Using privilege for service: reflections on 9th grade service learning day
Louise Kim
December 6, 2019
The day before my 9th grade Service Learning Day trip to the Ittleson Center on Nov. 14, 2019, I was filled with excitement as I thought back on my experiences with service learning in the Middle Division, including trips to the Mercy Center Carnival and New York Common Pantry. I wondered if my experience...
Bilingual benefits: Why you shouldn’t drop language
Amman Kejela
November 25, 2019
“I know what class I’m dropping!” That is the ubiquitous phrase that greeted me at the end of my junior year. Since students must take a class in each major subject for at least three years, senior year presents the first opportunity that many of us have to abandon a subject entirely. I’m not...
Vignettes of My Seeds Experience
Ermee Choudhury
November 25, 2019
6/28/19 (Second day of camp) Tense moment between a few girls in my bunk today. After meeting one another and uttering the words “Israel” and “Palestine” they quickly turned away to continue organizing their clothes, abruptly ending the conversation. The bunk was silent, even before lights out. 6/30/19 Today...
Exerpts of my Seeds of Peace journal reflecting on my American Identity
Jacob Shaw
November 25, 2019
6/26 I’m meeting the other kids (the people I’ll be eating, sleeping, and breathing next to for the next three weeks) tomorrow. Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, Egyptians, Indians, Pakistanis—and I’m American. [...] I might be one of the first Americans they’ve ever met. The United States’...
Approaching Diolague: How my experience with Seeds of Peace shapes how I approach conflict
November 25, 2019
In my years at Horace Mann, I always thought that the way we approach conflict was productive Whether it be in the classroom or in our extracurriculars, we look at facts, analyze them, and come to a clear, indisputable conclusion. We tackle logic and statistics and reasoning, but in doing so, we lose...
What STEPS means to me
Jessica Thomas
November 25, 2019
At Horace Mann, only about 5% of students identify as black. As one of the few, I wanted to use my experiences to help younger students. STEPS (Students Together Empowering People of Color Successfully), is a mentor program in which younger students of color are paired with high school mentors, who help...
Unity Week doesn’t require unity of thought
November 25, 2019
As Unity Week comes to a close, I am reflecting on its purpose and what diversity really means. In our modern times, diversity has become a game of counting, where an equal number of different groups of people in a room can simply give that room the label “diverse.” But is this method the most effective...
Found in translation: 在翻譯中找到
Harry Qiao
November 25, 2019
In China, taking English as foreign language is mandatory. I began learning English when I was in third grade, but by the end of eighth grade, I was still learning tenses. Though I could ace every single English test in China, the amount of English I knew was far less than the amount I needed to survive...
Independent Study: A chance to learn what I want
Charles Simmons
November 8, 2019
Last year, I wrote an opinion piece on the role that religion has played in my life and how central it is to my identity. This year, I have continued to explore the complex theme of religion and have even connected this with my love of English. For my senior year Independent Study, I chose my topic...
Religious holidays are for religious practice not academic pressure
November 8, 2019
Horace Mann’s policy on homework exemptions for religious holidays (or lack thereof) is seriously in need of improvement. It puts extreme pressure on religious students of all backgrounds and betrays our values of openness, equality, and respect. In essence, the current policy says that students...
Breaking down “back to the Bronx”
Nshera Tutu
October 25, 2019
When I saw the “Back to the Bronx” slogan emblazoned on the front of this year’s Homecoming shirt, my immediate reaction was surprise and confusion. Back to the Bronx implies that we left the Bronx, which is geographically inaccurate (contrary to widespread belief, Riverdale IS in the Bronx). After...
Hatred isn’t heroism: Forming bridges not barriers
October 25, 2019
I grew up in a predominantly Jewish environment. I attended Jewish day schools, am a regular and ardent advocate of my synagogue, and am known --for better or worse-- as a “Jewish” individual throughout the Horace Mann community. And just as my Jewish faith and practice have governed much of...
