The ReMarker | February 2020 by St. Mark's School of Texas

REMARKER

S T. M A R K ' S S C H O O L O F T E X A S • DA L L A S , T E X A S • V O LU M E 6 6 , N U M B E R 4 • F E B R UA RY 7 , 2 0 2 0

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S C H E D U L E

Rewired When Headmaster David Dini announced the first new schedule in more than 30 years, it was met with apprehension. But with its implementation six months away, The ReMarker has tackled the questions that face the community as students have to be rewired to the different challenges that come with the schedule. See story, pages 4-7 STORY Robert Pou, Henry McElhaney, Cristian Pereira, Alam Alidina ADDITIONAL REPORTING Colin Campbell, Ishan Gupta PHOTO Charlie Rose PHOTO ILLUSTRATION Jamie Mahowald

Former chaplain, Rev. Michael Dangelo, invited back as Commencement speaker for Class of 2020 by Aaron Thorne fter being recommended to the administration by Senior Class officers, Rev. Michael Dangelo, former chaplain at 10600 Preston Road, will return to campus as the Commencement speaker on May 22, 2020. For Colin Campbell, senior class president, and the other officers, the selection process to find the 2020 commencement speaker initiated as the school year launched. “Starting in August, we identified a couple of speakers who we thought could be good,” Campbell said. “After talking with Mr. Dini and [class sponsors] Dr. Balog and Mrs. Vaughan, we prioritized Father Dangelo from that list.”

DON'T MISS

Since leaving after the 2013-2014 school year, Dangelo has been living in Chestnut Hill, MA, serving as the rector for the Church of the Redeemer. From the time of Dangelo’s departure, Headmaster David Dini has kept in touch, but one day, Dini had a specific request for the former chaplain. “I told him that I R e v . M i c h a e l actually had a specific Dangelo reason for the call that day,” Dini said. “I said, ‘I wanted to let you know that the senior class has decided they would like to extend an invitation to

Overcoming the overload • As news outlets have overloaded the consumer with mass amounts of information, how should we deal with it? Pages 16, 16 17

you to be the commencement speaker this year.’ On the other end, there was dead silence. He said he was so stunned and so excited.” As Dini said, Dangelo was immediately surprised. “I was just so humbled that you guys wanted me to come back and speak at commencement,” Dangelo said. “There really isn’t a day that goes by without the wonderful memory of St. Mark’s.” According to Dangelo, one of the greatest joys about being the chaplain here was always trying to put himself in the shoes of the students. “I would try to go back in time to the best of my ability and remember what it

Literary festival • During Jan. 9 and 10, authors, poets and

journalists came to campus to talk to students about the importance of writing. Page 21

is you guys are going through,” Dangelo said. “I remember the pressures that you guys are under. For me, that was the best part about being Chaplain.” For the seniors, it was important to invite a com- The Dangelo file mencement speaker that • Graduate, Yale Divinity School the majority of the class • Rector, Church could connect to. of the Redeemer, “Everybody who was Chestnut Hill, MA here for Father Dangelo • Chaplain here, 2012-2014. knows how impactful and relatable he was as a speaker,” Campbell said. “And, for those who don’t know him, I think they’re going to see pretty quickly why we chose him.”

Musical duo •

Seniors Eli Yancey and Will Mallick have developed a musical partnership on stage, allowing them to continue their passions. Page 32

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BULLETIN

• Instagram:

@remarkernewspaper

• Podcast: In-depth conversations concerning all sorts of topics

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

focalpoint on iTunes/Soundcloud

Inside ISSUES Analyzing activism

• Responding to the rise of youth activism, the largest school district in Virginia decided to give students a day off to protest.

DISCOVERIES Screening blue light

• Before bed, light emitted from cellular devices can make it hard to fall asleep. Students test glasses meant to hinder this effect.

Young alumni spotlight

10600

What are Marksmen up to after college?

Whatever it takes • A conversation with members of our community as we take a look at the impact the military has on a person’s life. • “My whole goal is to use the military to help me out as a young man and as a person, but I also knew the military was going to use me. — Wrestling Coach Reyno Arredando ’87

After attending the University of Texas and working as a lawyer, Brandon Schubert ’03 felt drawn to a different calling: interior design. Operating in London, Schubert does independent design work all across England, including many rural areas.

“It was always something I cared a lot about when I was kid. I used to go around and rearrange furniture in our house because I thought it was really fun.”

CULTURE How do we define art?

BRANDON SCHUBERT ’03

• After controversy over a banana taped to a wall selling for $120,000 as a piece of art, culture editors Luke Piazza and Sid Sinha question: “What constitutes art?”

PICTURESQUE A living, dining and bedroom fully designed by Schubert. His website, www.brandonschubert.com, features more examples as well as contact information.

OPINIONS

On deck...

Respecting the new schedule

• All eyes are on the school’s first new schedule in more than 30 years. We advise students to investigate, keep an open mind and give it a chance to succeed.

A preview of what’s coming in our March issue

• FOCUS MAGAZINE

SPORTS

granted how plentiful many resources are: time, water, food. The list is endless. For

will lead the magazine’s discussion of what we waste, where it goes and what we can do to cut back.

• SPORTS • A recap of the winter SPC results. The swim, basketball and soccer teams are all in the midst of their push for a spot on the

Spencer Gym

After being converted to a fully equipped varsity level gym, Spencer has been updated to support varsity competition with a new floor, sound system, wall padding and backboards.

Roof, water damage Chapel

They sustained extensive roof and water damage, but interior repairs complete, roof repair underway and should be completed soon

The analysis is done on all affected areas. The tornado impacted many of the buildings on campus, so copper roofs on most buildings across campus will be replaced during calendar year 2020

Brick & masonry work complete, roof repairs underway, The school plans to restore the Roosevelt Family Organ by 2021. Currently, Assistant Choirmaster and organist Glenn Stroh is playing an electrical organ during chapel.

podium.

• An in-depth look at SPC standings, Marksmen stats and upcoming games.

In brief

Demolished over Christmas break, what was left of Hicks Gym has been completely destroyed. The Board of Trustees and Administration are working to determine what facility will eventually fill the void.

Decherd, Black Box

editors Alam Alidina and Sai Thurinigari

• After successful sports careers at 10600 Preston Rd., Jimmy Rodriguez ’18 and Drew Baxley ’16 have taken on managerial roles for the varsity baseball teams at their colleges.

• VISITING SCHOLAR. Visiting scholar Bryan Mealer will be on campus Feb. 20 and 21 to talk to English classes about his work and address the entire Upper School in a special assembly. Mealer is a bestselling author of four nonfiction books, The Kings of Big Spring, Spring, Muck City, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and All Things Must Fight to Live. Live. He is also a reporter, writing for the newspapers The Guardian and the Sunday Observer.

Hicks Gym

the March issue of the Focus magazine,

Superstars to team managers

For the sports junkie

As the second half of the school year rages on, the school continues maintenance and repair work still left to be done from the October tornado.

• In a consumer culture, we often take for

Working with legends • Kalen Thornton ’00 grew up watching Michael Jordan. Now he works for Jordan’s company.

Tornado report

‘

One of the challenges is people want to change the world, and it’s such an overwhelming task. No one can change the world on their own. — BRYON LAMASTERS ’01,

team also took part in individual competitions that helped contribute to their Sweepstakes score. Winners of these competitions included senior Nicholas Tsao in the Geometry Open and Calculus Open categories and eighth grader Kevin Lu in the Algebra II Closed category.

• SPELLING BEE. Eighth grader Thomas Whitehurst claimed victory after competition against fourth grader Nicholas Petrikas at the Middle School Spelling Bee Jan. • DEBATE UPDATE. This year, there were Senior Sahitya Senapathy GENERAL 15. only eight participants in and junior David Yang NEWS the final round, including placed in the top 40 seventh graders Akash teams in their most recent Manickam and Noah tournament held at Emory Grant and eighth graders University in Atlanta Jan. Matthew Gomez and Evan Graeme. 24-26. The tournament consisted of Whitehurst will go on to represent over 100 teams, and Senapathy and the school at the Dallas Regional Yang won four times and lost twice. Spelling Bee March 7. On Jan. 4-6, Senapathy and Yang went to Nashville for a tournament. • QUIZ BOWL. The Upper School The team went 3-3 in their debate Academic Team earned second place matches, one match away from at the Winter Rodeo Tournament making it to the elimination round. Jan. 11. The team consisted of senior Nicholas Cerny and juniors • MATH TEAM COMPETITIONS. Aayush Goodapaty, Ned Tagtmeier The math team won the Metroplex and Han Zhang. The team lost the Math Competition Jan. 11. The championship round by five points team, comprised of 14 Upper School against Strake Jesuit. This is the and 10 Middle School students, team’s third tournament of the year, earned first place in “Sweepstakes”, and the third tournament in which which indicates overall school they lost in the championship round. performance. Members of the

POLITICAL CONSULTANT, ON THE PHENOMENA OF DESENSITIZATION STORY ON PAGES 16-17.

Arts Board, the upcoming theme • POETRY OUT LOUD. will be “Texas Roadhouse.” Some Sophomore Sam Eluemenoh is set notable acts include Improv and to compete in the Poetry Out Loud SMAccapella, who have both had state finals Feb. 22. Eluemenoh to improvise and perform in the will take the place of senior Sam Science Lecture Hall for the last few Ahmed, who won the schoolwide months. competition Dec. 12. The finals will take place at the Bullock Texas • UPPER SCHOOL MUSICAL. State History Museum in Austin, Hockaday will host the spring where students from across Texas Upper School musical, the Tony will compete to earn a spot in the Award-winning show national finals, which will Crazy For You by Ken take place April 27-29 in Ludwig, featuring songs Washington, D.C. Last written by George and year, Michael Luckowicz Ira Gershwin, Feb. 7 and ARTS ’19 competed at the state 8 at 7 p.m. and Feb. 9 at 2 level. NEWS p.m. Thirteen Marksmen appear in the cast, with • ART EXHIBITION. senior Will Mallick Senior James Shiao, playing the lead male juniors Will Chance and role of Bobby Child, a banker who Daniel Wu and sophomore Cooper travels from New York to Nevada Cole participated in the Dallas for business but falls in love with Young Artists Exhibition Jan. 16. a local girl named Polly, played by The second annual event was Hockaday senior Kirsten Kirk. hosted by the Blue Print Gallery, a contemporary art gallery in Uptown • EVENSONG. The choir will host Dallas. The students presented their an Organ Recital & Choral Evensong art to a panel of judges consisting at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 9, accompanied by of local artists Jennifer Klos and the restored Roosevelt Family Pipe Lynsey Provost and President of Organ. Monica Czausz, one of the Klyde Warren Park Kit Sawers. nation’s leading concert organists and winner of the 2015 American • COFFEEHOUSE GALORE. Guild of Organists Regional Coffeehouse is making its return Competition for Young Organists to the Black Box Theater Feb. 29 in the Southwest, will play in the after more than four months of service. tornado repair. Hosted by the Fine

points against Trinity Valley Jan. 21. • ALUMNI ATHLETES UPDATE. The Lions went 2-0 during the week. Alumni athletes across the nation Smith is a four star forward and is are making impacts on the playing ranked as the number seven prospect field. John Harbison ’19 has played for the class of 2022 by 247Sports. in all ten of Sewanee University’s football games this season, racking • JV SPORTS UPDATE. JV basketball up 25 tackles on the defensive line. currently boasts a record of 6-10 with Seun Omonije ’18, in his second its most recent game being a loss to year playing for the Yale University Cistercian Preparatory School by a football team, helped the bulldogs score of 21-35 on Jan. 22. The team’s win the Ivy League championship. next game will be against Also, Parker Dixon ’16 has ESD Feb. 7 at 6 p.m. in played in all five matches Spencer Gymnasium. JV for Princeton University soccer is currently 6-2volleyball, generating 46 SPORTS 2 with its most recent kills and 55.5 total points. game being a win against NEWS Home School Athletic • SENIOR RECEIVES Association by a score of NATIONAL BASKETBALL 5-3. The squad’s next game HONOR.. Senior Andrew HONOR is also Feb. 7 against ESD Laczkowski was nominated at Norma and Lamar Hunt Family for the McDonald’s All-American Stadium at 4:30 p.m. game. Laczkowski was one of 18 boys basketball players from the Class of • MS SPORTS UPDATE. Seventh 2020 nominated. The McDonald’s Alland eighth grade Gold Basketball’s American game is an annually held records both currently stand at 11-2, contest to showcase the most elite with neither team having suffered a senior talent in the country. loss against SPC teams so far. Neither soccer teams have lost a game yet, and • SOPHOMORE NAMED PLAYER OF have combined to outscore opponents THE WEEK. Sophomore basketball 84-9. Middle School swimming player Colin Smith was voted Dallasdominated Cistercian 116-51 in their Fort Worth boys basketball player of meet in Dec. On Jan. 1, Middle the week for his performances during School wrestling hosted the school’s the week of Jan. 13-17. Smith opened Middle School Tournament, and up the week with a 21-point outing competed at the Middle School state against Faith Family Academy Jan. 14 championships from Jan. 24-25. and scored a game and career-high 40

ISSUES

THE REMARKER •FEBRUARY 7, 7 , 2020

Rewired

New schedule

A day in the life

The school must prepare to adjust to a new schedule next year. Page 4

The behind-thescenes story of the new schedule. Page 5-6

How will everyday life change with the new schedule? Page 7

what our current leadership program is all about. I think we’re doing it every day, and we can definitely continue to improve.” Igoe’s understanding of how important youth activism is goes back to his childhood when his mother would take him and his older brother to events protesting for women’s rights. After a year of large-scale protests on the world’s biggest stages, including Washington D.C., “I’m so happy I had parents who stood up for their Hong Kong, Australia and Paris, protests are becoming more and more of a youth phenomenon. beliefs and their convictions,” Igoe said. “They allowed me to form my own beliefs by showing me what it means to be an active citizen, to be engaged in something that you believe in. I hope that we do the same here, that we equip you with the skills that you need to stand up for your beliefs, and I hope as a parent that I do that for my sons.” For Hockaday senior Kirsten Kirk, who has worked with StudentsMarch.org to organize events to protest climate change and gun control, the significance of youth activism lies in the hope of creating a better world to live in. “Our generation is going to be inheriting a world that has gotten pretty messed up,” Kirk said. “If we don’t start when we’re young, if we don’t get that momentum when we’re students and in our youth, then, when it’s our turn to fix things, they won’t get fixed.” As the phenomena of social media activism takes off, Kirk hopes to see more and more students practice advocacy by sharing ways to help. “Awareness is super important, and social media starts that,” Kirk said, “but I don’t think it’s activism unless you’re giving a way to help. For example, the fires that are going on in Australia right now. Lots of people are posting about it, but only a couple of people are posting with resources to donate to or ways to get involved.” OUT AND ABOUT Hockaday Senior Kirsten Kirk protests climate change at the Rally for Science at Fair Park on the one Sutcliffe has optimism for the importance younger year anniversary of the March for Science. Kirk is a part of StudentsMarch.org, which is the organization that held this event. citizens have in the future, with a hope that fresh emissions.” here was a sense of solidarity, of unity and of perspective will be beneficial. Kowalske is glad to see more support for the action in the hearts of the protesters marching to “You are my hopes for what’s down the road to be ecosystem. He believes the anxiety created by climate Washington, D.C in October of 1969. In the crowd very honest,” Sutcliffe said. “We’re so divided now it’s change is bringing more attention to the issue. was former math instructor J.T. Sutcliffe, surrounded going to take some fresh blood, some good insight, lots of “When people feel the crisis, there’s more emotion, by thousands and thousands of young Americans all patience and tolerance, and yes, firmness, to turn things and people act more and make bigger actions,” Kowalske frustrated with the same issue. around, and you are the hope. I would hope that you all said. “I think that when you see other people around, you Exercising their First Amendment rights, thousands will be thinking, reflecting and talking with each other enter panic mode; it makes you think more critically about of activists peacefully filed to the nation’s capital while from all the perspectives that I’m sure exist at the St. the ways in which you personally affect the planet and the protesting the Vietnam War. Mark’s campus to show that you go into this next part of human environment.” “I don’t remember how many thousands of people your life as thoughtful as you can to help us make things With youth activism on the rise, the largest school there were,” Sutcliffe said. “But the streets were just filled. better.” district in Virginia decided to give its students an Most of the people were younger people, but there were Like Sutcliffe and Kirk, Igoe believes Youth extra day off to protest an issue they are passionate people of all ages, all colors.” ultimately, the future rests in the hands of movement about. While Head of Upper School Colin Igoe And while 24-year-old Sutcliffe and her group were the youth, and he encourages students to be thinks such a response is intriguing, he doesn’t given a hard time, their unrelenting determination for activists about issues they are passionate about. believe such a change would be viable at 10600 change outweighed any critics. “When you’re young, you have a lot of Preston Rd. “We were called communist,” Sutcliffe said. “But we energy, and you have a healthy idealism,” “It’s important for people to stand up for their couldn’t walk away or our credibility would be damaged. Igoe said. “One of the reasons I love working in schools beliefs,” Igoe said, “and it’s important for educational We knew that there were thousands of young Americans is as I get older, I try to maintain that sense of altruism institutions to make sure that students are equipped with and many of our own friends being killed in a war that a and idealism that sometimes can be lost as one ages. the skills to articulate their own beliefs and positions, lot of people were both saying and giving us reasons to Youth activism is a wonderful confluence of events when to think clearly, to communicate clearly and to have suggest it was not good.” you’re at the stage of your life where you’re cultivating important discourse. Whether a school should give a day To this day, Sutcliffe looks back proudly upon her independence.” off to protest or not really choice to protest. depends on the school. My “It felt good to be there,” Sutcliffe said. “You know, hope is that our students are you sit at home and you think, ‘I don’t like what’s going acting for the cause they are on, but what can I do? I’m only one person.’ And while I was only one part of a huge crowd, it did feel good to say I passionate about every single finally got off the couch and actually played a small part in day, all the time, not just on some day designated by the a very large statement.” school.” Today, youth activism is as vibrant as ever. Around According to Igoe, the the globe, millions of young people protest a variety of school looks to foster the issues every single day. In the past year alone, climate ideals of activism in students, change activist Greta Thurenburg and Middle Eastern and this goal can be traced gender equality advocate Malala Yousafsai have inspired right to the mission statement. other youths to take action. “We’re constantly trying One of these millions is senior Nick Kowalske, who in our work as a school, to advocates economic preservation primarily by boycotting cultivate the skills of critical unsustainable brands. thinking of collaboration,” “It’s mostly just making sure that you’re only Igoe said. “We’re trying to spending money on products from companies that you ignite passion, so that should support,” Kowalske said. “I’m vegetarian, partially hopefully lead towards because of a climate standpoint. I pay a lot of attention to activism. The push to make buying from brands that are sustainable, not only from a a better world, to move vegan and vegetarian standpoint, but also from a carbon communities forward, that’s emissions standpoint. I try to buy local to reduce carbon CHANGE

The year of the activist

STORY Toby Barrett, Sid Vattamreddy PHOTOS Courtesy Kirsten Kirk

THE TIMELINE June 16, 2019 Two million citizens of Hong Kong march to protest a newly introduced anti-extradition bill proposing extradition from Hong Kong to the rest of China.

Here are some of the major protests that happened in the past year. September 20-27, 2019 Millions of international activists advocate for quicker measures to be taken by governments to halt climate change.

September 23, 2019 Indonesian students gather in Jakarta to protest new laws introduced by Indonesian president Joko Widodo.

October 21, 2019 Marches across Bolivia begin in answer to alleged fraud in presidential election.

October 2019 Chileans begin protesting social and economic inequality in Santiago after subway rates are raised.

November 27, 2019 French farmers protest France’s agriculture policies by driving tractors on highways.

December 20, 2019 Thousands of Algerians march in Algiers amidst a presidential race to promote new government reforms.

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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ISSUES

THE NEW SCHEDULE | OVERVIEW

New schedule to offer flexibility

After years of study, Headmaster David Dini and team are ready to implement major changes to the everyday routine.

or more than three decades, the school has had the same schedule. For more than three decades, students have been going to the same classes in the same order every day. For more than three decades, the academic curriculum has operated under trimesters. But that is going to change in August of 2020. A schedule overhaul is coming. As Marksmen start their school year, their familiar 45-minute-period schedule will be no more. In its place will be an eight-day rotating schedule. “It’s not a radical departure from what we’re doing, but it’s meaningful,” Headmaster David Dini said. “It’s improvement and change.” But do we actually need a new schedule? What’s the point of it all? After years of brainstorming, the decided-upon changes have stemmed from four main goals: • Sustain strength and quality of current program • Enhance student health and well-being • Improve alignment and collaboration opportunities across campus • Increase flexibility to better accommodate current and future program The school is about to be Rewired. In the next four pages, we give you insights into how life at 10600 Preston Rd. will change next year. Here are the major components of the new schedule with comments from Associate Headmaster John Ashton:

Rotating schedule

Lunch with entire division

Classes will no longer be at the same time every day. Instead of seven blocks of classes — like the school has now — there will be six blocks, with two being 70 minutes long. Each class will rotate from morning to afternoon, though some days the class may not be in the daily schedule at all.

Lower School, Middle School, and Upper School will have separate, 40-minute lunch periods, with students eating lunch with all other students in their four-grade division.

Ashton — “Say you have English. The first three days, it’ll be 45 minutes, 70 minutes, 45 minutes and then off the fourth day. Then again, it goes 45, 70, 45, off. In those four days, there are three times the class meets, so there’s a rhythm to it. A consistent pattern.”

Later start time

The school day will start at 8:30 a.m. and end at 6:30 p.m. All teachers will have office hours from 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. — another block of time available for students to meet with teachers.

Ashton — “We’re working closely with SAGE and the team in food services to make sure we have lots of lines going to get you boys at the tables quickly so you can take advantage of the time. Interestingly, we crunched the numbers and found that fourth period lunch right now actually has the same number as all Upper School students as a whole. So Upper School will be the biggest lunch, but it won’t be exceeding anything.”

Two seventy-minute classes per day

Ashton — “Coming from a school that started at 8 and then moved to 8:30, it feels like an hour. It’s a solid start to the day.”

First and second periods will be 70-minute classes, with all classes having opportunities to reap the rewards of these longer classes. Lab periods will be eliminated from science curriculums, as labs will now be completed during the seventy-minute periods.

Ashton — “Your teachers finally get to have you for a longer time periodically. Plus, you don’t have to do homework for every class every night. You’ll still have a free period. Sometimes, that free period will be 70 minutes. How about that?”

Year split into two semesters

While there will still be three sport seasons per school year, the academic cycle will be changed to semesterbased. Ashton — “For example, [history instructor Michele] Santosuosso’s Spec Ops class is a full-year class, but now there could be a fall Spec Ops and a spring Spec Ops, and students can take both, neither or just one. And we’d make sure they’re completely independent classes. That offers a lot more flexibility.”

Increased electives

Students will have more choices when deciding upon which classes to take, with the new option of onesemester courses and a variety of P.E. and Health and Wellness classes. Ashton — “A student can still take economics, but maybe now he just wants to take Micro one semester, and then he’s really interested in this hypothetical one-semester anatomy class in the Spring. This is going to be giving you boys a lot more flexibility in terms of which classes you take.”

STORY Ishan Gupta, Cristian Pereira ARTWORK Jamie Mahowald

Different physical education, athletic, sports requirements to be part of scheduling changes by Ishan Gupta s the new schedule is unveiled for the 2020-2021 school year, the Athletics program will also follow a new system. Most significantly, students will no longer be required to participate in a sport or physical education every season. Every student will now only be required to fulfill five P.E. credits over their four years of Upper School, and tutorials will no longer be offered. The changes come after a long decisionmaking process including division heads, Director of Physical and Experiential Education Mark Sullivan Mark Sullivan and others. Director of Physical and Experiential Education Their primary goal was to remove any unnecessary parts of the current Marksmen’s athletic schedule. To compensate for students who are already in the Upper School and would otherwise have to deal with new graduation requirements in a short period of time, this next school year will serve as a transition period. “For just this next year, seniors will be grandfathered into the system, so they’ve

already fulfilled their athletic graduation requirements. No questions asked,” Sullivan said. “Next year’s juniors will be required to fulfill just one credit in these next few years. And then sophomores will have three credits going into next year. So with just two credits left to go, in theory they could finish their athletic requirements by the end of next year.” Although the academic portion of the school will switch to a semester system, the Athletics program and every sport will still follow the current three-season system, as outlined by SPC and other school leagues. A single season of a sport will count as one credit, which means an incoming sophomore or junior who plays just one sport every year will complete their graduation requirements with ease. Therefore, students who used to rely on a tutorial to focus on their sport of preference during any particular season no longer have to worry about filling up that athletic season. To remove the many administrative hassles Sullivan has found over past years, the administration decided it would be easier on all sides to just get rid of the tutorial option. For students who don’t play a sport, there will be an option to take a P.E. course. However, the popular after-school program will no longer be an option.

“The facility will still be open and staffed. Kids that want real rigor above and beyond what they get in the daytime P.E. class can still get that,” Sullivan said. “In theory, it appears we’re taking something away. But I believe we’re using our staffing, schedule and facilities in a way that will make better, more efficient use of it.” In-school P.E. will still be an option. Following the new schedule change, the class will now last an entire semester, longer than any sport. The class will function similarly to how it does now, filling up a certain block in a student’s schedule that would otherwise be a free period. But since the academic schedule will be rotating every day, the timing for the PE class will rotate as well. That means some days, students won’t have P.E. Other days, students may have 70 minutes of P.E. “What we’ll do for those two 70-minute blocks of P.E.,” Sullivan said, “we’ll plug in Coach Dilworth’s assignments. So every time they rotate into that 70-minute time slot, the boys and the coaches will be in the weight room, which allows us to make use of that extended period of time. For this upcoming year — a transition year — incoming sophomores, juniors and seniors will see P.E. simply as a way to fulfill an athletics credit, and they will have their own “general population” classes in

which they take P.E. as a group during their respective time blocks. But for incoming freshmen, one semester of in-school P.E. will be required, and they will be grouped together in multiple different “P.E. 9” classes throughout the day. The following school year, the 20212022 academic year, both freshmen and sophomores will be required to take one semester of in-school P.E. This group will be split up into two different classes, “P.E. 9” and “P.E. 10,” with juniors and seniors having the option of participating in the “general population” class. Simply put, the Class of 2023 and older won’t have to take any required P.E. classes. But the Class of 2024 and beyond will take at least one semester of P.E. in both freshman and sophomore year. With this combination of required P.E. classes and normal athletic seasons after school, a student in the future will only need to do one sport for three years to fulfill his graduation requirements. “We’ve had countless meetings,” Sullivan said. “We have walked through this and talked through this and argued about this. We’ve challenged this. This allows us to focus on what our current problems are right now and how we can fix that. How we can make this better.”

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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ISSUES

THE NEW SCHEDULE | THE BEGINNINGS

Working behind the scenes

For the past three years, a six-person committee led by Headmaster David Dini has been creating a brand new schedule. Now, it’s finally time to put it in place.

new schedule has been discussed at 10600 Preston Rd. for decades, ever since it was mentioned in Goals for St. Mark’s I in 1984. Seven years ago, the school began to consider ways to improve the current schedule, but the idea never gained enough traction to continue. “There was a fairly lengthy process conducted, and then it kind of faded,” Dini said. “We reached school, the committee began to pick and choose “There’s value in perhaps having a teacher in the point where we couldn’t get any consensus aspects from each schedule and worked to Middle School and then seeing him or her again or momentum, so it died on the vine. And then implement them into the plan for the new in the Upper School or as a coach or whatever the we picked that conversation back up and started schedule. case may be,” Dini said. talking about it again a few years ago.” The new schedule also builds more Then, on Jan. 10, 2017, a new schedule actually Each decade, the Independent Schools community time into each day. Middle and upper seemed possible as the Board of Trustees adopted Association of the Southwest (ISAS) conducts a school will now start at 8:30 a.m. instead of the Goals for St. Mark’s IV — the fourth statement self study process at independent schools like St. normal 8:00 a.m., and lunch will be a time in the of strategic goals for the school. This road map Mark’s. This process affords the opportunity for day rather than a period, meaning each division declares the school should “explore, design and schools to reflect on their missions, efforts to fulfill will eat lunch at the same time every day all implement a daily schedule that better addresses that mission, strengths and areas which call for together. These two new pockets of community the evolving needs of students and faculty.” improvement. time will offer students and teachers more With this in mind, Dini and members of the In the most recent self study, conducted opportunities to meet. The Lower School will faculty and administration worked to develop four October 2018, ISAS representatives observed also be adding a community time in the morning, main “drivers” that would serve as the foundation classes and talked to students and alumni to similar to the thirty-minute period the middle and and guiding principles for the entire project: gauge their opinions on the school and how it upper school enjoy now. • Sustain strength and quality of current could improve. The Visiting Committee Report “These changes are going to facilitate a lot of program. supported the idea of designing a new daily community time that we don’t currently have,” • Enhance student health and well-being. schedule and recommended that the school Dini said. • Improve alignment and collaboration “carefully analyze the different ways students, The new schedule will also add more variety. opportunities across campus. faculty, and staff use structured and unstructured Instead of having every class every day in the • Increase flexibility to better accommodate time to improve the student experience.” exact same order, an eight-day rotation will mix up current and future programs. In addition to the ISAS study, the order and timing of classes. “We came up with those at the very Dini and the school sought the The purpose behind this change beginning,” Dini said. “Everybody said, ‘Okay, opinion of Independent School is to distribute “disadvantages” that’s our true North, that’s what we’re shooting HOW WE USE TIME IS ONE Management (ISM) consulting, evenly between classes. Now, for.’ Whatever we do has to address those four all classes will at some point goals, and everybody agreed on that at the outset.” represented by Senior Executive OF THE GREATEST, MOST Consultant Roxanne Higgins. have to follow an assembly that Dini spearheaded a six-member committee – IMPORTANT WAYS WE Higgins spent one week talking runs five minutes longer than comprised of the three division heads, Associate EXPRESS WHAT VALUE WE PUT expected instead of the same to students, teachers and parents Headmaster John Ashton and Director of to fully understand the current class losing those five minutes Academic Information Systems Paul Mlakar – that ON VARIOUS PRIORITIES.“ schedule and how it could be every single long assembly. has been responsible for guiding the project. — HEADMASTER DAVID DINI upgraded. “I think it’ll be very “There’s been a slow process of moving “She shared a broader valuable not having every through the schedule department by department, perspective, which is, in many ways, just designed class every day,” Dini said. “It allows for some division by division and thinking about every to push ourselves out of our comfort zone a little breathing room with each class in that the classes aspect of our program,” Dini said. “It’s been a bit,” Dini said. “She got down into a lot of detail rotate and move. When you’re getting a breather really healthy and really productive process.” across all three divisions of the school and helped in one class, maybe you’re pushing in a few of The committee wanted to ensure that every us be willing to ask some hard questions.” your other classes.” voice was heard at every step along the way. They Higgins outlined the positives and negatives Of course, Dini recognizes that the schedule worked down to department chairs and then to the she observed at the school and presented a fourmay not be welcomed by all, but he knows that faculty as a whole, going through a set of repeated hour slide presentation to the faculty during a nothing is locked in yet. cycles of constructing and deconstructing the teacher in-service day. Over the next few years, as the schedule is schedule, tweaking their ideas at every meeting “Some of the weaknesses I observed were boys implemented into daily life, it will continue to with different selections of faculty members. who are over scheduled, too much homework evolve. “We put faculty in rooms with faculty they for the students, too many courses to prepare for “We’re going to have to be flexible and nimble, don’t typically teach with,” Dini said. “You might on any given day and lack of time for and there are going to be things a year in where have a Lower School language student and faculty collaboration and we go, ‘Okay, we didn’t completely anticipate this, arts teacher with a Middle School growth,” Higgins said. but let’s be flexible and respond,’” Dini said. “It’ll humanities teacher and an Upper All of the feedback collected from probably be a several year process of adjusting to a School science teacher. People faculty, visiting other schools, ISAS new framework, and we’ll learn from it and grow were really mixed together in these and ISM contributed in some form to from it.” conversations.” the new schedule. One decision that No schedule can ever be perfect – only made While the committee valued came specifically from visiting other better and better over time. the feedback from the school’s own Roxanne Higgins ISM Senior Consultant schools was to make a schedule change “That’s why it’s been a transparent open teachers and faculty members, Dini for all three divisions at the same time. process throughout,” Dini said. “We want every wanted to get different perspectives Schools that had made scheduling changes in the teacher on campus, every department chair, every from other schools about their schedules. He past regretted only adjusting their high school’s division head, contributing.” visited schools such as the Harvard-Westlake schedules. Teachers will continue to adjust their School in Los Angeles and Polytechnic High “That was one of the fundamental decisions curriculums to fit the new schedule during the School in Pasadena to better understand what they we made early on, that we want to look at this spring and summer. Course selections with valued about their unique schedules. school-wide,” Dini said. “Recognize that there are advisors will occur in March. “We’re not going to replicate what other going to be some things we’re going to do that Dini believes that while the community will schools are doing,” Dini said. “Rather, let’s go will still be unique by division but to bring greater take some time to adjust to the newness of next sit down with students at St. Alban’s and the alignment across the school, across all 12 grades.” year’s schedule, the mission was always to better Collegiate School for instance, and let’s listen to And that’s another focus of the new schedule the school and community as a whole. how they think about their day, and how their – to allow teachers to continue teaching across “I think our goal is to be demonstrably better, schedule works for them and what are the pros, multiple divisions. In fact, the new schedule makes and better be able to support the needs and the what are the cons, how it’s affected the culture of this practice even easier because of more unity development of the Marksmen who are here,” Dini the school.” between divisions. said. After learning what worked best for each

SCHEDULE EXPERT Headmaster David Dini uses an illustration to help explain the workings of the new schedule.

percent Estimated time lost in each class with the new schedule.

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STORY Henry McElhaney, Robert Pou PHOTO Jerry Zhao

percent Estimated increase in open/ flex time for upper schoolers

THE REMARKER • F EBRUARY 7, 2020

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ISSUES

THE NEW SCHEDULE | THE FINISHED PRODUCT

Taking a closer look With a new eight-day rotating schedule, the first day of school next August might be confusing — at the start. Below are some examples that outline the structure of the 2020-21 schedule.

US I

8:00

III VI

(30 mins) (70 mins)

Community Time

10:15

(70 mins)

4 (45 mins) 5 (45 mins) 6

F D B

1:45 1:50 2:35 2:40 3:25

H F D

G E C

A G E

B H F

D B H

C A G

(70 mins

(45 mins

E C A

(45 mins

Free time

(80 mins)

(80 min

4:45

US Athletics

(105 mins) 6:30 (35 mins) (45 mins)

(70 mins)

VI VII

G H F

8:30

Office Hours (10 mins) (45 mins)

9:40

10:15

Comm. Time

7:55 8:05

(45 mins) (35 mins) (45 mins)

12:15 12:20

(45 mins)

3 4

9:40 10:15

A B

Comm. Time

1:00

(35 mins)

(45 mins)

1:45 1:50

2:35 2:40

(75 mins)

3:25 3:30

D E F

(45 mins)

(10 (45 mins) mins)

1:05 1:10 1:55 2:00

4:45

MS Ath.

5 6 7

12:20

LS Lunch

(45 mins)

4 5 6

MS Lunch

10:55 11:00 11:40 11:45

C D

(45 mins)

(40 mins)

B C

8:50 8:55

Homeroom

11:00 11:05

1 2

C D

8:00

(70 mins)

ALIGNMENT Community time for all three divisions will take place at the same time every day — 9:40 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.

2:45 2:55

E F G

Homeroom

D Director E of Academic Information Systems Paul Mlakar brings schedule to life; balance emphasized B C D H A ARTWORK Jamie Mahowald, St. Mark’s Development Office

by Toby Barrett irector of Academic Information Systems Paul Mlakar worked alongside senior leadership as an advisor for the implementation and creation of the new schedule for the past three years. As the scheduler, his experience in planning time aided the completion of the final schedule. The process of creating the schedule was focused around hearing input from faculty. With the faculty’s feedback, Mlakar and senior leaders Eugene McDermott Headmaster David Dini, Associate Headmaster John Ashton and division heads pitched ideas to one another. “Oftentimes, there might be a full faculty discussion and a gathering of informa-

tion and ideas or sharing information and getting feedback,” Mlakar said. “And then from those faculty meetings, we would meet as a team and discuss, make decisions, come up with ideas, propose ideas.” Then, a model schedule would be drawn up by Mlakar. “It was my job to kind of make it work,” he said. “To put the pen to paper, to come up with the spreadsheets and the times and to see how it could work, to see what would be the minute details of the new schedule with the ideas that were permeating in those group meetings.” Next, the proposed schedule would be shown to the faculty for more feedback. Three years later, after numerous models, the final schedule was completed.

(70 mins

(45 mins

E F G H A B C D

12:55 1:00

(45 mins)

(40 mins

(35 mins

US Lunch

11:45

11:00 11:05

(40 mins)

EIGHT DAYS The rotating cycle means students will attend classes in a different order every day.

A B C D E F G H

9:40

(35 mins) (45 mins)

VI VII VIII

Office Hours

8:30

One large issue Mlakar wanted to tackle with the new schedule was lunch: nearly 135 students in the current school year have one day a week in which they do not have their lunch period free, and so instead receive boxed lunches. “To me, how do we look at our students and say, ‘We believe in balance, we believe in maintaining your health and wellness, and we want you to take care of yourselves,’” Mlakar said. “‘But oh, by the way, you have science lab during your lunch period one day and you don’t get to eat lunch.’ That’s not healthy.” Instead, lunch will be divisional, meaning each division will have a set aside time in the day to eat together. Mlakar believes scheduling lunch periods this

way will provide new opportunities. “If we want to bring a guest speaker in and have them speak for the last 20 minutes of lunch, we can do that under the new schedule,” Mlakar said. “We couldn’t do that now. If we got upper schoolers eating fourth, fifth and sixth periods, you can’t address the entire group.” Mlakar thinks the change in pace next year will be a welcome one for the students. “I think once we get into it and kind of get used to the rotation, it’s going to be a breath of fresh air for the students,” he said. “I think six weeks in, kids are going to go, ‘Man, how were we doing 45 minutes every day for eight periods a day?’ I think kids are going to love it.”

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

PAGE

ISSUES

THE NEW SCHEDULE | A CHANGING ROUTINE

A day in the lives

For some students, the variance in the new schedule is daunting. To paint a clearer picture, we tell the stories of a hypothetical day for a lower, middle and upper schooler under the new changes. • For senior ‘Jake,’ later start could prevent detentions, tardies and day-to-day monotony. urrounded by a mass of sweaty and exhausted players, varsity basketball coach Greg Guiler dismisses his team after a long, grueling practice. Among the huddled players is Jake Williams, a senior. Jake trudges to the parking lot with his teammates. It’s 6:30 pm. By now, he has learned that the end of practice rarely means the end of his day. Mounds of homework and test preparation await him at home. But, as he slides his keys into the ignition, Jake remembers something: he only has four classes tomorrow, and his previous concern about preparing for his entire course load quickly dwindles. The next morning, Jake wakes up later than he used to back when a 7:30 a.m. wakeup almost certainly meant a first period tardy, or even a Saturday detention. But now, with the 8:30 a.m. start time, he has plenty of time to meet with his calculus teacher and review the derivatives that have been giving him so much trouble. From there, Jake goes to his first period class, which always lasts 70 minutes despite the rotating class schedule. Today, as the end of the semester nears, Jake pays special attention during his elective course. But Jake’s favorite part of the day is the 9:40 am community time. Given that the entire school has this time free, he often meets with teachers, goes to see his Lower School brother and occasionally enjoys all-school pep rallies. The unity inspired by this period can only be matched by lunch, when he plops down and feasts alongside all of his classmates. Today, the tabletop discussion is about which Starburst flavor is best. Jake is insistent on orange. He finishes his day with one more long class, followed by two short ones with a free period sandwiched in between. The different rhythms and intermixed free periods are refreshing, but Jake and his classmates must pay special attention each day to where they are in the eight day rotation. Once 3:25 p.m. hits, Jake has the opportunity to meet with the Ping Pong Club, or, in most cases, relax before yet another basketball practice filled with shooting, running and even more shooting. Practice ends, and it’s 6:30 p.m. again. Jake heads home with a smile on his face knowing that tomorrow’s lineup of classes will be completely different.

LOOKING AHEAD The new schedule and its policy updates drastically affect the lives of all returning and future Marksmen. Pictured above are three such students: sophomore Paul Valois, sixth grader Ian McGowan and fourth grader Jake Cuban.

• Second grader ‘Robert’ has a favorite class, and it’s a new one in the Lower School: computer. obert Chapman wakes up, looks at the glowing red numbers on his alarm clock and rolls out of bed. It’s 7:00 — time for a new day. In 30 minutes, he goes from a quick shower to a much-needed bowl of slightly stale cereal. Soon enough, he shuts the door behind him and heads into his mom’s waiting car. Ten minutes later, he’s at the school, running, then walking through the wide open doors of the Lower School and dropping his bag off all the way at the end of the hallway in Ms. Morris’ classroom. He has just a few minutes before recess ends. Robert has just started second grade—his second year on campus — and is getting used to the new schedule. Today, Tuesday, is his favorite. He likes recess in the morning, at 8:05 a.m., squeezed right between homeroom and his least favorite class, math. Tomorrow isn’t all that bad though. He has math right after Community Time, where he will rehearse with some friends for his part in the upcoming play. And the day after, math comes after recess again, this time later in the afternoon. The changing schedule keeps Robert on his toes and makes sure he never has the same classes in the afternoon, when he starts to get sleepy. But today, Robert’s last class is computer. It’s a new class this year, but it only took a few weeks to become his favorite. He gets to play with robots and code games while learning how to create a powerpoint for his language arts presentation. He only has it once every

eight-day block, but he still sees the computer lab much more than he did last year. And for Robert, that’s a big improvement. • More time with teachers means more time to study Mandarin for sixth grader ‘Michael.’ or a brief moment, sixth grader Michael Levinson thinks he is late to school. He had jumped out of the car and onto campus at 8:15 a.m. — last year, that would have meant skipping the beginning of first period. Today, he still has 15 minutes to ask Ms. Jones a few questions before class starts. Ms. Jones is Michael’s Mandarin teacher. It’s Michael’s first year taking Mandarin, and he’s pretty excited. If he sticks with it, starting in sixth grade instead of seventh means Michael will be able to get an extra level of Mandarin in high school before leaving for college, bringing him a little closer to fluency. Michael’s also pretty excited for some of the classes his older brother, Peter, keeps talking about. Peter’s in seventh grade, and he goes twice in every eight-day period to the Makerspace lab, where he’s learning how to use laser cutters and 3D printers. And while Michael and Peter only get two electives this year—instead of the three they had last year — the electives meet for more time each week and cover more material, giving them a better overview of each course. Even better, Michael’s excited to have lunch with the whole Middle School. He sees all his friends at lunch, and sometimes he even gets to eat with his brother.

STORY Alam Alidina, Colin Campbell PHOTOS Evan McGowan, Dave Carden

A word from the wise Division heads explain important aspects of the school’s first schedule change in over 30 years. • UPPER SCHOOL HEAD COLIN IGOE on the importance of changing things up from day to day: “When you’re a student, sometimes you’re a morning guy, sometimes you’re an afternoon guy. If you have lunch fourth period, then that fifth period class falls into a certain rhythm and you might be sleepy every day. By mixing, you won’t have every class at the same time each day.”

• MIDDLE SCHOOL HEAD DEAN CLAYMAN describes the nature of changes to fine arts and language: “One of the demonstrable changes in the Middle School program will be that boys will now have a choice to study a single foreign language full time, starting in fifth grade.” “On the fine arts front, we are streamlining things a little bit for fifth and sixth grade in that they will be able to choose a full year class, which would be the band, orchestra or choir, or to choose semester classes.”

• LOWER SCHOOL HEAD SHERRI DARVER speaks to the value of divisional lunches:

LEADING THE CHARGE As students adjust to new schedule changes, both major and minor, the leadership of Upper School Head Colin Igoe, Lower School Head Sherri Darver and Middle School Head Dean Clayman will help smooth the transition.

“Now, we don’t have an assembly time built into our schedule, so the change is going to allow us to be able to have that common time together with only the Lower School teachers and boys in the dining room, and there’s a lot of great flexibility involved there.”

DISCOVERIES

Lab work The stories of students working in laboratories. Page 9

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

SLEEP SCIENCE

Sleep after screens

The use of technology, especially late at night, exposes you to blue light— a type of light emitted by screens which can adversely effect sleep cycles and sleep quality.

e’s been staring at his screen While our bodies have evolved for hours just trying to put to benefit from blue light during the finishing touches on that the day, exposure at night can have english paper, but now it’s time for harmful effects. bed. “Exposure to blue light during But junior Sam Morgan can’t the daytime hours helps to boost sleep. alertness, cognitive function and Maybe it’s the stress of a couple mood and helps to maintain a hours of homework, sure. healthy sleep wake rhythm.” Or maybe its a specific type of Richards said. “On the other hand, light coming out of his computer. exposure to blue-wavelength light Morgan is going to do something at night near bedtime from digital about it. devices may adversely affect sleep ••• by suppressing melatonin and Dr. Kathy Richards, a senior causing neurophysiologic arousal. research scientist at the University That means it is harder to fall of Texas at Austin, has spent over 25 asleep and harder to wake up in the years researching and studying sleep. morning.” “Sunlight contains a spectrum of Additionally, blue light can have red, orange, yellow, green and blue adverse effects on the eyes. light,” Richards said. “Combined, “Laboratory studies show that these colored light rays create ‘white too much exposure to blue light light.’ Blue light waves are high can damage light-sensitive cells in energy waves in the retina,” Richards said. the visible light “This causes changes that spectrum, and resemble those of macular EXPOSURE TO BLUEbeing outdoors WAVELENGTH LIGHT AT degeneration, which can in the daylight lead to permanent vision NIGHT, NEAR BED TIME, is where we loss.” get most of our FROM DIGITAL DEVICES, exposure to blue MAY ADVERSELY Exposure to blue light light.” is sometimes unavoidable EFFECT SLEEP BY However, for students according to SUPPRESSING MELATONIN Lower and Middle School humans no — DR. KATHY RICHARDS longer only get counselor Dr. Gabriela Reed exposed to blue “There are definitely light from the sun during the day. sometimes that there’s no way “There are many man-made around it,” Reed said. “You have to indoor sources of blue light,” be in front of your computer until Richards said, “such as fluorescent late at night or you have to be on and LED lighting, televisions, display your phone communicating with screens of computers, electronic others about a class or whatever that notebooks, smartphones and other may be.” digital devices.” However, there are certainly

‘‘

ways to combat the effects of blue light. “The best thing you can do in those terms is to use night shift on your devices or use blue light blocking glasses,” Reed said. “There’s not a ton of data yet proving whether or not that’s 100% effective, but it’s definitely D r. G a b r i e l a R e e d helpful as it Lower and Middle School Counselor turns down the blue light aspect.” Dr. Reed owns her own pair of blue light blocking glasses, and recommends the glasses to anyone who hopes to improve their sleep patterns. “There’s very little down side to the glasses,” Reed said. “They’re not prescription, they’re not gonna hurt your vision and they’re not all crazy expensive. It’s the kind of thing that you can just kind of keep in your back pocket and use.” Junior Sam Morgan, a current user of blue light glasses, has experienced their effect first-hand. “I would totally recommend the glasses to any student,” Morgan said. “I can fall asleep so much faster and stay asleep longer when I use them. The glasses have helped Morgan work through late nights. “I think they’ve really helped me survive some late nights doing homework,” Morgan said. “Plus they’re not that expensive so it’s a great investment.”

STORY Cooper Ribman PHOTO Collin Katz

SCREEN TIME Exposure to blue light at night can disrupt natural sleep patterns. Wearing blue light blocking glasses is one way to dampen these effects.

Student study

We gave five students a pair of blue light glasses over a period of one week with instructions to put the glasses on when they got home from school. The students documented their sleep patterns before starting the use of the glasses and then documented changes during the week-long experiment. Here’s what happened:

Data: Students reported falling asleep an average of 28.8 minutes faster while using that glasses than before using them. Students reported getting on average 1.51 more hours of sleep while using the glasses than before using them.

80%

of students participating in the study reported experiencing decreased eyestrain while wearing the glasses.

S tu d ent r esp onses:

“

They had a drastic effect on my schedule. Before, If I used my laptop to study before bed I would wake up tired or with a headache. WIth the glasses I woke up feeling refreshed. — Junior Sam Morgan

“

The glasses worked so well that I actually had to take them off for a while at night or I would fall asleep before I finished my homework! — Junior Gabe Bines

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

PAGE

DISCOVERIES

FIELD WORK

Lab rats

Environmental science classes plant pawpaws

Science instructor Cristina Macaraeg traveled to Costa Rica for lab work unfamiliar to most Marksmen.

LAB TOOLS Although students are used to instruments like beakers and eye droppers, lab work may not be as clearcut as it seems from chemistry instructor Cristina Macaraeg’s perspective.

n eighth grade, he rolled the cart. In ninth grade, he looked in the microscope. In tenth grade, he mixed the solutions. He wrote the procedure, drew some observations, made a conclusion. Rinse and repeat. Every week, students perform these same procedures to prepare them for the work they might do in college or a science career, but it turns out some lab work is completely different from the kind Marksmen are accustomed to. Over the summer, chemistry instructor Cristina Macaraeg participated in a field lab studying sea turtles in the Caribbean. The Sea Turtle Conservancy is a notfor-profit organization based in Florida, although it has research stations around the world. Founded in 1959, it carries out its mission of sea turtle conservation through research, education, advocacy and protection of the turtles’ natural habitats. “I used to teach environmental science and came to know the Sea Turtle Conservancy through that class,” Macaraeg said. “I was stationed in Tortuguero, Costa Rica in late July, which is the end of the leatherback nesting season and the beginning of the green turtle season.” Unlike most students’ lab experience, the focus of the research station was on

extensive field work, which involves highlight for me was getting to see a much more physical activity than students Hawksbill nest excavation,” Macaraeg might expect. Although Macaraeg was said. “I also got the see the perilous only there for one summer, many fulljourney that those tiny turtles have to time researchers work on various projects make from the nest site to the water.” year-round, such as studying the effects of During her stay at the field research various bacteria in the sand. center, Macaraeg was able to meet and “My job was to do night walks with work with a variety of researchers from a lead researcher in order to count how all across the world, an experience that many female turtles came initially posed a challenge of What is consistent ashore, triangulate their nest communication. from lab to lab is how sites, tag their fins, count the “The researchers were notebooks are kept. eggs they dropped, measure from around the world Cristina Macaraeg their carapace length and — Venezuela, Puerto Rico, inspect the turtles for any France and England, to name damage or trauma,” Macaraeg said. “We a few countries of origin,” Macaraeg weren’t allowed any flashlights or cameras said. “It was challenging at first since my as those would startle the turtles, and we Spanish was a bit rusty, but by the end of had to carry a backpack of gear. It got the program, it was fine.” a little tricky when it was raining since Although her work at the research there’d be no moonlight and we’d just be center gave her many unique and feeling along in the dark.” engaging experiences, her most memorable encounter was working with Although students are used to lab work other researchers to count the turtle eggs during the school day, Macaraeg stresses as they were being laid. that field work often requires researchers “The most interesting story has to to stay up all night and that they must be how you count the eggs as they drop. always be alert for when their work When the female turtle digs her pit to requires them. lay the eggs, you have to dig a hole for “What was interesting is that the your body behind her,” Macaraeg said. shift didn’t start until midnight, and we “You then have to count the eggs as they had to cover about three to five miles drop into your gloved hand, and they of beach each night,” Macaraeg said. drop about 110 eggs per nest, two to Although the three every few seconds. Sandflies love to hours were hang out on you while you’re back there different counting.” from her Macaraeg agrees that labs are one of usual the hardest things to prepare students schedule, for from school to real-world experience, Macaraeg since work in the field is so different from appreciates work in a laboratory. the “Fieldwork is quite different from fascinating what is introduced in the classroom. experiences It’s hard to prepare someone for the that her work conditions you might face in the field,” in the field Macaraeg said. “What is consistent provided her. from lab to lab is how lab notebooks are “One kept. It’s important to write down all particular observations as thoroughly as possible.”

“

STORY Han Zhang, Ethan Borge PHOTOS Ekansh Tambe

by Ethan Borge fter the Oct. 20 tornado, the school lost many trees including a tree of one of the most unknown fruits in North America, the pawpaw fruit. Pawpaw fruit, which got its name from its look-alike papayas, is the largest fruit native to the North American continent. The fruit is often known for its sweet, custard-like pulp. And Director of Environmental Studies Dan Northcut is out to replant the pawpaw tree with his AP Environmental Science class. “It’s native to East Texas, and it bears the largest fruit on the North American continent,” Northcut said. “Its range is from east Texas all the way up to Ohio and West Virginia.” The pawpaw plant used to be much more known, according to Northcut. “The pawpaw used to have much more of a following,” said Northcut. “Many of the old-time songs that old-timers might remember mention going to the pawpaw patch to pick pawpaw.” Originally, there were two pawpaw trees next to Lower School. However, after the tornado, one of the trees was destroyed. “Since we lost one of the pawpaw trees to the tornado, I decided to plant a bunch of them,” Northcut said. Northcut and his AP Environmental Science class began cultivating the seeds after the tornado and they will sprout mid-spring, around March or April. “I think that the curiosity is there,” Northcut said. “Not only are they the largest fruit in North America, but also they are like a pop-off custard ice cream. They are a more ancestral fruit, and I think that it attracts people to try it.” With many trees gone from the school campus, Northcut sees it as an opportunity to bring back native plants to the campus. “With the school losing 243 trees, I hope that the school will replace all the trees with native plants,” Northcut said. “That way, if an unfortunate storm were to happen again, the trees won’t be knocked over.” Overall, Northcut hopes that he will be able to plant these unique plants on the school campus to bring back native species and biodiversity. “I think our goal should be to plant more native biodiversity,” Northcut said. “The butterflies, insects and animals all depend on native plants. It’s more sustainable and needs less water and pesticides. Not only is this better for the animals, but also the school as well.”

Entrepreneur

Editor

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Jeremy Stewart ’97’s path to CEO of a flip-flop company inspired by his time in Indonesia. Page 11

Parker Davis ’19 steps up to lead AirlineGeeks. Page 12

Senior Sahitya Senapathy’s study app Studiously and its use of a new kind of learning. Page 13

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THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

SHELLS ENROUTE After serving as a rifleman in Iraq, Manny Martinez returned to being a field artilleryman in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012.

MILITARY

The men in camo With the military a key facet of America’s global presence, The ReMarker looked to 10600 Preston Rd. to get a glimpse at what noncivilian life is like. Three faculty members recount their experiences in the navy and army.

CAMEL ON THE LOOSE Operations officer Major Reyno Arredondo (left) works with a noncommissioned officer in a Kuwait desert range.

ix thousand men are on a ship. One of them is Rick Cerovsky. It’s the middle of the night, and all attention is on the job. SEMPER FORTIS A young Rick Cerovsky Red lights blink all through the USS (right) on board the USS Eisenhower works as Dwight D. Eisenhower, the newest nucleara plane captain in his 1979-1980 deployment. capable aircraft carrier in the world in 1979 as it sails through the Indian Ocean toward Iran. Twelve thousand men are on a training field They don’t quite know where they’re launching in Germany. One of them is Manny Martinez, or whom their weaponry will target in the coming participating in an apparent power play targeted hours. One slip up could endanger the whole ship, at the nearby Russian military after the Russian all 6,000 soldiers and sailors at sea. invasion of Crimea in 2014. ••• Martinez trained as a field artilleryman at 21 Cerovsky’s first deployment in April 1979 on the years old but was re-designated into a rifle platoon Eisenhower ushered him around the Mediterranean, just before his first deployment from 2009 to 2010 in along the coasts of Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece southern Iraq. The purpose of the deployment was and Israel. Cerovsky worked as a plane captain, a to stop weapons and explosives that were coming in position responsible for the security of any plane from Iran near the Shatt al-Arab River. taking off or landing on the carrier. “We used to patrol the river, looking for boats “I was in charge of several different aircraft, and weapons caches and then working with the making sure that they were ready for flight, and I Iraqi border police, patrolling the traffic that flowed did all the pre-flight inspections,” Cerovsky said. in and out,” Martinez said. “On a nightly basis, we “Whenever they came back, I would do post-flight were out on patrol.” inspections and make sure that everything was ready to go for the next flight of that aircraft. It was a Nervous, sweaty and cautious, Martinez had a very high risk area to work up on the flight deck –– realization that’s stuck with him ever since he served you were right in the action of it all.” as the point man for his rifle platoon on his firstBut immediately after the Iranian Revolution ever night patrol. After military intelligence units of 1979 and the coup of US-backed shah of Iran and briefed his platoon about signs for weapons caches, the replacement by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Martinez spotted a pile of rocks during his patrol the Iran Hostage Crisis broke out, a 444-day standoff and decided to halt the platoon to investigate. involving the holding of 52 American diplomats “We ended up going over some berms and hostage. looking in the night,” Martinez said. “Lo and behold, “We immediately turned around and went back there’s sheet metal on them. Someone had dug a hole out into the Indian Ocean,” Cerovsky said, “and and put a piece of sheet metal [on top]. We ended the aircraft carrier that I was attached to at the time up finding a cache our first night out there. At that –– even though I was in the Navy –– was attached point it hit me, like, ‘man, this is real.’ The briefs to a US Air Force Squadron. And our mission at they’re giving you aren’t just so they can waste your that point was to get over there and try to see time. There are actual consequences to the stuff that’s what we could do to rescue the hostages, and my going on out here.” aircraft carrier was the one that launched the helos After his time in Iraq, Martinez spent 2011 to go over to rescue them––that actually ended up to 2012 shooting artillery in the mountains of crashing in the desert.” Afghanistan. The Eisenhower became the first aircraft carrier “Rockets and mortars are a regular occurrence to be out at sea for 11 months on that out there,” Martinez said. deployment, with only four days in “Maybe the first couple of times, port, from January until November of ONE MISTAKE COULD your adrenaline may peak and 1980. JEOPARDIZE NOT ONLY ME BUT you get really flustered. But “We had been training for this after a while, you get used to MY TEAM. BUT IF IT WAS BAD for several months,” Cerovsky said, the drill and have a checklist of “and I was part of the ordinance team ENOUGH, IT COULD JEOPARDIZE things to do. When you come where we had jets down in the hangar THE WHOLE SHIP. THAT TIME, back home, I think that’s the bay, loading nuclear weapons to them, WE WERE PROBABLY THINKING only difficulty that people have getting ready for any kind of conflict adjusting. You’re used to always to arise whenever we went over there MORE ABOUT THE TASK AT anticipating something going HAND AND GETTING OUR to try to rescue the hostages. The on that you come back and you middle of the night is when they did have to gear down.” JOB DONE. the actual launch, so it was intense.” Later, he was stationed in — RICK CEROVSKY Fort Lewis, Washington, served Cerovsky started in the early afternoon. He and his in Fort Hood, Texas, was deployed in Germany for team were called into the hangar bay where one man his exercise, worked in the Division Artillery and would be reading the orders, another repeating them then became an instructor at its combatants facility and the rest initiating the orders themselves. before retiring from the Army in 2016 with a sense of “I felt the way you’d normally feel in a tough gratitude for his country. situation,” Cerovsky said. “I knew I had a job to “I remember when the elections happened in do, and I wanted to make sure that I did it right Iraq, we had to have armed security escorting the and didn’t make any mistakes. One mistake could ballots to be counted because there was a real threat jeopardize not only me but my team. But if it was of people bombing the ballot trucks,” Martinez said. bad enough, it could jeopardize the whole ship. That “I’ve seen that firsthand, and I don’t think people time, we were probably thinking more about the understand how privileged they are to be able to task at hand and getting our job done. Back then it live in a society where you can elect your leaders, was real hush-hush, as far as what was going on the practice those freedoms and be as outspoken as you mainland.” want to with no repercussions.” ••• •••

‘‘

With both his grandfathers, two older brothers in the army and two of his uncles in Vietnam, joining the army seemed to be the obvious career choice for Wrestling Coach Reyno Arredondo ‘87. His family history and the college benefits of the Academy motivated him to attend the US Military Academy at West Point, and he continued to pursue higher education even after graduating. “I stayed in the Army for multiple reasons,” Arredondo said. “One, I loved the leadership challenge. The other is that I was able to also get accepted into a [graduate] program. The army selected me to go and teach at West Point. Part of that acceptance was sending me to go and get my master’s degree, so I went to the University of Texas to get my master’s degree in foreign language education and curriculum instruction.” Although Arredondo didn’t formally study Kurdish, his language skills came to be especially useful during his deployment in Baghdad from 2006 to 2008 in the Baghdad Security Plan, whose goal was to transition out of combat operations and establish peace. Working primarily in military intelligence, Arredondo held the responsibility of befriending the former president of the Kurdistan Region, Masoud Barzani, to facilitate relations between his government and the Iraqi government. “Communication is the way to truly build relationships,” Arredondo said. “I was quick to pick up some pretty normal greetings and salutations in Kurdish so we would be ready whenever we would meet Kurdish people. As soon as I met President Barzani’s chief of staff, we connected — it was uncanny. We started to talk, and by this time, my Kurdish phrases had grown, so I was able to make him laugh in Kurdish before even speaking English.” Barzani’s chief of staff was the liaison Arredondo needed to finally set up a historic meeting between Kurdish and Iraqi leadership. Arredondo was the only American officer present during the event, creating one of his most unforgettable and humbling experiences. “To put it into perspective, that was the first meeting ever between President Barzani of Kurdistan and the president of the government of Iraq,” Arredondo said. “And here I am. Every time I think about it, I’m a kid from West Dallas who rode the city bus to attend St. Mark’s as a scholarship student.” In October of 2007, Arredondo put his diplomacy to the test again, succeeding at negotiating peace between the Kurds and Turkey and preventing a Kurdish-Turkish war. Over the rest of his 30-year military career, Arredondo served again in Iraq, Afghanistan, Thailand and Sri Lanka before returning to 10600 Preston Rd. in 2017. “I’m so grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to not just take from my military experiences but also to give from my experiences as well,” Arredondo said. “One of the things I try and do here at St. Mark’s is not just be a coach but be a mentor and be able to share my experiences, so you Marksmen learn from things that I’ve done, whether they’re good or bad.”

STORY Jamie Mahowald, Sai Thirunagari PHOTOS Courtesy Rick Cerovsky, Manny Martinez, Reyno Arredondo ’87

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Getting Started Five tips in specific stand out to Stewart throughout his entrepreneurial experience. Here are some of Stewart’s main pieces of advice for those looking to take a similar career path.

FIND YOUR NICHE You don’t have to reinvent the pizza — you just have to bring some new toppings to the table. Flip-flops have been around for thousands of years, right? It’s not like we’re bringing new categories into the mix, we’re just doing something a little bit different. The goal is to be more innovative in a category we feel is less innovative.

ON DISPLAY Hari Mari founder Jeremy Stewart ‘97 (middle) gives a presentation on his flipflops at the Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark in Grand Prairie.

FOCUS ON ONE PRODUCT It’s important to become great at one or two things before expanding your product lines. I think one of the biggest fallacies and errors that other brands make is that they move too quickly into other ventures without being known for being great at one thing first. This tends to dilute what they’re known for, dilute their product quality and bring this mediocrity to their brand.

BE A GOOD BOSS I think the hardest thing in business is managing people. I really do. It’s harder than any other side of your business, so investing time in understanding people is hugely important. There is just nothing that will supplant that learning curve of figuring out how to manage people as early and as young as you possibly can.

ENTREPRENEUR

Flipping the market

Jeremy Stewart ’97 has adventured into a unique market — flip-flops – in hopes of making the perfect casual footwear people have been looking for.

xplosion at a diner just 15 minutes ago; thought to be an act of terror… stay away from downtown for the time being … Jeremy Stewart ‘97 and his wife looked up from lunch to see breaking news on their TVs — a bomb had exploded at their favorite restaurant in downtown Jakarta, Indonesia. That’s when they decided it was time for a change. The couple was visiting as part of Stewart’s job: helping emerging democracies with political campaigns. After a couple of years of constant traveling, they were well overdue for some time back home in the US. ••• After graduating from Vanderbilt University, Stewart found himself an internship back in Dallas working as a political consultant, where he quickly moved on to adventures across the world. Following his epiphany in Indonesia, he found himself searching for a new source of income. “I realized that the same tactics, skill sets and strategies used in political campaigns can be applied to entrepreneurship,” Stewart said. “It’s just a whole new take on how it can be done. A candidate is just a walking consumer good — you dress them up, attach messages to them and put them in the right distribution points.” He ended up deciding on flip-flops because he found the industry lacked any innovation. “It seemed that in the time we were away nothing had changed, especially on the guy’s side,” Stewart said.

“Everything was just the same iteration of black and brown flip-flops, and our favorite brand was like war on your feet.” Stewart began by setting up focus groups around Dallas where he gathered college students and adults to talk about their thoughts on the flip-flop industry, finding a few common agreements. “First, we found everyone hates how that piece of fabric between your first and second toe kills your feet for the first two months,” Stewart said. “We also found that guys are open to colors, but it has to be done the right way. Finally, we found that there was a trend towards more casual footwear, and we were seeing that on our respondents’ feet. They didn’t even know they were coming in to talk about flip-flops, but they were all wearing them.” Stewart also noticed that people were beginning to prefer longer-lasting products. “We found that, in addition to this shift towards easy-to-wear sandals, there’s also a really important shift towards conscious consumerism,” Stewart said.“Both in my generation and in younger generations, people are willing to pay more for products that don’t go to the landfill soon.” Stewart chose a unique price point for his products by taking advantage of a gap in the price range of flip-flops. “We were filling a void that was totally empty,” Stewart said. “There are hundreds of brands selling flipflops $55 and below, and there are a handful of brands

REMEMBER TO RELAX Another important tip is to never get too excited about wins and never get too low about losses. I think that’s key because those things can happen within the same hour on a daily basis. If you’re constantly riding a roller coaster, it really takes a toll on you — both physically and emotionally.

SEEK OUT ADVICE Mentors are everything, and pretending like you know everything is the antithesis of entrepreneurship. I’d say entrepreneurship is inherently bound to learning and to education, so every day is still an education for me. I’m so fascinated with our business because I don’t know even know a tenth of it yet.

selling for $100 and above. There’s no one selling between $60 and $100.” As most entrepreneurs find out, starting your own company from scratch is not an easy task. “Everything was a challenge,” Stewart said. “We had no experience in footwear whatsoever. We learned by skinning our knees a lot out of the gates.” Stewart learned to add more to his company from his past experience. After living abroad with his wife and working on projects related to kids, children’s health became a consistent goal throughout Stewart’s company. “We wanted to make sure that whatever we did next would help kids in some capacity,” Stewart said. “We saw a lot of brands doing things for kids abroad, and we were curious why more brands weren’t doing things for kids here in the U.S. We started to do some research and try to figure out where we could help.” After learning the fatality rate of pediatric cancer among U.S. children, Stewart became dedicated to making children’s health a priority in his company along with his products. “We just knew immediately that we were going to marry the two together,” Stewart said. “For us, it not only brings a lot more meaning to our business than just selling flip-flops, but it also is a vehicle for good, and that’s important for us as we build our brand.”

STORY Will Pechersky, Austin Williams PHOTO Courtesy Jeremy Stewart

New pet-themed merchandise available in student store by Eric Yoo After taking over the student store at the beginning of the 2018 school year, student store manager Nancy Goldberg has made many changes. This year, she has put photos of community pets around the store as a way for everyone to see and appreciate the pets of faculty, staff and students. People also began to ask her for school brand dog collars and other pet merchandise. “We ordered t-shirts and bandannas,” Goldberg said. “Then somebody sent me a picture of their dog wearing the bandanna, and I thought what a great idea to have lots of pictures with dogs and bandannas and shirts.” She started spreading the word to people to send photos of their pets in St. Mark’s bandannas or t-shirts. “We collected all the pictures made a book and a jigsaw puzzle,” Goldberg said. “Then more people heard about it, so now we’re going to do a volume two.” Goldberg hopes to have even more submissions for their second volume. “We are looking for more fluffy friends,” Goldberg said. “Not just dogs and cats. I would love to have a ferret, iguana or even a Komodo dragon. Although they are not so fluffy, I would still love to have them.”

MAN’S BEST FRIEND After months of collecting, student store manager Nancy Goldberg has compiled photos of the community’s pets. Some dogs featured include alumnus Davis Yoo’s goldendoodle Nikki Flash (left) and second grader Hayden Smith’s two fourlegged friends Georgina and Biscuit (above).

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JOURNALISM

Writing sky high Parker Davis ‘19 started writing for the online newspaper Airline Geeks during his sophomore year here. Now, he is in charge of the entire operation.

Eric Yoo: How did you find Airline Geeks? Parker Davis: Back in eighth grade I started doing aviation photography when I got to go to DFW Airport. I took pictures of planes and would post them on Instagram. I had a big Instagram account that I ran for a while, and through doing that, I got to meet a bunch of other people who were my age from around the country and did the same thing. I became very good friends with one of them. I actually ended up spending a day with him taking pictures in Chicago. He was a photographer for this website, and I talked to him about writing for my high school newspaper. He said, “Oh, you should check out this website. We are looking for new writers. That can be something that’s interesting. You’d be on the younger end of the staff, but it seems like you’d enjoy it.” I started reading about the website, and after a couple weeks, I sent an email to the guy who was the editor-in-chief. And he gave me a call and we talked for 30 or 45 minutes and I showed him some of the work I’d done it for The ReMarker. After that, I just started writing for him. I had enough experience where I was. I was good to go and jumped in during August of my sophomore year. EY: How much did The ReMarker and winning National High School Journalist of the Year help you in being a part of that staff? PD: Being a part of The ReMarker was a huge help because for a while almost everyone who came to the site didn’t really have a whole lot of news writing or just the general journalistic writing experience. So being able to come to the table with everything I learned in beginning journalism was really helpful. I think it was something that helped me get my foot in the door and show that I could contribute right off the bat. EY: What was the process to become the editorin-chief? PD: It’s a little bit of an underlying story. I started off as a regular staff writer, doing articles every week. After probably a year and a half or two years of writing for them, they put out an open invitation to writers to just send an email to the editors if we wanted to do a little bit more and have a little bit more responsibility, so I did. I spent some time talking on the phone about ideas I had for the site and I was set to the role of senior writer, which wasn’t a whole lot different. I did start running the onboarding program for new writers with one other guy. We basically put together a multiple staff multiweek program to take people who want to write for the site but don’t have a whole lot of newswriting experiences. Giving them the crash course in how to write a story – how to not just

write a news story but how to write everything from an opinion article to a feature story. It was based on everything we learned in beginning journalism in ninth grade. After another two years I got a message from the guy who is the editor-in-chief at the time. He said he was moving on to work for Business Insider as a writer for them. He asked me if being editor was something I was interested in.

by the numbers

181

s t o r i e s

number of pieces published on the AirlineGeeks website

staff members regularly writing for the website

number of continents represented by writers SOURCE: AIRLINEGEEKS.COM

EY: How does writing and being editor for the site fit in with your college schedule? PD: All of this is online. We have writers in at least a dozen states. I would bet almost 10 countries at this point. We communicate almost entirely through various forms of text messages and over the phone whenever we can. It’s really easy to fit in with my schedule because I’m writing whenever I have a chance to

write. I’m doing phone calls with people to talk about the news writing wherever it fits in our schedule. That’s why I stay around. It lets me spend time doing work and spend time doing whatever else I need to do. It’s not all-encompassing. EY: What’s the dynamic of working and bossing people who are older than you? PD: We’re still in that interim period. It’s interesting because I’ve only worked with one person who was within five years of my age and a lot of people are doing this alongside because they have a passion for aviation and airlines. They don’t have any experience, so it’s weird to be the one that knows more. Honestly, everybody is so excited to be a part of it and to learn a little bit. Everyone’s so open to whatever suggestions I have. To teach them a little bit of what I know is a lot of fun. EY: How did you get into airplanes? PD: I don’t really have a perfect idea as to how it happened. My mom worked at Southwest headquarters for more than five years. I would go there for lunch because they have a cafeteria. It overlooks the runways. I loved going and watching planes land and take off. I saw Air Force One come in a couple times. That was one of those moments that stuck with me. My dad traveled all over the world for business, and he would always take pictures of the planes he was flying in. I took the photography elective in seventh grade, and my dad would drive me out to the airport. The first time I took a couple hundred photos and just started posting them. I enjoyed interacting with people on Instagram. I enjoyed interacting with people and other websites where I put my photos up and it was just great to be a part of that.

STEPPING UP After only a couple years on the AirlineGeeks staff, Parker Davis ‘19 took the role of editorin-chief as one of the youngest members working on the website.

To read some of Davis’ work as editorin-chief, visit AirlineGeeks. com

STORY Eric Yoo PHOTO Courtesy Parker Davis

Middle School Leadership Loops presentations moving back to newly renovated Decherd Auditorium by Jonathan Yin eadership Loops presentations have returned to Decherd Auditorium after repairs were completed following the storm Oct. 20. As a result of the storm damage, the Leadership Loops, a key component of the Middle School’s Path to Manhood curriculum, could not be presented to the Middle School as a whole. “The Leadership Loop model is one where presentations are made to the entire Middle School in Decherd on a Wednesday, typically delivered by Upper School students,” Middle School Head Dean Clayman said. Each individual Leadership Loop runs for six days, from Wednesday to the

Monday of the next week. Grades five through seven make entries into their Path to Manhood portfolios during class meeting on Friday, while eighth graders make their entries on Thursday during humanities class. During advisory, the eighth graders are teamed up in groups or two or three to lead a fifth, sixth, or seventh grade advisory in character and leadership discussions. “It’s called a loop because for each loop, there are three parts to it, and they loop through a topic related to character and leadership,” Teaching Fellow Mason Smith ‘15 said. “This year, we’re doing five loops.”

The five loops this year focus on setting goals and building habits, gratitude, growth mindset, advisory conference presentation planning and a leadership timeline, looking back on the year. The loops are chosen by a leadership team, comprised of Clayman, Smith, Assistant Head of Middle School Jason Lange, Malcolm and Minda Brachman Master Teaching Chair Martin Stegemoeller and Associate Headmaster John Ashton. “The foundation of all Leadership Loops is the character and leadership handbook, which is a compendium of all of the information, topics and beliefs that we have regarding character and

leadership,” Clayman said. “We reference the leadership handbook to pull out topics and ideas that we think are both relevant and applicable to the structures that we have created.” Although the program is relatively new, having only been implemented for the past two years, the team hopes to establish a regular collection of leadership topics. “Because this is such a new program, we’re constantly thinking of how can we make this better,” Smith said. “What we can do to improve this, to get better student outcomes, help them learn more about these things and have a better experience. So we’re always thinking about how we can make this better.”

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McDonald’s Week is back!

fter a four-month postponement due to the Oct. 22 tornado that caused significant damage to the Preston-Royal area, Junior Class leaders have officially announced a revised McDonald’s Week March 2-5. With the McDonald’s still closed for repair, events will now be held on the school campus. “We are working through

challenges such as food, all-day day, raffles, making sure all the stores that donated before the storm still want to, confirming dinner nights and finding a new dinner night because one of our dinner night restaurants is now closed,” McDonald’s Week co-chair Gabe Bines said. “We are excited to share more with the entire school as we approach the week!“

What we know

To be determined

When

March 2-5

Raffle Items

Currently being gathered

Where

On campus

Food

There will be food, but the sources are unknown

Dinner Nights

(Mon.) Cantina Laredo (Tue.) Shake Shack (Wed.) Flower Child

Morning Events

Because of weather concerns, the final list of events is still to be determined.

NEW IDEA Prioritizing long-term memory in his new app, senior Sahitya Senapathy hopes users find Studiously more useful than short-term memory apps like Quizlet.

A new way to learn INNOVATION

Senior Sahitya Senapathy created an app designed to help students achieve the deeper sense of learning crucial to Upper School.

L FLASHBACK Senior Alex Piccagli and sophomore Henry Piccagli bob for apples in a brotherly competition during McDonald’s Week last year. While McDonald’s Week is normally during November, it has been moved to March this year.

ike most students, senior Sahitya Senapathy relied on memorizationbased study apps like Quizlet to prepare for tests, passing through freshman year with flying colors. However, as he progressed through the Upper School, Senapathy noticed a shift in the curriculum. Less memorization. More understanding. By the middle of sophomore year, while his classmates were still creating study sets on Quizlet, he was creating his own studying habits. Habits based on long-term learning – not short-term memory. As classes began to veer away from purely memorization and into deeper thought and understanding, an idea sprouted in his mind. Fed up by the limitations of popular study apps, Senapathy decided to create his own. ••• Senapathy’s startup web app, Studiously, uses artificial intelligence to help students prepare for school and study more effectively. Realizing that cramming the night before a test was becoming less and less effective as classes increased in difficulty, Senapathy took action, quickly adapting to his courses. “I learned some study habits by myself, including focusing on critical thinking and developing a broad range of skills while going in depth into certain subjects,” Senapathy said. “It was able to help me better understand and prepare for a test, and using those sorts of skills and learning methods that I have developed, I was able to imbue them into Studiously.” Building on his newfound study habits, Senapathy crafted Studiously to help students learn over time and truly understand the subject rather than merely memorizing it for a few days. As classes become cumulative and a deep knowledge of the subject at hand becomes increasingly critical for success in the classroom, relying on short term memory becomes less and less effective. “For Quizlet, you either create your own set or find somebody else's set online,” Senapathy said. “Sometimes the sets may be unreliable, or they may not have necessarily factual information. Studiously uses a machine-learning algorithm to really refine and find the most accurate questions that are able to test you on the most relevant information, which helps you in the educational process.” Senapathy says prioritizing comprehension rather than memorization is the next step for students and educators alike. “I think it’s better for the educational sector, and I think that's primarily because of

the cultural shift that is needed in education right now,” Senapathy said. “For far too long we've seen that high school students and college students are just really focusing on memorization apps.” Even though Studiously has raised over 5,000 dollars from investors since its conception in the beginning of his sophomore year, Senapathy has faced many challenges getting his startup off the ground. “Since I was in sixth grade, I've been doing little projects in computer science and programming little startup entrepreneurial ventures,” Senapathy said, “but the hardest part for me was definitely developing the business side of entrepreneurship because Studiously was really one of the biggest projects in which I had to learn, get my hands into and really explore the business side of running a startup.” Now, after two years of user testing at the University of Pennsylvania — where he will attend college next fall, Senapathy plans to finish beta testing and have a fully functioning app within two more years. “Since I'm going to college next year,” Senapathy said, “I'm hoping to use some of the resources at the University of Pennsylvania – some of the incubators at Wharton – and get some more expertise and knowledge gaining more users. I think we'll know from the beta testing phase whether or not teachers or students really like Studiously or are ready for Studiously, and based on that we’d go from there with scaling and reaching out to users, other customers, and building Studiously up.” After Sahitya Senapathy Creator of Studiously successful beta testing, Senapathy hopes students and educators will be prepared for the cultural shift in education that Studiously champions, one that pushes for comprehension, rather than memorization, to build long-lasting connections. “I think a pretty well-known statistic in education is nine out of ten employers say that high school graduates aren't as prepared for jobs as they should be,” Senapathy said. “That really encapsulates what the importance of Studiously is within the ed-tech sector. Studiously hopes to shift away from memorization and the bad and ineffective studying habits, making students more prepared to assume leadership as innovators, researchers and scholars in the workforce as they grow up to challenge some of the important societal problems that exist today.”

STORY Peter Orsak, Jonathan Yin PHOTO Courtesy Sahitya Senapathy

3D Design

Organ update

Comedian

YoungArts

Literary Festival

Inspired by school history, senior Alex Piccagli is building the new senior sculpture. Page 15

Previewing the organ restoration project, what needs to be repaired and who’s on the job. Page 18

Nabeel Muscatwalla ‘14 and his meteoric rise to the CBS Comedy Showcase stage. Page 19

Stepping into the shoes of senior photographers Kyle Fisher and Ryan McCord. Page 20

Looking back at last month’s Literary Festival panels, events and classes. Page 21

CULTURE THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

ART

The art in everything

SEARCHING FOR A DEFINITION With conceptual art becoming a popular trend, where is the line between art and frivolity?

In light of a banana duct-taped to a wall selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars, can anything qualify as art?

t started with a banana and a roll of duct tape. where someone can tape a piece of fruit to a wall and sell Then it made it to the Miami Art Basel. it for $120 thousand,” Adams said. “Later, I read that the Then it sold for $120 thousand. Another for $150 banana had been eaten, and that was an even funnier turn in thousand. this whole caper.” Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian” has drawn attention While many news outlets and art reviewers found far and wide for its commentary on art today and how the piece to be whimsical and brilliant, others have seemingly anything can sell for any arbitrary sum of money. been disappointed with both the attention the piece has But is Cattelan’s piece just fruit and tape? How much garnered and the price tag that comes with it, let alone even of it represents what art is today? How much does it project considering art. what art will be in the future? “When looking at art, I think the viewer should have an And if Cattelan’s piece is a symbol of things to open mind,” junior woodworker Aayan Khasgiwala said. come, what is art as we know it? How have people in “That being said, it's hard for me to compare the banana to the community reacted to this change? And how are we the other art people have spent time trying to perfect.” teaching art on campus to accommodate this new era? However, for the Dallas Museum of Art’s Board of ••• Trustees President Catherine Rose, “Comedian” is a piece Although most of Cattelan’s art is satirical — some of his that demands a certain degree of respect for not only the pieces are a gold-plated toilet, a giant middle finger, a pope artist’s history but also for his initiative to do what hasn’t crippled by a fallen meteor and many others — Cattelan been done before, no matter how outlandish it may seem. took the definition of art to the extreme in his most recent “I take it seriously in terms of the idea, and I think he piece — a fresh banana purchased at a is really brilliant because he's willing to local supermarket for 30 cents held to go out there,” Rose said. “And because a white wall with a singular piece of he has that notoriety and that reputation duct tape — at Art Basel Miami Beach, and serious intellects behind it, people THE ERA OF PRETTY IMAGES ultimately selling two editions for $120 take it seriously. I know a lot of people's AND ART BEING PURELY thousand each and a third for $150 responses were 'I could have stuck a AESTHETICS IS FADING. thousand. banana with duct tape on the wall,' but The piece even inspired copyyou didn't. So it's as much about the idea FAMOUS ARTISTS EXHIBITING cat works on campus: an unknown IN MUSEUMS HAVE ART FOR behind it as it is actual execution. Is it a student put a banana strapped to a beautiful work of art? I'll let people decide BOTH THE EYE AND THE for themselves.” board in a computer science room in MIND. IT HAS CHANGED ART the Winn Science Center, and freshman Sam Adams originally planned to tape While “Comedian” may be accepted as art, AS WE KNOW IT FOR SURE. a banana to Latin instructor Claire — ART INSTRUCTOR KATE WOOD the true issue is the banana’s extreme cost. Strange’s door. Caught in the act, Adams First-year art instructor Kate Wood admits instead scotch-taped an orange with the word “modern” on Cattelan’s piece isn’t something she would make or buy, but Latin instructor David Cox’s door. she says there’s something to be said about the price of an “I was reading a news article that someone had taped idea. a banana up on a wall, and it sold for well over $100 “It makes sense in the art world we're in,” Wood said. thousand, and just laughed at what the world has come to “The artwork itself is not the physical banana and duct

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Personal favorites

Art instructor Kate Wood talks about her favorite artists and their work

SOL LEWITT “What he’s probably most well known for are these wall drawings. His artwork is the idea, and you need to buy the idea. They have specific directions on how to make them, and anybody can paint those installations as long as they have a certificate of authenticity.”

YVES KLEIN “He did a lot of conceptual stuff. Not necessarily part of the capital C conceptual movement. It’s very much this idea of him just seeing, observing society, observing the art world.”

OLAFUR ELLIASON “He’s brilliant. He takes nature and brings it into our world, into our experience in a way that makes us slow down and appreciate this moment in time. That’s something I would point to as something to uphold and call great art.”

STORY Luke Piazza, Siddhartha Sinha PHOTO Jerry Zhao

tape. If we are just asking how duct tape and a banana can be worth $150 thousand, that's not what the value is. Essentially, they make the argument that that's a $150 thousand idea because this is conceptual art.” To Wood, the audience’s reaction has also become an integral part of art in the last century of art history, and although it has led to pieces that toe the line between art and frivolity, it comes with the territory. “These artists are able to see unlike anyone else,” Wood said. “They're able to just capture it. In some cases it's funny, in some cases it's serious and in some cases it elicits this reaction like the duct tape and the banana. It can be good and bad for sure.” Kate Wood art instructor While some see the simplicity of a banana and a single strip of duct tape and immediately jump to criticism on their Twitter accounts, others see a purpose between the peels. “It’s irritatingly genius since the artist used one of the most commonplace objects and turned it into ‘art’ with the power of will and clout,” junior artist Daniel Wu said. “‘Comedian’ brings to light the power artists have when they turn simple things into works buyers are interested in. It basically mocks buyers’ susceptibility to big names and hype while also creating an illusion of rareness.” On the other hand, Rose believes the piece’s ability to provoke such a variety of emotions and reactions across the world makes it an artistic success. “I can look at the banana and not really have a response to it except to giggle,” Rose said. “But then when you get to the thoughts behind why he did that and what he is trying to say about the state of where we are. That gives you a lot to chew on.” When it comes to Wood’s job on campus, she doesn’t see her job as one where she expresses her opinions. Instead, she says her job is to broaden her students’ horizons. “I feel like my job is to expose them to ideas,” Wood said, “so they can be better prepared to be that person that's going to see something in a unique way and make these connections and hopefully do their own unexpected, incredible piece that's going to blow everyone's mind.” If she can inspire her students to think outside the box and beyond their initial thoughts — much like the conceptual artists of today — Wood says she will be content with the art her students produce at 10600 Preston Road. “When it comes to making good art here in our art studio,” Wood said, “I'm trying to get them to experiment and push their creativity. That has to do a lot with thinking through numerous options. Not settling for just that first idea, but really trying that divergent kind of thinking.” But as she pushes her students to test the limits of art, Wood cautions her students and the community from hastily calling everything art. “I don't think anything can be art,” Wood said, “but in terms of what can be art, that’s absolutely a question always in flux. The second we attempt to pin down what art is, it's going to change in a blink. That's what makes it exciting. That's why those of us who love doing it keep coming back to it.”

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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CULTURE

3D DESIGN

Traumainspired sculpture

SPARKS FLYING Piccagli uses the brand-new power saw to construct parts of his piece.

Senior Alex Piccagli was selected to create a 12-foot tall sculpture to commemorate the community’s reaction to the recent tornado.

here were a lot of great ideas. And we’ve decided to go with Alex’s idea. Senior Alex Piccagli has been eagerly waiting for this announcement since he applied. He’s in his 3D-Design class when instructor John Frost gathers his class around. He sees all the other seniors who applied for this task around the table. Then he hears the words. Piccagli was ecstatic. His fellow seniors congratulated him despite being a little disappointed. But now it was time for Piccagli to begin his sculpture that would be seen by the entire community here. A task only given to one student before him. ••• Piccagli was selected by a group of faculty to create the second annual sculpture to be placed on campus. To ensure a well-received sculpture, Piccagli looked towards recent events for inspiration. “My inspiration spurred from the tornado and the events that happened,” Piccagli said. “I think our community responded very well to the tragedy, and I just really wanted to represent that somehow.” Frost says Piccagli’s symbolism is what compelled them to pick his model. “Most of the pieces were a response to the tornado,” Frost said. “I think his piece just kind of resonated with all of us. It’s going to have a very nice linear sculptural form to it. Within that though, there’s some kind of emotional connection relating to the school.” Frost says the current model for Piccagli’s piece stands around 12 feet tall. “His proposal is essentially playing off the idea of the storm coming through and wreaking havoc,” Frost said. “His piece is going to somewhat resemble a flagpole that’s been mangled and twisted and bent up, but then we’re going to

do some variation of a flag on the end of it. It’s basically raising the flag of hope to symbolize resurrecting beyond what was already there.” Piccagli emphasized the importance of his piece. “The meaning is really about how our community overcame the destruction and despair and came out a better place and a more wellrounded society here today,” Piccagli said. After Frost revealed they had selected Piccagli’s piece, he was elated. “I was pretty pumped,” Piccagli said. “I gave a celebratory fist bump up in the air, and I was congratulated by the other seniors. They weren’t too downtrodden, and I did some slight dancing.” According to Frost, Piccagli is still in the design phase. “Right now, he’s just specifying his model because we’re still waiting on the material,” Frost said. “The school’s also getting a new welder for it, and we’re using stainless steel, which is something we haven’t used before.” As Frost said, Piccagli decided to use stainless steel and aluminum as the main materials for his creation. “Welding stainless steel is actually going to be new to both of us,” Frost said. “It’s a similar process, different material. It’s just going to be kind of a learning process, and figuring out the space and scale because it is projected to be about 12 feet tall.” Frost and his colleagues are still deciding on the location for this year’s piece and Daniel Mirochna ’19’s piece from last year, which is currently still standing in front of Decherd Hall. “I mean, if I had my pick, it would stay there, and we would find another place on campus for this one,” Frost said. “[Fine Arts Department Chair Marion] Glorioso and I were talking about some

other possibilities that might turn into something, but as of right now, we’re just taking the one from last year down.” In a family not built around the arts, Piccagli feels that him being selected holds a higher meaning to his relatives. “It’s just a really proud moment in the Piccagli household,” Piccagli said. “We’re not the biggest ‘art family,’ but the fact that one of our children was able to overcome that barrier and find his creative voice was really something special for my parents and my grandparents.”

DESIGNING Piccagli creates a smaller wood model to guide his progress as he builds to real sculpture.

STORY Eric Yoo, Peter Orsak PHOTOS Kyle Fisher “It was snowing that day pretty hard, and I had a long lens on a telephoto. We were on these zodiacs, which are basically electric rafts they drive around [in Antarctica], and we saw one of these crab-eater seals, which is what that is, laying on an iceberg. I only had time to take a couple of shots, but that one was perfect because it froze the snow in the background that is dropping and it got the seal in this sharp detail. I love how the seal looks, its face and everything. Makes for a perfect photo.”

A look at sophomore Anashay Monga’s photography compilation from his Instagram account, @anashaymongaphoto. From Antarctica to around the house, he describes them:

Anashay Monga sophomore

“We were doing either a still life assignment or something like that [for photography class], so I turned in this Scylla. On it are some flowers I found around the house and put it together in this vase that had some stripes on it because I thought it would be interesting visually. It juxtaposes the pattern in the flower, which I liked a lot. It probably had a little bit strong of a vignette on it.”

“I love landscape, especially mountains and glaciers in the Arctics… this was in Alaska, where I went this summer with my grandparents for their birthday or anniversary. The photo was taken on a cruise and it was in Glacier Bay, the National Park. We went in there and that was the largest one there, called Margerie Glacier. I had to shoot that one off the deck of the cruise ship.”

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DESENSITIZATION

Overcoming the overload With the rise of the overproduction of news and media, people across the world find it difficult to deal with the abundance of information.

H by the numbers We took a look at social media posts for different issues facing the nation and world today to see how social media contributes to the desensitization

Australia fires

57.9

million Instagram posts

#Australia on Fire trending on Twitter

Climate Change

3.4

million Instagram posts

#Climate Emergency trending on Twitter

Impeachment

344

thousand Instagram posts

#Impeachment Trial trending on Twitter

Iran

19.3

million Instagram posts

#Iran vs America trending on Twitter

e was obsessed with it. Every day, he was forced to check it — whether it was on his phone, on his computer or in his email. From the protests in Hong Kong to climate change to the Australian fires, it all started to add up for Head Athletic Trainer Matt Hjertstedt. Checking the news over 50 times a day, he couldn’t stop caring about all these issues. He couldn’t stop feeling hopeless. Trying to close the dozens of mental tabs open in his brain, Hjertstedt felt lost like many people do across the country today. But it isn’t just him. People across the world are fatigued from the immense amount of news available to consumers at all times, a concept known as desensitization. Hjertstedt sees this issue as one that numbs his senses to important events that occur in the world on a daily basis. “I want to know what’s going on around the world, but I think my problem is when that’s what I do all the time,” Hjertstedt said. “I’m becoming numb to some of the articles and some of the issues.” For Byron LaMasters ’01, a political consultant in Washington, D.C., his view of this growing issue from the political perspective has been a unique one. Working on voter contact programs to help candidates and campaigns, LaMasters is well Bryon LaMasters ’01 versed in everything from Dallas Political Consultant city council races to presidential campaigns, where he is currently working on the Amy Klobuchar campaign. LaMasters sees the issue of desensitization as an immense pressure on the population. “It’s overwhelming for a lot of people in terms of just managing all the news coming out,” LaMasters said. “It’s easy to go through the news and get overwhelmed by things that are happening that are out of your control.” As well as seeing this issue as overwhelming, Jake McAuley ’08, the Paris correspondent for The Washington Post, understands this mass amount of news has numbed the consumer with every news article that has come out. “It’s very difficult for the average consumer of news, the average citizen, to remain as interested when everything has become so much a function of entertainment,” McAuley said. “The 24 hour news cycle has created this culture in which people look to be entertained by the news.” From a journalist’s perspective, McAuley doesn’t see any issue with how his work is contributing to this problem of desensitization. Rather, he sees a responsibility of the consumer to control the influx of news. “The job of the journalist is to Grant Moise report the facts as soon as he or she Publisher of The Dallas can verify them,”McAuley said, Morning News “so as long as these facts that are being reported live in these live stories, and we certainly do tons of those, are verified and true, then I don’t see a problem with publishing them as soon as possible.”

Grant Moise is responsible for the operating and business side of the publication as well as the whole news operation, serving as Publisher of The Dallas Morning News. Differing from LaMasters, Moise sees this desensitization from three different perspectives, a journalist’s perspective, a reader’s perspective and a societal perspective. “Everyone here first needs to write it for digital. Then, they need to edit it for print. Then, they need to promote it on any social media platform that they have,” Moise said. “I would say there is the reader fatigue, meaning the reader feels so overwhelmed, and some just want their news coming at them all day long. On top of this, the demands of your time is what I call this societal fatigue.” Moise sees the problem originating from the consumer, who is always refreshing the page for the next issue. “I’d say it is the consumer’s insatiable appetite for news and information that’s contributing to it,” Moise said. “It’s our content, but we wouldn’t keep publishing it if people didn’t have this insatiable appetite.” LaMasters also credits the rise of social media to this issue of desensitization and says social media platforms add unneeded pressure to consumers. Instead of acting on social media, LaMasters encourages people to make a difference in a few issues in their communities. “The protests in Hong Kong are important, but I don’t know there’s that much the average person in the United States can do about them,” LaMasters said. “If there’s a climate march in Dallas that you can go to, that’s obviously something you can do in the community. I think that’s where people should try to focus their time and energy on.” Sharan Shetty ‘09, associate editor of The New Yorker, believes technology has played a major role in how news is processed. “How information is created, how it’s

accessed, how it’s distributed, how it’s consumed and all that, has led to oversaturation,” Shetty said. “Everyone feels overwhelmed with the amount of input space that they receive on a daily basis.” Moise also sees this driving force of social Alw media as a big influence on hangin how desensitization comes into play. “After lunch in college, we’d all go sit around the quad at my high school, and we would debate,” Moise said. “What I worry about with social media is the neverending conversation that you’re trying to keep up with.” LaMasters understands the scale of these global issues and knows that it is very difficult for individuals to solve them on their own, so instead, he urges people to not focus on the things out of their

STORY Sam Ahmed, Aaron Thorne, Jack Davis, Luke Piazza PHOTO ILLUSTRATION Tyler Nussbaumer, Charlie Rose

Hong Kong

34.5

million Instagram posts

SOURCES: INSTAGRAM, TWITTER

The Washington Post - 800 journalists - Based in Washington, D.C. - Won 47 Pulitzer Prizes SOURCE: THE ATLANTIC

1,200

staff-produced articles and wire stories, written elsewhere

500

stories produced by the editorial staff itself

The New York Times - Over 1,600 journalists - Based in New York City - Won 127 Pulitzer Prizes

230

pieces of content daily from stories to blogs

percent increase in number of stories produced this decade

In 2010, the paper only published about 170 pieces a day. They published about 150 on the weekdays and 300 on Sunday.

ways ng over

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

PERSPECTIVES

boundaries, you have to be able to focus on one thing at a time and address that thing in a quality and substantial way,” Shetty said. “That is the primary mandate of what I’m supposed to do. To do so, I need to be able to focus on one thing at a time.”

Instead of covering all issues across the world, Moise makes sure that The Dallas Morning News is covering only issues related to the Dallas Forts consumers, the constant cycles of news we Worth area. receive can take a toll on our psychological “We have been very being, according to our counseling staff. intentional about narrowing Director of Counseling Barbara Van Drie our focus so that our staff does believes for the sake of our own mental health, not get overwhelmed, and one must be careful about how much consume what I mean by that is we have and how to consume it. the North Texas lens,” Moise “I think we have a responsibility to be good said. “So that helps us to not citizens of our country and our world and to worry about what’s happening know what’s happening,” Van Drie said. “But I in Ukraine or North Korea or think we have to find ways to be informed that Iran.” are also healthy for us as individuals.” Shetty Van Drie sees a balance between keeping up believes that with news and personal health that consumers if things begin should try and achieve. to become “We have an obligation and responsibility too much to to be informed to the world, and we have a handle for the responsibility to our own selves to be healthy,” consumer, it’s Van Drie said. “So we have to balance those Sharan Shetty ’09 completely okay associate editor of New Yorker dueling obligations.” just to remove yourself from For Lower and Middle School Counselor Gabby the news loop and reset. Reed, she witnesses her parents, who are from “If you’re beginning Bolivia, dealing with desensitization of their news to feel immunized to the all the time, especially with the recent overthrow emotional effects of those of the Bolivian President. things, it’s totally okay to turn “My parents are highly involved in reading off, to spend some time with every piece of media that comes out about this, yourself,” Shetty said. “Once particularly off of Facebook and things like that,” you’ve restored that, you can Reed said. “I have seen a definite decline in their once again decide which issues mental health over the course of this, and they you actually want to focus on can identify it themselves. They will say, ‘We are and work toward and improve reading too much about this. We’re too worried and ameliorate.” about this.’ And what’s happening is they’re Thinking about different reading what ends up being fake news.” ways to combat this issue of Reed describes the effect of desensitization of desensitization, The Dallas news on people as “a roller coaster of Morning News is looking to emotion that they’ve chosen to get on test out a way that they would and ride with very little agency.” only publish twice a day “It’s really hard to download all this online instead of constantly information and then feel completely refreshing their site every 15 helpless to do anything about it,” Reed minutes. said. And there are very few people who “We could allow the will go and actually write to their local Dallas consumer to rest a B a r b a r a V a n D r i e representative or donate and feel like little bit by not feeling like Director of Counseling they’ve done something or contributed sometimes we have to cover in some way. Instead it’s this passive everything that happens every receiving of all of this terrible information and 15 minutes,” Moise said. “But feeling like, ‘Well, there’s nothing I can do, and at the same time, I don’t know if that’s what I’m helpless.’ And that helpless feeling can get it people want. So we’re going to test it. We take a very heavy to carry all the time.” very small subset of our digital user base and see

From experts, desensitization causes depression

own control. “I think one of the challenges is people want to change the world, and it’s such an overwhelming task,” LaMasters said. “No one if just two times publishing a day satisfies them.” can change the world on their own focus on For Hjertstedt, he is going to wane off his doing small things. Once you get into the world media addiction to try to combat the issue. of working for a living, I think you’ll have “My recommendation to myself is to find opportunities oftentimes to affect things in bigger certain times of the day, whether it’s the morning ways. Even then, it’s important to not dwell on or when I get home from work to look at the the things you can’t control because there’s a lot news,” Hjertstedt said. “That’s of things like that out there.” my goal for myself. When I say Shetty believes that the I’m checking it 50 times a day, best way for people to make a NOW THERE’S THOUSANDS I’m not joking.” difference is to start on a local OF STORIES YOU CAN READ In Shetty’s mind, the best scale. “A lot of these issues we ON YOUR FACEBOOK FEED OR way to narrow down the news talked about are so huge in ON THE INTERNET EVERY DAY, you consume is to prioritize the scope,” Shetty said. “They’re AND I THINK IT’S OVERWHELM- things you are passionate about and try to make change. national and global issues. “I think the answer is to Something like climate change ING FOR A LOT OF PEOPLE — BRYON LAMASTERS ’01 choose things you’re passionate is literally a global historical about,” Shetty said. “The advice event. Look around you if I would give to that person who is struggling you’re in Dallas for organizations that are doing with an overload of news is that it’s okay to something.” prioritize. The answer to a better and more As an editor of a news magazine, Shetty’s politically productive life is not really to know job is to constantly be in the know of what’s about everything all at once. It is to know one happening. However, that part of his job does thing deeply and to be able to contribute to the take an emotional toll. betterment of that thing.” “At some point, you have to draw certain

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Buzzfeed

914

posts on April 2012 on Buzzfeed.com - Over 1,700 employees - Based in New York City - Founded in 2006

videos uploaded on April 2012 to Buzzfeed.com

5,271

posts on April 2015 on Buzzfeed.com

205

videos uploaded by April 2015 to Buzzfeed.com

6,365

posts on April 2016 on Buzzfeed.com

319

videos uploaded by April 2016 to Buzzfeed.com

On a psychological level, Van Drie relates the idea of desensitization to the theory of “Learned Helplessness.” “The theory of “Learned Helplessness” is that as you sit here and there’s nothing you can do, or you feel this feeling of ‘There’s just nothing I can do to change the outcome,’” Van Drie said. “The outcome of “Learned Helplessness” is depression. So if we constantly stay in this state of feeling of ‘Oh, I see that and it’s terrible and there’s nothing I can do,’ it inevitably leads to depression.” For Van Drie, one way she has learned to soften the blow of the influx of news is by reading longer pieces of news instead of watching them on Gabby Reed Lower & Middle television. School Counselor “[Reading] at times is a less stressful way because it’s a slower way to take it in,” Van Drie said. “It’s more thoughtful. It’s less news alert. It’s a slower perspective. In video or on television, they have to try to communicate something very quickly. They’re much more likely to use images to ‘manipulate’ for lack of a better word than in a slower media like print.” Van Drie believes that at the end of the day, taking some kind of action is at least more beneficial than just continually absorbing. “Even just the difference of having a conversation with somebody, to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t agree with me is more beneficial to me than just sitting and absorbing what is mindlessly coming at me,” Van Drie said. “If I can have a sharper idea or get a better idea because I’m having a conversation with another person, even that’s better.

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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ORGAN UPDATE

A missing voice Following the Oct. 20 tornado, The Roosevelt Family Organ needs heavy restoration and repair in Canada.

alking into chapel, there’s one standout item. It’s not the rows of wooden chairs, lining the structure. It’s not the altar, elevated at the front of the building. It’s not even the narthex, adorned with engravings recounting the history of the chapel and the school. Out of all of those ornaments, all of those decorations, one item rises above as the crown jewel. The beholden item. The most angelicsounding item in the chapel: The Roosevelt Family Organ. At least, it was the most angelic-sounding. Now, it’s the most attention-needing. ••• As the Oct. 20 tornado wreaked havoc across compare to the Létourneau. campus, one of the hardest hit areas was the “While a building’s acoustics and modern chapel. Its roof compromised, the chapel gave technology can help mimic the sound of a pipe way to water, which leaked into the choir loft and organ,” Stroh said, “there is a significant difference formed pools inside the organ. in the quality of sound. A pipe organ is itself a “Water and pipe organs certainly do not mix,” work of art. It has the ability to sing, to be poetic. Assistant Choirmaster and organist Glenn Stroh An electronic organ is merely functional. It will said, “and we observed some of the negative serve us in the interim, but a large part of our effects of this exposure to moisture, such as community’s musical soul will be missing until the the splitting of wood and hardening of leather return of Létourneau Opus 127.” components.” As the restoration process takes place, Stroh Nearly 2,000 miles away at Orgues Létourneau will work closely with Forrest, but Stroh says he — the Canadian-based company that built the has “complete confidence” in Forrest’s team to organ in 2014 — Artistic Director Andrew Forrest return the instrument good as new. quickly heard about the damage. Having worked To ensure this restoration takes place smoothly, on the organ during its original construction, the organ will be disassembled and taken back Forrest took news of the storm personally. to Canada, where Forrest says the “It was definitely one of those company has all the requisite equipment moments where your heart sinks,” to effectively and efficiently rebuild the Forrest said, “especially when we In a way, I felt instrument. like I might have established there were pools in the a small level of “The rebuilding of Opus 127 will pipe organ. The link between an organ understanding of how take place in our workshops in Stbuilder and their pipe organs is not the organists of Notre Hyacinthe, Québec,” Forrest said. “This unlike a parent and their children. We Dame must have felt is a major, from-the-ground-up rebuild have great affection for our creations.” following the tragic of the instrument, and our workshops fire last April. Stroh shared similar emotions, Glenn Stroh have all the necessary equipment to saying the first few chapel services build the replacement parts we'll need without the organ left a void. and restore all of the parts we intend to “It was hard for me personally,” Stroh said, “as reuse such as the thousands of metal organ pipes.” the instrument for accompanying our community’s To kick off this restoration, the team at song sat silent. It underscored how fortunate we Létourneau will come back to Dallas in June are to have the Roosevelt Family Organ and how 2020 to dismantle the organ. From there, Forrest eager I am for the restoration work to proceed so says it will take about ten months to rebuild the we can have it back again.” instrument. After these fixes, the company plans to For now, Stroh is performing on an electric return to campus late in the 2020-2021 school year organ that can approximate the music of the to reinstall the organ. damaged instrument, but he says it doesn’t

“

STORY Siddhartha Sinha, Darren Xi PHOTO Wyatt Awtrey

NOT THE SAME With the Létourneau organ needing restoration, Assistant Choirmaster and organist Glenn Stroh will be performing on an electric organ until the project is complete.

That being said, Forrest says there won’t be many visible changes to the organ once it returns, as it’s framework is already set in stone. “We've already built the instrument once,” Forrest said, “so there isn't much scope for creativity. The design work is already done and most of the rebuilding work will of the mechanical kind. On the other hand, one thing that isn't different is our determination to provide St. Mark's with the best instrument we possibly can.” However, Forrest says Létourneau will implement many of the new skills they’ve learned since the original construction of the organ. “I am confident that as Opus 127 makes its way through the shop again,” Forrest said, “our team will make several minute refinements here or there that reflect the experiences and knowledge we've gained since 2014.” This experience is a first for Andrew Forrest Forrest and Létourneau — a company Orgues Létourneau founded in 1979. It’s the company’s Artistic Director first restoration, but Forrest says he looks forward to continuing the company’s relationship with the school. “This is the first time we have been asked to rebuild one of our instruments after a natural disaster,” Forrest said. “We wish the circumstances were different but we are nonetheless honored to have been asked by St. Mark's School to return the pipe organ to likenew condition. While we were distressed to learn of the far-reaching damage in October, we are now firmly focused on making Opus 127 even better when it returns to campus.”

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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CULTURE

Nine students recognized in national festival

by Will Pechersky our student films were selected to screen at the American Student Film Festival Jan. 25 in the school’s first time entering the competition. The selected films are “Bloody Hell” by juniors Jacob Bell, Jackson Fair and Donovan Graves, “Young Dallas” by Shane Ndeda ’19 and senior Jackson Singhal, “Gerald” by Gabe Castrilion ’19 and Antonio Ivarra ’19 and “A Life of Memories” by juniors James Carr and Sarbik Saha. Bell’s film – which he worked on with Fair and Graves – was about a conflicting relationship between friends. “It was about two friends, and one of them killed another one of their friends accidentally,” Bell said. “It’s about that other friend who didn’t kill him trying to accept he was also responsible for his death and trying to forget about what happened.” The film – Bell’s first in film studies instructor Jennifer Gilbert’s program – went through various changes during the creative process. “It was the first film we did in Upper School film,” Bell said. “It was just the first idea that popped into our heads. Of course, it changed over time.” There are a various steps, some harder than others, that go into producing a film from start to end. “There’s trying to decide what you want to make it about – one or two days – writing the script – maybe three days – and actually filming and finding an actor – the hardest part,” Bell said. This isn’t the first time a festival accepted the group’s film. Bell’s group has experienced this feeling before. “This was the third festival that this one’s gotten into,” Bell said. “The first time, we were all surprised because we didn’t think it was very good. It got selected into one last fall or last spring. By this time, we weren’t as surprised.” Although Bell and his group’s efforts can be rewarded by getting their film into festivals, that isn’t what drives them to dedicate the time to this process. “It’s rewarding because something comes of it,” Bell said, “something in return for the time and effort you put into it. It’s not really about the festivals.” One of Bell’s long-term goals in his film career at school is to get his group’s film into a large festivals. “It’d be good to get into South by Southwest,” Bell said. “That’s one of the larger film festivals. Two [films] have gotten into it, so it’d be great to get into that, but we’ll see.”

RISING STAR Stepping forward, Nabeel Muscatwalla ‘14 performs one of 23 sketches at the CBS Comedy Showcase Jan. 15 at the El Portal Theatre in Los Angeles. Although the showcase wasn’t televised, television executives, casting directors and talent managers were in attendance.

of original material.” would make it to Friday, which would be As Muscatwalla performed for the CBS casting department performed in his Maude or other higher-ups. Two or three of these Team more and more, he were then “put in vaults” to started gaining recognition be held for January. in comedy circles, leading “So in January, when we to a recommendation from met back up after the break, one of his teammates for we had 60 sketches. Sixty the CBS Comedy Showcase. sketches of the cream of the The auditions consisted of crop, the ones that made it Two years after moving to Los Angeles, performing a set of characters through the entire week. And Nabeel up-and-coming comedian Nabeel in a set amount of time, with we had to funnel that down Muscatwalla ’14 Muscatwalla ’14 was one of 20 comics Comedian four total rounds of auditions. to the 23 that made it into the selected for the CBS Comedy Showcase. “Somewhere along the show. And we had two weeks way, I was given an invitation to do that. So we were just cutting stuff left to audition from CBS [for the and right. It was insane.” hen Nabeel Muscatwalla ‘14 was Comedy Showcase],” Muscatwalla said. As the creative process repeated week sitting in Science Department “[One of my teammates] did the Showcase after week, Muscatwalla found himself Chair Fletcher Carron’s physics last year and didn’t even tell me they were loving the creative input, bringing in class, he thought he knew what he wanted recommending me. It’s been a road of sketches at the start of the week and taking to do. performing, a lot of luck, a lot of patience. them through to the end of the week. But anybody who knew him would’ve Thankfully, I’m still young, so it hasn’t “Some of my sketches made it into known going into engineering was crazy. been that much patience, either. It’s kind of staging, some of them made it into the A couple of years later, taking his just happening for me, which vault, some of them almost first steps on campus at Northwestern is nice.” made the show,” Muscatwalla University, he admittedly had no idea It wasn’t until said. “It was incredible to feel where he was going. I know in my heart Muscatwalla’s first day at like my thoughts matter, my All he knew was that he loved the arts Nabeel’s of hearts there’s the set that he realized how ideas matter, my voice matters. and comedy. notables only hard work and fortunate he was to be part of It was incredible.” Five years later, dressed up as an elf • Corresponpatience separating the Showcase cast. From 10 weeks of twoduring Christmastime at The Grove in dent on CBS’s me from my goals, so “These were some of the to-six workdays, where the Los Angeles, six-foot-one Nabeel was just Mission on rough days, I have Unstoppable to remind myself this most incredible performers I’ve cast members could attend to trying to stay afloat. • Wrote, cois part of it. Every ever seen,” Muscatwalla said. other jobs and responsibilities, Now — seven years since his days in directed and misstep or failure is the final two weeks of the physics class — 24-year-old Muscatwalla is “Looking at these people, all starred in me moving forward. Nabeel Muscatwalla ‘14 I could think of is ‘I’m in the Showcase were a total change a rising star in comedy. web series “Better same room as them. That must of pace. And he’s finally figured it out. Days,” mean I’m this good.’ Someday “The past two weeks ••• an official in particular were great just because it Muscatwalla’s career in the arts started I planned on being in that room. I sure selection as hell did not think it would happen so was a nine-to-five, nine-to-six workday,” in Upper School, where he performed of the 2019 soon.” Muscatwalla said. “A nine-to-five is very in musicals and was part of the Improv Tribeca Film Festival standard, but when you’re shouting Club. During his time at Northwestern Once part of the Showcase, Muscatwalla and screaming and performing, it’s very University, the value the school’s and his fellow cast members spent ten exhausting. It became a battle to conserve student body placed on comedy allowed weeks — starting in October — with a energy. We were trying to get it in as many Muscatwalla to keep fleshing out his rigid work schedule. runs of the sketches as possible. So much abilities in that arena. On Monday, the twenty actors and of the past two weeks was shaving it down “First and foremost, I did improv ten writers would pitch five to 10 sketches from 60 sketches to the final 23.” and sketch comedy at Northwestern and to the higher-ups, of which one or two Though he has some milestones set standup as well, but the first thing I knew received the green light. for the future of his career, Muscatwalla is that I needed to do was start performing On Tuesday, the actors and writers keeping his career possibilities open since at Upright Citizens Brigade,” Muscatwalla would informally meet at various coffee his industry is an ever-changing volatile said. “The first thing I wanted to do shops around Los Angeles, writing their one. was take classes at this institution, and sketches to turn them in 5 p.m. later that “I do hope to release an R&B album eventually, the plan was to join a house day. for sure,” Muscatwalla said with a smile. team, to audition and get onto a house Wednesday was table read day — “I know I want to be a regular on a TV team at UCB. Within my first year, I was Muscatwalla’s personal favorite — when show someday further down the line. The lucky to join a sketch comedy team called the 60 or so sketches would be read, cast Showcase is certainly setting me up for a Maude Team. It’s six writers and six and performed. success, and at this point, I’m trying to do actors on this team and once a month we’ll Of the 60 from Wednesday, around six it all. Dream big, I guess.” perform a 30-minute sketch comedy show COMEDIAN

Front and center W

“

STORY Siddhartha Sinha, Axel Icazbalceta PHOTO Courtesy Nabeel Muscatwalla

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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CULTURE

BUSINESS TRIP As part of his “Southern” documentary series, senior Ryan McCord explored the states of Tennessee – where most of his photos are taken – and Arkansas – where he encountered these farmers on a tarped tomato farm.

REMEMBERING THE PAST For his YoungArts application, Kyle Fisher submitted five photos from his cohesive project centered around depicting prominent stories and memories from his grandmother’s life.

YOUNGARTS

Cream of the art crop Seniors Ryan McCord and Kyle Fisher describe a typical day of their trip to Miami from Jan. 5 to 12 for the National YoungArts Week, an intensive program that offers classes taught by world-famous artists and provides showcases for students’ art. In December, a total of 154 students in the arts nationwide were named YoungArts finalists, and McCord and Fisher were two out of 11 finalists for photography.

9 a.m.

Fisher and McCord ride the escalator to the YoungArts building’s fifth floor, designated for photography. SELF-PORTRAIT Posing for his own picture, senior Ryan McCord included this photo titled “Nonchalant” in his YoungArts application. “Nonchalant” is part of a series of photos documenting wealthy lifestyles, which McCord is still working on.

7:30 a.m.

Bright and early, Fisher and McCord wake up and head downstairs in the Marriott Hotel, ready to begin the long day ahead of them. They join the other YoungArts students for breakfast, and after friendly socializing and a hearty meal, they are split up according to their fine arts. RM: “Depending on what discipline you were, you’d either stay in the hotel and work in ballrooms or go off to the performing arts center or different places — they’d bus you around. It depends on what art you were in, but visual arts, design and photography were all on the YoungArts campus.”

KF: “We also had three panel judges, the judges who picked us to go there and made all the decisions. They all gave long presentations on different days. We also had a “master artist” — that’s what they were called — a photographer who came and gave us a presentation. While we were there, we also had opportunities to go out and take photographs, and then we had critiques. We had one big critique on the second-to-last day of all the photos we had taken there. We had no free time to walk around by ourselves. We had to do everything with them. One day we went out to the designer district in Miami, and we just did street photography. We went around just asking random people and made portraits of people on the street. That’s where a lot of the photos came from. In the actual office, one of our assignments was we had 30 minutes to do a photostory. We had groups of three, and we had to choose a story from someone’s life.”

Headliners

Release date

Ori and the Will of the Wisps Feb. 11 Dreams Feb. 14 Iron Man VR Feb. 28

MOVIES

Release date

Birds of Prey Feb. 7 Sonic the Hedgehog Feb. 14 The Call of the Wild Feb. 21

RM: “After that, you have dinner and go to a performance. For the most part, we were bussed over to one of Miami’s big performance theaters, which was really cool. We would watch a performance, all be bussed back and have a mini afterparty at the hotel for about 30 to 45 minutes, and then everyone went to bed. Monday was all the vocalists, Tuesday was jazz and theater, Wednesday was dance and film, Thursday was classical music and Friday was the gallery, so all the visual arts and writing. Saturday [we had the] same kind of schedule for breakfast and lunch, but that night, you all dress up for a giant gala. There’s this gala that all the donors and people who fundraise have, and then there’s this giant party that night that goes on until 12:30 a.m. Then you go back to your hotel, and the next day everyone left.”

The Application

Keep an eye out for these upcoming release, concert and drop dates.

VIDEO GAMES

4:30 p.m.

After having lunch in the afternoon and attending more sessions, Fisher and McCord return to their hotel rooms to put on a change of clothes and take a quick break.

CONCERTS

Kyle Fisher: “My project was all about my grandmother who had been diagnosed with dementia, and it was trying to recreate the memories that she had that were so strong throughout her life because she only remembered the very strong memories that she had. I had ten photos. Each of them are about a different story that she would tell because I spent a lot of time with her. One of them was about her marriage. One of them was just a story that she would tell about my mom. A lot of them are stories about my mom and her sister, just stuff she remembered from her life really well. I sent five photos from my cohesive project and then five other photographs that are part of my work but aren’t part of my project.”

Concert date

Rex Orange County Feb. 21 Echosmith Feb. 23 Eagles Feb. 29

ALBUMS

Father of All..., Green Day Map of the Soul: 7, BTS Ordinary Man, Ozzy Osbourne

Part of the YoungArts application for photographers required them to submit a total of ten photos, with five of them being part of a single cohesive project. Below, Fisher and McCord describe their submissions.

Release date

Feb. 7 Feb. 21 Feb. 21

Ryan McCord: “I had two portfolios. My first one, which I started working on this year, is titled Opulence. It’s about documenting the lives of extremely wealthy families and teenagers who get to enjoy that lifestyle and opportunity that

they’re given. Those teenagers are in Dallas. These are people I know, am friends with and am able to talk to, and [I’m] just exploring the perspective of this odd and almost unattainable reality that’s so plastic and perfect that it’s surreal in a way. I make portraits of people who I think embody that in a sense. I have another body of work, which is my Tennessee documentary series, which I’ve been working on for about four or five years. I have family in really rural parts of Tennessee, and it’s a completely different lifestyle that doesn’t get much light shed on it. The way those people live and interact, what they do with their lives and how they think about the world is just so completely different than anyone at least being in a city or being in the north. It’s a very southern, very family-style thing. I go around, make photos of people, document their lives and try to show a counter-perspective to the series I’m doing right now, which is the ‘Opulence’ one.

STORY Sai Thirunagari, Trevor Crosnoe PHOTOS Courtesy Ryan McCord, Kyle Fisher

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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CULTURE

LITERARY FESTIVAL

Ready, set, write

Award-winning literary scholars were on campus Jan. 16-17, visiting classrooms and participating in panel discussions. DRIVING FORCE Fielding a question, Victor F. White Master Teaching Chair David Brown guides the Sandra Cisneros panel as the festival sponsor.

EXPLAINING THE PROCESS At the head of the table, The New Yorker Associate Editor Sharan Shetty ‘09 walks juniors through his editing practices in English Department Chair Michael Morris’ second period English class. Shetty was a three-year member of The ReMarker staff, serving as issues editor his senior year.

WARM WELCOME Gathering the attention of upperclassmen, Headmaster David Dini kicks off one of two panel discussions in the Science Lecture Hall.

EXPERT’S OPINION Questions in hand, junior chair Max Palys listens to memoirist Dawn Davies discuss her inclusion of the faulty narrative in her autobiography Mothers of Sparta: A Memoir in Pieces. PHOTOS Jerry Zhao, Collin Katz, Evan Lai

JACK OF ALL TRADES A short story writer, poet, essayist, performer, artist and author of The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros reflects on her literary works.

NEW SIGHT Sophomore co-chair Henry Schechter welcomes freshmen and sophomores to the Sandra Cisneros panel as fellow sophomore co-chairs Ekansh Tambe and Alex Geng look on. This was the first year in the Literary Festival’s history that there have been multiple cochairs.

POET Taking questions from two English classes, Founders Professor of Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas Fred Turner speaks to his experience writing two epics.

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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BUZZ

OSCAR PREDICTIONS

No host, no problem

The runners-up The other films nominated for Best Picture, ranked from best to worst.

2. Marriage Story

With the Academy Awards coming up this Sunday, Creative Director Cristian Pereira chooses his picks from the biggest awards.

Best Picture: Parasite

Also nominated See sidebar for full list of the nine films nominated for Best Picture, with our rankings.

n terms of quality, my top three choices for Best Picture are indistinguishable. What ultimately sets Parasite apart as the best picture of 2019 is how powerful the film’s ending is. After the credits roll, it’ll take a good few hours to process what you just watched, and it’ll take weeks for the total impact of the film to fully set in. While part of me doubts a Korean film will actually take home the award, the other part knows Director Bong Joon-ho deserves it. Parasite not only looks great — the cinematography is stellar, the music sets the tone wonderfully and the film’s plot is the most intriguing of all the Best Picture nominees this year.

Best Actor: Adam Driver, Marriage Story

Also nominated Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory Leonardo DeCaprio, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Joaquin Phoenix, Joker Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes

never cry in movies — Driver’s acting made me cry in this one. While Driver is certainly most famous for his role as Kylo Ren in Disney’s Star Wars trilogy, his performance in Marriage Story is so emotional, powerful and human that this role has redefined who he is as an actor. Yes, Joaquin Phoenix was phenomenal, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he took the award instead, but Driver brought such realism with his performance that it can’t go without recognition. Out of all the awards, the Best Actor category has the clearest winner. Driver deserves all the praise he’s received.

Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt, ...Hollywood

Also nominated Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes Al Pacino, The Irishman Joe Pesci, The Irishman

hile it can be argued that Brad Pitt was just playing himself in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, he played himself really well. His masterful command of the dialogue Tarantino wrote for him should merit him this award. Pitt cannot be overlooked for his outstanding performance in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood. Every scene he’s in is full of charm, humor, and a uniqueness that most other actors would never be able to pull off. Both Joe Pesci and Al Pacino’s performances in The Irishman follow closely behind, but Pitt’s work with DiCaprio this year in Tarantino’s new movie should not go unrecognized.

Best Cinematography: 1917

Best Director: Martin Scorsese, The Irishman

obody can deny the already-legendary status of Scorsese, but just because he’s already made great films doesn’t mean he can’t be recognized again for the fantastic work he did with The Irishman. What sets Scorsese apart as the best director of 2019 is his masterful pacing. The movie is three-and-a-half hours long, and while it certainly doesn’t feel short, there isn’t a scene that should have been taken out — the character-building and dialogue are so phenomenal. Sam Mendes for 1917 and Todd Philips for Joker follow closely behind, but Scorsese’s ability to realize a vision onto the big screen is still second to none. I don’t think it compares.

3. The Irishman

Also nominated Bong Joon-ho, Parasite Sam Mendes, 1917 Todd Philips, Joker Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

Best Actress: Scarlett Johansson Marriage Story

arely do both the Best Actor award and the Best Actress award come from the same film. But this time I think Marriage Story deserves the recognition. Johansson captures what life as a recently divorced mother is like. Her performance draws tears multiple times, while her commanding presence as she reads her multiple powerful monologues creates an aroma of despair and confusion. It was hard choosing between her and Also nominated Renée Zellweger in Judy. Understandably, Cynthia Erivo, Harriet Saoirse Ronan, Zellweger is most people’s favorite for the Little Women award. However Johansson’s performance Charlize Theron was more human, ultimately making her my Bombshell Renée Zellweger, Judy pick.

Best Supporting Actress: Laura Dern, Marriage Story

hen Laura Dern’s character was first introduced I was confused as to why she was nominated as her role seemed pretty run-of-the-mill. But as the movie went on and audiences learned more about her character, Dern’s passion really shone through. Marriage Story is conquering my list of actors, but I can’t overlook Dern’s performance as Johansson’s lawyer. Her Also nominated acting becomes deeper and deeper as the Kathy Bates, Richard movie goes on, with Dern doing a wonderful Jewell Scarlett Johansson, job of creating a believable character. I Jojo Rabbit Florence Pugh, actually almost picked Johansson for this Little Women award as well, but for Jojo Rabbit. However Margot Robbie, I found Dern’s performance more rewarding Bombshell in the end.

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Irishman

It’s just about a divorce— that’s it. But it’s a virtually flawless movie. While not as powerful as Parasite, the acting, dialogue and overall production are of higher quality than most films of the decade.

Best Original Screenplay: Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

Nobody expected a threeand-a-half hour Scorcese film to be anything short of legendary. The film is everything audiences thought it would be, with the last hour of the movie somehow exceeding their unobtainable expectations.

4. Jojo Rabbit

It doesn’t have the best dialogue. Nor the best cinematography. But Taika Waititi’s story and creativity are so unique and so powerful that I almost chose it as my pick for Best Picture. All should see it at some point.

5. 1917

Sam Mendes’s ambitious one-shot World War I movie is a huge triumph and revolutionary feat of filmmaking, with a powerful story that succeeds at its goal of capturing what it was like to be a soldier at the time.

6. Little Women

While Emma Watson may disappoint, Lady Bird Director Greta Gerwig brings a wonderful rendition of Alcott’s classic novel to the big screen, bolstered by the alwayscharming and infinitely talented Saoirse Ronan.

7. Joker

While Todd Philips may have disregarded many realities of mental health, his refreshingly jarring story mixed with the always-great Joaquin Phoenix makes for a great film — certainly the best of the new DC movies.

8. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood Quentin Tarantino proves yet again that he can’t make a bad movie, but I don’t think he intended to make a Best Picture winner — he just wanted to have fun exploring life in late-1960’s Hollywood.

Also nominated: The Lighthouse Joker The Irishman ...Hollywood

Also nominated: Jojo Rabbit Joker Little Women The Two Popes

Also nominated: Knives Out Marriage Story 1917 Parasite

92nd Academy Awards Date: Feb. 9

Time: 7 p.m.

Network: ABC

Location: Los Angeles

Categories: 24

Most Nominated: Joker

9. Ford v Ferrari

While it’s a film of quality and boasts excellent performances by both Matt Damon and Christian Bale, Ford v Ferrari lacks the uniqueness that a Best Picture winner needs to have and isn’t up to the level of its counterparts.

OPINIONS THE REMARKER •FEBRUARY 7, 7 , 2020

Around the Quad

The Australian Fires

Students react to the question of whether guns belong in houses of worship. Page 24

What the Australian fires mean in the greater scheme of Global Warming. Page 25

REMARKER EDITORIALS

STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS. 10600 PRESTON ROAD DALLAS, TEXAS 75230 214.346.8000

EDITORIAL BOARD editor in chief SAM AHMED

assignments editor AARON THORNE

head photographer CHARLIE ROSE

deputy managing editor CHRISTOPHER WANG

managing editors COLIN CAMPBELL SID VATTAMREDDY

opinions editor PAUL SULLIVAN

perspectives editor WALLACE WHITE

senior content editor ISHAN GUPTA

senior editor-at-large SAM GOLDFARB

SECTION EDITORS 10600, culture

LUKE PIAZZA SIDDHARTHA SINHA ERIC YOO

discoveries

COOPER RIBMAN

focus magazine ALAM ALIDINA SAI THIRUNAGARI

issues

HENRY MCELHANEY ROBERT POU

sports

WILLIAM ANIOL JACK DAVIS

C R E AT I V E creative director

CRISTIAN PEREIRA

Welcome the new schedule

or more than 30 years, Marksmen have followed the same schedule despite numerous shortcomings that have caused unnecessary strain and stress on student life. Now, through the collaborative work of Headmaster David Dini, other administrators, faculty and the Independent School Management (ISM) organization, students will follow a new schedule as the 2020-2021 school year begins in August. Their work coming up with a unique schedule streamlined towards the 10600 experience should be congratulated, as such a core change to the daily life of Marksmen couldn’t have occurred without their investment in better students’ lives. However, some student and faculty members have expressed concerns about the new schedule. Certainly, it is normal to have questions and to be a little reluctant to the change of such a fundamental part of our daily life here. It is human nature to prefer to do something that has been around for a long time. However, that doesn’t mean that we should be afraid. Dini and his team of advisers collaborated with school divisions and brought out-of-school help for all of us to experience this change, and we should respect his decision and embrace it wholeheartedly. One of the goals of the new schedule is to increase student health and well-being as well as increase schedule flexibility, two problems that

we’ve discussed before as being challenges given the current schedule. We know that the new schedule was changed with a purpose, not just for the sake of change. For those who are reluctant, focus on the positives. With the new schedule should come a later school start time, more student free time and, hopefully, less stress across campus. We should all be appreciative and work towards acceptance. There are also some guidelines that we should keep in mind in following the schedule next year in order to provide for a smooth transition. • First, stay vigilant in following the schedule. If not, it will become easy to get confused and lost. Students and teachers should assist each other in adhering to the schedule. • Second, take extra care in scheduling appointments and other meetings. If we welcome the schedule with open arms, the transition will be that much easier. • Don’t see the new schedule as a hurdle to the new school year. See it as an opportunity to make the whole experience of life at 10600 Preston Road better for everyone. Change can be hard. We recognize that. But eventually the change will become routine, and when it does, we will all emerge on the other side better off realizing that this change reflects only the best of intention.

EMBRACE THE CHANGE

graphics director JAMIE MAHOUALD

artists

COOPER COLE CHARLIE RUBARTH JAMES SHIAO

ADVERTISING business manager PAXTON SCOTT

assistant business manager IAN MIZE

WRITERS

TOBY BARRETT, ETHAN BORGE, TREVOR CROSNOE, AXEL ICAZBALCETA, RAJAN JOSHI, SEMAJ MUSCO, LUKE NAYFA, PETER ORSAK, WILL PECHERSKY, AUSTIN WILLIAMS, DREW WOODWARD, DARREN XI, JONATHAN YIN, HAN ZHANG

PHOTOGRAPHERS

WYATT AWTREY, BLAKE BROOM, KYLE FISHER, BEN HAO, COLLIN KATZ, EVAN LAI, RYAN MCCORD, EVAN MCGOWAN, TYLER NUSSBAUMER, WILL ROCCHIO, DANIEL SANCHEZ, LEE SCHLOSSER, OWEN SIMON, EKANSH TAMBE, JERRY ZHAO

ADVISER

RAY WESTBROOK

HEADMASTER DAVID W. DINI

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The ReMarker is intended for the students, faculty, staff and alumni community of St. Mark’s School of Texas. Press run is 4,000 copies, with more than 2,600 of those mailed out to alumni around the world, courtesy of the school’s offices of External Affairs, Development and Alumni divisions.

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Editorials represent the viewpoints of the newspaper’s Editorial Board and are not necessarily those of the Board of Trustees, administration, faculty or staff. All personal opinion columns, bylined with the writer’s name and photo, represent the views of that writer only and not necessarily those of The ReMarker, Board of Trustees, administration, faculty or staff.

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Marksmen should vote 18 year olds should take advantage of the power to vote, and use it carefully.

idespread political discourse. Numerous candidates. Presidential impeachment. The 2020 election season is a season highly unique from previous ones in the past, punctuated by events rarely seen before. But amidst the chaos and disorder, students who are able to vote shouldn’t allow themselves to be daunted in the face of these unprecedented events. Instead, they should take initiative in the casting of their ballot in this year’s upcoming election. Of the upcoming Marksmen who are turning 18, the legal voting age, we ask one thing: utilize your new power and responsibility to vote, and be thoughtful in doing so. Young voters are known to have one of the weakest turnouts per age group. In 2016 only 46.1% of those between 18-29 voted compared to 66.6% of 45 to 64 year olds and 58.7 percent of 30 to 44 year olds. However, as students of 10600 Preston Rd., we have always been told to contribute and make an impact in our communities, whether through clubs, community service or other extracurriculars. Exercising one’s right to vote is an extension of this. By voting, students are showing their eagerness to address public concerns as well as enhance the well-being of the populace of the United States.

With newly acquired voting rights, students should exercise their power with carefulness by conducting thorough study and research of which candidates truly stand for their beliefs. Don’t bring preconceived notions of candidates, but rather, use your own research to dictate which candidate you believe best stand for your values. In addition, make an effort to get information from a wide array of sources in order to see all points of view. Also, students should not allow themselves to get swept up in the sensationalism that’s common on talk shows and social media designed to attract attention and ratings of viewers rather than genuine political discussion. Media coverage of politics is more entertainment-oriented rather than actually informative, so seek those which are informative. When talking about opinions at school, make sure to remain respectful and considerate of other’s beliefs instead of being critical and judgmental. Discussing political beliefs and views can be beneficial. With such power given to seniors exercising their ability for the first time, be mindful, think it through and educate yourself. Just remember: democracy only survives in an informed electorate, and sadly, in today’s world, many choose not to be informed.

ENGAGE IN THE COMMUNITY • BE CONSIDERATE

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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OPINIONS

Staff Editorial

Marksmen should be careful using technology

arksmen find themselves in an age where there is an increasing possibility of deception through technology. Whether through deep fakes, fake news, foreign influence or breaches in internet security, all members of the community should remember to be cautious and not make bad choices online, especially on social media. With these increased risks, students should actively seek ways to educate themselves on media literacy. The ability to differentiate between

fake and credible news, how to verify certain information and how to not allow oneself to be swayed by persuasion techniques are all vital skills that media literacy comprises. Marksmen are and have to be responsible. Learning media literacy is an extension of that responsibility. Yes, media literacy is a new skill. But it’s a necessary skill. No matter what age you are, the very real threat of misinformation in today’s increasingly technology-oriented world needs to be combatted by every individual.

That means not repeating information from an incredible source to your friends and family until you’ve fact-checked it. That means listening to what you’re being told inside or outside the classroom and then verifying it before you let it influence your or others’ opinions. That means never reposting an online article that just seems interesting unless you are absolutely sure that you are not spreading any false information. In addition to media literacy, students should find ways to protect

themselves from any type of internet threat, hack or computer virus. As much of students livelihoods depend on computers and the internet, it is now a necessity to search for preventative measures, such as purchasing antivirus software, regularly backing up one’s hard drive and using multiple passwords instead of just one. Although the internet is a tool that we all need, it can be used for good or bad, like all tools, and in today’s mediasaturated world, we need to be able to navigate fluidly.

Checking in on junior Josh Mysoré’s life in Spain Junior Josh Mysore is spending his junior year studying abroad in Zarazoga, Spain. Here is a report from Josh on his life away from 10600 Preston Road. us 38 rolls around at 08:07 on the dot. I sleepily gather my bags, step onto the bus, scan my card and greet the bus driver: “Good morning.” Suddenly, everyone immediately stares at me. The bus driver raises his eyebrows. A lady sitting near me laughs. The two Spanish teenagers in the back smirk. It hits me. How could I be so dumb. I just accidentally spoke English on a pedestrian bus in Spain. ••• What no one tells you about studying abroad is that there is no single answer for what that experience will be like. In Zaragoza, the “Windy City” of Spain, my life is relatively normal. I go to school in an office building in the city center, eat dinner at 21:30 and eat jamón ibérico from a pig leg in my kitchen. Ángel, my host dad, always tells me to drench my salad in olive oil to extract premium flavor. María yells at me if I don’t open the window to ventilate my room every morning. Ana shows me statistics about how America is the most obese country in the world. Like I said. Relatively normal. My life here has certainly been a large leap into the unfamiliar. I still don’t understand how cleaning plates with bread before putting them in the dishwasher is effective. Sometimes, I’m still shocked by the ease

STUDENTS AND FACULTY

Around the Quad

of public transportation and electric scooters for efficient travel. Trying to understand the conflict in Catalonia still But for my family and for the people I stand next to every day on the red Avanza bus, the Spanish life is all they’ve ever known. It’s kind of hard to wrap my head around that concept. Their exotic life is just life for them. For Spanish people, I am the different-looking stranger from Texas, a state with Spanish roots. I am the foreigner that garners interest at every corner. I am the one who breaks their normal routines with my accented Spanish. I change their familiar environment. My best friend Inés always tells me how she can’t get over the fact that I go to the American Import store to buy brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tarts. Her face always lights up with absolute shock and disgust when I mention the treat. She can’t imagine such a food existing in Spain. For her, those fatty foods are just for America. Through these small moments in life, I’ve begun to comprehend what type of year I am in for: a spontaneous one. Everything I had expected to happen before coming hasn’t played out; and everything unexpected is my reality. With that type of change, I’ve started to question my own life while examining others. ••• The interrogation begins with simple questions: why do I drive everywhere instead of taking public transportation? Since when did I start putting peanut butter on my sandwiches? Why do I not

speak another language? Then, I doubt my own likes and interests. Should I have been a theater kid? Why did not I not join math team in middle school? Would I be better at swimming than track? What brings me happiness? Why did I come to Spain? I spiral into deeper questions, and suddenly, I forget who I am. My life flips upside-down. There isn’t a single person from my past to help me calm down. For the first time in my life, I am alone in a world where no one knows who I am. My hands are shaking uncontrollably. My breath turns shallow. A normal Friday night shouldn’t be like this. I want to return to simplicity. Part of the studyJosh Mysore abroad experience is this Currently studying abroad in Spain feeling of being alone and discovering yourself. I, for one, am still on the journey. Every day I am forced to confront myself in Spain, discovering along the way what truly calls to me. Outside of the bubble of 10600 Preston Road, the ball is in my court. I make the rules, and I do what I want to do. I still don’t know who will return in June to Dallas. He might be different. He might be the same. But he will have gone through a self-transformation that only leaving home could give.

ANSWER OUR QUESTIONS

Q: Should guns be allowed in places of worship?

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Yes, in the church shooting, the only reason no one died was because the guard shot him.

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Faraz Asim Senior

Jerry Fox Freshman

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No, I don’t think the solution to gun violence is more guns, I think it’s more regulation.

It’s up to the place of worship. But there won’t always be a cop there to protect you. Sometimes you have to protect yourself.

Christian Duessel Senior

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I don’t think guns should be allowed because that’s a place where people go to find peace, and guns disturb that. Metehan Punar Junior

No, if you are there to worship, then you don’t need firearms. As long as security guards are present, then normal people shouldn’t need them. Mason Antes Senior

COOPER COLE

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

PAGE PAGE

OPINIONS

HEADS UP • THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

The Australian Wildfires: they do affect you

From Ku Klux Klan marches to a President’s Cabinet table

What:

How:

Why it matters:

• About 16 million acres have burned in New South Wales and Victoria, with fires approaching major cities.

• Most of the fires are caused by lightning strikes, but hot temperatures, drought and strong wind also contribute.

• Climate change has brought longer periods of extreme heat, capable of causing widespread effects world wide.

•Smoke generated by fires has given Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra some of the worst air pollution in the world.

• Thousands of firefighters have worked for weeks to help combat the fires.

• Australia soon might not be the only country to be affected by fires, or global warming in general, as temperatures continue to increase worldwide.

SOURCES New York Times ARTWORK Jonathan Yin

Soleimani’s assassination means danger on my trip to Israel

y dad and I turn toward each other, stunned, sitting in the middle of a 50-person tour bus. We immediately pull our iPhones out of our pockets, turn on our hot spots, open Safari – and a quick search confirms the truth. The U.S. has assassinated Iranian General Qasem Soleimani during the night, while we were sleeping in our rooms at the David Citadel Hotel. I scroll hurriedly through the first article I can find, realize we’re in danger – real danger. Because we’re in Jerusalem. Jerusalem – just a mere 500 miles away from Iran. Easily within missile range. A country everyone knows wants to – and will – strike back. ••• I’m in the middle of putting the toppings on my third taco when my dad clears his throat the way he does when he has a big announcement. Sitting around our kitchen island, my siblings and I look up expectantly. Here it comes . . . “So your mom and I have been talking, and we’ve decided we’re going to take a family trip to Israel during Christmas break.” I almost drop my taco. Israel? Isn’t that in the Middle East? No one says anything. Only my little brother munching on his taco can be heard in the silence. I set my taco down and just sit, sit thinking – I can’t be in Israel and Colorado at the same time, so that rules out skiing. And I can’t be in Israel and Dallas at the same time, so that rules out playing Madden and watching the Cowboys with my friends. And The timing of the worst of all, family’s Christmas Israel is in the visit to Israel couldn’t Middle East. have come at a more The Middle East! vulnerable time.

I’ve never been to the Middle East, the LSU-Clemson National Championbut I’ve watched the news, and anyone ship is on, but no one’s watching. who’s watched the news knows about My friends are asking me questions the Middle East. about my trip to Israel. Oil. Sand. Camels. Pyramids. One The first questions they ask – about war after another. It’s sort of dangerous, the Iran missile strike. Of course. it seems. Where was I when it happened? Was But truth be told, I’m actually lookI safe? Had I seen any WWIII memes yet? ing forward to the trip. It’s two days past I tell them about the conversation I Halloween, and I’m already sick of way had with my dad. I tell them about Israeli too early Jingle Bells and O Come All Ye citizens who celebrated when they heard Faithful. the news of the drone strike that killed Besides, I don’t get that many chancSoleimani, who honked their car horns es to immerse myself in a different culand waved American flags. ture, to experience the Bible in a new and I tell them, “Yes. I was afraid. I dynamic way, to walk in Jesus’ footsteps. didn’t want to die at the hands of an ••• Iranian missile.” We land in Tel-Aviv, and Then, I ask myself, the next eight days fly by in a “What do I really think whirlwind. about the Iran missile strike? We ride a boat across Was I right about the Middle the Sea of Galilee, dip our East all along? hands in the same water Jesus Is it just a hotbed for walked on 2,000 years earlier. violence, for killings, for We walk down the killings in retribution of Robert Pou narrow, winding paths of killings, for endless war?” Issues editor the Garden of Gethsemane, I wondered what had touching the gnarled, crooked been my big takeaway from trunks of 2,000-year-old olive trees as we the experience: hope or fear? To be hongo. est, I’m still asking that question. In Jerusalem, we scribble down Perhaps the Middle East lived up to prayer requests on slips of paper and my preconceptions. It is dangerous. There stuff them into the cracks between the is hate. There is war. stones of the Wailing Wall, the last remBut I also saw that people there live nant of the great Jewish temple that stood their lives not that much differently than there centuries before even Jesus’s time. I do. There is beauty, friendship and We eat shawarma and falafel, float in hope. the Dead Sea, and I even wake up at 2:30 That means, there’s a chance for one morning to watch my beloved Texas peace. It may be only a small chance, but Longhorns whip the 11th-ranked Utah what were the chances three wise men Utes 38-10 in the Valero Alamo Bowl – gazing into a manger would be looking at a satisfying end to a not-so-satisfying a child who would transform the world season. through his message of love? Before I know it, it’s time to hop I don’t mean to sound naive, but back on a plane, refuse another round of I’m an optimist. My eight days strolling soupy, scrambled airline eggs and head through the same cobblestone streets and home. garden paths that my savior did changed ••• me for the better. A couple weeks later and I’m sitting I hope that I might one day have an in my friend’s game room. Halftime of opportunity to return the favor.

y great grandpa was born into slavery. My grandpa could see the stars through the holes in his roof. I was tired, but those thoughts shocked me wide awake, learning for the first time some of the struggles that my family had faced living in America. I didn’t want to stay up late to write an English paper, which seemed like an unbearable task, but I had to find a topic for my familyhistory assignment. So, I asked my dad for some help. He pointed to an autobiography that my grandpa had written. Desperate, I scoured the pages thinking that I wouldn’t find that much. What I found surprised me. It opened my eyes to the fact that life hadn’t been so easy as I thought it was for my grandpa, who grew up in southern Georgia. As a kid, members of the Ku Klux Klan walked the streets midday. My grandpa’s own dad was shot in the chest by a nearby neighbor who had been paid by white men. My grandpa didn’t get depressed by the racism though. It kept him motivated to be the best and smartest person he could be, so in the future, his family wouldn’t be subjected to the things he had seen. He was salutatorian of his high school, graduated summa cum laude from Morehouse College, became a doctor, created Morehouse School of Medicine and then became Secretary of Health and Human Services under President George Bush. If it wasn’t Paul Sullivan because of that Opinions editor family history assignment for english class, I never would’ve learned about those stories, and what worries me is that I’m sure there are many more parts to my family’s history that I haven’t uncovered and never will be able to. But with the little history about my family’s past that I do know, I can say for certain that it is absolutely necessary for one to try to preserve their family’s legacy and that one should never forget where they came from. With family history, you do not only learn where you come from, but what you are capable of achieving. For me, it kind of gives me a sense of responsibility to carry on my family’s legacy and not let their high hopes for me down. With all the things that I have that my grandpa didn’t, it now seems like it should be near impossible to not achieve my highest hopes and dreams. With my new-found knowledge of my family history, I began to gain more perspective. I am a member of the upperclass. I have a house with 3 bathrooms and a patio. I go to one of the best schools in country. I’m going to one of the premier universities in the world. Staying up late to write an essay is a cake-walk compared to what my family has struggled through.

Table tennis

Managers

Alumni boxing

Updates

Two table tennis players share their experiences in a non-traditional hotbed. Page 27

After playing Lion baseball, two alums became managers at their colleges. Page 28

Humberto Martinez ’07 overcame great adversity and now boxes competitively. Page 29

A recap of winter athletics as the SPC championships loom near. Pages 30,31

SPORTS THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

AIR JORDAN

Shoes of legends

After playing for the Dallas Cowboys, Kalen Thornton ’00 joined Nike, before transitioning over to Jordan Brand, a part of the Nike family.

alen Thornton ’00 grew up in the renaissance of professional sports. With ESPN just launching, coverage of professional sports had never been more comprehensive. Nike had risen to the top of its class. The rise of the modern global superstar athlete had just begun to emerge in the shape of Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest player to ever step onto the court in the National Basketball Association. Jordan’s outreach extended far beyond the United States, Thornton noticed. And he idolized Jordan. Fast forward 20 years, and Thornton is just two weeks into his tenure as a member of the Jumpman family, a group composed of numerous high-profile athletes, helping expand Jordan Brand across the globe. In five short minutes, he will present to an audience filled with fellow co-workers, or so he believes. Nerves on edge, he reviews his part one last time before walking out on stage. He knows he can’t mess up in front of his co-workers. Or else, all the work he has put in to secure his job with Jordan would go to waste. He strides onto the stage, glances around the room and… There is Michael Jordan –– his childhood idol, who he has long dreamed of meeting –– sitting alongside NBA star Carmelo Anthony. First, he thought he couldn’t mess up in front of his co-workers. Now, he knows he can’t mess up in front of Michael Jordan. ••• Thornton fell in love with sports as a little kid, under the wing of his father who played in the NFL. He was exposed to a variety of sports at a very young age before ultimately focusing on football. As a standout athlete at 10600 Preston Road, Thornton received interest from various Power Five football programs to continue his football career at the collegiate level, before ultimately choosing to play IN THE SAME WAY THAT SOME at the University OF THE FACULTY AND PEERS of Texas. After PUSHED ME WHEN I WAS A KID finishing his AT ST. MARK’S , I NOW HAVE career as a fourTHE ABILITY TO DO THAT year starter at defensive end for FOR KIDS ACROSS THE GLOBE — KALEN THORNTON ’00 the Longhorns, Thornton entered his name into the 2004 NFL Draft. Although he was not selected due to his injury history, he tried out for the Dallas Cowboys and earned himself a spot on the team’s 53-man roster. “I ultimately decided to come back to Dallas for some of the same reasons I went to the University of Texas,” Thornton said. “If I was going to make it to the NFL, I would have rather made it in my hometown than in another city where it was unfamiliar. But I always knew that my body and my health weren’t necessarily in a place where I was going to enjoy a long-term career, so I played a couple years and then knew it was time to transition after suffering my last knee injury in 2006.” Thornton now had to quickly plan out his life after football –– a reality all professional athletes ultimately must face. Thankfully, for Thornton, he could lean on the degree he earned from the McCombs School of Business at UT and combine it with his passion for sports down the road. “I was ultimately faced with the decision of either finding where I wanted to play next or if I should pursue something else,” Thornton said. “My mentors from St. Mark’s gave some really good advice,

‘‘

person and being rooted in the community? It really ultimately saying, ‘You’re faced with a decision, you is about selling the authentic athlete story in a way can continue to choose to do this and ultimately face that connects and resonates with the people who are a transition later in life, or you can make a decision to engaged with our brand on any day.” do something else now.’” Looking ahead, although Jordan has built up Thornton began considering whether or not he a loyal, passionate following in North America, should go back to school –– without having to focus Thornton believes it has truly become and will on the game of football this time around –– to pursue continue to be a global brand with the addition of his MBA. young, exciting athletes. Deciding to go ahead with this route, “With [Washington Wizards forward] Thornton applied to various graduate Rui Hachimura, [Boston Celtics forward] programs and was turned down. However, Jayson Tatum, [New Orleans Pelicans he persisted and reapplied to schools after Kalen Thornton forward] Zion Williamson, and [Dallas working for JP Morgan for two years. He ’00 presents Mavericks guard] Luka Dončić,” Thornton then finally gained admission into Stanford to Jordan said, “this past year we’ve been fortunate University’s Graduate School of Business. executives and enough to bring on a few new, younger “At Stanford, I learned what was I am athletes alike athletes that are effectively going to be the important to me personally,” Thornton excited about what ones establishing the brand’s future.” said. “With that, I had an epiphany I can do Regarding his close interactions with the brand’s again –– that I really enjoyed so much about now for star athletes, Thornton ensures to never take these for sports, the power of sports and what it can do to be millions if granted. transformative in people’s lives. That I wanted to get not billions of people.” people.” “When it comes to landing an athlete, we’ll work back to it. There’s something pure about sport, about Kalen with him in big moments when we’re unveiling a camaraderie, about team that is still appealing to me Thornton ’00, new product and also photoshoots,” Thornton said. this day.” Global Senior “Without our athletes, without some of our other While at Stanford, Thornton specifically focused Director cultural authenticators and entertainers like Travis on sports marketing and storytelling before lucking Jordan Brand Scott, we don’t have as sharp of insights. We aren’t into an internship with Nike. Marketing able to connect with consumers in a big way, and so “I was back in Dallas during my internship they are huge partners in how we tell our stories.” working on high school football,” Thornton said. “I As Thornton’s global brand position requires a was exposed to a whole new way of looking at the healthy amount of travel alongside athletes and retail game. I was an athlete before and now I was serving partners, he has come to discover the brand’s impact athletes, which was really appealing.” and presence in various communities across the globe. After his internship, Thornton was fortunate “Everywhere you go, there is what we call the enough to earn a full-time position in Nike’s Jumpman family,” Thornton said. “There’s this Marketing Development Program in 2011 and hasn’t massive Jordan community that obviously knows looked back, sticking with the brand ever since. about Michael Jordan and his iconic status, but they “I came out of that internship, laser focused on also know about some of these other people here. getting back to sports and combining that with my Family and community and really this notion that in business and finance experience,” Thornton said. this family we believe no one flies alone, is something that is felt across the globe and growing.” Thornton has served in a variety of positions in global brand marketing for Nike in Portland, OR and New York City, including the company’s running and skateboarding departments, roles he could never have envisioned himself in as a former NFL player. “There have been some sports I’ve played in which I was not there for the fun of it that I end up loving and meeting some of my best friends in life,” Thornton said. “I learned more about the athlete’s journey from a different perspective and how passionate they were through running and skateboarding.” Now, as the Global Senior Director for Jordan, Thornton takes insights from brand consumers and athletes and works to devise products, focusing on telling the stories about how people interact with the brand through either digital channels, retail, physical events or TV commercials. “I come up with the strategy to help everything show up as one cohesive plan in the marketplace, so that if we want to tell a story about Zion Williamson, I ask, ‘What is the positioning?’” Thornton said. “Is BRAND MAN Thornton converses with Houston Rockets guard the tone more about being athletic and almost super Russell Westbrook (far left) and Portland Trail Blazers forward Carheroic, or is it more about them being a humble melo Anthony (left) after his presentation on the Air Jordan XXXIV.

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STORY William Aniol, Jack Davis PHOTOS Courtesy Kalen Thornton

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

PAGE

SPORTS

FOREHAND Senior Tianming Xie competes at U.S. Table Tennis Nationals in Las Vegas.

Getting served TABLE TENNIS

Sports Editor William Aniol and Assignments Editor Aaron Thorne sit down with senior Tianming Xie and sophomore Evan Lai to talk about their experiences in the highest levels of competition in table tennis. William Aniol: How did you start playing table tennis? Tianming Xie: When I was four, my parents took me to a table tennis club. They like to play table tennis, and it’s something they did as kids, so they took me over there. At that age, I was too young and too short to reach over the table and so at five, I went to a club called QD Academy. I started playing over there and really liked it back then –– I don’t know why, it was just sort of relaxing to see the ball spin over the net for me at that age and then I stuck to it. I did a lot of things at that age, and table tennis was just one of them. So later on, I just practiced more and more. Those other activities that I did sort of stopped and I used that time to focus more on table tennis. WA: How often do you play right now? TX: Right now I don’t practice too often. I do a little bit of coaching as a side job and then practice maybe two hours a week. WA: Did you do more playing in your freshman and sophomore year? TX: Well, from six years old all the way to junior year, the most amount of time I would practice would be seven hours a day. That would be either here with my coach Mark Kaczynski, who’s a

LASER EYES Sophomore Evan Lai focuses after returning a powerful serve at a youth ranking tournament and training camp at ICC in Milpitas, California.

former table tennis Olympian. Sometimes in the summer, I would go to China to train with the national team. It is a huge time commitment but that’s the only way you can improve. WA: What competitions have you participated in? You said you trained with the national team, so can you go in depth about that? TX: I think the only time I was part of the national team was when I was competing for the Youth Olympics qualifiers, where they take eight Americans under 18 and eight Canadians under 18, and they play crossovers and only one advances to compete at the Youth Olympics. Training with those guys is really helpful because if you’re only training at the state or in the city, table tennis isn’t that popular in the US. And so you need to go out more to see your rivals. And that way you help each other through competitiveness and also just sharing what we’ve learned. WA: Because table tennis isn’t that popular in the United States, what are some of the challenges you faced playing table tennis in a non-traditional hotbed? TX: One is the fact that there’s not that much competition and that might just be because of a lot of things. People aren’t interested, people don’t know about it, maybe there’s not enough money to entice professionals. I think in that way, it’s tough because you have to travel to places to really break through the next level, which I’m fortunate enough to have, but a lot of people might not have those resources. Another is just based on location. In California, table tennis is really popular, Texas is a relatively popular place for table tennis and then in the Northeast it’s quite popular, but other than that, it’s not. There might be even just one or two people that are playing in certain places, which is difficult because you really need to play with a bunch of people. WA: Do you practice with or play against Evan? TX: I recently played him over Thanksgiving break in Washington, D.C. But other than that, we don’t usually get to compete that often because he’s in a different age category than me. And also, we mostly play in bigger tournaments than just in-state ones so we don’t meet up too often. He’s young, and he has a lot of potential. Aaron Thorne: When did you start playing ping pong? Evan Lai: I started in 2009. I was seven years old. AT: How did you get started? EL: I started when my daycare after school

had a table tennis program. That’s how I really got into it. I first started practicing, maybe once a week at the after-school program, but I was enjoying it, so eventually I’d practice more and more until it became every single day. After that, I went through a bunch of different coaches. Then finally, we landed on one coach from Beijing. He became my private coach and then we created a set-up in my garage and I started practicing every single day. AT: What made you decide to spend a lot of time working on your craft? EL: So, with my daycare program, after maybe a year and a half or two years of just playing around with the sport, I went to a tournament. I didn’t win a single match there. But you gain rating whenever you play a tournament, so from there I just kept on playing because I thought it was fun. I started improving pretty quickly though. AT: Now, how often do you play? EL: I usually play every single day of the week. But during the school year it sometimes gets busy for me, so I might take breaks every once in a while. AT: What kind of competitions do you do? EL: I usually do competitions once a month at local tournaments. And then there are a few big domestic tournaments, usually at least one a year which I travel around the country and play. AT: What’s the favorite place you ever played? EL: My favorite place I’ve ever been to play table tennis is Florida, but most of the time, we usually go to Las Vegas for a tournament there. AT: Why do you like ping pong? EL: I really just like improving at it and how competitive it is. Especially since it’s not really a team sport, it’s more of a single-player score so in that way, you can really test your own skills and see how you match up against other people. I also it really helped me build lots of character skills, plus I’ve met a lot of cool people through it, too. AT: What is your ranking and your biggest awards in table tennis? EL: I am currently ranked top 16 in the nation for under-18 player. I just played in the US Open which is an international tournament run in the United States. I got first place in under 18 doubles, and then under 18 teams, so two gold medals. AT: Favorite ping pong memory? EL: My favorite ping pong memory was when I was in the sixth grade, I went to China over the summer for a whole month to practice at a training camp. I trained with the kids over there that were around my age and I saw a big difference between us, but it was really fun.

INTERVIEW William Aniol, Aaron Thorne PHOTOS Courtesy Tianming Xie and Evan Lai

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

PAGE

SPORTS

Alumni Games played over Winter Break

TEAM MANAGERS

Working on and off the field

Although many students dream of a chance to continue athletics in college, two alumni work as managers instead.

ounding third base after what was his last at bat for the Lion’s baseball team in 2018, Jimmy Rodriguez ’18 soaked in every significant moment of his career as a Lion on the baseball diamond. Rodriguez loved baseball, and a big part of him knew this couldn’t be the end of his time playing the game he loved most. He certainly had the athletic ability to continue his career at the collegiate level; however, he took a road less traveled when he became the baseball manager at Duke University. ••• Rodriguez originally intended to participate on the Duke baseball team as a player, but the workload as a studentathlete took away from his overall college experience. “I definitely didn’t want to be a manager coming out of St. Mark’s, which is why I walked-on to the team first,” Rodriguez said. “I mainly just decided to be a manager after realizing that being a player wasn’t really for me.” Most people have trouble understanding the vast amount of work managers do for the success of their team, but Rodriguez’s contributions to the team help players and coaches do their job in the most efficient way possible. “I’ve thrown batting practice to the players, caught bullpens for pitchers, fed machines, hit ground balls to infielders and done just about anything someone who’s not a player can do in practice,” Rodriguez said. “The players and coaches are always very thankful of the work I do, and I can tell The players and coaches are always that they truly very thankful of the appreciate me work I do. being willing to Jimmy Rodriguez ’18 help the team out.” Often times, managers spend as much time as most players and coaches doing their job, leaving little to no room for extracurricular activities according to Drew Baxley ‘16, a manager for the reigning national champion Vanderbilt baseball team. “Coming out of St. Mark’s, we’re all people who want to be involved in

the community we’re a part of, so I made plenty of commitments before this year,” Baxley said. “A lot of my friends want to do weekend trips, or my fraternity has a formal down in Panama City Beach, or even our own graduation. These are all things that I’m going to miss because every weekend this semester is taken up by baseball.” Being a manager, Baxley says there is no room for individual gratification because there is a whole team relying on you to get a certain job done. “It’s fun to be a part of something that’s bigger than yourself,” Baxley said. “College is a lot about personal

“

by Luke Nayfa he Alumni Games are a special event for current and former Lion athletes that occur every Winter Break amongst the basketball, soccer and water polo teams. Junior Harrison Ingram looks forward to the event every year as he has the opportunity to play against former basketball players. “The alumni game is such a fun event to play in,” Ingram said. “I got to play with some guys who I used to play with one or two years ago and it’s just a special time to come together with former teammates and players who once led this team before I played.” The game isn’t taken lightly. Both teams compete as if it was an in-season game, according to Ingram. “Towards the end of the game, it got really competitive.” Ingram said. “The Alumni beat us off a buzzer beater in the second game after a lot of trash talking and competitive spirit.” Basketball head coach Greg Guiler sees this as an opportunity to teach the young players the significant role basketball can have in their lives. “The current players don’t realize how meaningful the game is until after they are done and then they think ‘man I want to come back and be a part of that,’” Guiler said. Often times, the players and alumni have close family relationships that add a unique element to the experience. “We had brothers playing against brothers and fathers playing against sons,” varsity soccer head coach Cory Martin said. “They get to hear about this experience at home all the time through bragging rights and everyday conversation.” Martin is fascinated by the overall skill and technique these alumni have, even many years after their time here. “I think it reinforces that we have some very good players that are still very passionate about soccer and all the fun it brings to their lives,” Martin said. “I think this game is very motivational for our current players who lack the experience some of these alumni have.”

investment, but just being a manager, my ultimate goal is the success of the team, not my own success in any way.” A manager is equally a part of the team as any other player, which is why the benefit of free travel and free merchandise attracts Baxley to the job, even in the second semester of his senior year. “I get a bunch of perks like free gear and traveling across the country to all of the games and visiting some very historic college stadiums,” Baxley said. “These are just some of the aspects of my job that make it so special.” Though managers may not be playing, they are still vitally important to the team and are treated as such. “They very much treat me like a team member,” Baxley said. “I get a locker in the locker room, and I’m treated equally, which is great.” For Rodriguez, he feels very welcomed by the whole team and coaching staff. “I’m really grateful that Duke baseball has always welcomed me with open arms and made me feel like I belonged there,” Rodriguez said. “This was true both when I walked-on and now as a manager. I can tell that they truly appreciate me being willing to help the team out.” While managers aren’t the people playing in the games, it is still a way to stay connected to the game in a way that not many others can. Baxley knew he wanted to continue to be around a baseball in some way after playing here, but he just didn’t know that he would end up a manager. “We had the opportunity to win the SPC Championship my senior year,” Baxley said, “which was a great way to cap off my time at St. Mark’s, so going into college, I definitely had a passion for baseball and wanted to keep pursuing that as best as I could.”

PREGAME On the Vanderbilt field, Drew Baxley ’16 gets ready to warm up with the team before a regular season game.

IN UNIFORM Even when he walked on at the Duke University baseball tryouts his freshman year, Jimmy Rodriguez ’18 (left) felt like he belonged on the team.

STORY Luke Nayfa, Rajan Joshi, Jack Davis PHOTOS Courtesy Jimmy Rodriguez ’18, Drew Baxley ’16

There’s no “I” in team: how sports is synonymous with family at 10600 Preston Road

here’s a common phrase that I’ve heard ever since I was a kid: There’s no “I” in “team.” Of course, if you look really closely, you’ll find that there is, indeed, no “I” anywhere in front, after or between any of the four letters in the word “team.” Many of us were taught this endearing phrase to learn about how a team consists of more than a group of separated individuals but rather a unified community working together toward a common goal. I’ve played team sports before such as seventh grade basketball and eighth grade volleyball, but for the most part, I’ve dedicated myself to fencing, an incredibly individualistic sport. Sure, I always feel

comforted knowing that my parents and friends are behind my back supporting me, but in a bout, it’s just me against the opponent standing across the strip from me. Naturally, I found myself growing more distant from the idea of a team through years and years of fencing; however, remembering the countless times I’ve been in the bleachers in front of Hunt Field in the fall and the seats of Hicks Gym in the winter, I’m reminded about what “team” really feels like. From watching the starting five squad huddle up after a dead ball on the court or the football team high-five eagerly awaiting Lower Schoolers during the Lion

Walk out to the field, St. Mark’s sports has transformed the word “team” into family for me. Even watching our wrestlers train together and the tennis team battle during fierce matches, the focus of these Christopher Wang deputy manging editor sports—although individualistic at heart—is always focused on the betterment of the team. Of the family. Through the wins and losses, highs and lows, game winners and heartbreakers, I’ve seen our sports team always come together

stronger throughout the season, arms linked and heads high. I have no doubt that every player would say that they’ve grown closer to their teammates between the beginning and end of each season. They’ve worked hard, shared laughs and played their hearts out together. And I’ve had the chance to watch as our teams blossomed into families from our very stands. There’s something incredibly special about sports here at 10600 Preston Road— something like no other. I’m not just watching schoolmates play for the love of a certain game for a school. Instead, I see a family playing for each other—and the family surrounding them, cheering in the stands.

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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SPORTS

Sophomore competes at lacrosse camps by SeMaj Musco ast summer and fall, sophomore Alex Geng went to lacrosse camps to refine his skills at the face-off position for the upcoming spring season. “I truly committed myself to the sport at the beginning of freshman year, and recently this past summer and fall I went to a lot of different camps and tournaments to hone in my skills and sharpen my craft,” Geng said. Geng described the unique atmosphere of THROWING A PUNCH the camps, saying that Martinez ’07 he attended several goes on the programs and was able offensive to travel to tournaments against with various teams. Colton Wright “I don’t actually play during for any club team, so I XKO 35, a don’t go to any club team MMA event practices,” Geng said. “I in Dallas in 2017. do ‘guest play’ for teams, Matinez won which means I get to by a round 3 go to tournaments with decision. them.” Geng looks at the opportunity to play in camps and tournaments in the off-season as an opportunity to improve and measure where his skills are for the new season. He also sees them as a great way to impress the college scouts who sometimes attend. “Playing school and outside lacrosse is definitely a great way for me to keep up my skills yearAlex Geng sophomore lacrosse player round,” Geng said. “Since school practices are lighter during the fall and the winter, going to different events allows me to gauge where I am at in preparation for the spring. Also, in the lacrosse world, it is much easier to get recognition and visibility when playing outside of school. Playing at various tournaments is a great way to let your name be known to college scouts.” Geng used the offseason experience to plan for his development for the upcoming season. Due to the camps, tournaments, and planning, Geng feels like he has grown at his position. “With the school season right around the corner, I feel like I definitely improved after my events in the off-season,” Geng said. “After each tournament or camp, I like to make a plan for my improvement, and I think I progressed a lot since the end of last year.”

Stepping into the ring MIXED MARTIAL ARTS

After a rough upbringing in Dallas, Humberto Martinez ’07 discovered a passion for MMA while he was a college student, trained at gyms around Dallas and became a nationally ranked competitor.

e started playing soccer when he was three. When he was five years old, his father left. He saw his first dead body when he was in third grade. The corpse of his sister’s boyfriend lay just outside the front door. In the fourth grade, he couldn’t leave his house without fear of being jumped by a gang to be initiated. In seventh grade, Humberto Martinez ’07 came to campus. During his sophomore football season, he began working out at a boxing and wrestling gym. He dropped out of college his sophomore year after getting his thenfianceé pregnant. But one thing kept him going through all the tough times: the lessons he learned while at 10600 Preston Rd. ••• When Martinez first applied to be a student here, he didn’t know what the school was. Instead, his fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Craft, took it upon herself to fill out all the necessary papers for the application before giving them to his mother. “The very first time I took the entrance exam, I can tell you now that I didn’t try,”

Martinez said. “Because in the back of my mind, I was like, ‘Why would I even try to go to this school where I don’t even know who is there?’ I get to the test, and everyone is looking at me like, ‘Why is this dude even here?’ I had no idea why I was there.” The next time Martinez applied in seventh grade, he was accepted. “It was a culture shock,” Martinez said. “I would go to St. Marks and see the Perots getting dropped off in freaking limousines. There was a time when my stepdad would drop me off there at 5 a.m., and I would just sit there.” From the beginning, sports became a huge part of his life, from beginning soccer when he was three years old to playing basketball late into the night. “Once I got to ten years old, I started really getting into basketball,” Martinez said. “[My friends and I] would be playing basketball until like nine or ten at night. And to me, that was life. It was school and basketball.” During his time on campus, Martinez played football in the fall and ran track in the spring. Even though contact sports and fighting appealed greatly to him, he chose not to wrestle. “I just didn’t want to wrestle because it just seemed miserable cutting weight, so I never wrestled, but I loved football,” Martinez said. “I loved training.” While at Austin College, he was finally introduced

to boxing and MMA, which he ultimately fell in love with. “My strength coach suggested that we all go to the local coach to learn handfighting, grappling, wrestling and boxing,” Martinez said. Martinez treated MMA like any other sport. Before matches, he would watch film of his opponent to learn his moves and how his opponent fights so he can win each upcoming match. “Just like when I played football at St. Mark’s, we’d watch film and pick up on certain tendencies that our opponents had,” Martinez said. “If they like to hit a certain way, how they like to react with closeout speed. Things like that. So you study your opponent.” Currently, Martinez has become a ranked professional, which matches him with high-ranked opponents even when he’s not in the ring. However, as a professional, he doesn’t want to risk any injury because it can cost him competitions or his position at the police academy. “I have the status of a professional, so if I go to the boxing gym that I used to go to, they make me spar a professional,” Martinez said. “When I’m grappling with people, I let them know ‘Hey, I’m not going very hard so just don’t go too hard.’ So I don’t really go to the boxing gym, though I train at the academy.” When he does spar, other opponents usually treat it as a full fledged fight. The speed and intensity is the same as any average fight. “If you’re scrimmaging somebody, you’re still going to hit them just as hard as you would in an actual fight,” Martinez said. “It’s a fight, and I had to learn that the hard way.” However, he credits his toughness to the school and the members of its community who taught him lessons which have stuck with him throughout his life. “Father Huddleston helped me a lot also especially during that time,” Martinez said. “The lessons I learnt at St. Mark’s are what kept me going through it all.”

STORY Jack Davis, Rajan Joshi, Drew Woodward PHOTO Courtesy Humberto Martinez

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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TAKEDOWN On the mats in Spencer Gym, junior captain Cooper Ribman controls his opponent during the semifinals of the St. Mark’s Lonestar 51st Christmas Open. Ribman went on to win this dual with a pin.

Wrestling looks to take first SPC title since 2015 2018-2019 SPC FINISH 4th 2019-2020 TOP PLACEMENT 1st at St. Mark’s season opening team duals THEY SAID IT “Losing [junior captain] Cooper [Ribman to injury] was a tough loss for the team because not only is he a great competitor, he also had a lot of leadership that is now missing in the wrestling room. However, the guys have stepped up and they are really pushing the team forward” — head coach Reyno Arredondo

NOTABLE Because there are no seniors on the team, the team has two junior captains — Jackson Fair and Cooper Ribman — and three sophomore captains — Elijah Ellis, Sal Abbasi and Jed Kim.

SHOOTING TWO With two minutes left in the game, sophomore Tate Laczkowski prepares to shoot the first of two free throws. The Lions went on to defeat Bishop Lynch 75-51 Jan. 24.

Basketball continues a strong season with a counter-game 2018-2019 RECORD 27-5 2019 SPC FINISH 3rd 2019-2020 RECORD 22-3

NOTABLE Four players, senior forward Andrew Laczkowski, junior forward Harrison Ingram and sophomore guards Colin Smith and Noah Shelby, have received offers to play Division I.

NOTABLE During the first counter game of the season, sophomore guard Colin Smith scored 40 points and led the Lions to a 41-point victory over Trinity Valley with a final score of 111-70.

COMPILATIONS Rajan Joshi, Drew Woodward PHOTOS Lars Ochs, Sam Ahmed

THEY SAID IT “It’s definitely surreal to play in the American Airlines Center and be around all these college coaches all the time, but I think it helps us. Our best players are more focused and that trickles down to the rest of the team.” — junior Luke Annett

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After two losses, soccer looks to bounce back in the remainder of the season 2018-2019 RECORD 5-6 2018-2019 RECORD 14-3-1 2019 SPC FINISH 5th HEADING DOWNFIELD Sprinting past the Cistercian defender, junior Cristian Pereira dribbles toward the opposing goal. The Lions fell to the Hawks 1-0 Jan. 22.

NOTABLE Having never played goalie before, senior Alex Piccagli has learned the new position early this year. Piccagli currently is the backup for the Lions.

THEY SAID IT “[SPC’s] so competitive. We would like to get one of those two spots that get you a bye for that first round.” — head coach Cory Martin NOTABLE Due to inclimate weather during the first half of the season, a few counter season matches were rescheduled.

Swimming cruises to multiple victories against familiar foes 2018-2019 SPC FINISH 3rd 2019-2020 BEST FINISH 1st against Cistercian

THEY SAID IT “I’m really excited to see where our season goes from this point on. We had a couple of tough matches so far in the season, so I think our team is ready to go into this final stretch with confidence heading into the SPC Tournament.” — junior Ryan Park

OFF THE BOARD During practice, two swimmers dive into consecutive lanes. Simulating a competition, the swimmers aim to best their personal records.

NOTABLE The swim team started off its counter season with three victories against the Cistercian Hawks and the Greenhill Hornets. The Lions defeated the Hawks twice. NOTABLE Juniors Leo Ohannessian and Jack Palmer both aim to beat school record for freestyle and breaststroke, respectively. Palmer is only 0.85 seconds from the current school record, and Ohannessian is 2.75 seconds away.

Sports junkie

A deeper dive into Lions sports for the winter season. Statistics and records reflect games through Jan. 31.

Number of SPC championships for the Lions’ swim team won in the 2010’s AT THE READY Senior goalie Billy Lockhart (left) saves a goal during the Lions’ 1-0 loss to Cistercian Jan. 22. Junior swimmer Aayan Khasgiwala (right) gets set for his 100 m freestyle race @ Ralph B. Rodgers Natatorium vs. Cistercian.

212

Lions recorded their season high in points scored vs Southlake Carrol 1/9

Number of members on the swim team Basketball

Soccer

Swimming

Wrestling Advanced stats:

Advanced stats:

Five star forward Harrison Ingram eclipsed a career 1,000 points 11/30 vs. Prolifc Prep (CA).

All nine goals were scored by juniors in the 9-1 route vs Trinity Valley 1/21.

The Lions have a team chant in Romanian.

The SPC tournament will be played at Greenhill and St. Mark’s.

Nat Fisher was the only freshman to earn a spot on the varsity squad.

Junior Jackson Fair and sophomore Elijah Ellis earned 1st place finishes Junior Aayan Khasgiwala at the DISD Open. is the only non-senior captain of the swim team. Some wrestlers cut anywhere from 5-20 pounds in a season.

SPC North Zone Standings:

SPC North Zone Standings

SPC championships @ FWCD 2/13

1) Casady 2) Cistercian 3) Greenhill 4) Oakridge 5) ESD 6) St. Mark’s

Team’s top 100m breaststroke time:

1) St. Mark’s 2) Greenhill 3) Casady 4) Oakridge 5) Cistercian 6) Trinity Valley

Next up: Tonight vs. ESD (2/7) SPC tournament in Dallas 2/13-2/15

Next up: Tonight vs. ESD SPC Tournament in Dallas 2/13-2/15

Next up:

Junior Jack Palmer finished in 58.92 sec

Word from the captains

Next up: 2/15 SPC tournament 2/21-2/23 Prep Nationals Qualifying Round @ Lehigh University (PA)

Team’s top 100m freestyle time Junior Leo Ohennesian finished in 48.70 sec

COMPILATIONS SeMaj Musco, Luke Nayfa, Jack Davis PHOTO Sam Ahmed, Charlie Rose

Senior soccer captain William Holtby

“Despite some painful losses we have recently had, I think the team is coming along just in time for us to make a run at SPC this year. Younger guys have filled some crucial roles throughout the season and I am excited to see where it takes us.” Senior basketball captain Andrew Laczkowski

“The season has been successful with a couple of hiccups along the way. Despite our success, we are not satisfied. We are working everyday towards the SPC championship and I think this is the most focused we have ever been.”

Junior wrestling captain Cooper Ribman

“This season has been awesome in so many ways so far. It’s been great seeing the younger guys step up and lead the team. We’re just continuing to practice and work as hard as possible everyday in anticipation for Prep State.”

Senior swimming captain Lee Schlosser

“This season has been one of our strongest in recent history. We have a ton of fast kids and we’ve beat schools like HP and Greenhill. There is a lot of competition at SPC but we have a great shot.” ‘Sports junkie’ compiled by Luke Nayfa

REMARKER ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS 10600 PRESTON RD. DALLAS, TX 75230

FLOOR GENERAL Junior captain Harrison Ingram surveys the court during a matchup against the Bishop Lynch Friars Jan. 24. The Lions would go on to win by a score of 97-43. THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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A musical double treble After starting a band last year, seniors Will Mallick and Eli Yancey are now a two-man singing team, performing year round at Coffeehouses and other events.

Sid Vattamreddy: How did this musical duo start? Whose idea was it? Eli Yancey: At the beginning of last year, Will had performed at Coffehouse before. At that time, I had started to want to do that. At first, I approached him with the idea of “What if we made a band?” We did the band, it was called Due Tomorrow, Do Tomorrow, and then that dissolved. After that, it just became us two. It was really easy for us to do things together.

Born, and I made Eli sing – I mean – Eli wanted to sing Lady Gaga’s part. EY: No, you made me sing it. I wasn’t mad about it though. WM: Yeah, I made him sing it. But the next time we did a song with a really high part, we just switched off and I sang it. EY: We both have pretty similar, if not the exact same vocal ranges, so we’re pretty comfortable with each other.

SV: Will, you have been in Choir since Lower School. How has that affected how you sing with Eli? Will Mallick: The choir foundation has definitely made me a better singer. It enhanced and matured my voice. It’s definitely different though. In a larger group, like SMAcapella or choir, if you mess up, no one knows. If it’s just us two singing, any mistake can be heard.

SV: What’s your favorite song to perform together? EY: “5000 Candles in the Wind” from Parks and Recreaction, that’s the original, first song we performed together. WM: We’ve also done “Yesterday” by The Beatles a lot. “5000 Candles” is definitely our staple though. EY: Yeah, every time we have to perform something, we always do that song.

SV: Eli, I’ve heard you play a ton of instruments really well. How did you get so good at such a variety of instruments? EY: From a young age, my parents really wanted me to learn about music. I took piano from a very young age. I did stop taking lessons eventually, but that foundation really helped me develop musically. Even in kindergarten, I was going to music classes and that started developing in my brain. It’s instilled in there so whenever I want to try something new, I can usually pick it up well. I taught myself how to play drums. It took awhile, but I got there. Guitar I picked up on my own before I started taking lessons for it.

SV: Will, what’s the best thing about Eli? WM: As a person, Eli’s very quiet. I’m not saying it like, “Thank God he doesn’t ever talk,” but he’s very quiet and kind of keeps himself, but when he comes out of his shell, there’s a lot of energy. He’s a really fun guy, but it’s sudden. I love how spontaneous he is. Musically, it’s just how good he is at everything whether it’s guitar, drums, piano, bass, singing, just everything. It’s really fun singing with him because I think we sound good together, and I think he makes me better a singer because he pushes me to match him.

SV: How do you guys decide who sings what part? WM: We’re both tenors, and we both have a wide range in terms of our voices. Generally, we usually just switch off. We sang “Shallow” one time, from A Star is

SV: Eli, what’s the best thing about Will? EY: Going off what he said, he’s always pushing me to match him. I always listen to him singing and I’m like, “Wow, I’ve got to step up.” As a person I really like how charismatic he is. He’s a very likable person, like he can stand up in front of a bunch of people and instantly charm everyone.

INTERVIEW Sid Vattamreddy PHOTOS Owen Simon, Courtesy Will Mallick

UNBREAKABLE CHEMISTRY At the last Coffeehouse held in Winn Science Center in December, Will and Eli performed a mashup of songs from the Broadway musical Hamilton.

REMARKER

S P E C I A L S E CT I O N • S T. M A R K ' S S C H O O L O F T E X A S • DA L L A S , T E X A S • V O LU M E 6 6 , N U M B E R 4 • F E B R UA RY 7 , 2 0 2 0

P O L I T I C A L

C U L T U R E

Perfect disunion No one is exempt from the divisiveness of politics. Identity, ethics and character are becoming inseparable from political issues once unrelated. In this age of social media, instant communication and personalized news feeds, how can we come back together? See editor’s note, page 8.

DON’T MISS

Politics in the classroom • The role of the school in political

socialization is investigated. Is the classroom the right place for political debate? Page 3

Election breakdown • Candidates and key terms are explained

clearly. An at-a-glance guide to the names and events dominating the news. Page 5

Voting and activism • Students share their thoughts on civic duty and issues

of top concern for those able to vote in the next election, including a guide on how to get registered to vote. Page 6

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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SPECIAL SECTION

POLITICAL DIVISIVENESS

Along party lines

1981

Contentious politics are as old as America–but they might manifest in an all-new way

artisanship. It’s a word credited for Washington’s existed for quite some time within American politics. inability to pass legislation, for a family’s arguments “Now I would say that the reality did not match the about politics around the dinner table or for the founder’s ideals,” Hamilton said. “And so, while today it ever-more radical ideas reshaping America. seems like things are really partisan, and the parties seem But often the extent to which Americans disagree very divided, I don’t think that divisiveness is something about politics is underestimated. A 2019 report by the new.” Public Religion Research Institute found that 44 percent of Long-time Capitol Hill staffer Scott Cunningham ’98 Americans believe the Democratic party “has been taken agrees. over by socialists,” while 48 percent of Americans believe “It may seem like we are living in the most divided the Republican party “has been taken over by racists.” time ever — I’ve been on the Hill for almost 20 years and I American history instructor Andrea Hamilton am pretty sure that people have said that every year that I believes schools once prevented the rampant partisanship have been up here,” Cunningham said. “We often focus on prevalent today. the here and now and sometimes lose track of “From the very beginning, public schools the fact that it has always been this way — that were supposed to bring people together isn’t to say that it is right, just a reminder that and create what it meant to be American,” we’ve made a highly charged environment for Hamilton said. “And that’s as big a part of much of my time up here.” their function as actually teaching kids things.” Cunningham is on the front lines of the But for Hamilton, the growing power of rampant partisanship in Washington. His job in Andrea Hamilton technology has made schools less effective at the House of Representatives requires he work American history instructor moderating political discussion. with colleagues on the other side of the aisle — “I don’t know how one adapts to the fact that we work that often goes unnoticed. have created these big factions of people that listen to “The media never highlights when Republicans themselves,” Hamilton said. “And I worry that you and Democrats are getting along and being productive reach a point of no return because I don’t see the internet [because] that isn’t exactly a juicy news story,” changing.” Cunningham said. “I have many good working Hamilton sees the biggest effect of technology in the relationships with colleagues on the other side of the aisle way Americans consume news. that have withstood several majority-minority shifts in “When I was growing up, and even when I was in the chamber. Most people didn’t come to Capitol Hill to graduate school, you pretty much had four channels on oppose everything.” TV: ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox,” Hamilton said. “People However, Cunningham notes that majority-minority would watch the news every evening, so news had shifts can often expose divisions within parties as well as to appeal to a broad group. But now it’s much more between them. personalized content—so you don’t inherently receive that “Party divisions can often become more clear when balance because the media is no longer trying to advertise a party is in the majority,” Cunningham said. “When you to a big market share the way national news are in the minority, it is much easier to unite used to do.” together against what the majority is doing — but when you are in the majority, trying Recent research supports Hamilton’s claims. to find 218 votes on any given matter can be A Jan. 24 report by the Pew Research Center quite difficult.” found that Democrats and Republicans trust Cunningham believes these divisions, two “nearly inverse” sets of media outlets, and partisanship in Washington more with Democrats distrusting the outlets broadly, can be addressed through more Scott Cunningham ’98 Republicans found most trustworthy and vice effective use of technological tools such as Long-time Washington staffer versa. Hamilton worries this distrust could do social media. irrevocable damage to the civic discourse. “[Social media] is great in that folks from “We are losing the kind of civil conversation that’s so the district can express their concerns to their members of critical to having a healthy public debate and a healthy Congress very quickly and that we can get a quicker check society,” Hamilton said. “That’s very different from what of the pulse of what people are feeling back home — that is our founding fathers imagined.” very important and is something that wasn’t an option not Hamilton notes the American democratic system was too long ago,” Cunningham said. specifically designed to avoid such partisanship. He feels that all hope isn’t lost for those dealing with “There’s all this anxiety in early America and among partisanship in Washington. the founders that our democracy may fail,” Hamilton “Without question, what gets me going in the morning said. “[Washington] warned against political factions and is the ability to help someone out,” Cunningham said. supported the idea that as gentlemen in government, “Passing sweeping legislation is great, but that doesn’t they should be able to rise above those partisan feelings happen that often — but each and every day you have and work as disinterested gentlemen for the public good. the opportunity to help someone out, and whenever I That’s the ideal.” am successful with that, it puts a smile on my face and a But she also acknowledges that partisanship has spring in my step.”

1991

2001

2011

This graphic, created for a study published in the PLOS ONE online academic journal, illustrates growing partisanship in Congress based on annual voting results in certain years. • Red dots: Republicans • Blue dots: Democrats • Position: Left or right

• Gray lines: connections between a Democrat and a Republican–in other words, voting across the aisle

STORY Alam Alidina, Sam Goldfarb, Jamie Mahowald PERSONAL COLUMN

What our leaders say, what our leaders mean, and humanity itself–at and after a Trump rally by Jamie Mahowald I’m going to get my teeth knocked out. I’m going to get socked and slugged like Mr. Bill. The moment I step foot onto Houston Street down by the American Airlines Center they’ll sniff out my scent––a really nice lemon rose shampoo I got online––with the focus of a pack of ravenous lions, and they’ll pounce onto me, their claws fixed into my chest, their paws and teeth tearing at my face–– If their opinions doesn’t kill me before they do. ••• Take a gander at the face below you and you’ll see that I’ve recuperated from my Trump Rally injuries quite nicely––i.e. they did not happen. No, nothing physical transpired, but I expected, if not something violent, something uncomfortable, something uneasy, something tense as I walked down to the rally through Oak Lawn (of all places). “What if I get shot?” I whispered. My friend Jacob was walking beside me. “You’re not going to get shot.” What a relief. “And, if someone shoots you,” he continues, “I’ll shoot him.” Sometime in the night, amid a sea of signs, hats and shirts, I saw someone holding up a piece of poster board that read, “I may not be straight, but I’m stupid,” with a photo of Trump’s face blanketed in a rainbow hue. That’s ridiculous, I thought. I’m not straight, and I’m stupid –– those two are by no means mutually exclusive. Then a tall gentleman moved his head to reveal a “not”

between the “I’m” and “stupid,” and at that time, for doesn’t affect me is saying I don’t care what is done to them, as some reason I was not sure of the version I was more long as it doesn’t affect me. inclined to agree with. I don’t jive with the “If you’re not with me, you’re Somewhere on Houston Street, though, I seemed to against me” attitude of many political issues. But when drop my fear of the worst –– that I’d be clobbered until it’s a matter of humanity, lack of support is opposition. only red was left on my tiny rainbow flag. I was physicalThe same applies to other minority groups, whether ly safe, but my fear is subtler than safety. My fear is more racial, cultural, linguistic or sexual. The people at the rally reserved –– and much more severe. know humanity––I saw their benign conversa••• tions with the man with the sign––but for them The day before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to turn around and cheer for a man who has the White House live streamed a sermon Vice not shown he knows humanity breaks me and President Mike Pence attended and spoke at. I confuses me. watched all of it, including the little part when As men who, with the same swift, sightless, Bishop Jerry Wayne Taylor of Memphis––who sinister hands, sign the phrase “LGBT for GOP” would later endorse Pence and whom Pence and axe all pro-LGBT policies from governmenie Mahowald would commend in return –– made certain that J a mGraphics tal institutions, Trump and Pence have made director “It’s a demonic spirit that causes a man to be remarkable efforts to seem less insidious than attracted to another man,” professing that, “if you want to the legislation they pass, than the people they bury their know what God made you, when you go to the bathroom, approval into. check your plumbing. What kind of plumbing are you I did not get beat up at the Trump-Pence Rally, despite using?” my confidence that I would on that day –– I now see the My boyfriend laughed at Taylor; of course, the man men and women in the red hats as members of our collecwas funny to watch. But that’s where it stops being funny. tive humanity, rather than outside of mine. My fear is not the baseless indictments directed by But I am deathly afraid of the road to my rights eroding Taylor, who has zero authority over my actions. My fear inch by inch because of that man with the white hair and is Pence’s glance of approval to Taylor, Trump’s glance to the black suit. Pence and half of America’s glance to Trump. I do not believe in someone who can support me and Being apolitical is not apolitical. Engaging in the also a man who, by all evidence, can’t stand that I’m not common sentiment of I don’t care what they do, as long as it something else. That’s what kills me.

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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POLITICS IN THE CLASSROOM

The elephant (or the donkey) in the room Many teachers use current events to enhance the learning experience of their students, but what level of political discourse is acceptable?

TEACHING MOMENT Seeing both sides of an issue can offer new views to students.

t’s a normal history class. and advancing learning the learning of boys and “We don’t need to talk to [kids] about genocides Notes in front of every student, teacher at the head of taking advantage of teachable moments as they come from political organizations,” Santosuosso said, “but I’ve the class, and the lesson heading toward a discussion up in a very professional way. Our teachers are some noticed with my own kids, they hear things. They don’t about policy. of the best in the country, and that’s warranted by the know what they’re talking about, but they’ve heard adults And politics. professionalism they bring to campus every day. And if talking about politics. I think there’s a point in early Slowly, the discussion — once reserved — turns into a we ever make a mistake, we address that and we go on.” research and establishing a surface, adding levels to that heated discussion between students. Too heated. Among the teachers Ashton references is history every year.” The focus of the lesson is lost, replaced by contentions instructor Michele Santosuosso. Having taught for In History and Social Sciences Department Chair back-and-forth. 16 years, Santosuosso has maintained her own policy David Fisher’s experience, there are certain topics where What should our teachers do when these situations regarding politics in the classroom, balancing student he will let his students know where he stands, but he take place? liberty while discussing with appropriate mediation. finds it imperative to present varied sources to allow Where should we discuss politics on campus? And “I feel like I’ve had a successful year if I have students to form their own opinions. how should we go about it? kids who think I’m left and kids who think I’m right,” “I want students to know on different topics where How are we — as students — prepared to discuss Santosuosso said. “I like to be, if necessary, that mediator. I stand and to let them know how I arrived at that politics in the classroom? I will push them to talk about really uncomfortable things, judgment,” Fisher said. “At the same time, I let them ••• but if they come in wanting to talk about something, I’ll know it’s perfectly fine to have an opinion that differs When it comes to politics in the classroom, Associate give them free reign.” from mine. It’s incumbent upon me to show different Headmaster John Ashton says the school’s policy is Santosuosso’s practice is tested nearly daily by perspectives, so people can make those different choices.” relatively straightforward. students in her Spec Ops elective course, where current Part of the reason Fisher chooses to reveal his political “For decades now the school has given all of us events and politics are a core part of the curriculum. standing on certain topics has to do with his beliefs as faculty members direction to make sure that when Although she may not always expect to discuss specific regarding human nature. He says revealing political bias facilitating political discussions and policy events going into a class, she is open to is inevitable, so teachers have to combat that with the discussions, the teacher should commit to students driving the lesson because of the presentation of various viewpoints. facilitating and balancing those discussions course’s identity, tying today’s happenings to “So long as there is a genuine attempt to encourage with the boys,” Ashton said. “There can be historical events. an appreciation of different viewpoints,” Fisher said, “I and should be robust, great conversations “I might walk in one class expecting think we’re doing our job whether or not the teacher is around our political systems, governance, we’re going to talk about the 1967 Six-Day explicitly or implicitly biased because I don’t think you politics, civics, right and civic responsibility War for the entire 45 minutes,” Santosuosso can expect a teacher to be unbiased.” and what it means to be a citizen.” said, “but part of the course is an intrigue in Presenting these different viewpoints includes a John Ashton According to Ashton, the goal of what’s going on in the world. I like to provide weekly activity in Fisher’s comparative government Associate Headmaster facilitating these discussions is not to the history of something happening because course where students connect current events they’ve influence the students but to encourage of the geopolitical connections 50, 75, 90 years read about to their coursework, and Fisher’s goal with them to form their own opinions based on differing ago. I think it’s kind of cool to let them ‘derail’ the class.” this assignment is to spark a constructive discussion. perspectives. According to Santosuosso, an integral part of the “I assign a pair of my students to report on a news “In the best case scenario, the boys walk out of the course is understanding opposite viewpoints, and for this event that’s connected to what we study every week,” classroom not knowing the teacher’s belief system, values reason, she expects her students to not only consider but Fisher said. “That’s the basis for an oral presentation. or political leanings,” Ashton said. also argue ideas against their own political The idea is they’ll read something in the While Ashton says the importance of discussing beliefs. newspaper. It has a thematic connection, and politics may vary from department to department, in “My goal is that by researching what I also want my students’ personal judgment. times when tensions may be higher, the school makes sure they don’t believe,” Santosuosso said, Invariably, it leads to a discussion about to remind the entire faculty of its protocol. “they don’t change their mind, but they whether you agree.” “[Around the time of the] 2018 midterm election, become more grounded in their belief by At its core, Fisher doesn’t want to [Headmaster David] Dini sent a note out to all faculty understanding the opposite viewpoint. They influence his students’ views. Instead, he and staff,” Ashton said. “[It described] our practice with know they’ll be pushed and shoved and wants to provide as much information as David Fisher regard to elections, [and encouraged them to] have great yanked around a little bit. Everybody’s going possible to educate a decision, and he trusts History and Social Sciences academic discussions and to be mindful of positioning to be asked a question or forced to think about his colleagues to do the same. Department chair your comments in a way that are neutral and facilitate.” something at some point in their life. Being “It’s not about indoctrinating people While all faculty follow a policy where they can find confident in themselves and answer questions and being into thinking that a particular political system is the the school’s stance on politics in the classroom explicitly knowledgeable to argue the opposing position opens the best system,” Fisher said. “It’s about understanding the stated, Ashton says the school trusts the faculty to run world to so many new perspectives and ideas.” variety of political systems that exist on earth and valuing their classes the best way they see fit. Speaking as a parent, Santosuosso says this civic them accordingly. I trust all my faculty members to do “Any teacher here is given great trust in all aspects education should begin as early as possible, allowing for a that because that’s part of our job. That’s part of our of teaching,” Ashton said. “Managing a class, supporting more nuanced understanding of the world. mission.” STORY Siddhartha Sinha, Cristian Pereira, Sai Thirunagari PHOTO Ryan McCord

The West Wing in the age of Trump: a reminder of why voting matters

t’ll be too easy to look at the ballot on Nov. 7 and vote on gut instinct. At least, that’s what I’d assume. I’ll be four months too young to vote in this upcoming election, so on Election Day I’ll be biting my nails and listening to talking heads. I’m also no political analyst or pollster. I couldn’t tell you what Americans across the nation care about, or whether they’ll vote red or blue. But I do have one key qualification. I’m an avid watcher of the political drama The West Wing. And—though it’s now two decades old—it’s taught me something about what politics should be. Yes it ignores the more grim realities

of Washington. And yes its fast-talking less hours into the thankless work that and hopelessly idealistic governing is. And that even characters—from a Nobel when parties fundamentally Prize-winning economist disagree, there’s still room for President to a generously-ticonversation, and there’s still tled and wildly-accented some way to bridge the divide. British Ambassador—are all There’s no question that a little fantastical. no matter who the Democratic But it serves as a renominee for president is, Amerminder of why government icans will be faced with a stark Alam Alidina matters. choice in November. They’ll Focus editor Over its nine seasons, have to decide what they want The West Wing reminds us in an administration—whethtime and time again that government—and er governing can occur in 240-character the people who make it work—should be a tweets, whether prosperity is a good mealittle idealistic. That it should be filled with sure of success if it doesn’t reach those who people who care, who will plunge countneed it most, whether rampant disregard

for the rules that govern our democracy is ok if draining the swamp is the goal. And they’ll have to distance their choice in the voting booth from the opinions around their dinner tables and the reassuring blabber of cable news. Because now more than ever, it’s incredibly important that voting is more than just a show of participation—that it’s an act of courage, a belief that no matter how broken the system is, it can still be made right. So I’ll be trusting the hundred-andthirty-or-so million people who vote in presidential elections to be courageous on Nov. 7. I hope some of them keep The West Wing in mind.

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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POLITICAL DISCOURSE

Not just what they say, but... T

ONLINE WARFARE Twitter has become the main platform for political one-liners and jibes.

From Twitter rants to presidential speeches, American discourse has become increasingly toxic at all levels. With civil discourse slowly disappearing, the nature of political discussion is put into question.

he prominence of social media in how politicians discussion that continues whether or not both parties reach While some students may be satisfied with the state of interact with their voters and release their policy an agreement. political discourse on campus, debate on social media proposals to the public is undeniable. Both the right “How much better it is to say, ‘I don’t think we can and less organized forums of discussion remain issues. and the left have used social media to their advantage. agree on this. We’ve talked. I don’t dislike you as a person. According to debate coach Tim Mahoney and English Among the most notable are President Donald Trump for I hope you don’t dislike me as a person. We both obviously department chair Michael Morris, there are a few steps the Republicans and Representative Alexandria Ocasiopeople can take to help improve debate everywhere on and care in our different ways. Is there anything we can agree Cortez for the Democrats. on, or could we at least agree to meet again sometime?’” off campus. But how this affects real-life discourse can vary. Some Morris said. “What you don’t want is to end the possibility The first and easiest step people can take is to simply people will take the more inflammatory discourse into of connection because then I think be educated about not only about one’s own opinion, but everyday life, while others will look past the heated slogans also all possible angles of discussion. Students in the debate you have a divide.” and form more sophisticated opinions and arguments. The political and social program on campus practice “Switch Side Debate,” where Junior Jacob Bell, a self-identified moderate right-winger, divide online ultimately ends up each team will defend both sides of an issue over the course and sophomore Henry Morgan, a self-identified moderate keeping people who might have of the debate, allowing for a greater understanding of the establishment Democrat, choose the latter. more in common than they think topic as a whole. ••• from each other, resulting in a “There’s nuance to these questions,” Mahoney said. Michael Morris Morgan feels that the campus is a place friendly to fragmented society, broken apart “There’s identifying a problem and then identifying a English department chair political discussions among members on opposite sides of by problems they might just not solution to that particular problem, and there’s a lot of issues, especially at Political Forum, a have talked enough about. gray area between just yes and no. So club held on Thursdays during ninth “If we spoke to people more often face to face, there being able to see not just two sides of a period when various students come would actually be less division because there’s something question, but multiple perspectives on together to discuss politics. about body language and countenance and facial an issue, is definitely a core component I WOULD SAY THAT PEOPLE IN “Around St. Mark’s, I express my expressions that I think connect people in a way that you of our critical thinking. We want the THE ST. MARK’S COMMUNITY views all the time,” Morgan said. “I’m can’t really accomplish online,” Morris said. “I think if two research that we do to accentuate that ARE ACTUALLY VERY GOOD one of the most active members of people with very different political ideas sat down and type of critical thinking.” Political Forum, and I’ve always felt had a conversation face to face, you would probably get AT PROVIDING IDEAS But even if students have the able to express my views, even though significantly better results because of human interaction.” necessary knowledge to discuss AND NOT TOXICITY, AND they’re very contrary to most people While worried about the current political climate, controversial issues, it is just IT’S SOMETHING I REALLY in Political Forum. So I would say that Morris believes that the group discussions and debates as important to have similarly overall, St. Mark’s is a pretty welcoming APPRECIATE . understanding and appropriate language held everyday around Harkness tables on campus will place to different political ideologies.” help to promote proactive discourse and bring America — SOPHOMORE HENRY MORGAN to truly change people’s minds. Even in the classroom, Bell enjoys closer together. “Belittling people is unlikely to teachers who usually don’t have taboos “As an English teacher, it’s given me a great sense of make them conducive to understanding your perspective, on politics. He also finds teachers who sometimes espouse and then if they can’t understand your perspective, they’re purpose because I feel like there’s a lot that we can do for their own biases in class to be a positive thing. you guys who will go off into all these different positions certainly less likely to agree with your perspective,” “I think most teachers are okay if you talk about in different careers,” Morris said. “There’s a lot we can Mahoney said. “We’ve got to be respectful, and if we’re politics,” Bell said. “Most [teachers] don’t care. They’re respectful, we also have to have reasonable expectations. If do to try to orient you in productive, empathetic and not going to say ‘Don’t talk about that,’ because, of course, people haven’t really heard our arguments and don’t really communal ways. So while I’m troubled about the state of they’ll have their own political opinions. Sometimes they’ll understand them, then sure the first conversation we’re not the nation and the world as I hear and understand it, I’m bring their own political opinions in, which I think is hopeful that, in having the opportunity to work with you able convince them. But over time, [we might be able to].” good.” guys and knowing how bright and hardworking you guys For Morris, debates should not be one-time spats Bell enjoys the status quo in that it allows for political are, there is definitely hope.” where both sides never speak again, but rather a discussion among students and even faculty members. He sees the open nature of political discourse on campus as a positive thing that is not prone to change. Social media and online news has opened up new avenues for learning about the “I think it’s good to have everyone share their political world. Here’s the breakdown on where young adults get their news. views, not just the students,” Bell said. “There are plenty Source: pewresearch.org of opportunities to discuss politics, and I don’t know that there’s much that could change at St. Mark’s. If people want to talk about politics, they will.” In addition to a healthy amount of political discussion on campus, Morgan sees that most students will keep the debate respectful and back up their views. “As long as people are willing to support their points and be respectful, then in that case, I’m very satisfied,” Morgan said. “Most of the time that’s the case, so I’m mostly very satisfied with the amount of discussions I have Radio Print news Television Digital news Social media and the quality of the discussions.”

‘‘

Sources of information

STORY Luke Piazza, Axel Icazbalceta, Jonathan Yin ARTWORK Jonathan Yin

percent

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

A race for the ages

Donald Trump

President of the United States MAIN FOCUS Trump’s signature policy is building the wall along the US-Mexico border. So far, 101 miles have been constructed, and he promises 450 by election day.

Trump vs. 12 Democrats. With 2020 now here, the election season is in full swing, and the field could not be any more crazy and crowded. Here’s a rundown on the candidates who are competing to battle Trump for the presidency in November.

SLEEPER POLICY Trump has promised to keep insurance protections for those with preexisting conditions and has mandated pharmaceutical companies to list the prices of drugs in an attempt to lower consumer prices.

ON YOUR MARKS The Democrats, while having many to chose from, struggle to find an outstanding candidate among the large crowd. Front-runners like Biden and Sanders have been identified, but the sheer number of candidates leaves many voters perplexed.

Elizabeth Warren

Amy Klobuchar US Sen., D-Minnesota

MAIN FOCUS Klobuchar believes in universal healthcare and sees the best way forward as a public option through Medicare and Medicaid. SLEEPER POLICY Klobuchar wants to increase funding to the State Department and stop “foreign policy by tweet.”

Andrew Yang

Michael Bloomberg

Former Mayor of New York City

Entrepreneur

MAIN FOCUS Yang’s flagship campaign promise is Universal Basic Income, which he calls the Freedom Dividend, which would give every American adult $1,000 per month. SLEEPER POLICY Yang wants to make D.C. a state, with the representation and all privileges of any other state.

Tom Steyer

Hedge fund manager, philanthropist

MAIN FOCUS Steyer wants to structurally reform American democracy by getting corporate money out of politics and changing other aspects of the election process. SLEEPER POLICY Steyer believes his “JusticeCentered Climate Plan” will achieve a 100% clean energy economy.

John Delaney U.S House of Rep., D-Maryland MAIN FOCUS Delaney champions his National Youth Service Program, which would entail youth coming out of high-school and working on various government projects. SLEEPER POLICY Delaney wants student loans to be able to be discharged through bankruptcy. Photos courtesy Creative Commons

THE TIMELINE

US Sen., D-Massachusetts MAIN FOCUS Addressing economic inequality in America. Plans to tax “ultra-millionaires” to fund things such as free or lowcost child care. Billionaires would pay three percent and people with more than $50 million would pay two percent. SLEEPER POLICY She wants to overhaul the bankruptcy system to better favor average Americans as opposed to big corporations.

MAIN FOCUS Bloomberg has an “All-In Economy” agenda to expand the number and quality of jobs and education through initiatives which include raising the national minimum wage to $15 an hour. SLEEPER POLICY Bloomberg wants to support small businesses in the country through various initiatives, including expanding the Small Business Administration.

Joe Biden

Former VP for Barack Obama

MAIN FOCUS Biden’s main allure is his relationship with former president Barack Obama. He often draws upon this experience as a testament to his competency and fit for the job of president. SLEEPER POLICY Biden wants to eliminate Capital Gains Tax loopholes that often allow the very wealthy to pay very little in CGT.

Deval Patrick 71st Governor of Massachusetts MAIN FOCUS Patrick want to tackle “hyper-partisan gerrymandering” which heavily sway one party in certain districts. SLEEPER POLICY He wishes to build partnerships in Africa and to lead development efforts there, as someone who lived there for many years.

Tulsi Gabbard U.S House of Rep., D-Hawaii MAIN FOCUS A veteran herself, Gabbard sees America’s current military spending as mostly wasteful and promises to end “regime change wars.” SLEEPER POLICY To ensure that American elections are not influenced by foreign powers, Gabbard proposes that each state must have a paper ballot verifier for presidential elections.

Bernie Sanders U.S Sen., D-Vermont

MAIN FOCUS Sanders’ signature policy since his 2016 campaign is his Medicare-for-All plan. He wants a single-payer, national health insurance policy with comprehensive medical care. SLEEPER POLICY Bernie supports enacting a federal jobs guarantee, where every citizen is entitled to a job with a living wage.

Pete Buttigieg 32nd Mayor of South Bend, Indiana MAIN FOCUS Buttigieg has many main focuses that he gives equal attention. From healthcare reform to looser immigration laws, he keeps his field of issues diverse. SLEEPER POLICY He believes in instituting a form of national service where the government will give people service opportunities funded by tax-payer dollars.

Michael Bennet U.S Sen., D-Colorado MAIN FOCUS Bennet is against universal healthcare and has instead proposed a bill called Medicare X that would allow Americans to buy a public health insurance plan while still having access to the resources that Medicare provides. SLEEPER POLICY Bennet is in favor of increasing the federal minimum wage to $12 per hour. This above list of candidates contains all the Democrats in the race as of Jan. 29.

These are the upcoming primary elections for the Democratic party

February 7, 2020 The eighth Democratic debate airs live on TV. The playing field will likely be much smaller at this point.

February 19, 2020 Ninth Democratic debate closes in. Race is likely to get tighter by this point. Pool of candidates reduced further.

February 26, 2020 Tenth Democratic debate. This will be the last time candidates will debate each other before Trump.

March 3, 2020 Super Tuesday is on. Fifteen jurisdictions are conducting primaries, making it a highvalue primary.

September 29, 2020 The first Presidential debate commences. Trump and the Democrat nominee will present their final plans and platforms on live TV.

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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SPECIAL SECTION VOTING ACTIVISM

To vote or not to vote Millions of citizens across the country, including some seniors and juniors, will be able to vote in the upcoming election. But will they?

Texas voter turnout in previous elections:

We asked seniors eligible to vote in the upcoming November election why they are choosing to have their voice heard. In their own words:

51.4 49.6 34.5

2016 election

Devan Patel

Thomas Loose

Charlie Rubarth

Senior

I will be voting in the next election. Some people argue that one vote will not change the result, but I believe a certain candidate will be better for the country — I want to support him or her.

It’s a civic duty to vote. It is one of, if not the only way, that someone not involved in politics can have a direct impact on society, and by not exercising that right, I would throw away my only opportunity to see change enacted in Congress.

ntil recently, national voter apathy showed its face in the form of alarming drops in national voting rates, two years ago, voter turnout in the United States rose to a record half its eligible populace for the first time since 1982. But Texas is not keeping up with the rest of the nation. According to the United States Election Project, even after a 508% increase in youth turnout in 2018, voter turnout in Texas remained in the bottom 10 states, and part of this reason amounts to misunderstanding among young voters regarding the voting registration process. Rebecca Wilson is a Voter Deputy Registrar –– a citizen trained and certified by a county to help eligible citizens register to vote –– in Dallas, Tarrant and Collin Counties. This past November, she and the school’s Parents’ Association set up ample means to register eligible Marksmen to vote in the upcoming primary and general elections in November. “Historically, especially in Texas,” Wilson said, “the youth and young adult turnout has really been abysmal. But in this last midterm election, it went

2012 election

Senior

I have to vote, because if I don’t vote, and then a candidate I don’t like is elected, I have no right to complain, because my voice would not have been heard.

up 500%. Why it matters so much is you live in communities, you go to schools, you drive on roads, and this impacts your life and the life that you’re going to walk into out of high school and college. Your vote is your voice.” Though state law requires high schools to offer voter registration to eligible students every election, this law is not effectively enforced or communicated, so Wilson and Associate Headmaster of Upper School John Ashton set up two voter registration events on campus and invited two other parents they knew were voter deputy registrars, a process any citizen can go through as soon as he or she is 18 years old. “For the size of the school,” Wilson said, “we had an overwhelming positive response. Kids were excited, younger students were interested in what we were doing, so it was a great opportunity to talk to lower and middle schools about the voter registration process organically.” The issue of registration has taken a forefront role in American politics and civil rights, and higher voter turnout rates in the United States directly

2002 election SOURCE: U.S. ELECTION PROJECT

represents the expansion of these rights. “Every election is important,” Wilson said. “And yes, this is a presidential year, and I don’t want to get partisan because that turns people off to the process, so I just say that everyone’s life matters. You want to live in a world where your voice is heard through your vote. Sometimes it doesn’t go your way, depending on where your personal political beliefs fall, but you have to keep showing up at local, state, municipal and federal elections. The first act is to get registered to vote, to make a commitment.” The importance of the civic duty of voting negates the perceived partisanship of the act, according to Wilson. “The importance in voting,” Wilson said, “is that it’s one of the most effective ways to have your voice heard on important issues like climate change, social justice, college tuition loans, voting rights, economic policy, etc. The youth vote has been underrepresented for decades. Now is a time to have your generation vote, to have their voices heard on these important issues.”

Are you registered to vote? If you are already 18 years old or will be before the general election in November, you may register to vote in Texas, but you cannot do so online, and you must register 30 days before the election. Here are the steps to register to vote in Texas:

Print the form, which can be found online at dallascountyvotes.org, or email Voter Deputy Registrar Rebecca Wilson for a form at rebeccabellwilson@gmail.com.

Review the application carefully, fill it out, sign it and date it.

Physically mail the form to or drop it by the Voter Registrar’s office at 1520 Round Table Dr., Dallas, TX 75247 in Dallas County or 2010 Redbud Blvd., Suite 102, McKinney, TX 75069 in Collin County.

Research the candidates, show up on election day, and vote!

STORY Jamie Mahowald, Cooper Ribman, Siddhartha Sinha, Sai Thirunagari ARTWORK Jamie Mahowald

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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DALLAS POLITICS

Our city, our leaders During a period in which the political spotlight shines bright on the national stage, we explore what it means to run for local offices and address issues that concern Dallasites.

istrict 11 City Councilman Lee Kleinman ’77 steps up to another door. He’s been at it all day. Door-knocking. Talking to prospective voters about the issues most important to them. He checks his list before approaching the house. The list shows him whether it’s worth stopping at a house — some voters may not cast a vote in his election at all. But this house will, so he finds the information about it and how its residents typically vote. ON THE HORIZON What could be in store for elected city leaders and the political scene here in Dallas in the future? Instantly, he knows what to address. If the have to say, ‘Well we’ve got to pay for the cops, so participate in local political elections worries Mack house is mostly Republican, he can talk about city which is it?’ We can’t have it all.” about the potential to miss out on people’s problems taxes. He’ll also reference the balanced budget he To stay out of partisan rhetoric, Kleinman because they didn’t show up to voice their concerns managed during his time on the park board. If the remained independent. His lack of a party pledge and vote. house is Democratic, he can discuss city-provided has helped him in a mostly centrist area of North “When you look at the number of people that services and the trails and parks he added while Dallas. vote in elections, it’s four or five percent,” Mack serving on the park board. “We’re more centrist than a lot of places, said. “How do you make sure that you’re really He knocks. although other people may see it differently,” getting an accurate view of what’s going on in ••• Kleinman said. “On the Democrat side, or the liberal communities when the electorate is so small? We Door-knocking and talking with prospective side, those folks want services, but they don’t want have a duty as voters to really get out more so that voters is the biggest part of Kleinman’s campaign. to waste tax money any more than elected officials realize that they need to Since the average age of a voter in his district is 60 anyone else.” represent the entire district, not just the years old, going door-to-door is the best way to Kleinman thinks one of the big 3,000 or 4,000 people that will be casting reach most of his constituents. issues that comes with growth is the ballots.” “What I like the most about campaigning is management of the economy. He In addition, Mack feels his going door-to-door and talking to folks because it believes focusing on a local level from involvement has drawn himself closer gives you an opportunity to visit with folks and the government would help. to the people of Dallas he has worked get an idea of what they’re interested in and what’s “Sometimes, we get very distracted alongside. important to them and get engaged,” Kleinman with nonsensical stuff on the state and “I think it’s tremendously rewarding said. Korey Mack ‘00 Former Dallas city council federal level,” Kleinman said. “I would to get a chance to interact with the During his conversations with voters, Kleinman candidate like us to focus on making sure we have people that are in your community and stays focused on the municipal issues because the a good, strong economy, so people can concerned about the livelihood of your city government is the last step in the delivery have good careers and do the things they want with community and the quality of life for the residents,” system of services from the government. the money they make.” Mack said. “You really start interacting with those “Everything from Washington, [D.C.] down Buckner Terrace Homeowner’s Association people at a more personal level, telling them what to Austin is just passing down laws and budget,” Chair and former Dallas city council candidate for you stand for and listening to the concerns that they Kleinman said. “But once it gets to Dallas, we’re District 4 Korey Mack ’00 also shares concerns about have and start to formulate what you approach will the ones that pick up your trash. We’re the ones the Dallas economic situation, particularly for Dallas be as you seek that legitimate authority to make that provide you with clean water. We’re the county itself. those decisions that matter.” ones that provide police and fire We have a duty as “You have to look at the data and Mack ultimately believes the focus of [departments].” voters to really get realize that Dallas county is, among all government leaders should be on the people and Two of the biggest issues for out more so that the 254 counties in Texas, the slowest listening to the concerns of others. voters in Dallas are public safety elected officials realize that they growing. We’re benefiting from growth “The goal to me is not always to try to seek and taxes. Although taxes are high, need to represent the of Tarrant county, Collin county, Denton equal outcomes for everything,” Mack said. “The Kleinman explained that voters are entire district. county, Ellis county. Almost every county goal is to try to figure out how to help people willing to compromise to make sure Korey Mack ’00 is growing, and we’re not,” Mack said. achieve their full potential and take into account they feel safe in their homes and “As we move into the 21st century, we the difference in environmental conditions in neighborhoods. have to figure out how to become the center of one part of the city, versus another as you plan “You hear a lot about our taxes,” Kleinman attraction in our area again.” interventions to help people take full advantage of said. “They’re very, very high in Dallas. It’s funny Mack has had direct experience with politics all the resources that we have to offer as a city and because in the same sentence, they’ll say ‘We want in Dallas. The very small amount of people that as a region.” more cops, and we want you to reduce our taxes.’ I

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STORY Christopher Wang, Jack Davis, Wallace White ARTWORK Jamie Mahowald

EDITORIAL

2020 election conversation should be encouraged here

lection season is fast approaching, with only 270 days until Election Day — and the school must be prepared to handle the intense interest generated by the selection process of our country’s next leader. During the 2016 election, the semi-official policy on campus was one of gently-enforced silence. Conversation surrounding the election was largely discouraged — inside and outside the classroom. The reasoning behind this decision was certainly understandable. Minimizing election-related discussion helped prevent rifts within the community, stopping divisive arguments before they even had the potential to start. But 2020 isn’t 2016. With four years of polarized identity-driven policy and discourse behind us, we can no longer dance around the issues so important to us personally — and as American citizens, future leaders and passionate students. We must confront those issues head-on, must do all we can to make sense of the tangled web of politics, ethics and identity which defines so much of our world. The perfect place to do such a thing is right here.

Our classrooms — especially in the English, History and Social Sciences and Humanities Departments — center on constructive dialogue among students guided by knowledgeable and experienced faculty. We learn to disagree respectfully using empirical observations to back up our claims, always willing to attentively consider a peer’s counterargument or build upon a previously-stated point. Fostering discourse about the election would not only allow for further practice of the skills so important to the school’s educational mission but also give students the chance to have their eyes opened to viewpoints they never would have considered on their own — taking advantage of the diversity our campus has to offer. We understand there are risks involved with opening such a forum. There is the chance that discussions may grow too heated and could turn into personal attacks. However, students here are well-instructed and well-practiced in discussing issues, not finding fault with the individuals who present an opposing opin-

ion. The likelihood of a political discussion devolving into personal attacks is low — and teachers here are more than capable of redirecting or ending a discussion when they must, often doing so preemptively. Of course, regular curriculum objectives take priority over any discretionary class time used for discussion of current events. However, such conversations may naturally align with the curriculum, adding greater depth to existing lessons. Students and teachers alike must be carefully attuned to their own biases — and to those of fellow participants in the discussion. All parties must clearly signal when personal opinions may change the presentation of objective facts — and teachers in particular must be careful not to extend personal bias when evaluating a student’s participation. This will prevent any insinuation of political indoctrination and ensure transparency between individuals around the table. This fall will be intense, but we’re up to the challenge of keeping our heads cool. The future of our nation hangs in the balance — and for this, we should not keep silent.

THE REMARKER • FEBRUARY 7, 2020

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SPECIAL SECTION

Not another political piece

e’ve reached a point where essential relationships are defined by politics. Friendships are lost because someone is a liberal and someone else is a conservative — and those labels are often applied as blanket epithets. Families are torn apart because an aunt is pro-gun and a brother-in-law is antigun. A sister is pro-life and her cousin is pro-choice. One would raise taxes and another supports tax breaks. Relatives refuse to even sit at the same table with each other — because of politics. The internet is a firestorm. We all know. And that fire just keeps getting fiercer. One comment follows another comment follows the commenters into real life, into their jobs, into their social circles, which follow them back online for the cycle to repeat again. We double and triple down on our opinions, convictions growing stronger every time. Our recommended feeds do their jobs too well. They feed us self-reinforcing perspectives until our minds, like bloated bellies, become sick with selection bias.

These eight pages aim to stop. Just stop. Even for a moment. We have to look at our situation comprehensively, rationally and — dare we say it — evenhandedly. Rather than address specific issues of policy which push us apart, we wanted to look at the big issue, the issue made up of every other issue — our political culture. We have to understand where we are and how we got here — so maybe we can work on moving forward together. Exactly what path we take forward is up to each one of us to decide, individually and as a community. There is no perfect way — but we can get closer to consensus than a not-entirely-contented 51 percent and a viciously-alienated 49. Our politics shouldn’t be about one side winning and the other losing. We should focus on expanding rights to more and more people — building upon those inalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness that our founders guaranteed us, ensuring they develop with the needs of today’s world, today’s citizens. We should focus on making America a better place for all Americans. We should focus on common ground. We should focus on keeping friends. On being good brothers. On compromises. Tolerance. Mutual understanding. Courageously taking a stand — and honorably respecting opinions of others. Courageously keeping an open mind — and honorably committing to the integrity of the values we hold dear.

Like this, we’ll return to our seats at the table. — Sam Goldfarb, Senior Editor-at-large