Bulletin December 9, 2016 Volume 36, #15
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| Planning to Ski After School This Winter?
If you have not done so, please let John Schatz know by Monday (December 12) if your child will be participating in our Recreational Skiing or Friday Fun Ski programs this winter. For Recreational Skiing participants, please let him know whether you will be purchasing a season pass through The Academy or paying by the day.
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| Winter Concert - Thursday, December 15th Theatre 14, Mendenhall Center for Performing Arts, Smith College
From the Academy: Support our Local Food Pantries ~ Bring A Canned Good to the Concert
As we have done in the past, we will have donation bins at the entrances to the performance hall to collect non perishable goods to help those in need over the holidays. Along with your reception donation, please consider bringing an item to support this neighbor-to-neighbor effort. Thank you!
From the APC: Goodies Requested for Winter Concert Reception
As you know, our annual Winter Concert and Exhibit of Student Art are coming right up! We love to have cookies, popcorn, lemonade, seltzer, etc. to enjoy after the show with our talented and creative students and guests. The Academy Parents Council always organizes a wonderful reception and we hope all families will contribute. If you're able to bake or purchase something to bring that night, please do. We always have a big crowd (400 or so!), so all donations will be appreciated.
For Families: Concert DVD and Download Available
Tom Adams of Reelife Productions will once again be recording our Winter Concert. You can purchase a professionally-produced DVD or download of the event directly through his website by clicking here. Scroll all the way down for the order form.
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| Mount Snow Skiing Trip
On December 20, we are hoping to offer a group ski trip up to Mt Snow. A bus will leave The Academy at 8:30am and return at 5pm. The trip will be chaperoned by ski coach Jasper Kearsley. Adults are welcome. Tickets are $35 for students and $37 for adults. Please contact John Schatz by Friday, December 16 if you are interested. We need snow and a minimum of 6 skiers to make this trip happen.
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| THE ACADEMY GIVES BACK ~ PLEASE SUPPORT THESE EFFORTS
Before Winter Break, Academy families are invited to support two more Community Service Council efforts:
We have met our goal of collecting 50 warm winter coats (or snow pants) which will be donated to the Survival Center in Turners Falls. Let's try for 60! These should be washed and in good condition. As your children grow out of their jackets and snow pants, please consider passing them along to our neighbors in need through this project. The deadline is December 16.
The Mitten Tree is back! Each year we collect used or new, purchased or handmade hats, mittens, gloves and scarves and we donate them to the Recorder's Warm the Children drive. Donations can be hung on the tree in the library, and will be delivered to the Recorder after December 16.
(These projects are in addition to the collection of canned goods at the upcoming Winter Concert, to be donated to local food pantries.)
Thank you!
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| POLYGLOT
Our annual school-wide holiday celebration, Polyglot, falls directly before the winter break on December 16. All students are asked to contribute to the community dinner that we have during Polyglot. Below is a list of food and task assignments for each grade and a photo from Polyglot 2015. Contact Nora Bates Zale with any questions.
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| IN SEARCH OF ACADEMY FORKS AND SPOONS
As Polyglot approaches, we need every fork and spoon we can get in order to cover the whole school sit-down dinner. Please double-check your silverware drawers at home to see if there are any utensils that were mistakenly brought home, and send them back in. Thank you!
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| COLLEGE MEETING FOR JUNIOR CLASS PARENTS
DECEMBER 19, 6 PM
College Counselor Neale Gay will hold an initial meeting with parents of juniors in Grinnell Hall on Monday, December 19, at 6:00 PM. Specific students will not be discussed at this meeting, but rather he will offer a general overview of the college process. Please contact Mr. Gay individually with any student-specific questions to set up a time to meet in person or over the phone. He will be traveling a bit during winter break and is not available after December 19 and before January 2.
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| From the Desk of Dr. Bloomfield:Standing for Your Own Ideas
Recently, Ms. Tirk directed my attention to this article citing a Stanford University study on information sourcing, as it bemoans that young people today struggle to discriminate between fact and fiction. The article enters into a timely conversation at large about “fake news” and its role in the presidential election and in informing our citizenry. And even this incarnation is only a version of a long-standing criticism: many people (especially younger people) get their news from entertainment venues (such as The Daily Show) or from sources without evaluating the bias of that source prior to adopting the information as dogma.
What are we to make of this phenomenon? Well, we begin by accepting that our children have grown up in a post-postmodern world (as have most of us). What that means, in this case, is that there is no such thing as the Truth (note capital T), but instead there are multiple truths, shaped by our personal experiences and perspectives. In Ethics we ponder whether or not some action is actually “Good,” as in good for all people at all times. What is new to our world is that facts are now being interpreted through this personal lens and individuals feel free to accept or deny events.
This pattern, to my mind, is extremely dangerous as it allows everyone to believe that his/her own interpretation of events may be, in fact, true or real. And the result is then that there is no common fabric which binds us all together. Literally: we have nothing left to talk about. This pattern also makes it impossible for students to speak their minds on any topic because they lack a common set of facts or ideas to debate or discuss. British novelist Dorothy Sayers captured this problem eloquently almost 60 years ago:
For we let our young men and women go out unarmed, in a day when armor was never so necessary. By teaching them all to read, we have left them at the mercy of the printed word. By the invention of the film and the radio, we have made certain that no aversion to reading shall secure them from the incessant battery of words, words, words. They do not know what the words mean; they do not know how to ward them off or blunt their edge or fling them back; they are a prey to words in their emotions instead of being the masters of them in their intellects. (click here for full text of this excellent essay)
How do our children assert without discriminating? How do they tell fact or reality from fiction or fantasy? How can they resist being manipulated but be open to being persuaded? A classical education allows us to answer these questions, and remains the highest priority here at The Academy.
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| UPDATES FROM THE ACADEMY PARENTS COUNCIL (APC) Academy Parents Council (APC) Meeting Report
A great group of parents and school staff gathered in the library for the winter APC meeting last week. We had a wide-ranging discussion about this year' schedule, athletics, homework, and more. We also came up with some new ways for families to get together -- including an upcoming Progressive Dinner hosted by a group of Northampton Academy families, hangouts at Berkshire East on Friday nights this winter, and a 12/22 skating party at the Greenfield rink (see below). Minutes of the meeting will be posted on the APC page on the school website next week. - The Winter Concert & Art Show is in six days-- hooray! We need snacks and drinks for the reception to celebrate our young artists and musicians! Many thanks to Ann Hallenbeck P20 for being the reception point person -- please bring her your donations on your way into the show (NOT to be confused with the donations for the food pantry that you are also invited to bring!).
- Any interest in an Academy ice skating party? At the APC Meeting last week we discussed how fun it would be to go out skating together. Since many folks don't own skates, we talked about going to an Open Skate at one of the local rinks. Please join us on Wednesday, December 22 from 2-4 at the Collins-Moylan Rink in Greenfield. $5 to skate, $5 to rent skates. More information is available here:
There was also a lot of interest in skating on lakes when they freeze, and pickup hockey -- so if you know of a lake and are thinking of going over the winter, please consider sending out an email or an APC Facebook Page note to invite others!
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MELOS AT THE ACADEMY
Mr. Gay's 9th grade Humanities class has been studying ancient Greek rhetoric by using Thucydides' The History of the Peloponnesian War as a guide. As a class they analyzed Pericles' Funeral Oration from Thucydides, and also Thucydides' famous Melian Dialogue.
The tiny island of Melos is the setting for the dialogue. Here, Athens has surrounded the neutral Melos with its infantry, cavalry, archers, and navy. The Athenians have given the Melians an option: surrender to us and join our empire, or perish at the hands of our superior arms. The Melians try to appeal to the Athenians' better nature, but Athens persists in its insistence that the strong do as they will and the weak do as they must.
Mr. Gay's 9th grade broke into a group of Melians and a group of Athenians. Taking what they learned from class, they prepared the Melian Dialogue in their own words and presented it to the 8th grade, with the 8th graders acting as the citizens of Melos. The 8th graders then debated whether they wanted to submit to Athens. They decided that death was preferable to dishonor, just as the Melians did in 416 BCE!
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|  | The Arts and Culture Council at its annual international potluck luncheon. Members contributed foods from most continents. | |
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|  | Ben S-G and Henry W-W trying to connect with their reading of a García Márquez novel by making "carimañolas," a Colombian appetizer made with yucca and cheese. | |  | FRENCH IV students found goodies in their shoes left outside the classroom on Saint Nicholas Day, Dec. 6. | |
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| A LITTLE LUNCHTIME FUN
Organized by the seniors in the run up to Polyglot, all students and faculty members were invited to participate in a just-for-fun lunchtime lip sync celebration of holiday and other songs. Enjoy these brief clips!
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