Merionite April 2017

The Merionite

Ardmore, PA, 19003

April 19, 2017

The official student newspaper of Lower Merion High School since 1929 www.themerionite.org Volume 88, Issue 5

LM and Webster Elementary dub for donations Claire Ochroch ’18 Arts & Entertainment Editor While many of the students of LM are privileged, right across City Line Avenue there are several schools who are less fortunate. LM’s Student Council recognized this problem and decided to direct its spring fundraising efforts to support one of these struggling schools: John H. Webster Elementary School.

The efforts began with a school-wide school supplies drive. Webster Elementary has 55 faculty members for 1000 students.

The school has such a small budget that it has to choose between hiring teachers and buying school supplies. Knowing the impact that teachers can have on students’ lives, the school often chooses teachers over supplies. Consequently, the teachers have to purchase supplies for classrooms using their own money. This LM fundraiser sought to relieve some financial stress from these teachers and improve the learning conditions for the students. Student Council President Jessie Epstein ’17 explained, “It was not the choice of these children to be born into a school district that doesn’t provide them with the opportunities and materials they need to get a good educaPhotos by Jacob Bucko tion. Don’t let their luck of the draw dictate LM stars of the lip dub met with their lives.”

Two LM advisories were paired up with the students of Webster in order to rehearse their dance moves.

a specific classroom at Webster which would directly receive their donations.

Students in these classes at Webster sent handwritten letters detailing the exact supplies that their rooms needed. They asked for anything from colored pencils to glue sticks to brooms. Sophie Roling ’18 described, “The letters were so touching! I think LM students should really take what they are saying to heart because these kids are facing disadvantages in education firsthand.”

In addition to the craft drive, the largest fundraiser Student Council planned was a school-wide lip dub, similar to the 2014 lip dub. On April 18, students and teachers from Webster Elementary came to LM to film the lip dub, alongside LM students and faculty. Almost every club, organization, and sports team at LM lined the hallways, representing all of the amazing opportunities LM has to offer. However, this year, the stars of the song were the students of Webster Elementary, who each danced to lines with senior buddies from LM. In order to prepare for this event, students from LM went to Webster to teach the students the lyrics and choreography to the song “Hold My Hand” by Jess Glynne.

Please see LIP DUB on page 4

Model UN journeys to Panama Euna Carpenter ’19 Spring break came a month early for a lucky few LM students. On March 8, nine students flew south to Panama City, Panama, as a part of the Philadelphia Delegation, a local Model United Nations (MUN) Club. The students attended the Harvard Association Cultivating InterAmerican Democracy (HACIA Democracy) Conference.

The Model UN conference was created

by Harvard University students in the hopes of strengthening the connection and awareness of real-life problems in Latin America, and providing a forum for students to help tackle problems through democratic government simulations. In alignment with their goal, the conference has committees based in Latin America like the Organization of American States (OAS)

and crisis committees based on famous Latin American events, like the Sandinista Cabinet.

This year, LM students had the opportunity to represent either nations or figures in the Pan American Health Organization, the Brazilian Senate, the Center for English Language and American Culture, the OAS, the Inter American Court of Human Rights, and the Press Corps. Molly Gonzales ’17 noted, “I had such an amazing time representing Trinidad and Tobago and debating at the conference this year.”

Her committee debated two topics: HIV in Latin America and access to maternal health care in Latin America. After days of debating, they passed a resolution to reallocate funding and create community education programs.

The choice to hold the conference in Panama was deliberate; since it is intended to bring together people from across the Americas, it is always held in a Central American country. Last year, the conference took place in Costa Rica, and it has previously been held in Mexico, Guatemala, and Ecuador. Gonzales explains, “getting to travel for Model UN is such a great opportunity,” and she was particularly fond of Panama because it “was definitely the most incredible place I’ve ever been. It’s so beautiful, interesting, and rich in culture!”

This year, the Philadelphia Delegation was one of two delegations from America, with the other 35 delegations coming from countries across Latin America such as El Salvador, Nicaragua, Brazil, and Mexico.

Please see MODEL UN on page 4

Hughes upholds GET policy Ziwen Zhou ’19 LMSD has been one of the nation’s most progressive schools in terms of its stance toward recognizing and accommodating gender expansive and transgender (GET) students. In March of last year, the School Board passed a broad and sweeping policy that helped address the needs of GET students.

LM was a pioneer, since only five other schools in the state had similar guidelines in place. In addition, the policy was passed unanimously and met with widespread approval throughout the school district.

However, President Trump’s new directive calls for a removal of federally protected GET rights in schools.

These protections allow students to use the bathrooms of their choice, which the Trump administration cited as an overreach of Title IX regulations that prohibit gender discrimination. This directive repeals that of the Obama administration, as it completely voids the guidelines that had previously been set into place for schools to follow.

Instead, it leaves the treatment of transgender students entirely to the discretion of the state and school systems themselves.

Despite the changing regulations of the federal government, LM has made clear its unequivocal decision to uphold its transgender policy. Principal Sean Hughes and School Board members quickly agreed to retain the policy, citing our school’s morals and philosophy as a place for everyone no matter what. In fact, according to physics teacher Nora Christman, one of the writers of the policy, it didn’t need to be revisited at all, for LM’s guidelines were penned prior to both President Trump’s directive and former President Obama’s directive.

Christman explained that she is in support of the school’s decision to uphold the policy and hopes that Trump’s new directive “will encourage other schools to make their own policies.” So far, the policy has panned out well, with the common consensus among students being that it does a great job of making sure that “all students are treated and considered equal regardless of their gender identity or orientation.”

Photo by Mary Pat McFarland

NEWS Aces’ Accomplishments

A&E OPINIONS The dos and don’ts of effective Hana Holquist: Drag Queen teaching

Read about the impressive achievements of a handful of LM students. page 2

Cristina Bermudez ’17 presents a critique of certain teaching methods from a student’s perspective. page 8

FEATURES The Incomparable Contassot Take a look into the life of one of LM’s most beloved teachers. page 10

SPORTS All work no play: LM sports over spring break

Learn about alumna Hana Holquist, an up-and-coming drag queen and Matt D’Aquila ’17 describes the dedication of LM athletes for their designer in New York City. respective sports over spring break. page 12 page 22

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News

April 19, 2017

The Merionite

Aces’ Accomplishments Liz Paul recognized for leadership Dora Nathans ’18 News Editor It is not everyday that a LM student is interviewed on NBC Philadelphia after winning a prestigious award for their leadership skills. On March 23, junior Elizabeth Paul received the Widener University High School Leadership Award, making her one of just 172 winners across the Delaware Valley area.

Paul was originally nominated by her guidance counselor Colleen Miller. Miller spotted Paul’s leadership qualities through her officer position in buildOn. Paul has further leadership experience within her job at local pottery-painting studio, The Mud Room, and her six-year commitment to “Adventure Treks,” which consists of outward-bound summer adventures through wilderness areas. Miller then gave Paul a link to the application website, and Paul wrote an essay about how she displays her leadership qualities.

Paul describes her essay as focused on the fact that leadership “is not about telling people what to do,” but instead about “being a part of making any given task happen in the best way possible.”

A bit later, Paul received an email announcing she had won the award—a huge honor considering the scope of the applicant pool. Even more excitement ensued when she learned that she had been selected from the pool of winners to appear on NBC Philadelphia alongside a former winner, Theresa Kash.

On March 21, Paul’s live interview aired on television, during which interviewer Tracy Davidson asked Paul about the nomination process as well as how it felt to win. Paul explained, “Finding out I had won the award was the most amazing email I have ever received!”

A few days later, on March 23, Paul

and the other winners were honored at a banquet, which was held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. During the banquet, President of Widener University Dr. Julie E. Wollman presented each winner with an official certificate of leadership. In addition to the certificate, Paul and the other winners were awarded a $20,000 scholarship to Widener University if accepted. The winners have been entered into the Oskin Leadership Program in which they can apply for a minor in leadership and find opportunities to enhance and develop their leadership skills. While reflecting, Paul exclaimed, “The entire experience was surreal and I feel so honored to have been given this award!”

Photo courtesy of Liz Paul ’18 In her televised interview, Paul discussed why she applied, and also had the opportunity to speak with a former winner.

Oral language success Caleb Shack ’19 On March 7, multiple LM students competed in the James J. Doyle Oral Proficiency Contest at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School, and Zack Slogoff ’18 brought home a silver medal to LM after his performance in the Japanese competition.

Along with Slogoff, additional LM representatives included Gabriel Brodeur ’20, Ethan Spingarn ’19, and Lexi Cutshall ’18 accompanied

by Spanish teachers Myra Rios and Nico Severini and Japanese teacher Hanae Nakamura. These students were hand-selected by their foreign language teachers for demonstrating exceptional speaking abilities in their classes. This competition hosted about fifteen schools totalling around one hundred students in total. The students were examined in divisions based on their level of proficiency (beginner, level one, level two, level three, or advanced) and language category (Chinese, French, German, Japanese, or Spanish), holding around thirty students per division.

All the students gathered in the cafeteria and were then placed in hallways, awaiting their turn to enter a classroom for their oral exam.

Contestants were examined in a two-minute interrogation from foreign language professionals, with the questions varying in difficulty based on the division of each student. After

everyone was examined, two finalists were called from each division.

Slogoff explains that, “The interview process was definitely a bit scary.”

Anyone who takes a foreign language knows how stressful oral examinations are, but in order to succeed, Slogoff attempted to stay relaxed and act like he was having a normal conversation. “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to hear my name called, but when I did, it felt really good!”

This language competition was quite new to the LM students who competed that day. Brodeur describes, “Going into the contest, I really didn’t know what to expect as I wasn’t a part of any competition of this sort before. I was just intrigued and excited to see who I was going to be competing against and what the experience was going to be like.”

LM students have competed in sports, music, and clubs before, but the James J. Doyle Oral Proficiency Contest was one of the first competitions that tested LM students’ ability to speak the second language they learn at school.

Slogoff notes that his achievement would have not been possible without the outstanding teaching ability of Nakamura. He exclaims, “Sensei is a phenomenal teacher. I’ve learned so much since September, and I thank her so much for this opportunity!

Arts and writing skills shine Jess Gordon ’20 Though LM shows no shortage of awards in the STEM area, competitions and awards in the humanities are rare. However, this past month, LM students had a chance to showcase their talents by achieving Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards. These awards are an annual opportunity in which the works of students in grades seven through twelve are ranked by an esteemed panel of judges. Submissions for the competition open in September and close in December. Students from LM compete against other students from the Greater Philadelphia area.

The pieces are initially sent to the Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership and judged by esteemed artists and writers in our area. There are many submissions; last year alone, 255,000 pieces were submitted, with a mere five to seven percent winning a Gold Key award. The awards that students can receive include Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention. Gold Key winners’ works are sent directly to the national competition in New York City to be displayed in the Art.Write.Now National Exhibition.

Each year, LM students are the proud recipients of many awards, and they continued their success this year, winning 22 awards in various categories. Olivia Bartrand ’19, Molly Cutler ’19, Dahlia Edwards ’19, Tiffany Nieh ’18, Marly Rubin ’19, Aviva Schuh ’19, Colleen Wang ’20, and Sihan Wu ’19 won Honorable Mentions for their work. Cutler, Edwards, Nieh, and Wang won a Silver Key for “exceptional work.”

Lastly, two LM students brought home the Gold Key prize: Wu for Digital Arts and Michael Cheng ’18 for Poetry. “It was amazing to have received the gold key award!” Wu said, “It was my first time submitting an entry for the Scholastics and I was genuinely surprised. I really appreciate the judges and their acknowledgement, along with all the

people who supported my application.” Wu won the Gold Key Award with her piece entitled “Cosmos,” primarily drawn on Paint Tool Sai, and would definitely submit entries again in the future.

Of the Gold Key submissions, one thousand works are recognized at the national level by judges who are experts in the field, with past judges including Judy Blume, Francine Prose, David Sedaris, and Robert Frost. Students are recognized in categories that include anything and everything from fashion, to digital art, to journalism. Virtually any form of writing or art can be recognized in the competition. Artists can submit work in Architecture & Industrial Design, Ceramics & Glass, Comic Art, Design, Digital Art, Drawing & Illustration, Editorial Cartoon, Fashion, Film & Animation, Jewelry, Mixed Media, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, Video Games, or a Portfolio. Writers may submit work in multiple fields including Critical Essay, Dramatic Script, Flash Fiction, Humor, Journalism, Novel Writing, Personal Essay & Memoir, Poetry, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Short Story, or a Portfolio.

LM students tend to do particularly well in the competition, and English teacher Brian Mays attributes the success to the fact that “our students are very driven, and it comes down to applying in the first place.

It is a rigorous process that not all students are willing to do.” Teachers also encourage students to submit their work, and a little push goes a long way. For example, Cutler was originally inspired to apply in eighth grade when “[her] challenge teacher recommended the awards as a great opportunity,” and has applied every year since then. With nine students receiving a total of 22 awards, it was another successful year for LM in the Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards.

Little (Lego) league Molly Cutler ’19 Arts & Entertainment Editor In order to teach valuable skills related to STEM fields to younger students, LM members of TSA and Dawgma ran the Junior First Lego League Expo this March. On March 18, about 45 kindergarten through third graders from throughout the district, gathered at Penn Wynne Elementary School to share their Lego dioramas they had created. This year’s theme was Creature Craze, so as part of the challenge, teams had to select an animal that could share an environment with a bee.

Along with their visual project, a Lego Model with one robotic component, students had to prepare posters displaying their research. To cap off their achievements, they presented their projects to a panel of LM student volunteers, who were serving as judges. Other LM students led a robotics station for the participants to visit over the course of the day, helped with registration, gave out awards, and assisted in keeping the children engaged.

The event was organized by sophomore Julian Ginzburg who had been planning the 2017 program since September. He followed in the footsteps of alumnus Olivia Johnston ’16, who in 2015 turned the event from a parent-run to a student-directed competition. Ginzburg worked with Nancy Acconimessa, the STEM supervisor for Lower Merion School District elementary schools, to distribute information about the upcoming event, and to gather and prepare the materials involved. A website, updated by parent and former coordinator Darrel Herbst, was made available so parents could sign their children up to attend, and Ginzburg also created documents for the judges to use.

The response from parents and students was overwhelmingly positive, and many commented that the tournament was well organized and very

efficient. “Kids are really excited to do this again next year,” Ginzburg said, and due to that feedback, the organizers are planning to host another Junior First Lego League competition. Ginzburg and Acconimessa, alongside some parents, are also thinking about expanding the age range of participants so that fourth and fifth graders can be involved as well. This discussion emerged from the disappointment of many of this year’s third graders who might not be able to be engage in a STEM competition again until they reach middle school.

Ultimately, Ginzburg reflected that “the most rewarding part of the event was definitely seeing how much fun the kids and parents had preparing their Lego Models and poster and showing off their work to student judges.” He added that “it’s really cool see how much interest these kids have in STEM, and think that one day they might be doing my job.” He hopes that an LMSD Junior First Lego League competition will continue to be a regular occurrence that both the elementary schoolers and the high school volunteers can enjoy.

Photo courtesy of Nathaniel Chin ’19 Ginzburg oversees as TSA and Dawgma judges assign awards to each team.

News

April 19, 2017

3

The Merionite

Third floor’s new libraries

System.out.print(“Code LM”); Kathy Yao ’18

Yuliya Abakumova ’19 For any student who would appreciate a casual environment in which they can borrow books from a more robust selection, an opportunity is emerging. Come next fall, LM students and faculty will see a few “collaborative zones” on the third floor turned into “mini libraries,” where students can have quick and direct access to books they need and want.

The idea for the libraries emerged last November at an inservice day for teachers, during which the English department decided it would be beneficial to create a few small, donation-based libraries for students to use and enjoy. However, the mini libraries are not designed as “separate or distinct from the school library,” but instead as “extensions” of those resources, as English Department Chair Brian Mays explained. The libraries are expected to be stocked next fall, and will be located in three spaces: the corner by the third floor DPC, the corner by English teacher Jim Keenan’s room, and the corner between the rooms of English teachers Deborah Gavin and Aimee Ferguson rooms.

The work of creating the libraries is still in process: the shelves have been purchased, but still need to be stocked. In terms of obtaining the books, the English department will reach out to students and the community and ask them to donate any books, old or new. With the stock being entirely donation-based, the range of titles should be vast and, unlike the main library’s, essentially unrestricted. The department is hoping especially for student donations because, as Mays explained, students should be “much more aware of the titles that engage [their] peers.”

A big difference between the “mini libraries” and the regular li-

brary will be the system of checking out books, as the the former will use an honor system. Considering the fact that not all the books can be monitored, students will be expected to borrow and then return them honestly. Annabelle Van Rawley ’18 explained that she is excited about the library, but apprehensive about the honor system. As she explained, “I’ve seen this type of system work at ‘Little Free Library’ on Overbrook Parkway,” but that doesn’t mean that students wouldn’t still “forget about or lose” the books they borrowed. As Mays explained, while there is always the possibility of students forgetting or losing a book they borrowed, “the donations will be collected periodically, so we can restock the shelves as necessary.” The hope is that if a student fails to return a book, they can simply donate a new one.

This library is expected to encourage students to borrow books because of the casual system. As Clare Gonzales ’20 explained, “sometimes I’m discouraged from checking out books from the library because I know there is a deadline, so I think these mini libraries are going to be super useful.” In addition to the opportunities the mini libraries present, they also reflect an effort to unite the community. As Taylor Drabick ’18 states, “It’s a thoughtful idea to integrate this system of book sharing into the school community.

Hopefully it will be beneficial for the student body.”

Overall, the new libraries present an opportunity for students to casually borrow books that they’re interested in. Assuming the community can responsibly handle the honor system, and that adequate donations are made, these libraries could make a great addition to the third floor collaborative zones.

There are a couple hundred students at LM AP Computer Science course starting next school who take classes in a unique field: computer sci- year.” ence. Computer science classes are fairly indeIn order to compete in the Code LM event, stupendent, but once a year, students have an op- dents needed to pass “try-outs,” where they had portunity to come together and collaborate in an to write code for three different scenarios. Once event called Code LM. the participants were chosen, groups of three On March 8, 25 LM students competed at were then formed: one student served as the Code LM, which “typer” and two took place in students, “writthe LM library. ers.” Even if The event, students had sponsored by not passed the Susquehanna tryouts, many Internationvolunteered and al Group, was helped run the started by Noah event on March Rubin ’17 during 8. his sophomore Prior to the year. Max Rolcompetition, ing ’17, one of students worked the planners of dilligently to the event, deprepare for the scribes, “The big day. They event is all Photo by Sam Soiferman ’18 spent their time about raising writing their Students from over ten different schools awareness for own questions compete in quickly and accurately solving three computer sciand solving problems about the fictitious technology ence within our them. For Rucompany New Wave. community and bin, he worked allowing students to creatively solve problems on the website to ensure that everything was using it.” Up until last year, the competition was equipped and running smoothly for the big day. only between LM students. Code LM has since Aside from the students, other individuals have expanded to include around 100 students from been spending a lot of their time organizing the ten different schools. event as well. Roling praises, “Mr. Swope has Rubin was inspired to create Code LM after he devoted an incredible amount of time and effort attended a similar event that he really enjoyed. to help us make this dream a reality, and the deHe wanted to share his experience with more stu- velopers from SIG were always eager to help out dents. So, as a final project for his AP Computer whenever possible.” Everyone worked incredibly Science class two years ago, he came up with the hard prior to the competition to ensure that it all idea of Code LM. During the first year of Code went as smoothly as possible on meet day.

LM, Rubin solely directed the event, and only a The Code LM competition was divided into few LM students competed. However, because three levels: intermediate, advanced, and expert. the students who had participated had enjoyed In every level, teams were given three problems the event, Code LM has grown in popularity with that they needed to solve. The competition is almost 100 LM students competing, in addition always based off of a common backstory. This to the non-LM students who joined last year. “It year, the story was about a fictitious technolois really great that the administration is so recep- gy company called New Wave. Because of their tive of ideas to expand computer science at LM,” unprecedented growth and new notoriety, New says Bennett Smolen ’18, “including support of Wave is a target for other competing technology Code LM and the introduction of the new post- companies. The Code LM competitors needed to Please see CODE LM on page 4

buildOn returns from Haiti Nikki Simonson ’18 LM buildOn has officially returned from its anticipated trek to La Civette, Haiti to build its sixth school abroad! LM buildOn traveled to Haiti two previous times (to the villages of Taverne and Menard), to successfully assist in building two other schools.

Together, eighteen student buildOn volunteers and three adult chaperones traveled to Haiti for nine days, April 1 to April 9, to construct a school alongside members of the community. Families who have children that will attend the new school hosted the students in their homes. Sarah McConnell ’18, a previous trekkie from last year’s Malawi trip and LM buildOn Vice President, explains, “Staying with my host family was an experience unlike any I have ever experienced before. I was nervous to stay in a complete stranger’s home, especially with the language barrier. I will be honest, it was a little awkward at first, but they were so welcoming and giving from the start that I felt like a part of their family by the end of our trip.” The team did not know which member of the trek team they would be living with until they arrived at Philadelphia International Airport. This allowed the students to truly bond with their other team members and together, immerse themselves in the community and experience the Haitian culture directly.

The team also received the opportunity to learn about the Haitian culture through educational workshops when they were not working on the construction site of the school. In past trips, the volunteers met a Voodoo priest, learned to weave baskets, worked in the agricultural fields, and discovered the roles of women in society. Lizzie Diacik ’19, who attended the trek to Malawi last year, remembers, “We visited a couple of people’s farms and they showed us some common crops and how to harvest and cook them. Overall, it was an amazing experience and definitely the best week of my life.”

The buildOn team has worked extremely hard to raise over $70,000 for their trip. They held many fundraisers throughout the school year to ensure that they reached

their goal. Gabby Van Hollander ’18, one of the participants, describes, “It’s been pretty challenging getting people to continue to donate, but we have tried to be creative.” For example, buildOn held a coin drive fundraiser, where the “trekkies” had two weeks to collect as many coins as possible.

Photo courtesy of Jen Chiappardi buildOn Trekkies held a variety of fundraisers, such as a Rubber Duck Race organized by Sara Chiappardi. This event was held at Shortridge Park, where community members purchased rubber ducks to race downstream. buildOn also organized a rubber duck race, in which students purchased and raced their rubber ducks for a prize.

Trekkies sold Linvilla pies, breads, and donuts to students and teachers at school as well as community members. Erica Salutric ’18 said, “The bread was delicious and a great way

to support buildOn!” Furthermore, two trek members, Josie Blumencwejg ’18 and Mollie Katzen ’19, organized an ergathon and arranged multiple email campaigns for donations. A number of local restaurants and shops designated a percent of their sales to buildOn as well. All of their hard work and marketing efforts enabled them to reach their goal.

Not only did LM buildOn travel to Haiti, but Harriton buildOn sent a group there as well. However, Harriton buildOn completed their project in a different part of the island, in a village called Platon Robert. As a result, LMSD students assisted in building two schools in Haiti in a matter of weeks.

Two LM students, Gina Golden ’18 and Barbara Peck ’18, both former LM trekkies, accompanied the Harriton students on their trek. Golden gushes, “Last year, I went to Malawi with LM, so it was amazing to experience the culture of Haiti this year. It was different going with Harriton because I don’t go to that school, but I am so happy I got to know my fellow trekkies!”

The service trip to build a school was more crucial than ever, due to the fact Hurricane Matthew swept through Haiti in early October 2016, causing massive destruction. The hurricane reached category four strength, bringing deadly wind and rain. In certain regions of Haiti, as much as ninety percent of each village was destroyed, the aftermath of which buildOn members witnessed first-hand. Approximately 175,000 people lost their homes and source of income due to significant destruction of the crops, livestock, fisheries, and agriculture plantations. Schools that LM buildOn had previously built in Taverne and Menard were actually used as shelter during the hurricane and afterwards as temporary housing, when numerous people were displaced.

The buildOn team was eager to depart for their trek to Haiti, which they had prepared for since October. Anna Goodman ’18, exclaims, “I am so grateful to have experienced the Haitian culture, bonded with the members of the community, and helped build the school!”

News

April 19, 2017

4

The Merionite

A Day Without Women Julia Rudy ’19 The saying “silence is golden” may be cliché, but after this event, the nation is experiencing that truth.

For years, women have been protesting for equal rights, from voting rights to reproductive rights.

But, on March 8, women took away their voices for a day in order to show the economic significance of women in the workplace. International Women’s Day is a critical day of solidarity that the world has celebrated since the early 1900s. This “Day Without Women” took place on that same day to further International Women’s Day’s cause.

Many women who participated in the Women’s March on Washington in January organized this recent strike. The main purpose of the event was to spotlight the economic impact that women have on our world. Women were encouraged to not work (whether it be paid or unpaid), to not spend money in stores or online, and to show solidarity by wearing the color red. This color, according to Tamika Mallory, a leader of the strike and a co-chair of the Women’s March on Washington, was chosen because “it signifies love and sacrifice, and is the color of energy and action,” according to Fortune.com. Organizers of this protest sought to draw attention to women’s issues in the workforce such as lower wages, gender discrimination, and sexual harassment. Theoretically, the impact of their absence should be enormous, given that investopedia.com states that women in the United States make up nearly half of the work force and influence 73% of all household spending.

Research predicted that since women account for $7.6 trillion of the Gross Domestic Product, one day without any spending would cause the US economy to take a hit close to $21 billion.

Many people in the LM community participated in the strike. For students, levels of participation varied from wearing red to school, to going all day without purchasing anything, to missing school altogether, or to a combination of the three. Many felt the strike was an incredibly empowering event and sparked intriguing conversation all throughout our area. Junior Molly Kaiser remarked, “I really liked the idea of the strike. It’s really important that the world understands the depth of women’s power emotionally, physically, and economically.” However, Kaiser did not agree with the date of the strike.

She continued, “I felt that promoting women’s absence in society on International Women’s Day, of all days, was contradictory to the message we should be trying to spread. I also felt it was contradictory to the message to ask girls not to go to school.” The issue of the date of the strike and how to participate was prevalent in conversation within the LM community. According to English teacher Laura Stiebitz, this communication is exactly what society needed.

“This year especially has been a very tumultuous year for social justice on all levels, and it showed that we have a lot of work to do as feminists and as people who are advocating for women’s rights. I can definitely see the mixed feelings about this strike in

Speakers on mental health Throughout the school year, health students at LM are exposed to a variety of guest speaker presentations about the four main units that the health curriculum covers: Substance Use and Abuse, Mental Health and Wellness, Sexuality, and Nutrition and Fitness. As health teacher Katie Pisoni describes, “Throughout this year, our goal is for tenth grade students to learn all about the resources LMSD and our community has to offer. Throughout our four units, we try to bring in speakers to enhance our curriculum.”

Between March 6 and March 8, all health students, 390 in total, had the opportunity to hear from three different speakers about the topic of mental health. Each of the speakers was from the Minding Your Mind, an organization whose “speakers deliver a powerful and effective message of inspiration and hope based on their shared journeys in coping with a mental illness issue,” according to the Minding Your Mind website.

There were many reasons why the Health Department brought in these speakers. One of the main reasons was to introduce students to “another perspective on mental health,” said health teacher Shari Roeder. Roeder also shared that this experience provides students with “a real faceto-face story as opposed to a ‘textbook’ lesson.” In addition to having an outside experience, these speakers helped students recognize or identify if they or someone else needs assistance.

On March 6, health students had the opportunity to hear from Jordan Burham, who shared his powerful story that involved attempted suicide. Since becoming a speaker on mental health eight years ago, he has been recognized as a national mental health advocate by many organizations that include Sports Illustrated, People Magazine, and USA Today.

They showed how mental health issues can control your life and how you can overcome [mental illness] and lead a successful life.

—Thomas Kline

Graphic by Vanessa Roser ’17

Panama trip Continued from MUN STUDENTS TO PANAMA CITY, page 1

Julian Ginzburg ’19 Copy Editor

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particular, but the important thing is that it generated dialogue.”

The strike’s purpose was to create conversation, and it indeed succeeded in accomplishing its goal.

Because so many students and faculty members at LM attended the strike, or participated in some way, more and more people will continue to learn and benefit from each others’ experiences. LM will continue to participate in advocating for gender equality in its Girls Empowerment Conference that will be taking place on April 22.

”

The following day, students had the opportunity to hear from Ali Tomlinson, a former Ivy League collegiate athlete who suffered an arm injury during a softball game. Sports had helped Tomlinson create an identity for herself and was her “only safe place.” Tomlinson emphasized throughout her presentation that if she had experienced this same presentation when she was in high school, she would have known she had a problem with handling stress and would have sought help.

On the final day, health students heard from Jon Burgwin, who experienced anxiety in middle and high school. Burgwin shared that he tried many ways to decrease his anxiety, but he started picking up dangerous coping skills such as drugs and alcohol. Burgwin, after he almost lost his life, turned to his family who helped him develop healthy coping skills.

The reaction from many students was quite positive toward these speakers. After watching one of speakers, Nate Stevens ’19 exclaimed, “They were awesome!” Health students also greatly learned from real-life experiences about mental health. Jackson Payne ’19 explains, “[The speakers] enhanced my knowledge on mental disorders, which benefited me and all the other students.”

Many students left the presentation having a radically different mindset on mental health.

While several students enjoyed the presentations, health teachers who are highly trained in the field on mental health also took away different lessons. Health teacher Thomas Kline explains that the three different speakers “showed how mental health issues can control your life.” He later goes on to say that these speakers showed “how you can overcome [mental illness] and lead a successful life.”

Overall, the recent presentations to health students on the topic of mental health have increased student awareness on this sometimes sensitive topic. By listening to people who have experienced mental illness first hand, students and teachers both took many positive things from these speakers.

The Philadelphia delegation included nine students from LM: Andres Bermudez ’19, Fiona Bruckman ’18, Lily Dayanim ’18, Molly Gonzales ’17, Adam Grossel ’18, Kathryn Lockwood ’18, Catherine McFarland ’18, Roxanna Pasquier ’17, and Emma Spaeth ’18. Lockwood reminisced, “My favorite part about HACIA was meeting so many kids from all over the world, and learning more about their cultures.”

LM students have attended this prestigious conference various times over the last ten years. Philadelphia Delegation president, Roxanna Pasquier, who attended the past two years, explained that “anyone with a passion for MUN or loves debate and foreign affairs should look into HACIA.” She went on to add that, “I always learn so much on HACIA trips.”

Code LM Continued from SYSTEM.OUT.PRINT(“CODE LM”), page 3 help the company stop the hack. Teams had to go to a website that Rubin created to receive the questions. The students wrote the solutions in three languages–Java, Python, and C++–directly onto the website.

Rubin had designed the website so that it immediately checked to see whether the code is correct or incorrect. The goal was to solve the problems both as accurately and as quickly as possible. Teams were ranked based how many they get right and the time they took to complete the tasks.

The event began at 8 A.M. in the LGI where an opening video was shown along with an explanation of the rules. After the brief introduction, teams were moved to the library where they began to work on the problems for about three hours. After all teams completed their code, an awards ceremony was held for the winners of the event. LM placed first in both the intermediate and advanced division and did very well overall.

The day initially started off with minor problems regarding the website and logging in. But, once the event resolved its issues, the day was a success. Rubin shares, “The competition was amazing! Everyone had a lot of fun and pretty much everything worked out. It definitely went much smoother than last year.”

Lip dub Continued from LM & WEBSTER DONATION DUB, page 1 Deepika Jonnalagadda ’17 exclaimed, “My partner Henry and I loved teaching our buddy the lyrics and choreography to the song. They were so excited to learn them, and can’t wait to come to LM for the lip dub!”

When the lip dub is produced, an online page will be available where students and their friends and families can donate to the elementary school.

The LM community has shown tremendous support for the lip dub.

Roxanna Pasquier ’17 described, “I think the lip dub is fantastic because we often forget that other schools have so many fewer resources than us.” LM students, families, and community members have been truly excited to help out the Philadelphia school. Principal Sean Hughes noted, “I love this project and I am so proud of the Student Council for leading the way to make this happen – it lives up to our motto of ‘Enter to Learn – Go forth to Serve.’”

Opinions

April 19, 2017

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The Merionite

The Merionite Official newspaper of Lower Merion High School since 1929 www.themerionite.org Columbia Scholastic Press Assocation Silver Crown 2013 Editors in Chief Simone Burde ’17 Deepika Jonnalagadda ’17 Managing Editor Isabella Dumitrescu ’17 News Editors Nisha Arya ’18 Catherine McFarland ’18 Dora Nathans ’18 Op-Ed Editors Michael Cheng ’18 Nina McKay ’17 Sophie Roling ’18 Features Editors Bethany Eldridge ’18 Alexandra Hummel ’17 Julia Rosen ’18 A&E Editors Molly Cutler ’19 Molly Gonzales ’17 Claire Ochroch ’18 Sports Editors Matt D’Aquila ’17 Kelly Harrigan ’17 Zack Slogoff ’18 Copy Editors Julian Ginzburg ’19 Caroline Spencer ’18 Kelsey Stanton ’18 Graphics Editors Sam Gamberg ’17 Vanessa Roser ’17 Web Editor Noah Rubin ’17 Business Manager Bradley Kaplan ’17 Advisor Charles Henneberry

Editorial: intercommunity partnerships This month, LM partnered with John H. Webster Elementary School, an underprivileged school in Kensington, Philadelphia serving children in grades Pre-Kindergarten to five. The purpose of the partnership was to raise awareness about the lack of resources available to Webster students and faculty, which constitutes a severe obstacle to teachers in trying to provide their students with a quality education. In late March and early April, LM held a school supply drive for Webster classes before staging a lip dub, featuring Webster students and LM seniors from many school clubs, sports, and activities. The lip dub raised awareness about the cause, which allowed more people in the community to donate.

Such projects are an essential part of LM’s mission, and our school community should pursue more opportunities to get involved with the Philadelphia schools in the future.

“Enter to learn. Go forth to serve” was the

and nurses, and even laptops. But with privilege comes responsibility; our school has the obligation not only to help those within our community, but also those in Philadelphia and other nearby districts who are just as deserving of receiving a high-quality education in a safe environment.

The drive for Webster shouldn’t be a one-time endeavor; rather, LM should have annual, school-wide supply drives for students in underprivileged districts. In addition, LM students from all grades should have the opportunity to work directly with students from other districts, both in mentoring and collaborating roles. As a community ready to serve, LM should be prepared to help other schools reach their highest educational potentials.

Unsigned editorials reflect the general opinion of the staff and not the opinion of any single editor.

Letter-to-the-editor: focus on the big picture In a time of political crisis, our country is divided and senior Bradley Kaplan took it upon himself to ridicule LM students’ act of unity.

I can’t believe that I have to defend a peaceful sit-in. I can’t believe that a handful of students couldn’t look past errors in rhetoric to come together and express peace and unity. I can’t believe students were offended by equality. I can’t believe nearly six months after the sit-in, Mr. Kaplan truly believes the sit-in “did nothing.”

The purpose of the sit-in was to express the idea that although our country faces great political divide, despite raging acts of racism, anti-Semitism and homophobia, our school is a safe place. Students 4 Peace stands for spreading the word about local protests and ways students can get involved, whether that be purchasing our basketball team’s incredible t-shirts that support the American Civil Liberties Union, sharing events, protesting, or informing people on topics ranging from intersectional feminism to the dangers of white silence. Mr. Kaplan did not go to the sit-in and is not a part of Students 4 Peace, yet he still manages to think they know more about the cause than the founders and creators of the sit-in and the club. Picking apart the rhetoric of an article intended to show the school that a national threat to equality will not change the way we treat one and other is rather sad. I claimed in my article the sit-in was “incredibly

successful,” but who was I to say that? On that, Mr. Kaplan, I agree with you. When writing a news article it is important to write neutrally; however, in a time of such divide, I let my anger and political charge get the best of me.

Being a part of a sit-in, a protest, or a walkout is empowering. Mr. Kaplan wouldn’t know that feeling, because he failed to participate, yet he still felt entitled to write an article about the sit-in’s shortcomings. Interesting. Participating in events like The Women’s March, Post-Inauguration walk-out, Black Lives Matter March and March to End Rape Culture was extremely validating and empowering. The sit-in made me feel like our school is actually full of love, equality, and people who are willing to try and make a difference. The sit-in appeared political in nature because it occurred in the wake of Donald Trump becoming president-elect. Mr. Kaplan seems to believe that this decision is the single domino that triggered the sit-in. Maybe he didn’t read the glaring news reports of extremely racist graffiti sprinkled about the nation.

Maybe he didn’t recognize the toppling of Jewish gravestones. Mr. Kaplan must have missed the awakening of the closeted homophobic, misogynistic, ableist, and islamophobic remarks.

Do you remember when Trump made fun of a handicapped reporter? Do you remember reading about the numerous sexual assault charges

against Trump? This being said, the sit-in was not “anti-Republican” or “anti-conservative.”

You don’t have to support abortions to be a part of a movement. In fact, we encouraged all to leave politics at the door and come out to prove LM is a safe space. In Students 4 Peace’s Facebook group, we advised students to make signs, pins or stickers with non-political messages.

Students 4 Peace stands for “advocating peace, unity, positivity, and respect in our school and community,” and, as it reads on our Facebook page, “Our mission is to promote a safe and accepting student body, and advocate for peace, and respect.”

At the end of the day, “fake news” and “alternative facts” plague our nation’s media. And Mr. Kaplan addresses a fair point about the importance of unbiased journalism. However, it is vital to the safety of our nation to focus our efforts on promoting peace, unity, and equality. We can pull apart articles all day if we want, all year even, but how will that help ensure everyone is welcome? How will arguing over the composition of one’s writing or actions promote equality among all genders and sexualties? How can individuals who make no effort to participate ridicule those who do? The time for action is now, and I invite Mr. Kaplan to join.

- Molly Gonzales ‘17 Arts and Entertainment Editor

Federal rights for transgender individuals

Assistant Advisor Laura Stiebitz Business Advisor Sean P. Flynn, Esq. The editors believe all facts presented in the newspaper to be accurate. The paper acknowledges that mistakes are possible and welcomes questions as to accuracy. Inquiries regarding accuracy should be directed to the editors of the paper. Editors can be contacted via e-mail at merionite@gmail.com or in Room 200A. To represent all viewpoints in the school community, The Merionite welcomes all letters to the editor. Letters can be sent via e-mail or dropped off outside The Merionite’s office. The Merionite reserves the right to edit letters to the editor for length or clarity. All unattributed images are courtesy of WikiCommons.

final line of Lower Merion School District’s vision statement as outlined in the 2009 strategic plan, which is also carved into a large cement block proudly displayed outside the school, facing Arnold Field. While this statement is often interpreted to mean that the district’s mission is to produce adults who are prepared to live meaningful lives in which they make substantive contributions to society, that doesn’t mean students need to wait until their high school graduation to start giving back. Many LM students make community service a priority during their high school years, oftentimes through various clubs and organizations. However, we as an entire school community need to become more involved with partnerships and collaborations with Philadelphia schools.

At LM, we are fortunate to have a well-maintained building, plenty of resources, a safe surrounding neighborhood, full time counselors

Julia Rappaport ‘18 On May 13, 2016, former President Barack Obama’s directive supporting federal transgender rights went into effect. It allowed for those who identify as transgender to use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender with which they identify. He believed that these kids get bullied and are ostracized enough in school, and that they should not also have worry about being in a vulnerable situation in addition to the other hardships that they encounter. Thus, from that day forward, children attending schools across the country were allowed to use the bathroom corresponding to their personal gender identity.

In LMSD, this policy quickly came into effect on May 16, 2016, three days after Obama’s statement. The LMSD policy not only addressed the issue of restrooms, but it also spoke about the use of pronouns, privacy, academic record, and proper integration regarding segregated activates by sex. The policy received great support not only from those who identify as transgender,

but also from the LMSD community as a whole.

However, the policy that Obama put into place did not last long on a federal level. On February 22, the Trump administration withdrew this policy, stating that bathroom access of transgender children “should be decided at the state level.” With the policy being revoked, it is now up to each individual state to decide which restroom they want their transgender students using: the one with which they identify, or the one that corresponds with their biological sex at birth. As for LM, Principal Hughes states, “our policy remains in place and applicable to our school community.” The policy is beneficial to the student body because it shows acceptance towards those who identify as transgender. However, other school districts in the country may not be as tolerant as ours, so it will be unfair for students who are transgender to be treated differently based on where they live. Now that states have the opportunity to choose whether they will uphold or discard the old policy, it can be predicted that schools in the South will not be as willing to preserve the policy as schools in the Northeast, due to widely-held religious convictions against those who identify as LGBTQ+. Therefore, transgender students are going to begin to see that they will be treated differently not only based on their gender identity, but also because of their location. For these students, they already encounter discrimination every day just for being who they are, and now some are facing issues with the law.

No matter how a student, or anyone for that matter, identifies, they should not be suppressed by their community for doing a simple, biologically necessary task, such as going to the bathroom.

Understandably, this is a controversial topic.

However, this cannot force us to shy away from conversing about it. One of the main arguments of not having someone who identifies as female, but is biologically a male, enter the women’s bathroom is because of sexual predators. However, it is absurd to think that this is dangerous when there are no accounts of this ever occurring during the year that this policy was in place.

Knowing this, how is it fair to revoke the policy and leave it in the states’ hands? If there was no problem occurring, then it should not have been touched, because now some transgender students are going to have to fight for their right to use the bathroom they feel most comfortable using.

Keeping this in mind, as an accepting LM community, it is important to first let those who identify as transgender in our area know that we are accepting of their identity. Secondly, it is necessary to make others who are not getting the approval to which they are entitled feel like we care enough to help get them the basic human rights they deserve. This leads to the idea that we, as a tolerant community, must make our voices heard so that transgender students across the country have a fair, concrete policy that allows them to be themselves.

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Opinions

April 19, 2017

The Merionite

Go away, GPA!

Sophie Roling ’18 Opinions Editor At LM, grades are an integral part of our student culture. We are considered to be one of the best public schools in the country, and our grades showcase this academic success.

Many students will go to extreme measures to maintain the highest possible GPA that they can. We spend countless hours studying and salvaging every point possible in our classes just to get vowels on our transcripts.

This archaic grading system leads to grade grubbing, contributes to academic dishonesty, and results in gallons of unnecessary tears from students who are already stressed and anxious. As we move into the future, we need to reevaluate the way we measure academic success. GPA is no longer a viable means of

analyzing student achievement across the educational spectrum and LM should get rid of it.

Currently, most American high schools use GPA as an instrument of comparing students at the onset of the college application process. Different letter grades contribute to varying points on a scale. But therein lies the problem: most schools have different methods of calculating GPAs and letter grades.

Some schools grade on a four point scale, adding and subtracting points based on letter grades. In contrast, at LM, if you take honors or AP classes, GPA is calculated on a five point scale, with “plus” and “minus” grades corresponding to different point levels, ranging from one to five with decimals in between. However, LM’s college prep classes are graded on a four point scale. In the case of LM, it is difficult to interpret GPAs of different students within the school due to a mix of AP, honors, and college prep classes. In addition to this confusion, every school assigns letter grades differently, depending on the range of numerical grades that they use to determine those letters. This inherently makes it difficult to compare grades across different schools, and really highlights the

inability to compare apples to oranges.

We need to eliminate the many logistical and emotional complications associated with GPA. In place of it, we should take the simplest alternative: instead of assigning letter grades, we should strictly use the numerical grades received for each class. For example, if your final grade in Algebra 2H was a 94, then it would appear on your transcript as a 94, not an A. This 94 would not be factored into a greater average of grades; it would simply be a 94 for Algebra 2H. Colleges would therefore be able to immediately assess a student’s performance in a class, instead of having to gauge what letter grade might correspond to that number. This would allow colleges to assess students more clearly within a school and across schools in general.

Getting rid of GPA would benefit all students. Students taking college prep classes would no longer be at an inherent weighted GPA disadvantage, since GPA would not appear on their transcripts. In other words, students would no longer have to worry about whether their GPAs are on a four point scale or a five point scale. This small change would allow students who may have been discouraged from taking higher level classes, due

to concerns about how their performance would affect their GPA, the comfort of taking those classes without GPA as an overriding concern. GPA, in schools like LM, has blocked essential tenets of student learning and discouraged students from taking higher level classes. LM can be an educational leader for students by simply eliminating this outdated grading system.

When students apply to college, a GPA allows colleges and universities to quickly gauge the student’s academic success over a variety of different subjects. Understandably, having all of this information in one place is helpful from a college’s perspective, as they skim thousands of applications from accomplished students. But these oversimplified applications cannot accurately showcase a student’s individual success, as they inherently leave certain students at a disadvantage. It will take a large change to make all schools eliminate GPA, but once they do, it will make the college application process fairer for more students. Without GPA, students will strive to take classes for the sake of learning, and we can come out from hiding behind our decades-old letter system into the future of education.

Importance of family dinners

Ethan Manin ’20 “Dinner time!” My mom yells up to me from the kitchen. I yell back, “Can we watch Shark Tank as we eat?” even though I already know her response. She replies, “No” in a stern and agitated voice. “Why not? Why is eating in front of the TV a bad idea?” I retort. “We can watch as a family!”

Why do parents struggle to have family dinners, and why do kids complain and despise them? Family dinners are hard. First, the food itself causes certain issues. Not every family has the time or money to cook the food and then to sit down at the table. Then, cleanup is a dreaded task. Everyone, including me, hates doing the dishes, but someone

has to do it. Another big problem is that people feel they have more important things to do than to eat dinner with their families. Between homework, sports, housework, and a career, people are pressed to do a number of tasks in a limited time. When asked about his thoughts on routine family meals, freshman Jonathan Goldstein said, “I enjoy them if I don’t have a lot of work to do, but sometimes I prefer to be doing homework.”

Despite scheduling conflicts, however, family dinners are beneficial. Here’s why: they can help kids mature in many specific ways ranging from better eating habits, greater academic excellence, and a decrease in occurrence in smoking, drinking, and substance abuse.

Unhealthy eating is a huge problem in the United States. People are obese and the epidemic is only worsening. According to an article on healthychildren.org, children that had per week, “at least three family meals together had a twenty percent decrease in unhealthy food choices.” This means that eating meals with one’s family generally leads to children eating more fruits, vegetables, and nutrients that our bodies need to grow

healthy and strong. These healthier decisions can also help prevent diseases and health problems later in life.

Grades have also been shown to improve from consistent family dinners. A report done by ABC News from a Columbia University survey revealed that when a family with kids has a meal together consistently and frequently, at least five times a week, the teen was “forty percent more likely to get A’s and B’s.” The conversation at the dinner table allows kids to articulate their thoughts and ideas to the rest of the family. This skill takes practice. For such a simple activity, this is a tremendous asset. As little as fifteen minutes of quality family time to recount the day and to eat together could positively impact your academic success.

The use of illicit substances has always been problematic for teenagers. This can be prevented every night at the family dinner table. Research has shown that interactions at the table foster a child’s ability to avoid these substances. A study was done by the Court of Appointed Special Advocates and in an article on health.com which reported that teenagers who share less than three family

dinners a week “are 3.5 times more likely to have abused prescription drugs and to have used other illegal drugs … three times more likely to use marijuana, more than 2.5 times more likely to have smoked a cigarette, and 1.5 times more likely to have tried alcohol.”

The stakes are huge.

A family dinner at night for thirty minutes promotes communication between you and your parents, siblings, and other family members that has an incredibly positive impact. When asked about how a family meal affects her, Susan O’Bannon, a life sciences teacher at LM, responded, “I feel that it promotes positive communication and closeness between family members, and it helps me feel more connected to my kids and husband.”

Dinners can be boring, and no one, including myself, wants to tell their parents about their day, but that is not the point. It helps with your ability to make good choices and excel in school. And the reassurance that someone is interested in the mundane details of your day is empowering. The next time you are called to the dinner table, don’t hesitate. Just sit down and eat—it’s worth it.

Test obsessed?

Emma Riverso ’18 In today’s world, many people are wary of what they say and how they speak to others.

In light of the 2016 election, political rhetoric and opinions are seldom used and questions are seldom asked in everyday conversations.

Instead, many tiptoe around those topics or try to avoid them completely. This article is holding a magnifying glass up to the conversations between LM students every single day.

In the library, the social hub of our school, conversation is so plentiful that it can be heard through earphones. I cannot help but notice a common theme among these conversations. Words like “GPA,” “SAT,” and

“ACT” seem to seep into most dialogues. and in many cases manifests itself in a way What I have witnessed all too often are stu- that only normalizes a culture in LM where dents inquiring about others’ standardized it is appropriate to ask a classmate sometest scores—not how they feel about the test, thing so personal like what they got on a or if they had any advice, just simply what test or what grade point average they boast. their score is. Many people that are unhap- To put this in perspective, usually in the real py with their standardized test scores use world, when an individual ventures to quesevery excuse possible to maneuver their way tion another individual about a number such around the constant prodding of other stu- as their age, weight, or salary, it is met with dents. Ultimately, these students often are great opposition and shock. However, when forced to give in to the pressure and disclose a student is asked either in person or via text their scores.

What comes after this spilling of test scores is the secondhand reveal. “I heard this person got a perfect score,” or “I don’t think she could get into that school with that score,” and so on. What is most shocking is how consistently these topics are discussed.

One would think that any discussion topic, especially standardized testing, would eventually become dull, but the constant curiosity and insecurity of students to know and subsequently compare themselves to others is never-ending.

This constant gossiping and probing of others actually gives little ease to the mind, Graphic by Christopher De Santis ’20

what grade they received on an assignment or test, it is regarded as a normal question.

Obviously, we are all guilty of this to varying degrees. Usually, asking someone about a test is not a result of malicious intent. But even so, it would benefit all of us, in my opinion, to refrain from this rhetoric. I think talking about all of the factors that go into a college acceptance and about the college process constantly is unhealthy, and it creates a hyper-competitive and toxic environment, especially for students trying to avoid this anxiety in their daily lives.

The omnipresence of students putting others in the hot seat about their personal activities, aspirations, and test scores is inappropriate and borderline torturous. Keeping a running tally of all the extracurricular activities, GPAs, and test scores of fellow students is only using brain power that could be allocated to better and more useful things.

Instead of grilling others over the countless topics they would rather not talk about, I think changing the way we approach conversation and discussion topics could produce a more relaxed and less stressful environment.

Opinions “You look like a slut”

Julia Rosen ’18 Features Editor It’s common knowledge that the way you dress says something about your character. In actuality, however, this simple correlation can easily become discriminatory. We have the inalienable right to expression, and to dress ourselves accordingly. This is one aspect of the right to physical autonomy, and is one that women are not truly able to take advantage of if they wish for their actions to be “taken seriously.”

This problem can be categorized under a blanket term as one component of the incredibly damaging slut shaming of girls.

The terminology in and of itself exemplifies the nature of the problem. Take the term slut, for example. It’s a derogatory, jarring word, that immediately warrants attention. It’s synonymous with the provocative, and it brings to mind an overall negative connotation. A “slut,” regardless of her intellectual value, has a much harder time being taken seriously due to the way she looks. From the second she walks into a room, strong judgments will be made that she will have a hard time overcoming. Few girls, especially those in the high school age range, can say they haven’t experienced the phenomenon of “slut shaming.” In a survey done by the American Association of University Women, it was found that 46 percent of girls have endured “having someone make sexual comments jokes, or gestures to or about [them].” Over 25 per-

cent of girls have experienced “being sent unwelcome sexual jokes or pictures, or having someone post them or about them online.” This exemplifies how the theoretic right to expression is thereby deemed completely inaccessible by the actions of others.

Yet why does this occur? We are all made of the exact same material, yet to have this material on display to virtually any degree is considered degrading.

The Millennial generation is considered the the most liberal and progressive generation in history, as stated by civicyouth.org.

Due to this, more and more people have begun to ponder the following question: how is this dated message still applicable to modern society? A physical body should

April 19, 2017

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The Merionite

in no way dictate the value and character of an individual. The idea that a woman’s body serves whatever purpose she sees fit is still a controversial one.

Thankfully, it’s becoming a common convention that the labor of a woman warrants the same merit of that of a man (at least from an idealist standpoint), but there remains a certain stigma associated with many of the ways a woman can choose to present herself. The simplistic physical body that we all possess is then supposed to serve as a form of embarrassment, something to be hidden away. It almost seems as if, in the eyes of many, there exists an inverse relationship between the amount of skin you show and the strength of your character.

This is a paradox. The stigma associated with showing your body is strong, but going too far in the opposite direction attracts criticism, as not exuding femininity to the required extent. Ultimately, it becomes a tradeoff: be taken seriously as an intellectual, or be treated as a woman. Society dictates that it’s nearly impossible to have both.

The culture created around female body image is toxic. The depraved concept that the way you dress creates a precedent for who you are seeps slowly into the subconscious of every female, regardless of age.

Just as it’s impossible to ignore the seemingly perfect Photoshopped world of paper-thin models, it’s impossible to ignore the way the judgment of others affects females. This warped culture is what needs to change drastically.

Depending on the circumstances, lapsing into the judgmental mindset can be so easy. Automatically, we’ve been conditioned to make snap judgments and snide remarks about someone’s appearance, even when we know how truly awful it can be on the receiving end. This is the true di-

lemma. It’s so easy to acknowledge what’s wrong with the way we treat each other, and in an identical manner, it’s so easy to subconsciously beat each other down.

As much as I hate to admit it, it would be a lie to say I don’t engage in this behavior as much as I try to avoid it. High school is the epitome of catty judgmental behavior.

For this reason, it’s exactly where the problem of slut shaming should be addressed.

We, as LM students, compose the next generation in power, so it’s up to us to address whether or not we allow this problem to continue. We are responsible for the way we conduct ourselves in the future as members of society, so we should make every effort to prepare ourselves to make a positive impact, not break each other down.

Graphic by Vanessa Roser ’17/Staff

Holocaust education at LM

few years of high school. This is a deficit in LMSD’s curriculum.

In 2014, the Anti-Defamation League conducted a worldwide study that found that about 66 percent of respondents “either never heard of the Holocaust or do not believe the historical accounts to be accurate.” LMSD’s social studies curriculum overview asserts that “a deep understanding of the historical, political and cultural aspects of our world is Molly Cutler ’19 Arts and Entertainment Editor integral to sustaining our democracy and ensuring that students become inHate crimes across America are on formed, responsible citizens.” Without the rise. Anti-Semitic incidents, specif- earlier education about the Holocaust, ically, are occurring with greater and how can we claim we are fulfilling this greater frequency, closer and closer to duty? How can we say that a genocide home. Recently, Jewish cemeteries in like the Holocaust must never again St. Louis, Rochester, and Philadelhappen to any people if our students phia were desecrated. This behavior do not understand why it was such originated during the nineteenth an atrocity? century in displays Obviously, of organized vioyoung children lence against Jewshould not be ish communities taught in very in Eastern Europe, graphic detail known as pogroms. about the HoloIt is a reminder that caust, but they the anti-Semitism should learn a deof the past is not so velopmentally apfar behind us. propriate foundaMeanwhile, more modern tion that can be built upon as they forms of intimidation are taking age. By the time students reach midplace. Hundreds of Jewish journalists, dle school, this groundwork should be including Julia Ioffe, Dana S c h w a r t z , expanded, with explanations of historJake Tapper, and Ben Shapiro, are being ical context and present-day effects on harassed online and have received death the Jewish population and on the world. threats. Many waves of bomb threats Finally, by high school, students should have hit Jewish Community Centers have the necessary maturity and familsince the election, and the most recent iarity with the subject to learn about it wave caused the evacuation of Perelin detail and to participate in complex man Jewish Day School and the discussions, including the examinaKaiserman JCC in Wynnewood. A tion of primary sources. Testimoteacher who works nies of survivors at the Perelman and witnesses of School described genocides can be the frightening found with reprocess of hurriedsources like the ly wheeling babies Shoah Foundaand toddlers out tion, founded by of the school in Steven Spielberg. their cribs and the There is anothsadness of explainer reason why it ing to her students why anyone is even more crucial that the Howould want to harm them because locaust is taught from a young age: they are Jewish. These events are sothe existence of Holocaust denial. This bering warnings of the dangers of hatred unsupported and historically unsound and lack of historical understanding. claim propagates the idea that the HoI have a clear memory of watching a locaust never happened. It often feeds documentary about World War II during into hateful crimes and stereotypes, my seventh grade challenge class, when a like the falsehood that Jewish people stunned classmate commented, “Wow, secretly control the government/meI didn’t realize the Nazis were so dia/banks, or “can’t let go” of the Homean.” That “the Nazis were mean” locaust. These sorts of rumors and was apparently new information myths about this period of time confused me, but in are widely spread some ways it made via the Internet. It sense. I cannot reis critical that stumember any particdents are armed ular day when I first with the facts so learned about the that they do not Holocaust—the imbuy into these perative to rememmistaken ideas. ber the past has Teaching been a part of me about the Holofor most of my life. Yet aside from caust would clearly not prevent that one week in seventh grade in a every instance of violence and prejclass that not everyone took, everyudice against Jews, but it would make thing I know about the Holocaust has a difference. Indeed, Holocaust educacome from outside of school: my family, tion could increase students’ empathy my synagogue and Hebrew school, lead- towards many marginalized groups who ers in the Jewish community, and my are underrepresented in history classes own reading. Therefore, many students and in the world today. But we won’t have superficial knowledge of the Holo- see any of these beneficial effects unless caust because they did not have a history comprehensive Holocaust education beclass that taught about it until their final gins at a young age.

Graphic by Sam Gamberg ’17/Staff

CORRECTIONS for the February 22, 2017 issue: News: In the article, “A lack of substitute teachers,” the article asserted that retired teachers cannot guest teach. In reality, they can guest teach but they cannot become longterm subs. Also, the name of the teacher quoted as “Kathy Jones” should be “Kathy Jacobs.” Finally, substitute teacher Carol Ryan was misquoted. Her quote should read: “Many certified teachers are taking positions as instructional aides to receive their health benefits because they hope to move on to a full-time teaching position.

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April 19, 2017

Opinions The Merionite

The dos and don’ts of effective teaching

Cristina Bermudez ’17 Dear Teachers, Over my years as an LM student, I have had incredible teachers who go above and beyond in my time here—teachers who rewrite their tests every year, ones who truly make an effort to answer every question I ask, ones who voluntarily hold multiple hour long sessions after school to assure that we are prepared for an AP exam, ones who put their full effort into making sure that their students are learning and growing, not just as students, but as people.

Many students agree that LM has fantastic teachers, but many students also agree that there are teaching practices upon which our school can improve. It is not just for other students that I write this.

I write this out of respect for the teachers that provide a high quality of education at LM and I hope that this article will spark a genuine discussion on teaching strategies.

However, if I wanted to learn from

watching videos taught by a guy that hasn’t left the basement of his parents’ house in three days, I wouldn’t go to LM. I would stay in my pajamas at home, watch YouTube, and call it a day when The Ellen Show comes on at 3. In my opinion, the over-reliance on certain practices and resources that should be used to supplement our education should not happen at a school like LM, if at all.

And now, because I’m not a hypocrite, I present: The Dos and Don’ts of Effective Teaching.

1. Do: Give us genuine/thought-provoking/insightful feedback on assessments and assignments. Anything that says, “I actually read what you just worked really hard on. I think that…” I do realize that I like attention, but, if I put time and effort into creating something thoughtful, I want you to tell me what you think. Tell me if it’s great. Tell me if it isn’t. Like I said before, I’m here to learn.

Don’t: Write “This looks solid” or “See me” on the comment slot in turnitin.com or Blackboard.

2. Do: Make time in class to actually give us our tests back and go over questions we had in detail. As Einstein claimed, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. We can’t be expected to get what we missed the first time right the second time, if we don’t even know we got it wrong the

first time.

Don’t: Tell students to come see you during the third half of lunch and learn (you have lunch the first two halves) if they want to see their tests and learn from them. Remember, only two things are more important than giving students an opportunity to learn from their mistakes: having to Facetime your sick cat at home and having to Google something you just read on Facebook to make sure what Donald Trump just wrote on Twitter is in fact an alternative fact.

3. Do: Use resources (Blackboard, Moodle, eBoard, etc.) to provide students with resources that supplement your teaching. This includes, but is not limited to, posting PowerPoints, assignments, answers to assignments, note packets, related things (including gifs), and additional videos to watch to reinforce what we learned in class. I do not have a problem with having to watch Sal Khan write things very, very slowly on a black trackpad if I already know most of the content and am comfortable skipping to the part I don’t fully understand. The key thing to note about these resources is that they are supplements. Supplements. They add up to somewhere between 90 and 180 degrees. Otherwise known as: I should only be forced to wait 25 minutes for the Moodle page to load if (and only if) I wasn’t in school on the day that the information was

taught in class.

Don’t: Not do what I just said to do.

4. Do: Use the red, green, black, and blue EXPO markers to write deadlines on the whiteboards.

Don’t: Hide due dates in fine print on the Moodle or Blackboard and give us zeros for not turning in things we didn’t even know were due.

5. Do: Actively address the existence of your students every day as we come in. If you act happy to see us, we will act happy to see you. Do this consistently and we (all parties involved) may not have to act anymore. You will eventually find that, because you are engaged in the interests of your students, they will want to actually listen to what you are saying.

Don’t: Talk to your students like they are senseless robots who are incapable of following simple instructions.

Again, I want to reinforce the fact that most of my classroom experiences were positive, and I have had amazing teachers who have gone above and beyond their responsibilities to see me succeed.

If you didn’t understand any of this, watch this 98 minute video on Khan Academy: https://youtu.be/IIyiQ6rbPAU If you still don’t get it, email me at: idontcheckmyemail@students.lmsd.org.

Much love, Cristina Bermudez

Honor Council: not living up to expectations

Michael Cheng ’18 Opinions Editor Cheating is a perpetual problem at LM that negatively contributes to the stressful academic environment at LM. To combat cheating, the school administration launched a new Honor Council. Formed of about twenty academically talented juniors and seniors, Honor Council meets with suspected cheaters (those identified by teachers or fellow students as having broken the school’s policies on academic dishonesty) and helps them develop a plan to stop cheating. In reality, Honor Council is an inefficacious tool that has failed to reduce the cheating culture at LM. I came to this conclusion after interviewing a few teachers and over a dozen peers who are both on and not on the Honor Council and those who have cheated and been reported to the Honor Council. Note that although Honor Council is ineffectual as a whole, the individuals in Honor Council are wonderful people, and some of them are among my closest friends.

In theory, one way that Honor Council discourages cheating is by putting peer pressure on cheaters using the knowledge that they will be held accountable by their peers for academic dishonesty. However, this theory breaks down once one considers the fact that most cheaters at LM go undetected. An anonymous student comments, “I cheated in front of people in the Honor Council and they didn’t do anything about it, so what does that say about their efficacy?” In practice, Honor Council is a non-factor for most cheaters, since there are no significant consequences for those who are not caught, and even those who are caught are often let off with a slap on the wrist (oftentimes only a verbal warning), then continue to

cheat undeterred. An anonymous student says that “I was reported to the Honor Council in September and nothing actually happened.” Another purpose of Honor Council is to aid teachers in adopting more effective practices against cheating.

However, some teachers have reported that Honor Council has not really worked with them to adopt practices that reduce cheating, and some students have not seen a meaningful shift in the manner that teachers discourage them from cheating.

Many LM students agree that Honor Council hasn’t lived up to its promise of combating cheating. “I haven’t heard of Honor Council doing anything this entire year,” an anonymous student comments. Claire Ochroch ‘18 says that “I think it’s good to have students who can rationalize reasons that people would cheat, but if Honor Council is not really being used, then it really doesn’t have an effect.” According to an anonymous member of the Honor Council, Honor Council has purportedly only met with one cheater throughout the entire year.

Obviously, the efficacy of Honor Council should not be measured by the number of cheaters it has met with, but considering that it has met over twenty-five times

this year (during lunches and advisories), it seems that Honor Council could be much more effective than it actually is.

The students on Honor Council take predominantly AP/Honors classes, which means that Honor Council underrepresents the voices of College Prep students in its membership. This reality has fed a perception that Honor Council has helped contribute to an elitist environment where AP/Honors students are celebrated more than College Prep students. Molly Gonzales ‘17 comments that “Honor Council is a literal joke. The Honor Council gives more power to students who take AP/Honors classes while doing absolutely nothing to curb cheating.”

Although Honor Council could play a major role in changing the cheating culture, it has conducted little, if any, outreach to the larger student body, and I personally have seen few warnings against cheating over the course of the entire school year. As a rough statistic, most students that I interviewed believe that Honor Council is ineffective, and a few do not know what the purpose of the group is. If Honor Council continues, then it should consider better publicizing its mission or conducting more outreach to students.

Graphic by Vanessa Roser ‘17/staff

Although Honor Council is supposed to be a relatively secretive group, due to the nature of its work, most students have the perception that it does not do anything, and it appears that while that perception is false as Honor Council has met with a student, Honor Council is much less effective than it could be. To be honest, at this point Honor Council functions primarily as a feel-good device that the administration can point to so they can pretend that LM is taking major steps to combat cheating.

With that said, the prevalence of cheating at LM cannot be blamed solely on the ineffectiveness of Honor Council. Rather, cheating is a crystal-clear reflection of our community’s ethics and morals. Are we, as a school community, so preoccupied with getting a “good” grade, so we can go to a “good” college and in turn have a “good” life, that we cannot recognize that there is more to life than attempting to be perfect on paper? Are we as a school so twisted and debased that we are willing to throw away all of our principles in pursuit of the first letter of the alphabet?

Cheaters disadvantage the vast majority of people who work hard and study fairly, for the benefit of a tiny few.

Even the presence of a few determined cheaters encourages others to take up the heinous occupation of cheating by making them feel as if they have to cheat to stay competitive. If we want to encourage an honest, academic school culture, we have to recognize that cheating is ultimately a twisted form of lying.

Considering the ineffectiveness of Honor Council in its current form, one may be led to believe that there is nothing that can be done about cheating. That is false, but moving past the culture of cheating requires an attitude change. We have to be the ones that change the culture, with or without Honor Council. Teachers will need to establish a level of trust with their students and make it clear in their classrooms that cheating is dishonorable and will not be tolerated. Students will need to establish an honest school culture that celebrates hard work and playing by the rules, not lying to polish a perfect transcript.

Our community needs to change and celebrate the process, not just the results.

Features

April 19, 2017

9

The Merionite

More than just eggs!

Ziwen Zhou ‘19

Snow daze

While Easter has a very deep and personal meaning for Christians, for the non-religious in America, it is a time known more for its iconic egg hunts.

The egg hunt is a tremendously popular event that many alike partake in nationwide where the reward is loads of delicious treats. Easter can still be very meaningful, even if the egg hunt has become the focus of the holiday for some.

As a time when family and friends come together, it symbolizes unity, fun, and excitement. Although the chocolate bunnies are great, one of the best things about Easter is that it brings people together.

Sunday is usually wrapped up, for both Christians and non-Christians, with a grand dinner with extended family and friends that closes the holiday with a great time. No matter who you are, Easter will hold something for you!

Staycation vs. vacation

Melissa Bell ’20 LM students don’t agree on much, but if there’s one thing everyone loves, it’s a snow day. We work hard, so when a snow day finally rolls around, it’s well deserved. How is it determined whether or not we have a snow day? Interest in the process of how this is done has increased recently, considering this year the number of missing school days due to the weather have been scarce. Confirmed by Communications Director Doug Young, we’ve only had two snow days, compared to the five we’ve had in other years.

For the most part, the sources that the district authorities use are the same ones you and I rely on when we hear that a threatening winter storm is imminent. It is a combination of various outlets of information including, but not limited to, the internet, radio, and television. In addition to this, our administration reaches out to the local police, the Township Public Works Department, and school officials in nearby districts to obtain any additional knowledge.

The district mainly focuses its attention on the general safety of the roads regarding morning and afternoon bus routes. The district turns to data that provides accurate information about the calculations of the allotted time needed to clear the streets filled with snow and ice. They hope to hear that the streets are safe enough for the buses.

In addition, local police information, the assessment of road conditions (by the Director of Operations and Supervisor of Transportation), and most obviously the time snow starts and the expected accumulations contribute to the decision of a snow day. They also seek information regarding the accessibility to school buildings and parking lots, the expected impact on traffic, and what the repercussions may be.

The superintendent determines the necessity of a delay/day off sharply at 3:30am. There is a two hour slot after this to finalize the decision. In unusual cases, school can be closed early the preceding evening if the officials are certain that the weather conditions will be too dangerous.

“Ultimately once I get all of the information I make a decision” says Superintendent Robert Copeland. This quote displays his reliance on all the aforementioned information, but at the end of the day Copeland remains the sole person making the decision. However, a key person in the chain of events that leads up to the decision of having a snowday is Young, who alerts the families about the cancellation of school. Young describes the decision as being “a difficult one.” He feels that the decision ultimately comes down “to ensuring the safety of students and staff in getting to and from school.” In conclusion, the process is methodical, orderly, and an efficient operation that tends to be beneficial to everyone involved.

Graphic by Julia Rosen ’18/Staff

Melissa Bell ‘19 Claire Ochroch ’19 Arts and Entertainment Edi-

Graphic by Christopher DeSantis ‘20

the restrictions are lifted, and each day of the week celebrates something novel. Good Friday and the lesser known Holy Saturday are particularly important theologically. Good Friday is the anniversary of when Jesus was crucified, and commemorations are very solemn and mournful. Holy Saturday is the day of waiting for Jesus’s rebirth, and due to coinciding with the Sabbath, is a day full of prayer and consideration for the year ahead. The week ends with Easter Sunday.

Places around the world infuse elements of their own culture into the Holy Week celebration. In some countries, Easter is the centerpiece of the year, and people celebrate accordingly. For example, in many Nordic countries, Holy Week is a national week off, and many people spend it skiing on their country’s incredible mountain slopes. In Cyprus and Crete, a renowned tradition is to practice controlled arson: groups set fires in public places to compete for the biggest fire. The fun often gets out of hand, and the countries’ emergency services spend the week on high alert. Spain has daily processions for the whole week where the country comes alive and everyone gets involved, from the youngest toddlers to senior citizens. These processions can extend for miles and miles, often running into the next morning. They’re so popular that spots must be reserved a year in advance! There are hundreds of ways Easter is celebrated around the world, with each culture adding its own signature touch.

Graphic by Julia Rosen ’18/Staff

Easter is almost upon us! Although the mention of this holiday might make you think of brightly dyed eggs, chocolate bunnies, and melty but oh-so-delicious Peeps, Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, is considered the most important Christian holiday.

While marshmallow peeps were only invented in 1953, Easter has been around for about as long as Christianity itself. Easter, then known as Pascha, only became a holiday independent from Passover in the secondw century, which is why the holiday’s date changes from year to year like Jewish holidays.

By then, the holiday had already started incorporating elements of separate celebrations honoring martyrs. In the third century, Easter became much like it is today, but there was a dichotomy within the Church over the date of the holiday that persisted for over 100 years. This split led to massive confusion with Easter being celebrated on different days, and was characteristic of the divide between Western Christianity and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The divide between the two branches of Christianity continues today, as both sides dictate their own dates for Easter.

Despite this split, Easter is a crucial holiday for all branches of Christianity; it is now the joyful conclusion to a forty-day trial of abnegation and atonement. The canonical celebration begins with Lent, when many commit to fasting or giving up certain luxuries. Lent gives way to the Holy Week, when

tor

With spring break approaching, there is a lot of pressure to go somewhere exotic, but a staycation can be just as fun. Staycations save a lot of money, as no one has to pay for flights, hotel rooms, or eating out most nights. Also, booking a vacation can be an immense inconvenience. A delay in a flight or a mix up in a hotel can cause a lot of stress-a staycation avoids that. With a staycation, you can completely unwind and relax at home. You can also get things done around the house that you had been meaning to do, like decorate a room or fix a broken appliance.

Perhaps the most exciting thing about staycations are the fun things in your area that you can do, with the ability to go again in the future! In our area, there are many amazing things that normally, people would not have time to do. Philadelphia has some of the best restaurants, murals, and museums in the United States. For food you could try one of the amazing food trucks like Foolish waffles, which has a pork bahn mi waffle, a new take on the classic Vietnamese pork sandwich with coriander-black pepper pork belly, pickled red cabbage, sliced jalapeños, cucumbers, cilantro, and togarashi sauce on a Belgian waffle.

On the art front, it is worth taking a trip to the Love Letters mural or the giant ants. A couple unique adventures you could take include going to the Cave of Kelpius where “The Society of the Woman of the Wilderness,” America’s first doomsday cult, awaited the end of the world, or Urban Axes, the first American axe throwing club. You could even take a historical tour to learn more about the city where we live. Since you are at home, you can do them at a leisurely pace, unlike on vacation where often you feel pressure to do everything. Staycations are looked at as less entertaining than vacations, but remember wherever you are, you have the power to make a situation exciting and adventuresome, so take your staycation by storm and have as much fun as possible.Vacations create some of the greatest memories. There is a reason for this memorability, experiencing a new place can be a life-transforming event. When you travel to different places, they all have entirely distinct specialties that are unique to that city. Each location has a different history, different food and different music than our own. Learning about alternate cultures is refreshing. Getting out of your comfort zone and going to a new place can be exhilarating.

When choosing a vacation destination, there are so many things to consider. There are plenty of amazing places you can choose in the United States and all over the world. Whether you choose to lie in the sand on a sunny beach, race through the streets of a city, or hike in a national forest, being in a new place is inherently fun. Think of a place you have always wanted to go to, and you can make plans to travel there. If you have enough time and funds, nowhere is out of the question. Vacations also make people happy. According to a 2010 study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, just planning or anticipating your trip can make you happier than actually taking it.

Even though vacations can be expensive, there are plenty of websites to help you have a great time without great funds. Most of the time, the memories you make on vacation far outweigh the price, especially if you choose to go somewhere in the United States, which has amazing underrated cities that are closer than a European extravaganza. Places like Kansas City and Glacier National Park both are home to their own unique cultures, in our own country! These destinations would be great for anyone looking to try something new, and experience a new facet of the United States.

Vacations are fantastic, whether experiencing a new side of the United States or traveling to a country you have never been to, you are guaranteed an amazing time exploring a new place.

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April 19, 2017

Features The Merionite

Spotlight: Monsieur Contassot Melissa Gingold ’19

Jean-Claude Contassot, one of LM’s most iconic and beloved language teachers, is more than just a charming French accent. Contassot is known for hurriedly bouncing through the hallways in his threepiece suit. His spirit animal is the “bichon frisé,” a small, fluffy, white dog, which resembles a mix of a miniature marshmallow and a poodle—they’re cute and smile a lot (If you’re still confused, feel free to google it). Each of Contassot’s students have a story about him. “He’s super understanding and cares more about the student than their grade,” shares Liana Haigh ’18. “He told me once he didn’t believe you only live once because he was an Eygptian prince in a past life,” reminisces junior Camille Carr. “He once threw his stuffed baby seal, or his petit phoque (and yes, that is French, not just a made-up name for his seal), at my head. He loves that thing,” remembers Nisha Arya ’18. After being a teacher here at LM for nineteen years, Contassot has grown to be one of our most beloved faculty members, and we are sad to see him retire at the end of this year.

Contassot’s path to American education was a circuitous one. He worked a traditional office job in Paris, but after being mugged, a traumatizing experience, Contassot opted to take two years of vacation he had previously acquired and travel to the United States. He had become close friends with several Temple students who were studying abroad in Paris. Once reunited with them in Philadelphia, he was offered a job working as an accountant for a new company run by one of his friends. This allowed Contassot to receive a green card in order to stay in America longer. All the while, his friends were urging him to find a teaching job, saying he needed to share his love of language and culture.

Contassot began his teaching career at a Swiss language school. He helped families that were relocating to France learn the French language and culture. He stayed at the school for ten years. Despite the classes being intensive (they lasted eight hours per day), class was never Contassot’s students’ main priority.

As adults, work always came first.

After teaching at the Swiss school, Contassot returned to Philadelphia to teach at a Catholic school. He worked there for three years, teaching mostly Spanish, before a friend convinced him to leave for LM, where he has remained for the past nineteen years. Teaching teenagers is different, and Contassot loved it immediately. As teenagers, we have so much to learn—when it comes to both French and life. Also, Contessot finds our social drama amusing.

This year, he was given the opportunity to widen his range by teaching Spanish again for the first time in two decades. “It

was a somewhat rusty transition. I had to be prepared to answer all the questions the students had, which can be a little hard when you are not used to the language.”

Contassot also says that every once in a while, he will mix up the two languages and welcome a French class by saying “Hola, como están?” However, Contassot loves stepping out of his comfort zone by teaching Spanish one final time.

Despite his passion for teaching, there are some difficult aspects of such a rewarding profession. Contassot explained that the hardest part about being a teacher is when you pour your energy into helping a student and don’t get the outcome you expected, “You feel like you haven’t done enough for them, that in a way you failed them.” His favorite thing about teaching is educating teenagers, imparting onto them his love for the French and Spanish languages and cultures. Although language class-time is valuable, there is no substitute for immersion.

If it was up to Contassot, all high schoolers would have the opportunity to travel abroad. Contassot views traveling abroad as a way to open students up to different experiences. America is such a large, relatively homogenous country, whereas in Europe, many different languages and cultures are condensed into a small area. It’s more conducive to multilingualism and opportunities to learn new languages. Studying abroad is essential for American students.

Contassot’s commitment as a teacher was acknowledged in a major way in 2012. He received an award from Cornell University as an educator who was an inspiration in scholastic development. The award came after a student, Emily Magaziner, nominated Contassot. When asked about the award, Contassot said receiving it “was humbling and a great honor.” In the end, Contessot just enjoys sharing his love of culture and language with his students.

Contassot’s long teaching career will come to an end when he retires this June. Contassot explains that he will miss “students, most of all, who make me laugh, make me mad… [I’m] lucky to have good kids here at Lower Merion. It’s hard to generalize, but overall the kids here are good. The faculty is also wonderful.” Nisha Arya ’18 speaks for all of us when she says, “I miss you already, Contassot!”

Graphic by Vanessa Roser ’17/Staff

“He told me he doesn’t believe you only live once because he was apparently an Egyptian prince in his past life.”

-Camille Carr ’18

“He’s super understanding and cares more about the student rather than their grades.” -Liana Haigh ’18

“You never know when he’s gonna start dancing or singing.” Ashley Roberts Photo courtesy of Christina Holgado ’18 ’18

M. Contassot rides a razor scooter in the hallway at the request of Christina Holgado ’18

Features

April 19, 2017

11

The Merionite

The story behind the Venus symbol Alexandra Gordon ’17

The Venus symbol: it is everywhere. If you attended the January 21 Women’s March (or any recent political march at all), everything from posters to shirts to pins to hats are plastered with this image. The Venus symbol, or the symbol widely recognized as representing women, has come to represent an entire movement—it largely stands for feminism and the empowerment of women. Its roots lie in astronomy and astrology, morphing it into the image we see it as today. The symbol itself, associated with the planet Venus, was used by copper miners for centuries on shields as an identifying marker. Originally just a circle with a line on the bottom, the cross was added after the twelfth century. The symbol, originally meant to represent a necklace, was introduced as the “female sign” in the seventeenth century. Misogyny is a part of its history as copper’s “feminine” origins have been speculated to represent shiny surfaces that women would look into, with the Venus symbol representing a hand mirror.

The symbol remained mostly static, with more associations to femininity added in the following years, until the 1960s when the second wave of feminism propelled it to the level of popularity we see today. The Venus symbol began to represent women, sisterhood, and a sense of community. Other communities have morphed the symbol to represent them in the sisterhood as well, with the image of a fist in the Venus symbol commonly associated with black women and the combined Venus and Mars symbols representing the transgender community. In recent times, most of the Venus symbols we see are pink, and this change didn’t come out of thin air.

Recently, the modern, visible feminist community (mostly cisgender white feminists) have adopted the color pink in the

form of knit hats with cat ears, or “pussyhats” that they wear to marches. That term stems from a remark made by Donald Trump about assaulting women, literally “grabbing them,” and many women did not react well to that. Celebrities like Lena Dunham and Jennifer Lawrence have normalized the often exclusive and problematic concepts of “real women” and “pussy grabs back,” but these women often forget about our trans sisters and other groups of marginalized women. The Women’s March in Philadelphia looked like a sea of pink cats, with other cities appearing in the same way from bird’s-eye-view photographs. Pink represents compassion, nurturing, and love, according to color theorists. Historically, it has also represented Japanese warriors from the Sakura blooms opening when they returned from war. Many products aimed at nurturing (soaps, baby blankets, perfumes, and lingerie stores) are splashed with pink, with the g o a l of making an individual feel comforted. However, the straight, white feminist movement of the 60s (and today) often ignore the color representation associated with the Venus symbol.

Originally, the Venus was lavender, originating in the lesbian movement. A popular gay group in the 60s, the Lavender Menace, used two conjoined Venus symbols on lavender posters and shirts to bring light and awareness to their group. Other women, mostly cisgender, hetereosexual white women, followed, adopting pink to be used. Pink was close enough to lavender without breaking the boundaries of the gay women’s movement as a whole.

Some aspects of feminism today are largely represented by two symbols: the Venus sign and the color pink. The push for inclusivity and de-stigmatizing of trans individuals calls for change with these symbols. The Venus symbol and pink often represent just white cis women, but they both certainly make the movement known through powerful imagery.

Coffee and the Student Brain Samantha Anderer ’20

Bzzzzz! You shake awake to the blaring sound of your alarm. It’s 6:30 a.m., time for another day of school. As you stumble out of bed half asleep, you almost regret staying up to finish the last three episodes of Stranger Things. But then, you remember what can always get you through a grueling school day: coffee. At this point, you only have one thing on your mind, which is guzzling down a mug of brown, bitter caffeination.

If that sounds even vaguely familiar, you aren’t alone. According to the National Coffee Association, approximately 54 percent of Americans over the age of 18 drink coffee every day. At LM, many of us couldn’t imagine making it through the day without coffee. For many of us, this daily habit borders addiction. Which begs the question: is it bad to drink coffee regularly?

When it comes to coffee, the main health concern seems, ironically enough, to be the same as its appeal: caffeine. It is often forgotten that caffeine is actually a drug.

Although in low to moderate doses it is generally safe, caffeine can be addictive and lead to dependency. Just five years ago, caffeine dependence was classified as a mental disorder. Steven Meredith from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine explains that caffeine withdrawal “can trigger pounding headaches, mental fuzziness, and fatigue for a couple of days until the body adjusts.”

Caffeine poses other health concerns as well. Even though many of us turn to it to battle our morning drowsiness, it is likely to cause more problems for the long-term. It has been known to disrupt sleep patterns and lead to a cycle of restless sleep, daytime fatigue remedied with caffeine, and insomnia. In addition, it has been found to increase anxiety. More reported health concerns include higher blood pressure, increased risk of heart attack, indigestion, increased risk of miscarriage during pregnancy, inhibited collagen production, and a greater risk of bone fracture.

However, don’t throw away your Keurig just yet. Various studies have also found that coffee could benefit your health. It contains nutrients and antioxidants. Pantothenic acid (Vitamin B5), Riboflavin (B2), Niacin (B3), Thiamine (B1), Potassium, and Manganese are all found in coffee. Studies show that coffee could even help prevent diseases, namely Type 2 Diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. Despite the clear negative effects of caffeine, Authority Nutrition mentions that it could make you smarter.

Adenosine, an inhibitory neurotransmitter, is blocked by caffeine. “By blocking the inhibitory effects of adenosine, caffeine actually increases neuronal firing in the brain and the release of other neurotransmitters like dopamine and norepinephrine.”

Thinking about making the shift to decaf? Decaffeinated coffee is required by law to have 97 percent of its caffeine removed, but no process is able to remove all of the caffeine. While it is true that the effects of caffeine vary based on dosage and three percent of the caffeine of normal coffee is significantly less, there are still downsides. For example, the process of decaffeination involves boiling and steaming the coffee beans in water, a process that alters the beans’ phytochemical structure. This results in the loss of antioxidants. In addition, the majority of decaf coffee is chemically decaffeinated.

These chemicals linger on the beans, and they include “methylene chloride, a base for paint strippers, and ethyl acetate, also a known dry cleaning fluid,” as stated by Teeccino, an herbal tea alternative company.

So, what’s the verdict? There appears to be both positives and negatives to drinking coffee. Many of those side effects require large doses of coffee. Deciding if the pros outweigh the cons is a personal decision. Either way, if you love your morning cup of coffee, there’s nothing wrong with indulging. Just don’t overdo it.

“The amount of teenagers drinking caffeinated beverages has doubled since the 1970s” “Teenagers purchasing coffee in cafes and restuarants has jumped from twelve percent since last year”

“Once teenagers start drinking coffee, they are prone to be life-long coffee drinkers” Statistics by Pyschology Today

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April 19, 2017

Arts and Entertainment The Merionite

Hana Quist, Drag Queen There she sits, working away for the third hour on her gown and gloves for an upcoming drag event in New York City. Hana Holquist, also known as Hana Quist, is an LM alumna who has become a fashion designer and a professional drag queen. Holquist is most known for her gowns, gloves, and crochet. Her incredible artwork has been featured in BULLETT Media, Out Magazine, Vogue Italia, Dazed, Nylon, The New Yorker and worn by wellknown drag queens and club kids such as Sussi, Aquaria, Milk, Violet Chachki, and many more.

In high school, Holquist valued and developed her passion for art and creativity. Though she does not describe herself as an “academic” person, she remembers that Players, LM’s theatre club, truly shaped her into the artist she is today. “Players was a really non-judgmental group of people,” Holquist recalled. “It sounds cheesy, but it’s definitely an organization of students who will accept you no matter who you are.” Holquist played a significant role in directing and costume design for various productions during her high school career and served as the project manager on the Players board. She was exposed to different genres, eras of clothing, and sometimes stressful conditions to work under. Holquist explained, “Players definitely gave me the space to be creative. I had a lot of creative freedom but also a lot of responsibility that taught me how to be a professional.”

In addition to being involved in Players at LM, Holquist knew as a teenager that she wanted to do drag. Throughout high school, she researched and worked on makeup looks at home. She then started going out to Philadelphia to meet drag queens and watch shows. “This really introduced me to the sense of family and community that I could find in the queer community,” Holquist expressed, “since drag is something really focused around the queer community.” Holquist did her senior project on drag, which allowed her to put all of her research and ideas into words and a presentation. She then attended college in NYC, and her first week after moving there, she began to go out in drag. Holquist remembered, “That night, I met my friend Sussi and he took me under his wing. The rest is history!”

Currently, Holquist has to create a new look each week because of her involvement with NYC nightlife. Because of this, the turnaround between gathering inspiration and completing a final look has to be quick. Holquist

Joanna Gerber ’18 How are you involved in the arts at LM? I play viola in LM’s Chamber Orchestra, and I recently got involved with Players; I’m currently directing the spring show, Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl.

What is the best thing about being involved in music?

The amazing thing about being involved with music is hearing all of these completely different instruments and parts come together to create a unique and cohesive sound. Sometimes I look at the music in front of me and realize that reading music is basically like being able to read another language, and I think that’s so cool.

Nisha Arya ’18 News Editor

Holquist strikes a pose, working her very own creations, on the streets of the meatpacking district of New York City. Check out her Instagram @hanaquist to see more of her work!

What is one of your best memories related to the arts or music?

On opening night of The Addams Family at LM, I almost cried while watching the show that I’d devoted the last three months to come to fruition. I was so excited and proud to see the work that we had all put into that show come to If you were trapped on a desert island and could only bring five things, what would they be?

I’d bring Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a large quantity of cool ranch Doritos, an inflatable pool float, a friend to keep me company, and whatever the clothing equivalent of a large plastic bag is (i.e. something to keep me dry and relatively warm.)

Do you have a favorite piece of music?

Right now, I really love the Kronos Quartet’s song “Beatitudes” since it’s a beautiful piece that’s also a major part of Eurydice.

Photo courtesy of Joanna Gerber ’18

keeps a sketchbook that she is always putting inspirational pictures into. “My design process is different every time,” she explained. “Sometimes I’ll be inspired by a fabric I see in the garment district, sometimes the inspiration can be a silhouette or a technique I want to try, and sometimes it’s something totally random like a painting or movie I saw.” Holquist gathers ideas for her designs from the world around her, but her motivation to go into drag comes from queer artists and her drag sisters. She especially acknowledges “legends in the scene” such as Leigh Bowery and Amanda Lepore, who both deeply inspire her. In regards to her love of fashion, Holquist is in awe of designers like John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, and Dilaria Findikoglu, and she loves to look back at historical clothing, especially from the eighteenth century.

Holquist is conflicted by drag’s rise in popularity.

“Drag has become really mainstream, which is great because it means that queens can make a living and a bigger career out of drag. However, it’s also negative because so many people only get to know drag race without learning the history of drag, so their understanding of drag is very strange. Young women are so often shamed for being hyper-feminine, whereas drag is often a celebration of hyper-femininity. I hope that young female, straight fans will also look at the history of drag and queer communities and also support their local queens, because there are so many talented queens who haven’t been on RuPaul’s Drag Race,” an extremely popular drag queen competition TV show.

Holquist herself has had several opportunities to work with more established and famous drag queens, which were “some of the coolest things that have happened to [her].” Milk was one of the first “Ru-girls” that Holquist had worked with, but she has worked with many more since then. Holquist described the process: “A queen will come to me with an idea of what she wants and send me any inspiration pictures. I’ll sketch and make the design. I always want to make something that is authentically me, but something that also fits with the drag queen’s style.”

Since then, Holquist has been working with girls from season nine of RuPaul’s Drag Race, which is exciting because this is her first experience with working with girls during their season. Hana Holquist has skyrocketed from creating looks at her house in Lower Merion to designing clothes for famous drag queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race. She has proven that working hard and following your passion can truly result in success.

Photos by Sam Gamberg’17/Staff

What is the best thing about participating in your art How are you involved in the forms? arts at LM? Besides being an amazing way I am involved in Players and I to express your creativity, being am currently taking Art 1H. Last in the arts allows you to be year I took 9th grade Art H and surrounded by some amazing Art History. I am also involved people. Everyday I get the opwith LM’s art website InsideOut. portunity to learn from people On it I produce a video series who are incredibly intelligent with my friend called “Three Art- and know so much about their ists in a Room.” specific fields.

How long have you been What is your favorite memory involved with these activities? related to the arts?

I have been doing art since I was In the last show I did, The Impora little kid and started theatre in tance of Being Earnest, the cast elementary school. got really close. I remember at the Saturday night performance every cast member was feeling really good about their performance. The audience was laughing a lot and I just felt so happy to be where I was.

Even though things went wrong (someone’s dress got accidently ripped open on stage), it was one of my favorite performances. When the cast finished bowing we all just hugged and laughed because we knew how great we did.

Photo courtesy of Mason Tepper ’19

Mason Tepper ’19

Arts & Entertainment

April 19, 2017

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The Bechdel Test: whose voices do we hear?

Molly Kaiser ’18 With the resurgence of the women’s rights movement in 2016, the concept of feminism (or lack thereof) has become increasingly relevant in American culture. Within this new wave, attention has been drawn to a measurement of female representation in film called the Bechdel Test. The test was created in 1985 by cartoonist and Pennsylvania native Alison Bechdel. Best known for her long-running cartoon strip “Dykes To Watch Out For” and her award-winning graphic novel “Fun Home,” Bechdel’s work offers a blunt perspective on equality. The Bechdel Test is used to determine the quality of female representation in a piece of fiction. The requirement is that the work must include at least two named female characters who have a conversation alone about something other than a man. Although seemingly elementary, the test reveals a major lack of female representation in films and books. Popular films that fail the Bechdel test include Avatar, the original Star Wars trilogy, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Social Network, and Finding Nemo.

After watching The Breakfast Club, I was disappointed to find the only conversation between the two main female characters, Claire and Allison, was about sex. When I read The Great Gatsby in English class, I was equally disillusioned by the fact that the book passed the Bechdel Test by an extremely slim margin. Jordan and Daisy only have one or two dialogues—the one that allows the book to pass is a very brief exchange regarding their boredom, when Jordan complains that “[She is] stiff… [she has] been lying on that sofa for as long as [she] can remember,’” and Daisy replies, “don’t look at me… I’ve been trying to get you to New York all afternoon.”

While the underrepresentation of women may seem like something of the past, the one-dimen-

sionality of female characters hasn’t faded. The average female character in a modern film is over-sexualized and painfully thoughtless. Think about it—how many movies can you name that feature a main female character who has a goal

besides finding love? A study by the University of California’s Annenberg School of Journalism and Communication revealed that 31.6 percent of female characters were depicted wearing stereotypically “sexy” clothing—such as tight dresses, low-cut shirts, and lingerie—in contrast to seven percent of male characters, wearing items such as tight pants or shirts. Additionally, 31 percent of the women were shown partially nude, compared to 9.4 percent of the men. If a female character is independent, she’s depicted as cold. If she’s on the heavier side, she’s used as comic relief. For example, in the movie 10 Things I Hate About

You, the main character Kat Stratford is depicted as cold and abrasive mainly because she doesn’t chase after boys and identifies as a feminist. In the film Pitch Perfect, jokes are made at the expense of the character nicknamed “Fat Amy,” both by the characters in the film and for the enjoyment of the audience. A large factor in this level of misrepresentation can be accounted for by the fact that there are very few women with jobs as directors and screenwriters. In 2016, only seven percent of the top 250 films were directed by women.

Despite the fact that 32 percent of films in 2016 didn’t pass the Bechdel Test, according to Fusion.com, many of the films in the past year offered strong female protagonists. The Disney film Moana focuses on a young Hawaiian girl on an action-packed journey to save her people. Movies targeted to a younger audience are particularly important in that they teach children from a young age that a girl can have goals besides finding her “prince.” Hidden Figures plays a key role in revealing the untold story of three African American female mathematicians whose work was critical to NASA’s success in the 1960s.

Zootopia portrays a female rabbit in the police force, something that is still somewhat of a rarity in American society. 20th Century Women depicts a single mother raising her son in the 1970s during a time of rebellion and cultural shifts. Movies like these are vital to breaking stereotypes and reminding us all that women are capable of anything.

An important caveat to consider is that passing the Bechdel Test doesn’t make a movie feminist or even well done—it simply measures the female presence that is independent of men. So although the Bechdel Test is a good start, is it enough to keep casting women as the same formulaic character?

Or is it time to create characters who are an honest reflection of 21st century life— multi-dimentional women of all shapes, colors, and sexualities?

Graphic by Vanessa Roser ’17/Staff

Applying to art colleges Grace Wei ’19 Each year, many seniors across the nation scramble to complete their college applications while struggling with anxiety and sleepless nights. All those hours of stressing over grades and standardized tests lead to one goal: a college acceptance letter. Some students use the summer before senior year to get a head start on their college applications, especially those planning on attending an art college.

At the end of junior year, rising seniors may start to fill out the Common Application. The Common Application calls for their generic personal, educational, and activities information. During the fall, the students send in a pile of college essays along with their school transcripts and letters of recommendation. The last step is simply to submit it and wait for an acceptance letter. Visual arts colleges require an application with almost the same components as the Common Application: an essay, testing scores, and letters of recommendation. For those interested in pursuing a future in music and dance, the summer is used to fulfill the pre-screening requirements for performing arts colleges, and for those planning on majoring in visual art, it is spent on their art portfolios. This large portfolio contains fifteen to twenty pieces of their artwork, where they demonstrate their abilities and experiences in different styles of art. Since the Common Application doesn’t exist for visual arts schools, students are required to submit individual applications for each art school. Thus, it requires more time and effort to apply to visual arts colleges than academic ones.

Instead of an art portfolio, performing arts col-

leges ask for recordings of certain pieces or dance routines for the pre-screenings. Like the visual arts schools, they also require an application with an essay, letters of recommendation, and school transcripts. At The Juilliard School, the pre-screening requirements for violinists include a slow and fast movement from a contemporary concerto, a movement from Bach, and one Paganini caprice.

The applicants are able to demonstrate their technique and talent through the pre-screenings. Baylor Molder ’17, who applied to the Berklee College of Music, recalls that “the preparation for the performing arts colleges definitely took more concentration and energy than for academic colleges.”

Once the college receives all the applications, directors and artistic officials invite a select handful of exceptional musicians and dancers to complete a live audition. This time around, the students will only have a few short weeks to prepare their new music or routine. The application process for performing arts colleges can require even more time and energy since applicants may have to complete another round of auditions. For The Juilliard School, all invited dancers participate in a ballet technique class, and the ones who perform well proceed to the modern technique class, solo performance, and coaching session. The live audition can determine the future of the graduating senior. All their years of pain and practice could pay off during the audition and secure them a spot. On the other hand, nerves could overwhelm their bodies and cause them to perform poorly. Students can’t truly prepare for some

of the more unpredictable aspects of an audition, which can intimidate and alarm many applicants.

Besides the differences between the applications, the curricula of the three types of colleges differ greatly. Naturally, the courses correspond with the types of majors offered at these schools. A traditional college offers a wide variety of academic classes to accommodate all their offered majors, ranging from Journalism to Biological Chemistry.

For colleges where solely music and art majors are offered, little to no academic courses are available.

For example, at the Rhode Island School of Design, classes such as Drawing I and II, Design I and II, Spatial Dynamics I and II, and liberal arts courses are required for the freshman class. At The Juilliard School, only private lessons and Music Theory classes are necessary. In special circumstances, students can combine the best of the two worlds.

Some academic colleges offer their own performing arts or visual art college. At these schools, students can take both academic and music classes and double major in, for example, Violin Performance and Political Science. The University of Rochester and their Eastman School of Music accommodate for this possibility, and both the university and the music school feature world-renowned professors.

Many students may choose to take advantage of this unique opportunity and graduate with two majors.

The application process for performing arts colleges and visual arts colleges may be longer and more time consuming, but they are practical in showcasing the personal ideals and ambitions of the applicant.

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April 19, 2017

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Springtime arts in the area Alexandra Gordon ’17 Philadelphia is an important destination for any art lover, and in Lower Merion we are lucky enough to live less than twenty minutes from copious amounts of famous art and culture that is available to us outside of what we experience in our own suburbia. Our city’s largest art-related attraction, the Philadelphia Museum of Art on the Ben Franklin Parkway, contains one of the most expansive collections on the east coast. However, there are many overlooked spots besides the art museum to check out when the weather turns sunnier.

Steve Powers’s Love Letters Murals “If You Were Here I’d Be Home Now” is number twelve in a series of murals by Steve Powers.

Photo courtesy of Mural Arts Philadelphia, photo by Adam Wallacavage For the adventurous, hop on the Market Frankford Line from 45th to 63rd streets for a tour of Steve Powers’ charming murals. These famous murals, numbered and visible from the train in both directions, are part of a series called “A Love Letter for You.” They feature heartwarming sayings like “If you were here, I’d be home now,” spelled out with an arrangement of refrigerator magnets on the side of a building. Half of the fun is trying to spot the murals, because some are hidden by other buildings—this makes the miniature train tour worth a second run. Powers’ art can also be seen on the cover of Kurt Vile’s album Walkin’ On A Pretty Daze, and another mural by Penn’s Landing in Olde City.

The Barnes Foundation The Barnes Foundation, which originated in our very own Merion area, now occupies a modern gallery on the Parkway that includes temporary exhibitions. Set up with the same layout as its original home, the museum aims to maintain Albert C. Barnes’ unique vision. Intended to be a school for budding artists and art historians, Mr. Barnes arranged his collection of pieces in a way that demonstrated elements of science, psychology, and the use of space.

The Barnes Foudation, which was recently relocated into a new Philadelphia building. The foundation owns more than 4,000 objects, including over 900 paintings, estimated to be worth about $25 billion.

A-Space and Wooden Shoe Books

Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens One of Isaiah Zagar’s whimsical mosaic creations. The Magic Gardens spans three city lots, and includes indoor galleries and a large outdoor labyrinth.

A popular spot for photography is South Street’s “Magic Gardens,” the brainchild of Isaiah Zagar, a Philadelphia native. Zagar creates mosaics in unconventional spaces using recycled or found materials, like bicycle tires, wine bottles, and toilets. His work is featured all throughout the South Street area, adorning the walls and ceiling of the Eyes Gallery and cropping up on the sides of buildings. “Magic Gardens,” which towers two floors into the air, is a permanent gallery created in the space it was given—a South Philadelphia building sandwiched between another store and an alleyway.

For the politically active, places like Wooden Shoe Books and A-Space host events including zine workshops, art lectures, and writing classes.

The former is an intersectional, feminist bookstore with a vast collection of literature to both enlighten and inform readers on social issues, and an entire wall of locally curated zines and short books. The latter is a collaborative, creative space opened for inclusivity and intersectionality. A-Space functions as a home for art not accepted in larger museums and galleries, and puts the power and effectiveness of art back into the average person’s hands. A-Space holds open galleries and workshops, often themes on certain social issues and pressures, and gives marginalized individuals a creative outlet. As unique art experiences off the beaten path, both places offer something for individuals invested in exploring their place in the world.

The interior of the Wooden Shoe, featuring its selection of books about issues of social justice.

Photo courtesy of the Wooden Shoe.

The University of Pennsylvania Museum and Haverford College Museum The Penn Museum displays architectural and historical artifacts.

The museum has roughly 1,000,000 objects in their care.

Additionally, local colleges offer hidden gems in the form of collections within their walls. This spring, Haverford College is displaying two stellar exhibitions—one featuring a Haverford professor’s personal collection of Andy Warhol prints, the other focusing on street art and graffiti in our city. The University of Pennsylvania has an architectural gallery on display, highlighting the ins and outs of buildings from ancient times to the 21st century. The recognizable sights and familiar works of Warhol make both exhibitions speak to those from the Philadelphia area.

The Rodin Museum Right down the Parkway from the Philadelphia Art Museum will land you at the Rodin Museum, a beautiful collection of sculptures with an open outdoor garden for when the weather is warmer. The Rodin celebrates French sculptor Auguste Rodin, and 2017 is the hundredth anniversary of his death. An open gallery and commemorative events are planned throughout the year in his honor. The Rodin museum will open its gardens in the early spring for those who enjoy a bit of a getaway from the city and the suburbs simultaneously.

The Rodin Museum is the only museum dedicated to Rodin outside of France and has one of the largest collections of his work in the world.

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Claire Ochroch ’18 Arts & Entertainment Editor

Maya Laincz ’17 and Sarah Wilson-Leslie ’17

Emily Goniea ’17

Elizabeth Paul ’18 and Gianna Jacobson ’19

Katie Mora ’17, Kailee Heller ’17, and Lia Finkelstein ’17

To witness a room filled to the brim with flowers, plants, and trees of every variety imaginable, you might think that you have to be in an arboretum or specialty garden during the summer or in a tropical climate. However, that is not true. From March 11 to March 19, you only had to go to the Pennsylvania Convention Center, which hosted the Philadelphia Flower Show, to see spectacular flower arrangments, landscaping, and gardens. This year, the theme was titled “Holland: Flowering the World,” and every major landscaping company, gardening club, or floral designer in the region created masterpieces for the show. Some students also competed in the show, and LM had amazing results.

This year’s biggest display from LM was a garden setting staged in an area twelve feet by sixteen feet by one foot deep. The garden was inspired by Dutch Eco Design, which sets the trends for innovation, recycling, fair trade, ground-breaking alternative materials, and unconventional ideas. Community gardens, especially in Harlem, New York, influenced the students’ chosen design. Rain collectors were placed in the display to represent the ecologically and environmentally sound aspect of the assignment. Many of the plants used, such as kale, corn, and apple trees, were edible and could be found in a typical community garden. The display was created by the Flower Show Club and Environmental Club, whose members, worked tirelessly to design and build the amazing garden. Their hard work, along with the guidance of Flower Show Club advisor Lynne Freeland, came to fruition when they won third place with a score of 95/100.

Many students from LM entered in the oranjegekte category, in which students created an iconic object of Dutch culture on a keychain or ring made entirely out of plant materials. Molly Hughes ’17 won first place for her keychain which depicted tulips blossoming from a clog, representing two icons of Dutch culture. Hughes crafted the entire keychain out of lily petals, pistachio sheets, daffodil leaves, lilac stems, and corn husks. Jillian Rothstein ’17 and Emily Murphy ’17 won second place for their recreation of a self portrait by Vincent Van Gogh, a Dutch artist, entirely out of plant life. Third place went to Emily Goniea ’17, Maya Laincz ’17, Sarah Wil-

son-Leslie ’17, Elizabeth Paul ’18 and Gianna Jacobson ’19 for their amazing oranjegekte. The team of Lia Finkelstein ’17, Kailee Heller ’17, Katie Mora ’17, as well as Zoe Kleeman ’18 won honorable mention awards for their stunning creations.

The Philadelphia Flower Show is the biggest, longest-running indoor flower show in the world. It is a massive, multi-faceted welcome to spring that covers more than ten acres and dates back to 1829 when the debut show introduced Americans to a red Mexican plant called Emily Murphy ’17 the poinsetta. More than 250,000 visitors from and Jillian around the world come to see the living spectaRothstein ’17 cle every year. The International Festivals and Events Association has even named the show the best event in the world, beating out competitors such as the Kentucky Derby Festival and the Tournament of Roses Parade.

At the show, a visitor could see not only thousands of tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and other spring-blooming bulbs, but also lesser known examples of the Dutch love of plants, including the recent “Dutch Wave” movement that embraces naturalistic plantings and eco-aware sustainable practices. Displays also highlighted Nehama Dormont ’19 other aspects of Dutch culture, such as canals, bridges, wooden shoes, cheese-making, and, of course, windmills. “I think it [was] one of the most colorful shows we’ve ever had,” said Sam Lemheney, chief of shows and events for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the organization which presents the show.

The LM students who participated in the show are incredibly happy with their results, and have already started working on designs for next year’s show, which is entitled “Wonders in Water.” The show is expanding to a younger audiMolly Hughes ’17 ence, more than even before, boding well for the future of the show. For example, students from Bala Cynwyd Middle School’s Communique program entered in the competition for miniatures inspired by the works of Dutch artists in both indoor and outdoor settings. Both of their displays received honorable mention awards and a special award for daily maintenance and condition. Every student who participated in the show is looking forward to next year and cannot wait Zoe Kleeman ’18 to utilize plants in creative ways yet again.

Photos courtesy of Claire Ochroch’ 18/ Staff

Molly Gonzales ’17 Arts & Entertainment Editor We are in the home stretch, you guys, home stretch. For seniors, the rest of our school year fits on one calendar! Mr. Frosty is out of hibernation and patrolling the streets of Narberth while the courtyard is once again full of underclassman wallballers. Listen to these 20 Spring Jams to get ready for the warm weather and longer

New Albums to Watch Out For This Old Dog Mac DeMarco DeMarco’s highly anticipated third studio album will be released May 5! The album follows his move from the west coast to east coast. “I realized that moving to a new city, and starting a new life takes time,” says DeMarco. Hopefully his ladeback sound and goofy attitude will continue on This Old Dog!

Waiting on a Song Dan Auerbach Frontman of The Black Keys, The Arcs and producer of platinum albums like Lana del Rey’s Ultraviolence, Dan Auerbach has announced a release date for his second solo album. Auerbach describes the album as a “dedication to Nashville” the city that has inspired a lot of his music making. Keep your eyes peeled June 2 for Waiting on a Song.

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“Edge of Seventeen” – Stevie Nicks “The Summer” – Coconut Records “Perfect Day” – Lou Reed “Surfin’” – Kid Cudi Feat. Pharrell “Heart of Glass” – Blondie “Best to You” – Blood Orange “Paranoia Blues” - Paul Simon “Slide” – Frank Ocean “Glazin”’ – Jacuzzi Boys “Lola” – The Raincoats “IV. Sweatpants” – Childish Gambino “Sun Medallion” – King Tuff “The Chain” - Fleetwod Mac “Told You I’d Be with the Guys” – Cherry Glazerr “We Don’t Care” – Kanye West “Day Tripper” – Nancy Sinatra “Summertime Clothes” – Animal Collective “Roses” – OutKast “If You Wanna” – The Vaccines “Elephant” – Tame Impala

Sports

April 19, 2017

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The grind don’t stop: LM sports over spring break Matt D’Aquila ’17 Sports Editor While many LM students travel the globe, spend time with family or just catch up on sleep during the week of spring break, the most dedicated LM student-athletes devote their time to practice and competition for their sport. With spring break much later during the spring sports season this school year, our athletes have no choice but to waste as little time as possible to continue their practice for their sport.

For spring track athletes, it becomes imperative to not become distracted during such an important week in the season. Both boys’ and girls’ spring track teams, for example, have “invitationals” that are breeding grounds for fast times and Penn Relays and PIAA District qualifiers. If you miss this pivotal week of training, your end-of-season goals will become less feasible. But track and field is not the only sport profoundly affected by the disruptive spring break.

Since beginning their season on a good note, the LM boys’ baseball team has been spending their practices working in the batting cages and strengthening their arms with long toss. This spring break the team can’t stop this momentum. Captain and catcher Marek D’Alanzo ’18 notes the importance and intensity of practice during spring break which inherently comes with the lessened stress of having less schoolwork. “Spring break is a chance where us athletes get to throw away the stresses and expectations of the student part of school and get back to the sports we love,” says D’Alanzo. The captain goes on to say that he appreciates baseball practice more during the break. “It’s fun, especially after a hard-fought win or a tough loss being able to go home worry free.” Elsewhere, spring break is a time when teams are striving to work out the technical aspects of their sport. For girls’ spring track, the handoffs for the 4 by 100m, 4 by 400m and 4 by 800m relay teams are crucial if athletes in these events want to be successful. It’s not only the runners who stick with their training during the break, but the “field” athletes are also staying committed. Senior captain of the LM girls’ track throws squad, Eleanor Gaddy, trusts that

her training plan will get her to where she wants to be by the end of the season.

“Continuing practice over a period of time shows dedication to yourself and your team,” says Gaddy. Eying the shot put districts qualifier of 33 feet, Gaddy sticks to her goal as her “dub season” is already well underway.

LM Crew also knows a thing or two about hard work. Crew’s practices during breaks are equally as stressed by coaches and captians. Senior captain Maxwell Koerner notes that crew practices during spring break are mandatory, “occurring twice daily.” He goes on to say that these practices during the break “provide rowers with the opportunity to refine their technique through drills in the morning, and intense, difficult workouts in the evening.” Koerner’s co-captain Jarod Estacio ’17 has been on the team for four years and knows spring break is also a time for team bonding. He notes, “our coaches breed an environment where missing a spring break practice is detrimental to the function of a boat and the team as a singular cohesive unit.” But there is something deeper present when partaking in these practices. “Attending these practices demonstrates a personal devotion to the sport all the while contriving team-centered camaraderie,” says Estacio. Not only that, but this year’s spring break comes at an important time in the season, just a few days before the key regattas like The Cooper Cup, City Championships, Mid-Atlantic Youth Championships, and then the Stotesbury Cup in May. Let’s just say, there’s no time for vacation on LM crew. With spring sports gearing up for greatness during the championship season, LM athletes are constantly reminded that they cannot slack during the key week for training that is spring break.

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Changes in the game

Morale and endurance

Photo courtesy of Marek D’Alonzo ’18

Zach Simons ’18

The team parades off the field after a big win against Haverford on March 3o – a very strong start to the season.

off the field translate into how we play on the field.” This bond that D’Alonzo refers to is something that Aces baseball has been lacking for some time.

He and others feel very confident that this year will be a turning point for the program. Their main objective this Spring is to execute, not build. After a dismal record last year, many believe that the win total will increase drastically this year. This is partially due to the fact that the Aces have young talent as a number of freshman and sophomores will be playing in starting positions including Drew Reisenbach ’20 and Casey Murphy ’19, both of whom are very versatile and can be utilized on both sides of the field.

A major change for this season is that the team will be playing in a new classification; instead of 6A they will now be playing in 5A, which divides the teams based on the size of the school. Although they are reclassified, they will still be playing the same Central League teams. However, this year they are more prepared and have a better chance of making the playoffs because of the change. Additionally, the balance of defensive and offensive weapons bodes very well for the Aces. One player that illustrates this balance is Jake Stoller ’18. He is coming off a very successful campaign where he received an award for his defensive effort. Diligently working this offseason, he plans to play even better this year as he continues to progress.

When discussing the team’s aspirations for this season, he explained that, “The way this team has been preparing, I don’t see why we couldn’t make the playoffs this year. We have the talent, dedication, and experience. All we need now are the results that I’m sure will come.” The team is ecstatic for the season to start as they look to burst onto the scene of 5A and prove once again that Aces baseball is a force to be reckoned with.

As the days have grown warmer and spring sports have begun, Girls’ lacrosse has taken the turf yet again for the 2017 season. To prepare for their games, the girls have spent many hours practicing their lacrosse skills. To get into shape, they also continue to dedicate portions of practice to completing timed runs on the track. As tough as these workouts are, the teammates encourage each other to keep working hard.

Upperclassmen on the team are putting a great deal of emphasis on working together as one cohesive group.

Sophia Seligsohn ’17 echoes this sentiment: “I am working to create a welcoming and positive environment for all of the players. Varsity or JV, Senior or Freshman, starter or backup—it doesn’t matter—we are all one team.”

This type of support can be passed along to the freshmen for many more seasons and will only help increase the success of the team.

A huge change for this team is the arrival of new coach Laura Lincicome, who is working hard to improve the program. Lincicome was the assistant LM Girls’ lacrosse coach for the 20152016 school year, and therefore has already created strong relationships with many of the players. Throughout her collegiate career, she played lacrosse at Penn State. Because of her experience in the sport, Lincicome can use her knowledge to help improve the LM team.

Lincicome is working hard to use the strengths of each athlete to her advantage rather than apply a fixed philosophy to the entire team. Taking note of their coach’s strategy, the team as a whole is working to make sure that they achieve success but not lose sight of the positive atmosphere and amazing memories of the season.

There is also a much stronger emphasis on running this year than there has been in the past. Ashley Roberts ’18 shares, “Running is no longer a pun-

ishment but rather a tool to our success.” From day one, the lacrosse team has completed countless laps on the track. Overall, the girls are striving to increase their stamina in order to improve their play on the field.

Ideally, the lap training will benefit the athletes as they face off against many talented teams throughout the spring. Some of the tough competition of the season include Garnet Valley, Ridley, and Harriton. However, the girls are ready to rise to the occasion and challenge all teams that come their way.

As the lacrosse program at Lower Merion continues to improve, Seligsohn advises the freshmen on the team to “Have fun and work hard! YOU are the future of this program; the work you put in now will pay off!” If the upperclassmen show the new players how to be dedicated, hard-working, and spirited, this team will find great success in their program for years to come.

Photo courtesy of the Enchiridion

As the sun starts to shine and the grass begins to grow, it is clear that baseball season for the LM Aces is just around the corner and heating up quickly. The team is looking very strong in the early stages of the season and, after a rebuilding last season, are looking to grow and develop even more. With a great coaching staff and a group of committed players, the Aces believe this year is going to be very special as a large portion of the team is made up of either returning varsity players or underclassmen who all bring a unique skillset to the table.

In recent years, the team has been lacking a good mix of experience and skill. However, this season, that is not the case. Some of this experience is shown in the leadership exemplified

by Ale Hurowitz ’17, Ryan McCormack ’17, Sean Ryan ’17, and Daniel Tsai ’17.

All of whom will likely be key contributors. The team as a whole seems more connected this year. Marek D’Alonzo ’18 stated, “Something about this team just seems different; last year we were a team, this year we are a family. I think our friendships

Shuli Weinstein ’18

Ashley Roberts ’18 catches a tough pass in traffic during an intense game.

Competitive camaraderie within crew Claire Ochroch ’18 Arts & Entertainment Editor enzie Beckman ’17 says that their competitive goals are, “to get two boats to SRAA, one of the more competitive regattas we have. It is scholastic regionals.”

The members of the crew team plan on doing this “by working hard and encouraging our teammates.”

As Beckman explains, part of being on a sports team is working together with others, along with working

Photo courtesy of Row 2k

Moving through the water seems like a calm and beautiful activity to most. However, for the rowers on the LM Girl’s crew team, moving through water is a labor of love. Crew is a highly taxing sport. Rowing is grueling: athletes must haul their oars through the water while the sun beats down on their back, and the water foliage transforms into their worst enemy.

Unseasonable weather, such as the March snowstorm that raised the water levels, prevented Girl’s crew from going out to the water for a couple days, but this did not stop the rowers from training hard.

If they cannot safely go on water, they train indoors on the ergs. This makes everything hurt, especially after tests of two, or even four, kilometers.

Hopefully the team will carry into this season the adrenaline from last fall and winter, when they dominated in many of their competitions. As coxswain Minori Cohan ’18 says, “This season is different from previous seasons because of the increase we have seen in members and also the higher level of successes at regattas [last year].” Last spring the junior varsity four, junior varsity eight, and lightweight varsity four made it to SRAA junior national championships. This fall the team did extremely well with their varsity double, junior varsity eight, junior varsity four, and novice four. Although the team has been adjusting to a variety of coaches in the past two seasons, they are now settled with two coaches who are here to stay, creating a more stable environment for the team and therefore allowing them more room to grow and fulfill their season goals.

The rowers have created both competitive and team related goals for themselves. Captain Mack-

The team digs their paddles throguh the icy river water during a meet early on in the spring season. together against other teams: “Our goal as a team for this season is to be more competitive outside of the boat. Not just focusing on our power, but the power of our competitors.” Additionally, attitude is a huge determinant of how a team will perform. Beckman elaborates how members of the crew team recognize that with a bad disposition they will get bad results.

The team must aim to be “more positive during the

season as a whole no matter the weather, or the time.”

Crew is one of the most unique sports at LM according to Eva Nates ’18. “We all get really close since we spend so much time together. As a team, we push each other to get better.” This sport is such a large time commitment, one cannot help becoming best friends with teammates, and truly caring about whether their teammates do well or not. The sports itself makes you need to have trust in everyone in your boat, as Cohan says, “There is no option to give up, or give any less that your fellow teammates because any change in the amount of effort you put in directly affects your teammates and you’re boats success is a direct reflection of every single person’s effort.” Since each relies on every single person to pull their weight, they each need to work with everyone to achieve their goals as a boat, and this makes achieving your goals so much better.

The Girls’ crew team aims to do quite well this year, and would like break many team records. Like any sport, achieving goals can be tough, but it is always worth it. A race can be incredibly difficult, but at the end, accomplishment is felt after the hours of training put into finishing the race. As Emma Mernagh ’18 says, “The feeling of completing a race, and knowing that I just pulled my hardest and did something so physically difficult, makes me feel liberated.” Rowers work hard to achieve their goals in practice by running, erging, and rowing almost every day. They strive to accomplish more this year than they ever have before.

19

Sports

April 19, 2017

The Merionite

The history of the PIAA Benjamin Schmid ’19 Throughout the three seasons of the scholastic year, school sports prevail as a hot topic around our school. How far did this team get? Is this team going to make states? Almost all athletes get to play at the league level, and some are talented enough to have the opportunity to compete at the district, state, or even national standard. However, not many are aware of the history behind the organization of our sports system.

To start off, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, Inc.— more commonly known as the PIAA—is a non-profit corporation that presides over senior high and junior high school sports. Founded on December 29, 1913, by a group of high school principals, the PIAA consists of 1,426 member schools, out of which 581 are senior high schools and 596 are junior high or middle schools. The corporation has thirteen full-time staff members and about 200 volunteers, based out of the Harrisburg suburb of Mechanicsburg. Hershey hosts a large amount of championship competitions organized by the company due to its close proximity to Mechanicsburg and easy access to a variety of highways. Other locations of coordinated championship games by the group include Johnstown (Girls Volleyball), Lewisburg (Swimming and Diving), Shippensburg (Outdoor Track), State College (Baseball, Softball, Boys Volleyball and Indoor Track), Whitehall (Field Hockey), and York (Golf).

The PIAA has four major areas of operation: creating rules of eligibility (grades, attendance, age, etc.), contest rules for each sport, supplying trained officials, and organizing Inter-District Championship Contests. This body sponsors sixteen sports, and partially recognizes four additional ones. The sixteen that PIAA completely backs include the sports that are played here at LM, while the remaining four constitute of bowling, gymnastics, rifle, and water polo. Since PIAA does not receive any federal or state funds, junior high schools must pay $200 each year and senior high schools must pay between $400 and $550, depending on the size of the school, in order to remain a part of the association.

PIAA is actually a part of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), a group that not only publishes rules for interscholastic sports, but also sponsors fine arts programs such as speech, theater, debate, and music. This association is based out of Indiana, and has over 18,500 high school members.

It contains the equivalent of PIAA for all 50 states and the District of Colombia.

Other affiliates include the comparable organizations for the provinces of Canada.

Getting smaller from the state level, PIAA separates the Common-

Freshman Matt Robinson

Sophomore Christina Peng

What sport(s) do you play?

Cross country, indoor and outdoor track What was your most memorable Spring Break What was your most memorable experience? spring break experience?

Two years ago I went to Turks and Caicos. It was Running hills at ridley creek last year great because I had a ton of virgin piña colatas. because I thought I was going to pass out.

Would you rather have a year-long If you could transform into any winter or spring? flower, which would it be?

I would definitely rather have a year-long spring.

A Kimjongilia because I like the name.

If you could transform into any flower, which would it be?

I would be a sunflower because i’m bright.

What sport(s) do you play?

Tennis

wealth of Pennsylvania into twelve athletic districts, and as we know, LM can be found in District 1. Each district is determined by geography and has its own district committee. Most districts are broken up by county, but some exceptions exist such as Palisades High School, which belongs to Bucks County (District 1) yet competes in District 11.

Continuing down the levels of sports organization, each district is divided into leagues. Within District 1, there are eleven leagues including ours, the Central Athletic League (CAL). This league consists of twelve schools from eleven school districts, all primarily located in Delaware County, with the exceptions of LM and Harriton in Montgomery County, and Conestoga in Chester County.

The league’s creation story began when nine schools, including ours, left the Suburban League on May 28, 1966, to create the Central Athletic League. Three years later, in 1969, Ridley joined the league, but Harriton left to return to the Suburban League. Then in 1983, Strath Haven entered. Two and a half decades later, in 2008, Garnet Valley came in for the first time, and Harriton returned. Ever since then, we have had a twelve-team league, but with a small change in history, it could have been a sixteen-school league. In 1988, the Ches-Mont league looked depleted, seeing a lack of members, so their remaining four schools applied to become members of the Central League. They were all rejected, but PIAA tried to force the CAL (Central Athletic League) to annex the four schools. Our league filed a lawsuit and won. That set the precedent that the PIAA could not realign sports leagues within its state. Interestingly enough, the four high schools that would have been a part of our league would have been Coatesville, Downingtown (prior to its 2003 split into East and West), West Chester East, and West Chester Henderson.

At first glance, our athletic system seems so simple, yet there is such an expansive history behind it. The addition of Coatesville, both Downingtown High schools and both West Chester high schools to our league would cause competition to be strikingly different. The Central League would have so much more competition than it already does, and that may have changed the history of our school’s athletic achievements. On top of that, the whole state system is owned by a private business, and has no affiliation to the Department of Education or any federal connection at all. While our students continue to compete as part of a great athletic program in an atmosphere of learning, the abundant history behind the program can often be overlooked.

Junior Zach Goldstein

What sport(s) do you play?

Soccer, lacrosse, and intramural baseketball What was yout most memorable Spring Break experience?

Going to Cocoa Beach with the Lax team last year. We had a fun time as a team playing, hanging out, and going to Denny’s.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what object would you bring with you?

I would bring the 1996 PIAA state championship basketball trophy since it is taking up way too much space in my bedroom.

Senior Sammi Tepper

What sport(s) do you play?

Cross country, indoor track, and spring track What was yout most memorable Spring Break experience?

When i went to California with my cousins.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what object would you bring with you?

I would bring a lifetime supply of chocolate chip cookies and live off of it.

Sports

April 19, 2017

20

The Merionite

The jinx Theo Henry ’19 The jinx, defined as a person or thing that brings bad luck, is a sports team’s worst nightmare. Yet it is not necessarily a real factor in their success. We all have heard of a jinx, especially in sports where superstition is among the most prevalent attitudes of fans. For example, the baseball manager George Stalling was notorious for freezing in place whenever his team had a rally

Wentz jogs onto the field during an away game in October during the 2016 season. This game was during Breast Cancer Awareness month. going. Another famous example is Michael Jordan, who wore his North Carolina shorts under his Bulls uniform.

These superstitions even exist at LM, where some players, no matter how badly they need it, will refuse to get a haircut if they are on a winning streak, myself being one

of them. People may argue against the jinx, but it is not a topic to be questioned.

One famous jinx is the Madden cover curse. Fact or fiction, being featured on the cover of the annual Madden video game is believed to bring injury or bad luck.

The achievement is a tribute to how great a player is, but still the NFL stars sometimes implore not to be highlighted on the cover. They fear that the cover feature will lead to bad luck in the next season. Facts back up the jinx and make it a reasonable argument. Daunte Culpepper, the 2002 cover, threw 23 interceptions. Donovan McNabb, the 2006 feature, tore his ACL. Peyton Hillis (2012) had various injuries and ended up missing half the season. Richard Sherman (2015) lost the Super Bowl. Among other examples, this data supports the effects of a jinx.

Now, perhaps the biggest name in Philadelphia is Carson Wentz. Our quarterback, Wentz, was the second overall pick in the 2016 NFL draft and has proven his worth thus far. He earned multiple accolades in his rookie campaign, including NFL Rookie of the Week award and NFC Offensive Player of the Week award, and became the first rookie quarterback since 1970 to win his first two games of the season without throwing an interception. In his short career as an NFL quarterback, Wentz has already joined the list of Eagles featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, similar to the Madden cover curse, the Eagles have not had success after the article was published with their photo.

An Eagles fan myself, nothing angers me more than the constant praise and compliments of the announcers.

Superstition is just a part of the game—always has been, always will be. Still the announcers continue to lavish Wentz with admiration, declaring that “he could be and is a star in this league.” While announcers might want to talk about the quarterback, especially one that has already turned so many heads, is it possible that they could cut back on the compliments and focus on the game itself? Wentz’s career is still young, but the bragging is already getting old. It is no easy task to manage all the publicity being a young quarterback like Carson Wentz. For Wentz to keep a level head with the amount

of praise thathe is getting seems arguably impossible, considering that he went from being a North Dakota State quarterback, to being the face of the Philadelphia

Pictured above is Daunte Culpepper, who was featured on the 2002 Madden video game cover. Culpepper later threw 23 interceptions during the season, and he ironically wore the same number as Wentz.

Eagles franchise. Nonetheless, he has had a stellar introduction to the NFL, which hopefully he can continue despite the indisputable possibility of a lurking jinx.

Sooner or later though LM, we will find the answer to our question—is there such a thing as a jinx?

Ultimate transportation Photo courtesy of David Lipson

Kelly Harrigan ’17 Sports Editor

LM is inarguably a school with an abundant amount of extracurricular activities. From Cooking Club, to Mock Trial, to sports of every season, it is safe to say that the LM administrators have their hands full with supporting a variety of student interests. Many of our school sports are provided with equal opportunities, yet there is still some unbalance, particularly in the field of transportation to extracurricular events. Although our school supplies numerous teams with busing, teams such as Ultimate Fris-

form of transportation. As Zhou expresses, the fact that “we pay our dues, are committed, and treat Ultimate very seriously should be sufficient reasons for us to have access to more school transportation.”

The team recognizes that many activities require school funding, but transportation seems to be a valid request. Factors such as distance, and length of some games may make it more challenging for the school to provide busing; however, as Holgado speculates, “a little help from the school with transportation would definitely aid our teams on the way to another state title.”

Photo courtesy of the Enchiridion

Bethany Eldridge ’18 skies her defender at the first tournament of the spring at Radnor High School, the closest tournament location.

bee routinely rely on carpools to travel to and from games and tournaments.

Originally a club at LM, Ultimate was declared a sport two years ago. The collective Ultimate team, as boys’ captain Jeffrey Zhou ’17 states, has since received “more field space and time, buses to practice, school wide attention, and surprisingly, school resources like the weight room and cardio,” for which the athletes are immensely grateful. Additionally, as captain Christina Holgado ’18 states, “After we [were] declared a sport, the Ultimate teams have been able to use the school fields. I think this is highly convenient for us since we do not need to travel away from the school to practice.” However, without school-provided transportation to games and tournaments, travelling to such competitions has created challenges for the teams. The athletes are reliant on upperclassmen and parents to drive them to tournaments, ranging from Radnor, PA, to as far away as Amherst, Massachusetts. As Holgado explains, “without the generosity of these individuals, we would not be able to get to our tournaments.”

Don’t get me wrong: carpooling can be fun. According to Zhou, it “invites parents to come to tournaments with their children, and also allow players to interact with one another outside of the field. Some of the best Ultimate experiences I have had were […] the bonding experiences we had during long car rides and overnight stays.” Looking at the realities of carpools, though, it is by no means the most desirable way to travel to and from tournaments. If the team were provided busing, then it would erase the problems of obligating both parents and upperclassmen to each drive a carful of players, hoping that all cars arrive to the game or tournament on time, and finding enough cars to account for all of the players.

Although, as captain Sarah Lipson ’17 states, “people still have the same attitude towards Ultimate not being a sport,” hopefully that attitude could change with the further recognition from the school in the

Lenny Miller ’17 tracks down a disc in an early season game against Pennsbury, the team the LM boys beat last year to win the state championship title.