The Athenian Pillar 5/19/23 The Athenian Pillar 5/19/23

Forum Returns After Long Hiatus

For many students, the Forum held on February 24, 2023—directly after a regularly scheduled Town Meeting—was their first introduction to an age-old Athenian tradition.

Uncensored, later amended to Forum, is an Athenian practice dating back to 1996. Once a week, students gathered in the main hall to debate a wide range of hot-button topics. Without a clear structure, students found the freedom to practice their public speaking, engage with peers on relevant issues, and witness the value of their voice on campus.

The tradition was started by Dick Bradford, Head of the Upper School from 1994 to 2018, who wanted to provide a space for student reflection.

“I took after the idea of a Quaker meeting. The general gist of it is that you sit there and if you feel moved to speak, then you get up and you speak. So, there’s time for speaking, but a lot of time for reflection as well.” said Bradford.

His vision had to be adapted over the years as it was implemented at Athenian.

“If you wanted to discuss something outside the realm of Athenian, whether an international affair or something that happened in the news, it was an opportunity for you to get up and share your opinion. And then people would react.” Bradford said. “It was admittedly hit or miss, depending on what people had on their minds. As it evolved, I tried to give it more form.”

In 2019, Uncensored evolved into Forum, and took on a more structured format. Student leaders posed a predetermined question and led a schoolwide discussion, open to people who had researched the topic when it was introduced by email the night before.

“So it became Forum. But what we wanted to do is to organize it by topics, and people had a hard time coming up with topics. And so again, it sort of fell apart,” said Gabe Del Real, Athenian Upper School Academic Dean.

In this iteration, Forum faced substantial opposition from students and faculty, primarily due to its shift online during the pandemic.

“It was a double-edged sword. People could speak on big issues, elections, and things happening in the real world in an unfiltered way. But [Forum] could also start arguments, especially through Zoom, which was kind of a nightmare,” Kasey Kazliner ‘23 said.

By the time Meadow Davis joined Athenian as the Head of the Upper School in 2021, administrators were phasing out Forum. Davis explained that upon arriving at Athenian, she received negative feedback surrounding Forum from many community members.

“What I heard from conversations with students and faculty was that some of the Forums that took place during COVID left students feeling unsafe, attacked, and offended,” Davis said.

In the fall of 2021, without any official communication, Athenian stopped holding Forum. This iconic tradition was quickly forgotten by the majority of the student body, in part because most students had never experienced an in-person Forum themselves.

Jia Hwang ’23, discussed the value in a practice like Forum.

“Forum was a good place for students to talk through their opinions, find different perspectives, and expand on their own. If Athenian really values student voice like they claim, then having a space to put that in practice would align with that promise.”

Given the school’s year-and-a-half-long hiatus from Forum, it came as a surprise to many community members when a seemingly impromptu Forum meeting took place on February 24th.

“I was surprised when Forum appeared on the projector right after we finished Town Meeting, since we haven’t done a Forum since the pandemic. It was just dropped in our laps, and it felt weird because there was no context given to explain the history or function of Forum,” said Hwang.

The reintroduction of Forum—according to Del Real—is part of a greater effort to bring back Athenian traditions lost in the wake of COVID.

“Certain things that were sort of a matter of course over the years have gone away after the pandemic. We’re trying to resurrect some older traditions like Forum and Town Meeting. But we’ve got new people, and new people have new ideas. They don’t know how Uncensored worked, so we’re trying to reestablish some things," said Del Real.

Del Real mapped out what Forum might look like for future Athenians.

“The hope is that next year, now that Chris [Crisolo] will have a year under his belt, we’ll be able to map out the Morning Meetings with more regular opportunities for Forum. But admittedly, maybe we’ll have one per semester, because we just don’t have that many Morning Meetings,” said Del Real.

This is one way to bring back a decade-long tradition, but are there other avenues Athenian should explore that may be more conducive to the school’s current environment?

Other faculty members shared their opinions on what an evolved version of Forum might look like.

In the eyes of April Smock, the Head of Athenian’s History Department, increasing student voice at Athenian means accepting the extremes of conversation topics.

“If you genuinely want student voice, there is going to be a little bit of talking about goofy things. If it’s a forum for students to talk about what is of interest to them, there is going to be a large range of topics, some of which don’t seem serious or relevant to everyone,” Smock said.

Davis has a different take. She said that she hopes to create a more structured and intimate environment for these conversations.

“My fantasy would be that we develop something more like the Courageous Conversations model, where we train student facilitators and we have conversations in small groups that are student-led,” Davis said. “I say that because of my experience with those groups. It’s not just the people who are willing to stand up in front of 360 people, but everyone is brought into the conversation.”

In determining the best approach to a new era of Forum, it may prove useful to keep in mind the intentions of Forum’s founder.

As Bradford said, “I’m a big believer in student voice. The thought behind [Forum] was student voice, reflection, and thoughtful discussion, which I think are the underpinnings of an Athenian education.”

The Athenian Pillar 5/5/23 The Athenian Pillar 5/5/23

Athenian Strives For Balance Between Divergent Identities

The Athenian School is a multifaceted place. College preparatory, experiential education, DEIS, and six Pillars: these are some of the many ideals Athenian has advertised to its prospective families. Each principle demonstrates Athenian’s educational aspiration and rigor; however, due to such diversity in goals, Athenian might be lacking a comprehensive framework.

For instance, the recent decision made by Athenian’s administration to abolish AP courses after 2023 aroused frustration among many families for being insufficient in preparing students for college. The new equitable grading system has also become a source of controversy. The airplane project, which has long been a symbol of experiential education at Athenian, has been discontinued due to a lack of inclusivity. During the Town Hall meeting on February 24, 2023, students mentioned how the administration has compromised its environmentalism pillar in order to uphold other ideals, for instance, the packaging of cups distributed during DEIS day.

Some teachers who have observed the school’s changes raise concerns about what the school has sacrificed in pursuit of so many different goals. Others find that the synergy between the multiplicity of ideals is what makes an Athenian education unique.

In defining Athenian’s core ideals, many teachers identified preparing students for college and whole-person education as some of the school’s top priorities.

Chris Beeson, the director of Admission and Financial Aid, who has worked in Athenian for 30 years, said, “[The primary goal of the school] was always to prepare students for college, develop them as world citizens, and have them think about a life of meaning and purpose.”

He emphasized that preparing students for college and offering a well-rounded education can coexist, and cautioned against contrasting the two ideals.

“It's never been one or the other. It's always been both. That's what some people like to call a false dichotomy, meaning that one doesn’t necessarily oppose the other,” Beeson said.

Gabe del Real, who has worked as a humanities teacher and Dean of Academics at Athenian for 29 years, suggested that the source of such conflict in identity comes from the evolving definition of college prep throughout the school’s history.

“We were founded as a college preparatory school. [Dyke Brown] always saw the students here as being prepared for college. And so being a college preparatory school is not something new to our identity. What has changed is the common understanding of what college preparatory means,” del Real said.

Bruce Hamren, who has worked as a science teacher at Athenian since 1990, acknowledged an increase in competition among students.

“The original goal of the school was an education of the whole person. It wasn't college prep, per se, but the school prepared students for college. Just the focus was not on the highest test scores or the highest prestige. It was about the quality of the person. It was not about ‘How we can sell this student to another school?’” Hamren said.

Dave Otten, an engineering teacher who has worked at Athenian for 19 years, mentions the change he sees in students’ attitudes toward college.

“It's far more competitive now. Students apply to far more schools than they used to. It dominates their thinking in a way that it didn't use to. And the culture around acceptance letters and people talking about what schools they got into has changed as well,” Otten said.

April Smock, the Humanities Department Chair who came to the Athenian as a middle school teacher in 1996, raises concerns about the challenge posed by this shift in student population in the school.

“I have an all-senior advisory, and it feels to me like this anxiety about college, the process of getting into college, and all the ugly underside of competitiveness that can bring out for people, feels more enhanced than it used to be. And so then I worry about how to maintain this connected, collaborative, loving, caring, educational place together if people feel this anxiety about how am I going to get into this college or that college.

Hamren traces this change in Athenian’s approach toward college prep back to the school’s history.

“In 1992, the Head of the school's name was Sam Elliot. And he said, ‘Look, we may have to close the school’ because there wasn't enough income to keep it running. In being kind of strategic to advertise the school, we got these vans that said The Athenian school–a college preparatory school, and that became kind of like a sales point,” Hamren said.

Del Real listed the ramifications Athenian has faced by shifting their original ideal and conforming to the general definition of a college preparatory education.

“We purposefully did not go to AP courses in science. The science department didn't want to do that. One of our former science department chairs was asked ‘why doesn’t an Athenian offer AP science courses?’ And his answer was ‘because we want our students to become scientists.’ He made it very clear that AP is noted for being a mile wide, but an inch deep. For us, we want students to go a mile deep,” del Real said.

Hamren also discussed the increased population of students.

“The school [used to be] smaller. Everyone knew each other. It was relationship oriented. And so there was a lot of trust in the dynamics of the faculty. The school decided to go to 360 students which made Athenian cross that point that Dyke Brown warned, when people start falling through the cracks because we don't know one another anymore” Hamren said.

Witnessing these changes in school, both del Real and Hamren recognized the need to preserve the school’s ideals.

“When people asked ‘why Athenian?’, what we’ve tried to say was ‘because your kid's chances of getting to college will be better.’ I think we have an opportunity to instead say ‘because the chances of your kid living a more fulfilled life will be better.” del Real said.

Hamren said, “I think the most important thing that we struggle with is when it comes to prestige and money, that's fine, but you can't sell your ideals, you can't sell your soul for that. You can't sacrifice values. You need to stand up for what it is that's important. And I think that gets a little blurry when the focus shifts from one thing to another.”

Preston T. '26 5/5/23 Preston T. '26 5/5/23

Athenian Internationalism: A Cosmopolitan Insider’s Point of View

Athenian is a school known for its uniquely diverse community; however, according to some international students, it can sometimes seem like this nearby yet global student body is overlooked by the people within. “You can’t learn everything about the world through hearing about it [from secondary sources],” said Xavier Moreno ‘26, from Mexicali, Mexico.

While Athenian offers its widely acclaimed International Exchange Program, students don’t have to go far to learn more about different cultures. Just looking at some of Athenian’s own international students on campus opens up a gateway to the globe.

The Athenian School has long valued educating its students on what it means to be a culturally competent citizen. Athenian is part of a program called Round Square, which is a coalition of more than 230 schools in 50 countries joined together to facilitate international student connection and communication.

As one of Round Square’s founding members, Athenian is aligned with the idea of creating students with the “Spirit of Internationalism,” who “respect the need to preserve and celebrate national identity, cultures, traditions and heritage,” according to Round Square’s website.

Jai Velukuru ‘26, from Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India, joined the school because he appreciated its dedication to internationalism and diversity.

Velukuru said, “[I came to Athenian] mainly because my old school was a white majority school, and I wanted to meet others like me.”

Despite this focus on global influence, many of Athenian’s international students chose the school for different reasons.

Catherine He ‘26, from Shenzhen, China, said, “[I joined the school because] all my friends were leaving to America, and my mom pointed out The Athenian School.”

There are a variety of preconceptions about American culture from the international community.

“[Many] people in Mexico think people in America are racist, and all the news on immigration doesn’t help,” said Moreno.

Alex Bennett ‘26, with familial ties to Spain, said, “My family thinks that Americans overwork and are all self-made millionaires. In Spain, we have a siesta which is around a 3-hour break, or nap, in the afternoon. It’s a much more chill work culture.”

The one criticism all interviewees shared was that of Athenian’s supposedly global palate.

When asked whether the food was at all representative of his cultural background, Moreno said, “It’s average. The ingredients are there, but the technique isn’t. With the restrictions they have [on meat, gluten, etc.] it’s at least understandable, though.”

According to both students of Asian background interviewed, the Asian food is not measuring up.

Velukuru said, “I feel like they try, but they fail continuously, especially at Indian food. The tikka masala lacks flavor. It’s a good attempt, at least. I appreciate the effort.”

To add insult to injury, He said (regarding the Kung Pao chicken), “Marinated chicken is not Chinese food!”

Concerning education from an international standpoint, Velukuru believes that it’s a work in progress. Athenian has long believed that cultural wisdom is a key factor in understanding the human experience and the world, as emphasized on DEIS Day of this year. Velukuru proposed a curriculum-based solution.

He said, “In world history, they touched on the basics of world history, but I feel they had time to go at least a little bit deeper. Just a general knowledge and respect for other cultures goes a long way.”

Lea Hartog, the teacher of the International Relations and Food on Your Plate seminars at Athenian, believes her seminars provide new perspectives on different cultures.

Hartog said, “Through the model UN conference [in International Relations] that all students participate in, they have to understand the perspective of a country that they’ve been assigned that’s not the United States, and therefore develop empathy and understanding by researching that country and serving as a delegate to represent their interests.”

Hartog also added that many international students, especially boarding students, seem to be drawn to the International Relations course compared to other seminars.

“I wonder if it’s because there’s not a given US lens on interpreting current events or international politics,” said Hartog.

Regarding the Food On Your Plate seminar, Hartog said, “Food is a unique lens [to view history and culture] because we all have to eat food. It’s a uniting force because it’s universal.”

She had a more conservative view on the Internationalism Pillar’s progression. While Athenian’s international presence is progressing, she said, “I don’t believe Athenian is international enough to hold up to the name of an international school. Even though it’s better than some places I’ve been, it still has a large group of “white” students from similar ethnic backgrounds.”

On a positive note, Bennett believes that Athenian is headed in the right direction.

Bennett said, “[Athenian’s commitment to the Internationalism Pillar is] getting better. It’s not perfect, you could even say it’s far from it, but there are more and more opportunities to connect with international students, from affinity groups to Round Square. Every day, Athenian becomes more and more globally connected.”

Zach J. '24 5/5/23 Zach J. '24 5/5/23

Arts Department Budget a Major Concern Among Students

Every year, Athenian spends around $70,000, 35% of the instructional budget, on its arts programs. This might sound like a lot, but 82% of Athenian students said it was too little. Athenian’s approach to the arts and spending is divisive among students, with some thinking it’s too overbearing and forced upon students, and others thinking it is underfunded and undervalued. A survey of Athenian students’ opinions on the arts reveals what they truly think.

One of the most memorable features of the Athenian arts experience is the CFTA, one of the first buildings that was built at Athenian, and originally served as the school’s library. When surveyed on the quality of arts facilities, on average, students gave it a 4.3/10.

Nicole Ng ’24 said, “I like the CFTA. I think the dance studio needs a ceiling, that’s all I have to say. I think it’s nice.”

Aiden Jun ‘24 said, “There are spider webs everywhere, and the building itself is quite old, compared to other departments. For example, the CIS was only built a few years ago.”

In the future, arts department head Adam Thorman hopes to build a new CFTA, but acknowledges that the budget may only be able to support such a big project later.

"I think a theater should be a centerpiece, right in the middle and accessible. All the art teachers are in different places—Trish teaches down in the CIS, Nora and Emily are in the Dase Center—we are pretty spread out. We would love to have arts be part of the campus center, [as a] gallery space, but that’s all big down the road stuff," Thorman said.

Another popular topic is the funding of arts programs. Adoabi Nwatu ‘23 said, “I feel that Athenian has gone from being a STEAM school to being a STEM school; because of this the arts and its students have suffered. If Athenian is focused on being a well-rounded school, then we must take the time to properly fund and support the activities that are important to the student body.”

Katie Cooper ‘24, said, “I mean, in terms of where theater tech is, I think that we require a lot more equipment. We're always promised new things like lights or lumber, but we always end up renting them out or having to find an alternative.”

Additionally, students have a lot of opinions regarding the value that Athenian places on the arts. Of the students surveyed, 84% felt that the school placed too little emphasis on the arts and only 9% of students said it placed too much emphasis on the arts.

AJ Baldridge ‘26 said, “the visual arts department needs to be more recognized, as all the attention goes towards musical arts and theater.”

Hunter Foster ‘23, said, “When I was a freshman I felt like it was way too hard for me to get into a traditional art class. Art is my passion and main focus of study and honestly that was just quite frustrating and discouraging because of the emphasis I thought Athenian was putting on the arts.”

Despite students' reservations about arts programs, overall, students seem to appreciate them, and on average gave the quality of the programs a 6.9/10. Although this might not be up to the high standards of a school like Athenian, it still speaks to a generally positive sentiment among the student body.
And the thing students said they appreciated most? The teachers.

“The teachers in the arts department are great, they’re really humorous and supportive,” said Aiden.

When asked about her feelings about Athenian’s arts programs, drama teacher Misty Ty said, “It's absolutely wonderful working here and it really feels like I won the Academy Award of schools. If schools were an Academy Award, I definitely got it. Not just nominated, I won the award, because I feel really, really blessed to be at the school.”

Kati W. '23 5/5/23 Kati W. '23 5/5/23

The Founder’s Oak: 57 Years of Athenian History

“The magnificent old oak tree which graced our entrance fell to the ground. It is hard to accept the loss of such a beautiful thing…The entrance to the school was planned so that it would come beneath this beautiful tree. Now that it is gone, our thoughts turn to the future. Since we expect the Athenian School to be here for many decades to come, we would like to plant a young oak to rise and eventually replace the one we have lost.”

The Athenian School is no stranger to falling trees, as the above excerpt from a Spring 1977 Athenian newsletter recounts. Before the recent collapse of our Founder’s Oak, a tree of relative significance, placed just right of where the “Athenian School” sign now sits, at our entrance, similarly fell.

Dick Bradford, former Head of Upper School, who joined the Athenian community in 1981, also recounts a similar instance of an oak splitting in the middle of the night on the hillside above House 1, where he used to live. Even more recently, a smaller tree at the Middle School amphitheater fell as well.

All of this is to say one thing: Trees, and the campus landscape, are unquestionably intertwined with the past, present, future, and spirit of Athenian. The Founder’s Oak is where Kurt Hahn, the German educator who inspired Dyke Brown, came to speak when the school opened, and this all comes back to the “Plan for Growth” that was drafted near the time of the inception of the school. It tells the community this:

“The school was planned to be economically built, of modest materials and simple form… The interest would be in the natural landscape and the excitement of the natural site. For this reason, much emphasis was given to the existence of the major trees, providing shade and building contrast close to living facilities.”

At a recent Athenian reunion event, Bradford said this: “Oaks have their cycle, as do all of us. I used to read a poem to the Upper School every spring about the cycle of trees. I come from New England – the poem is Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay.”

Here is the poem:

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.”

Now, he adds, “I understand the significance of having a founder, I guess what I would say is, Dyke’s vision remains clear. But, schools change just like trees do and we need to see the growth of schools as maybe how we see trees. There were a lot of people who were upset when we took down the old Main Hall, but we couldn’t fit in there anymore, we had to grow.”

Tom Swope, a former Dean of Students who was at Athenian from 1970 until 2012, similarly said, “Looking at [the Oak] reminds people of the majesty of our expectations… each day one inspires to that which Dyke Brown articulated. The tree is a reminder of the possibilities of hard work, discipline, creativity, and an open mind. The tree somehow, I think, without becoming sentimental, was a symbol of those possibilities. From the very beginning, the trees were always an important presence on the campus, and we didn’t have to invent anything to make it so.”

In the some 300 years that the Oak stood, it spent 57 of those serving as the emotional heart of Athenian. For many years, before an arborist deemed activities underneath the tree unsafe, it held Middle School graduation ceremonies, up until 2005, it served as a wedding venue for Athenian community members, and even held back-to-school night meetings for parents.

Lauren Railey, Head of the Middle School, said, “We have all of these samplings from the Founder’s Oak that the Middle School garden planted last fall before it fell; some of them are dead, but not all, so I guess we could try to plant another tree with the saplings. But I would imagine that we’d want to beautify that space and make it useful, maybe in a different way rather than just recreate a tree that won’t be as big and beautiful for another hundred years.”

Shoshana Ziblatt ‘92 and Director of Strategic Communications, who got married underneath the Founder’s Oak, said, “In 2005 we got married there…It was a natural gathering space, a place where you'd want to celebrate something special.”

“It felt like it was called to have important ceremonies under it,” she added. Laura Ellis, Athenian’s Director of Dance & Choreography, was also married underneath the Oak.

One tradition that hasn’t stopped, though, is former Head of School Eleanor Dase’s planting of yellow daffodils at the base of the Founder’s Oak. The tradition began with a gift of 100 yellow daffodil bulbs from her sister.

“Growing up in Michigan, I always loved it when the yellow daffodils that my mother had planted emerged in the early spring after a long winter, but they were usually then flattened by freezing rain or snow. Several years ago, in my early years of being Head, my sister visited and we were reminiscing about our childhood and the daffodils…a few weeks later she surprised me with a box of 100 daffodil bulbs,” said Dase.

She went on to dedicate a weekday to the planting and asked Seniors, alongside faculty and staff members, to stop by and help. After retirement, former faculty and staff joined her to plant bulbs in the Fall. Though the tradition has missed some years, its spirit still lives on, and Dase hopes for yellow flowers to line the ground where the Oak stood, again soon.

“In my family, yellow has always been a symbol of hope and peace, so my husband and I would always give each other yellow roses for birthdays and babies. Yellow has always been symbolic,” she said.

She hopes to reach out again to former faculty and staff members and, if possible, do a planting in late October or early November this year. Dase’s vision for the area surrounding the Oak is clear:

“ It doesn’t have to change as a place of contemplation, peacefulness and inspiration; life is too fast. I just think it’s so important to stop sometimes and appreciate the natural beauty of someplace,” she concludes.

As much as we can reminisce on what the Oak has meant to the campus and community and those that Athenian has touched in profoundly meaningful ways, we must now shift our gaze to the future. The tree has fallen, what now?

Bradford says, “As the Main Hall replaced the old main hall, as the trees replace the old Founder’s Oak, as new students replace old students, et cetera…, in terms of faculty, Athenian will continue to grow. That’s just part of who we are and as long as we can remember the past and carry it with the best parts of it to the future, then we’re doing Athenian proud.”

Charles Raymond, an Athenian Middle School English teacher with a history in furniture making, has spearheaded a new emergency committee to work to preserve the wood of the Oak. The committee consists of Cassie Kise, the Carter Innovation Studio Director, Keith Powell, Athenian’s COO, Bridget Guerra, the Operations Manager on campus, and Lauren Railey, the Head of Middle School.

“We have now successfully preserved the largest and most important pieces of wood from the tree for future use. There is still some really important work to do to correctly store it, and I hope to involve students in setting the way some of the wood is stored, having them paint the ends to keep it from splitting, and covering it so it can survive the weather for the next two or three years, or however long it takes for it to fully cure,” said Raymond.

Athenian, through this committee, has dedicated a conscious effort to preserving as much of the Oak’s wood as possible and treating both it, and the land it sits on, with as much care as possible.

Raymond separates the wood into three distinct categories: large slabs, small slabs, and small miscellaneous pieces. They have moved to store those large slabs behind the Middle School with the intention of turning them into furniture pieces once they are fully ready. In order to prepare for that, Raymond says, “There was a student volunteer group that came out to help me paint the ends [of the large slabs] to work to preserve them, and more of that work needs to be done.”

The second category is small slabs, which can either be made into smaller tables, shelves, benches, cabinets, or whatever else the community decides it wants. There is also talk of turning those slabs into display shelves for student artwork, which will certainly be further considered when the time comes.

The final, and most complicated, pieces of wood are the small miscellaneous ones that aren’t viable as furniture. Raymond says, “[Those pieces] would be truly wasted if I didn’t try to get in there and save it. I don’t know who should get involved with that. How do we decide what to do with stuff that would probably just be chipped up and thrown away, but is valuable to us because it’s the Founder’s Oak.”

Raymond makes it clear that he is involved with this process to the extent of working to preserve the wood and prepare it for those next steps, but he isn’t looking to be a decision-maker in product production or sale: “I just want to volunteer my time to make sure the wood gets saved for whatever purpose it ends up taking on… Just because I’m doing all of this work doesn’t mean I want to be the one making the decisions on what to do with the wood. This should be a community thing.”

He does however hope that, whatever those next steps are, that this is used as an opportunity to engage students in experiential education and direct involvement in the future of the Oak in a way that is “meaningful and long-lasting”.

“Some of it could be made into furniture as early as next spring: some of the small pieces that I’ve cut. So, we can really get some kids directly involved pretty quickly,” he concludes.

Swope has been a strong supporter of that student involvement and education on both Athenian’s history and what the Oak has and continues to mean to so many. Like any tree, it was destined to fall, but we must fight to not allow that fall to give us an excuse to forget.

“I think it’s always a difficult endeavor to convince others of the importance of our history. Particularly for kids of this age, because so much of their lives is of the present and immediate, and that which happened before may not seem particularly relevant to an extent,” said Swope.

He adds, “I think the important thing is we know we needed to preserve it. Simply because it fell doesn’t mean the end of the tree.”

The Athenian Pillar 5/5/23 The Athenian Pillar 5/5/23

How the War in Ukraine is Affecting its Children

The war between Russia and Ukraine has been raging since February this year. It has claimed many lives and affected everyone in Ukraine, as well as those with Ukrainian family members elsewhere.

Ukraine used to be a part of the Soviet Union. Russia claims they invaded Ukraine as they knew Ukraine wanted to join NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization). Russia wants to overthrow the government of Ukraine and make Ukraine a part of Russia once again. Russia has started the biggest war in Europe since World War II in order to “reclaim” Ukraine.

With the war still going on, many people in the U.S. with family members in Ukraine have been aiding them as much as possible, but it’s not always easy for them to help.

Russia’s invasion has also affected the children of Ukraine. Previously, their lives were normal. They were able to socialize, younger children were able to let their minds roam freely, they had their parents and family, and they were able to go to school.

After the war began, many things were taken away. Their lives changed completely. Children whose parents were enlisted in the war had to take care of their younger siblings, unaware if their parents would ever return to them alive. Every man is required to fight, automatically leaving children without their fathers. The children had to abandon the idea of going to school, and learn to step up for their country and survive. In a world of constant fear, they face the threat of being abducted by the Russian army.

Tatyana Dumay, a Ukrainian American, has been emotionally affected by this war. Her niece, brother, and extended family live in Ukraine. Like other young kids her age, Dumay’s niece used to have a normal lifestyle. With the war, her life abruptly changed. Her niece's apartment has been damaged, and her preschool completely destroyed. The destruction of her niece’s preschool has made it difficult for her to learn during this scary time.

Dumay said, “Some kids left the country while others were able to move to another part of the country, but when they came back, some had no home to come back to.”

Dumay said, “The kids are experiencing bombing day and night. The place that was supposed to be a safe place for the kids is now no longer safe.The kids either do not have a home, or their home is barely intact. The Azovstal kids (in Mariupol) lived underground for 70 days without fresh air and barely any sunlight, with minimal food and little water supply,”

It’s not only adults who have lost their lives to this war. “The statistics today show that over 370 children in Ukraine have been killed; either by bombing or through torture by Russian soldiers. Over 700 children have been injured,” Dumay said.

Some of the children are abducted by Russian soldiers and are taken to Russia. As a result, these young children will never learn their own cultural identities.

“They will not know their language or background at all and be forced to suppress their identities, and follow Russian culture instead,” said Dumay.

Ilah R. '23 5/28/22 Ilah R. '23 5/28/22

Student Stress Reaches All-Time High: Admin Considers Unconventional Response (Satire)

During finals week, one of the most stressful times of year on Athenian’s campus, upper school students are afforded the privilege of stress-relieving puppy playtime, affectionately called “puppy therapy”. In recent years, however, “puppy therapy'' has evolved, no longer a crowd of adorable dogs for students to play with, but now just one or two rat-terriers, with foam coming out of their mouths and their scrawny legs trembling from the frigid 70 degree weather.

With student mental health declining, and the dogs on death’s doorstep, the administration has decided to take a stand. In recent weeks, there have been countless administrative meetings regarding the implementation of de-stressing practices on campus, including, but not limited to, hot-rock massages in the main hall, facials in the nurse's office, and “nibble fish” pedicures in Courtside, which eat dead skin and relieve stress.

After receiving a lukewarm response from the student body following their “Just Sleep More” propaganda posters plastered around campus, the administration is taking a more aggressive approach to the epidemic of student stress.

“Placing the onus back on students to regulate their stress levels just makes more sense, and makes our jobs a lot easier. With hot-rock massages available at all times, students will be able to take agency in their quest for a healthy school-life balance,” said an Athenian administrator who would prefer to remain anonymous.

It should be noted, however, that administrators will have priority in receiving the new stress-relieving commodities.

“Well, students have a lot on their plates and probably don’t have much time for massages, so it only makes sense that these services not be available to them for the majority of the school year. We would never want it to impede upon their academic performance,” the administrator explained.

It remains unclear how these new endeavors will affect morale around campus, but the general sentiment among administrators seems to be that students should start getting excited; after all, what’s more Athenian than an ineffectual and costly master plan with no student buy-in?

The Athenian Pillar 5/28/22 The Athenian Pillar 5/28/22

What—And Who—It Takes To Pass A Meaningful Town Meeting Proposal

So you have an idea for how to improve the school. You know that Athenian has a process called Town Meeting that allows students to submit, debate, and vote on proposals that would change school policies. You might worry that this process isn’t very effective for making bigger changes if you’ve looked at the proposals we’ve passed in recent years, but I was somehow able to pass a proposal that completely changes and reforms the school’s attendance policy. That clearly means Town Meeting actually works exactly how it should—right?

The idea for the proposal wasn’t mine. A couple people in my advisory brought it up after the Town Meeting in which we debated whether students should be allowed to take their shirts off during sports practices. The former policy reduced letter grades in a class by a third per unexcused absence, so they mentioned how missing class negatively impacts grades anyways. Initially, I was concerned about classes like E-Band, which aren’t directly graded based on cumulative material you’ll have to catch up on, but rather on participation. Then I remembered that participation involves showing up.

I liked this proposal. Several arguments in favor were already bubbling up in my head. Seela Haidari ’22 submitted the idea in the Google Form that was sent out, and we waited. The following week, Seela told us that Hollis Carey ’22, one of the Town Meeting officers, told her that the idea had been shot down by the administration. We collectively sighed and moved on.

Some time later, it was announced in an email the day before and at a Morning Meeting the day of that there would be a meeting on Friday at lunch between Mod 1 and Mod 2 to discuss possible changes to the attendance policy. I usually spend lunch on Fridays at Poker Club (this article is not sponsored), but I was invested enough in this proposal that I begrudgingly decided to skip gambling for the day and bring my lunch of pizza and cherry tomatoes to the meeting. I invited a few friends to come with me, but due to scheduling conflicts and fear of large discussions, we decided I would be the delegate representing our perspective.

This ended up meaning that aside from a couple of the Town Meeting officers, I was the only student at this meeting. Almost a dozen faculty members showed up over the course of the meeting, including several administrators, but I’ve never been particularly afraid of adults, so I stuck to my guns and argued my points.

This proved difficult because everyone at the meeting seemed to be discussing different things. A few teachers seemed to agree with me, but I found myself repeatedly clarifying that no, I’m not saying unexcused absences shouldn’t be recorded; yes, some people can easily get tardies and absences excused, but not everyone; and wait, why does any of this mean that we have to reduce letter grades by a third per unexcused absence? The meeting came to no satisfying conclusion while I was there. I had to leave so as not to be late for my Justice For All class, which is several layers of ironic, probably.

Despite the relative inaccessibility of this meeting to those who fear public speaking, don’t frequently and thoroughly check their emails, or already had things planned, what bothered me the most about it was the assumption that we all had to come to a consensus in order to write up a proposal. I’m a student, and I’m supposed to be able to bring forward any proposal I want provided I get the required number of signatures (I wasn’t sure how many because I couldn’t find the by-laws anywhere online, but it turns out it’s only 10).

The following Wednesday, we had a special schedule that put A period at the end of the day, after four other classes. For me, that was Calculus BC, so I spent the latter half of class writing up a proposal to entertain myself. A couple classmates made some suggestions, and on Thursday night, I typed it up, printed it out, and pocketed it in preparation for the Town Meeting ideation session that was supposed to happen on Friday.

I showed up to the ideation session ready to challenge the entire school to come up with a reason my proposal wouldn’t work. I sat down and waited with bated breath for the announcements to finish—and waited, and waited, and slowly realized that there was going to be no ideation session at all. After pacing around Knoll 2 ranting in French (and reviewing the past tenses), I handed my proposal to Dean of Students Susie Childs at lunch. She said she’d pass it along to Head of the Upper School Meadow Davis.

I let the issue rest over March Term, but I later sent a carefully worded email to Meadow and the Town Meeting officers asking if they’d received it and what my next steps should be. A week later, I sent a follow-up email and attached the proposal, and at lunch on Friday, as I went to sit down, I saw Chad McElroy ’22, a Town Meeting officer. He apologized for not responding to my first email. As I assured him that it was fine, the other officers and Meadow started showing up, and all of a sudden, I was at a meeting.

Fortunately, I’d been thinking about it enough that I was prepared to present a defense of my proposal at a moment’s notice rather than being sent into a panic by an impromptu meeting. They all liked my proposal, and they told me that they would get it approved by the Leadership Team on Tuesday, I could get the signatures on Wednesday, and the proposal would go to Town Meeting on Friday. The meeting was short enough that at the end, I walked across the lawn and arrived to Poker Club right on time.

The following Tuesday, when I got on the bus, I opened up Teams and saw that Hollis had asked if it was okay to, per the Leadership Team’s request, change the last line of my proposal from “If a student is frequently missing class, their advisor and the Academic Dean will work with them to develop a plan going forward” to “...the Academic Dean will determine disciplinary consequences.” I typed out a polite response explaining that the whole point of my proposal was to make the policy less punitive, so that kind of defeated the purpose. Then I checked my email and saw that the edited version of my proposal had already been sent out with my name on it.

During this process, I’d been frustrated at times, but now I was livid. I sent a slightly less polite email to Meadow and the Town Meeting officers explaining that if they couldn’t change the proposal back to what it was (with a line at the end about determining consequences if absolutely necessary as a compromise), I didn’t want to sponsor it. A Teams exchange with Hollis later, we did indeed update it to that version, and I sighed and shifted my focus back to Tech Week.

The Town Meeting on Friday wasn’t particularly interesting. I blanked and forgot all of my good points when I was speaking in formal debate, but I was proud enough of my wording in the proposal itself that I didn’t care too much. To nobody’s surprise, it passed in a landslide. Meadow told me I’ll be included in the process of translating the proposal into an actual policy. I think she got the message about not changing it without my approval.

Of course, the point of all this isn’t actually that passing a significantly impactful Town Meeting proposal is easy, or even particularly doable. I was only able to because I was very stubborn and unintimidated and did most of the work myself. I was very deliberate in the wording of my proposal, touching on several points Athenian likes to talk about (such as restorative justice and equality in grading), and I think if I’d simply brought forth my idea and asked the officers for help writing it up, the proposal at least would not have been what I intended. I also suspect I would’ve had to try even harder if I had broken rules in the past.

However, I think the main issue with the way Town Meeting works is that the meeting itself isn’t actually that important in the grand scheme of the process. The challenge is getting the proposal approved by the administration, not by the student body. I understand why proposals go through the Leadership Team, but acting as if this is democracy is misleading. At the very least, Athenian needs to make the process of getting proposals approved more transparent and straightforward and, frankly, more emphasized, because as important as it is, it’s absurd to pretend that the actual Town Meeting is the part that really matters.

The Athenian Pillar 5/28/22 The Athenian Pillar 5/28/22

Dying in Line: A Look into the Sri Lankan Protests

In the busy streets of Sri Lanka, winding lines grow longer as the day passes, and thousands wait hours to receive basic necessities like medicine, food, and fuel. After a searing day of queuing, protesters emerge onto the streets as the sun sets, protesting their government’s handling of an economic crisis. Their peaceful calls for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down are met with tear gas and water cannons.

This has become the new reality for citizens of Sri Lanka amidst the worst economic crisis the country has seen since its independence in 1948. A result of mismanagement, outstanding foreign debt, and inflation has caused the country to face unprecedented humanitarian issues, including lasting electricity, fuel, and food shortages.

Sanjeeva De Mel, a social worker in Sri Lanka who founded SERVE, a nonprofit working for poor women and children, explains the origins of this crisis. “This present crisis started a few months ago with gas [prices] exploding, non availability of milk powder, and the change of the dollar rate,” Del Mel said. “It has roots from one step to another but it started from very long term incidents—suppression, malpractice, mismanagement, wrong policies, and wrong investments.”

Sanjev DeSilva, who has Sri Lankan heritage and lived in Sri Lanka in 2012 doing post-war reconciliation workshops for Sri Lanka Unites, also elaborates on the political turmoil of the island state.

“The current regime that controls Sri Lanka is kind of like a mafia family, known as the Rajapaksas,” DeSilva said. “Basically you have the president who was the former defense secretary. The prime minister is his brother. The cabinet—all these different powerful people—are all members of the family. And so they've been accumulating wealth and basically enriching their family while ruining the island's economy.”

President Rajapaksa’s 2019 election was cemented by his prominent role in ending the 26 year-long Sri Lankan Civil War as defense secretary in 2009. Immediately after, the country was hit by the 2019 Easter Bombings, a terrorist attack that killed 269 and injured 500, and the COVID pandemic soon followed. Now, despite facing the increasing consequences of his economical and political mismanagement, as well as the mounting civil protests for his resignation, Rajapaksa still refuses to step down.

“This is now the first time in over a decade that they've been challenged in this way,” DeSilva said. “It's a clear message and people will cross all kinds of different boundaries to be united on this one message that this regime has got to go. So they're not gonna give it up peacefully and they're not gonna give it up happily, but the sustained energy of the protest has been critical to keep the pressure on.”

The protests, which have been going on for almost two and a half weeks, were started by a group of young activists.

“They went and started protesting in front of Galle Face Green,” De Mel said. “That area is mainly a tourist area with five star hotels, a port, the president's house, and the prime minister’s house. Today’s the 19th or 20th day, they’ve been hanging there and protesting. The police try to control them but the lawyers and the bar association and the courts have been trying to ensure the right of expression and the right for them to protest.”

“[The protests] have been extremely peaceful,” DeSilva added. “This has been one of the largest sustained demonstrations that have had no incidents of violence. The only violence that happened a couple times had been police that actually shot some protestors with live rounds. But besides those isolated incidents, it's been completely peaceful in a way that serves as almost a model of unity.”

Additionally, De Mel added his experience with the government suppression of these protests.

“The government thought they should try and silence the protesters,” De Mel said. “They brought an emergency law—they can take anyone into custody without having a court case or normal process. The police officers are in power to basically take anyone into custody. When this happened, the political parties had a one-day campaign against the government. Then came the curfew, which means we can’t go out of the house.”

Besides the curfew, De Mel shares how his life has drastically changed since the beginning of this present crisis due to the mandated constraints on daily necessities. Even after living in Sri Lanka for over 50 years, he describes these as unprecedented living conditions.

“In my life, the biggest problem has been the electricity cuts,” De Mel said. “Everyday, we have 3-4 hour power cuts, some days we have 6-7 hour cuts. Our working life became miserable. We don’t have a generator, we don’t have solar power. We don’t have access to our computers, so we try to do a little bit of handwritten work and discussions. But then we don’t have ventilation so it’s very tiring. In the houses, we always put up a fan, now I struggle with the heat. It’s very warm, and it’s not easy.”

De Mel also tells how extreme inflation has also become a huge challenge, especially with the donations SERVE has received.

“A pair of shoes that we bought for a poor child was $20, now it’s $30 or more,” De Mel said. “Everything has gone up by ⅓ or more. Some of the funds we’ve raised before were projected for the old prices. Everything is very expensive.”

Seeing how Sri Lankan citizens have been affected by the consequences of administrative mismanagement, DeSilva believes that in order for the crisis to be solved, major governmental restructuring must be done.

“The biggest thing is this regime has got to be removed,” DeSilva said. “They've proven time and time again that they do not work in the interests of the people and that they are completely inept and not able to be leaders at all.”

But he still has hope for the future of this island.

“I've never seen the country quite unified like this at all, ever,” DeSilva said. “We're all one people, but some people are very sectarian, so to see those sectarian borders being dropped down is pretty beautiful.”

De Mel agrees.

“I think we are a resilient set of people—even after the tsunami, we bounced back, even after the war, we bounced back in certain areas,” De Mel said, “We should be able to do it. . . . Each country and each nation has faced different challenges at different areas of time. As a nation, we have all come together. In the protests you don’t see any difference between ethnicities and religions. We should, as one set of people, move forward.”

And as the protesters have been chanting night after night: “Go home, Gota. Go home.”