The Horace Mann Record, Issue 18

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The Horace Mann Record RECORD.HORACEMANN.ORG

HORACE MANN’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER SINCE 1903

FEBRUARY 16TH, 2018 || VOLUME 115, ISSUE 18

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Parents and faculty tackle discussion of race in classrooms Jude Herwitz Staff Writer Ariella Greenberg / Art Director

School hosts first ever Day without Lights Caroline Goldenberg Staff Writer Students and faculty participated in the first ever Day without Lights, during which lights were kept off in the classrooms of Tillinghast Hall in order to see how much light the school uses every day and to learn more about energy conservation. Siddharth Tripathi (12) and Student Body President Daniel Posner (12) came up with the idea for the initiative together, then approached Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly, Head of Upper Division Dr. Jessica Levenstein, Dean of Student Life Dr. Susan Delanty, and Dean of Faculty Dr. Matthew Wallenfang, to discuss the possibility of the event’s execution, Posner said. Wallengfang encouraged the event, but also expressed to teachers that it was up to their discretion whether or not the lights were left on, as some classes held assessments or other in-class activities that would require light, he said. The Day without Lights is one event in a “series of initiatives aimed at sustainability issues and environmental awareness,” Posner said. Posner and Tripathi first came up with the idea following the hurricanes that occurred with causes linked to global warming earlier this school year. They wanted to think “more broadly” about what they could do to help the environment in the school’s setting, Posner said. “Sustainability is an issue I care deeply about, and I think the day

really served to raise awareness about our energy consumption and also as a way to think about steps we can take together to protect our environment,” Posner said. Energy consumption is something that the school “recently has been actively engaged with, in terms of moving to wind power and installing solar panels on the top of Rose Hall,” Wallenfang said. “It’s certainly a timely thing to think about…and this seemed to be a relatively easy way and a way that would have high visibility to get people in the community to think about this.” Julia Roth (11) initially felt “surprised” at the original announcement of the event, as she knew the school “hadn’t done something quite like this before,” but she also felt excited to participate in this kind of all-day effort that was happening for the first time, she said. Max Chung (10) expected parts of the day to be challenging without light, especially math class, he said. Chung felt that, “the idea as a whole” would have a “big difference, because it would open people’s eyes to what they’re taking for granted, like access to electricity,” he said. If the weather had been cloudy on Tuesday, it would have been more difficult to see the material being taught at the front of classrooms during class, Gabrielle Fischberg (9) said. For English teacher Rebecca Bahr, cloudiness did not end up being an issue in any of her classes, as natural light flowed into the classroom

countering the absence of lights, she said. However, Bahr did notice that, the turning off of lights “affected students a bit energy-wise,” she said. Students seemed a bit sleepier for this reason, Bahr said. Computer Science Teacher Danah Screen felt that the atmosphere in her classes was a bit more upbeat during the Day without Lights, she said, because the rooms in which she teaches were bright enough anyway, and students “weren’t shrouded in the traditional fluorescent lights,” which can sometimes be harmful for a learning environment, she said. The day did not affect the learning atmosphere very much for Reina McNutt (10) as she had most of her classes in light anyway, she said. McNutt had a math assessment that day, for which her teacher decided to keep the lights on, and overall, only saw the voluntary decision for the lights to be turned off in one of her classes, she said. Julia Robbins (10) felt that even less light could have been used, possibly in other buildings on campus, for the full effect of the day, she said. Josh Benson (11) felt similarly to Robbins. The day “could have been more effective,” Benson said, as a lot of the school remained fully lit. However, Robbins noted that “so much of what we consume is unnecessary,” and hopes that teachers take up the idea of using less light in the future, she said.

State of the School Address delivered during PA dinner

SOTS Dr. Kelly delivers State of the School Address.

Katie Goldenberg Staff Writer

inside

On Thursday evening, parents, alumni, trustees, and administrators gathered in the Cohen Dining Commons for the annual “State of the School Address,” an all-school Parents Association (PA) dinner outlining the school’s strengths and initiatives.

Happy Year of the Dog!

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Ben Hu (11) discusses why the Lunar New Year should be considered an official school.

During the event, Head of School Dr.Tom Kelly addressed a variety of the school’s accomplishments and initiatives, ranging from increases in security due to recent school shootings, ICIE partnerships with companies such as Global Glimpse and Border Crossers, new athletic teams, record numbers of early decision commitment in the College Counseling office, and beginning the shift away from APs and towards the semester system within the Upper Division. “The event holds the Board of Trustees and administrators accountable for the quality of the journey through HM for each and every student,” Kelly said. The address, which serves as “an opportunity for parents to learn about curricular and co-curricular developments,” traditionally occurs at the beginning of the school year, President of the PA Grace Peak said. However, due to a packed schedule, the PA decided to hold the event at a later date to allow for a more relaxed and engaging environment, she said. See State of the School on Page 3

Art as social analysis

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Rivers Liu’s (12) art exhibit demonstrates how people today have become desensitized to violence.

Last Saturday parents and faculty from all divisions attended a training event covering issues of race and ways to talk about race. The inaugural program was facilited by Border Crossers, a non-profit dedicated to helping educators teach and have conversations about racism in classrooms of all ages. The faculty and parents were split up into two separate groups at the event, she said. According to Middle Division History Department Chair Eva Abbamonte and Amelia Gold P ’19 P ’21, around 30 parents and 30 faculty attended the event. “More importantly, we know that many people expressed interest in being there, but could not attend,” co-Director of Identity, Culture, and Institutional Equity (ICIE) Patricia Zuroski said. “It was pretty well attended and granted, people have things to do on a Saturday, but it could have been better attended,”Abbamonte said. “This is an issue we deal with every day at this school, that our students deal with every day at this school.” The faculty workshop had components of discussion and activities such as roleplaying classroom situations which called for teachers to address racism, coDirector of ICIE John Gentile said. In the parent group, there was more focus on discussing racism with their own children of all ages, Gold said. The first section of the day centered around the attendees sharing their personal experiences with racism as well as working to define race, and the second was dedicated to discussions around race, racism, interpersonal racism and structural racism, and how they all interact with each other, she said. One of the goals of the event was to give parents strategies for talking about race with their children in ways that create a calming effect, rather than just making the child more anxious, Maria GarciaUnderwood P ‘20 said. One of the ideas was for the parents to try and take a deep breath before answering a question about race, and to give as much information and be as open as possible, rather than getting emotional, she said. In the same vein as some of the discussions during the training, the Middle Division History Department is starting to rethink how to introduce slavery and the Atlantic slave trade as a section

Lion pride

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Varsity Basketball Teams compete in Buzzell Games.

of the sixth and seventh grade curriculums, Abbamonte said. After the program, Gold felt “really proud to be a Horace Mann parent,” she said. “I just think overall it was a great day. It’s not easy for people to leave their families on a Saturday for the whole day, and I think it shows the commitment of the parent body to supporting all students at Horace Mann,” Gold said. Deborah Korzenick P ’18 came out of the event “with a deeper appreciation of how complicated these issues around race are and how difficult it can be for people who feel like they are being distinguished in some way on the basis of their race in not a positive way,” she said. “It’s not that I was suprised by any of it,” Korzenick said, “but it was a reminder of how difficult it can be.” Part of of what history teacher Dr. Kalil Oldham learned from the training was to recognize the areas in which he still could better address race and racism in the classroom, he said. “Even those of us who feel very comfortable in the practice and the expertise that we’ve developed over the years to help students identify and disrupt systems of racial inequality… still have blindspots,” Oldham said. “A takeaway for me is to practice greater humility in acknowledging that there are still blindspots that I have and being open to identifying them and trying to address them,” he said. In the same vein as the skills Abbamonte learned at the training, a homework reading part of the Middle Division History curriculum about the New York City Draft Riots that dealt with racial violence, was removed, Abbamonte said. “We’re not going to not do the Draft Riots; we have to do it, it’s important to do it, but we’re going to do it in a way that makes sure there’s an adult in the room, that kids aren’t just grappling with it on their own,” she said. The program gave her a wider realization about how to address racism with students, Abbamonte said. “As teachers, we really don’t want to make our students uncomfortable. That’s not our goal, but what I learned is that there’s no way to discuss racism without discomfort and that’s okay. We should actually lean into that, and I think that will change how I do certain things in the classroom,” she said.

@hm.record @thehoracemannrecord Horace Mann School 231 W 246th St, Bronx, NY 10471


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