Concerns for Idols' Mental Health Rise in the K-pop Industry

The Korean pop music genre has gained attention worldwide in recent years. K-pop songs like “Super Shy” have consistently appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. As this attention rose, the K-pop industry and culture have been hotly discussed, both positively and negatively.

In the K-pop industry, artists have to put on a smile and converse with their fans energetically even on a bad day. During comebacks, idols wake up before sunrise to get to their stage schedules at music programs in order to promote their songs to audiences. They are constantly surrounded by flashing lights and comments from social media.

“I see two sides,” Athenian’s Director of International Program Michelle Park said. Michelle has been passionate about K-pop since 2017, when BTS’s “Mic Drop” was released. “I see a young person who has that desire to become a celebrity, and they are talented as a musician, vocalist, dancer and they look good. On the other side, for me as a teacher and a parent of small children, I truly feel that it is an unhealthy and suffocating lifestyle. I know that they start really early and that the training days’ schedule is intense and rigorous, with hours and hours of practice. They are kind of confronting idol life with how they speak, how they look, how they dress, how they move—everything. They are turning into robots,” Michelle said.

This is especially demanding for idols of young age. UNIS, a new K-pop girl group that debuted in March 2024, has an average age of 16 years old. The youngest member, Lim Seowon, is only 13.

Becoming a celebrity as a child is not uncommon in the entertainment industry. However, the situation is different in Korea because the fandom constantly engages with K-pop idols through overwhelming, often unhealthy fandom interactions. This is not the first time that idols have appeared in front of the media at such a young age. Won-young of the former group IZ*ONE debuted at 14 years old, Yuna of ITZY debuted at 15, and Eunchae of LE SSERAFIM debuted at 15. They are all outstanding figures in the K-pop industry now. However, it is difficult to imagine the stress that comes with early exposure to the media when children are too young to develop the techniques to cope with the negative comments that flow through social media.

The effects of young debut and social media are apparent. Lia of ITZY has been on hiatus since December 2023 due to her mental health. Appearing in front of the public at 18 years old, she has faced numerous criticisms. Now she can finally get away from the stress of being recognized all of the time and have the opportunity to live a normal life.

“At 13 and 14, you are really supposed to be a kid, playing with your friends. But celebrities have to constantly think about their image. In many ways, they have to become adults. They have people managing them, telling them what they can or can’t do,” Upper School Counselor Rose Stoloff said.

“Celebrities project a certain persona on social media. At 13 years old is really when most people start to figure out who they are and develop their identity. Stars are constantly switching between who they are in their normal life and who they are online, and that can definitely cause some mental health challenges such as anxiety and maybe even depression,” Rose said.

K-pop is a fantastic genre of music. The lyrics of the songs are inspiring and the performances of the idols are exceptional. It is important to establish a healthier industry for K-pop to grow further.

“If K-pop idols have freedom and liberty to be truly themselves, I think that would be the ideal K-pop industry,” Michelle said. “Celebrities can have people to support them with counseling and to encourage these young kids to have healthy lifestyles, that would help. I hope they can hang out with friends and go to school. It is important to have all of these components in a young person’s life,” Michelle said.

Athenian Reacts to JoJo Siwa 2.0 and Her “Gay Pop” Rebrand

With bedazzled black and silver rhinestone unitard, braided mohawk updo, and heavy black eye makeup in the shape of stars, JoJo Siwa's KISS-inspired outfit at the April 1 iHeart Radio Awards was a huge departure from her earlier days. The “Dance Moms” star has abandoned her previous uniform look of huge, colorful bows, fluffy side ponytails, and rainbow, bedazzled attire. JoJo’s latest song “Karma” marks a new era in Siwa’s history, which she calls a “breakthrough in the new Gay Pop genre.”  

“Karma” has been a very hot topic on social media platforms this month. What do Athenians think of the so-called “rebrand” and the celebrity behind it?

Joelle Joanie Siwa, better known by her moniker “JoJo,” is a famous singer, dancer, and internet celebrity from Omaha, Nebraska. As a child, her online fame skyrocketed when she got recruited to appear in the reality dance TV show “Dance Moms.” After leaving the show in 2016, she further built her brand and personal image, becoming increasingly popular among young girls. In quick succession, the singer released a series of singles, such as “Boomerang,” “Bop!,” and “Kid in a Candy Store,” that gained popularity. 

Tenth-grader Riley Pattinson said, “When I was younger, I was a big “Boomerang” fan. I was not a fan of JoJo Siwa herself, but I really liked that she was like, ‘I'm gonna come back like a boomerang’ in the song. And then, I have a friend who was a huge super fan and bought tickets for her concert and went to her concert. She had all the bows and everything. She even had the Jojo Siwa bow box. It was a monthly package that came every month with the new bow and stickers.” 

Australian exchange student Izzy Skirving said, “I did listen to JoJo Siwa songs growing up, but I didn’t really see her as an icon person. I listened to her songs only because they were trending at the time and other friends listened to them.” 

Eventually, the internet star’s popularity died down a little and she focused on her social media channels, filming various YouTube videos and TikToks. Then, in April of 2024, Siwa released the song “Karma” with an accompanying music video. The video received lots of attention and backlash. The song was a mystifying combination of Siwa singing, dancing, and interacting with a woman on the beach. 

Tenth-grader Caiden Bedi said, “I thought the song itself was bad, but it was funny to laugh at. Then the music video made it even funnier because she licked some lady, and did a bunch of weird stuff on the beach. Also, her outfit was a little crazy. I was just like, ‘What's going on?’ It looked so low budget, especially because she was on that tiny little island with her strange outfit.”

“It's one of these songs that are just made for a 15-second viral clip on TikTok. It's definitely giving that energy, except for some reason, she's actually proud of it,” Caiden said. “I don't know. I don't really think the lyrics of that song have a lot of artistic merit to them.” 

In addition to discussions of the song and music video, much of the most recent conversation in online communities about JoJo Siwa has centered on her proclamations of creating a “new Gay Pop” genre. In an interview with Billboard, Siwa said, “When I first signed with Columbia Records, I said I wanted to start a new genre of music, and they said what do you mean? I said, ‘Well it’s called “Gay Pop.” It’s like K-pop but it’s Gay Pop.”’

This claim has caused an uproar in the entertainment industry. Some fully support it, while others are indignant, bringing up well-known industry names like Tegan and Sara, Elton John, and Troye Sivan. 

Caiden said, “I absolutely hate that she is saying she invented the Gay Pop genre because there are so many other, not even just Gay Pop artists, but gay artists in history. Obviously, Elton John is very famous. There are also so many others, including Lil Nas X and Troye Sivan. There are a lot of examples of gay people in the pop music space, and she's ignoring that just for her own virality, which I think is so messed up. She's not acknowledging the history of the genre that she's supposedly invented.”

Most are unwilling to acknowledge Siwa’s alleged invention of the genre and some don’t even want the singer to advertise her song as Gay Pop at all. 

Riley said, “I think that Jojo Siwa did not invent Gay Pop. I don't really want to call her music Gay Pop because it's just a gay person who's singing pop, which is not Gay Pop.”

Athenian Needs to Know Itself

Though neither the most urgent nor the most apparent, arguably the most fundamental problem at The Athenian School is a question of its identity. What makes The Athenian School Athenian? What does it mean to be The Athenian School? Almost no one gives the same answer to these questions, which points to an ambiguity or a lack of self-awareness around Athenian’s identity. One may argue that the diversity of answers does not indicate a lack of self-awareness but rather shows the flexibility of Athenian education: a student can freely decide what their Athenian experience will be. However, this would be true only if all those conceptions were in harmony, instead of dissonance.

The conflict between a focus on college preparation, on the one hand, and other Athenian ideals, on the other, exemplifies the lack of agreement around the Athenian identity. Athenian’s mission statement begins with the sentence: “The Athenian School prepares students for the rigorous expectations of college and for a life of purpose and personal fulfillment,” which shows that the first goal the school presents to the public is preparing its students for college.

However, there has always been a dispute among faculty on what the school ought to prioritize— college prep elements or traditional Athenian ideals. The five-paragraph long mission statement from Athenian in comparison to one succinct paragraph mission statement from most other schools is another testament to the chronic confusion and controversy over the school's identity.

Because of this miscommunication about the school’s purpose and identity, students come to Athenian with a fragmented understanding. They come with certain expectations, but slowly realize there is more in Athenian education than they first perceived; again, the most prominent case of this misconception happens with college preparation. The students’ pushback against seemingly constant grade system changes, the removal of AP classes, the school’s policy changes around AP exams, and even AWE, is underlined by the conflict between students’ aspiration for college admission and the school’s attempt to manifest its other educational ideals. Although “preparing students for the rigorous expectations of college” is its first pronounced goal, Athenian also wants to prepare students “for a life of purpose and personal fulfillment.” Athenian’s failure to fully express its purpose and identity to prospective students can be traced back to a conflict of desires within the school—between the students, the administration, and the faculty—intensifying the confusion and controversy.

Athenian must realize that this disagreement between the student body and the school harms the trust between them. Many administrators and faculty members use the inverted pyramid model to explain Athenian education, where students are supported by faculty who are supported by administrators. However, when the administration cannot provide a lucid and consistent rationale on what school is about, students view them as authority figures who attempt to subdue students’ aims by imposing ambiguous and seemingly arbitrary ideals.

This distrust due to the school’s miscommunication is amplified by the school’s failure to embody its ideals, which are too fragmented to practice fully. When there are diverse goals, the school fails to accomplish them all. Athenian promotes environmentalism, yet resistance to Meatless Monday, a mispractice of recycling and composting, unreturned Main Hall plates, and increased use of disposable products is obvious. Athenian supports social justice, yet its action is limited to performative activism and it remains a bubbled community. Athenian encourages experiential learning, yet almost all classes in Athenian are not experiential but academic to meet the rigorous expectations of college. Athenian emphasizes critical thinking, yet the political diversity and discourse at Athenian are constrained. This lack of integrity is perceived almost as hypocrisy by students, which results in students’ and faculty members’ distrust in the institution. 

Without trust, students become closed and skeptical toward the school’s agenda, which is demonstrated through numerous conflicts between students and the administration. The incessant disputes and complaints around the many initiatives and programs proposed by the school will be alleviated only if students can understand and trust the actions and intentions of the administration. Unless students can trust the school, the school will not be able to teach students, at least not up to its ideals.

To remedy this erosion of Athenian community and identity, the school needs to know itself through consistent effort and conversation and to be able to elucidate what it is striving for. A diversity of aims is acceptable as long as there is a coherent and overarching framework that can encompass them all. The school needs to ask whether any of its aims are mutually exclusive, and if so, which aims Athenian should aspire to. Is it truly necessary to have a seemingly random compilation of goals, or is the school missing a fundamental idea?

After establishing its foundation, Athenian can then clearly communicate the purpose of its institution to students so that they can come to school expecting what is waiting for them. With mature self-awareness, the school can align its actions with its ideals. By fully embodying its purpose, Athenian can lead students by example and restore trust.

Finally, some may argue that finding identity is not essential for a school. Even if there is no identity, students only spend four years at Athenian and move on to the next stage of their lives, and teachers will earn their pay. Students will pay tuition, teachers will teach, students will submit work, teachers will grade it, students will graduate, and teachers will then teach the next line of students.A school can be nothing more than a vessel for the exchange of goods and services. Athenian can be more than just a mechanical institution. It is conceived to be more—as demonstrated in the mission statement—and indeed, throughout its history, it has been more.

Following Controversy, Difficult Discussions in the Classroom Become Imperative

“Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules or code of conduct? Yes or no?” asked Elise Stefanik, a US representative for New York’s 21st congressional district.

During a hearing on December 5, 2023, the presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology seemed to have trouble answering this question.

Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard, responded, “Antisemitic rhetoric, when it crosses into conduct, that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation. That is actionable conduct, and we do take action.”

None of the presidents answered this question explicitly, emphasizing that it depends on the context.

“It does not does not depend on the context. The answer is yes, and this is why you should resign,” Stefanik countered.

It was worrisome to see the presidents of Penn, Harvard, and MIT give such cautiously worded responses that made it hard to understand their positions. It was not merely the condemnatory wording of the questions, but the fact that the presidents of these schools did not seem to understand their own policies.

Perhaps they were being evasive–too worried to answer “yes” or “no” to a question to avoid painting themselves in a bad light.

Or maybe it was that those asking the questions were being aggressive–they were asking yes or no questions to create a specific image. When people cannot elaborate on their response to a complicated question, it is the question that tells the story, not the answer.

What is acceptable in an academic setting is often puzzling, even more so in the wake of controversy. But it is a central question in our society, and it cannot be ignored.

A large portion of the recent controversy began after Hamas invaded Israel on October 7th. Numerous colleges were criticized for their reluctant responses (or lack thereof), or for ignoring the rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia on their campuses.

Protests by pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups on college campuses have increased tensions between students, faculty, and administrations, especially in the weeks following October 7th. Universities have struggled to contain the reaction, with concerns arising about security and free speech.

Over Thanksgiving in 2023, three Palestinian college students were shot unprovoked in Vermont. Thankfully, they all survived, but one of them may face permanent paralysis in his legs.

In November, three Jewish students sued New York University for allowing antisemitism to go unchecked. They claimed that it was a hostile environment where they felt unprotected by their teachers and peers. While NYU denied these claims, it is clear that students, Jewish and Muslim alike, feel unsafe in the wake of this event.

Nevertheless, this is not a new discussion. The recent events that have taken place raise an related question: what is higher education really for?

Following such a horrific and polarizing series of events, students, especially those who feel particularly close to the conflict, will react like most. People will usually only see what they are looking for. It is in the classroom that students should be taught to look further.

The line between hate speech, free speech, and that which is acceptable on a school campus is a difficult distinction to make. While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, it is simply foolish to allow those views to be expressed unlimitedly. Teachers have a responsibility to make the classroom a place where students can learn comfortably.

But often, when too many restrictions are placed on speech and expression, students may not feel comfortable either. They won’t know where to draw the line, or what they will be punished for doing.

Rules and even investigations to protect students are justified, sometimes necessary. But even if schools have a duty to provide a safe environment for their students, I don’t believe that absolute security should be emphasized at all times.

The Learning Zone Model, most recently developed by Tom Senninger, illustrates three areas: the comfort zone, the learning zone, and the panic zone. The comfort zone consists of things with which one is familiar; safe, but not learning anything new. The learning zone is where one is met with new experiences. In this zone, a student may feel uncomfortable, but they are ultimately learning. The panic zone is where a person is met with something threatening or unfamiliar. They usually cannot learn because of how scared they are in that situation.

This model emphasizes that it is important for students to feel comfortable, but also to learn. In order to do that, there must be moments when they are pushed beyond what is familiar.

This does not mean that hate speech and discrimination should be allowed to run rampant in schools. The line between a civil argument and discrimination must be established. Controlled debate and differing perspectives have to be encouraged. High schools and colleges should not try to solve the problem by silencing their students, but by encouraging different views in a classroom situation.

The world today teems with social change and increasing polarization. In the midst of this, schools should never silence ideas that are controversial, or stray away from arguments in fear of backlash.

As more divisive situations continue to shape our society, it is essential to foster healthy debate and differing opinions. More importantly, we must ensure that respect, open-mindedness, and acceptance remain hallmarks of our institutions.

Music Theory is a Vital, but Overlooked, Subject

If an alien came down to Earth and observed how we interact with music, it would find an extraordinary paradigm. While we ignore some sound waves, we find ourselves nodding or bouncing up and down with others. Sometimes, we find ourselves crying or smiling along with a particularly emotional set of sound waves; other times, we are filled with anticipation as a chorus seems poised to hit.

Music is quite a strange phenomenon indeed, yet we’ve all but abandoned the study of it. We’re content to let our bodies move and react to music in strange ways without questioning why we know when to clap, how to sing a tune, or why some harmonies fill us with happiness while others fill us with dread. In many ways, a thorough understanding of music would play a much bigger role in our daily lives than an understanding of calculus or world history.

 It is staggering to realize how much we listen to music—in the car, in movies, while studying, at concerts, or on headphones while walking around. Some enjoy listening to music so much they can’t attend class without it, evidenced by the number of AirPods visible from the back of a classroom! There are not many areas music has failed to influence, but we still don’t question why we like what we like or why music affects us so greatly. Why don’t we consider it a vital part of our existence, worth understanding as much as any other subject?

Music should be considered as such, a common class on par with physics or history, and a basic understanding of music should be a tenet of a good education. Much like other core classes, music theory introduces students to logical and analytical thinking, while also contextualizing the world around us.

This is not as bold a claim as it may sound. In the original European universities, musicology was considered one of the seven liberal arts. It was part of “the quadrivium,” the four number-focused liberal arts, along with geometry, arithmetic, and astronomy. Most early American universities and colleges were also founded with this philosophy. But in many high schools, music class is either solely focused on performance or a glorified free period. The theory behind the music that high school students play is often impossible to learn at a school. 

An analogy to a more “accepted” subject, English, may help. Much like language, music does not literally depict the world around us. Our understanding of the meaning of language and music comes from strict rules and norms that all speakers and songwriters follow, instead of from literal sonic representations. For instance, to depict sadness in music, one might write at a slower tempo and in a minor key, instead of replicating the sounds of crying. Similarly, while speaking I can just say, “That’s a bird,” instead of trying to imitate the sound of a bird. Just as the words I’m writing can only be understood because of the rules we have created, there is only meaning within music thanks to a series of rules that have been adopted over time.

Musicologists generally agree that there is almost nothing in music that carries an inherent meaning, just as no word has an inherent meaning. There is nothing universally sad about a minor chord, nor anything happy about a major chord; until the recent globalization of Western music, in some cultures, minor music was actually seen as happy-sounding. There is also no natural rule that music should be evenly subdivided or that it should be grouped into twos and fours, and there are no natural laws governing what sounds like “cowboy” music or what sounds “uplifting.” Yet we continue to understand music as having certain meanings because of our culturally imposed definitions and rules—these rules allow us to jump on beat, sing in time, and know the setting in a movie based solely on its music.

We learn to speak before going to school, understanding vocal sounds as attached to their abstract meanings. But after being taught what separate words mean, we can parse the differences in the words someone is saying and create novel combinations of words to create new meanings. Learning a language adds a middle step between sounds and meaning—a specific system of grammar that one can learn to manipulate. Not only that, this system helps one understand what a phrase means; why does “I am happy” mean what it does? Because one knows what “I,” “am,” and “happy” mean, and understands how they grammatically fit together. It allows us to read or hear something and know both the meaning of the sentence and from where that meaning derives. Certainly, we don’t need to learn a language in school to pick up on this; most toddlers have an understanding that separate words exist. But learning the basic rules of a language and being exposed to new texts and concepts gives one a richer ability to discuss language and writing, and to understand the nuances and specifics of what they already partially understand.

If we think of music as a language, we can see a similar but more pronounced phenomenon. One may hear a song and feel sad or hear an upbeat song and know how to tap their foot along with it, but not understand why that is happening. Or consider when a musician makes a mistake: when we hear a horribly strange note, we think, “That’s not right” in the same way a person who didn’t understand grammar would say “I bes happy” is wrong but couldn’t explain why. Much like a toddler who understands words and language to a degree, most people have been exposed to the concepts that music theory expands upon but can’t articulate how they work.

However, the difference between these two disciplines is obvious. English is taught through practice, books, and conversations, often before one even goes to school. Baked into the way we learn English is an understanding of the rules that govern it, and the individual words that make it up. While music is similar—we do pick up on elements of music without being in a class—many still lack a basic understanding of how what they intuitively know works.

In essence, music is most analogous to poetry—it’s a combination of artistic freedom and a series of implicit and explicit guardrails that define our interpretation. Both music and poetry use an understanding of grammatical rules to subvert expectations or play into preexisting notions. Learning the rules that guide poetry or music allows one to understand when these rules are being broken, and how they’re being used.  Music, especially its composition, is not only based on “feeling,” as it is commonly described. Music theory can explain why a piece was written the way it was, and as a result, it explains the way we listen to it; it’s only because of a lack of music theory education that music has been relegated to the mere work of feelings, dismissing the complex grammar that guides it.

Once I started to grasp music theory a few years ago, this problem seemed glaring. We’re listening to music but have no understanding of what is happening! No way to articulate why something is pretty or incorrect or melancholy or danceable or even “tango-sounding” without using those exact words. Why does a certain melody sound like a tango, regardless of the instrumentation? “Well, it just does,” we’re forced to reply.

To me, this lack of basic understanding of something we cherish and connect with so deeply is maddening. We can’t even articulate why we like a certain sound, what makes one slow ballad soar and the other boring. But we could—if we learned music theory. 

Learning music theory might feel like a tall order; it’s true that, much like other core subjects, music has layers of complexity. While more involved music theory is certainly interesting, the most valuable understanding of music theory comes from its basic ideas, which many people have already heard in some capacity (phrases like “major chord” or “four-four time”). I’d recommend looking into the beginner and intermediate interactive lessons on musictheory.net to learn more.

In the future, if music theory were taught in school there would be a common cultural understanding of music shared among all students. Music would no longer be an esoteric collection of sounds, but a language we could understand and discuss, allowing us to finally access this art form that has been so elusive, yet impactful, in our lives.

Athenian Community Meetings in Need of Change

Community Meetings are weekly events on the Athenian campus. They are a tradition intended to share information and bring the community together. Usually, the meetings consist of a speaker discussing a subject the school believes is relevant to the time and community, followed by general announcements about more day-to-day events.

The process of community meetings only gets increasingly tedious for the community after each one; they all seem to follow the same repetitive formula as all the others. Community meetings aren’t without merit, though; sometimes, they can introduce interesting ideas to the upper school or provide excellent entertainment value.

Despite this, the sheer number of community meetings seems unnecessary to the purpose they intend to fulfill. But how can Athenian uproot such an extensive tradition of the upper school? How will Athenian do weekly announcements? The complete elimination of community meetings would be somewhat of an overreach and may not be necessary, but community meetings should be subject to major changes.

The ironic thing about community meetings is the community has little to no impact on the subject and speaker of the community meeting. Despite community meetings being intended for the community as a whole, students have no idea what will happen at each community meeting and no say on the speaker or topic of the meeting. Unlike town halls, these meetings aren’t catered to the students themselves but catered to what the faculty thinks is relevant to us.

This year’s community meetings especially have contained information that could easily be transferred by email and are frequently filled with speeches that could be optional for people who think it’s relevant to them, or people who are still excited by the idea of a weekly community meeting. This way, students are more free to do work and still have the option of a community meeting.

Currently, the way we do community meetings will never be enjoyable for every student. At the same time, I’m sure every community meeting has been worth it for at least one person; nevertheless, if community meetings aren’t changed, the entire upper school doesn’t need to attend a community meeting every week. After a while, every community meeting starts to blur together, each one making them collectively more dull. By making them optional or more scarce and using emails to announce important information, we can combat the dullness of the meetings, and they will stay fresh whenever you choose to attend one.

Despite the logistical challenges, it would be worth it for faculty as they spend hours planning community meetings without knowing what the students genuinely want. There is no natural way for students to give feedback on community meetings or even input ideas for topics. Making the meetings optional or less common, and getting more student input during the planning process, could help make the meetings much more enjoyable.

Summer Albums Recap: Fantastic Projects You May Have Missed This Past Summer

I was Mature For My Age But I was Still a Child - Grouptherapy

Genre: Alternative Hip-hop

This album is one of the most unexpected pieces of music to come out this year, which is saying a lot given that Travis Scott’s Utopia and Lil Uzi Vert’s Pink Tape also came out around the same time. However, what first drew me to I was Mature For My Age But I was Still a Child was not the fantastic reviews it received on most major publications, or its unique blend of alternative hip-hop and pop elements, but rather the discovery that all three artists had grown up as child actors on major platforms like Disney and Nickelodeon. One in particular, Tyrell Jackson Williams, or TJOnline, is most known for his work as Leo Dooley in the Disney show “Lab Rats,” as well as one of the voices for Tyrone the Backyardigan. Due to the group’s status as ex-child stars, I came into the album expecting it to be difficult to take seriously. However, what I found was a project brimming with personality, style, and maturity. While many have likened the group’s weirdo pop-rap sound to groups like Brockhampton, a comparison that does make sense in many regards, the group has still managed to cultivate a sound that is very much their own. All three members of the group have moments to shine: from SWIM’s aggressive style that seems to overflow with personality, to Jadagrace’s addictively sweet singing, to TJOnline’s calm swagger and bravado, every song showcases each member of the group’s strengths. The melodic and bouncy “How I’m Feeling” showcases Jadagrace at her best on top of bubbly synths and punchy snares, while my personal favorite track, “Funkfest” sees standout performances from both SWIM at the start and TJOnline on the back end. A guitar line drones in the background moving at a breakneck speed. A persistent heartbeat pattern of hats and kicks accompany the instrumental, as well as a snare that seems as though it is fighting to catch up with the rest of the song in a fantastically unique groove. I was Mature for my Age but I was Still a Child strikes a perfect balance of wearing its many influences on its sleeve while still finding no shortage of new paths to blaze. It is an incredible freshman effort from an extremely unexpected group, and it will be fascinating to see where the band goes next.

But Here We Are - Foo Fighters

Genre: Rock

It is impossible to talk about But Here We Are without first talking about the tragedy that inspired it. In 2022, Foo Fighters lost their drummer, Taylor Hawkins, to cardiac arrest possibly caused by drug usage. While to many, creating music out of an event such as this may not seem enticing, to Foo Fighters, music was the perfect way to express their grief, resulting in the band’s most heartbreaking and personal project to date. The album obviously centers around the effects of Hawkins’s death, but lead vocalist Dave Grohl chose to approach it through the lense of nostalgia, and a struggle to move past grief. While But Here We Are is by all means heartfelt and tragic, it also sees the group attempt some of their most raw, noisy instrumentals. To me, it feels as though the band is letting out their anger and sorrow on the instrumental side, while they are lyrically hoping to come to terms with the death of their friend. And of course, while there will always be a void where Hawkins once filled it with the sound of kicks and snares, Grohl taps into his time as the drummer for Nirvana in order to temporarily cover it up. This album is Foo Fighters at their best, showing maturity and musicality all the same on a project that feels like a rollercoaster of emotion and anguish.

Struggler - Genesis Owusu

Genre: Punk/Soul/Funk/Rap/Synth Pop/a bunch of other stuff

Struggler was one of my most anticipated albums this year ever since I discovered Genesis Owusu’s earlier project, Smiling With No Teeth. That album was a creative blend of punk, rap, funk, soul, and a bit of experimental. Although the teaser tracks for Owusu’s sophomore effort were not my favorites due to the low growly shouts Owusu adopts, the album as a whole turned out to be so good it may even rival his freshman project. Owusu utilized the album to tell a story about humanity’s will to survive. Humans are the strugglers in a world that can seem all too oppressive, yet still they persevere. He cleverly uses the metaphor of a roach, an animal that can withstand countless natural and unnatural dangers, to further illustrate his point. Aside from the songs’ themes, the actual musicality is for the most part fantastic. Owusu once again blends many elements and genres, this time with a far greater focus on punk and synthwave. My favorite song on the album, “Freak Boy,” offers one of the best choruses I’ve heard this year, along with introspective lyrics and an instrumental full of gritty synthesizers and bass. Aside from “Freak Boy” and songs like it, Owusu pivots to drastically different styles throughout the album, most notably on songs like “See Ya There,” and “Stuck to the Fan,” both of which feature laid-back, soulful grooves and far less aggression than the other punk-infused tracks on the album. While some songs do come across as filler, such as “Balthazar” or “That’s Life (A Swamp),” they do not end up detracting from the album’s overall highlights. In every style Owusu attempts, each one is filled with a unique personality and meaning that makes the project a true diamond in the rough.

Holiday Activities to Thoroughly Enjoy This Winter

Clouds, the cold, and, of course, snow are all staples of the winter season, but winter here in Danville tends to look a little different. Our winter months here are often warmer than most other places and sometimes even sunny and hot. Keeping this in mind, there are still a lot of iconic winter activities you can do in this part of California.

One that immediately comes to mind is ice skating. Skating is a staple winter activity and even without frozen lakes nearby, there are still many places to go ice skating with friends or family, such as The Veranda in Concord, Walnut Creek on Ice, the Kristi Yamaguchi’s Holiday Ice Rink in San Ramon, and many others. They are great places to embrace the winter spirit.

Another activity to get into the holiday spirit is to watch a winter production, such as The Nutcracker ballet, or a play like A Christmas Carol. The San Francisco Ballet performs The Nutcracker every December, and this year the Toni Rembi Theater is putting on a production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The San Francisco Symphony has many holiday-themed shows such as “Deck the Halls” and “Colors of Christmas.” They even have a showing of the Christmas movie Home Alone performed with their live orchestra. Having a nice meal beforehand and discussing it on the drive home could be a great outing.

Baking cookies are a winter staple as well. There are many easy recipes, and varieties of cookies, so that anyone can find one to their liking. Baking cookies in bulk is useful as well because if you have an excess of cookies, they can be handed out as small gifts to friends and family, spreading the holiday cheer. 

Another way to embrace the wintertime with the people close to you is to do a kind of gift exchange, like a Secret Santa or white elephant. These can be done with friends and at large family gatherings, as well as between advisees, or coworkers. Secret Santa can be made even more convenient with the help of apps like “Draw Names,” which randomly draws a person for you to give a gift to. There is even a wish list feature to make the gift-buying process easier by telling you what your person wants.

If you play an instrument, learning holiday songs could be a way to pass the time and embrace the holiday season. Instrumental holiday music can come in every difficulty ranging from beginner to experienced and it is always impressive to whip out a few festive songs at a party. Speaking of parties, holiday parties are a great way to spend the winter by inviting a group over, which opens more possibilities for winter pastimes, such as hosting a gingerbread house-building competition, or doing some of the activities already mentioned like baking cookies as a group.

Another more far-fetched activity is to go play in the snow. Even though it seems impossible for it to snow in Danville, California, it actually has, and last year no less. The nearby Mt. Diablo received a couple of inches of snow in February 2023. Real snow, and many people drove up there to experience it themselves. While this made the traffic a nightmare, driving up there is completely legal. Because of the snow make sure to put chains on car tires as well as other safety precautions people don’t usually think about because snow here is such a rare occurrence. While this snow did occur weeks after winter break ended you can always have hope it may come early this year. In many holiday movies, people wish for a “White Christmas.” Usually, it seems like an impossible wish, but with all the recent unpredictable weather going on, at least there might be one good thing that comes out of it. This winter is predicted to be on the colder side, but even if it ends up not snowing on Mt Diablo at all, the winter months will still be full of fun.

Senior Shares Where to Go When You Have to Go

~ The Indisputable Ranking of Athenian’s Bathrooms ~

Often, we don’t pay much mind to the in-between parts of our days: driving home, walking to class, waiting in the lunch line, or using the bathroom. Though these moments are never very memorable, they certainly have the potential to ruin one's day, as anyone who’s tried to use the gym bathroom—or even worse, the middle school locker room bathrooms—can tell you.

As a Senior going on five years at Athenian, I have experienced the good, the bad, and the ugly of Athenian lavatories. After careful consultation with other students, I have curated a definitive ranking of Athenian’s restrooms. 

This ranking is based on the accessibility, cleanliness, maintenance, size, and most importantly, the atmosphere of each bathroom

(TIE) 11. Middle School Locker Room 

0/10

Do not enter this bathroom. Do not enter it if dared. Do not enter it if you have to change your clothes. Don’t do it!

There’s a reason this bathroom has a 0/10. Anything a bathroom can do wrong, it does wrong. It reeks of middle school PE students (and Axe body spray on the men’s side), and you have to walk through the changing room to get to the bathroom. The entire restroom looks like the set of a Saw movie, the stall doors barely function, and the faucets frequently stop working.

This bathroom also has the distinction of being the only Men’s restroom without urinal dividers, though it’s not much of a problem because no one else ever uses it. 

(TIE) 11. Middle School Gym Multi-Use Bathroom 

0/10

If you take anything away from this ranking, it’s that the Middle School Gym is the worst. In some ways, this bathroom is better than its changing room counterpart, but in others, it’s much worse.
For starters, this bathroom has a PIN lock, and nobody except regular sports players and former middle schoolers know the code. It creates an insane situation where one person will unlock it, and then everyone else will wait for them to get out because they don’t know the code; while taking the AP Calculus AB exam in the gym, a chain of 10-15 people used the bathroom while only one person knew the code. Why is the code still there? What’s the point? Not only is this the only bathroom with a code, not only is the code-less middle school locker room right next door, but it’s also not an outward-facing bathroom; you have to enter a lockable door to get to it. It’s not deterring anyone!

Beyond that, how’s the quality of the bathroom? Well, it’s horrible, thanks for asking. There’s one barely functioning faucet, a cracked mirror, two crusty toilets, and the same Saw movie-style design. Hilariously, these are the only two bathrooms in the middle school, and they’re both zero out of ten. 

Like the previous bathroom, avoid it if you can. But if you’re at a game, and you have to choose one, at least choose the one that’s not in a middle school changing room. 

10. Old Science Building Gender Neutral Bathroom (LEFT SIDE!)

1/10

Spoiler alert: The right-side science bathroom is ranked number 3 on this list. The bathroom less than a foot away is an 8/10. So what on earth happened here? 

Well, this bathroom is about on par with a middle school bathroom, with claustrophobia! It’s short and you can touch both walls with your hands easily. It has an older design for its lock, sink, and toilet when compared to its neighbor; worst of all, it’s a sickly yellow color, with gross orange tiles and harsh light. For an added touch, when you walk out of this bathroom, you’ll be face to face with the 6-foot window in the Envi-Sci classroom, so wave to the 9th graders taking Physics after you finish doing your business! 

(TIE) 8. Knoll Gender Neutral Bathroom 

4/10

This is the first restroom I’d say isn’t a soul-crushing experience to visit. It’s still not great though. To start, the sink has absolutely insane water pressure. If a student attempts to turn the faucet on by pulling it all the way up, water hits the basin of the sink so hard it will splash all over their shirt. Using this sink incorrectly is practically a rite of passage at this point. 

The bathroom is also strangely unclean, and I mean no disrespect to Athenian’s incredible staff. I just have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of freshmen use this bathroom, seeing as it’s right next to many first-year classes; nearly every time I visited there was toilet paper strewn about, puddles of water, or soap on the floor. 

Worst of all, the bathroom sometimes fails at its most basic job: privacy. The lock is hit or miss, and sometimes stops working; the door also swells in hotter months, making it impossible to close. Beyond these gripes, the bathroom isn’t awful. It has a bland but inoffensive tile color palette and is located right next to the knoll classrooms, making it very convenient in between classes. 

(TIE) 8. CFTA Dance Gender Neutral Bathroom

4/10

It’s hard to put my finger on exactly why this bathroom doesn’t work. It might be the weird stool that’s always sitting in the middle of it, or the lock that doesn’t ever seem to click, or the way the walls are so thin the entire downstairs of the CFTA knows when you’ve flushed. It also might be its location. It’s so hidden that even ceramics students next door might not know about it for months.

The atmosphere also isn’t incredible. There’s no natural light and the curved plastic flooring and walling is very 90s. But as a bathroom, it does everything it has to; it gets a passing grade, but only because it technically did everything on the rubric. 

7. Main Hall Multi-use Bathroom

5/10

Despite getting a 5/10, a perfectly average score, nothing is average about this bathroom. Some parts are great, while others are worse than the bathrooms that preceded it. 

Let’s start with the bad. It’s always crowded, and it’s a rarity to not see freshmen getting into an argument in front of the hand dryer. The stalls have large cracks and most don’t lock—one faucet didn’t work for an entire year in the men's restroom. Sometimes it’s clean, but other times the sink is filled with someone’s lunch remnants, or the counter is covered in hand soap; one pities the staff member who has to clean up some crazy kid’s mess. 

On the other hand, these bathrooms are big. They’re built to accommodate a lunch crowd, with at least two times as many sinks and stalls when compared to the second-largest bathroom. Additionally, these bathrooms are modern, with some of the best designs in any Athenian bathroom. While it’s a bit bland, it’s certainly classy. 

6. Main Hall Gender Neutral Bathroom

5.5/10

These bathrooms are a victim of their popularity. On their own, they’re probably some of the best Athenian has to offer, but they’re full 90% of the time, and there’s often a line for them clogging the hallway. People seem to use these rooms as their own personal office, doing who knows what for extended periods of time. Their popularity also means that they’re often a mess, and they always feel (and smell) unclean.

Objectively, they’re well-designed. They have an occupied sign on the handle (though the sign seems to be broken, it’s almost always stuck on occupied!), a modern design with beautiful tiles, thick walls, and the most room in any gender-neutral bathroom.

5. New Science Building Gender Neutral Bathroom (on the east lawn)

6/10

This bathroom seems to hide in plain sight. During lunch, most students opt to use the Main Hall restrooms, while this gem is often just steps away, and much more private. It’s completely isolated and often available. In between classes, it’s the easiest bathroom to use, especially if one is trying to cross campus. 

Its design is basic— it’s very similar to the Knoll gender-neutral bathroom but without any of that bathroom’s problems. It’s completely silent inside, always clean, and has a normal amount of water pressure. Before trying Main Hall gender-neutral bathrooms for the 20th time, give this one a try!

4. CFTA Upstairs Multi-use Bathroom

6.5/10

The CFTA has a certain charm that takes some getting used to. Yes, it has an old 90s style and this bathroom is no different; but this bathroom is also by far the cleanest bathroom as a result of its lack of use. It’s always available, and decently large. If you want a classic bathroom experience with no interruptions, try the CFTA!

However, this restroom has its faults, and they’re rather obvious. It has the same gross plastic flooring and walling, but more importantly, it’s too far to be used by anyone not already in the CFTA. 

Still, the stalls are private, there’s a nice window breaking up the plastic surrounding you, and it’s always clean. 

3. Old Science Building Gender Neutral Bathroom (RIGHT SIDE!)

8/10

This Old Science Building bathroom is significantly better than its weird younger sibling next door. It fixes everything wrong with the left-side bathroom, but also adds so much more. It’s large—roomy enough for it to function as a miniature bedroom—it’s clean, it doesn’t face the Envi-Sci classroom, and it has a newer sink, lock, and toilet. 

But that’s not the best part. This restroom has the most tasteful design at Athenian. It has a cool gray color scheme, with matching wall and floor tiles. It’s reminiscent of a modern home bathroom design, and that’s what I like most about this bathroom; I feel at home in this bathroom.

The only real drawback is a concerningly large hole in the roof, which I somehow never noticed until writing this review.

2. Bradford Library Gender Neutral Bathrooms 

9.5/10

These bathrooms are the pinnacle of gender-neutral bathrooms, and most students have never heard of them! When one enters either bathroom, they’re greeted with full-sized paintings, book recommendations on the wall, and lots of natural light coming in from the windows above. They’re consistently available, the only bathrooms near the Middlefield classrooms, and the only gender-neutral bathrooms anywhere near South Lawn. Not only that, they’re in a quiet space (the library) and relatively secluded, so everyone doesn’t see you enter and exit. 

This bathroom isn’t perfect, though. First, the natural light is nice on a sunny day, but on a darker day, the bathroom’s electronic light just doesn’t cut it. The floor tiling—bland 2-inch squares—also takes away from the aesthetic. 

1. Dase Center Multi-use Bathrooms

10/10 

These bathrooms are the only great multi-use bathrooms Athenian offers, and it’s not even close. There are never any malfunctioning faucets or clogged toilets, no sophomores having a discussion in front of the paper towel machine, or broken stall locks. The stalls have nice private doors without wide cracks (I’m looking at you, Main Hall bathrooms). The slightly reflective floor and the dark-colored walls are reminiscent of a bathroom at a nice restaurant. 

The bathrooms are laid out with tons of space to walk around; the ceilings are high, and there’s a permanently opened window on one wall airing out the room.  It’s impossible to feel claustrophobic here. Even better, almost no one uses this bathroom, meaning it’s always open. On top of that, during D period A-train and the Howlers can be heard practicing, enhancing this already stellar experience.

A Classy Upper Classman Classily Classifies Classrooms

If the Athenian School was alive, classrooms would be its cells—metaphorically and quite literally. A school is a place for education, and classrooms are the smallest unit in which that purpose is fulfilled. In another sense, some students may describe classrooms after lunch as some sort of prison cell. After all, students spend most of their school time in classrooms taking classes, attending clubs, eating lunch, or simply relaxing. 

The Athenian campus holds a variety of classrooms to meet its diverse educational needs, and this article will examine the different aspects and uniqueness of each building, starting from the CIS (the order of classrooms is not their rankings and irrelevant to their quality).  

1. The Carter Innovation Studio (CIS)

Being one of the newest buildings on campus, the CIS is filled with a modern spirit. Two classrooms at its corner embody minimalist and industrial design with their cold dark concrete floors, pale white walls, and metal pipes crossing each other perpendicularly right beneath the ceiling. Each aspect of the interior is clean, functional, and neatly organized. With all the 3D printers, laser cutters, and machines, one can feel like participating in the cutting edge of technological innovation for humanity. Sadly, technological innovation comes at a cost because occasionally you may be disrupted from class hearing the thundering noise from the machinery running or materials hitting the floor when someone accidentally drops them. The proximity of the CIS to Main Hall and the center of campus provides convenience for students to move to the next class or lunch. However, needing to go around the whole building in order to use the Main Hall restrooms is a bit odd considering the fact that the CIS is directly next to Main Hall. Overall, it is one of the best classrooms on the campus, especially if you want to focus on your work—assuming you have your headphones.

2. The Knolls

Almost all humanities classes are taught in the Knolls. They have notoriously dysfunctional awnings that can properly block neither sun nor rain. Apart from them, also being recently constructed like the CIS, The Knolls’ classrooms are pristine. Yet, contrary to their STEM counterpart, their light grey cork walls, along with the dark grey carpeted floor and white ceiling tiles, creates a cozy mood that shows the warmth and romanticism of humanity as opposed to the colder vibe of STEM. Thanks to the cork wall, teachers can customize their classrooms using a few push pins on posters, making each classroom represent its teacher’s taste and the class taught there. Moreover, a dark gray floor, light gray walls, and white ceiling create a gradation of color, developing a sense of gravity where the light color rises up and the dark color settles down. It is obvious that these classrooms are carefully designed—except those awnings— so if you want to have some leisure or work time on campus, the Knolls are one of the top choices.

3. The Wang Science Center

Wang Science Center, as the name suggests, is for science classes and is split into two buildings: one below and the other next to the Knolls. The one below was built along with the Knolls, which makes them as pristine as the Knolls but also has the same dysfunctional awnings. While they provide excellent materials and space for learning, they are not accessible to students outside of class time for most of the time they are locked to prevent students from using them because of safety. When it rains, before the class sometimes students have to wait outside of the classroom for a teacher to open the door, and those awnings are not so helpful.

The other part of Wang Science Center does feel a bit worn out but still has interesting modern architecture, and its awning does provide practical shelter from sun and rain. Moreover, the garden full of succulent plants adjacent to buildings is one of the best on campus, although there are not so many gardens in Athenian. The best part of these buildings is that they have their own restrooms and water fountains, so instead of having to walk to other buildings, students can freely hydrate themselves and take care of their needs.

4. The Center For The Arts (CFTA)

The CFTA has the most unique classroom environment for their creek with gigantic trees—some alive, some lying dead—and their isolated location, which perhaps reflects the originality of art and its distinctiveness from other academic disciplines. It is the farthest building from all other buildings on campus, so one has to carefully calculate their travel time and make sure they take all of their items with them; otherwise, they will find themselves getting late to class or having to go all the way back to the CFTA to get their stuff and come all the way back. The building is also outworn, showing the length of time it has gone through. However, if one is looking for a place to spend their long free time, the CFTA is the best place to have a calm rest hearing the tranquil sound of the creek flowing and breathing the fresh air filtered by rich green lives.

5. Middlefield

There is nothing inherently wrong with Middlefield classrooms, but they are not as neatly organized as other classrooms. The combination of their color and structures feels like an impromptu compared to other buildings that show harmony among their aspects. This is understandable by the fact that they were installed as modules a long time ago and never taken away. It is also far from restrooms, which do provide a good opportunity for students to have a little more free time whenever going out for those excuses. Middlefield classrooms also have the widest—almost seemingly arbitrary—class range from Computer Science, English, History, Mathematics, and Photography, to Filmmaking. They are relatively close to the Main Hall, but more importantly, they have the student store right behind them which provides reliable food sources for hungry teenagers.

6. Orchard

The Orchard exclusively hosts math classes—except PE—so whenever one needs help with math this is a place to go where many math teachers and teaching assistants are always available. Orchard classrooms are the perfect average of Athenian classrooms because they are not as new and clean as the Knolls and the CIS but they are not as old and unrefined as Middlefield classrooms. Every March, the orange tree in front of classroom A flourishes with beautiful orange flowers, attracting not only butterflies but also biology students studying plant anatomy.

Senior Quenches Athenian's Thirst for Knowledge

There are many places to get water at Athenian. With so many choices, selecting the best water station to drink from is challenging. Each has advantages and disadvantages, but some are more advantaged than others. A good water station should be fast, clean, and provide cold water that has a decent aftertaste.

First up for consideration is the Courtside water station. It's a humble water cooler at the back entrance of the building. The most remarkable trait of this station is that the water has no aftertaste. In my experience, water usually tastes like something, whether it’s plasticky, metal-tinged, or suspiciously unidentifiable. However, Courtside water astonishingly tastes like nothing. The water cooler is relatively fast and dispenses water at an inoffensive room temperature. The only disadvantage of Courtside is that teachers frequently pass by and occasionally question what a student is doing so far from the more well-used water stations.

The Dase Center houses two water fountains in between the bathroom doors. This station doesn't put its best foot forward—the button to activate the fountains is slightly sticky, and I had to wonder how many people had touched it before me. The fountain produces a wavering stream, which is adequate for drinking but makes it difficult to fill a bottle. The water itself has a barely noticeable processed aftertaste.

The Commons has a sink with a small faucet apart from the main nozzle, almost as an afterthought. Its water has a strange taste that feels like it would give me a sore throat if I drank too much. It's slightly warmer than the other stations but decent for filling a bottle, as its arc is high and doesn't waver.

The Science buildings have two water coolers that are almost identical, except the left tastes slightly less plasticky than the right. The main advantage of this station is that it produces the only cold water in all of Athenian. Although it’s decidedly average in most other categories, its coldness makes the walk up to the Science buildings worthwhile during hot summer days.

The Main Hall is where most students frequently get their water. The two water stations in the lunch area are slow and plodding, but have minimal aftertaste. They’re also somewhat variable in temperature, sometimes randomly producing warm water. However, the easily accessible ice dispensers remedy this problem by allowing students to make their water cold.

Last are the Main Hall water fountains. These have the same sore throat-inducing aftertaste as the Commons. Otherwise, they're reliable and a very convenient option.

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.”

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.” 

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.”

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.”

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.”

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. 

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?

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.

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.”