judged as catering to those who crave nothing more than a photoop with a neat background and cool lighting.

I decided to ask Carlos Pineda, a purplelab coat wearing wndr Ambassador, what if he thought wndr qualified as an Instagram museum.“We do want to move away from the idea of a traditional art museum where you’d just be looking at something,” he said, shrugging. But is it art? “I think… I think it’s just genuinely a good time.” I have to agree.

STUDENT GOV. Continued from page nine “and just making sure that all the things are set in stone prior to...Senate meetings.

Njei is additionally excited about the successes seen from an advisory standpoint.

“Ratifying Ms. Elliot and making her a new faculty advisor for student government was a big success on our part,” she said.

Njei is excited for the year to come.

“I think just making a stronger connection with the Administration with continuing to have our weekly Friday meetings with Mr. Brandon,” Njei said. “Seeing how the

concession speech to student government initiatives aimed at expressing the fears of the coming administration. Less was said this time around. Spirits were expected to be higher from everyone.

However, the tense partisanship around the building leaves a few openly conservative students in the limelight in political situations, such as the days following big elections. “I was surprised when people came up to me in 2016 to congratulate me about the election when I didn’t have a horse in the race,” Garelick said. Garelick first made his political opinions known to the school when he challenged former Illinois Governor Pat Quinn on taxes during a Morning Ex. When every person in the school takes a single side, and a couple differ away, it creates a highly divisive culture where not every voice is heard.

Parker looked much different the Wednesday following the 2016 election than the one following this year’s elections.

The democrats success influence the mood of the school. There may have been a blue wave, but Parker’s blue wave of tears was left in 2016. At least for now.

FWP B-BALL

Continued from page six

especially because the games usually are just as interesting and competitive,” Keim said.

“I think it would be a good idea to do two separate games as that would also provide fans two more opportunities to come and support our school.”

Most recently, the girls team is coming off a victory against Senn and have started the season strong. As for the boys, they kickoff their season Thanksgiving weekend, playing in a tournament at Fenton High School. Don’t forget to go out and support the Colonels, as both teams are expecting great seasons.

Administration wants to continue to build the relationship with the student body is something that I am continually working on improving.”

“I think Annette is doing a really, really great job,” senior Hannah Kershner said.

“She really keeps people in check when they are being disrespectful in Student Government, and I think that is especially what we need in a president. She also brings up really great ideas to Student Government, and it has been really really fun so far, and I am enjoying her work.”

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Freshman Fixings

The Parker Weekly, Page 15

THE FRESHMAN VISION STATEMENT

Let’s Wait...Writing At The Beginning is Too Soon Change is Good: Students Should Write the Vision

By Emma Manley at the Start of the Year

At the start of the 2018-2019 school year, freshmen were asked to write a statement that shows the Parker community how our grade wants to be regarded as Upper School students. The vision statement is a Google Doc, signed by the grade stating: the class of 2022 will try to be aware of our behavior, create a space for discussion, and be responsible for our mistakes.

In previous years, the statement was required a response to bad behavior such as rude comments or repeated violations of rules. Instead, this year, the statement was written before any bad behavior happened.

It seems like the administration is not letting us learn from our own mistakes or mature as students in an effective manner.

Head of Upper School Justin Brandon and Upper School Dean of Student Life Christian Bielizna requested that the statement be created. At the start of the school year, freshman gradeheads Upper School Science teacher Ryan Zaremba and Upper School English teacher Cory Zeller sent out an email to the grade asking for student volunteers to work on the vision statement.

As the administration strives to create opportunities for freshmen to learn from their actions, this is not the way it should be done. Having the freshmen write this statement preemptively shows that we aren’t trusted to become more mature students on our own. Each class seems to have a new rule set for them based off of the behavior of the prior class. In sixth grade, the class of 2022 was not able to eat outside in the courtyard at lunch because of mistakes made by past sixth grade students. The class of 2022 being required to write the statement before any displays of bad behavior is yet another way that the freshman class has been affected by mistakes made by other grades.

The gradeheads continually tell us that we are now mature high schoolers, but the request to create the vision statement limits our ability to learn from our mistakes.

As we are supposed to be developing into more mature students, this feels like the administration doesn’t trust us to change.

I don’t disagree with what is written in the statement -- it says we acknowledge the fact that we won’t always be perfect, but we will be considerate and respectful of others while holding ourselves accountable for our own actions.

The statement is meant to hold us accountable for future actions. As a grade, we won’t be able to learn from mistakes if we are being told that our actions contradicted what was written in the statement.

I fail to see how using the statement as a preventive action for bad behavior will be effective.

I can tell that by the time we return from Thanksgiving break, students – even those who wrote the statement already will have already forgotten what the statement

said, let alone writing it.

If someone is arguing about another student’s opinions and not giving that student space, it’s not going to occur to them that they are violating the class of 2022 vision statement.

I sent out an informal, anonymous Google form to the freshmen class, and one of the questions asked whether the statement will be effective in preventing bad behavior. There were 37 responses, and only one response said the statement would be effective. Thirteen students gave a definitive no, and the last 23 answered that the statement will possibly be effective.

Students were given a chance to give input on the statement during a graderoom.

They wrote down ideas and thoughts that should be incorporated into the vision statement, which was then compiled into the statement. Though most students attended that graderoom, many students, including me, attended Students of Color.

This decreased the input given by students who identified as a student of color. The statement would represent more of the grade had the students who attended SOCA been given a space for input.

Eleven freshmen students: Jackson Antonow, Gianni Baglivo, Jacob Boxerman, Alex Carlin, Sammi Coleman, Eli Kraft Moog, Reed Rodman, Sophia Rogers, Star Rothkopf, Cas Spencer, and Tess Wayland, worked on the statement over the course of two graderooms. These students voluntarily chose to write the statement on behalf of the rest of the class of 2022. Though the whole grade was given the opportunity to write the statement, most did not.

The rest of the students had to do was just type their name at the end of the document. Though everyone signed the statement, if someone did not, they would have had to talk to Mr. Brandon and Bielizna.

Typing your name on the document was the only thing that was required to agree to the statement. This isn’t ensuring that each and every student read the statement fully or at all, which decreases the effectiveness of the statement.

As each grade follows in the footsteps of older students, the vision statement is another way the administration is shifting consequences to younger grades and decreasing trust in students. The statement is an ineffective way to hold students accountable for their future actions. The process of writing the statement fails to recognize us as individuals and does not require each and every student to read and understand what is written in the statement.

Having freshmen write the statement before bad actions shows that freshmen are assumed to make the same mistakes each year. This shows that we aren’t trusted to change and mature, and the only solution to that was to make us write a statement that won’t even be effective.

By Talia Holceker For the last two years, the freshman grade heads and the administration made the decision to have the 9th grade class write a vision statement for their grade after something happened that was inappropriate.

The approach of writing this statement before an action takes place will, in the long run, work better. Entering into high school and not having a clear outline of what your grade’s reputation is, will allow too much inappropriate behavior.

For those who do not know, a vision statement is something an individual or group of people use as a guide for how they should act and accomplish their future goals.

The writing of the vision statement started when the current junior class were freshman. After a display of immature and disrespectful behavior by a group of students, the Assistant Principal Ruth Jurgensen and at the time acting Head of the Upper School knew something had to change.

Jurgensen partnered with English teacher Cory Zeller and Science teacher Ryan Zaremba, who are the 9th grade heads, to have the freshman class write a vision statement determining what their grade wants to be known by. The statement included their grade’s goals, values, and how they will treat others within the Parker Community.

They expected the students to follow the statement and stand by it, but after another year of writing the statement after bad behavior occurred, the administrators realized it might not have the outcome they wanted.

In an effort to make it more effective for my freshman class, we wrote a vision statement at the start of the year to set boundaries and goals for the next four years of our high school career.

In contrast to past years when only a small group of volunteers wrote the statement for their grade, our entire class was given the opportunity to express their thoughts for what should be on the vision statement. During grade room one week, my classmates used a Google Doc to write down what they wanted to see on our class’s vision statement. Using the Google Doc as a guide, a large group of student volunteers wrote the class’s statement which voiced everyone’s ideas. It is beneficial to have everyone’s input because that way there is a better chance the grade will abide by the statement.

The only way to be consistent from year to year is to have a clear outline of what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior which means the statement should be written at the beginning of the year rather than after something happens that is deemed inappropriate.

Personally, I don’t find the vision statement as a helpful guide for how I act in high school. I automatically follow the spoken and unspoken rules of high school after being at Parker for eleven years. although I do understand the reasoning behind the administration reminding incoming high schoolers what their expectations are. By each individual signing the vision statement, it is a clear indicator that they respect and honor what the statement says and how it can benefit the student body.

I believe it is important for the administration and grade heads to try and stop issues before they occur. Why have a method implemented if it has no impact on the student body? The administration tested the writing of the statement after bad behavior happened and it was not effective, so why continue the same way?

I find it more likely that students would read a vision statement when they are entering and adjusting to high school because they want to make a good first impression on their new teachers and Upper School heads. Once students get comfortable, they might not care as much about their reputation and will possibly become careless in their actions.

When the vision statement is put in place as a new class enters high school, it allows for a written document that the grade heads and administration can cross check to make sure that grade is fulfilling their responsibilities as members of the community.

I briefly read and signed the vision statement, but it is hard for me to say so early in the year if it will actually change my behavior as a high school student.

After talking to my classmates in the halls, many of them believe that the change of the timing of writing the statement is a reflection that the administration doesn’t trust us and doesn’t think we can act in a mature manner. I don’t think this is the case. Obviously, in years past the method they started with did not work, and the administration wanted to test out something new. By joining high school the students have an obligation to be a mature and respectful member of the Parker Community.

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The Parker Weekly, Page 16

Columns

WISDOM’S FOLLY Don’t Have a Dream School, Have a Dream

OPINES AND OPINIONS The Road Not Taken

By Oliver Marks

By Matthew Turk Last year, I read in SAGE’s journal of health psychology about research projects that revolved around purpose, work, success, and overall fulfillment from life. I found a salient pattern: Subjects who had high levels of “purpose” in their lives or careers also had sleep health and willingness to make healthy choices, which leads to a longer life. Personally, I assess purpose by using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a theory in psychology first proposed in 1943.

It prioritizes everything from basic physiological necessities to advanced social desires like belonging and esteem. However, the idea of purpose over a long-term, decades-long life can become blurry and abstract for a high school student at Parker.

Even an excelling student may come across as confident, cocksure, and gregarious, but the reality is that a successful person can have a sensitive soul, and be damaged and unsure of their place in the scheme of life or philosophical reason of existence. Alterations or unexpected twists and turns on the way to the college of your dreams can paint a stark outlook on the world.

For instance, when I was in middle school, I watched my sister go through the college application process at Parker, and it was not glamorous. For the longest time, members of my extended family would ask if she would go to Stanford like her father.

Even though these interactions were seemingly small, they took a toll on my sister. I could tell that she had grown sick and tired of having her buttons pressed for years: being asked about college, living up to expectations, and being plagued by ruminative thoughts day and night while simply trying to be a teenager. And that all happened before decisions came out. It is a shame that an integral part of the development of the world’s youth — college admissions — can loom over students and dominate every ounce of their consciousness.

In the United States, access to higher education is has been increasing. More students are trying to squeeze themselves into the limited seats of selective colleges, an accomplishment that would seemingly make his or her chronically stressful high school experience a tangible one. Consequently, as the number of students applying to selective universities increase, the acceptance rates of these universities decrease.

In 1988, Ivy League school Columbia University had an acceptance rate of 65

percent. Currently, their acceptance rate is a mere seven percent, illuminating the frenzy that students and parents experience while applying to colleges. With the human population, college enrollment rates have overall skyrocketed from 26 percent to 41 percent over the past three decades as students from all over the world come into the United States for their education. The class sizes have hardly changed.

This competitive environment created for high school students implores them to believe that they need to stand out in order to be accepted because education is now shown as more of an elite luxury than anything else. The selective universities have developed a highly subjective method of determining who they want to fill their classes. They use race, gender, income, and legacy as a means of creating a diverse and well-rounded class. Rejecting students merely based on trivial characteristics such as those can be detrimental to his or her mental health and can cause anxiety, chronic stress, depression, and even suicide.

I have seen too many students mull through the hallway like cattle, reconciling the hard truths that I already know. You can almost see the impositions that loom over their heads. It pains me to have to navigate through so much pessimism. Students need more encouragement to follow what they are truly interested in and to stop comparing themselves to peers. The pressure that is currently afflicted on high school students hurts them a lot more than it helps them, especially in a high-performing meritocracy like the United States, where tragic failures or even average people can stick out like sore thumbs.

So I will leave you with this: purpose in life must not be entirely influenced by only our status or statistics, work ethic, discipline, intellect, humor, attractiveness, or likability, but also our interests because those interests alone make you a valid person. Interests are also what make life worth living. Without a healthy dosage of pleasure, you are nothing more than an empty corpse, trudging through the logical steps of life. No matter who you are, it is hard to know where you are going if you do not know where you have been and where you have come from, so I encourage anyone who reads this article to think of your passion and to pursue it because no one has the right to hold that against you.

My Saturday night began like most others. After making plans last minute, the norm for me — a few quick taps on my phone were all I needed to get me where I needed to be. I entered my current location, then the address where I wanted to go, clicked “confirm” and I was on my way.

Precisely four minutes later, as promised, my Uber driver was waiting for me outside my front door in his 2015 grey Chevy Malibu.

I opened the car door and asked, “are you Steve?” He was wearing sweatpants and a hoodie. In one hand was a coffee and the other was the wheel.

“Yup,” he replied. “And are you Oliver?”

“Indeed I am.” So I hopped in, expecting nothing more than a fast trip to my destination to meet up with my friends. Then he began to talk…

After some small initial pleasantries, he opened up to me about his experience serving in the United States Army. He started by telling me about his time in Afghanistan. He recounted chilling stories about being at the front lines and how glad he was to have served our country. Then he turned to me (only for a moment because he was driving) and asked, “Have you ever thought about joining the Army?”

He continued before I had a chance to answer, giving me his pitch as to why I should enlist the military. “Right now in your life, you may think you are on the right track and are disciplined,” he said, “but until you join the Army you won’t know the meaning of discipline.”

“Did you know eight percent of our military is actually foreign born?” he asked. “Does that make any sense to you?”

It truly didn’t.

That’s when I realized it had never even occurred to me to join the Army. I began to ponder the issues involved. What were my beliefs about our country and its place in the world? What did I think my responsibilities were as a U.S. citizen? Was I afraid?

It was a lot to consider in a six minute car ride on Saturday night with a complete stranger. It made me realize the most in-

teresting conversations can come from the most unlikely sources, even Ubers. It turns out that Uber rides have become a reliable place for me to ponder important issues and questions.

One of my favorite Uber rides began with a simple question and answer. “Hey Oliver, how are you?” John asked.

“I’m good.” I replied. “How about you?”

“I’m ecstatic.”

From there, this casual Uber drive turned into a conversation regarding life, the genuineness of the people in the Midwest, and my driver’s recent life decision to move across the country.

He had just relocated to Chicago from San Francisco and began to tell me about the transition. He noted how people in Chicago were much more genuine than those of San Francisco. “People in San Francisco get in the Uber and immediately put in earbuds, and even if they had a conversation with me, it just felt fake,” John said. “But people here, you for example, get in and actually have a real conversation and I can tell you’re nice people.”

That last part stuck with me. I started to think of all the people I know who don’t even greet their Uber drivers when they get in. Why would they do that? Doesn’t it feel awkward to be silent?

But I guess to most people it’s more awkward to have a conversation with their Uber drivers than to not say anything at all.

I admit, it is awkward to start a conversation with a complete stranger, knowing that in 10 minutes you will never see them again. But maybe that should encourage you to have a conversation with them. No matter what you say, in 10 minutes it won’t matter. If you don’t talk to them, you might miss out on a very interesting conversation.

You will most likely go your entire life never crossing paths with this person again, so what’s the harm in talking to them. Every once in a while you might have an eye-opening discussion with them, sometimes they might give you life advice, and sometimes they might have a different perspective to offer on events.

“It made me realize the most interesting conversations can come from the most unlikely sources, even Ubers.”

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DEVIL’S ADVOCATE

Columns

The Parker Weekly, Page 17

In Defense of Administrative Restrictions

By Felicia Miller

Nearly every student in the high-school is of the same mind: Parker’s administration puts too many restrictions on its students. No student would disagree that our administrators exert a lot of control over certain aspects of student life. But, perhaps they have good reason to do so.

The weekend before Halloween, the entire high school received an email from Upper School Dean of Students Christian Bielizna detailing restrictions on costuming at school. Among his rules were blanket bans on blackface, religious garb, native headdresses, and “scary” costumes.

He also requested that students do not “dress as a gay figure if [they] are not gay”.

I am doubtful that any student would object to his ban on blackface. This is certainly an appropriate (if not absolutely necessary) rule, providing protection to students of color. I, and probably most other students, would be extremely concerned if blackface was allowed on Halloween, even under the guise of allowing unrestricted student expression.

The bans on religious garb and native headdresses are slightly more interesting to

discuss, but ultimately their ban would still be considered appropriate use of administrative power by most Parker students.

Requiring that all high schoolers avoid “scary” costuming is where we start to get into dangerous territory. Many students will contend that the banning of all things scary is far too broad, requires students to dumb down their costume choices far too much, and gives administrators unrestricted ability to strike down anything they dislike under the guise of “scary.” It is important to remember, however, that we attend a Pre-K through 12th grade school. The administration has an obligation to protect all members of our community, and that includes the lowerschool.

Part of the allure of our school is how community oriented it is, and that includes having high-schoolers and small children seeing each other on a daily basis, even if only when passing in the halls. Our annual

Halloween parade provides for even more interaction, and we have to be mindful of that. Is it really worth insisting on wearing your Scream mask if it gives a six-year old nightmares?

The costume restrictions that Bielizna provided are not without flaws however.

Most notably, he explicitly tells students, “Don’t dress as a gay figure if you are not gay.” Read at face value, this restriction seems to be weirdly asking students to not dress as any famous person who happens to be gay. No more Tim Cook or Ellen DeGeneres costumes for us.

With the proper rephrasing, this restriction could be far more thoughtful. “Don’t dress as a sexuality,” or, “Don’t caricature any person’s sexuality with your costume,” would both be preferable alternatives. Not only do these rephrasings clarify the intentions of the restriction, but they also expand the single identity of “gay” any and all sexualities that might be mocked.

“Is it really worth insisting on wearing your Scream mask if it gives a six-year old nightmares?”

And, while we may face Halloween costume restrictions, the clothes we wear everyday are almost entirely unrestricted.

Sure, a student might be asked to change if they literally showed up without pants on, but generally we have free rein. I have seen things that would certainly be dress coded at other schools, from jeans with butt rips to obviously transparent shirts. It seems that the administration knows that this is not a place where they need to add restrictions. They are thoughtful in what chose to restrict and are not just piling on the rules for fun.

In general, the restrictions the administration places on Parker’s high-school students are justifiable. Certainly, some of them are ill-conceived and executed poorly, but they have good intentions. They understand the special role that high-schoolers play in a Pre-K through 12 school, but also that we need to be able to freely express ourselves. I’m not saying Parker’s administrative restrictions are all fair, but at least they’re thought out.

CARLIN’S CONVENTIONS

How Does Parker Balance Tradition with Its Progressive Mission?

By Lindsay Carlin

Watching the Halloween parade this year, I couldn’t help but reminisce on my own time walking through Parker’s hallways, decked out in my Halloween costume. Each year I looked forward to making my appearance (as Cinderella, Supergirl, a referee, a spider witch, and a peppermint) for the “big kids,” teachers, and other school faculy. Marching through Parker’s shining halls with my classmates, I felt important.

This year, though, as I observed the parade, I noted, with a tinge of sadness, a perceived lack of enthusiasm from every party involved. Perhaps it was the lack of dressed-up Upper School students or the fact that the long, snake-like line was constantly breaking apart, forcing students to run in their heavy morphsuits or cardboard box costumes to catch up with their peers.

But in my mind, the most likely explanation was the gradual decay of yet another Parker tradition.

Corinthians. Piece of the House. County Fair. The Halloween Parade. The Thanksgiving Morning Ex. Twelve Days. School years at Parker, it seems, are landmarked by the various traditions observed by the

school community throughout the year. If the Blue Calendar were to be completely erased save for traditions, which have been in place for twenty or more years, the majority of the calendar would remain intact.

However, as an institution that labels itself seemingly relentlessly as “progressive,” Parker must continually make an important choice: sacrifice the preservation of tradition in the interest of keeping up with evolving politics and ideas, or keep these traditions unchanged at the expense of its progressive identity.

Evidence of this decision is reflected in the school’s day-to-day operations and in the gradual shifts of tradition over the years. Some changes are simply implemented because they are logical and parallel societal development, such as the increase of videos in the Thanksgiving and Twelve Days Morning Ex. Some are the result of heightened political consciousness and correctness: the introduction of other religious passages into the Corinthians Morning Ex, the elimination of various County Fair booths, and the repeated shutdown of Senior Pranks for the past few years.

Changes to traditions within the walls of 330 W. Webster are met with varying degrees of resistance from students. As a thirteenth-year Parker student, I miss the various traditions that have been reduced to memories for my classmates and me, who’ve spent our weekdays at Parker since Junior Kindergarten, and I’m willing to admit that I’ve been guilty of grumbling on more than one occasion when a teacher or administrator announces the removal of a tradition intertwined with my upbringing.

But more recently, my perspective has begun to shift. Awareness of the lessthan-innocuous origins or histories of certain Parker traditions—whether or not the school’s intentions themselves were pure—is undoubtedly important in the community, and it is something we lacked for a long time.

Don’t get me wrong—I identify myself as a Parker tradition-lover through and through. Even as the novelty wears away with my age, I still find myself smiling and participating in the majority of our traditions, however unconventional.

The only change is my heightened consciousness of the cultural appropriateness

of the traditions as they pertain to a everchanging society. And while I do think that the administration has become too sensitive as it pertains to certain traditions— both those I participated in and those I looked forward to—I maintain that there is beneficiality in discussion of the background of traditions in our community.

In recent years, the discussion surrounding our school’s traditions has become too polar, seeming more and more like a war between the students and the administration. Although reconciliation may not be possible, both parties should attempt to more effectively communicate their points of view so that they can reach a mutual understanding.

Parker’s progressive mission does not need to be undermined by the school’s various traditions and vice versa. Through open conversation, perhaps we can find middle ground between the complete abandonment of traditions for the sake of political correctness, and the preservation of traditions at the expense of cultural appropriation.

The Parker Weekly, Page 18

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The Opinion Pages

EDITORIAL

SYA UPDATE

By The Parker Weekly

By Abri Berg

It’s Okay to Make Thanksgiving Political Tomorrow, families across America will gather to break bread. From Connecticut to Charlotte to Colorado to Chicago, Thursday represents a rare moment of calm in our oft-overwhelming nation.

This year’s news cycle has been exhausting – a never ending cycle of New York Times pop-up alerts and breaking CNN headlines. In the past twelve months, our nation has watched the proliferation of #metoo and mourned the violence of Parkland. We witnessed a historic meeting between the United States and North Korea and said goodbye to Senator John McCain.

In an era defined more powerfully by controversy than agreement, many consider the Thanksgiving table a place to set differences aside. This reasoning encourages Americans to forget political ideology and enjoy the company of family, dismissing beliefs and biases in favor of potatoes and pumpkin pie.

The broad difference in age – at times, race and religion – and lived experience regularly represented at Thanksgiving dinners in households from Maine to Maricopa County all but guarantees that political conversation will lead to disagreement.

Contention begets confrontation and confrontation begets conflict, all but guaranteeing that your Thursday meal won’t survive long enough to serve apple pie.

While thoroughly in favor of all flavors of pie, “The Weekly” is thoroughly opposed to avoiding Thanksgiving’s inherent difficulties. Thanksgiving is a time to tackle uncomfortable conversations rather than avoiding them altogether.

As journalists, our Editorial Board stands firm behind the conviction that the best way to resolve speech is with more speech. One gains nothing from ignoring those with whom they disagree.

More than ever before, Americans are avoiding dissent.

A 2015 study from James G. Gimpel of

the University of Maryland, College Park and Iris Hui of Stanford University asserts that political party affiliation can change the desirability of a neighborhood by upwards of 20 percent.

2014 survey data from Pew Research Center states that 27% of Democrats and 36% of Republicans see the other party as “a threat to the nation’s well being.” After conducting an overview of the 113th Congress, researchers at the University of Georgia wrote that “polarization is now at a post-Reconstruction high in the House and Senate.”

We face an unprecedentedly divided America, one which will almost certainly be represented at your Thanksgiving table.

Choosing to avoid difficult discussions with loved ones is to be wilfully negligent, contributing to our national echo chamber.

When the Bears play the Lions, don’t be afraid to mention Colin Kaepernick.

If the recent midterms elections come up during Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, don’t steer conversation away. Families can engage in civil discourse without tarnishing meals.

This Thanksgiving, do not cower in the face of discomfort. Don’t politely dismiss your grandfather if he says something with which you disagree and don’t excuse yourself to use the restroom should your aunt begins preaching her less-than-typical views.

Lean in. Recognize that you can challenge those with whom you disagree without being disrespectful or “ruining dinner.”

This Thursday, “The Weekly” encourages you to approach your family gatherings with a mind toward discourse. Instead of ignoring or avoiding those with whom you disagree, engage. Don’t force political conversation, but don’t run away from it either.

Happy Thanksgiving.

STUDENT PRIDE Continued from page ten

their Halloween costume than block off an entire category of costumes. “We could learn from it and understand why it was bad, who it hurts, and we’ll try again next year,” Garg said. “An automatic takedown of something we didn’t discuss it wrong, and you can’t just close the door on the issue.”

Pride Committee Heads agree that their job as both an affinity group and a club is to inform students and answer questions.

When others enforce rules on Pride, such as the Halloween restriction on costumes, the Heads are left not knowing why and are unable to answer questions or concerns of students, though Bielizna hopes Committees will contact him with any concerns. “The reason for Pride is for us to talk about issues

and questions, and we do know a lot that’s going on in the community, but we have discussions for a reason,” Wagner said.

“They made rules without consulting us, and when people come up and ask why they can’t dress up, we didn’t make the rules so we can’t answer.”

Pride Committee voiced their concerns to Bielizna and drafted an email with him for next year’s Halloween. And, Garg acknowledges, junior boys can still dress up as Ariel (as junior Rob Currie did this year), but donning a boa and proclaiming yourself as gay is where the stereotypes become dangerous.

Un Día en la Vida

Hola! My name is Abri Berg, and I’m a junior at Parker spending my junior year abroad through SYA Spain. For the past three months, I have been living with a host family in Zaragoza, the fifth largest city in Spain located in the north, and attending an American school comprised of students from international schools and American students from all around the country. Here’s some insight into what a typical day in my life looks like: 7:30: The upbeat, cheery sound of “At the Beach” blares through my iPhone 8 speaker, signaling to me that it’s time to begin my day. I reluctantly roll out of my cozy grey ombré comforter, slip into my zapatillas, and start my morning routine. I am slowly adjusting to wearing my house slippers at all times since it is not customary in Spain to walk around the house barefoot.

7:50: I walk one room over into the kitchen for my daily breakfast of a café con leche and pan con aguacate made by my host dad, Fernando. Avocado toast isn’t a typical morning meal you’d find around here, but it’s one my host dad, host mom, Encarna, and host sister, Coral, enjoy before heading out the door. I’ve heard from some of my friends that for breakfast they indulge in cookies and churros with chocolate, but extreme doses of sugar in the morning is a trend I’ve yet to catch onto.

8:05: Luckily, I have the luxury of living right next to the tranvia, a modern and over-ground train that runs on tracks, the most functional and practical form of public transportation in Zaragoza. My family’s apartment is located outside of the center of the city and my ride to school takes anywhere from fifteen to twenty minutes. I leave thirty minutes before my first class starts just in case I happen to miss the first tram and have to wait for the next one. A lesson I’m in the process of learning is how to run on time––not my usual five or ten minutes late, especially now that I travel mainly by public transportation. The tranvia will leave you if you don’t make it in time and no amount of knocking (or puppy eyes) will persuade anyone to open the door for you.

8:20: The tranvia comes to a firm stop at Plaza Aragón, so I hop off and quickly cross the street into a mini park located outside of the SYA school building. Chicago built up my resistance to the cold, so I often get away with a light fall jacket. I stroll along, smiling at the old man who sits with his old brown dog on the same bench every morning, and arrive at school.

8:30: I greet my friends in the sala and head to my first period class. I am enrolled in six classes in total, four of which are taught only in Spanish. I take two history electives– –“Contemporary Art and its Roots” and “Contemporary History of Spain through the Lens of its Cinema.” In these classes, we utilize oral discussions to practice

our conversational skills and visit local museums and monuments that relate to the time period in history we are studying. I also take “Spanish and Latin American Theater: Analysis and Performance,” “Precalculus and Advanced Topics in Mathematics,” and “English.”

Currently, we are practicing for our show right before winter break. We just received our roles and now are memorizing our lines (in Spanish, of course). Every student is required to take a Spanish language class which is focused on improving grammatical skills, practicing pronunciation, and expanding our vocabulary. My homework is challenging and takes me longer to complete than at Parker because the majority of it is in Spanish. SYA’s block schedule grants me at least one free period a day that I use to work on homework and meet with teachers.

10:15: After two fifty-minute classes, it’s time for my favorite part of the day: descanso. Descanso, which directly translates to “rest,” is a thirty-five minute break period in the middle of the morning that occurs every single day. I head out with my friends and walk around the block to our favorite coffee shop “El Criollo” to grab my second café con leche of the day or a pastry.

10:50: I finish up the last sip of my coffee and head back to school. Descanso is ending, and now it’s time for three more classes before lunch. This is probably the most challenging stretch of classes since we eat lunch 13:30, a custom in Spain I am still adjusting too.

13:30: I hang up my backpack and grab my coat out of my locker before heading out the door to lunch, which is an hour long.

No one brings their own lunch because it’s included within our tuition and there is no cafeteria in the school building. Instead, the school gives us the option to eat at any of the four restaurants they have a contract with.

The one that is closest to school is El Rinconete. It serves a well rounded plato del día with typical Spanish food such as tortilla de patata, salad with tuna, croquettes, and some sort of meat or fish. Memel is also nearby, which allows you to choose an appetizer and an entree, they also have amazing bread. Fray Juan is a little bit of a walk but completely worth it and serves bocadillos, hamburgers, veggie burgers, huevos rotos, and salads. The last restaurant, Jalos, is nearby Fray Juan and a renowned favorite amongst the students here. They offer a wide range of options, anywhere from falafel dish to a vegetarian burrito.

I try to visit each of the restaurants once throughout the week.

14:40: Lunch ends and I have two more periods before school is over. The last period ends at 16:30, which seems a little intimidating at first, but I only end school at that time on Mondays and Thursdays.

Continued on page 19

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Continuations

The Parker Weekly, Page 19

HUMANITIES FESTIVAL

ADAM SMOLDER

of the partisanship spirit displayed on the television to Capitol Hill. “I worry right now because being in politics in these last couple decades or so for many people in Congress, you don’t feel that sense of fulfillment of bipartisanship, getting legislation through that’s changing the face of the country the way people felt in the ‘60s,” Goodwin said.

“The combination now of the complete paralysis in Washington, the need for raising money, and spending four hours every day for these stupid campaigns.”

Paglia and Goodwin both discussed the importance of studying the humanities.

Paglia, who regards herself as the creator and inspiration for women’s studies curricula nationwide, frequently chastised the movement of “second-wave feminism”— the movement she describes led by activist Gloria Steinem that, among other things, pushed for gender equality in employment.

Paglia’s primary criticism was the movement’s “focus on the horrors of man.”

“Only weak women can’t acknowledge men,” Paglia said, eliciting applause from the audience.

To Paglia, no reassurance exists that

the awfulness she associates with secondwave feminism will disappear. Secondwave feminism was far from Paglia’s only criticism of the left. She discussed gaps in left-leaning policy including various gaps in women’s studies curricula nationwide—for which she believes she is not culpable.

Goodwin, unlike Paglia, is sanguine about political and social affairs, discussing the insights of her recently deceased husband Richard N. Goodwin—who served as speechwriter for President John F. Kennedy, President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Senator Robert Kennedy. “The most important part about what he was writing,” Goodwin said of her late husband, “is, ‘I’ve lived through the Depression, lived through World War II,’ he had been with Kennedy when Kennedy died, he was with LBJ and saw the war eat things up, he was a great friend of Bobby Kennedy and was with Bobby when he died. He’d seen all of these terrible moments in American history, yet he’d seen us come through. He said, ‘We’ve had these ups and downs, but in the end America is not as fragile as we think.’”

of the Internet could help Parker expand its horizons. “The first thing I thought was, well, we have to register a domain name for Parker,” Smoler said. The Francis Parker school in San Diego had already registered francisparker.org, thus, the next best thing was fwparker.org. Smoler sat on the third floor in the computer room working to figure out external factors and determining the seemingly endless list of rules, and before the end of his senior year independent study, he was able to witness the launch of Parker’s first website.

Although Smoler got the ball rolling with Internet connection and the Parker website, Wessman believes that Parker must continue to take great strides in order remain up-to-date with modern technologies.

“While we are a place where we like to say that we are very technologically advanced, and we do a lot of spending in terms of that, there are a lot of ways in which we are deficient,” Wessman said. “For example, there is only one coding teacher who can only do so much. Coding is a language.

There are multiple language teachers for every other language at Parker so, with

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coding soon being at the forefront of all jobs, Parker should be increasing the number of coding teachers.”

Smoler, along with actors and musicians who ignited their career on the Parker stage, began to develop passion and drive early on in high school — virtues he was able to utilize in his career. “He [Smoler] got me thinking about how Parker sets each student up to experience life unconventionally. You know, it’s not always one path,” sophomore Alex Schaprio said. “It’s also interesting to think that the impact I have on the classroom and on my community as a teenager has the potential to alter the rest of my life.”

“One of the things I am very fortunate to have had at Parker was the ability to find something that I was curious about, and was allowed the freedom to keep running with it,” Smoler said. “That’s what got me in the door at Google.”

ABRI IN SPAIN SYMPOSIUM Continued from page 18

Continued from page four

MORE WES MOORE

On Fridays we have a half day of school which is always a great way to start off the weekend.

16:30: My last class ends and now it’s time for after-school activities. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays I have field hockey practice with a local club team consisting of girls in high school and college from the U.S., Spain, Belgium, and Holland. I’ve enjoyed practicing the sport and my Spanish with the locals my age and learning new skills from the college students on my team.

20:00: The hour at which I return from my afternoon activities varies every day but it is usually around this time. I head to my room and try to finish up any homework for the next day that I did not have time to complete during my free periods.

21:30: Dinner! There’s a whole history as to why Spaniards run on a later eating schedule that I looked up during my first week while impatiently waiting with a growling stomach until dinner. Once every member of my host family is home from evening activities, we head into the living room and sit at the dinner table. My host dad loves to cook and some of the most common dinner items he prepares for us are fresh salads, roasted vegetables, fish, potatoes, and vegetable soup. Postre is always fruit, one of my favorites being mango, which takes so much better here than it ever did in the States.

0:30: I finish up the last of my tarea and lay down in bed. I give myself a couple minutes to catch up with some friends and family back home before double checking if my alarm is set for the next morning and

there was space to converse with other students of color about the experiences I had in and out of the classroom,” Vidale said.

Now, the symposium in New York hosts 250+ participants.

In the preparation leading up to the symposium, Vidale visited MOCHA to try out an exercise that later appeared in the symposium. MOCHA Head Chad White liked how the discussions didn’t narrowly focus on men of color. “I was really happy that they touched about questions like ‘how do we support our female counterparts?’”

White said. “Not just, ‘let’s focus on ourselves,’ but ‘let’s also talk about other people, and how our relationship with them is impacted because we are a man of color.’”

White looks into the future of MOCHA after the symposium. “[I want to make] it feel like MOCHA is a place that you might need,” White said, “instead of a place where you stop by and get food.”

Laboratory School eighth grader Kenneth Peters benefited from being around people who shared the same obstacles as him. “It’s crazy to realize how there can be so many people that have the same experiences as me,” Peters said. “It was interesting to see how we have problems with the same things but we’ve never met each other before.”

Looking into the future, Childrey wants to recognize women of color’s needs as well.

“I think it’s important for men of color to get together,” Childrey said, “but there’s also a population of women of color too, who I think we really have to address their needs as well.”

resilience is incredibly valuable.”

Together, Brandon and Moore shared the story of Moore’s childhood, filled with challenges and stories of strength, beginning with when they first met. “Wes and I attended the Riverdale Country School starting in third grade together,” Brandon said. “We were two of very few students of color, and our mothers met and immediately wanted to connect the two African American boys in the grade. Luckily, it stuck.”

As the friends clicked through pictures of school plays and graduations, talking about their relationship through the years, the crowd roared with laughter and ‘awwed’ at several moments. “Some of the most complicated times of my life Justin [Brandon] was here for,” Moore said.

“That’s my man for life.”

Brandon began by discussing their original bond, which rose from shared experiences throughout lower and middle school. “It wasn’t easy for us,” Brandon said. “We had to navigate growing up in the South Bronx, where the signs were half in Spanish and half in English, and going to a predominately white school in a completely different neighborhood.”

Moore agreed. “We took two trains and a bus every day getting to and from school. A really good day for us was when the biggest thing we had to think about was how we would do on our test that day, like the rest of our classmates. But there weren’t every many days like that.”

“There were other, bigger questions that we were focused on everyday,” Moore said.

“It became really complicated because for many of our friends in school they didn’t

Continued from page one

understand the reality we had navigating.

And for the kids in our neighborhood, they didn’t understand why we thought we were ‘too good’ to go to our neighborhood school.

So we felt foreign. Everywhere we went, we felt like outsiders.”

Brandon felt this story was an important one to share with the student body. “When he [Moore] was talking about his experience going to an independent school in New York City and travelling and code switching, I looked around and saw a lot of people in the auditorium nodding and agreeing silently.

That is a shared experience at Parker, and it is nice to feel validated hearing something similar from an an adult.”

Junior and Men of Color Heritage A ff i n i t y ( M O C H A ) A l e x B e n n e t t appreciated Moore’s words. “Hearing him speak at the conference was both comforting and motivating for me because he talked about how, as black people, we belong everywhere, even when it doesn’t feel that way. Going to a place like Parker, that is something that’s really important to hear.”

While sharing personal stories from the Bronx, military school, and later in the army, Moore reminded the audience to be thankful for the people who have sacrificed for them. “In seventh grade, the dean of students at Riverdale Country school told Justin not to associate with me. He said: ‘you don’t want to end up where he’s going to end up.’ If people like my mother, my grandparents, and Justin [Brandon] hadn’t sacrificed what they did for me, I would not be where I am today.”

The Parker Weekly, Page 20

DESCRIBE YOUR DREAM PARTNER? “Someone secure and open minded enough to be comfortable as the intellectually inferior partner in the relationship.”

Use your Parker Google account to sign-in at weeklysno.fwparker.org

The Backpage SINGLE OF “THE WEEKLY”

Parker’s Most Eligible Bachelorette

WHAT’S YOUR IDEAL DATE? “11/3/16 (12:30 A.M.)”

WHAT

S H O U L D YO U R F U T U R E

IS

YO U R

“Someone who will stick with me through it all. Like, anyone can send you memes when times are good, but who’s gonna send you memes when things get rough?”

F AVO R I T E

IS YOUR CELEBRITY CRUSH?

H A T

A R E

WHAT’S

YO U R LOV E BA L L A D ?

YO U

TO

“Taxxx Evasion.”

WHAT IS SOMETHING PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU?

THANKFUL FOR THIS YEAR? “Concealer.”

The farther you are from sea level, the less oxygen reaches your brain. I’m 5’10”. Do with that what you will.

@ALLYCLAIRE1

“Don’t be scared off, I promise I’m attractive on the inside.”

JOHN ORI ALLYFUNTIME123

What’s

out?

Illinois

Michigan

pods

juul

air

ancestry

.com

whiteboards

illegal ians

shayne

fcd

late-night snacks

white castle

potstickers

fundraising

the library

the basement

weekend venues

basements

bat mitzvahs

hot “weekly” (wo)man

Griffin Kass

Julia Marks

7th commandment

WA N T

WHAT IS YOUR STAGE NAME?

Y O U

@ALEXXORI

DO

“‘This Concludes the Morning Ex’ by Eli Moog”

“Jerry from “Tom and Jerry.” I’m really into the chase and the height thing has never been an issue.”

W

WHERE

MEET YOUR SOULMATE? “Probably somewhere romantic. Maybe the alley behind PetSmart. Or, like, jail.”

R O M A N T I C M O V I E ?

“The American Airlines Safety Instruction Video. There is something about a pilot talking about safe water landings that makes me really… I don’t know…”

WHO

“We get kidnapped, but they end up taking us somewhere exotic, like Taiwan or Tijuana––one of the T’s. We get a free trip without having to drop coin on airfare.”

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR IN A RELATIONSHIP?

PA RT N E R S K NOW A B O U T YO U ?

“I’m kinda like a scalding bath. Once you get used to me, I’m not so hot anymore.”

WHAT

DESCRIBE YOUR IDEAL HONEYMOON?

in?

Tr y o u r n e w o n l i n e f e a t u r e ! U s e y o u r P a r k e r G o o g l e a c c o u n t t o s i g n - i n a t w e e k l y s n o . f w p a r k e r. o r g .