35.04

The Milton Paper OCTOBER 13th, 2017

VOL. 35 NO. 04

MILTON’S INDEPENDENT WEEKLY STUDENT NEWSPAPER

Opinion

More C's, Please

News

Centre St. Incidents Prompt Increased Security

Image courtesy of Photos Public Domain

By COALTER PALMER '18

About three weeks into my tenure at a high school in southern Germany last year, my math teacher handed back what had been our first quiz of the year. When the teacher handed me mine, my eyes were immediately drawn to the note my teacher had written in the top right corner of the paper that read “Nice Work!”. I felt a sudden rush of relief and accomplishment, yet when I looked to the right of my teacher’s kind note, I saw that I had scored only eleven out of fifteen points on the assessment. Was my teacher merely mocking me?

Why had he told me that I had done a good job on the assignment when I had gotten a 73%, a C-minus?

As I looked over the test, I became infuriated by how picky he had been. For every single mistake, every single tiny hiccup in the logical progression of my work, my teacher had subtracted a point. Was he just out to get me?

After he finished distributing our quizzes, my teacher strode to the front of the room and announced that the class as a whole had done well. The average, he said, was an eight out of fifteen, and we should be proud of that. I almost broke out laughing. Our teacher had just congratulated us for having a 53% average as a class. At that point, I was simply confused. Were German high school students just that stupid?

CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

By SARAH ALKHAFAJI '20 Mr. Ruiz sent an email asking the Upper School to report to the ACC, for an impromptu assembly directly after the academic day on Friday, September 19th.

Students who were still around on campus filed into the FCC where Mr. Bland and Mr. Ball spoke about two incidents that occurred earlier that week.

The first incident involved an anonymous student walking down Centre Street who witnessed a driver yell a racial slur directed at them. The student reported the altercation to his advisor and the school contacted the Milton Police department regarding the event. The school and the police, however, were not able to discover the identity of the driver.

The second incident occurred at the intersection of Centre Street and Randolph

Avenue. An anonymous female faculty member reported that a driver directed several inappropriate comments towards her.

The school, in cooperation with the Milton Police Department, used new security cameras to identify that the owner of a 1999 red Lexus GS was a level 2 sex offender.

The school plans to take precautions regarding the safety of the students and faculty after these incidents. Mr. Bland’s letter to students and parents mentioned that the Milton Police Department has advised the school to file a no-trespass order against the individual who owns the car. The school has also stationed Campus Safety officers along the crosswalks between Pritzker and Randolph Ave during the entire school day.

Otherwise, the school has plans to strategize on any further steps with the Milton Police Department.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Inside This Issue Kurdish Referendum pg. 3 || DACA pg. 8 || Can We Separate Art and Artist?

pg.

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The Milton Paper The 35th Editorial Board Editors-in-Chief Managing Editor Editor at Large Opinion Manager News Managers Senior Editors Website Editor Layout Editor

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News

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Editorial

Dear Parents

Hot take: Milton is stressful. As students, we sometimes forget just how central our parents or guardians are to our lives. Parents are humans, and so they do not always do a perfect job. Still, they are our parents. They love us, they support us, and we owe that much to them. But we are often blind to just how difficult it can be for a parent to support a teenage child.

Ideally, parents are the first people in your corner, the ones who support you in what you want to do. You should be able to look to them to redirect you or to act as a sounding board. Parents usually hold these good intentions, but they can often send the wrong message to their children without realizing the impact of their words or actions.

Like most people, parents tend to use their experiences to share the life lessons that shape us. As a result, parents might emphasize the importance of their younger selves’ accomplishments and regrets. They talk about what they did and what they wish they had done. Children then might feel the need to follow in the footsteps of their parents or to do what the parent wished he or she could have done as a teenager. As a student, you might believe that you need to make money or get into a top-tier college. Or, you might think that because your father, grandfather, great-grandfather, etc. went somewhere for school, you should not only go there but also participate in the same clubs and sports and activities that each of those relatives did.

The end result can feel e xtremely fulfilling, knowing that you did your due part as a child and followed in the footsteps of those who helped you reach the position in which you are now. After all, your parents helped fuel your existence today. But these steps can hinder a student, as well as his or her ability to take risks, make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and many other key aspects of the coming-of-age period that is high school.

The emphasis on being successful can hinder an individual’s perception of what success is and can be. At Milton, it can feel sometimes as if there is only one way to get to where you want to go. However, Milton is a place with a host of vastly different options, whether you’re playing three sports a year or attending five clubs for each day of the school week. It can feel sometimes as if you’ve disappointed your parents if you don’t do what your parent wants you to pursue—maybe because they think it will look good on a college application, give you the proper skillset for your future career, or fulfill their childhood dreams. However, it is important to remember that the time in high school is for us to figure out things we want to like, not things we are being told to do. In this way, we can truly develop the abilities of risk-taking, creativity, and passion within Milton’s high-pressure and high-stress environment.

Of course, we are not saying that freshman year, parents should drop off their children, throw up their hands, and tell them they’re on their own now.

While high school is a time for students to gain independence and mold themselves, they also need the helping hand of parents, be it in the form of a word of wisdom or a frowning look. What is essential, though, is that in the end, children fit the mold that they themselves desire.

So thank you, parents. We wouldn’t be here without your guidance.

And students: our parents work hard to bring us to Milton. We, as students and children, have the obligation to repay our parents. We best repay them by putting effort into our schoolwork and by being serious about our time at Milton. Almost more importantly, we should be finding our passions and interests, because we are most successful when happy. The time and money that is spent on our attendance at Milton is then put to its best use. •

News

Kurdish Referendum

Image courtesy of Kurdistan 24

By RISHI DHIR '19 The Kurds, an ethnic group settled in the Middle East, voted 92% in favor of separating from Iraq and founding their own nation in a referendum held on September 26th, 2017. As one of the largest ethnic groups without a nation to call their own, the Kurds were ecstatic to form their own sovereign state. However, the Iraqi government established that this referendum was non-binding, so there is no guarantee that the Kurds will even get their state. This referendum only heightened tensions between the Iraqi government and the Kurds, possibly foreshadowing a disastrous conflict in an already unstable nation.

Consisting of a population of about 35 million people, the Kurdish people are spread among many Middle Eastern nations, with the largest concentrations in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran. In Iraq itself, the Kurds account for about 20% of the overall population, according to the BBC. The idea of a Kurdish state, referred to as Kurdistan, truly began in the early twentieth century. Following the conclusion of World War I and the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the western allies outlined a Kurdish state in the Treaty of Sevres in 1920. However, just three years later, the allies drafted the

treaty of Lausanne, which failed to reaffirm Kurdistan borders. As a result, the idea of a Kurdistan was forgotten and nothing was ever done about this land.

This referendum was held by the Kurdistan Regional Government, which occupies a semi-autonomous area in Northern Iraq and possesses a population of 85 million. Given the rebuilding process that Iraq is undergoing, the Kurds saw an opportunity to finally get their own nation. The referendum was driven primarily by the Iraqi-Kurdistan Region’s president, Masoud Barzani, a strong advocate for secession from Iraq. As he explains in an interview with The Guardian, “from World War I until now, we are not a part of Iraq.” He went on, “[Kurdistan] is a theocratic, sectarian state. We have our geography, land, and culture. We have our own language. We refuse to be subordinates.”

In recent years, Iraq dealt with a number of difficult issues—all stemming from the dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein; Iraq had to rebuild themselves from the ground up.

Moreover, they are faced with the threat of the Islamist Extremist group, ISIS, who currently holds territory within Iraq. Now faced with the possibility of losing Kurdish land, Iraq has begun to panic.

PAGE 3 The land that the Kurds currently occupy possesses oil reserves essential to Iraq’s economy; this complication is causing hysteria within the Iraqi government. Following the referendum, Iraq denounced the vote, calling it illegal and vowing to ignore the results. Later, the Iraqi parliament requested their prime minister Haider al-Abadi deploy troops to the disputed areas held by the Kurdish. Furthermore, Abadi is forcing the Kurdish to surrender control of two airports located within the Kurdish region, or face a shutdown of all international flights coming to or from those airports. Iraq also fears the implications of the division of the state. As Abadi describes in a New York Times interview, “We are partners in this country, and the partnership means we work together and don’t carry out unilateral decisions that lead to division and conflict and weakness.”

The repercussions resulting this referendum are frightening not only for Iraq itself, but for many of its neighboring states.

Nations such as Turkey have voiced their concerns about this referendum, calling it a “terrible mistake.” As Turkey contains the largest Kurdish population, accounting for about 45% of the entire Kurdish population according to the Kurdish Institute of France, Turkey fears that if the nation of Kurdistan is created, then the Kurds within their respective nations will all flock to this new nation, diminishing a significant proportion of the Turkish population. This huge migration could cause other issues as well, as many will be traveling through unstable areas.

In many ways, this referendum is a positive entity. For the Kurdish people, this has been nothing more than a pipe dream.

However, after many decades, this dream may become a reality. As described by a 77-year-old Kurdish-Iraqi man, “Our people have been fighting for more than 100 years for this moment.” Unfortunately, the fulfillment of this dream is not without its consequences. Coming at a period of instability within the Middle East, this referendum only adds on yet another problem in an already chaotic period. Especially in Iraq, a country juggling both rebuilding their government and fighting ISIS, the idea of the secession of the Kurdish state only further complicates matters. Given the already irrefutable tension between the Kurdish Regional Government and the Iraqi government, the possibility of an internal civil war looms overhead. •

Dear Parents: We love you <3 Thanks for everything you do

PAGE 4

News

Latino Association Update

Impromptu Assembly CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Both incidents follow the incident in which a woman drove down Centre Street holding a sign that said “show me your green card.”. The school has had to respond to more of these circumstances since the sit-ins last spring. The increased reports of these incidents on campus correlate with the rising political tensions in the country.

Image courtesy of Hispanic Mama

By JAIME CARILLO '18 AND GENESIS PIMENTEL '19

Since the Monday assembly two weeks ago during which the Latinx Association (Latass) launched the Hurricane Maria fundraiser, the Latinx and Hispanic community has been experiencing a sort of rejuvenation. The club raised thousands of dollars for hurricane relief in Puerto Rico.

Latinx meeting attendance has spiked. The club has launched new initiatives with the Office Multiculturalism and Community Development. Brother-Sister Bonding, an affinity group for Latinx and Hispanic students, sessions are burgeoning. The Latinx and Hispanic community seems more unified and engaged than ever. Latass is making its presence felt and has big plans moving forward.

Prior to this school year, the Latinx Association had already formed ambitious plans grounded in three main prongs: unifying and strengthening the Latinx/Hispanic community at Milton, engaging with the Latinx/Hispanic community outside of Milton through activism and community service, and fostering dialogue and engagement with other Milton-based activist organizations. We have already begun taking steps to achieve these goals.

In order to strengthen the Latinx community at Milton, the Latinx Association has branched out as an organization, reaching out directly to Latinx and Hispanic students while also sponsoring a series of different engagement opportunities on campus. Latinx Association, officially designated as a culture club, last year started a Latinx affinity group to strengthen the Latinx community at Milton while providing support for

Latinx students. During Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15th - October 15th), the club is particularly active on campus, educating the Milton community about the diversity, vibrancy, and intricacies of the Latinx/Hispanic community. In late October the club hosts an annual chapel meeting, during which the club celebrates El Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

In addition to unifying the Latinx community, the Latinx Association has undertaken a new initiative (along with other culture, identity, and political organizations on campus) to foster inter-group dialogue about overarching issues. Shortly after Rodney Glasgow’s first visit to Milton last spring, the culture clubs on campus established a sort of confederation for the purpose of coordinating events, organizing joint meetings, and displaying solidarity.

To bolster that community-wide initiative, the club has also teamed up with the Office of Multiculturalism and Community Development.

Perhaps the most exciting yet daunting goal the club set this year was to branch out of the Milton bubble. The Hurricane Maria fundraiser was a step forward in that regard, though the club still has room to do more.

The Latinx Association has reached out to local community service organizations such as Mujeres Unidas and La Alianza Hispana. Spurred by the President’s decision to dismantle DACA and construct a border wall, the club has also taken steps to get involved in immigration advocacy.

This is just a preview of some of Latinx Association’s plans for this year. The club hopes that these initiatives not only amplify the Latinx voice within the Milton and greater Latinx community but also encourage others to learn, engage, and discuss. •

Students walking into the assembly did not know what to expect, but overall, were incredibly surprised by this news. “What made me more angry was the laughter and jokes I heard after the assembly,” says Kendelle Grubbs ’20. “[Those comments] made me really disappointed about how quickly people move on from serious topics. When I walked into the Stu after the assembly, I saw people on the couches laughing and acting like it was just like a regular day.”

Ky Putnam ’18 claims that they feel safe along main campus, but have always felt unsafe walking to the Health Center. “One time when walking back from the health center,” Putnam says, “a group of teenaged boys, hanging their upper bodies out of the car window, threatened to assault and rob me.”

This is just one of many examples of students witnessing catcalling or threats from cars driving along Centre Street. “I think that the cameras on main campus will help,” Putnam said. “And I think that we need more Campus Safety presence between main campus and east campus.”

Within this issue also lies the question of how we plan to move forward and control the incidents that occur on this public road. “We can’t control what people on the outside say or do,” Rufus Taylor ’20 said. “We just need to stand together against hate, and support those who are suppressed.”

Ms. Bonenfant reiterated Taylor’s remarks when she stated that “it is always the school's intent to create an environment in which students feel safe and cared for, and we are doing our best to do that.” Through new safety cameras, increased security presence, and continued support from the administration, the school has continued to stand by students and against all forms of bigotry and hatred.. •

News

PAGE 5

East of Eden vs. Life of Pi: The Switch Explained

Images courtesy of Amazon

By SARAH PALMER '20 Class IV English is not only at the core of Milton academics, but it also sits at the heart of the Milton experience. Traditions like the Class IV talk, Megablunders, the Critical Essay, and East of Eden, while contained in the freshman curriculum, transcend grades and connect generations of alumni; they become a unifying experience – one that everyone at Milton has struggled through. So when the English Department replaced East of Eden, a book so long part of the English Department with Life of Pi, the school was shocked. I spoke with Caroline Sabin ‘82, the head of the English Department, to see if Life of Pi had fulfilled the role that East of Eden once did as an introduction to English at Milton. However, I left with more questions about why the book was replaced to begin with.

If you read Ms. Sabin’s article in the Paper’s faculty issue last year, you know that she already started to touch on the subject. In the article, she explained her belief that the past few decades have seen a declining literacy in students because they “grew up in a culture that doesn’t read.”

Therefore, telling us to read “East of Eden, all 602 pages of it, says we [the English

Department] think they can still handle it.” In our interview, she stated frankly that “today's students don’t read as well as they did 42 years ago (her estimate of when East of Eden was instituted).” Is her opinion unfounded? Are Milton academics disintegrating because today’s students are unable to meet the challenge? What does that say about our generation as a whole if schools are getting more and more selective, but even at a school like Milton we are unable to finish or fully comprehend a book like East of Eden?

Furthermore, Milton Academy is definitely more diverse than it was in the 1980’s, and with that diversity comes some of the tension that everyone experienced during last spring’s widespread conversation around race. According to Ms. Sabin, the lack of diversity in the novel and the stereotypical depictions of the few non-white characters were huge concerns. That said, the book could perhaps lead to educational discussions around the Harkness table, but Ms. Sabin said she did not want the question primary question to be whether or not the East of Eden was “a racist book.” The English Department tried for two years to decide upon a book that did justice to East of Eden’s role, but could only find books that covered certain aspects of what makes

the novel effective. They finally decided last spring that East of Eden would not be the required reading for incoming freshman. Needing to put any book on the table, they decided to assign Life of Pi. There was also some division among Class IV English teachers. According to Ms. Sabin, although many of the veteran teachers questioned East of Eden and wondered why it was the book every year for any other reason than just tradition, “it sometimes takes the newer folks to say, ‘okay, but why are we doing this book and I am not enjoying teaching it.’” She also said that some of the new teachers didn’t have concerns teaching the book and that she personally is a fan of East of Eden and would have kept it.

Many students expressed discontent and maybe even jealousy about the incoming freshman having a ‘shorter’ or ‘easier’ novel. Perhaps the change in novel says a lot more about us as a community than we realized. Should we reexamine other aspects of the Milton curriculum for prejudice and lack of diversity? What does it say about us when Milton Academy needs to dumb down a book for our generation? •

PAGE 6

News Asian Affinity

Image courtesy of NPR

By HANA WIDERMAN '19 On October 2, Milton Academy held its first Asian affinity meeting in Straus Library. The chairs were arranged in a large circle so that Asian boarders and day students from all grades could openly discuss anything. The reasons for people’s attendance ranged from curiosity to desire for a safe space. Asian faculty also attended to support students. The atmosphere was comfortable, and if people disagreed, they did so respectfully. Topics included parental pressure, the future, and the difficulty of sharing feelings with others.

Racial tensions that culminated on campus last spring demonstrated a significant need for an Asian affinity group. According to Ms. WuWong, the administration’s permission was not needed, but administrators have been supportive. This group was finally created when the Asian faculty, as Ms. WuWong puts it, “got [their] act together.” Asian faculty had been considering the idea of an Asian Affinity group for a while. However, in the past, Ms. WuWong

thought that this group would have to be organized with the help of an Asian dorm faculty because Brother/Sister Bonding—a Black and Latinx affinity space founded around twenty-five years ago—seemed like a dorm-organized space. She felt that it would have been awkward for her to call a meeting when she was not a dorm faculty member. Another motivation for the group’s creation is that Milton has a record thirteen Asian faculty this year, including an Asian counselor, Mr. John Lee. The first meeting had around forty students; however, according to Ms. WuWong, potentially over 160 kids could be apart of this affinity group. She invited everyone with Asian heritage or ancestry. She thought that it was nice that people “could see each other” during the discussion but expressed concern that some students “were falling through the cracks.” She noted that, even with Asian Society, Asian students need more of a safe space than the rushed Activities Period can provide.

They need a space away from the high ceilings of Wigg—Asian Society’s meeting

location—where they feel comfortable to talk. Something about an evening meeting and the location of Straus, a more intimate space with comfortable chairs, lets students talk about personal issues that they could not discuss during Asian Society. Ms. WuWong also believes that having an affinity group will allow more non-Asian students to feel comfortable going to Asian Society because Asian students will have another space where they can be themselves without having to spend energy educating others.

Ms. Darling believes that the variety of Asian perspectives “will bring a richness” to discussions. She thinks that it’s beautiful that students are coming together, “sharing all these true voices and stories.” She hopes that this space will help students “find clarity, or maybe even create more room for questions.” In a similar vein, Ms. Otenti says, “In the sharing of one another—our experiences, our pains, our joys—we build empathy for one another.” She believes that this process is “very necessary for Milton to be healthy.” •

Opinion Cultural Holidays

PAGE 7

Sustainability at Milton

Image courtesy of NPR

By ADI GANDHI '18 With the recent advent of the High Holidays, I am left wondering why cultural holidays at Milton come and go like regular days. Aside from a chapel in their honor, the High Holidays were hardly mentioned, except by the Jewish community at Milton. Many members of this community even had to spend these important holidays worrying about the work that their teachers continued to assign. But I am not asking for teachers to put their classes on pause at the approach of each holiday, nor am I asking for days off of school, or anything of the like. It would be ridiculous for me to think that a school in America could fully honor any and every holiday other than Christmas or Thanksgiving.

What we can do at Milton, however, is celebrate the festivals and holidays of other cultures whenever we can.

Yes, there are cultural holidays that Milton tries to honor. Yom Kippur, for example, is typically a day of no school.

Likewise, South Asian Society holds an event for Holi. But our choice to commemorate these two holidays is representative of only the smallest effort on Milton’s behalf. In other words, Milton has the ability to do better.

One way for Milton to celebrate more holidays is for it to slightly readjust the weekend activities schedule. Some weekend activities organized by the SAA attract lots of student interest, while others inevitably compel only a small fraction of students. Nonetheless, all activities use a portion of SAA’s budget. Since many of these weekend activities are the same from year to year, Milton knows which activities are more popular than others.

Yet even the unpopular activities are sponsored again and again, thus wasting money that could be used elsewhere and for a more productive cause.

Instead of losing money in this way so that a handful of students are less bored on certain weekends, Milton could eliminate the more unpopular weekend

activities and then, after a little rescheduling, celebrate holidays as a weekend activity. These “activities” would still have the effect of providing entertainment for boarders. But, in addition, honoring holidays works to make students aware of other cultures and to make Milton a home for boarders who may not be able to celebrate with their families for various reasons.

Of course, Milton already does have culture nights sponsored by its various culture clubs. If cutting unpopular weekend activities from the schedule proved too strenuous, Milton could always rearrange its order of activities so that each culture night would be devoted to a holiday specific to that culture.

Although the idea of celebrating another culture’s holiday as an activity can border on appropriating that culture, Milton has the ability to ensure that the culture in question is truly appreciated by the members of its community. For one, culture clubs would lead the activity for their respective holidays. Also, instead of hosting the activity on the weekend of the holiday, when many students of that culture might be with their families, Milton could choose to devote the weekends before or after the holiday to the activity.

Therefore, more of the students whose culture’s holiday is in question could attend the event.

I admit that this might seem like a lot of fruitless work. After all, Milton would need to plan these activities and then promote them to ensure that people attend and participate. Yet my opinion stands.

The integration of these holidays into the typical Milton student’s weekend night would promote the intercultural dialogue of which we always speak. Such an integration would also make Milton a place where a boarder, separated from his or her home by distance, could walk outside and see the sparklers of Diwali or the red that signals the Chinese New Year. Such a boarder might then feel more welcome and at home.•

Image courtesy of RIT

By JEN CHEN '19 Milton prides itself on being a community which constantly works to be the best version of itself. Along with this mission comes a push for Milton to become a more sustainable and environmentally-conscious institution.

Here is a layout of some of the student-led sustainability initiatives on campus, and what they hope to accomplish.

The Sustainability Board is the official school group that focuses on environmental efforts at Milton, lead by Alex Chen ’18, Kano Watanabe ’18, Pierce Wilson ’19. The board operates on the belief that, as stewards of the earth, Milton students have a responsibility to be conscious of how lifestyle choices can have large-scale effects on the world.

Sustainability Board aims to “actively spread environmental awareness and initiate tangible change on campus,” according to Watanabe, and “focuses more on change within the infrastructure of the school.” For example, Sustainability Board brought composting to Forbes, hosted an interEco-Olympics, and bought reusable water bottles for the whole school. This year, the board plans on having “more contact with the school’s Sustainability Committee [of faculty sustainability coordinators] to work on bigger changes like smarter water flushing systems,” as mentioned by Watanabe. The meetings, although not open to the general Milton Academy, are reserved for students dedicated in shifting our school’s structure to a more environmentally conscious entity.

The current co-heads of Lorax are Margot Bancroft ’19 and Jennifer Chen ’19, with the third head Ariane DesRosiers ’19

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

PAGE 8

Opinion DACA

Image courtesy of CNN

By MAX O'BRIEN '19 Though widely maligned as cruel and heartless, President Trump’s announcement to rescind DACA can be viewed as a great opportunity for the very people DACA sought to protect.

DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and its history are important to understand. In 2001, Senators Durbin (D) and Hatch (R) introduced the DREAM Act,

We Can't Always be Positive

Image courtesy of Eclectic Northeast

By ALEXANDRA MILLARD '18 The “Standards” section of the Upper School Student Handbook states that “In all activities and interactions, Milton students are expected to be positive and cooperative, holding the rights and well-being of those around them uppermost in their minds.”

As outlined in this same section, Milton requires students to be honest, supportive, and upbeat in all endeavors. Yet, as a student

which in substance is largely the basis for DACA. The DREAM Act legislation and its various iterations failed to pass in 2001 and several other times, notably in 2007 and 2010. Reportedly frustrated with Congress, President Obama bypassed Congress in June 2012, via his DACA executive order. DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, provided temporary security for people who entered this country illegally as children and met certain requirements such as earning a high school diploma or GED body comprised of differing opinions and values, we struggle to live up to Milton’s requirements. At times, we cannot be both supportive of our peers and speak truthfully when we want to express ourselves and convey our thoughts. Nevertheless, Milton requires us to be both honest and positive no matter what the situation.

Being cooperative and positive is important in fostering safe, open dialogue.

Students should be mindful of others to make our peers feel comfortable. But we can’t always be positive.

When people feel victimized, their innate reactions are to defend themselves and rebut their aggressors. It’s human nature; if someone says something racist, how can the victim respond positively? If someone says something sexist, how can one respond positively? If someone says something that violates one’s morals, how can he respond positively? Anger and indignation are human feelings, and can often be warranted. To try to eliminate non-positive feelings through legislation is absurd and counterproductive in a community that attempts to combat ignorance and teach the value of cross-cultural dialogue. “Dare to be True” means that people should take

and not having a criminal record. DACA granted qualifying participants two years of protection with the need to reapply to renew their status every two years. While President Obama’s action was lauded as compassionate, it was possibly unconstitutional, and, in my opinion, injurious to those seeking citizenship in our country.

In our country, it is Congress’s exclusive duty to create laws. President Obama’s decision to usurp Congress’s legislative powers met opposition not only because people disagreed with the substance of DACA, but also because many saw his actions as unconstitutional.

Obama’s attempt to expand DACA in 2014 generated several lawsuits filed by various states—lawsuits which those states won.

Many of those same states made it clear to President Trump that they were prepared to file similar lawsuits to reverse President Obama’s original DACA executive order if President Trump did not do it himself.

Even Dianne Feinstein, Democratic Senator from California, recently acknowledged that DACA stands on shaky legal ground.

In addition, with DACA in place, Congress felt less pressure to actually pass appropriate legislation to protect individuals eligible for DACA.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 risks and stay loyal to their beliefs. But if we feel the need to defend ourselves and these beliefs that we are loyal to, we can’t always be happy, and we shouldn’t feel the need to. It is impossible for us to follow this school “standard” if we want to both stay true to ourselves and our beliefs, and engage in dialogue with those who hold different opinions.

Acting positively isn’t just an ideal at Milton, it is literally a rule, inscribed in the Student Handbook. It is ridiculous to punish a person for not being happy all of the time. By establishing this expectation as a major school rule, Milton fails to see the duality of human intuition. I thus urge the administration to reconsider this clause in the Handbook.

We aren’t always happy-go-lucky people. We can’t always keep everything together. We should try our best to create a positive and comfortable environment, but when we must defend ourselves and engage in serious conversation, we need to be truthful, and we do not need to have a smile on our face. If Milton would prefer us to be inauthentically positive, then we can never genuinely “Dare to be True.”•

Opinion

Senior Fall: Yes, It's That Bad

PAGE 9

Music and the Masses: On Bringing Together Divided People

By BODHI BECKER '20

Image courtesy of Various Websites

By JACK WEILER '18 Right now, I am about one month into my senior year. I can safely say, without any shred of doubt, that it is as supercalifragilisticexpialidociously bad as they say. Night in and night out, I have had a minimum of three hours of homework—without factoring in college applications, extracurriculars, sports practice, etc. On top of the onus of work, the general culture of stress about the future that explodes throughout the senior class doesn’t aid time management.

I won’t even mention things like friends, relationships, or—God forbid—relaxation!

To say the least, seniors are indubitably preoccupied. And, luckily for us, we never get a break!

It is a downhill spiral. This nearly impossible workload forces us into a tricky spot because, as many of you know, there are only twenty-four hours in a day, of which at least eight are taken up by school. Sleep takes a backseat. Every. Freaking. Day. One night with six hours of sleep is manageable, yes. Then, the next night, that same six feels like five. Then, the next night, that same six feels like four. Each week feels like the longest one ever. By Friday, I just want to sleep. And I do. I sleep Saturday, too. But Sunday? No. Then the cycle starts all over: rinse and repeat. I like to call it The Zombification and Regeneration Paradox—catchy, right?

Well, it’s clearly not catchy enough because not everyone has caught it. Many teachers and administrators alike either have a fantasized reality about real senior fall or are just apathetic to our struggle. Either way, a drastic culture change is entirely necessary. The school boasts that they “know what we are going through,” and that “they get it.” However, in a time when every senior has applications to write and clubs to lead, somehow the homework

guidelines are at their most liberal. And I have observed no real commitment to change.

I have been on the SGA for a year and a half now, and I think that I have brought up homework load in every meeting since last January. Every time, I am greeted with, “we are looking into it” or “we have a committee working on it as we speak.” I have even offered to present to these committees on the physical impossibility of finishing homework in the school’s guidelines before a reasonable hour. My offer has been met with vague responses and tepid interest. I would understand the stagnancy of this change both because Milton has to maintain its academic rigor and because a policy of this magnitude takes time to change; I would get it if they didn’t promise that they heard us. However, we have been assured that this issue will be addressed.

So, administration, please allow the SGA to be more involved with you more than we are now. Although I am coming from a place of senior-fall-itis, this issue is anything but isolated as the senior fall “experience” is only its culmination.

Students are tired. Students are losing their ability to function in school and to even enjoy life. I can’t remember the last time that I was able to enjoy a weeknight without any stress. This state of mind should not be natural for a kid. At the end of the day, that’s exactly what we are: kids. Help us be kids, please. Unfortunately for us seniors, even if homework-policy change galloped to the forefront of the Dean’s Office’s agenda, it will be too late. Therefore, while I could preach a “take charge of your last year at Milton” mantra, I can’t because, frankly, the only thing that we can control about senior fall is whether or not we make it to the end; it is an endless practice of scraping by. But, hey, on the bright side, at least we will have a lot of practice! •

Turn on the news. What do you expect to see? The President has signed some new, egregious affront to the rights of a minority group; Country X is provoking Country Y, and both are asking Country Z to intervene; who knows what “Rocket Man” is going to do next?! Everywhere we look, something's going wrong. When the world appears to be going to hell in a handbasket, everyone has opinions on why and who is to blame.

Tragedy and negativity divide people like nothing else in the world, and it seems that humans are dealing with a lot of bad stuff at the moment.

So how do we bring together a people who are so divided? Well, it seems that we’re divided on that solution as a society as well, but my solution is quite simple: Music.

Whether it’s Jazz, Classical, Rock and Roll, Country, Rap, or even the most terrible Pop, all music has a fantastic, innate ability to unite massive amounts of people.

We gather in concert halls, arenas, coffee houses, and a multitude of other venues to hear our favorite melodies. While we’re taking in tunes, we can forget about everything else going on in the world and focus simply on the swirling sounds of guitars, pianos, basses, violins, trumpets, and the human voice. When we listen to music, we are reduced to our most basic selves.

The Milton Jazz, Orchestra, and Choral groups all understand this concept in their own ways. Every other year, the Jazz program takes a trip to South Africa, where they connect with people whom they have never met before simply through their music. Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Singers have a similar tradition in which they travel to different destinations in order to share their music, playing and singing various pieces from different eras and regions with audiences from Russia to Ireland to Prague. Across the globe, Milton students, who occupy a tiny corner of the U.S., are able to connect with people from all walks of life.

When boarders convene for chapel every few weeks, we are often met with the strains of the organ, or we join in singing school hymns. Even though we may not always enjoy singing, or in some cases may cringe at the sound of the person standing next to us, we are not thinking of all the

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PAGE 10

Music and the Masses

Opinion More C's, Please CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 bad in the world. For a few brief moments, we are all together as a single community.

Likewise, during the first day of the sit-ins last year, songs by people of color regarding issues pertaining to people of color washed over the bottom floor of the Stu, as, regardless of race or ethnicity, we all sat and represented the groups in our community who had been hurt by years of negligence by various administrative and student communities. We sat together and listened to Kanye West’s “Blood on the Leaves,” which samples Nina Simone’s “Strange Fruit,” a song about the Jim Crow Era in the south. Even in moments when we are most divided, lyrics can bring us together to embrace the people who most need support.

We create so many categories in our community: Black, White, Asian, LGBT+, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Conservative, Liberal, Paper supporter, Measure supporter—the list goes on. We make opportunity for us to be divided, to fight, to hate each other. But we must take a minute to make some music together, or listen to some music together, and realize that we are all just people. We are all the same at our very core, and music puts us all on the same level.

While I don’t advocate for the use of music as a tool to simply end a conversation, we can use it to set aside our differences and see each other on a human level.•

Only 2 More Wednesdays

Sitting at lunch with a couple of friends, I found out just how different Germany’s grading system is. One student, who admitted he had gotten a four out of fifteen on the quiz, didn't seem too worried. “I’ll just have to get a twelve on the next assignment, and I’ll have the class average!” he said.

I came to realize that German students weren’t getting a 53% on their assignments because they were stupid; the reality was that, unlike the United States, Germany’s schooling system has not succumbed to the pressures of grade inflation. When German teachers grade your work, they don’t make any assumptions about what you know. When you make a mistake, they take off points— there is no such thing as the small, red “ok” that many Milton teachers write next to your work as a way to acknowledge that you have made a mistake without penalizing you for it.

In the German approach, there is very little room for bias. The teacher does not decide if a mistake warrants a penalty; it is a given that if you make a mistake of any magnitude, you will be penalized for it. This approach to grading may seem too harsh, but when everybody is graded under this strict system, the playing field is leveled. Even though you may get a 66% in a class, compared to everyone else, you are above average.

According to the Milton Academy’s 20162017 Junior Profile, last year, 73% of junior English students at Milton received an A, A-, or B+ for their final grade. In the math department, grades were even more concentrated, with 81% of the total grades doled out by the math department falling within this same narrow range. For the Class of 2016, 84% of grades given out to juniors fell within the A to B range. For the Class of 2017, grades became even more concentrated, with 88% of grades falling within this same range. Essentially, in comparison to Germany, grades at Milton are binary. A’s are seen as “good”, and B’s as “bad”.

The binary nature of the grading system only contributes to Milton’s competitive, cutthroat college culture because it eliminates any margin of error in obtaining a “good” grade. For example, if you completely tank one Honors Precalculus test and get, say, a 50%, then you would need perfect scores on your next two tests in order to merely get into the B range. According to Milton Academy’s 2016-2017 Junior Profile, because of that one bad day, and despite your exemplary performance on the two tests that followed,

you would now have the second lowest grade in a class of fifty-three students. In Germany, on the other hand, even if you were to get a zero on a test, getting a twelve out of fifteen on the next assessment would bring you back to around the class average. Because grade inflation is virtually nonexistent in Germany, students can easily rebound from a bad mark simply by doing well on the next assignment.

The same cannot be said at Milton.

If you are a Milton teacher who is reading this article, I am not calling you out to grade more harshly. I think Milton needs to systematically look at the way it gives out grades.

Many students at Milton have come to see the B range as failing or mediocre, and this reality is simply not acceptable. The spectrum of what we consider “good grades” needs to expand, so that a grade most label as good (A-) isn’t separated by just 1/10th of a percentage point from a result most label as bad or mediocre (B+). According to gradeinflation. com, in the 1940s United States, getting an A in a class was rare for college students— only 15% of total grades given out fell within the A range, while 35% were C’s. Getting a D meant that you needed to improve, while a C was satisfactory, a B was good, and an A meant that you were doing excellent work.

There was more of a spectrum in what students and teachers considered “good,” allowing for a more nuanced grading system that went beyond the “good” and “bad” system we have today.

With our essentially binary grading system, caused by grade inflation over the years, nobody wins. Unfortunately, due in part to increasingly competitive college culture, many Milton students link their feelings of selfworth to their grades. With such a small margin between what we label as a “good” grade and what we, as well as competitive colleges, label as “bad” grades, we live in an environment where a single moment of failure on a test or project can diminish our self-worth and consequently our mental well-being. We are constantly told that failure is an essential component on the road to success, but our current grading system completely undermines this teaching—a single instance of failure, even when surrounded by numerous successes, can lead to a grade that a college admissions team considers mediocre.

If learning from failure is so valuable, why does Milton have a grading system that both intensifies the consequences of failure and through grade inflation makes it harder to fail?•

Opinion

Freshmen are not Special

Image courtesy of College express

By MOLLY WILSON '18 Milton Academy holds freshmen to a lower standard. Freshmen are required to complete less homework each night as Class I-III students are expected to spend 45-60 minutes on homework per class meeting, while Class IV students are expected to spend 35-45 minutes on homework per class meeting. Freshmen also face smaller

penalties for academic integrity violations.

According to the student handbook, in cases of cheating, Class IV students will be subject to penalties ranging from loss of privileges to suspension, while Class I-III students will be subject to penalties ranging from a five-day suspension to dismissal.

Moreover, the prevailing attitude of teachers towards freshmen is one of tolerance and forgiveness as freshmen are often let

PAGE 11 off the hook for transgressions that range from missing deadlines to carelessly admitting that your mom did your workshop homework for you. However, Milton’s general leniency with freshmen is illogical and amiss, as all students should receive the same accommodations, whether that means all students experience the tolerance that freshmen receive or that no students experience the special treatment that freshmen are dealt.

The administration and teachers likely treat freshmen with more leniency due to their youth, unfamiliarity with the environment, and propensity to make mistakes. Indeed, freshmen are young, often have no clue what is going on, and have faulty judgement. Nevertheless, age is rather arbitrary within the Milton community, freshmen are not the only students who are new to the school, and we all mess up.

At Milton, the typical Massachusetts age-cutoff of September 1st is either particularly flexible or nonexistent. Also, many students repeat grades before entering Milton. Thus, age is nearly irrelevant as an incoming freshman can range from thirteen-years-old to fifteen-years-old, and the maturity of an incoming freshman can vary even more as adolescents mature at vastly different rates.

Additionally, a significant portion of students enter Milton as new sophomores or new juniors and thus experience their own “freshman year” and accompanying unfamiliarity with their environment as Class III or Class II students. However, these students do not receive any significant

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The War on Women

Image courtesy of WebMD

By NATASHA ROY '19 The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu isn’t a TV Drama; it’s a documentary of 2017.

Last Friday, October 6th, the Trump administration revoked an Obamacare birth

control mandate that required employers to include birth control coverage in their health plans. Now, according to The New York Times, nearly any employer or insurer can exclude birth control from health insurance plans due to “religious or moral convictions,” an action intended as a follow up to President Trump’s promise to “not

allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied or silenced anymore.” Currently, over fifty-five million women have access to birth control without co-payments because of Obamacare’s contraceptive coverage mandate; these fifty-five million women will be stripped of reasonably priced birth control

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Opinion

PAGE 12

Procrastination vs.

Prioritization

Image courtesy of Smarter Services

By NAVPREET SEKHON '18 Long weekends provide a rare opportunity to catch up on homework and complete major assignments. Following the long Columbus Day weekend and preparing for Parents’ Day’s “no homework” weekend, students experience a three-day week, given that Wednesday is also a non-academic day. In the span of two weeks, we have three days of school off—a welcomed rarity.

However, the time between Columbus Day and Parents’ Day is a grind: many students have major assignments due Tuesday and Thursday of this week, all in preparation for the upcoming no homework weekend.

The chances that most of us actually got all of our work done over Columbus Day weekend? Slim.

are valid and time-pressed. The campus facilities have limited hours which cannot be replaced or wasted, so are we wasting our time by choosing to utilize them over completing other homework?

Students of all ages struggle with procrastination. Despite what we may think, social media hasn’t exacerbated our inability to get work done on time as much as we think it has. At Milton, procrastination doesn’t simply mean students don’t want to complete their assignments. Most of the time, procrastination involves replacing the more important task with another one; procrastinating rarely means doing absolutely nothing.

Arguably, we’re not wasting our time.

But we’re still losing sleep. Around 60% of Milton students get 6-8 hours of sleep, and around 28% of students get 4-6 hours of sleep. As we’ve all been told innumerable times, we don’t get the healthy amount of sleep that high school-age students require.

The likelihood of our sleeping more is low, but a major reason as to why we get less hours of sleep is prioritization. Students have to prioritize what we get done and when we get it done. We have only so many hours to spend in our facilities, but we can put off other work for later at night. Therefore, students must prioritize the work that can be done only in the AMC or in King because of the limited hours available. This prioritization results in the shifting of other homework, such as studying for a math test or writing up a lab, to later—sometimes until 10 PM, after the buildings close. Pushing off studying can’t be labelled as procrastination when another subject needs prioritizing, and yet we still shame ourselves for having “procrastinated” for so long.

Take an art student, for example. Say she has an essay due on Tuesday, but she also has an art assignment. However, since the AMC is open only from 2-5 PM on Sunday, is she procrastinating by choosing to paint rather than writing her essay? Technically, yes. By putting off the essay, which has a closer deadline, she has procrastinated.

However, the AMC is open only during those hours—she can’t put off painting for another time, whereas she can put off the essay. Students face a whole range of these decisions, from choosing to practice violin in King to choosing to have a lifting session in the gym, all of these decisions

Columbus Day weekend sets us up for procrastination. Those three free days gave students the opportunity to spend time with family, binge-watch Netflix, or stay up late with roommates. These choices resulted from prioritization, which as a result, led to a supposed procrastination of other activities. However, in many ways, prioritization flows into procrastination. At Milton, procrastination doesn’t mean slacking off; it means we have so much on our plate that we fail to prioritize our time. With only so many hours in the day and the rare day off, prioritization is imperative to our survival in this ever-strenuous environment. •

Sustainability at Milton CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 at the Mountain School. Lorax holds open meetings once a week, and strives to be place for conversation around environmental issues. This year, Lorax hopes to open a conversation of incorporating environmental science into Milton curriculum. In line with Dr. Seuss’s famous children’s book, Lorax’s co-heads say that they “aim to speak for the trees,” adding that “individual change is as important as systematic change, especially with the young people who will inherit the Earth they and their parents have neglected and damaged. Although these changes will take time and effort, they will definitely be implemented because what is at stake is too important to not fight tooth and nail for.”

Gardening Club is final green-centric club on campus. Jennifer Chen ’19 currently runs the garden with Mrs. McGuinness, a teacher from the lower school. There is one bed behind Pritzker and four raised beds near the squash courts. All gardens are pesticide-free and use a compost system. The food harvested is either sent to Forbes for our own students to eat or to the Milton Food Pantry.

Gardening Club stresses an understanding of food security and the miracles of nature.

The Independent School Sustainability Coalition, or ISSC, is an idea that sprouted last year from a group of Milton students.

The ISSC is a network of schools who work together for united sustainable change. Milton hosted a conference last April on campus where many different schools met and discussed a push for change within their respective schools. Chantelle Mendosa, of the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) addressed the group, stressing the importance creativity and resilience. This year, the ISSC hopes to bring at least five Terracycle boxes to each of its schools, implement tracking systems for paper consumption, and host an interscholastic eco-olympics.

Last, but certainly not least, Patrick Huang ’18 and Daniel Xiao ’18 have worked hard to implement a compost system in Wolcott, Forbes, Hallowell, and Norris through the company Bootstrap. Hopefully, the Bootstrap program will expand to the rest of campus over the coming months.

So much is happening on campus for sustainability, but there can always be more. The movement for global sustainability welcomes all.•

Opinion The War on Women CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

because of one administration’s “pro-life” crusade disguised by a commitment to religious freedom.

This news comes at the helm of a slew of anti-abortion legislation that have been introduced over the last few years.

In 2014, state legislatures proposed 468 new restrictions on women’s bodies—and zero on men’s. For example, according to The New York Times, in Virginia, genetic counselors are now permitted to "refuse to provide any information to patients because of their personal religious or moral beliefs." In Arizona, aiding a minor to obtain an abortion without parental consent is now classified as a crime. This troubling pattern has reached new heights in Trump’s White House. Last spring, I angrily wrote an article decrying Trump’s reinstating the “global gag rule,” a policy that limits funding for any international nongovernmental organization that provides women with, among other reproductive health care services, abortions. At the time, I was infuriated with the dismal point to which we had come regarding women’s health. Just a few months later, that battle barely compares to the one we’re fighting right now in the ongoing War on Women.

These new restrictions on birth control attack more than just a woman’s ability to choose whether or not to raise a child; they seriously impact other healthcare issues that millions of women face. 58% of women who use birth control attribute non-contraceptive reasons for doing so, according to the Guttmacher Institute. For example, 31% of women take birth control for menstrual cramps, and 28% for regulation of the menstrual cycle, as well as other health

issues like endometriosis, ovarian cysts, and fibroid tumors. Birth control treats painful, and sometimes fatal, health issues that are unrelated to contraception, and yet politicians cannot see beyond their fear of a woman with the ability to choose whether or not to give birth.

Under the pretense of pro-life policy and defending religious freedom, the Trump administration has recklessly endangered the health of women across the country.

But let’s just focus on the contraceptive aspect for a second. A woman will now have to pay $50 per month for birth control in order to have control of her sex life. If you’re not moved just yet, let’s walk through an entire pregnancy under a Trump administration. A woman is denied birth control by her employer on “moral” grounds. She, thus, gets pregnant when she doesn’t plan to, and seeks an abortion. Lo and behold, she doesn’t have access to an abortion because of abortion-clinic restrictions. She has a child, without being sufficiently financially stable to support him.

Absurd maternity leave policies prevent her from having an appropriate amount of time at home with her newborn, and she must now jeopardize her career to raise a child she was never prepared for.

Fifty-five million women should not be stripped of the medication they need for health care issues and control of their own sex life just because a group of (male) politicians enjoy putting restrictions on the female body, and female freedom in general. It’s 2017, and we should not still be fighting this fight. •

PAGE 13

Freshmen Are Not Special CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

accommodations as new students adjusting to Milton, and are expected to meet the same standards as the remainder of the student body. Moreover, regardless of whether or not we are new to the community, we all are in some way unfamiliar with our environment at the start of each school year as we adjust to new classes, teachers, sports teams, schedules, and more.

Furthermore, freshmen are not the only students who make mistakes. We are all adolescents with an undeveloped prefrontal cortex and are thus ill-equipped to weigh outcomes, control impulses and emotions, and form judgements. Current research suggests that the prefrontal cortex may not be fully developed until an individual is well into his or her twenties. While the appearance of a senior may vary greatly from that of a freshman, there is no guarantee that the prefrontal cortex does. Thus, it is no surprise that more seniors appear in front of the disciplinary committee than freshmen.

Even though both seniors and freshmen make mistakes, seniors do not have the same safety net.

Milton’s leniency towards freshmen is illogical as each possible justification of the position lacks specificity to the freshmen class. Any member of the community can feel unfamiliar with the environment, make poor decisions, and lack the maturity that Milton considers necessary to abide by the regular school rules. Potentially Milton’s more forgiving attitude could be applied to all students, allowing everyone to have a little less homework and to have slightly more relaxed punishments. However, if the administration and the teachers are unwilling to treat all grades with this tolerance, then no group should arbitrarily receive this special treatment •

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PAGE 14

Commentary on the Value of News

Opinion degree of this truth selection does “angle” become “opinion”?

need for depth of dialogue as much if not more than breadth.

We are influenced by our own opinions at all times, and naturally during our writing as well. The self-awareness necessary to monitor this impact and thus, to produce an impartial-enough piece of nonfiction is rare, and only obtained through life and luck. But logically, can we ever even separate our human desire of victory—impressing the reader—and of attention from an integrity for informing? To determine this, we must understand the incentive(s) in writing news.

If we can apply this ideological switch to moderating the information we seek, whether it be in TMP, on the internet, or in gossip circles, questions will be quicker to ask and easier to answer.

REWARDED FOR THE TRUTH How often is the news writer rewarded for his or her (or their) dedication to the unadulterated truth? At least in the Milton bubble, not much. We crave clickbait, explosive material; the reason behind this, be it our generation’s exposure to the internet or our institution’s encouragement on “truth,” is another conversation.

Image courtesy of The Drum

By EMMA JAMES '18 Truth is vital and undervalued, and the news writer is going extinct.

DEFINE “ANGLE” News stories often attempt to push the reader not only towards baseline knowledge, but also to a more complex understanding. The specific selection of details and statistics, a strategic compilation of truths, is coined an “angle.” But at what

Luckily, we as a community have begun shifting focus towards the merits of listening before sharing. The “extrovert,” while still praised, is becoming more subject of scrutiny; the quality and inter-connectedness of the share is evaluated more than the act of participating itself. “Introvert” is a figure of contemplation and reserve rather than laziness and fear. The recent push to ask questions and share stories reaffirms the

THE ART OF DISSOCIATION To separate the self from the subject is a sophisticated skill, rejecting something we humans are meant to do: associate ourselves with our surroundings. Reporting facts does call forward the quantitative mind, which is valid, but since news is usually driven by people, involvement of motive or circumstance drives the story past numbers. (Anything analytical, any “why?” questions push past numerical limitations as well, especially since statistics are more often used to manipulate rather than to clarify.)

Rather than avoid anything but dates and technical terms like the plague, news writers must shape a balanced narrative around the humanness: statements of those involved, the political or social context, even admitting the potential of his or her own bias. The ideal goal of news is to establish for the reader a piece well-rounded enough to reduce narrative sway while still informing and exciting the reader.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

Virtual Representation

By WILLA DUBOIS '20 Prior to the American Revolution, colonists in North America were frustrated with political representation. The British believed in and imposed upon the colonists virtual representation, as system in which British parliament members represented and supposedly advocated for all, rather than just those in the district they were from. This virtual representation led the colonists to feel as though they were being overly taxed and not seeing the effects of that taxation. Thus, the colonists advocated for actual representation, a system in which government officials represent and advocate for groups that they belong to. When the Founding Fathers set up the American government, they implemented actual representation through the legislative branch, requiring that congressmen and senators be elected by citizens from their own districts and states.

Region-based representation made sense in the late 1700s—region was assumed to

be the only characteristic causing differing political opinions between people as only the beliefs of white men were considered.

White men from Georgia had different needs than white men from Massachusetts, so there were to be representatives from Georgia and Massachusetts.

However, as time progressed, Americans came to understand that plenty of non-white, non-male people were living in America, and that these people had vastly different issues than those of white men.

Additionally, Americans realized that these non-white, non-male people were not given the opportunity to advocate for change as only white men were able to hold government positions. Thus, people of any group are now allowed to hold government positions.

Nevertheless, our current Congress is 87% white and 90% male, even though America is 63% white and 49% male. Almost a fourth of American people of color

and 51% of American women are virtually represented by people who do not share their identifiers. While these statistics don’t take into account a number of demographic groups that are also underrepresented in Congress, they serve as examples of the larger phenomenon. People of any marginalized group are underrepresented in Congress, and thus virtually represented, as institutionalized and internalized discrimination still make it difficult for people who are not white men to hold elected positions.

It is easy to believe that because America was founded on the ideal of actual representation, actual representation exists.

However, in our current system, white representatives advocate for people of color, and straight representatives advocate for LGBTQ+ individuals, and this is virtual representation.

A straight white man does not understand the experience of a black, lesbian woman, and thus cannot sufficiently advocate for her: the issues he sees as her largest plights

CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

Opinion

Milton: Welcome to the Rest of Your Life

PAGE 15

News

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 A CONCESSION Opinion is valuable, and this isn’t even a question: when articulated originally and clearly, the published opinion can shed a long-lasting light upon human tendencies and our involvement in our world, like a snapshot of one perspective at one specific time and place in history. Yet, exposure to written opinions in overwhelming frequency can desensitize us from fact and heavily influence the formation of our own.

The most authentic opinion comes from our conscience—a collection of experiences and morals—processing raw information. The more balanced this input is, the more complex and pure our thinking will be. If op-eds are the photographs, news stories are the subjects.

Image courtesy of Galin Education

By NIHAL RAMAN '18 A few weeks ago, my Uber driver, a mid-sixties retiree, asked me a question I’d never been asked before. After finding out that I was in high school, he asked me if I was planning to go to college.

The question was a completely legitimate one, but it was one nobody had ever asked me before. I’ve always imagined that I would go to college and go on to some presumably high-paying job. Being a lawyer, doctor, or investment banker was an assumption, not a pipe dream.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only about 70% of graduating high school seniors attended college in 2016. At Milton, however, that number is essentially 100%; the occasional kid who decides to forego college does so out of choice rather than necessity. Evan Scales ’17, for example, pursued his photography business instead of attending college, and Matt Tabor ’17 was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

For me, college always represented the next point, a stepping stone in a larger path, a mentality that applies to most Milton students. Only 35% of Milton students are on financial aid; that means that 65% of Milton parents that can afford to pay tuition in full. The current median household pre-tax income in the United States is just under $60,000, the cost of boarding tuition; clearly, most Milton students come from well-above-median income families.

Income alone is a very good indicator of likeliness to attend college. Parental household income has a roughly linear relationship with probability of college attendance,

with kids hailing from the top 5% of families attending college at rates higher than 90%, as reported by The New York Times.

But more than just income, the main factor in determining why Milton students— across all socioeconomic backgrounds— assume that we need to go to college is Milton itself. Our institution maintains a pipeline to college for students that is algorithmic, from college kick-off in January to personal meetings with college counselors to close supervision over each student’s college process.

Most other schools don’t have the same path for their students. My local public high school, by no means an underfunded institution, has only one college counselor for a senior class of over four hundred students.

Milton has five counselors for senior class of under two hundred. Moreover, Milton’s selectiveness makes sure that it takes only students who are capable of handling our school’s “college preparatory” curriculum.

The Uber driver’s question pushed me to consider the Milton bubble’s role in my life. While, within our school community, we tend to focus on the seemingly volatile micro aspects of our lives—that particular SAT score, the interim letter grade—our macro lives are largely predetermined. Assumptions we hold about our own lives— chiefly that we are going to college—will steer us towards similar career paths: law, finance, medicine, teaching, to name a few. The scriptedness of our lives, in turn, leads us to misguidedly take certain things for granted; jokes about not attending or not getting into college are prevalent on campus. Thus, we should acknowledge the Milton bubble for what it is: It leads us to assume certain things about our lives and to take for granted our own life paths. •

IN CLOSING If you’ve made it this far, I owe you my acknowledgement of the irony this article holds (a news-designated person writing her opinion on how news is more valiant than opinion). I haven’t articulated a solution to our fixation—readers and writers—on op-eds, and I might have made no difference at all. But if nothing else, I hope I’ve reinforced within news writers the innate importance of their work.

Struggle for the truth, strive for everything else. •

Virtual Representation CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14

may actually be small annoyances compared to the problems she battles. Additionally, as the issues she faces are drastically different from the issues he faces, they are not likely his priorities, meaning that without black, lesbian women in Congress, her issues are unlikely to be fixed.

The founders of America fought for representation for a reason: without it, they were paying for initiatives that did nothing for them. Though it may seem as though the Founding Fathers implemented a system centered around actual representation, virtual representation of marginalized groups is a rampant issue in American politics. Additionally, this virtual representation causes a vicious cycle. Without representation of marginalized groups in Congress, the institutions that hold them back take that much longer to break, meaning even fewer representatives from these marginalized groups get to Congress, which means fewer people are advocating for these groups. This cycle will continue until America holds itself to its founding standards and works to create actual representation in government—representation that will lead to a more equal and effective government and a better country. •

Opinion

PAGE 16

Politics are People Image courtesy of Pixabay

By MALIA CHUNG '20 The small, white 1950 French Renault takes the turn wide, swerving and tipping into the other lane before it rights itself and shoots forward again. In the back, my sisters and I slide across the three feet of its peeling, black leather seat. Michael, the owner of the room we are renting here, speeds along the thin roads of Istria, Croatia with such familiarity that I’m not as scared as I probably should be. He has something to show us.

Michael is an American who met and married Marianna, a Serbian, while they both advocated for human rights in Kosovo during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, which resulted in the break-up of former Yugoslavia, and is known for its ethnic cleansing and genocide. Veering through large vineyards and olive groves Michael tells us his story -- an amazing one.

Finishing law school, Michael was, according to police reports, driving home on his motorcycle when he was hit by a drunk driver and left seriously injured. Michael describes his limbs as severely broken and mentions additional “internal injuries and nerve damage. [His] right femur was crushed into nearly 30 pieces. [His doctor’s] initial prognosis was to amputate both [his] right leg and [his] right hand, then later amputate [his] left leg as well.” Two years later, after a recovery touted by the press as miraculous, he won the Georgia State Athlete of the Year Award for his cycling.

One night, while he was watching news of refugees crisis in Eastern Europe at the time, Michael was amazed at how difficult it was for refugees to reconnect with their lost family members. After his near-death experience, Michael had a new vision for his life, so he began an NGO (non-government-organization) called Refugeesearch, a database of thousands of photos of children displaced in the Kosovo crisis. Using his newfound fame as Georgia State Athlete, he was able to raise money for his organization.

Soon Michael began to receive international recognition for his NGO, which eventually landed him a job in the State Department, where he worked as a diplomat during the Clinton administration. During his work in the U.S. Government, particularly through the time of the NATO 1999 bombing of Belgrade, Michael grew to dislike America’s maneuvering for power in the world

-- power gained through inciting instability in other countries. His disenchantment led him to part ways with his position in the State Department.

And here I sit, in the tight back of Michael’s small car, completely in awe.

Through little moments like these, I am reminded of the gift of chance that travel offers us. But it is also at times like this that I remember how little I actually know about distant and complex political worlds and the people they affect; through stories such as Michael’s -- politics made personal -- I begin to understand how much I have to learn. Even to the average person, Michael is a compilation of history and knowing, a force of nature, and yet he chooses to live in Istria’s maze of Croatian roads, in a house whose stairs spiral endlessly upwards and whose deep, red shingled roof lends a view which spreads hours away to the ocean. I can sense that, even far away from the State Department, Michael forges diplomacy through deep, political conversations with his international guests.

The car pulls to a slow stop along a rock wall about twenty minutes away from the small village where we’re staying. It is time to see the surprise Michael drove us out here to see. We squeeze out of the car one at a time and follow Michael to the edge of the rock wall which looks onto a field and a large grove of trees.

“Ready?” he asks Siri, my seven year-old sister.

Then, he cups his hands around his mouth and yells, “Tucho!”

A moment’s pause, then we hear the long forlorn braying of a donkey. The sound becomes more and more insistent as Tucho bursts out from between the trees, galloping faster than any donkey I’ve ever seen. He stops abruptly before Michael and lays his large head, dog-like, in Michael’s lap and closes his eyes as though he is the happiest animal in the world. Michael’s friendship with a donkey says something about the life he now chooses, a far cry from war.

We pet Tucho and feed him apples, which he eats daintily. And then we begin the drive home, Michael running his hands through the large bushes of wild lavender that poke through the car window. •

DACA

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 Furthermore, as President Trump just demonstrated, the protections afforded under DACA were as fleeting as the stroke of a pen.

An optimistic interpretation of what President Trump has done is that he is attempting to force Congress to enact laws that will protect those covered by DACA and others by bringing our immigration laws in line with our country’s reality. Our current immigration laws and their enforcement are unsatisfactory and cruel. The demand is evident—both from people wishing to enter our country and from employers wishing to hire these same people. Our impractical immigration requirements, combined with inconsistent and selective enforcement of those laws, make illegal immigration the most attractive option for millions of people.

While the overwhelming majority of these immigrants are willing and able to contribute positively to our society, they live in fear of deportation and without many legal rights—in effect, a permanent subclass of people. Reportedly, more than eleven million immigrants live in our country illegally. America has an ugly history of exploiting people. While programs such as DACA may be regarded as helpful to those who entered this country illegally, these programs create a temporary reprieve and leave a whole class of people with limited rights vulnerable to exploitation. Although DACA provided temporary residency, it did not give people under its protection similar rights to those of full citizens and did not provide a path to citizenship. People under its protection also remained in a strange state of paranoia because their rights and requirements for residency could be changed or taken away any instant. In my opinion, programs like DACA which serve as substitutes for real, clear immigration policies hurt the exact people they set out to benefit.

It is important to note that while President Trump could have erased DACA instantly, he didn’t. He spoke out in favor of the protections DACA provided. Instead of simply repealing the plan, he is giving Congress, the real lawmakers in this country, six months to come up with a law that would truly protect those covered by DACA, and hopefully others.

If polls are to be believed, a strong majority in our country favor such laws.

As members of this country, we should not be placing our attention on the President. What we should be doing in order to help the people protected under DACA is pressing our members of Congress to do their jobs. Trump has put Congress on the clock, and it is Congress who should now be in the spotlight because its members tend not to act unless required to, as seen in the 2010 vote when Democrats held a majority but vetoed a version of DACA. If Congress follows through, the people originally protected under DACA could receive more rights and more protection than ever before. •

Arts & Enterainment

overplayed all the time. It is a cycle. The song is released and then circulated by the radio. Soon, people are playing it almost everywhere: in the gym, at dances, in the shower, on Fridays in the Stu. Soon enough, the song is worn and ragged, and the people who control the radio choose another song which tortures listeners.

Stop Overplaying Songs

Image courtesy of Rhyme Hip Hop

By ADI GANDHI '18 When I first listened to “rockstar” by Post Malone, I was indifferent to the song.

However, its melody, which I thought to be mediocre, eventually revealed itself to me as an earworm, destined to settle on repeat in my mind. I would probably have never listened to “rockstar” again if given the choice, but its playtime on the radio and on other people's speakers would make it a near impossible feat for me to avoid the song. With each additional

listen, the song lodges itself further into my mind. I start humming it without realizing. Although many people may like this song, I felt for it what I feel for most Top 40 songs, from “Sorry Not Sorry” by Demi Lovato to “Look What You Made Me Do” by Taylor Swift: they are forgettable at first, but enjoyable over time and after countless listens. So, even after listening to “rockstar” just once, I knew that I would be made to hear it again and again until I found myself liking it.

Songs

like

“rockstar”

PAGE 17

For me, these overplayed songs usually follow one of two routes. I may not like a song initially, as was the case with “rockstar,” but I end up hearing the song until I like it and begin to listen on my own time. Alternatively, I may like a song from the first time I hear it, only to have it eventually become the sort of song that I skip in a playlist because I am jaded from too many listens. In this way, a song that I think is good becomes ruined, but a song that I think is bad receives my attention.

The problem for me in overplayed songs lies primarily in the fact that usually only this elite group of songs becomes popular. I have no insight into the system that chooses which songs will be played on repeat by the radio. Yet it is usually pretty clear that when mediocre songs written by already famous artists gain

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

are

Our School's Motto

Image courtesy of YouTube

By HANNAH HACHAMOVITCH '18 Milton’s motto—the infamous “Dare to be True” that unapologetically brands every logo, crest, and advertisement for the school—prides itself on epitomizing Milton’s culture and mindset. Despite acting as the punchline of many students’ jokes when admitting to an incomplete assignment, this motto defines and directs the careers of many students at Milton.

From taking the risk to try a new sport, to pushing to voice a unique or unpopular opinion in class or in a club, “daring to be

true” is all about being genuine in what you believe and what you want to accomplish. The motto motivates us to push for what works best for us at Milton, while utilizing the resources around us. Right?

Unfortunately, our motto doesn’t seem to apply to visual artists. Visual artists may participate in only a narrow track of classes. All freshmen take an introductory class once per week, for only half a year, with no opportunities to take more art.

The visual arts track progresses to Studio Art, then an advanced class (drawing, painting, etc.), and finally an advanced

portfolio course during a student’s senior year. There’s no wiggle room. The same track exists for other art subjects, with no way of “placing into” a class (despite previous experience, skill, or interest). By the time an artist has completed half of her Milton career, she still has not fully immersed herself into the arts program, let alone begun to build a portfolio. Furthermore, a portfolio-building class is not offered until senior year; how is an artist expected to build a portfolio with Milton’s help before applying to colleges?

This situation equates to an athlete’s being restricted from trying out for a varsity

CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

Arts & Enterainment

PAGE 18

Pardon My Take

Stop Overplaying Songs CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17 fame, those songs tend to do so for no reason other than the popularity of the artist.

Image courtesy of Barstool Sports

By JIMMY DELANO '18 An overweight blogger, an anonymous internet troll, and an illiterate kid from Scituate walk into a bar. There’s no punchline to this joke, and these three personalities aren’t one either. Co-hosted by Dan “Big Cat” Katz and PFT Commenter (who hasn’t publicly revealed his real name) and produced by Henry “Hank” Lockwood, the Pardon My Take (PMT) podcast captures the attention of between 750,000 and 2,000,000 listeners per episode with its endless stream of original content, from hot takes to celebrity interviews.

A comedy show that uses sports as a vehicle to get a point across, PMT is driven by its cult-like following and is regularly listed as the number-one show under the “Sports and Recreation” section of the iTunes store. This summer, Big Cat and PFT Commenter were ranked first on the 40 under 40 list of top sports media talents, and Lockwood was recognized on the 40 under 40 list of behind-the-scenes sports media talents.

Part of PMT’s success stems from their commitment to interviewing big-name celebrities every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Some of the most famous guests include JJ Watt, Ice Cube, Mike Tyson, Dikembe Mutombo, and Jim Harbaugh.

Instead of repeating the same questions as the traditional media, Big Cat and PFT Commenter poke fun at their guests and themselves in a way that leaves all parties comfortable and laughing. In its good-natured way, PMT reveals a more human,

relatable side to their guests.

Since its inception in March 2016, everything about PMT has had a satirical essence—even its name. PMT’s name and logo parody names from two ESPN shows: Pardon the Interruption and First Take. In classic PMT fashion, they responded to ESPN’s cease and desist letter by claiming that the two ESPN shows were riding the coattails of their #1 podcast’s success and should send “continue and proceed” letters by the truckload. However, this turmoil has settled. ESPN employees Matthew Berry, Adam Schefter, Scott van Pelt, and Rachel Nichols have been interviewed several times on the podcast.

Likewise, Big Cat and PFT Commenter have appeared on ESPN’s SportsCenter and The Ryen Russillo Show.

Big Cat, PFT Commenter, and Lockwood’s likeable nature shines in the weekly segments—framed around the interview—at the beginning and end of each show. The best weekly segments include “Who’s Back of the Week,” “Hot Seat/ Cool Throne,” and “Jimbos.” Football season brings back “The Fastest 2 Minutes” and “Football Guy of the Week,” whereas the lull of summer signifies the return of “Mount Rushmore” szn.

Whether it’s satirizing the NFL by claiming that CTE isn’t real, calling their guest’s most famous cell-phone contact, or making a Wikipedia Club with Blake Bortles to mock Andrew Luck’s Book Club, PMT’s bold, clever, and ridiculous comments create an entertaining show that any sports fan will enjoy.•

Sure, we all have different tastes in music. One person may have “rockstar” playing on loop, while another person could never listen to “rockstar” again and be completely satisfied. When “rockstar” is overplayed, however, it will usually lose value in the ears of its fans while gaining value in the ears of its haters. In the latter case, the song gains listens—and its artist gains money—because it persistently thrusts itself onto audience members, not because those audience members would have liked that song after just one listen.

As more and more people listen to “rockstar,” other artists are ignored. I do like to have my favorite artists be lesser-known by others, but I also want those artists to make a living and to be able to make more music.

Overplayed songs, while they may or may not merit fame, unjustly gain too much of that fame and thus steal attention from other worthy songs.

Not only should we be supporting artists as much as we possibly can, but we should also think of our time. There are too many books, films, plays, music, and various other forms of art for us to consume. There is no excuse for someone to listen to a song that he or she does not like when that person could instead be discovering what might become his or her favorite song. So when pressing play on Taylor Swift’s new song yet again, listeners must ask themselves if they really like that song for its musicality. If not, they should realize that no one is stopping them from going to the “Browse” section on Spotify, Apple Music, or Soundcloud and listening to a new album or song. •

INTENT VS. IMPACT

Arts & Enterainment

Interview with Emilie Stark-Menneg

PAGE 19

Our School's Motto CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17 team until junior year, despite having played that sport all her life, or even being recruited to play at Milton.

Image courtesy of Erin Little

By JANE YANG '18 Q: In what ways did your art experience at Milton impact your career?

A: I took as many art classes as I could, such as art history, ceramics, and painting. All those classes gave me permission to really explore various materials and ideas, and there was a real sense of freedom. I was able to submerge [myself] in my art, and I almost lived in the art classrooms.

Q: What was the craziest art project you worked on at Milton?

A: My dad helped me stretch an absurdly large canvas, and painting on it felt like dancing.

Q: How did the themes you pursued as a student at Milton differ from the ones you pursue now?

A: I painted a lot of self-portraits, through which I explored my dreams and fantasies as a teenager. In some of them I imagined myself being a hard-core punk fan and looking strange, scary, and slightly subversive. Now I develop a lot of interests. For example, in this exhibit, I include paintings of two distinct themes to see the dialogue between them.

Q: What are the themes for this exhibit?

A: One of them is surrounding Israel and Pakistan, inspired by my experience of doing social justice work in those

countries during 2009. The other is about spring break, featuring a life of joy and debauchery.

Q:Was there a special moment of revelation or inspiration for you?

A: My friend from one of the refugee camps that I worked at said, “When you go back, just remember us and tell story about us.”

Q: Were there moments of confusion or doubt that impacted your art as you did social justice work in Pakistan?

A: When I was in Pakistan, I had an American passport and had a lot of freedom to move around the country, compared to the citizens who were restricted by checkpoints. I wondered whether I was helping them or was trespassing, having had all the privileges and being able to walk freely.

Q: How did you decide to pursue a career in art? Was the decision tough?

A: I never knew that there was a process of decision, and I recently realized that a lot of people struggle with it. The only decision I had to make was choosing which media.

Q: Is there any advice that you would like to give the artists at Milton?

A: “Yes, yes, and yes!” That’s my advice. It is so possible to be an artist, and it is the best! •

As a student who submitted a portfolio with my application to Milton and planned on pursuing art while here, I investigated what classes I could take. I compared art to math, asking why I could not place into a higher, more advanced art class, just as I had placed into Algebra II instead of Geometry. I was confused because I wanted to do more and was actively asking and attempting to work with the school to do exactly what Milton prides itself most on: daring to be true. I often found myself laughed at or even belittled for comparing art to math, athletics, or anything other than an excess activity that didn’t matter.

Candidly, Milton Academy proves itself to be a fantastic school with wonderful resources—for students with certain interests. Being perfect is impossible, but discouraging students with unconventional interests directly contradicts our motto. Asking such students to be happy with what is already offered is not only unfair, but unhelpful, as those students should not have to change their interests in order to participate in Milton. Milton should be a community of encouragement, not of discouragement toward motivated students solely because their interests are not the school’s strong suit.

The lack of support I received wasn’t due to my desire to pursue something non-academic—after all, sports dominate this school.

No varsity athlete would be asked to play only one sport that year, not try out, or just not play at all. In fact, every student is required to have some variety of athletics participation throughout their entire time at Milton, regardless of their interest in athletics, while there is only one arts requirement over the course of all four years. Yes, I think that exercise has many benefits. But so does art. So does thinking creatively, visually. The arts exercise our brain in ways that math and athletics don’t.

No, I don’t have a master plan for what our arts or sports or math requirements should be, but what I do know is that I have craved more art and more opportunity and have been actively discouraged, forced to supplement outside of school in order to have a portfolio ready for my college applications this fall.

That’s not fair to me, and it’s not fair to past artists, and it’s not fair to future artists at this school. •

PAGE 20

Arts & Enterainment Can We Separate Art from Artist?

Image courtesy of YouTube

By LIZ FOSTER '18 The assumed “I” in art, especially music, is assigned to the artist. When Lorde sings about heading for that green light, we assume it is Ella herself barreling down to the light. Listeners naturally attribute a first-person narrative to the creator, and when the topic centers on relationships or personal issues, there’s no harm done. When the artist is “unproblematic,” there’s no need to further explore the artist’s relationship with the art.

The problem of separating art from artist becomes serious when it falls on abusers like Chris Brown. In 2009, the rapper was found guilty of assault against Rihanna, his girlfriend at the time, but he has still managed to maintain a successful career. While many people view Brown as a scumbag, enough support for the abuser’s work remains that he can continue to find a place in the Billboard Hot 100. Despite graphic evidence of his crime, Chris Brown was given permission back into the industry. Women and men still choose to work with him, rather than dismiss him as the abusive piece of garbage that he is.

Chris Brown succeeds because we allow ourselves to separate his content from his personality.

Similarly, XXXTentacion and Kodak Black, both breakout rap stars from southern Florida, have a litany of charges ranging from physically assaulting a pregnant woman to aggravated sexual assault. Yet, both of these artists are still forging careers. Their abusive tendencies are not past tense, but rather fresh wounds. Should we continue to support objectively bad people?

I’ll be the first to admit that “No Flockin’” is a banger, but does Kodak Black’s catchy music warrant excusing his crimes? Am I a bad person when I listen to XXXTentacion’s “Look at me!”?

If we draw a solid line between artist and art, declaring the body of work entirely separate from the person who created it, then no, I’m not. Neither are the millions of people continuing to listen to Chris Brown.

At least once a week, the hashtag “#___IsOverParty” trends, indicating that a new celebrity has been exposed for problematic behavior. However, very rarely are these celebrities’ careers truly over. When Youtuber Jake Paul was fired from Disney—after being exposed for a series of heinous behaviors ranging from creating a ruckus in his neighborhood to emotionally abusing his girlfriend—he was denounced “over.” But Paul still

holds a channel with over 11 million subscribers and has a net worth of four million dollars. An audience larger than Greece’s population still actively subscribes to his content. Mass condemnation is no longer equivalent to ending a career.

It’s necessary to expose the dangerous actions of an artist, but to entirely dismiss their work creates a complex problem. Can we ignore an artist’s problematic flaws, even when they take form in criminal behavior, when we enjoy their content? To condemn art as we condemn the artists themselves could result in censorship across all genres of music.

Without the artist, the art itself would not exist. But after it has been thrust into the world, do we dismiss the work as means of condemning the artist?

We as a society have chosen to watch Woody Allen’s films, despite his child sex abuse allegations and admire Dr. Seuss’s books, ignoring his early racist content. Our admiration for art continues to outweigh the problematic actions of artists. As w/e continue this behavior in 2017, we effectively allow the villains of our society to capitalize on our chosen ignorance. The art may be separate from the artist, but horrific actions leave no room for a blind eye. •

Sports

Thursday Night Football

Image courtesy of TV Guide

By TOMMY ELLIOTT '18

Since its inception in 2006, Thursday Night Football has become an enormously profitable staple of the NFL schedule. In 2015, a single thirty-second advertisement during a game was sold for $700,000, and games averaged over 21 million viewers according to adage.com. The NFL also expanded to streaming options such as Amazon Video and Yahoo Sports. These figures have allowed the league to expand the salary cap each year, monopolize the football market, and even gain a solid foothold internationally both in England and Mexico. But while the additional time slot has brought more revenue and exposure for the League, it has also led to an increase in injuries and further jeopardized player safety in an already dangerous sport.

The Big Man Renaissance in the NBA

Image courtesy of Twin Cities

By ANTOINE WILEY '20

In today’s NBA landscape, big men have largely become underrated. Lethal three point shooting has trumped the hard-earned post up points that were battled for between leviathans in the paint in days of old. It used to be that a big man was necessary to a team--necessary to grab the rebound, and necessary to both protect and pressure the interior. Now, small ball lineups such as Golden State have proven the way to go, and the blurring of lines between distinct roles has only hurt the plight of the NBA’s once vital

Some argue that the risks associated with a shortened rest period outweigh the benefits of football on multiple days of the week. The average NFL week carves out rest days, with Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays dedicated to film and no-contact drills. Full-contact practices do not not occur until the Thursday or Friday before a Sunday game.

But with the shift of games to earlier in the week, players lose this vital rest period and thus incur an increased risk of soft tissue injuries. For example, tight end Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots suffered a thigh contusion during practice. Under normal circumstances, the injury may not have even occurred thanks to Gronkowski’s being able to take fewer hits to the leg with more rest.

But since the Patriots played the Buccaneers big man. However, this seemingly inevitable change in the NBA’s evolution is quickly changing. To adapt to the current conditions of the NBA, a new breed of big men have appeared, well-suited to the harsh realities of precision shooting and unforgiving fast breaks--and they’re not going away anytime soon. Many of the most prominent young stars in the NBA are now big men--Kristaps Porzingis, the 7’3” two-way powerhouse and face of the Knicks franchise, Karl-Anthony Towns, the 2016 ROTY and cornerstone of the Timberwolves’ high-flying ambitions, Anthony Davis, the 2017 NBA All-Star game MVP coming off of a 25+ ppg season, Demarcus Cousins, who has averaged just under 25 ppg in the last 5 seasons, and Joel “the Process” Embiid, the 76ers’ greatest hope and one of the most prodigious centers in the league. While many of the skills have remained--grabbing boards and posting up are still important--a more holistic skillset has been incorporated into the arsenals of many big men. Towns and Porzingis both average around 35% from beyond the 3 point line and are NBA Skills Challenge champions.

This may not seem like much, but consider that before Towns was crowned in 2015 and Porzingis in 2016, a big man had never won

PAGE 21 on Thursday night, Gronkowski could not undergo normal treatment and had to sit out during Week Five.

Another benefit of increased rest is in the case of head trauma. Due to new awareness of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), one might think that the NFL would try to lower the risk of head injuries. Instead, the League sends players out with minimal rest, increasing the potential for worsening minor injuries. Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman has frequently spoken out against Thursday Night Games saying, “It’s rough on the body. Any time you play a football game and play another one a few days later, it’s going to be rough on the body.”

One solution may be to push Thursday Night Football to another day of the week. However, the structure of the NFL’s TV contracts may create a roadblock for this solution. To achieve maximum viewer numbers on Sundays, the NFL has agreed not to air football on days of the week with televised football games at the high school and college levels. This leads to a clustering of games on Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays. When the College season concludes and Saturday games can take place, players are nowhere near as vocal against losing only one day of practice.

In summary, while the NFL has been able to expand its market and increase revenue at an extraordinary rate, such growth comes at the risk of players’ short-term and long-term health. • the skills challenge--it used to be dominated almost exclusively by point guards. This denotes another blur in the lines that once dictated conventional divisions in role and skills of big men--but more conventional skill sets still have the value they used to have. To an extent, the intense focus on small ball that has defined today’s NBA has left a relative void of talent at the center position, which means that a great center in today’s small ball-fixated landscape may find themselves almost unstoppable. Joel Embiid may not have a particularly new or daring skill set--he can’t shoot from 3 particularly well, but that hasn’t lessened his importance to the up-andcoming 76ers, who have just inked him to a 5 year, $148 million contract, which is made all the more impressive by the contract’s evidently little regard to Embiid’s unfortunate injury history. To a larger extent fans should be thankful for this spurt in talent for big men in the league--it offers a welcome break from the often-tiresome back and forth 3 point attempts many NBA teams have turned to.

Epic battles between freakishly talented and physically dominant players in the paint and beyond will make for great basketball fusing some of the best elements of today’s NBA with those of the past. •

Sports

PAGE 22

Mustangs of the Week:

Chris Mehlman '18

Caroline Guden '20

By TOMMY ELLIOTT '18

By KATHERINE MCDONOUGH '19

Chris Mehlman ’18 is a Mustang of the Week for his outstanding contributions in cross-country mountain bike racing. On September 24th, Mehlman competed in the Vermont 50, a competitive mountain bike race fifty miles long which goes across Vermont’s Mt. Ascutney. The race itself is grueling. Beyond its sheer length, the track slows riders down with its unforgiving terrain, dirt covered in rocks and sticks. Not to mention the nine thousand feet of vertical climb, roughly equal to fourteen times the height of the Blue Hills, that Mehlman had to go across during his ride.

This past Wednesday, the Milton Academy Varsity Field Hockey team played Groton at home. While beating Groton with a resounding score of 7-2, Milton also scored the most goals of their season thus far. The field hockey team is currently number one in the ISL, with an undefeated league record of 4-0 and an impressive overall record of 6-1. Caroline Guden ’20 plays midfield, and despite only beginning to play field hockey in 8th grade, she joined the team her freshman year.

Mehlman described the race as “the hardest race [he’s] ever done” after having competed in only one fifty mile long race prior to this one. Mehlman finished the day third overall out of the six hundred and fifty participants, a pack which was full of professionals and more experienced bikers. Even with this outstanding finish Mehlman emphasizes how “[he] didn’t really go into it with any expectations for the overall podium. [He] had already had a long and tiring season of training and racing” that he considered a success.

Almost everyday, students at Milton can see Mehlman take off on his bike towards the Blue Hills, blazing by traffic as he trains for races such as the Vermont 50. Mehlman explains that he “had been focusing [his] training on doing well at shorter (around one and a half to two hours) XC mountain bike races, so the VT50 was sort of an afterthought.”

Mehlman says that this race “felt like all of my hard work training leading up to and during the season had finally paid off.” Mehlman hopes to race again next year, setting his goal for next year at four hours, a little less than two minutes better than this year.

Overall, Mehlman has shown how Milton athletes can show off their talents not only on the fields and teams at home but also on their own. The Milton Paper congratulates Mehlman on a successful season and his selection as a Mustang of the Week. •

In Wednesday’s 7-2 win, Caroline played extremely well, fighting for every ball and greatly contributing to the team’s win, according to her teammates. When asked about the success of the team, Caroline emphasized the closeness of the team: “We have a solid team and really know how to work together, which is why we are so successful.” She notes, “We can trust each other off the field, which translates nicely onto the field.”

Throughout the season, the field hockey team has beaten each team by an average of 4 goals. Of all the games this season, Caroline says “[her] favorite game so far was probably against Middlesex. They have always been a really strong, intimidating team, but [we] finally looked past that and came out strong and controlled the game at our own pace.”

Looking ahead, Caroline hopes to continue this winning streak and make it to the tournament. Additionally, she is most looking forward to a shot at winning New Englands this year, a very attainable goal for such a successful team.

Caroline’s teammates describe her as “a very trustworthy player,” dependable “to make the right play.” Always determined and energized, she “never gives up on a play.”

Furthermore, they say that she, “has a really good shot.

She's at the top of the circle for our corners, so she usually shoots it and she always does a good job there, too.”

Another teammate describes how “she’s not just a great player, but she’s also a really great play-maker. She’s really fast, and in general just a really good and strong member of our team.” Caroline’s teammates praise her speed, hard work, and dedication to the sport, which establish her as a great player for an already exceptional team. We look forward to witnessing the rest of this incredible season and cheering on MAVFH in all of their future games! •

Sports

PAGE 23

Score Report Tuesday, September 26th Varsity Field Hockey v. Thayer

W 5-0

Wednesday, September 27th

Varsity Volleyball @ Thayer W 3-2 JV Field Hockey v. Thayer L 1-2 Varsity Field Hockey v. Deerfield L 0-1 Mens’ Hack Soccer v. Mens’ Hack Soccer T 1-1

Z. Mustin (15’) Asst. N. Raman

J. Garnick (43’) Asst. J. Delano Man of the Match: Z. Mustin

JVB Boys’ Soccer v. Roxbury Latin W 4-1 JV Volleyball @ Thayer W 3-0 Varsity Boys’ Soccer @ Thayer W 4-0 JVA Boys’ Soccer @ Thayer W 5-1 Varsity Girls’ Soccer v. Thayer L 2-6 JV Girls’ Soccer v. Thayer L 1-3 3rd Boys’ Soccer @ St. George's W 5-0 JV Football @ Belmont Hill L 0-7 3rd Girls’ Soccer v. St. George’s W 7-0

Thursday, September 28th

3rd Girls’ Soccer v. Thayer 6-0 Mens’ Hack Soccer v. Mens’ Hack Soccer W/L 4-3

J. Garnick (8’) Asst. C. Beebe

W

Friday, September 29th

Varsity Boys’ Soccer v. Middlesex L 1-2 Varsity Football @ Governors L 28-34 Varsity Field Hockey @ Middlesex W 2-0 Varsity/JV Girls’ XC v. Middlesex L Varsity Girls’ Soccer @ Middlesex L 2-3 Varsity Volleyball @ Middlese L 0-3 JV Girls’ Soccer @ Middlesex W 5-2

Monday, October 2nd

Mens’ Hack Soccer v. Mens’ Hack Soccer W/L 4-2 C. Loop (8’, 30’) Asst. J. Pacheco C. Partridge (10’) Asst. J. Delano

J. Moore-Carrillo (12’, OG, 26’) UA

Z. Mustin (25’, 38’) Asst. S. Crawshaw

J. Pacheco (35’) Asst. N. Raman

J. Delano (40’) Asst. C. Pyle Man of the Match: Z. Mustin

JV Volleyball @ Middlesex W 2-1 Varsity/JV Boys’ XC v. Middlesex W/L 3rd Boys’ Soccer v. Fay L 0-5 3rd Field Hockey v. Fay L 1-4 Mens’ Hack Soccer v. ens’ Hack Soccer W/L 2-1

J. Garnick (15’ 30’) Asst. N. Raman C. Partridge (45’) Asst. C. Palmer Man of the Match: J. Garnick

J. Delano (25’) Asst. B. Stewart C. Palmer (27’) Asst. J. Sloane C. Hibben (35’) Asst. C. Beebe Man of the Match: J. Delano

Wednesday, October 4th 3rd Girls’ Soccer v. Phillips Andover W 4-1 3rd Boys’ Soccer @ St. Marks’ L 1-3 Varsity Boys’ Soccer v. Groton W 3-0 Varsity Field Hockey v. Groton W 7-2 Varsity Volleyball v. Groton W 3-0 JV Boys’ Soccer v. Groton L 2-3 JV Field Hockey v. Groton L 0-1 Varsity Girls’ Soccer v. Groton T 1-1 JV Girls’ Soccer v. Groton W 3-0 JV Football v. Roxbury Prep L 0-16

Mens’ Hack Soccer v. Mens’ Hack Soccer

J. Delano (45’) Asst. J. Pacheco Man of the Match: J. Delano

W/L 1-0

Ad Nauseam

PAGE 24

Pointers for Perfect Parents 1. Shell out 50K for tuition, but refuse to pay 2.50 for a breakfast sandwich 2. Whisper “hardooo” whenever your child raises their hand.

3. Participate.

4. Steal the stapler from every room and add it to your collection.

5. Hang out with upperclassmen in top of stu.

Berate your freshman child from above.

6. Tell

a spooky story on Friday the 13th to give your kid the heebie jeebies, but realize your own presence is scarier than any goblin, ghoul, or ghastly ghost.

7. Put your kid on a leash so it can’t get away.

8. Tell those slugbugs to eat your shorts you continue hip-hoppin with the youths.

as

9. Fight with other parents over whose kid is “more relevant.” Concede after watching your son play Hack Soccer.

10. Donate

to

TMP

at themiltonpaper.org.

Printed on 50% post-consumer waste. Please recycle this paper. www . themiltonpaper . org