After two weeks of Winter Break, a remote-learning week, a week-long delay in school activities, and plenty of asynchronous workouts, Pingry athletes are ready to return to the fields, courts, mats, and slopes. The Squash, Basketball, Ski, Hockey, and Fencing teams have all resumed practice and played their first games. Swimming and Winter Track began to practice on February 1st, and Wrestling starts on March 1st. All sports, regardless of the start time, have a competitive season of approximately one month.
Although Winter sports are back, they still bring a great deal of uncertainty. Ms. Carter Abbot, the Director of Athletics and Community Wellness, said, “Sports are operating from week to week as we’re evaluating the situation based on our testing, the state’s testing, and the different counties that we play sports in.” So then, how would athletics operate if there was an influx of COVID cases, causing Pingry to shut down for a long period of time?
Well, the situation is pretty complicated: athletics can either resume after school as they did in early November of 2020, or they can be completely canceled due to a high case count, which happened during the second remote week after Winter Break. The main reason why Fall sports were able to resume when Pingry went remote was that they were all outdoor sports. On the other hand, all Winter sports are indoors (with the exception of Winter Track). According to the CDC’s Youth Sports resource page, “indoor activities pose more risk than outdoor activities.”
In addition to considering the possible effect that a shutdown may have on athletics, it’s important to consider whether sports are important enough to be continued during the pandemic. A similar question was the subject of a Word in the Halls in the last issue of the Record. When asked again, JP Salvatore (IV) remained adamant on his opinion that sports should be resumed. He explained, “My opinion on this really hasn’t changed much. I will continue to say sports are essential to keep kids active, to give opportunities to kids dependent on their sport, and to maintain school spirit. I understand indoor sports are more of a concern, but without an audience the risk is limited.” But, some would argue against that, especially after COVID cases surged after the new year. In a telephone survey of 1,065 adults by NPR between December 1st and December 6th of 2020, thirty-six percent of those surveyed thought indoor sports should continue, fifty-eight percent thought indoor sports shouldn’t continue, and the final five percent were unsure. For many, the pros of having sports outways the cons of potentially contracting COVID. According to a Harvard Health article, exercise can “boost memory and thinking indirectly by improving mood and sleep, and by reducing stress and anxiety.” Sports may be even more crucial for remote students, as it could help with “Zoom fatigue”: the exhaustion that occurs after staring at a computer screen for long periods of time.
In summary, although there is no doubt that sports are beneficial for students, one must still consider their possible consequences. For the time being, however, it is important that athletes wear masks whenever possible, and we look forward to a future where people can once again play sports without pandemic-era concerns.
By Mehr Takakr (III) Mrs. Stephenson is new to Pingry this year as the associate athletic director on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) team. She will be the first athletic representative on the DEI Board, and her role will be to include more student/athlete perspective on decisions about the school.
Mrs. Stephenson received a Bachelors of Science in Sports Management from Delaware State University, and later attended DeVos Sport Business Management Program at the University of Central Florida to get her MBA and Masters in Sports Business Management. Before arriving at Pingry, Mrs. Stephenson also worked for the NFL in the player engagement department. There, she helped athletes determine what they wanted to do after their athletic career and guided them through the next steps to take. She also helped out with college athletics and worked at the Birmingham Crossplex.
Mrs. Stephenson grew up in Maryland and has family in New Jersey. She “loves being so close to home…which is one of the many things I love about this job.” She also enjoys working with younger people again and being able to impact their lives directly.
So far, she already loves Pingry and its “college-like” environment, noting that “it brings [her] back to when [she] was in college.” Moving forward, Mrs. Stephenson’s most important goals for this year include acclimating to the school and ensuring that students have the best experience possible. She is also helping to layout a framework through the DEI to ensure that all different types of people are included in athletics.
On February 3rd and 4th, sophomores and juniors participated in the preliminary round of the 2020 Robert H. Lebow Oratorical Competition. While the student body had the opportunity to watch the six finalists in the all-school assembly, they did not have the chance to hear all of the contestants perform their speeches and listen to their stories. All of the messages presented by the participants are important to the community, and as a result, excerpts from a few first-round speeches have been provided.
Brian Li: “The Neglect of Humanities in the 21st Century”
The humanities serve as the foundation for human civilization. They teach us how to think critically and creatively. They facilitate empathy and compassion. We communicate more clearly, understand cultural values, and are introduced to new perspectives through the humanities. Humanistic education has been the core of liberal arts since the ancient Greeks, challenging students through art, literature, and politics. The humanities bring clarity to the future by reflecting on the past. Perhaps most importantly, they allow us to explore and understand what it means to be human. We need, now more than ever, to be able to understand the humanity of others. And while STEM is undoubtedly beneficial for humankind, we cannot sustain the neglect of the humanities for much longer without suffering severe consequences. With revolutionary technology like AI and genetic engineering, the humanities are essential to ensure that we progress ethically and morally together.
Andrew Wong: “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?”
A question many of us in this room have heard in countless interviews, and yet it is a question that can reveal so much about ourselves. So, where will we be in 10 years? In 10 years, we will have found ourselves going through the entire college process and graduating from Pingry. We will go to and then graduate from college. We will have the rest of our lives splayed out in front of us, ready to grasp in our hands, as we enter the real world, ready to be the next generation of business people, engineers, doctors, lawyers, politicians, world leaders, and so much more. That answer seems pretty easy and straightforward, right? In reality, not so much.
Lauren Drzala: “An Uphill Battle”
As time went by, I was falling behind on work because I could not write at all, leaving me frustrated in school. In addition, my mental health was at an all-time low. I began to isolate myself, believing that no one could really understand how I was feeling. It was like I was falling and no one was there to catch me. On top of that, I was told I could not play my sport this winter, nor could I play the piano, an instrument that I have been playing since I was nine. I felt out of control and just had to watch the train wreck happen. I thought my friends had moved on so I tried to as well, but I just felt stuck. Left behind. I was in this mind set for a while, but it wasn’t until I realized that I could not give up on myself and settle for this empty feeling that my life started getting back on track. This triggered an uphill battle to try and climb my way out of the dark.
Aneesh Karuppur: “Straying from the Tune”
We are always told that “small steps will lead you to your goal” and “you won’t even know how much effort it really takes if you do it one step at a time.” But people forget that for this advice to work, you have to actually be looking at your feet and making sure that every step is in the right direction. Otherwise, you simply aren’t going to notice until you’re too far away from your goal to make a correction.
Justin Li ’21 is the Layout Editor of the Pingry Record. He joined as the digital editor for the Record’s new website during his sophomore year. While he has written articles in almost every section of the Record since then, he’s been drawn to exploring the teacher-student relationship at Pingry in his recent work. He finds great satisfaction in the seemingly tedious process of piecing together a page on inDesign and loves looking for new ways to keep the paper looking fresh. In his free time, he enjoys creative writing, playing the piano, and Taiko drumming.
By Noah Bergam (V), Justin Li (V), and Aneesh Karuppur (V) June 18, 2020 On the evening of June 11, the Pingry community received an email from Head of School Matt Levinson and the Board of Trustees confirming that Mr. Jake Ross was fired from The...
By Justin Li (V) In the last year-and-a-half, the departures of teachers such as Mr. Peterson, Ms. Taylor, and Mr. Thompson did not pass without controversy and speculation. Despite the uncertainty clouding most of these departures, it is undeniable that each one...
Eva Schiller ‘21 is a senior assistant editor for the Pingry Record. She has been writing since freshman year and editing since sophomore year. She most enjoys writing and editing opinion articles, as they add a uniquely Pingry perspective to the paper. Her favorite things to do include writing poetry, eating candy corn, and enjoying scintillating conversations with the rest of the Record Staff at grind meetings.
By Eva Schiller (V) When I heard of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's passing, I immediately took to Instagram. My first post was a simple black screen with white letters: "RIP RGB. A legend." Trust me, I know . . . In my haste, I had instead memorialized...
By Eva Schiller (VI) The Pingry College Counseling Office is thrilled to welcome Cynthia Santiago to their team! Mrs. Santiago graduated from Muhlenberg College in 2001, with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She later joined the Muhlenberg Admissions staff, where...
By Eva Schiller (VI) This year, the Lower School Faculty is welcoming Ms. Gabriela Reyes as a K-3 Spanish teacher! Ms. Reyes attended Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas, Venezuela, where she received a Bachelor’s Degree in Education. Since then, she has obtained...
By Eva Schiller On April 27th, in the midst of remote learning and stay-at-home orders, a few STEM-oriented Pingry students staved off quarantine boredom by participating in the Delbarton Digital Science Fair. Complete with expert judges, including IRT mentor Dr....
By Vicky Gu (VI), Meghan Durkin (V), and Eva Schiller (V) On Friday, January 31, Form V and VI students attended Pingry’s annual Career Day, in which they were able to interact with a wide variety of Pingry alumni and gain insight into future career...
Eva Schiller (V) As the new school year begins, Pingry is extremely fortunate to welcome Dr. Zachary Wakefield to the History Department. He attended Juniata College, where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in history. He then went on to earn his M.A. and Ph.D at Auburn...
Eva Schiller (V), Vicky Gu (VI), Meghan Durkin (V) Though the Pingry community has known his name for almost a year now, Mr. Matt Levinson has just begun his first academic year as our new Head of School. Following a five-month search and a unanimous vote from the...
By Eva Schiller '21 The girls’ ice hockey team, led by captains Clare Hall (VI) and Sophia Smith (VI), has powered through the season to finish with six wins and eleven losses. Despite having only thirteen members and facing large, competitive teams, the team has...
By Eva Schiller '21 On the first day of Chinese New Year, Quzhou(衢州), China, was filled with warmth and gaiety. School and work went on break as people returned home to their families and celebrated the coming of the new year. But for twelve students from Quzhou...
Aneesh Karuppur (’21) is a Copy Editor for the Record. He joined the staff in his sophomore year. He writes a regular Tech Column and contributes commentary on how the school can better the student experience. Aneesh enjoys reading about and debating technology, science, and current events. He plays the French Horn, viola, and violin.
By Aneesh Karuppur (VI) First, an update from the Pingry Student Technology Committee (STC) and its subsidiary projects. Starting this February, the Code Team, in which students program solutions to Pingry issues, is running a weekly workshop on different fundamental...
By Aneesh Karuppur (VI) For the latest issue of the Record, the Tech Column returns to cover all of the important tech updates that you should know! First, what’s going on in the Student Technology Committee (STC), Pingry’s student-run organization for the promotion...
By Aneesh Karuppur (VI) A few weeks ago, during a Morning Meeting announcement, Pingry laid out some preliminary norms for conduct during the election season. The main takeaway might have been the emphasis on civility and respectful discourse, goals to which we...
By Aneesh Karuppur (VI) Some time back, I wrote a commentary regarding AP-designation courses at Pingry, and how Pingry ought to consider phasing them out. Given the events of the past few weeks, I would like to update that message: I feel that it is now...
By Aneesh Karuppur (V) In late May, the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minnesota policemen triggered a mass movement across the nation (and eventually the world) in support of Black Lives Matter. The Record previously detailed some of the earlier...
By Aneesh Karuppur (V) A few weeks ago, I got to participate in my first Pingry Career Day; I found it to be just what I expected. The alumni were engaging, knowledgeable, and insightful, and my only complaint was that I didn’t get to spend enough time with them....
The Pingry boys’ swim team, led by captains Reid McBoyle (VI) and Will Stearns (VI), is looking forward to what they hope will be another dominant season. Following an undefeated 2018-2019 season, training for the upcoming season is in full swing. After the academic day ends, the pool is filled with Pingry swimmers undertaking sets of various pace, distance, and stroke, which usually total about 3000 meters. The intervals Head Coach Steve Droste and Coach Kevin Schroedter set ensure that every swimmer is consistently pushed to their limit.
McBoyle, who says that he’s “really excited for this season,” believes that this year’s squad is “a strong team with a lot of depth and the potential for another very successful season.” Their goals are the same as last year: win the Skyland Conference Championship, Prep Championships, and Meet of Champions against other strong teams, including Delbarton and Pennington. In addition to their success at meets, the swimmers want to continue filling the record board with new names and maintain Big Blue’s status as one of the best teams in the state.
This year, the Pingry Drama Department performed the play Our Town for its annual fall production, holding performances on November 7th and 9th. Written by Thornton Wilder and directed by Mrs. Stephanie Romankow, the play follows the life of Emily Webb and George Gibbs. These two neighbors experience everything together: growing up, falling in love, and eventually dying. The play is set in a small town called Grover’s Corners in New Hampshire. It explores the seemingly mundane activities in life, and how the small details of the world are what make it worth living. A play within a play, this show is narrated by eight stage managers: Corbey Ellison (VI), Nina Srikanth (VI), Lily Arrom (V), Alex Kaplan (V), Adelaide Lance (V), Sydney Stovall (V), Natalie DeVito (IV), and Ram Doraswamy (VI). As these narrators open and close the show, they leave the audience with a warm feeling of nostalgia, as well as the realization that each moment is instrumental making one’s life unique and beautiful.
Act I begins in Grover’s Corners, as the audience observes a typical morning for the Gibbs’ and Webbs’ families. Mrs. Gibbs (Cal Mahoney, V) tries to stop her children, George (Stuart Clark, VI) and Rebecca (Charlotte Schneider, IV), from fighting. Her husband, Dr. Gibbs (Josh Thau, VI), returns from an early morning call. Meanwhile, Mrs. Webb (Sonia Talarek, VI) makes sure her children, Emily (Helen Baeck-Hubloux, VI) and Wally (Ronan McGurn, III), exhibit good table manners. Their father, Mr. Webb (Jonathan Marsico, V), is at work. Act I allows the audience a glimpse into the daily life of a Grover’s Corners resident.
Act II is centered around George and Emily’s wedding. This includes a flashback of when both characters realized they were meant to be with one another; after a long talk over ice cream sodas in Mr. Morgan’s (Lily Arrom, V) drugstore, they admitted their feelings for one another and decided to get married soon after their high school graduation. The act ends with a captivating wedding celebration.
The play transitions into Act III, which takes the audience through Emily’s sudden death during childbirth. As she joins the world of the dead, she realizes just how much she loved being alive and spending time with family and friends. The audience joins her as she revisits her 12th birthday and reflects on how fast life truly goes by.
The performances were the culmination of two strenuous months of rehearsals and set building, and they showcased the efforts of over 50 students. Along with Mrs. Romankow and head stage manager Lindsay Cheng (VI), new faculty members Mr. Joseph Napolitano and Ms. Emma Barakat were heavily involved in the production. Ms. Baraket played the crucial role of head carpenter. Mr. Napolitano, who was the lead set designer, greatly enjoyed his first Pingry production. He described Our Town as “a true example of collaboration, and the perfect first project for [him] to work on at Pingry.” Reflecting on the past few months, he adds: “Working with the design & tech crew, Mr. Van Antwerp, and Mrs. Romankow was a joy. I believe all of our work blended together in a delightful way.”
Mr. Napolitano was not the only one to note the production crew’s strong sense of community. Adelaide Lance remarked that “[The show] was amazing! We’re truly all one big family.” For some, however, the fall play marked the beginning of the end. Stuart Clark, having completed his final fall play, reminisces about acting at Pingry: “It was all so special. The Drama Department has given me a lot over my four years at Pingry. I’m really grateful that I had the opportunity to act alongside people that mean a lot to me.”
“What’s even the point of history class? Nothing actually matters now.”
Last year, I took the World History 9 course, a survey of “history from the emergence of civilization in ancient Mesopotamia to the Age of Exploration.” I thought it was a fascinating class, but evidently, at least one other student didn’t share my sentiments. I’ve heard people call it “boring” or “not important” due to the “ancient” part of this ancient history class. Could a change of the time period remedy this issue?
The history curriculum at our school is now undergoing a complete overhaul, which began this school year. The first remake has been for World History 9, which now covers the years 1200-1914. Next year, World History 10 will pick up from the year 1900 and end in 2001. When asked about the reason behind removing ancient history from the curriculum, History Department Chair Dr. Jones said, “more modern history seems to resonate with students more, and we wanted to get students interested in the study of history, while ancient history, especially philosophy, doesn’t have as much resonance with students.”
Ancient history can seem boring or unimportant to some people, as what happened so long ago seems too far away to affect our lives. Written history was scant, leaving historians to search in vain for the next clue to unlock the secrets of an ancient empire. Modern history is much more recent and relevant to the present day because its revolutions and wars have shaped our lives. We can see the effects that specific events have caused, which can cause students to feel that modern history is much more important and pertinent. Students then may be more interested in modern history, increasing the amount of engagement and activity in class.
However, the revised World History 9 and previous World History 10 curriculums overlap significantly this year, with both courses essentially offering the same material as implementing two new courses within the same year is nigh impossible. Ancient history has been removed from the high school history curriculum, leaving students without the foundational knowledge of civilization and how the Western world rose to power.
Modern history is extremely relevant and is crucial to learn, but I believe that we cannot simply push ancient history to the side. The complexity of modern European history is extremely challenging and demands a thorough understanding. Without a foundational knowledge of how the West became the dominant power, students may not fully comprehend Europe’s reign of dominance and the events that occurred during this time.
Another key issue to consider is Eurocentrism, which is a major concern facing both teachers and students. From my experience in the now-defunct World History 9, the class did not overly focus on one specific country or continent; instead, it provided a broad but thorough explanation of early history. Indeed, according to its class description, the course focused on “developments in the Middle East, the ancient Mediterranean, Asia, Africa, pre-Columbian America, and medieval Europe, culminating with the European Renaissance and Reformation and the beginnings of the modern world.” In contrast, my experience in World History 10 so far is one that is primarily centered around Europe or the Western world. The revised World History 9 course now begins with the Mongol civilization, the bridge between the East and West, so freshmen will not be exposed to the many non-European civilizations, such as Mesopotamia, that preceded this era. Therefore, this Eurocentrism, or absence of the history of certain key regions and civilizations, may lead students to believe that Europe was always the dominant continent throughout history.
Fortunately, the History Department is working towards preventing the freshman history course from being too Eurocentric, with an explicit focus on the global aspect of World History.
The revised history curriculum is also beneficial in allowing students to pursue a more specialized education. Speaking on why the ancient history sections were removed, Dr. Jones said, “it’s always a struggle between depth versus breadth; if you cover a ton, can you study anything in-depth? It’s a constant struggle.” By removing ancient history, students will most likely have one more year or semester to take focused courses on specific topics, such as Asian History. This is a tremendous opportunity to learn something in-depth, once again going back to the depth versus breadth conflict. For those of us that truly are passionate about ancient history, an elective course on the topic can be created. This elective would cover the same time period as the old World History 9 course but in much greater detail. Therefore, students that are enthusiastic about this subject will have the chance to learn what they love, further increasing the engagement and involvement in history.
History is a subject that requires active student engagement. Despite my captivation with ancient history, I understand that many other students simply weren’t interested in the old World History 9 course.
Is ancient history necessary? I’m not sure, but I’m willing to put it aside for the benefit of all. Maybe it’s time we focus on the future instead of the past.
Last year, my history teacher started the year with a thought experiment. He told our class, “History is irrelevant. If the only reason why we learn history is not to repeat the mistakes of the past, then in today’s world, it is useless and everything you learn in this class is irrelevant. You’re much better off taking useful subjects like science and math.”
I was taken aback by this statement. History has always been one of my favorite subjects, and I have always enjoyed learning about various civilizations and how past events have shaped the world today.
Now, I was told, by a history teacher, that the subject I loved the most was useless. It was being slowly replaced by new cutting edge STEM subjects. In a similar vein, at the beginning of my English class this year, we discussed the waning role of English and other humanities subjects in our modern world, especially as STEM subjects take center stage in schools.
STEM is incredibly important in our world today, and it is crucial that students learn these types of skills in order to have success in our modern world. Pingry has recognized the importance of STEM subjects and has successfully created a comprehensive science curriculum, which teaches students everything from the mechanisms of cancer to advanced physics. Research opportunities also offer Pingry students access to cutting edge science, whether it be through their science classes, the molecular biology research class, or the many IRT projects offered. Pingry’s technology labs are also similarly well equipped, with brand new laser cutters, 3D printers, and VR tech.
Needless to say, Pingry’s investment in STEM has paid off. Pingry was ranked by Newsweek as 150th out of the top 500 STEM schools across America. Although this is great news for Pingry, much of this success has come at the expense of the humanities.
In our STEM driven world, the humanities still play an important role in the development and growth of human society. It was humanities that brought our civilization out of the Dark Ages and into the Renaissance with the re-discovery of Ancient Greek and Roman teachings. Humanities allow us to understand ourselves better and teach individuals how to think creatively and critically. Whether it is poetry or the arts, humanities allow us to learn more about the human condition. That is something STEM cannot do.
Pingry’s efforts to make sure humanities are just as important as STEM subjects have been successful this year. With the expansion of HIRT, humanities at Pingry are being refreshed. HIRT serves as a means for students to apply techniques learned from STEM subjects to humanities, which brings a fresh perspective to humanities at Pingry. New groups this year include Russian Literature, Gentrification in Jersey City, and many more new and exciting projects. As a member of the Children’s Literature HIRT, I have so far enjoyed this new approach to humanities, and together with my group, I have conducted intensive research into altruism in young children using stories collected from lower schoolers at Short Hills.
This new fusion of STEM and Humanities is an excellent model of how humanities can be taught to students effectively in the 21st century. By combining both techniques learned from STEM fields and applying them to humanities, this can be an effective way of teaching students the value of humanities through a new lens.
At the end of my freshman year, we did an exercise in my history class where we again discussed the purpose of studying history and other humanities subjects. My class decided that humanities are important because they enable us to understand other people and cultures through learning about the human condition and people’s experiences. Whether it is reading stories or poems, learning about history, or making art, humanities allow us to learn about what makes us human, and helps us discover the accomplishments of the past, understand the world we live in, and arms us with the tools to build the future. The importance of humanities cannot be forgotten as we move deeper into this century, and I applaud Pingry’s steps to teach humanities to students in a cutting edge and modern way.
