January 2021 Index

the index The student voice since 1888

The Haverford School · Haverford, PA 19041 · January 2021· Volume 88, No. 4 · thsindex.org

Political tensions reveal teacher-student disconnect History Department Chair Ms. Hannah Turlish speaks with a students, after winter break democracy and the foundations on which it to reinforce the family’s nearsighted ethics, Tyler Zimmer ’21 was built. created a problematic single story. n event of this caliber rattled our In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley But Haverford students are not Romans, Haverford walls with fiery de- tells us that spoon-fed, placating informa- and teachers have not been called in to serve bate, a glaring need for dialogue, tion paves a straight path to mindless dys- as an echo chamber. We are therefore in a and one Herculean misunderstanding. topia. Take the algorithms of TikTok’s “for fortunate position to move past this oneThe Capitol building has only been you” page and Instagram’s “suggested” posts dimensional view. As a politically diverse breached one time, in 1814—this invasion for example. They feed content to consum- community, we have the power to unify in was led by the British. The recent attempt ers that they both recognize and agree with, the classroom rather than divide into our to undermine a peaceful transition of power allowing little room for growth. Just as his- individualized feeds. This is only possible pays homage to an armored Roman barbar- tory repeats itself, social media platforms and if both parties of a dialogue—teachers, and ian attack, but those brutes were met with news channels did not pioneer this strategy. students—are willing and able to open their violence. Today’s maskless “barbarians” were The Romans did. Their familial system of ed- minds. Currently, they aren’t. confronted softly despite jeopardizing our ucation, using relatives or enslaved persons “I am often afraid to speak up in class

A

TYLER ZIMMER ’21

in fear of losing respect from my teachers,” Sixth Former Michael Tallarida said. “In history class, my conservative peers and I are told that our opinions are wrong. We swiftly move to the next topic at hand.”

Mr. Brendon Jobs—experienced history teacher and director of Haverford’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts —disagrees.

“I think that’s fiction. Teachers are more aware of this student concern than students realize,” Mr. Jobs said. “We talk about this often.” con’t. on p. 3

Facilities steps up after hours to keep school safe Jeffrey Yang ’22

J

ust after students file out of classrooms, bustling to make their way home at each school day’s end, the team that works to keep the school safe and clean swoops in. These staff members work around the clock, before students arrive and after they depart, helping to ensure that the campus is ready for the community to return day after day.

In a year where both constant, thorough sanitation and minimization of exposure to others are exceedingly critical, General Manager of Facilities Bob Wisler notes historic challenges in reevaluating the cleaning routine.

“We try to stay out of the buildings when we can so we don’t, if we have any exposure, pass that along to students, so that makes it a little bit more difficult,” Mr. Wisler said.

Teaching arts virtually, p. 18

MR. THOMAS STAMBAUGH

“So not only [does] the janitorial staff have to change policies and procedures, but my whole entire organization has to change their policies and procedures.”

Among these changes include new chemicals and equipment. Pre COVID-19, the janitorial staff would perform routine cleanings with organic chemicals, following Sodexo’s seven-step process. A machine known as the Fogger, a Clorox 360 machine, has become a necessary part of the routine.

Janitorial Manager Juan Perez said, “We were one of the first in the Pennsylvania area to use the Clorox 360 electrostatic disinfect[ant] machine. It kills 99.9% of any germs, bacteria, anything. All the classrooms, bathrooms, offices, and stairwells get sprayed every night.”

Lower school students inspect a parked garbage truck

con’t. on p. 5

Opinions on the capital insurrection, pp. 13-15

WIKIMEDIA

COURTESY OF OWEN GORMLEY ’21

Robotics adapts to COVID-19 restrictions, p. 7

Paintings from 2D Designs, p. 20

MR. THOMAS STAMBAUGH

COURTESY OF BRYAN LI ’22

the index · editorial

Page 2

the index 2020–2021 Staff Agustin Aliaga ’21 Editor-in-Chief Matthew Schwartz ’21 Editor-in-Chief Tyler Zimmer ’21 Editor-in-Chief Mitav Nayak ’22 Managing Editor

editorial T

he quarter has just about come to a close; Third Formers have adjusted to a new building; Sixth Formers have turned in their early applications. Come November, you may think “senioritis” has begun to kick in, and in a normal year, you would be right. This year, you could not be more wrong.

After a recent excruciating yet rewarding after-school practice, we engaged in dia-

logue with Ms. Barb LaPenta. She explained how emotionally connected she was with the community and how disappointing going virtual would be. But what we took away from the conversation was not impending sadness but rather motivation.

We used to describe senioritis as realizing we are within arm’s reach and simply wanting to shake hands with President Leahy, calling it a career. Two years ago, that

Ryan Rodack ’22 Managing Editor Jeffery Yang ’22 Managing Editor Quinn Luong ’22 News Editor Joey Kauffman ’22 Features Editor Jingyuan Chen ’22 Academics Editor Connor Pinsk ’23 Neighborhood Editor Austin Zhuang ’22 Campus Opinions / Design Editor Michael Tallarida ’21 Off-Campus Opinions Editor Kethan Srinivasan ’21 Arts Editor Jake LaRocca ’22 Sports Editor Ms. Emily Harnett Faculty Advisor Mr. Thomas Stambaugh Faculty Advisor

The Index is a student-run publication of the Haverford School that does more than bring news: it provides the diverse perspectives of the Haverford student body. It is an outlet for student writers to take stands on issues they deem important. It chronicles the daily struggles and accomplishments of the Haverford community. The Index also provides a forum for discussion of pertinent issues, such as student culture, academic policy, and Haverford’s place in world affairs.

The Index presents new ideas and aspires to influence constructive change.

All opinions and viewpoints expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of The Index or the school. The Index is designed and produced digitally. Photographs may be retouched. Submissions and letters to the editors regarding any and all articles are welcomed at index@haverford.org.

The Index, a member of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, is composed using the applications of Google Suite and Adobe Creative Cloud. Its surveys are conducted via Google Forms and are advertised on email to current Haverford students. Graphic designs are created by Index staff via Canva. Southern Dutchess News prints 200-400 copies of each issue, and its editorial staff distributes them in the Upper School on the day of release.

The Index serves the needs of a total school population of 1152 community members, consisting of 952 students and 200 faculty and staff members.

Contact The Index: 450 Lancaster Ave, Haverford, PA 19041 index@haverford.org Twitter: @Haverford_Index Volume 88, No. 4 - January 21, 2021

2020-21 Editorial Board (clockwise from upper left, Editors-in-Chief Agustin Aliaga ‘21, Matthew Schwartz ‘21, Tyler Zimmer ‘21 and Managing Editors Jeffrey Yang ‘22, Ryan Rodack ‘22, and Mitav Nayak ‘22)

January 2021

description would be spot on. This year, we describe senioritis as understanding that we could be sent home any given day, and that we must be so incredibly productive with the time we have left.

We have noticed an impressive turnout at clubs. The Index, open to all, has welcomed a promising new group of writers from all grade and writing levels. Peer Counseling has thrived, filling two classrooms alongside virtual students, as our brothers utilize this safe space. Chess Club matches, Entrepreneurship Club speakers, Diversity Alliance open discussions, you name it. We are showing out, and this needs to continue to avoid the old definition of senioritis.

The new senioritis is following precautions. The new senioritis is joining the club, trying out for the team. The new senioritis is giving your friend an elbow, mutually understanding how much you appreciate each other’s company. It is not anxiously waiting to wake up on the last day, but rather it is finding the teacher you love talking to and enjoying their presence.

Ms. LaPenta told us how much she appreciates her former students reaching out to her or visiting campus, but relationships like these take time and effort. With winter looming and COVID numbers in local counties spiking, we don’t see a better time to strengthen relationships than now. We will need strength to make it through these cold winter months—especially if we go virtual—and this year’s virtue, teamwork must remain our priority.

Letter from the student body president Cyril Leahy ’21

D

ear Students, Ah, what a time to be back!

The air chills your bones, and the wind rushes through your hair as you remember, wow, I really need a haircut.

The start of the second half of the year has been flurried with these fine moments.

I did plenty of reflection over break. A time marked by copious college writing and research, I found little “break” during my break at all.

This all makes it sound like being deferred from college was bad. And it definitely was: I wish I was in college right now. But taking a step back to reflect, I have realized how impactful this failure has been to my life.

I want to preface my story by saying that my experience was not heartbreaking: I knew the risks I took when applying to college, and it’s been more than uncertain this year.

But I was definitely disheartened as I opened my letter of deferral. I was a bit numb, as my family sat around my computer, anxiously waiting to hear the news. A laugh, a brief moment, and a response: “I got chalked.”

My parents were not disappointed in me, but they were definitely sad. We went back to the table, enjoyed some noodles, and watched another episode of The Office. This time, though, my stomach was knotted and I was shell shocked.

I went to sleep that night, or I tried to, and I began to think about my path to my current position.

I kept my parents at a distance when completing my application and struggled to find a satisfying narrative to write about for my essays. I convinced myself that I was putting in my maximum effort, but I knew that had not been totally true. And most of all, I had believed I was better than those around me, and that for some reason, I deserved more than others—I was clearly wrong.

COURTESY OF CYRIL LEAHY ’21

I used to be someone who was afraid to admit when I blunded. Failing stings; failing in relationships, failing in school, failing in sports. But my biggest failure over the past few years has been a calculated effort to avoid acknowledging my shortcomings. And that, my friends, is the biggest lesson I learned.

It’s easy enough to say that mistakes can be good, but actually learning from them takes action. Looking yourself in the mirror and seeing your failure; waking up with that failure in your brain every morning; wearing this failure on your sleeve.

I also realized the value of my family. I’ve

always loved my family and the best part of my break was learning we would be adding to our collective with a dog. But your family are the only people in your life that you can always count on to fight for you. When you are struggling, you may be embarrassed to turn to your family to ask for help, but in fact, that’s the best time to reach out. I failed to utilize my best resources the first time around, and I knew I wouldn’t make that mistake again.

Go Fords, Cyril

the index · news

Page 3

news

January 2021

Political tensions, cont. from front page I don’t respect teachers and their opinions.

It’s that they favor the liberal students immediately after I own my conservative beliefs.”

This student isn’t alone. Sixth Former Maxim Kreider said, “I have found time and time again that teachers have omitted relevant information that discredits their side of the argument.”

“Liberal students are often favored in classes, especially when it comes to class discussions and engagement,” Tallarida said.

Several teachers agree that they never dis-

“Right now we’re in a world where having your opinions questioned is coming across as an attack.”

TYLER ZIMMER ’21

Math teacher Mr. Nathan Bridge facilitates dialogue on the white board

Mr. Jobs explained that he facilitates class discussions in ways that center student voices, agency, and interaction.

He utilizes the Harvard-certified Question Formulation Technique (QFT) method for holding an open dialogue, posing questions, and stimulating discussion. He said, “I only disrupt to fact check. If a student is factually wrong, I say to him, ‘This is just wrong, and here’s why it’s wrong,’ always offering evidence.”

Recipient of the Main Line Today’s “Top Teacher 2020” honor, Mr. Jobs feels his experience precedes him. He more than refutes the belief that teachers lose respect for their students because of opposing stances; he finds it troubling.

“Students give up the opportunity to engage with the world around them because of this imagination that I’d dock their grade?” he questioned. “I’m upset about that, but I almost want to laugh at it. That’s not what teaching and learning are about.”

Sixth Former George Lanchoney has the utmost respect for his teachers, but he finds it difficult to express himself honestly, even in a space where teachers try to remain politically neutral and nondiscriminatory.

“Calling a teacher out for not being impartial could potentially ruin my relationship with them,” he explained. But Lanchoney sees a simple solution to this discrepancy for his conservative counterparts. “This chain needs to be broken. We need to speak up so teachers can have a better understanding of our side.”

Mr. Jobs makes his best effort to remain neutral, letting discussions formulate through student opinions, but other teachers

take different approaches.

When asked if she expresses her opinions in class, Ms. Hannah Turlish—history department chair and active local leader— responded honestly: “Yes. I have dedicated my life to being a champion of marginalized people who are silenced by the United States’ power structure. As a woman, I have spent years of my life feeling as if I couldn’t speak up, or interrupted and discredited if I did, and those two things definitely still happen.”

Ms. Turlish does not subtly layer her opinions into group discussion; she directly ad-

“If students don’t like what I am saying, then they don’t like challenges to the power structure.”

MS. HANNAH TURLISH vocates, never without purpose. She believes it is vital for marginalized students to have a proponent on their behalf. In short, she voices her opinions in support of these students, not in the omission of white conservatives.

One Sixth Former finds outspoken teacher opinions troublesome. “Teachers need to open their eyes to the other side. They ask us to hear them out, but they never do the same for us,” he said.

“If students don’t like what I am saying,” Ms. Turlish continued, “then they don’t like challenges to the power structure.”

The same student contended, “It’s not that

MR. MATT ATOR miss student opinions as wrong; they simply challenge them for the sake of growth and understanding. Mr. Jobs touched on why students need their opinions to be confronted.

“Students who vote for Trump tend to be voting along family lines. So it’s not even potentially their own opinion,” Mr. Jobs said.

“It’s not necessarily their vision of how they see the world.”

Upper School Dean and English teacher Mr. Luqman Kolade agrees: “I think it’s expected. I’ve come to realize that a lot of times the kids are just saying what they’ve heard at home.”

Family lines or not, students must have their opinions challenged. It allows them to learn argumentative skills while honing listening skills.

“Right now we’re in a world where having your opinions questioned is coming across as an attack,” math teacher Mr. Matt Ator said.

Is there a disconnect between teachers and conservative students? Do both parties simply need to communicate more openly?

Is it possible that there’s no bad blood at all?

The short answer is that problematic exchanges follow a pattern. A common theme emerged revealing where tense interactions take place.

“Students who vote for Trump tend to be voting along family lines. So it’s not even potentially their own opinion.”

MR. BRENDON JOBS “I teach American lit,” Mr. Kolade said.

“It’s hard to talk about American literature without talking about America. So those things are just going to come up regardless.”

Inherently, humanities classes encourage discussions about human problems while math classes don’t.

“No one’s going to argue anything racist or sexist when we’re talking about math problems,” Mr. Ator said.

Finance teacher Mr. Brian Long had a similar experience. “It doesn’t matter what I think or what you think when it comes to financing,” he said. “It’s about how the markets digest information. Then we can dive into why they moved the way they did.”

Since current events rarely trickle into math class’s curriculum, these teachers are afforded the luxury to dedicate class time to

ungraded political discussion. The compromise—the solution, even—to bridging this divide can be found here, ironically in the classes that traditionally don’t cover political topics.

Math teacher Mr. Nathan Bridge’s strategy for moderating political discussion seems too simple to be effective: write the student’s claim on the whiteboard.

“We need to make it known whether the student is stating an opinion or whether they are making a claim, something that they’d like to engage with an argument,” Mr. Bridge said.

Once he writes the student’s claim on the board, everything changes.

“Eight or nine times out of ten, the student sees their words up on the board, and they immediately retract a little bit, qualify some things, or soften their language.”

Mr. Bridge also sees this strategy as a method to find the root of beliefs and personal values behind them.

“These people we vote for only serve as a rough approximation for how we’d feel if there was rank-choice voting,” Bridge said.

“Political opinions or claims oftentimes serve

“They should be open to new ideas and having their views change.”

MAXIM KREIDER ’21 as a proxy for a deeper value, right? And it is very difficult to argue against someone’s values.”

For example, if a conservative student makes the claim that Trump took us to our best economy, and we cannot shut our country down, Mr. Bridge would respond by saying, “It sounds like the economy is important to you, and you believe that in a democracy, everyone should have a right to a good-paying job. You’re actually arguing between health and jobs.”

If more teachers can integrate this strategy into their classrooms, both humanities and STEM, and conservative students can find comfort in a transformational dialogue, then restoring this relationship is far from a lost cause. Teachers want their students to grow; students want to engage; they need each other to be intellectually challenged.

Lanchoney recognizes the imminent threat of disregarding the current disconnect.

“The feedback loop of disagreeing with someone, not talking to them, and affirming one’s views with a biased news source could truly end in a civil war,” Lanchoney said.

Kreider said, “If my peers enter a political discussion, they should be open to new ideas and having their views change.”

Mr. Ator took this thought one step further. “The students I know best are the ones that I talk to outside of class. I would say that those conversations beyond academics actually bring me closer to my students,” Mr. Ator said.

“I’ve enjoyed the most and even wrote recommendations for kids who politically are the complete opposite of me but are willing to listen and engage,” Mr. Kolade added.

Neither teachers nor students are blind to the repercussions of Brave New World-esque close-mindedness—they’re simply unaware of each other’s intentions.

Head of School Dr. John Nagl maintains his faith.

“I am deeply and profoundly optimistic about America and about our corner of this great nation here at Haverford.”

the index · news

Page 4

January 2021

Diversity Alliance plants national initiative through new website Christopher Schwarting ’24

W

ith the entrance of the new year, the Diversity Alliance has seized an opportunity to enhance its impact in pursuing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in school spaces. In a recent effort to expand the organization’s influence to a larger population of student activists and leaders in DEI work, the Diversity Alliance released its new website at the beginning of this month.

The main purpose for creating a website, according to Diversity Alliance leadership, is to expand the Diversity Alliance’s scope of action to a broader audience and body of leaders.

“The goal through the website is to make the Haverford School Diversity Alliance more accessible to people outside of Haverford.”

ROCH PARAYRE ’23 “The goal through the website is to make the Haverford School Diversity Alliance more accessible to people outside of Haverford,” Fourth Form Diversity Alliance Vice-Chair Roch Parayre said. “A lot of schools do not have opportunities such as the Diversity Alliance, and I think it is really important for other people to have this option.”

Built upon the Diversity Alliance’s current work, the motive for developing such a site stems largely from a necessity for different leaders from schools across the country to have access to an active platform. Many of those looking for such a platform are active in conferences, such as the Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC).

Fifth Form Diversity Alliance Co-Chair Quinn Luong said, “It may appear just to be a website, but it’s also an avenue for other schools nationwide to join and be active.

Many from SDLC felt like [the conference] was the only one they could go to, and it is only once a year. We want to make the website accessible for people to be able to get help from the [Diversity Alliance] in order to elevate their platform by collaborating with us. Our impact doesn’t just have to be here.”

The new website is not only to serve leaders from schools with well-established DEI programs. As Luong is quick to add, the online network will also be able to cultivate action within the realms of diversity, equity,

and inclusion in spaces where such programs are limited or non-existent.

“It’s really hard to start from absolutely nothing,” Luong said. “If you have no Diversity Alliance, or no DEI official or other teachers in your school, it can be hard. I think it’s really important that [the website] is the resource in which we can help others draft a petition and answer their questions, and how to vocalize and spread their message in an efficient and effective way.”

To facilitate collaboration, leadership, and sharing through a broadened association, the Diversity Alliance has launched initiatives through its digitized webspace. Most notably, the newly established National Diversity Coalition (NDC), which provides coordinated alignment with other institutions in DEI efforts, has started to receive ambassador applications from school students and leaders across the nation.

These ambassadors are to represent their school in learning, engaging, and working in the context of DEI issues that face schools across the country.

With nearly forty submitted applications within one week of launching, the coalition has started with momentum, setting the stage for the difference it hopes to push for in the coming year.

“The National Diversity Coalition is so important because it sets forth the ability to promote big change, and that is why I am so glad that over thirty-five people have signed up from ten different states—and that’s only on our release day. I think the NDC has already started making an impact,” Luong said.

Of the many students and leaders nationwide who have already expressed their interest in the NDC, many have shared a common goal in working towards raising voices and engaging with DEI problems that face schools.

“I joined [the NDC] because there are not enough voices encouraging minority students to embrace and explore their identities,” wrote Agnes Irwin School senior Olivia Peng, a recently inducted Ambassador to the NDC. “Through the coalition, I hope to see a more diverse representation and allies within our school communities because, without support, the mission of DEI only brushes the surface for change within our behavior, education, and relationships.”

From the first development of the NDC, the Diversity Alliance has held three ambitious objectives in mind: to congregate, to educate, and to collaborate.

“One of the main goals with launching the NDC is to host a National Diver-

Diversity Alliance website sity Conference, either annually or biannually, and this would hopefully allow students from across the country to gather. It is also supposed to serve as another opportunity for people to educate themselves and to have the availability to learn a lot about the DEI issues that are going on today,” Parayre said.

“The [third] target is to collaborate with other schools on [the Diversity Alliance’s] Chit-Chat & Chews, which are less formal.”

Along with these goals for the NDC, the Diversity Alliance plans to use its new website to provide a formal introduction to its work and what the organization stands for. The past year has seen a revolution in the fight for social justice and racial equity, and the extensive action taking place in diversity, equity, and inclusion in the alliance mirrors this widespread cause.

“The basis for the website is to have a concrete display for highlighting who we [the Diversity Alliance] are, what we do, who is a part of this, and what our goals are pertaining to the school environment and beyond,” Sixth Form Diversity Alliance Vice-Chair Nachikethan Srinivasan said. “The Diversity Alliance is a group that was created within and for the Haverford School. We, as an organization, want to be able to contribute to the national conversation, and we want to provide a platform for others to contribute to that conversation too.”

Feedback to the release of the Diversity Alliance and National Diversity Coalition website has been overwhelmingly positive.

“In terms of responses from other people with the website specifically, I think that the response overall has been pretty good,” Parayre said.

He was also quick to mention, however, that the historical development of the Diversity Alliance and its respective bodies have received pushback from the community.

“If we talk about the Diversity Alliance from where it started, we have had a lot of

COURTESY OF QUINN LUONG ’22

negative feedback and people who take our leadership for granted, and I think that is one of the reasons why we [the Diversity Alliance] wanted to start this website too.

Those negative responses and that negative energy incite us to push harder for change because we recognize that such sentiments contribute to the problem,” Parayre said.

“There are many who do not seem to understand why we do the work that we do, and I am hopeful this new platform can help in altering that understanding.”

While the impact for a national community of DEI leaders is clear, the image of how the new Diversity Alliance website and NDC organization can directly benefit the Haverford community still remains unclear.

Despite this, there is optimism that the new platform will bring diverse perspectives and reignite action.

“I believe that having the NDC is going to provide a new world of opinions, thoughts, and ideas,” Parayre shared. “I think ideas found elsewhere can be directly brought back to Haverford, and that can be huge within the Haverford community.

I just think it’s really important to have diverse perspectives because Haverford—while it has a huge community aspect—is slightly close-minded from a lot of places around the country, and I think that having those other opinions is going to be hugely influential.”

Furthermore, Luong expressed that the website has drawn new student populations to have an interest in DEI work with the Diversity Alliance.

“I have seen fellow peers from Haverford who I would never have thought to have expressed interest in diversity work reach out to me,” Luong said. “I become surprised every time I see a new person because they see [the Diversity Alliance’s work] and really want to participate, but they haven’t had any voice or any platform to speak about [DEI topics] before.”

John Hickenlooper ‘70 elected to U.S. Senate seat in Colorado Isaiah Shuchman ’23

T

his past November, Haverford alumnus and former two-term Colorado governor John Hickenlooper ‘70, was elected to the United States

INDEX STAFF

John Hickenlooper’s page in the 1970 Haligoluk

Senate. Hickenlooper, the first and only senator to graduate from The Haverford School, was also a two-term mayor of Denver.

After spending sixteen years in highprofile political offices, Hickenlooper is one of Colorado’s most well-known politicians.

After he suspended his five-month presidential campaign in August 2020, Hickenlooper turned his attention to attempting to unseating incumbent Senator Cory Gardner.

Running for the senate was something that Hickenlooper initially dismissed before his presidential campaign.

In February of 2019, Hickenlooper told Politico, “I’m not cut out to be a senator…

Senators don’t build teams. Senators sit and debate in small groups, which is important, right? But I’m not sure that’s my—I’m a doer. That’s what gives me joy.”

This passion for “doing” is something that Hickenlooper has made clear throughout his political career. He brought Colorado’s economy from 40th in job creation to the number-one economy in the nation.

He passed landmark gun safety laws and expanded Medicaid to nearly 400,000 Coloradans and decreased the uninsured rate from 14.3% in 2013 to 6.5% in 2017, according to the Colorado Health Institute.

In addition, Hickenlooper helped to pass

pioneering anti-pollution climate change measures that regulated methane emissions in the state of Colorado and he has called for a 100% renewable energy economy by 2050.

Hickenlooper wants to bring his “doer” mentality to Washington D.C. and create lasting bipartisan change in our nation.

Hickenlooper will now work with Colorado’s Senator Michael Bennet (D), with whom he has a long history. Bennet served as Hickenlooper’s chief of staff when he was the mayor of Denver. They will be a part of the slim Democratic majority in the senate as President Joe Biden attempts to pass legislation in his first days in office.

the index · features

Page 5

January 2021

features Ben Fosnocht’s Chess Club

TYLER ZIMMER ’21

Ben Fosnocht ’21 at battle from home Tyler Zimmer ’21

C

hess Club, good news! Chess Club, Virtual Haverford cannot stop us! Chess Club, I’m excited for another week of Arena play!

If you’ve been fortunate enough to earn your place on Sixth Former Benjamin Fosnocht’s weekly email list, you fall asleep on Sunday night a bit more reassured that the coming week can be conquered. We all dread Sunday evenings: the fun is over, the homework begins.

But not for Fosnocht. The Chess Club president completes his homework Saturday morning, understanding that his weekly

email is just thirty-six hours from reaching the inboxes—and perhaps the hearts—of all his loyal members.

Who would have thought receiving Mr. Kolade’s club list email would be considered the good old days? Simply put, this list has dwindled to one.

Sixth Form member Drew Loughnane thinks Fosnocht’s leadership is the reason the Chess Club has thrived, despite many other clubs dissipating due to low membership.

“Ben has this ability to bring people together. His emails are energetic, funny, and professional,” Loughnane said.

“That’s one-hundred percent Ben’s do-

ing,” faculty advisor Mr. Ator said. “He had an idea. He was organized about how he did it. But most importantly, he managed to keep it simple.”

“My goal is to get as many people interested in the game of chess as possible.”

Fosnocht said. “That’s why I also send out weekly chess-related videos, which can be educational, entertaining, or a combination of both.”

Fosnocht’s drive to enhance his club continues off campus.

“Ben talks about chess at the dinner table. And the breakfast table. When he’s supposed to be doing homework, he’s playing chess,” his mother Dr. Sharon Popik said.

If you aren’t convinced that he’s all in on Chess Club, think again. “[Ben] had to get a COVID test this week. Before and after it, he said he had to get home for Chess Club. He raced home from the appointment,” Dr. Popik added.

Fosnocht fosters a welcoming environment. He used Chess.com’s algorithm to match players of equal skill level.

“There’s a wide variety of competition in the arena,” Loughnane explained. “You’re given a pre-ranking which fluctuates based on who you beat and lose to, and how good that player is.”

Essentially, after a few rounds, two beginners face off just as two undefeated players would.

“If your reason for not joining is that you’re ‘not good enough,’ then I strongly urge you to just try it out. Your games will be against opponents at your skill level,” Fosnocht said.

While Chess Club welcomes all skill levels, members recognize an unspoken, Fight Club-esque circle of elite players.

When you join the online chess arena, you never know who’s a dark horse, and before they perfectly execute a Greek Sacrifice on your fragile defense, you’ve moved down the weekly ladder.

Mr. Ator forewarned about the players to look out for.

“Austin Zhuang is really good. [Liam] Dodds is good. Drew [Loughnane] is good.

There are many more. It’s good competition.”

Sixth Former Matthew Schwartz was once an avid player but reverted back to intermediate status.

Wisler said. “You don’t know what the right thing is to do, but you know you have to do the right thing. That is where the stress comes up, so it’s not necessarily more difficult to do it, it’s just more stress on us.”

Mr. Perez echoed the difficulty in ensuring that the campus is as safe as possible. He explained how a focus on such little, but critical tasks sometimes cause the team to miss, perhaps otherwise routine, cleaning steps.

“Everyone puts 110% in their work because that’s what they’re here for. But the stress is, did we do our job good enough to prevent anything from happening? Any cross-contamination and things of that nature? So with that being said, sometimes we could miss something because we’re so focused on doing one task that something else may get missed or left behind. So it’s not a weight of workload; it’s more a weight of ‘I hope it’s good enough,’” Mr. Perez said.

On the days when students and faculty are not on campus, the members of the janitorial staff still have a job; they perform project work that is difficult to execute when the community is on campus.

Mr. Wisler said, “The school is extremely empathetic about that. They don’t want to lose anybody, so they don’t believe in laying anybody off. What we do in those so-called downtimes when the staff nor the students are on campus we call project work; so we’ll redo all the floors, or rewax all the floors.

We will do things in the gym and the squash courts that normally aren’t done every day.

We also shampoo and redo carpets throughout the campus.”

Regardless of whether students and faculty are on campus to appreciate their work, the janitorial staff maintains their high standards.

“Our goal is to increase the quality of life of every student that we have,” Mr. Wisler said. “For the staff, as long as they keep that in their mind, they will do the very best job that they possibly can, and that’s all we can ask for.”

“We’re putting our best foot forward for you guys here at the school,” Mr. Perez said.

“Ben talks about chess at the dinner table. And the breakfast table. When he’s supposed to be doing homework, he’s playing chess.”

DR. SHARON POPIK “The club has also helped rekindle my own interest in chess,” Schwartz said. “I’ve begun playing games with friends a lot more outside of school than I have in the past.”

“It was awesome to see how many people were still interested in playing after school or during lunch, even when we weren’t in person,” Fosnocht responded.

Students not only play fellow students but throw down the gauntlet to teachers as well, an experience both parties rarely enjoy in the classroom. Friendly competition certainly brings them closer together.

“I’ve played against Mr. Ator a few times. We’ve split the series, and I’m looking forward to the tiebreaker,” Loughnane mentioned. “I’ve also played Mr. Lengel before and after class.”

Facilities, cont. from front page In addition, staff members now perform inorganic-chemical sanitization, which is conducted in greater detail and quantity than before.

“What’s different is that we take our sanitizer—we have new sanitizer chemicals—and go around and wipe down all high-touch areas: doorknobs, light switches, all the desks, the chairs,” Mr. Wisler said.

If a suspected case of COVID is located on campus, the janitorial staff takes further and urgent action, instead of waiting until the end of the school day after the students leave.

“So if somebody calls us, or the nurse says we have a suspected case in Classroom 203, we would dispense our custodians over there and they would completely wipe down and fog that entire room,” Mr. Wisler said.

Adaptability has become essential for the Facilities team. Each month, the severity and level of the pandemic change, and students may be required to learn virtually; therefore, the staff must constantly re-evaluate their approach.

“We come up with a different plan almost every month to adjust to what’s happening on campus,” Mr. Perez said. “So, from you guys being all virtual to being hybrid, we always are implementing new plans and looking for new measures to take to ensure that the school is sanitized and properly cleaned.”

These additional tasks have required hiring more janitorial staff members and longer work hours from the team. Mr. Perez joined

a few days before the campus was closed in March 2020. Despite just entering, he described the shift in cleaning standards when it became clear that the virus was going to be

“Our goal is to increase the quality of life of every student that we have.”

MR. BOB WISLER terribly threatening.

“So when it [COVID-19] first hit, it was at a peak and everyone was on pins and needles. Everything had to be done thoroughly—and not to say we’re not doing it thoroughly now—but, at that moment, it was just like you have to do everything you would do times ten. It kind of stood there pretty much because it became the base level of our cleaning now,” Mr. Perez said.

The janitorial staff faces added difficulty, not only in the increased cleaning, but also in understanding that their job determines the safety of the entire community. “[We] care about the students, and we care about the faculty, so it adds a little bit more pressure onto us in order to make everything safe. The problem with that is that you get different stories from different places and different healthcare organizations,” Mr.

JEFFREY YANG ’22

Mr. Juan Perez in a virtual interview

Page 6

the index · features

January 2021

Students share views on vaccines Ethan Chan ’23

T

the “third wave” of COVID is upon us––in many countries around the world, the coronavirus continues to surge in cases and death. With new cases in Pennsylvania at an all-time high and over 2,000,000 deaths globally, the newly developed vaccine may be the solution to bringing about the cessation of COVID-19.

For students, one of the main concerns is that the relatively quick discovery and augmentation of the vaccine has lowered the quality. Will people have to sacrifice aspects of their health because of the vaccine? While this concern is valid, one must take into consideration the human power and collective effort put into creating the vaccine.

“With the number of scientists that have worked on it, and if there was some concern regarding its effectiveness, it would have already been brought up. Working quickly does not necessarily mean working poorly,” Fourth Former Arnav Sardesai said.

The cutting-edge technology scientists have at their disposal means they only need

the virus’s genetic sequence to create code to integrate vaccines. Older processes used in forming the SARS CoV-2 required obtaining the virus and then disabling it. This is the reason why the COVID vaccine has been developed faster than prior ones. Companies such as Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca have been at the forefront of creating and producing the vaccines. Contrary to popular belief about the rushed timelines, these pharmaceutical companies have gone through several phases of intense testing before being authorized. One vaccine in particular has revolutionized the way vaccines are produced.

The MRNA COVID-19 vaccine, short for messenger RNA, is a new type of vaccine, made by Moderna. The vaccine “gives instructions” to our cells to make something called a “spike protein.” This protein can be found on the virus which can result in COVID-19. Once the vaccine is injected into the upper arm muscle, the cells use the vaccine to create the protein. The protein then goes on the surface of the cell. From there, our immune systems begin to build antibodies and biological defenses against the proteins.

Ultimately, this should build a temporary immunization against COVID-19. Through Moderna’s testing with the new mRNA vaccine, there is a 90% success rate of temporary immunization and has been approved by the FDA. Even after this, the question remains relevant: “Should I take the vaccine?”

According to the poll shown, 78.4% of the 139 Upper Schoolers who responded would take the vaccine. These results correlate with the national response.

From results published by National Geographic back in December 2020, roughly half of the people in each category lean toward the side of getting vaccinated. An important factor for many students looking to take the vaccine is the safety of those close to them.

“I would take it because I do not want my family members to be at risk,” Fourth Former Jay Crowther said. The vaccine, for

MICHAEL TALLARIDA ’21

Henri Waché ‘21 received the first round of the coronavirus vaccine on January 12 as a first responder many people like Crowther, serves an ethical purpose.

As of January 16, 2021, there have been close to 19,000 deaths in Pennsylvania and 393,000 deaths nationally. Given the staggering numbers and increase in cases the past few weeks, the question of whether or not the state or school should mandate students to get vaccinated has arisen.

Employers and schools can require COVID-19 vaccinations, so upper school students 16 years of age or older could potentially be required to be vaccinated in the future.

“I think students who come to school should be vaccinated. The school is doing a great job handling the COVID cases but the vaccine would probably bring down the number of future cases at Haverford to 0,” Crowther said.

Even if Haverford decides that students and faculty to take the vaccine, the state has the final say in mandating citizens to take vaccines.

“If there is a way to increase the safety and health of our country, the government should do something to mandate it,” Sarde-

sai said.

At the end of the day, the vaccine and mitigation efforts enforced are meant to help stop the spread of COVID-19 and return to “normal” life.

“I would like to gradually return to life as it used to be, with being able to see people more and return to sports practices and other public areas regularly,” Crowther said.

The vaccine has offered hope. If we work together, we can defeat this virus. Other countries such as New Zealand have already apparently reached this light. As of June 8, 2020, New Zealand has lifted all COVID restrictions and has declared their nation COVID-free.

In the near future, there may be many more countries following in New Zealand’s footsteps. In the United States at least, “normal” life seems distant; yet, we can still look forward to a time when COVID is no longer around.

“After the pandemic is over, I actually don’t know what to do,” Sardesai said.

“Probably go to a concert or a Sixers game.”

SDLC affirms the power of love for Quinn Luong ‘22 Quinn Luong ’22

S

ix Upper School students, faculty, and staff attended the concurrent Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) and the People of Color Conference (POCC) virtually from December 1-4, 2020.

More than 7,000 educators and 2,100 students gathered for the four-day conference that provided a safe space for leadership and professional development and networking for people of color and allies of all backgrounds in independent schools. Haverford has sent a delegation since 2006.

I was in awe of the overwhelming amount of acceptance and love SDLC brought. Through my family groups made up of 25 students from schools nationwide, I developed meaningful friendships with the people who cared to listen to my story and views. I still can’t fully comprehend such an accepting atmosphere with amazing people—something that I feel our school sometimes lacks. No matter how you identified, there was a place for you at SDLC. This warm and loving community made me more confident in how we can have open conversations where we delve deeper into our personal identities.

Led by a diverse team of trained adult and peer facilitators, my family group developed cross-cultural communication skills, designed effective strategies for social justice practice to combat oppression, and learned the foundations of allyship and networking principles. One of the things that struck me most was learning about the cycle of oppression and how it perpetuates within inde-

pendent schools. Through recognizing the predominantly white community at Haverford, I recognized how the community has detrimentally affected my internalized views of being Asian. This cycle of oppression has started with me: internalized oppression.

Personally, I have been affected by white fragility and pressured to capitulate and assimilate to “white America” and lose more of my Asian attributes that were deemed uncool and unpopular. I have always been insecure about the size of my eyes and the color of my skin, which is something I am still learning to embrace. Once I was able to dismantle my own internalized oppression, I finally felt free.

One of the crucial parts of breaking away from this vicious cycle is facilitating an environment in which we can empower people of color. Although there aren’t many Asians who openly express their struggles at Haverford, SDLC has first introduced me to more Asian students in one affinity group than I have ever seen in my life. This group taught me that I’m not alone with my experiences, as Asians have tried to escape harmful presumptions by assimilating within a white-washed culture. The most meaningful element of these sessions was understanding that love ties together solving our pe sonal identity issues and empowering the people around us.

Often, a toxic Haverford culture downplays diversity, equity, and inclusion work.

This culture discourages any type of discussion and holds people back from embracing their identities. I was not proud to be Asian

within Haverford, but I’m slowly working on loving and embracing myself. It is hard to believe that I have been embraced with more love at SDLC those four days than in my experience at Haverford.

A prime example of my being able to amplify my voice for once was at the talent show at one of our nightly social events at SDLC. It was a euphoric moment to have so many of my friends supporting me; it was one of the best experiences of my life. My spoken word poem, “American Born Chinese,” was a moving experience for me to perform in front of 2,100 people. I’m still in awe of the number of people who messaged me, saying that I inspired them through my poem and how they planned to use it in their own affinity groups. I finally felt confident, like I had discovered my own voice.

I am currently thinking of how different it would be if I performed my poem at Haverford. I think I would be even more nervous because I worry about what my peers would think of me—another prime example of the toxicity of school culture. I feel our community is reluctant to discuss diversity or other racial problems. Many students have an apathetic attitude toward DEI issues because they believe they do not apply to them.

I was a bit reluctant to return to Haverford after SDLC. The minute I felt finally empowered and accepted within SDLC, I had to return home only to feel powerless in the student culture. Still, I plan to take the knowledge and empowerment I took away from SDLC and use it to change our school

culture. Despite the lack of enthusiasm towards DEI work, I hope that I can help others like me cultivate and embrace their own identities. We must start there to help empower others. Thus, we can finally escape the vicious cycle of oppression and toxicity.

I used to be so afraid of what people thought of me. SDLC has allowed me to embrace my flaws and to finally feel accepted.

To finally feel like I fit in and accept myself for who I am is truly something I thought I would never feel. All of this positivity and happiness is truly something that is so rare.

We must keep sharing kindness with one another unconditionally.

RUSSELL YOH ‘24

Diversity Alliance Leaders

Page 7

the index · features

January 2021

Diversity Alliance thrives during pandemic Willard Johnson ’23

T

here’s a raging bull in the school crashing through every club and extracurricular. That bull is COVID-19. Due to the virus, student clubs have dwindled and fractured. This is not their fault; the circumstances are just working against them. Despite this, one club has not only persevered through the virus but is in fact thriving: The Diversity Alliance.

Fifth Form Diversity Alliance Co-Chair Quinn Luong said, “[We have] adapted the best out of all the organizations of Haverford.”

The club has been making tremendous jumps this year toward making Haverford a better and safer place for all.

The club has been making tremendous jumps this year toward making Haverford a better and safer place for all, and its effort is truly commendable.

Last year, the club was understaffed and perhaps underappreciated. “[Most meetings were] doubling as social gatherings,” Sixth Former Nachikethan Srinivasan said.

This struggle only intensified when the pandemic began in March and the world went under.

Meetings that once only had a few students dwindled further. After the summer, when the whole world was reminded how important diversity, equity, inclusion work was, interest rebounded.

The death of George Floyd opened the world’s eyes to why organizations like the

Diversity Alliance matter. In addition to this movement spurred by the death of George Floyd, COVID-19 caused a lot of racism itself, with people calling it the “Kung-flu” and the “China Virus.”

In a time like this, the Diversity Alliance realized that, as Fourth Former Vice-Chair Roch Parayre said, “DEI issues don’t just stop because the world shuts down.”

With this momentum, alongside a wellplaced meeting during Third Form orientation, the new school year drove a boom for the Diversity Alliance among concerned students—and the leaders took advantage of it.

They were ready to make the next school year more effective than the last and truly make a difference, no matter what COVID-19 had to say about it.

The Diversity Alliance leaders made a new plan for the school year. This plan was much more virtual based, embracing the socially distant aspects of the lockdown. The group advertised in-person meetings online and observed precautions every step of the way. “[We] only ever met before school . . . socially distancing, wearing masks, and taking all the precautions,” Sixth Former and Diversity Alliance leader Ryan Ngo said. “[We] didn’t really have that many in-person events.”

They put time and effort into their Instagram account (@the_diversity_alliance), creating a branch of the Diversity Alliance entirely dedicated to educating the student body and beyond through posts on various DEI topics. At the time of writing this article, the account has almost 400 followers, 27 posts, and over 3,000 likes.

They’re making a documentary based on their journey, a piece of media intended to work virtually during this pandemic.

And finally, they’ve recently booted up

their new website. They intend to make more virtual media not just to rally Haverford, but to encourage students nationwide.

Their new initiative is called the National Diversity Coalition (NDC), currently made up of over 35 student leaders from 10 different states.

Luong and his team have tamed the bull for their own gain. It’s a revolutionary type of club, and it’s allowing them to do even more revolutionary things.

Luong said, “[We have] had far more attendance because of the fact [that we are] virtual.”

Their many school-wide discussions of various issues are unprecedented, allowing kids to express themselves and process these historic times.

Third Form Diversity Alliance member

Christopher Scwarting said, “[They] unite diversity workers and people who are passionate about this topic . . . in both our community at The Haverford School and out to communities across the nation.”

This couldn’t have happened unless they had embraced and adapted to the virtual space. It is common now for some advisories to turn on their weekly Chit-Chat & Chew and school-wide discussions during lunch.

None of this wouldn’t have been possible without Diversity Alliance leaders, who worked tirelessly. Co-chairs Quinn Luong and Ryan Ngo and Vice-Chairs Nachikethan Srinivasan, Roch Pararye, and A.J. Sanford were all instrumental.

“What we do here is important,” Parayre said, “and more people need to understand that.”

NACHIKETHAN SRINIVASAN ’21

Ryan Ngo ’21 (left) and Quinn Luong ’22 (right) lead a recent Chit-Chat & Chew

Robotics innovates around COVID-19 restrictions Austin Zhuang ’22

T

he pandemic has limited school activities and hit many extracurricular activities hard. Participation has dwindled, clubs send out fewer and fewer emails by the day, and the once lively Friday community period is gone.

Still, students in robotics have continued to build, code, and practice with an intensity comparable to past years.

Even before the school officially gave robotics a timeslot from 2:45 to 4:30 to work, students organized meetings that followed COVID-19 guidelines at members’ homes.

They also created pre-recorded videos that new members can use to learn about coding.

Now that the robotics team has the opportunity to work in-person at school, their

season has kicked off safely.

“We’ve had the ability to expand [from the robotics room] a little bit out to the area outside of Ball Auditorium, which gives us just a little bit more space so that we can maintain social distancing,” robotics advisor Mr. Will Leech said. “We’re safe, which is quite reassuring.”

These recently started practices still do not fill the void that the pandemic left. Although past practices outside of school have allowed members to work on their robots, they have had much less time than previous years, among other limitations.

“Considering where we were this time last year, these boys would have invested hundreds of hours into their robots,” Mr. Leech

COURTESY OF OWEN GORMLEY ’21

Owen Gormley ’21 prepares his robot for a skills run in the Vexmen Downingtown Open

said. “Now, the boys are lucky if they are reaching double figures at this time.”

COVID-19 restrictions have also hit collaboration hard because the club has too many people to meet as a whole in the same space, making it difficult for upperclassmen to interact with Third Formers.

“Just not being able to see the new kids, not being able to help them, [stinks],” Sixth Former Safa Obuz said. “The sense of community is much worse.”

Others share the same sentiment. Fifth Former Elijah Lee believes the lack of fullteam meetings has limited the group the most this year because they were so valuable in years prior.

Despite these new challenges, robotics continues to grow and develop. Besides the coding videos, which Obuz says could potentially help students ten years from now, many improvements have been made to the club.

“It [the pandemic] has helped us work more efficiently in terms of equipment and parts,” Lee said. “It also forces us to work more efficiently when we are together because we have so little time.”

Upperclassmen have also worked to offer the same amount of guidance to new members as years past, even though they can not meet each other in person as frequently.

“Robotics has a really steep learning curve, and it’s difficult to come in fresh,” Mr. Leech said. “It’s going to be even more challenging now, but our seniors and juniors have done some fantastic work supporting the boys.”

This effort is felt by the latest additions to robotics like Third Former Dawson Baker.

His transition to upper school robotics from middle school robotics was easy.

“All of the upperclassmen and teachers

in the upper school are really helpful,” Baker said. “All around, it has made robotics easy to learn and get my head around, and I enjoy it.

Expectations for the school’s robotics team and its performance at competitions remain the same, but changes to these competitions have forced the members to adapt.

“There are still competitions planned, but a lot of what we’re doing is focusing on the skills part of the competition, which is like a one-person version of the game,” Mr. Leech said. “As a result, there is less head-to-head competitive robotics that is usually our bread and butter and what we do best, so we have to improve that aspect.”

“This [school] year is difficult, but it will certainly be a year to remember.”

SAFA OBUZ ’21 Regardless of the changes and limitations this school year has brought to the club, members are making the most of the opportunities they have to build on the team’s history.

“While there isn’t much we can do, the more hardships we face as a group, the stronger our bonds will be and the more we have to collaborate,” Obuz said. “This [school] year is difficult, but it will certainly be a year to remember.”

the index · academics

Page 8

January 2021

academics

RYAN RODACK ’22

Curtis Weh and Gabe Gowen ‘21 in the Big Room

Virtual and in-person learning require different mindsets, students say Ethan Lee ’24

T

hroughout the tumultuous times of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers have utilized online learning tools to keep students safe. Although in-person learning continues, students and teachers had to switch to a completely virtual classroom three separate times— after Thanksgiving break, before winter break, and after winter break.

With the change in setting, student opinions on schooling options vary.

“Since I’m at home and in one place, I don’t have the need to be organized,” Fourth Former Owen Yu said. “Things are all over the place. When we were going in-person, I was a lot more organized because I had to be.”

Third Former Aydan DiRocco has not noticed a difference with his organization during virtual-school compared with online school.

“Since everything is organized through Google Drive and Canvas Modules before the switch to virtual school, all of the material we needed was already online,” DiRocco said. “Actually, keeping things organized while virtual is easier because I do not need to worry about paper handouts from teachers.”

Still, DiRocco finds it difficult to communicate with teachers in the virtual environment.

“Before, if we wanted a quick one-minute chat with an advisor or teacher, we could have a quick chat right before lunch. Now we need to set up a Google Meet, which is not that difficult in itself but might not be worth it for a one-minute meeting,” DiRocco said.

Another obstacle with virtual-learning is keeping students engaged with the material.

“I am definitely zoning in and out of

class, especially when it is a content-driven day,” Yu said.

“At first I would do work in the breaks but then I started to get fatigued from the amount of screen time.”

JAMES WANG ’21 Sixth Former James Wang agrees.

“At first I would do work in the breaks but then I started to get fatigued from the amount of screen time,” Wang said. “The grind slowed down to a point where it turned into a mentality of making it through

the day.”

Wang thought that this was caused by the lack of natural breaks that would normally happen in an in-person setting. Additionally, because of the cameras, teachers have difficulty judging the atmosphere of the class.

“When a teacher is giving a lecture, they can’t tell how their students are feeling about it,” Wang said. “Sometimes they might steamroll right over a topic that their students are confused about.”

Other distractions, such as social media or things happening in the house might hinder a student’s ability to focus and engage in class.

Wang noticed a problem with the online format that had to do with work that required detail. The lower resolution of the cameras in a Google Meet created problems in some of his classes that used smaller objects, like electronics.

“Sometimes Mr. Maley is trying to show a component, and the resolution of the Meet is not able to show an object that small in detail,” Wang said. “You have to make an educated guess as to what that component is.”

This problem is simply a technology limitation and not at all the teacher’s fault. Overall, students are pleased.

“The teachers have done a great job with online school.

Everything is wellorganized.”

AYDAN DIROCCO ’24

A Spanish class in Virtue Village

MITAV NAYAK ’22

“The teachers have done a great job with online school,” DiRocco observed. “Everything is well-organized. It just relies on the student to actually put the work in and show up.”

the index · neighborhood

Page 9

January 2021

neighborhood

CONNOR PINSK ’23

Street around Flanigan’s Boathouse - January, 16, 2021

The Barstool Fund boosts Flanigan’s Boathouse Connor Pinsk ‘23

A

s of January 14, 2021, Barstool Sports has raised over twenty-five million dollars to support one hundred and twenty-seven businesses.

Barstool, headquartered in New York City, was founded in 2003 by Dave Portnoy.

Portnoy pursued many interests since he founded Barstool, ranging from various podcasts and reports on sports news, to sports betting, pizza reviews, and even day trading.

Barstool’s newest endeavor has been The Barstool Fund, which was created to help small businesses struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Portnoy posted a video on Twitter in December expressing his frustration at state governments for not allowing small businesses within the state to stay alive. He accuses state officials of not giving the businesses a chance to make money along with unnecessarily shutting down indoor dining.

To remedy this situation, Portnoy announced that he would start The Barstool Fund, which would help as many small businesses as it could. Along with the announcement, he stated that Barstool would put up half-a-million dollars of its own money to start the fund. Portnoy said the program would continue giving money to each selected location until the pandemic is over. The only requirement that must be met to apply for the fund: the employer must still be paying their employees.

Since announcing the grant, Portnoy has appeared on Fox News and CNN, and he has been featured in many articles throughout American newspapers.

Once Barstool chooses a restaurant, Portnoy will FaceTime the owner and announce the good news and then post the video to Twitter. Portnoy is passionate about what he is doing, even publicly saying that

Flanigan’s Boathouse storefront - January 16, 2021

he will shame his rich friends on Twitter until they donate to the fund.

One of these restaurants is Flanigan’s Boathouse, a local business in Conshohocken which, like many others, has been severely hurt during the pandemic.

“We never thought that we would win ever in a million years,” restaurant owner Ja-

“They are trying to be really aggressive with being helpful.”

JAMIE WEBER mie Weber said. “It really truly was a total shock. We were struggling with things like staff, and we really had to reinvent the wheel here. Utilities, rent—our business was really struggling. We ended up losing probably half

a million to seven-hundred and fifty-thousand dollars.”

The massive loss of money that is a prevalent issue for so many businesses stems from the lack of indoor dining. Because it is January, most people are not willing to eat outside.

Weber discovered the Barstool Fund through her kids, who are fans of Barstool Sports.

“We have seven children, and they really did it all,” Weber said. “We watched Barstool before, like the pizza guy, and I had heard of him, but that was all I really knew.”

Weber is impressed with what Barstool is doing for small businesses.

“They are trying to be really aggressive with being helpful,” Weber said, “It’s unbelievable.”

CONNOR PINSK ’23

Page 10

January 2021

the index · campus opinions

campus opinions Virtual classroom is a more effective learning environment Ryan Rodack ’22

T

he general assumption amongst many is that in-person instruction is superior to virtual instruction in terms of effective learning. Although this may be true in a non-pandemic year, it is a false assumption this school year, as teachers juggle their time between the students who learn in person while also paying attention to the group of students learning virtually.

It would be most effective to transition to a virtual classroom model for every student if the goal is providing the best learning experience possible.

In a hybrid model, teachers are forced to divide their attention between the Google Meet on their laptops and the students seated in front of them, negatively impacting both groups of students. For example,

teachers often explain major assignments or concepts and soon after realize their laptop’s microphone was muted or that the camera was not facing the whiteboard. As a result, students learning from home could not hear the teacher and/or were unable to see the whiteboard all along. This forces the teacher to re-explain the assignment, wasting the time of the students learning in person who have to listen to the same concept explained twice. In a fully virtual classroom, the teacher’s attention is solely focused on one mode of learning, therefore eliminating the constant juggling of virtual and in-person students.

Group collaboration is another aspect of the learning experience that functions fluidly in a virtual learning model. Students can collaborate effectively by simply joining the same Google Meet or breakout room.

Tools like Google Docs and screen share allow all group members to edit the same document and/or view the same screen while also communicating via a Google Meet.

In a hybrid model, due to coronavirus safety protocols, group work consists of working solely with people sitting at desks nearby and sometimes also joining a Google Meet to collaborate with a peer learning from home. This creates a hectic scenario as students are often left alternating between taking headphones on and off to split collaboration time between a classmate six feet away and another peer learning virtually.

In some classes, students who are learn-

ing virtually collaborate for every project, homework, or activity. However, this solution is unfair for those students as there is no variety in the classmates they get to work with.

Not only is it effective to collaborate with other students in a virtual model, but it is also easier for students to meet with a teacher one on one. Many teachers make use of the app Calendly, which allows students to set up a time to meet with their teachers.

One-on-one student and teacher meetings allow for students to ask personalized questions, go over a previous test or homework,

A virtual Spanish presentation in the upper school

In-person learning is a more effective learning environment Adiyan Nayak ’24

A

fter switching from in-person to virtual on multiple occasions in the past few months, students have had the opportunity to experience both systems in the same classes, creating some contrasts. Spending extended time in a vir-

tual setting has made it clear that in-person learning is superior.

During classes, the online platform substantially hinders a student’s opportunity to grasp the material presented. The distance between student and teacher in a virtual classroom is vast, and the communication

John Zhang ‘22 working in the Big Room

RYAN RODACK ‘22

or talk about a difficult assignment.

The one-hour breaks in the virtual learning schedule make for a great time to set up these meetings with teachers, as both the students and teachers do not have any other commitments. In the in-person learning model, there is no time built into the day for students to meet with teachers, as the schedule consists of longer classes and more responsibilities for both students and teachers, such as advisory, sports, and other factors like commute time. Additionally, the lack of commute time in a Virtual Haverford schedule allows students to wake up hours later than they normally would. This ensures that students are ready to engage in discussions, analytic essays, or complex math problems without lack of sleep affecting their performances.

The benefits of learning virtually outweigh the benefits of in-person learning as a result of the safety protocols and their interference with the quality of in-person learning.

is therefore affected. It is more difficult for one to explain a concept when they cannot perform live demonstrations or communicate directly with their student. Additionally, students are sitting in isolated areas, so they cannot quickly and efficiently confer with one another. This forces many confused students to attempt to learn the material and evaluate their work by themselves, causing a decline in performance and confidence.

Virtual schooling also makes in-class participation more challenging. It is far easier to participate in-person and be in the same room as the other students and the teacher. Having the students in the room makes it more manageable for the teacher to ensure relatively equal participation. Sitting behind a screen allows for students to turn off their cameras and reduce their presence in the class. Distractions in a home environment can also draw a student’s attention and hold it for an entire class period.

Even after the school day is over, the effects of virtual schooling continue to disrupt the educational experience. Having the assurance of virtual school the following day provides a temptation for students to put off work that has been assigned to them. It

JEFFREY YANG ‘22

is easier to cut corners in an online setting, without the confining walls of the classroom or the promise of participation. The obligation to rise in the morning and immediately go to school creates a sense of duty in a student, increasing the chances that they will complete their work as soon as possible.

In March of 2020, there was initial excitement among some of the students when the idea of virtual schooling surfaced.

The school successfully organized the transition and made the most out of the situation.

After months of alternating between the two platforms, one can safely say that in-person schooling is unquestionably better for learning.

the index · off-campus opinions

Page 11

January 2021

off-campus opinions Trump’s presidential legacy will be one for the history books Mike Tallarida ’21

W

hen people look back on President Trump’s four years in office, what will they re-

member?

Trump has undoubtedly left a mark on our country, but the public’s perception of his actions as President will be split, much like our country over the last four years.

I divide President Trump’s tenure into three separate phases: his campaign, the first three years of his presidency, and his final year, 2020.

Shocked is an understatement of how people reacted to the news of Donald Trump running for president. Why would a man

with all the money in the world run for office? Like the rest of the country, I didn’t understand it. But, President Trump started to make his point clear: he wanted to “Make America Great Again.” I’m sure everyone is sick of hearing those words, but the message behind it held value in 2015-2016. People wanted a fresh face in politics, someone new and unconventional. I was among that demographic, hence my support for President Trump in the 2016 general election. His rallies filled with emphatic speeches and thousands of patriots gave me hope of a better America, one built on national pride and a brighter future for all.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

President Donald Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on a trip to Bakersfield, California

Despite almost every news organization and media company counting Mr. Trump out in the election, he persevered over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Once in office, President Trump got to work quickly.

He followed through on one of the most important parts of his campaign promises: tax cuts. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 brought taxes down for many Americans and lowered the corporate tax rate for businesses.

President Trump’s doings brought unprecedented economic growth to our economy and kept more businesses in the United States.

No matter what he did in office, the media hated it. Social media controls so much of our lives these days, and many rely on it for their daily news updates. With almost every major news organization leaning to the left, the President stood no chance. I often find myself watching the news and switching channels to hear each media company’s take on Trump. As expected, almost all but Fox News continuously tear down the President and degrade his actions in office. Don’t get me wrong, Fox News is not a reliable source of information, but the bias on both sides of the media has turned our country against each other even more so than it already was.

Regardless of whatever good he was doing in office for the first three years of his presidency, the average American would never know based on the media’s perception of him.

In the year that followed, everything began to go downhill for President Trump.

The coronavirus struck, sending the country into panic and lockdown, followed by eco-

Trump threatens Georgia Sec. of State with historical implications Bowen Deng ’22

O

n January 2, 2021, President Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and pressured him to overturn the state’s election results, yet another venture in his fruitless two-month attempt to somehow win himself a second term. In the hour-long call, the president made baseless claims as to why he should have won Georgia — citing reasons such as rally size and debunked claims of voting irregularities and fraud. What starts off as a nonsensical rant soon turns much more serious and damaging.

When talking about unsubstantiated claims of shredded and fraudulent ballots, he accused Raffensperger of being complicit and knowledgeable in voting fraud within Georgia: “You know what they did, and you’re not reporting it.” Despite all evidence pointing to the contrary, Mr. Trump maintained his facade and went as far as to threaten Raffensperger for covering up this nonexist fraud: “That’s a criminal offense. And you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to

Ryan, your lawyer.” Raffensperger had done nothing wrong. Georgia election officials had already recounted and recertified its ballots three separate times, confirming that Joe Biden won the state; the election process was fair and secure. There were no “shredded ballots” or significant amounts of “dead people voting” to report. What Trump did was unprecedented: he, a sitting United States president, threatened a member of his own party for not overturning legitimate election results. If the election truly was as fraudulent as he had claimed, President Trump would not have lost over sixty election lawsuits — some which involved the state of Georgia — at the time he called Raffensperger.

This phone call has been likened to Nixon’s smoking gun tape in the Watergate scandal. Yet, to compare Trump’s call to Nixon’s tape is not sufficient to explain how deplorable his actions were. Nixon’s recorded conversation with Bob Haldeman revealed his guilt in the Watergate coverup attempt whereas President Trump’s phone call with Raffensperger demonstrates coercion of a

government official to overturn the results of a legitimate presidential election. He made his goal clear: “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.” The day after Trump’s

nomic plunder and job loss. I’m not going to try and defend the President and say he was unfortunate to be put in a situation like this, but he definitely didn’t get lucky. At the end of the day, he is still the President of the United States and needs to act that way through any given circumstances. As I discussed in a previous article, I don’t think the president’s handling of the virus was as bad as the media will tell you. His rhetoric and sometimes inappropriate behavior in press conferences and briefing reports certainly could have been better, but the precautions and lockdowns he enacted were appropriate for the severity of the situation.

Going into the 2020 election, President Trump seemed to be the clear underdog after many polling organizations gave former Vice President Joe Biden double-digit leads in national polls. But Trump performed better than most expected, giving Biden a run for his money. After the election, though, President Trump’s legacy truly went downhill.

Whether or not you believe there was election fraud, you cannot argue the fact there was no evidence to prove it. Sure, I wanted President Trump to win this year, but Biden won, and I respect the results of the democratic election. The key word in that last sentence: democratic.

For a president who once held democracy at the highest level, I was disappointed to see him turn against our country so quickly.

What I once loved about President Trump— his patriotism and love for the United States—turned into his selfish desire to overturn an election. He has set a poor precedent. What happens in the 2024 election if a Republican wins? Will claiming election fraud and inciting riots become the norm? I surely hope not, but that unfortunately was the precedent set this year by far-right insurrectionists on January 6.

When I look back on Trump’s four years in office, I confidently say that I supported President Trump for the first three years and nine months of his tenure. The last three months were a much different story, one that maybe showed his true colors all along.

phone call was made public, Georgia state officials refuted every claim he made in a press conference.

President Trump’s intentions when he called Georgia’s Secretary of State were clear: he wanted to overturn the results of a legitimate election. He knew he did not win the state, so he resorted to threats. Despite the unprecedented challenges to the presidential election and shocking events of January 6th, the electoral college results of Georgia and all other 49 states were certified. Joe Biden will be the 46th President of the United States, and history will, without a doubt, have much to say about this phone call.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

President Trump calling South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster

the index · off-campus opinions

Page 12

January 2021

Those jarring words...

Donovan Fairfax ’21

I

often wonder whether or not I’ll be the next Black boy killed on the news, murdered by the police for doing something “dangerous.”

As a kid, I never considered my skin color to be a part of me. My house is placed considerably far away from what I perceived as “the hood,” and my perception of Black identity was based on what I saw in movies like Juice and Menace II Society: a foundation of stereotypes that I separated myself from because of the area I inhabited. My upbringing was riddled with separation from a part of my culture.

As a kid, I never considered my skin color to be a part of me.

Part of me wishes it could have stayed that way.

My body flung itself into the air, the smile on my face growing as the couch welcomed my tired body. I grabbed the remote and pointed it towards the TV. Success. The glaring red light changed to a serene blue and my mouth’s sides floated into the air in response to the TV’s infamous click and

whirr. Unfortunately, the TV’s magical performance was interrupted by my mother, who apparently knew the machine’s song as well as I did.

“DONOVAN,” she yelled, turning on the lights in the back of the room. “You used all of your TV time earlier, so either turn it off or watch the news” “I know” I groaned, annoyed by another of Mom’s daily reminders.

The crashes and honks of a quarreling cat and mouse were replaced with a more professional sound as my Mom sat near the desk behind our couch. The typing on her computer grew louder, a series of clicks varying in intensity and rhythm. Bored and attempting to go to sleep, I focused on them, hoping that they could drive me to a sense of drowsiness. But they couldn’t. One story passed. Another. I stared lifelessly at the different reporters until the image of a young boy faded onto the screen. Interested in the story behind the child’s picture, I turned up the TV’s volume.

The flashes of the following program illuminated my disconcerted face. A Black kid, only a year older than me, was killed by the police for playing with a toy gun. I could hear the sudden crash of a chair falling behind me. My neck shifted back as the sad and surprised breaths of my mother escaped her lips. Her glassy eyes were trained on me as if I was the one in danger. Maybe she thought I was. Maybe she saw that I would be.

These types of rude awakenings, the ones that show kids the horrible world around them, usually lead to a combination of comfort and reassurance. However, in Black households, the assurance of a peaceful and perfect world is replaced with confirmation of the opposite. This is commonly

known as “the talk.”

And I hated it.

No kid wants to know what it means to be Black in America. No kid wants to have to dissuade others from believing their biased perceptions towards Black people. No kid wants to walk past those red and blue lights thinking that they could be the next Trayvon Martin. The next victim. But, as a Black kid, that knowledge was forced onto me.

And theirs.

Who knows, maybe there will be a time when no Black person has to have the talk with their kids. A time when we’re all equal.

But, until then, Black parents need to make their children aware of the racial injustices in America. Those jarring words could save a generation.

Her glassy eyes were trained on me as if I was the one in danger. Maybe she thought I was.

Maybe she saw that I would be.

Now, I understand why.

Even though the talk is unnerving, it’s a necessary conversation to have with children. Ibram X. Kendi, a professor of race and discriminatory policy, argues that these types of conversations “raise children who can express notions of racial equality, who can see racial disparities as a problem, and who can do their own small part to challenge this big problem of racism.”

The talk does introduce children to the cruel world around them but, in doing so, the conversation allows kids to adapt to their social climate and even attempt to improve it. If it wasn’t for the harsh conversations I had with my mother, my interactions could have put me in danger. It’s very possible that the talk saved me.

And maybe it’ll save my kids.

COMMUNICATIONS

Donovan Fairfax ’21 posing in the Walk of Virtues

What’s next for the GOP: life after Trump

Phillip Keidel ’24

W

hat happened in our capital on January 6 was a direct attack on the exact thing that holds our republic in the highest regard.

While our democracy was threatened, the ugly mob did not prevail.

Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January 20, 2021. The parties will still be deciding the rhetoric and policy that will shape them and the elections that they run in for the future.

The voters will have to make a decision: whether or not to capitulate to the radical wing of Trump supporters who have shown no regard for the idea of the republic and democracy that every American has fought hard for to protect.

The Republicans of 1972 told Richard Nixon that they would convict him for

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The Republican Party logo

the break-in at Watergate without a second thought. The Republicans of 2021 will most likely not convict a president after he told his die-hard supporters to actively attempt to overturn a fair and free election.

Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley are surely eyeing separate runs at the presidency in 2024. There is no precedent for a sitting leader to claim election fraud when the vote counts do not work in the incumbent’s favor.

The Republicans slept with the devil they now must deal with the fallout.

The Republicans slept with the devil, they now must deal with the fallout.

Any Republican in 2024 will probably need the support of President Donald Trump. His base is vital. Without it, they will be unable to unseat President Biden.

Trump is with you or against you, he doesn’t sit out in any race especially when his word means so much.

So, who are possible candidates for 2024 and possible figureheads of a broken Republican Party? You must look outside Washington—anyone there has sided against or with Mr. Trump far too many times to be even thought of as a possibility for the Presidency.

A state that is key to the Republican nomination is Florida. Look no further than their governor Ron DeSantis. Governor DeSantis has supported the president like every Republican in the country. He’s also an establishment Republican and one of the gov-

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley at 2013’s CPAC

ernors who has the most name recognition.

Someone else who could be looking towards a run in 2024 is Governor Krist Noem of South Dakota. Ms. Noem has been seen everywhere except her home state. Many believe she will vie for the presidency.

In 2022, we will see whether whatever platform they choose with or without Trump has worked.

GAGE SKIDMORE VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

There are also many candidates like Nikki Haley who were near the Trump administration, but far out of the public’s mind.

The Republicans will not have someone who can challenge Biden or Harris anytime soon. They will spend two years leaning on Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia to spare them from repeated losses on the Senate floor.

In 2022, we will see whether whatever platform they choose with or without Trump has worked.

Then, they will scramble or stay on message, but until then, we can only speculate as to who the Republican party will huddle around in the dark storm to weather a Biden presidency.

Page 13

the index · off-campus opinions

January 2021

Despite safe vaccines, rollouts falling behind schedule Mitav Nayak ’22

L

ast month, less than eleven months after the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the United States, the first vaccine was administered.

To create, develop, test, and administer a vaccine safely and effectively in under a year was an improbable feat — but it was one shown to be possible in this pandemic.

Leading companies Moderna and Pfizer (with their collaborator, BioNTech) saw breakthroughs in science and research, utilizing novel mRNA technology to develop remarkably safe and efficacious vaccines. That mRNA technology was key in being able to develop these vaccines rapidly, and will probably stay an important part of our armamentarium in the future should the need arise to develop vaccines against any variants.

These mRNA vaccines are different from traditional vaccines, but still completely safe. Conventional viral vaccines typically introduce weak and small amounts of virus into the body in order to teach the body to develop antibodies. Meanwhile, these new mRNA vaccines use small bits of mRNA to simply allow the body to manufacture the antigen needed to develop the antibodies without introducing any virus or viral material.

Furthermore, large batches of traditional vaccines are created from a significant amount of virus—SARS-CoV-2 in this case—an mRNA vaccine needs much less virus to develop the mRNA to be injected into the body.

While these benefits have allowed the vaccines to be developed at a historically fast

pace, they were expected to present some problems — a major one being their requirement for storage at extremely cold temperatures.

According to Pfizer, they faced this challenge by developing a “cool box,” a container that can keep thousands of doses at temperatures below -70 degrees celsius for up to 10 days. They also utilized large warehouses in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin to store the doses at these extremely low temperatures. The Moderna vaccine requirements are a little less stringent, and they store their vaccines at a warehouse in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, prior to shipping and distribution.

Now, the United States is in the midst of distribution and rollout, and this is a challenging task that has not started smoothly.

According to The Washington Post, 20 million people were projected to get their first vaccine shot by the end of 2020, but only three million doses were actually administered. Some experts argue that these delays could have arisen from a lack of central planning of distribution, while others attribute the setback to the holiday season.

The CDC’s plan for distribution was to occur in phases, beginning with healthcare personnel, elderly residents and staff at nursing homes and long term care facilities, and first responders. In the next two phases, citizens over 65 years of age were to be vaccinated, followed by essential workers—like our teachers—and health-impaired adults and children. Finally, the general population, including healthy adults, students, and teenagers would receive doses, and the plan

would culminate with any remaining people, especially in remote locations.

However, since the vaccine rollout differs based on state, some of the prioritization orders have changed, and the timeline has been pushed back.

While this may be worrisome, there is still reason for optimism, and there is every hope that a large proportion of the U.S. population will be vaccinated by the time the next academic year begins in September.

What does that mean for schooling in the area?

In Pennsylvania, each county is distributing vaccines separately, relying on the prioritization of populations set forth by the CDC. Currently we are still in the very early

phases of distribution: only the frontline workers, those at extremely high risk, and the elderly have been getting vaccines.

Over the next 100 days, the new administration has set a target of administering 100 million vaccine doses. While this is an ambitious goal that will present many challenges, it may be possible with large-scale central planning.

If the authorities are able to learn from previous errors in December, and citizens fulfill their responsibility by getting vaccinated, it is possible that we may be on the way toward herd immunity and some level of normalcy by the end of the summer.

A flu vaccine dose in the Nurse’s office.

MR. THOMAS STAMBAUGH

High school students react to attack on the Capitol Building Arsh Aggarwal ’24

O

n January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol was attacked.

While those in the mob committed the crimes and destruction, the attack was encouraged and incited by President Donald Trump in a fit of immaturity and pettiness. It’s scary to see that the man who supposedly stands for laws that are America’s foundation could incite insurrection.

President Trump said to his crowd, “We’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, and we’re going to the Capitol[…]

We’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones…the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”

Surrounded by a myriad of networks and opinions about current events, high school students have found it incredibly hard to cope with the obvious lack of initiative seen at the Capitol attack.

Fifth Former Quinn Luong said, “The double standard of white supremacy is clearly exhibited with the insurrection, and how these white men could climb up a whole entire wall, but if they were Black Lives Matter protesters, they wouldn’t have gotten so far.

This is who we are and it is a wake-up call to what America really is as a society.”

It’s incredibly worrying to see the con-

trast between how America responds to domestic terrorism versus the peaceful protests of this past summer. A distinction must be made about terrorism versus rioting.

Fourth Former Joey Kauffman said, “If people are storming the Capitol Building with hopes of political revenge, that would qualify as terrorism.”

An act of terrorism, commited by American citizens at the nation’s capitol, saw the vast majority of perpetrators walk away unharmed, but peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters were hit and beat whilst being, most of the time, hundreds of miles away from the President and members of the Congress.

Many students have reacted with disappointment in regards to what the President has done.

Sixth Former Ryan Ngo said, “Obviously, with all the history of using violence to push a political agenda, I thought that we were past that; that it was something I’d been reading about in my history books. Seeing that in the society we live in is just shocking.

After inciting insurrection, the House impeached the sitting President, but it is unclear whether the Senate will convict him.

Many worry that if Trump is indeed convicted, the country will face great division.

Fourth Former Roch Parayre said, “Impeaching and convicting Trump sends a

message that this country does understand the relevance and harm of his actions and is finally willing to do something about it. I completely think that the numerous benefits outweigh the very few negatives.”

Another one of the aforementioned negatives of impeachment is an increased chance of an attack at President-Elect Biden’s inauguration.

To this, Parayre said, “At this point, anything not in the favor of Trump supporters will increase the likelihood of an attack at Biden’s inauguration, but convicting Trump would serve this country in the long-term and establish that insinuating an attack on this country’s most precious building is anything but okay.”

Page 14

the index · off-campus opinions

January 2021

A wolf in wolf’s clothing Sam Kohl ’22

Y

ou could call it many names: terrorism, sedition, anarchy, rebellion, insurrection; but I prefer a single word over all others: treason.

On January 6, 2021 supporters of the President stormed the Capitol building, overwhelming the comparatively small Capitol Police force. They broke windows, ransacked offices, and engaged in horrific acts of violence. All to disrupt the democratic processes of our country and install their leader as president. Watching it on TV, you’d be forgiven for not understanding the full scope of the events that took place. But in the days following, it became blindingly clear that what transpired was nothing short of one of the darkest days in American history.

It began that day, January 6, with a rally. One nearly stretching from the south lawn of the White House to the Washington Monument. Billed the “Save America” rally, it was held to protest the largely ceremonial counting of the electoral votes. Crowds started to gather as early as 6 a.m. to hear President Trump speak. He wasn’t scheduled to talk until 11 a.m., but there were other speakers to satiate the energetic crowd until the President showed up.

Most notably perhaps, his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani spoke at around 8 a.m., urging the crowd to embrace “trial by combat” to fight the “fraudulent” election results. The President’s children also helped kick off the rally, expounding similar rhetoric to Giuliani, referring to the election as “stolen,” prompting the nearly 30,000 strong crowd to chant “fight for Trump.” The excitement was building, and it finally reached its climax with President Trump himself taking the stage, with songs like “Macho Man” playing in the background, the irony of the moment seemingly lost on the crowd.

The excitement was building, and it finally reached its climax with President Trump himself taking the stage, with songs like “Macho Man” playing in the background, the irony of the moment seemingly lost on the crowd.

The President’s remarks were brief, but the message was nothing new: “the election was stolen” “there was no way we lost,” etc. However, between his unfounded claims of voter fraud, the president decided to introduce a surprising new foe: Mike Pence. Hardly an hour later, at the Capitol, gallows would be constructed, and the President’s supporters would be calling for the hanging of the Vice President.

Rarely does a president face dissent from his vice president, though on January 5, it came out that, in defiance of the President, Mike Pence would not object to the electoral count in congress (it should be noted that the Vice President has no authority to do so anyway). This elicited calls from the President in his speech for the Vice President to “do the right thing,” effectively hinging the success or failure of his movement on the “courage” of the Vice President and provoking a fiery response from the crowd.

This sentiment quickly snowballed into one of anger as the Trump supporters began marching towards the Capitol, the President nowhere to be seen, despite telling the protestors he would march with them, calls to “hang Mike Pence” reverberating through the crowd.

At around 1:00 p.m., the protestors had descended upon the Capitol, beginning to engage with the sparsely dispersed Capitol Police. By 1:30 p.m., the domestic terrorists (no longer protestors) had breached security and were roaming around the building, looking for anything they could do to disrupt democracy. By this time, the images began to roll into major news networks, and they were nothing short of horrifying. Terrorists proudly flying Confederate flags walked freely through our nation’s Capitol building, an international symbol of freedom and democracy. The closest the Confederates ever got to flying their flag in the Capitol was about six miles away at the Battle of Fort Stevens in the summer of 1864. No longer.

One of the most poignant images shows a handful of Capitol police officers, guns drawn, defending the House chambers from the terrorists, a hastily moved cabinet blocking the door and the Trump supporters from entering. This is perhaps the most symbolic image of the day: did our democracy come within one cabinet of falling?

tia group, Confederate flags, symbols of the Proud Boys, and many individuals wearing deeply anti-Semitic clothing. One man was pictured with a shirt that said “6mwe,” meaning “6 million wasn’t enough” referring to the six million Jewish holocaust victims. Another was seen wearing a black shirt with a skull and crossbones that said “Camp Auschwitz,” and under it “work brings freedom,” the English translation of the words on Auschwitz’s gate, “Arbeit macht frei.” A hangman’s noose was also constructed, an unmistakable symbol of the segregation-era lynchings of Black Americans.

latter question I can’t answer, but the former I can.

Logistical confusions combined with departmental hesitancy to stay out of politics, following the debacle at Lafayette Square over the summer, resulted in a less than adequate mobilization of security forces. The experience was slightly different for the Maryland National Guard, who quickly assembled upon hearing the situation, yet were stonewalled for “quite some time,” according to Maryland’s Republican Governor Larry Hogan. It is understandable that D.C. law enforcement was not perfect, but to see

This is perhaps the most symbolic image of the day: did our democracy come within one cabinet of falling?

As bleak as it looked in the moment, the aftermath of the attempted coup at the Capitol revealed so many more chilling details.

Pipe bombs found planted at the DNC and RNC headquarters. Trucks filled with guns and bombs parked near the Capitol. Protestors found to be carrying high-powered rifles with hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Five people dead. The most grisly of which being the man who was beaten to death with a fire extinguisher. He was a Capitol Police officer, and member of the New Jersey National Guard, deploying twice to serve his country. To think a man like him, a loyal servant to a grateful nation, would be beaten to death by people who called themselves “patriots,” is unimaginable and appalling.

The storming of the Capitol on January 6th was not fully precipitated by the preceding rally; right-wing chatter indicated that planning had been going on since December 18, when President Trump tweeted “big protest in D.C. on Jan. 6. Be there and be wild!” QAnon and far-right groups took his message seriously, and plans for “the revolution” began to formulate. Calls for blood, civil war, and violence permeated conservative sites across the internet. Had President Trump and his GOP colleagues not purposely spread election disinformation, the attack on the Capitol would likely not have happened, as the source of the protesters’ anger was voter fraud, and the source of voter fraud is the imagination of Trump and his sycophants.

Another dimension of the shocking events of January 6 are the discriminatory symbols prominent in the crowd. You had flags of the “3 percenters,” a far-right mili-

The East Side of the U.S. Capitol It must also be noted, and is abundantly obvious, that the event that transpired on January 6 was a security failure of monumental proportions. I’m sure many of us have seen action movies such as White House Down, or Olympus Has Fallen, where terrorists take control of an important building like the White House or the Capitol, and one person saves the day and rescues the president, blah blah... And we always shrug off the implications of such a movie, as how could anybody ever take over the White House or the Capitol building? That’s certainly what I thought, before I turned on TV on January 6th.

To see someone in a MAGA hat waving a Confederate flag waltzing through Statuary Hall and the Senate chambers, without a care in the world, is perhaps the most infuriating thing I have ever seen. Juxtapose this with the overwhelming D.C. police response we saw at the summer BLM marches, and you are left with nothing but confusion.

Where was the National Guard? In the summer, they lined the streets with tear gas and assault weapons for BLM protestors, where were they at the Capitol? Why are there videos circulating online of police letting protesters in and taking selfies with them? The

our Capitol being desecrated and Capitol Police overrun— when it was abundantly clear that there was going to be a large protest—is unconscionable.

When future historians look back on that day, what will they see? They could’ve seen a president foster a peaceful transfer of power, work with his successor, and heal a divided nation. But they won’t.

They could’ve seen a president foster a peaceful transfer of power, work with his successor, and heal a divided nation. But they won’t.

They will see a president tell domestic terrorists “we love you,” and “you’re very special.” They will see a president who willfully fomented insurrection and watched it on TV instead of trying to stop it. And they will see a president become the first in American history to be impeached twice.

Page 15

the index · off-campus opinions

“Unprecedented” times worsen into the new year A.J. Sanford ’21

T

he horrific events that transpired on January 6th in Washington D.C. left our country questioning the very democracy we tend to take so much pride in. Following Mr. Trump's electoral defeat, he proceeded to give a stimulating call to action speech to his followers which set the insurrection into motion.

With little to no resistance from armed forces and an apprehensive National Guard, the pro-Donald Trump mob waltzed into the capitol building essentially unscathed.

These actions at the capitol put the double standard of police protesting on full display:

those who are in support of or do not condemn Mr. Trump's actions or the terroristic events at the Capitol stand for something not of politics, but for white supremacy.

As extremists raided the Capitol in hopes of overturning president-elect Biden's vote count, a disturbing piece of history emerged and redefined the nation's view of the Trump supporter. The catalyst for the behavior at the Capitol came from Mr. Trump's words in a recent rally where fascistlike statements provoked his followers to “let their voices be heard” in the form of a mob at the Capitol building. As many maskless

MARTIN FALBISONER VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Reflecting on the events at the Capitol Agustin Aliaga ’21

A

t roughly 1:05 p.m. on January 6, 2021, I watched Speaker Pelosi and Vice-President Pence gavel in a joint session of Congress. As the members of both chambers went their respective ways to engage in a two-hour long debate about election fraud and whether or not to certify Arizona’s electoral votes, I had to stop watching what is usually and should have been a relative formality to attend my Chinese class at 1:15.

I did not know nor could I have even begun to imagine the image I saw when I came back to the TV at 2:00 expecting to see some Republican senator rambling on about fantasized election fraud.

Rather than seeing this already distasteful image, I saw a headline that read, “HOUSE AND SENATE ON LOCKDOWN AS PROTESTORS BREACH CAPITOL’’ accompanied by images of thousands of protestors—no, insurrectionists— atop the steps of the most sacred building democracy, especially ours, has ever known, waving flags in support of a man who is the antithesis of what the building represents, and waving flags of the Confederacy, a dead cause of racism and anti-Americanism, and of Swastikas and other hateful anti-Semitic phrases. I could not comprehend seeing these things with the Capitol building serv-

individuals congested around the Capitol awaiting their hero, the inevitable insurrection continued to brew. With a shorthanded and passively defensive staff, the extremists overtook the Capitol building in the name of Donald Trump and in the name of America.

Lawmakers were sent into a state of emergency as individuals invaded with tear gas, anguish, and hearts drenched in racism. The images shown once extremists made it inside are despicable and frankly terrifying. Confederate flags, white supremacy propaganda, and anti-Semitic merchandise were all present. These people participated in an unforgivable crime that has not been witnessed in your parents or your grandparents’ lifetime, yet these men and women’s white privilege protected them from virtually any harm.

Following Black Lives Matter protests in response to recent police brutality and injustice, Mr. Trump tweeted “They are THUGS.” To his followers at the capitol, Trump tweeted, “Go Home. We Love You, You’re Very Special.” When black people are tired of being treated the same way they have been since the birth of our nation, they are demoralized and vilified for their longing for equality. When a predominantly white mob, cloaked in unwavering hate, commits treason of the highest degree, they are loved and praised for their patriotic spirit by the President of the United States. This type of polarizing language has been potent throughout Mr. Trump's presidency, so this should not come as any surprise. “The economy is booming” or “look at what he's doing for Black people” is the first thing that spews out of a Trump supporter's mouth when confronted about his overt racism. While Trump may have had his economic success, these arguments are no longer valid as he abused his power and initiated a coup d'etat ing as their backdrop.

Meanwhile, from some coddled space of undeserved security, our president failed to demand peace. He never called the National Guard. He gave the police no choice but to allow the terrorists in. He denied Americans the right to have a timely certification of the election––the most primitive right of a democracy. He encouraged them. When he finally asked them to leave about an eternity too late, he told them that he loved them and understood them. He told this to terrorists.

The Vice President had to overstep his legal authority to call the National Guard because our president refused to. Our president failed to carry out his duties and did so on purpose.

It is unforgivable.

All the while, I, like millions of Americans, had to suffer the horrifying images –– of the Capitol Police being mauled, of the Capitol doors being blown in, of hundredyear old windows being shattered, of American flags being replaced with Trump’s.

It was all reflective of how this administration changed the United States of America. The Republican Party moved from a group of people with shared ideological values to one that finds community solely in idolizing their leader. They abandoned democracy and even their own values to make a deity out of a man. And when that happens and succeeds our country and its legal systems can no longer be called a democracy.

On January 6th, we came dangerously close to crossing that line. If not for the Congressional leadership which came back to the Capitol in an act of resilience to finish the democratic process of certification, the implications of this act of terrorism could have

January 2021 contaminated with hatred and violence.

The infiltration of the Capitol building only serves as the prelude for much darker times to come. On paper, with the minuscule number of casualties, the damage would not appear to be so catastrophic, but I believe this is the exact reason that we should be so fearful of what is to come. The National Guard was put on standby in Washington D.C. as a shattered Republican party disgraced the insurrectionists. An offer was not extended to the national guard even though the Capitol knew of the high chance of calamity due to recent pro-Trump rallies.

Whereas, when Black Lives Matter protesters had plans of going to the Lincoln Memorial, the National Guard was called in with their riot shields and rifles awaiting the signal to open fire. What this entails is that there is no red flag, that any extremist received the day of the insurrection and nothing is prohibiting them from finishing what they started.

Per The New York Times, the National Counterterrorism Center and the Justice and Homeland Security Departments issued a statement that reads “Extremists aiming to trigger a race war “may exploit the aftermath of the Capitol breach by conducting attacks to destabilize and force a climactic conflict in the United States,” Weather this is Mr. Trump's idea of his hardcore followers “standing down” or not, he let it get to this point and fueled the fire in most recent speeches.

Mr. Trump refused to leave office without bringing the nation down with him and is now facing a historical second impeachment for his atrocities. If President Trump truly denounced his spawn of violent mobbers, he would have never gone outside of his power to tell his supporters to “fight back” the choice of the people. He would have never faltered in his message condemning the Proud Boys and white supremacy at the presidential debate. He would have never incited his extremist supporters to chant “hang Mike Pence” and “death to Nancy Pelosi” if he truly disapproved of recent events.

Donald Trump has nothing left to offer this country other than division, and should he ever be allowed to run for office again, his new slogan should be changed to MAFA. Make America Fear Again. been far worse. There has not been such a dangerous day for the union since the Civil War. And like the aftermath of that war, on a smaller scale, our country will have to go through a process of healing that will require not only bipartisanship but the reestablishment of what our most basic principles are as a nation. In that process, the president must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law in order to ensure that something like this never happens again because unity cannot be achieved without accountability for those who first divided us.

It was one of the saddest days of my life as it was for so many Americans; yet a day like this may have been needed. It opened the eyes of all Americans that this president and others like him cannot be enabled, for it will result in violence. It exposed the vulnerability of American government and politics.

It showed that the best country in the world is not exempt from or immune to anarchism and disorder –– that democracy must be preserved with hard work and a sound sense of communal values.

So while this was a day that will live forever in the pages of history textbooks and in the minds of its witnesses, it will serve as a constant reminder of why we needed to cherish our way of life and protect it so cautiously.

I will certainly never forget this day and its images, not only because of the sadness and anger it brought me but also because it will not let me forget what our country looks like when it is divided, and it will not let me lose gratitude for the strength and perseverance of the oldest democracy in the world.

the index · sports

Page 16

sports

January 2021

TYLER ZIMMER ‘21

COVID-19 mitigation sign on the Field House, January 13, 2021

Winter sports begin, amid heightened precautions Jake LaRocca ’22

F

ollowing state-wide, Inter-Ac, and in-house decisions, fall sports participated in a shortened season ending in late November. The hiatus continued through Winter Break until the Inter-Ac agreed to resume athletic activity. After more than a month without sports, winter athletes returned to practice on Monday, January 11, 2021.

The new season brings plenty of questions among athletes about the length, risk, and intensity of their respective sports.

The swim team, which has not practiced since last February, typically spends the first couple of weeks getting back into shape before ramping up the intensity. Head Coach Sean Hansen follows the same schedule every year.

“The training we do as a team is usually broken up into three phases: conditioning phase, power phase, and a taper phase,” Hansen said.

This year forced Hansen to try something different.

“Given that we only have a seven-week

season, we are utilizing a training style called USRPT, which stands for Ultra Short Race Pace Training. The concept here is that you only swim at your goal race pace or faster in practice. This means no drills or longer swimming. If you don’t do it in a race, you don’t do it in training. You focus on training your body to perform at race pace,” Hansen said.

“The short season definitely impacts the team beacuse it makes us go so much harder” JAMEEL BROWN ’22 The overall goal is to simulate a racing situation in a workout to better prepare the athlete’s body for the actual race.

Unlike swimming, basketball games re-

quire much more than training and conditioning. The basketball team is faced with the challenge of learning plays and developing chemistry in such a short time. Fifth Former Jameel Brown is optimistic regarding the team’s chances.

“The short season definitely impacts the team because it makes us go so much harder.

We only play Inter-Ac games, and they mean so much more [than out of league games], not only to us but to the whole school.

Chemistry did carry over from last year, despite losing a lot of players. This year, the juniors and seniors will keep it going.”

Another unfortunate restriction this year gives winter athletes a hard time catching their breath.

“The masks are the most difficult part of the new restrictions. They’re definitely annoying, but I feel like, after a couple of weeks of practice, we’ll get used to them,” Brown said.

As winter athletes approach their competitions, they face countless, unprecedented challenges. Teams still take advantage

of their limited practice time, following all the new rules in place, and getting ready to compete. Sixth Form Swimmer Jack Deppen voiced his confidence.

“We’re ready to go,” Deppen said.

“We had a group of freshmen who were very good in eighth grade and were going to be a big part of our team this year.” Tallarida said. “[The captains] wanted to serve as leaders and build up the program for future generations.”

“Few seniors left our team, while many seniors from other schools graduated, so we were in a good place to win the league,” Weissenberger said.

For the younger players, this year is simply a setback. There will be plenty of time for them to improve their game outside of school and come back stronger next year.

And while it is extremely disappointing for the seniors that they won’t have the opportunity to compete one last time, this year’s

circumstances do not take away from the rest of their accomplishments with the Fords hockey team.

“They’ve been part of something incredible during their career at Haverford, and this doesn’t take away from that,” Dr. Goduti said.

Tallarida said, “Although I am bummed I can’t finish out my final year, I am appreciative of the impact hockey has had on my life.”

Weissenberger reflected, “From the camaraderie to the team’s gradual improvement, I have enjoyed every second of it.”

Hockey season cancelled Bowen Deng ’22

A

s COVID-19 cases continually rose throughout the state of Pennsylvania, and classes were forced to go virtual for two weeks, the winter sports season was in jeopardy. It was unclear whether or not athletes would be safe enough to compete.

However, on January 7, Director of Athletics Mr. Murphy sent an email confirming that the Inter-Ac league decided to start an abbreviated winter season. Among the list of sports in the email, ice hockey was missing. After careful mediation and discussion among coaches and medical experts, the ice hockey season was cancelled.

There were a number of complicating factors that led to the cancellation of the

ice hockey season. First of all, the InterAc league decided not to hold league games this winter. Additionally, the Fords do not have their own rink, and with rink access particularly tight, holding practices and outof-league matches would be tough to fit into the abbreviated winter season.

“It all conspired into leaving us with no real option other than to cancel the season,” Head Coach Dr. Goduti said.

“As a senior, it’s obviously very tough.” said Sixth Form captain Mike Tallarida.

Going into the season, the Fords looked promising. With a combination of new players and old blood, Sixth Form captains Magnus Weissenberger and Mike Tallarida were looking to end on a high note.

Page 17

the index · sports

January 2021

Sixers’ season underway Ethan Chan ’23

K

evin Durant returns from injury.

John Wall returns from injury and is traded to the Rockets. Giannis Antetokounmpo signs the largest deal in NBA history. Stephen Curry returns from injury. James Harden joins Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Superteam? These are just some of the trades and events that have occurred already in the hectic 2020-2021 NBA season. Behind closed doors, the Sixers have silently proven themselves and look promising.

With the decisive chess-like moves from Daryl Morey, the Sixers’ new general manager, the team picked up veteran coach Doc Rivers, three-time NBA Champion Danny Green, three-time consecutive Defensive Player of the Year Dwight Howard, sharpshooters Seth Curry from the Mavericks and Isaiah Joe in the second round, and not to mention Tyrese Maxey, regarded as the steal of the 2020 NBA Draft.

Contrary to other organizations’ moves, there were no flashy names in the process.

Everyone on the roster is there for a reason and plays a specialized role. Given the outcome of the first several games, it seems that every player is serving their respective roles

quite well.

“I think that the Sixers look pretty good as of now. The beginning of their schedule wasn’t the most challenging, but with the bench players stepping up when need be, I think they look like a team that has depth,” Fourth Former Joey Pennewill said.

Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons remain the center of the Sixers, running the plays, dishing assists, and setting up opportunities to score. Recently Ben Simmons became the third-youngest person to reach 30 career triple-doubles, a testament to his well-rounded game. Not to mention, looming over Simmons is still the 7’ 1” big man Joel “The Process” Embiid.

Despite his injuries and missed games, he has been of the utmost importance in the Sixers’ early success this season. His combination of elite perimeter shooting, strong defensive presence, and “bully ball” make him a strong MVP contender. According to Bleacher Report, he is the current MVP given the games played.

“If Joel can continue this type of play and leadership he has shown so far, he can definitely contend for the MVP award this year,” Sixth Former Michael Tallarida said.

One can only hope that Embiid remains healthy, but he still battles his demons from past seasons—injuries. Embiid missed his first two seasons in the NBA and has missed weeks and months at times due to his physical setbacks. This is not only an issue for Embiid but also Simmons. So far, Ben has not experienced any injuries yet this season; however, he did miss the entirety of his rookie season due to an injury in 2016-2017.

On the notion of health, a bigger issue remains prevalent in current times: COVID-19.

“So far, the NBA has handled the COVID outbreaks fairly well. There’s obviously going to be outbreaks throughout the season, but I’m confident they will take note of how other leagues have handled these situations and make the best decisions about them,” Tallarida said.

The Sixers have already had their fair share of COVID-19 encounters as their two star players and a number of their players were required to quarantine due to contract tracing, leaving a mere seven-man roster against the Nuggets. Nonetheless, they lost by 12 points, and the remainder of the team showed promise, notably rookie Tyrese Max-

ey.

The 21st pick in the 2020 draft, Tyrese Maxey promised to prove his doubters wrong, and that he did. With only seven people on the roster against the Nuggets, Maxey exploded for 39 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists. The young shooting guard’s future is bright, and he will be an asset for the Sixers in the years to come.

Even with a depleted roster and injuries plaguing the team occasionally, The Sixers still hold an above-average win/loss record and are in the upper tier of the Eastern Conference standings. The Sixers’ behind-thescenes work is blooming, but the question arises if they are good enough to contend against the likes of the Lakers, Bucks, and Nets. As always, the ultimate goal remains to make the finals and bring the Larry O’Brien Trophy back to the city of Philadelphia.

“I hope they can make the finals this year, but I think to win a championship they are going to need to get one more piece to complete the team,” Pennewill said. “Who that could be? I could name a few people, but they look really good right now, and that’s all that we can ask for as fans.”

76ers pre-game huddle in game 6 of their second round playoff series vs. the Toronto Raptors, May 9, 2019

RYAN RODACK ’22

Page 18

the index · arts

January 2021

arts

Woodworking and ceramics adapt to virtual contexts MR. THOMAS STAMBAUGH

Portrait of Mr. Raeder in his art studio Joey Kauffman ’23

S

ince the pandemic began last spring, woodworking and ceramics, two art classes focused on building large art pieces, have faced the challenge of giving students the same type of hands-on experience during virtual school. The two classes have refined their approach to virtual learning since the pandemic began, allowing students to obtain a high-quality virtual experience.

This high level in these two classes is the result of teachers’ hard work and preparation.

“Last year when we were kind of thrown into [the pandemic] very quickly, it was a struggle in the spring because we weren’t prepared with materials or anything to send kids home with,” woodworking teacher Ms. Jill Sides said. “So I spent the majority of the summer figuring out the best way we can still offer the woodworking students that same experience they were expecting while they were in the shop.”

Upper-level ceramics students were able to bring pottery wheels to their home, and they had access to them over winter break.

“It was a struggle in the spring because we weren’t prepared with materials or anything to send kids home with group.”

MR. JACOB RAEDER “We set up a system where [students] would get clay from me, bring back their scrap clay, and drop off any kind of finished work to get fired,” ceramics teacher Mr. Jacob Raeder said.

Woodworking classes also took home tools, including vises, glue, saws, chisels, carving tools, and pieces of wood.

“We were able to teach the same techniques,” Ms. Sides said. “Granted, the scale on which they were working became a little smaller, but they were still able to learn the same techniques we would learn in school.”

The students had to effectively create a “workshop” in their house where they would make their pieces. Creating this workshop in

students’ homes was difficult, requiring cooperation from parents.

“We have to have parents involved, just to say really, like, ‘Your kids are going to make a mess; there’s gonna be woodchips everywhere.’ Or, ‘Do you have a surface that they can clamp a vise onto?’’’

Art teachers also found ways to let students use tools at school while they were at home.

“Right now we’re working in [Adobe] Illustrator with [the students] to design flatpack furniture,” Ms. Sides said. “They’re able to work at home on their computers and design that. And then we can send it to the computer after school and run it and cut out their piece. Come Monday, if some of the students choose to be virtual, we can get them their pieces, and they can assemble their project at home, or if they do come back, they can do it in the classroom.”

Since students have the tools to create art at home, they came up with high-quality work—a surprising positive of working from home.

“Guys can hold themselves back when they’re in a group. Maybe they’re embarrassed, maybe they have other things going on or are distracted,” Mr. Raeder said.

“When they were working at home, when they were by themselves, I found that the students were way more focused. I thought the art that they were making, the quality of the art was actually a few notches better.”

However, some parts of the woodworking and ceramics classes couldn’t be replicated at home. Teachers had to come up with alternatives.

“One of the things that I learned from the spring was what materials students typically had readily accessible to them at their house,” Mr. Raeder said. “We can make art out of anything really. So, one of the things we were able to do was actually soap carving, because everybody has bars of soap at their home.”

For the woodworking students, the main problem of going virtual was that they had to shift to more hand-held tools. Yet, this yielded a different, possibly more enjoyable experience. “[Using hand-held tools] was kind of

hard at first, but once you got it, it was a lot more interesting than just using a mechanical saw,” Fourth Form woodworking student Jacob Sellari said. “You were really putting in a lot more work to your art, and it felt better at the end when you realized your final work just ’cause it was so much work and so much effort going into that one project.”

Another challenge of virtual art class was the way that the teachers could interact with the students. With art classes like woodworking and ceramics, the way a student physically implements the techniques can significantly alter the outcome of the work.

Art teachers had to figure out how to monitor this through a screen. “[With virtual teaching], you really have to change and figure out the language you use to describe the activities of the hand,” Mr. Raeder said. “When we’re in person, an advantage is that I can scan the room, and I can almost immediately tell if you are doing something right or wrong just by the posture of your body. It’s a lot more difficult to kind of ascertain when it’s on the screen.”

“I hope we never go virtual again,” Ms. Sides said. “I love being in there with the students, working with them, being able to

touch the project that they’re working on, explain how to use things, and then seeing them do it in real time.”

Mr. Raeder agreed, telling me about the field trips he had envisioned that are dependent on the pandemic. These include trips to clay mines and to see kilns with different types firing, including a kiln that fires with wood.

“Part of being a teacher at Haverford in the art department is the connection I have with my students, and the connection, while it’s still strong online, isn’t as rich or as deep as when we’re in person,” Mr. Raeder said.

“So I much prefer [being in person].”

No matter what forum—virtual or inperson—art classes like woodworking and ceramics will continue to give students a space to grow as an artist and a person.

“It’s cool to see how something as simple as wood can be turned into a box for storage or can be pretty useful,” Sellari said. “You don’t really see that at first, but once you start using the wood and carving it out and getting your finished project, it becomes more apparent.”

“It’s a pretty cool process,” Sellari said.

“It’s a lot of fun.”

As a kid, I never considered my skin color to be a part of me.

MR. THOMAS STAMBAUGH

Mr. Raeder shares soap sculptures students made during recent virtual weeks surrounding the holidays

Page 19

the index · arts

January 2021

Big Mouth addresses big issues in its fourth season Mattew schwartz ’21

A

s Americans focused their attention on news channels and newspapers over the past few months, Netflix quietly released the fourth season in their original series, Big Mouth, and it may have been the best one yet. The premise is a bit unorthodox, if not, uncomfortable to explain, but the animated show follows a group of middle school students as they navigate the struggles of puberty, followed around by their hormone monsters, visible only to them.

The show has found success in the past by leaning into its inappropriate subject matter, often throwing out crude jokes and potty humor, but this season is different. With the characters entering eighth grade, the showrunners address deeper topics such as one character, Matthew (Andrew Rannells), who spends the latter half of the season trying to gain his parents’ acceptance of his homosexuality, despite their conservative religious views. Or Missy (Jenny Slate), one of the main characters from season three who returns, questioning the racial identity passed on to her from a white mother and a Black father. With even more narratives includ-

ing being transgender, consent, and anxiety caused by depression, these profound storylines give each character, not just the two or three from the beginning seasons, much more depth and connection to the audience.

“I think it’s important that [the show] covers hot-button topics, especially considering its wide range of viewers,” Sixth Former Jonny Flieder said. “I’ve talked to a few friends at school who watched it, and the consensus has been that the show always does a good job addressing serious issues through comedy, and this season is no different.”

Season four branches out from the main characters of Nick, Andrew, and Jessi to include stories on Matthew and Missy, as well as a hilarious season-long love affair between the constantly horny duo of Jay and Lola.

To me, the decision was well made as it broadened out the world these characters live in and even gave some more context to events that have happened in seasons’ past, now with the knowledge of what these side characters dealt with at home.

For those who still prefer the star trio, the season’s overall story still revolves around them, albeit in a slightly confusing way that

Haverford student watches Big Mouth on his computer

seems to fall flat when compared to the emotions and seriousness of everything else that has been going on.

However, the inclusion of more serious “issues” does little to impact the show’s ability to make you laugh. The all-star cast of seasons one through three only gets better with the addition of John Oliver and Seth Rogan

JEFFREY YANG ’22

to an ensemble already featuring Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Jessi Klein, Jason Mantzoukas, Fred Armisen, Maya Rudolph, Jordan Peele, and the aforementioned Jenny Slate.

Big Mouth season four takes steps to improve upon an already proven formula and comes out better for it.

Cyberpunk 2077 still plagued with problems Kethan Kalra ‘24

F

or eight years, the world waited intensely, preparing for the greatest game of all time. But the product released paled in comparison to expectations. Instead of an open-world experience, the player was transported from scene to scene to scene in a catastrophic disorder.

Along the way, there was no shortage of

awkward dialogue. When some of the main characters spoke, it sounded like a six-yearold coming home from school to show his mother his new vocabulary word. Many of the lines were not something any human being would say.

Technically speaking, Cyberpunk 2077 was only in development from 2016-2020.

Yet this was somehow not enough time to

MATTHEW SCHWARTZ ’21

A countdown to the release of Cyberpunk 2077 on the game launcher Steam

patch the thousands of bugs that plague the game. If it were not for the endless bugs, Cyberpunk would have been a decent game, not anything special, but it would have avoided the harsh lash from the media and saved the founders over a billion dollars. Not to mention the game was pushed back from April to December, which gave CD Projekt Red, the game’s developers, an extra eight months to fix their game.

Some bugs are minor, such as characters using incorrect dialogue and people walking through cars. But some of these bugs ruined the story, like a gun not spawning where it is supposed to, characters essential to the story progressing would disappear in front of you, and the odd ability to walk through walls, skipping parts of the story. All of this could be avoided if Projekt Red decided to stop expanding the game and fix what they had already created. It certainly did not help with the negative attention it got from streamers.

I first saw this game streamed on Twitch by my favorite content creator. And after watching for a couple of hours, it became clear just how unfinished Cyberpunk was. It is hard to describe it in words, but there is something unrefined about the game. This

could be because some of the game was made in 2012, and the rest in 2020.

Cyberpunk got a bad rap from streamers because of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) concerns. Even with streamer mode on, which is supposed to turn off copyrighted music, there was still music that resulted in several unsuspecting channels receiving a harsh strike from Twitch/YouTube, both of which have made it their mission to crack down on DMCA music in 2020.

Millions of people look at streamers playing a new game to determine if they want the game or not. And with Cyberpunk playing copyrighted music and showing nudity (even when it was supposed to be turned off ), streamers, viewers, and potentially millions of people could be left angry for choosing to spend $60 on a game.

It is a shame that a game with such potential ruined itself by releasing far too early with countless bugs and then proceeded to ruin any sympathy they would have gotten from content creators. With patches released by the week, there is a good chance that the game will reach its potential within a couple of months, but as of now, Cyberpunk 2077 is not worth the price.

Pixar’s Soul: a consecration of human meaning Willard Johnson ‘24

I

n Soul, we follow Joe Gardner, a black middle-school jazz teacher who has spent his whole life compulsively chasing his dream to play for a crowd. Sadly for him, the world does not seem to have the same plan. One day he finally lands the gig of his dreams but dies suddenly in an accident.

He spends the rest of the movie bumping around various parts of the ethereal world, trying to get back to his comatose body in time to play the gig, with a comedic unborn Tina Fey soul by his side.

It is a fun, creative premise, but Pixar does not stop there. They go deeper. Now, Pixar movies covering deep topics are not a rare occurrence. But Soul takes it to a whole different level. Its premise allows it to ask questions like: what is the afterlife? where do people get their spark? and what is the purpose of living? It does not just ask, but it answers. It gets into serious philosophy. Unfortunately, that leaves the actual plot lacking.

It is almost like the movie is on a schedule, trying to tick different boxes. It has a series of

points it wants to make and scenes it wants to do, but the actual jumps from point to point often contradict each other and leave the viewers asking all the wrong questions.

For example, the movie states that the only way Joe can get back to earth is if he helps Tina Fey’s character get her spark to live. That way the portal to Earth can open and Joe can head home. This interesting plot point raises questions about the meaning of life and what our sparks are. But for these questions to be discussed fully, the characters need to get back to Earth first. Thus the movie introduces Moonwind Stardancer.

This character serves a double purpose.

Firstly, he serves as a funny character to keep young audience members invested. Secondly, he is a plot cop-out. He is successful at both.

Thanks to this plot device (let’s call him what he is here), the movie gets to keep its main conflict going while also allowing the characters to go back to Earth and explore the more theme-enriching New York setting.

I would not usually be upset by this—it is a children’s film after all—but the issue is

that the movie also seems to want you to care deeply about its rules. Several scenes at the start are exposition-heavy, demonstrating a world with well-defined rules that you would think should be stuck to. So the movie is having its cake and eating it too.

But let’s get back to the positives, more specifically, this film’s fascinating take on life. The twist at the end is simple, that Joe Gardner’s one-track focus on his goal is not the correct way to live. Instead of focusing entirely on your passions and nothing else, you should be more open to your day today.

Look and appreciate everything around you.

It is a powerful moment, pushed forward even more by the transcendent visuals and score.

Pixar hit it out of the park with visuals.

One wonders how this animation can ever be topped. Several backgrounds look like photographs and yet the more cartoony human designs don’t detract from it. We have jumped the uncanny valley, people.

But back to the theme, it’s summed up brilliantly by one of the characters near the

end of the story.

I heard this story about a fish.

He swims up to an older fish and says, “I’m trying to find this thing they call the ocean. ” “The ocean?” the older fish says, “That’s what you’re in right now.”

“This?” says the young fish. “This is water.

What I want is the ocean.”

When we focus so hard on our goals, we could miss the ocean that is already around us. It is an adult conclusion to draw about life, and I commend Soul for going there.

This movie has the potential to change lives. I can imagine many people changing the way they act based on this movie. I certainly felt compelled to do so.

I will certainly rewatch this movie a lot in the coming years. Especially because of its no-strings-attached release on Disney+.

While the story does suffer from the film’s ideas, they are more than worth it. Check it out if you want a compelling and beautiful way to spend an hour and thirty minutes.

Page 20

the index · arts

January 2021

COURTESY OF JACK PHELAN ’21

COURTESY OF JUDAH CANNON ’22

A sampling from 2D Design

COURTESY OF TATE CONKLIN ’24

COURTESY OF BRYAN LI ’22

COURTESY OF NOAH BIRDSALL ’22

COURTESY OF BRYAN LI ’22