The Park School

The PostscriptBrooklandville, MD Volume LXVApril 22, 2005 Issue No. 8

by Laura Gordon ’05

Bursts of color explodedacross the Meyerhoff stage asthe cast of Two Gentleman ofVerona began its opening num-ber. The spring musical, whichhit the stage April 14-16, wasdirected by Upper School En-glish teacher Howard Berkowitz.

Verona, a rock musical basedon Shakespeare’s play, centersaround a complicated tangle ofrelationships, addressing ques-tions of friendship, family,honor, and romance.

Verona opened with a rousingall-cast number entitled “Sum-mer, Summer.” The cast,adorned in brightly colored out-fits, proclaimed, “I love mymother, I love my sister, I lovemy mirror…I want to tellthem!”

Love is the focal point of theplay. The theme’s first appear-ance occurs when Proteus(Michael Levy ’06) confesses hislove for Julia (Sam Mehlman’05) to his power-hungry bestfriend Valentine (Noah Carver

’05) who can’t seem to under-stand Proteus’s whimsicalways. Julia refuses Proteus un-til Cupid (Lewis Brant ’06)sprinkles love dust on her andthe once heartless girl falls inlove with her admirer. Unfor-tunately, Proteus, along with theother male characters, mustleave for Milan. The new love-birds exchange rings and vow tostay true to one another.

Meanwhile, in Milan, theDuke (Michael Roswell ’07) isshipping men off to a seeming-ly meaningless war and weddinghis daughter Silvia (Kate Sachs’05) to Thurio (Adam Rogers

’06). Upon arrival, Valentinefalls in love with Silvia, “meta-morphosing” into acompassionate and love-strick-en man.

Back in Verona, Julia, preg-nant with Proteus’s child,decides to tell her lover in per-son. Julia and her best friendLucetta (Lauren Rubin ’06) ven-ture to Milan dressed as men,(hence the title “Two Gentle-men”) for ladies were notallowed to travel. She arrivesonly to find Proteus already inlove with the flirtatious Silvia.

The plot gets stickier and theweb more tangled as lovers

Two Gentlemen of Verona rocks around Shakespeare

In the most recent falloutstemming from budget cuts fornext year, the Upper School His-tory and English departmentswill send one each of their fac-ulties to other divisions to teachpart-time.

Upper School History teach-er and Department chair JonAcheson will cover one sectionof seventh grade history andteach one less section of UpperSchool History. To accommo-date the change, the HistoryDepartment will reduce thenumber of ninth grade sectionsto five from six, increasingclass size to about 16 from ap-proximately 13. Acheson alsonoted that, “the cost of myteaching in the Middle School isthat 11 students who wanted totake AP European history willnot be able to. They’ll have tosign up for other electives.”

Part-time Upper School En-glish teacher Susan Asdourianwill, without additional compen-sation, teach an additional class:

by Ben Hyman ’06

US lends faculty to MS

overlap, and power and revengebecome soaked into the story.Verona wraps up with Valentineand Sylvia together, and Juliaand Proteus reunited.

The production included clas-sic Shakespearean languageinterspersed with modern En-glish and Spanish. “Because it’sShakespeare, Howard madesure we had a good grasp of themeaning behind the lines so weunderstood what we were say-ing,” noted Ezra Miller ’06, whoplayed Launce, Proteus’ servant.

The music of Verona was di-rected by Upper School Musicteacher Adele Dinerstein, whocoached the actors and con-ducted the pit orchestra. Parkparent Pam Bennet designed thecostumes, and Dahlia Silberg ’05choreographed the performance.Upper School art teachers Car-olyn Sutton and John Trout, theSet Design class, and the TechCrew helped with the set. AlexTrazkovich ’06 provided lightingand Joe Rosenberg ’06 acted asSound Designer. RachelBerkowitz ’07 stage managedthe production.

According to Miller, “Every-one was perfectly cast. Therewas a great dynamic between allof the characters.” SophomoreLiz Gauvey-Kern noted, “Whenit came down to crunch time,everyone was really there. Idon’t think any other productionhad this much love.”

Upper School English teach-er Rachelle Work commentedthat Verona was “very lively andenergetic. There was always

movement and color on thestage.” She also noted the“spectacular voices,” which“brought the music to a new lev-el in Park productions.”

The next production will bethe ninth grade’s As You Like Itin the Black Box directed by Pe-ter King. Berkowitz will directthe fall musical Working.

After a successful trial in thesemifinals against Beth T’filohMarch 10, the Park Mock Trialteam lost to Owings Mills in thecounty finals on April 7, 98-101,ending its bid for a second statetitle in two years.

The final match, held at theOld County Courthouse, beganat 7 p.m. and ran past 10 p.m..As it had for its previous threematches, Park represented theprosecution in the case State ofMaryland v. Alex Goldman.Coach and Upper School teach-er Tina Forbush and AssistantCoach Prescott Gaylord werehonored along with the studentsin a ceremony that followed thetrial.

This year, the Mock Trialcase was a criminal one inwhich Alex Goldman, sixteen,was charged with three countsof vehicular manslaughter. Thefictional case revolved aroundthe events of July 4, 2004 in thetown of Beakersville, MD. Ac-cording to the facts of the case,

Maestro Leon Fleisher’s visitfilled the Upper School withhumor, wisdom and music. Seearticle on p. 3

Mock Trial team drops out in finalsGoldman, who had gotten his/her (all witnesses have unisexnames so they can be played bya boy or girl) driver’s license justtwo weeks before, offered aride to four friends, Kris Kelley,David Johnson, Jennifer Ham-mond, and Jeffrey Brown, afterconsuming alcohol at a poolparty that afternoon.

While on the highway, Gold-man was distracted by thedancing of his/her passengers aswell as by the music which theywere blasting. Estimates for themaximum speed he/she reachedranged from 70 to 85 mph in a55 mph zone.

After reaching his/her maxi-mum speed, Goldman took his/her eyes off the road and, be-fore he/she had turned backaround, his/her car jumped themedian and went straight intooncoming traffic where itslammed into another car, driv-en by Thomas McCally.

As a result of the accident,Hammond and Brown, both 16,as well as McCally, 22, died.Goldman was charged for their

deaths.During each trial, both the

prosecution and the defense hadthree lawyers and three witness-es.

Adam Rogers ’06, Whit Co-hen ’05, and Ezra Miller ’06played prosecution witnessesKris Kelley, a passenger in thecar, Sam Gilchrist, an eye wit-ness, and Trooper Jesse Zeigler,an officer who reconstructedthe accident, respectively. Ear-lier in the year, Cat Early ’08played the part of Gilchrist. VeraEidelman ’05, who gave theopening statement, Brad Mendel-son ’06, and Allie Brandt ’06,who gave the closing statement,presented the prosecution’s caseduring the final trial. AlexisGreen ’07 and Ben Weinstein’06 had also been lawyers forthe prosecution earlier in theyear.

Park’s defense team wascomprised of witnesses DahliaSilberg ’05, Joe Rosenberg ’06,and Cohen and lawyers ZachGidwitz ’05, Brandt, and Men-delson.

a section of Middle School Vi-sual Arts. This pushes hercourse load from two to threeclasses. Asdourian was one ofthe few part-time teachers whodid not lose her job in the recentlayoffs. Also, English teacherand K-12 Writing Center Coor-dinator Kevin Coll will increasehis course load to four classes,preserving the number of sec-tions of English to be offerednext year.

By Eric Gottlieb ’06

A. Rogers ‘06 dances with K. Sachs ‘05

(Top) M. Levy ‘06 and S. Mehlman‘05 as Proteus and Julia (Bottom)L. Brant looks on as cupid.

photos by D. Golaner ‘96

drawing by C. Hankin ‘06

E. Miller ‘06 sings to Spice.

Page 2April 22, 2005The PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe Postscript

by Laura Gordon ’05

U.S. Committee evaluates assessment

The current budget deficit andresulting personnel cuts willforce some changes for courseofferings next year, but, accord-ing to the department chairs, theoverall curriculum will basicallyremain intact.

The biggest changes will oc-cur in History. Currently, thereare 18 sections of requiredcourses in the department, butnext year, there will only beenough staffing for 16. The ma-jor question for the HistoryDepartment next year will beelectives. Civil Liberties andCriminal Law always fill up,and Department Chair JonAcheson is confident that thenew Economics class will bepopular as well. The History De-partment hopes for three otherelectives to have sufficient en-rollment, including APEuropean History. Acheson fearsthat almost all of the electivesare social studies courses rath-er than more factually basedclasses. This means that seniorswho are looking for a standardhistory course but have alreadyexhausted the required courseswill not be able to take the kindof class they want. He encour-ages those who like a classichistory class to take either APEuro or Irish History and Liter-ature, a new course which willbe co-taught by Upper SchoolHistory teacher Peter Warrenand Upper School English teach-er Kirk Wulf. The course willhave elements of both an Englishand a History course, and willserve as a credit for either de-partment.

Team-taught classes havebeen successful in past years,and, as a result, there is an in-crease in the number of suchclasses proposed for the ’05-’06 academic year. UpperSchool English teacher KevinColl hopes to offer an Englishcourse for AP French students

that would culminate in a trip toParis, similar to his 2004 Apart-ment class. Upper SchoolEnglish teacher HowardBerkowitz and Upper SchoolMath teacher Tony Asdourianare developing an idea for a phi-losophy course entitled Theoryof Knowledge. Upper SchoolEnglish teacher Patti Porcarelliand Upper School Spanishteacher Ileana Imhoff are work-ing together on Literature ofImmigration, a class whichwould take a trip to Guatemala.Coll is also working with UpperSchool Theater Director PeterKing on Shakespeare’s TwelfthNight, a course similar to lastyear’s Tempest and this year’sAs You Like It.

Enrollment in a double coursehas to count for two courseswhich could lead to more than25 students in a class.

Budget issues are not the onlyreason for change. The mathdepartment is reworking somecourses for philosophical rea-sons. The Advanced Placement(AP) Calculus BC course willbecome Advanced Calculus.The course will not be driven bythe syllabus of the AP, but willinstead contain what the teach-ers consider interesting material.

Calculus is not the main fo-cus of mathematics collegecourses. Most college levelcourses involve abstract algebraand the other math electives.This year, after the departmentannounced the switch from APto Advanced, there were sixstudents who wrote on the de-partment survey that theywanted to take the higher-levelelectives rather than AdvancedCalculus. Last year, only onestudent decided not to take BCafter AP AB. The math depart-ment wanted students to take acourse they liked, not a coursebecause it was an AP. AP willstill be available to students whowant to take on some extrawork.

by Julian Charnas ’07

Departments introducenew classes next year

US Admissions keeps classrooms fullby Ben Hyman ’06

photo by S. WeintraubJ. Kessinger and M. McGill discuss assessment strategies.

A committee of students andfaculty has been meeting to dis-cuss the role of assessment atPark. The Upper School cur-rently gives letter grades, whichgo on a student’s final transcriptand are sent to college as a rep-resentation of the student’sacademic achievement.

For years, members of thecommunity have been consider-ing the inconsistency betweengrades and the philosophy,while recognizing that gradesare a crucial part of the sortingprocess for college.

At an assembly last year, Up-per School English teacherKevin Coll proposed assessmentwithout grades, which wouldbe “more revealing than just aletter.” The assembly sparkedinterest about assessment, andthis year a committee wasformed.

Upper School principal MikeMcGill approached the Boardof Trustees to see if it wasworth visiting the issue or if theexecutive committee would re-ject any alternative plans. TheBoard gave a go ahead to thediscussion.

The assessment committee isconcerned not only with theoverall concept of grades, butalso with their current purposeat Park. A rubric is distributedwith each report card that out-lines what every graderepresents. According to theschool’s Program of Studies, an“A” is given to a student who“has shown a mastery of theskills, facts, and concepts in thecourse and the capacity to ap-ply and critically examine thisknowledge with a sense of re-finement and complexity,” whilea “B” means that the student“has shown strong competencein study skills and a sound graspof the facts and concepts in thecourse.”

Currently 88 to 90 percent ofgrades given at Park are A’s andB’s. The committee is consid-

ering whether to rewrite gradedescriptions. “Out of the 45percent of grades that are A’s,only 10 percent hit the standardsof an A as far as mastery. Werecognize the distillation thatgoes on,” notes McGill.

While there are some schoolsthat function without letter

grades, the absence of a famil-iar grading system could affectstudents in the college process.“When admissions officers areonly given 5 minutes to readeach file, they’re not going tohave time to read every singlecomment,” says McGill. Co-lumbia University, among othercolleges, requires five SAT 2’sif a school does not assigngrades. “There would have tobe more of an emphasis onstandardized tests,” says McGill,“and we would not opt for asystem that’s too hard on thestudents.”

The committee workedthrough February looking atschools that assess studentswithout resorting to lettergrades. “Our conclusion,” stat-ed McGill “is that it’s politicallyexhausting to go to no grades,even though it would be better.”

Currently the group is consid-ering an alternative grading scalewith three separate categories:mastery, capacity for growth,

and self-awareness in learning.At the next meeting, Coll willbring in a model report card ex-plaining those three categories.

“The committee has crossdepartmental representationwith a broad array of attitudesthat are not necessarily all anti-grade,” says McGill. Upper

School History teacher and Col-lege Guidance counselor TinaForbush is concerned with howstudents will be affected in thecollege process.

The committee consists ofColl, Forbush, McGill, Tony As-dourian (Math), Nancy Fink(Modern Language), JohnKessinger (History), Julie Rog-ers (Science), John Trout (Art),David Al-Ibrahim ’05, AllieBrandt ’06, and Ben Weinstein’06.

Coll said, “I’m really excitedto be having this conversation,and the meetings are stimulating.I’m going to push really hard inmy direction, realizing we prob-ably won’t go there, though acertain amount of negotiation ispossible and inevitable.”

The committee does not havean official timeline and plans tocontinue meeting throughout theduration of the school year.“This is an important discussionwhich will impact what kind ofplace Park is,” explained Coll.

The admissions season forUpper School was a busy one.With at least 18 new studentsfor next year, the school hasguaranteed continuation of bus-tling hallways filled with the bestand brightest the area has to of-fer.

“This is my first year doingAdmissions at Park, said Direc-tor of Upper School AdmissionMennette San-Lee. “I’m verypleased with the applicant pool.It reflects a wide range ofschools, and the quality of thestudents is excellent.”

The Admissions process,

which begins in October and isjust winding down, comprisesfour parts: inquiries, applica-tions, acceptances andenrollments. For the UpperSchool, 224 inquiries brought96 applicants to grades nine to11, 40 acceptances, and 18 en-rollments to date. Since nextyear’s tenth grade is alreadyfilled, Admission could not ac-cept any of the applicants to thatgrade. Tuition next year for Up-per School will be $19,150.

Competition for spots in Up-per School is tough because ofthe large number of Park’s ownrising 8th graders. Spaces avail-able to outside students were

limited, and therefore, “the num-ber of students accepted doesnot actively reflect the numberof highly qualified applicants wehad,” said San-Lee. “Many stu-dents were wait-listed in eachgrade, all of whom would makewonderful additions to our stu-dent body.”

New students for the 2005-2006 school year will representthe following schools: BaltimoreHebrew Country Day, BaltimoreSchool for the Arts, DumbartonMiddle, Glen Elg Country Day,Jemicy, Krieger Schechter, Ro-land Park Middle, St. JamesAcademy, and Wilde Lake Mid-dle.

UN clubs meet in D.C.Eleven students traveled to

D.C. Thursday April 7 to takepart in an intense four-dayWashington Area Model UnitedNations Conference (WA-MUNC) at George WashingtonUniversity.

The conference began withopening ceremonies held Thurs-day afternoon. Charles Blake, arelief worker for the AmericanRed Cross, spoke of his experi-ences working in the tsunamidevastated areas of SoutheastAsia. That evening, the dele-gates began their first committeesessions, each of which simu-lated a different United Nationscommittee. During the week-

end, each delegate attended fiveadditional committee sessionswhich ran as long as fourhours, where they discussed amyriad of issues and settledthem with eloquent resolutions

Unlike other conferences thatthe Model UN Club has attend-ed in which sessions were heldat a single hotel, the WAMUNCmeetings were dispersedthroughout the GW campus.

In addition to participating insessions, students explored theD.C. area and attended a dele-gate dance. “I learned a lot fromthe interesting people that Imet,” said Maddie Macks ’08,who attended the conference.

NEWS

Page 3 April 22, 2005The PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe Postscript

Leon Fleisher shows brilliance in music, wisdom and witby Julian Charnas ’07and Susan Weintraub, Faculty

During Resident Scholar LeonFleisher’s visit March 9, hecombined his renowned musicaltalent with an engaging speakingstyle, beginning the assemblywith a joke and keeping themood of the entire presentationlight. A former Park School par-ent—son Julian graduated in1984—Fleisher had no troubledeveloping an immediate rapportwith the audience while hespoke of his lifelong connectionto the piano. As promised, themaestro played two pieces, onefor two hands, and one for lefthand, the format he would laterrefer to as a “concert for threehands.”

Fleisher was introduced to pi-ano-playing at age four and tooklessons from a “local prodigy-maker” in San Franciso. “Thelesson wasn’t a good lesson un-til he made you cry,” heexplained. In the 1930s, Fleish-er studied with Artur Schnabelin Lake Como, Italy, “now madefamous by George Clooney andhis ‘pack’,” he said.

Schnabel sent Fleisher on hisway at age 19, and for severalyears, the young man worked

on catching up on things he hadmissed while studying piano. Hediscovered girls and, “practicedless and chased more.”

When the U.S. InformationAgency recruited pianists for the1952 Queen Elizabeth of Bel-gium competition in hopes thatan American would beat a Rus-sian, Fleisher entered and won,renewing his career. By 1964,a debilitating condition (nowknown as focal dystonia) of hisright hand, changed his life.Fleisher concentrated on pianoworks for the left hand, con-ducted, and taught for the next30 years until the developmentof Botox injections for his con-dition enabled him to play withtwo hands.

After Fleisher’s speech, onestudent asked, “When you werefinally able to use your righthand again, could you do it?”Fleisher responded: “I tried myright hand everyday for 30 yearsjust to see if it would work be-cause the problem came on insuch a mysterious manner. Bythe time Botox came along, Iwas ready.”

Today, Fleisher is on theboard of a foundation that ad-dresses medical conventions,music teachers, and students on

the dangers of over-playing. Hecompared music to sports.“Athletes stretch. Nobody tellspiano players or fiddle players tostretch.”

After lunch, Fleisher presid-ed over two master classes.Ben Starr ’07, Mara Irwin ‘06,Paul Hobbs ‘08, Marta Dain ‘07and Ben Guo ‘08 played chal-

During the 2002-2003 aca-demic year, Park instituted adrastically-altered Upper Schoolschedule. The schedule is nowup for evaluation. When theschedule was changed, UpperSchool Principal Mike McGillpromised that the schedulewould be evaluated and thatchanges could be made. To givethe schedule a fair trial, threeyears had to pass before theevaluation.

Prior to the change, eachclass was held four times aweek rather than two to three,X-block was shorter and stu-dents had different lunchperiods. Students had the abili-ty to take seven classes ratherthan the six they can take now.Classes ran for 45 minutes.Now, they range in length from60 to 90 minutes.

The primary goals of thechange were to decrease theamount of homework studentshad per night and to slow downthe pace of the day. The sched-ule also allowed students toparticipate in Park Singers with-out forcing them to give up ablock.

Some of the change’s conse-quences were negative. UpperSchool Principal Mike McGillnoted, “When we created thisschedule, we took careful con-sideration not to eliminateopportunities in the old schedule

by Tony DeMarco ’08

Group reviews schedulethat we felt were critical to theschool’s mission. One of themwas ample time for co-curricu-lar activities. There is growingconcern on the part of manyfaculty, supported by a recentsurvey of faculty activity advis-ers, that activities aresignificantly under-enrolled.”

Another problem is that, dur-ing G-block, approximately 60percent of the school is eitherdoing homework or just hang-ing out.

Further changes are beingproposed. The faculty has beenthinking about taking some freetime away on Wednesday andusing it for a fourth class.Currently, classes rotate in fre-quency from occurring two tothree times per week. Thisfourth class would be one of thethree classes which only occurtwice that week and it would ro-tate every time.

A committee to discuss thenew schedule meets regularly.Members include Upper Schoolteachers Greg Brandt,Raymonde Arseneau, JohnKessinger, Adele Dinerstein, Pe-ter King, Bill Tabrisky, ElliottHuntsman, Kim Baylis, andMcGill. Last week in advisory,the group issued a survey ask-ing for feedback. Becauseseniors experienced the firstschedule as freshmen, there wasan addendum for seniors. Thecommittee welcomes studentfeedback.

Many new X-block activitieshave surfaced this school year,including the Arctic club, the Al-gebra club, GUTS, and Maps.The Ski Club kicked off duringImmersion Week and is not cur-

rently connected with theschool, but according to EricaGelb ’05, who initiated the Im-mersion Week activity and nowruns the club, next year it hopesthat the school will support itsski trips.

Although GUTS was startedlast year, co-head Adam Rogers’06 noted, “It wasn’t organized,just a bunch of people hanging

by Tony DeMarco ’08

New activities expand X offerings

lenging pieces for the maestroand a small audience. Fleishersat patiently, reading the musicand humming along. After eachperformance, he focused onvarious passages or techniques,providing useful guidance andcommentary. In speaking aboutholding fast to the original intentof the composer, Fleisher said,

“Music is not an opportunity topour oneself into the piece. Youdon’t want to apply make-up—rouge, lipstick—to the pieceyou’re playing.”

At 2:55, Michael Roswell ’07asked the final question. Themaestro responded by sittingdown at the piano and playingGershwin.

out.” This year, the group hasbecome more serious. It meetsalmost every Wednesday, andhas already organized a Maddentournament that has attractedstudents from across the UpperSchool. According to Rogers,“GUTS can bring all sorts of

people together to have a goodtime.” The group is also consid-ering hosting a grill or showinga movie.

The Arctic Trip activity hasalso had a successful year. Inthe winter, the club sold hotchocolate which they advertisedfor by dressing in a polar bearsuit made by a student’s grand-mother. Last week, the activity

Fleisher critiques B. Starr ‘07 in a master class as part of this year’s Resident Scholar program.photo by D. Al-Ibrahim ‘05

sold homemade ice cream,smoothies and snowballs to fur-ther raise money for thissummer’s trip. The group hasalready raised $5,000, but ishoping to raise more. The tripwill cost each participating stu-dent $2,500.

The group has also beenlearning about the Arctic fromUpper School Science teach-er Julie Rogers.

Maps was started byfreshmen Elizabeth Himelesand Abby Krolik. This activi-ty’s goal is to have fun withgrammar. The group plans tocontinue to write the weekly“Maps Maddening Muddle” inthe Upper School announce-ments and to read grammarbooks. Upper School Englishteacher Patti Porcarelli is thefaculty advisor for this activ-ity.

The second subject-basedclub this year is the Algebraclub. This club is led by Up-per School Math teacherArnaldo Cohen, although oth-er math teachers occasionally

help out. This group meets onFridays, but it keeps its mem-bers busy all week. The studentsin Algebra club are asked to dothe problems that Arnaldo postson his classroom door. Thegroup reviews solutions to theproblems during the meetings onFridays. This club was originallymade to help people that werestruggling with algebra.

GUTS member A. Rogers catches a fruitsnack in his mouth.photo by P. Schamp ‘05

NEWS

Page 4April 22, 2005The PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe Postscript

Finding a retail opportunity atPark, Danielle Emmet ’05 hasbeen selling homemade purses inthe school store since February.Priced between $22 and $42,Emmet has sold 18 bags so far.

According to school storemanager Helen Keith, “I didn’thesitate when Danielle asked tosell through the store. The bagswere cute, and I was sure shehad some sort of following sinceshe had already produced somany.” The store takes 30 per-cent of the profit.

Store sells unique items Measuring Art quantifies successThe popularity of

the bags caused oth-er members of thePark community tocome forward ask-ing for similaropportunities.

The store’s pro-gram is not meantfor consignmentpurposes, and thesales recording forthe bags is donethrough separate

book keeping. “There is morepaperwork than I thought, andwe couldn’t be prepared for anarmy of people,” explained Kei-th. “We don’t have enough stafffor that kind of business.”

Emmet was the first studentto ask to sell items through thestore, and according to Keith,“We didn’t realize that it wouldbe such a hit, but this is some-thing we cannot do on a regularbasis.”

Emmet will remove her bagswhen Senior Projects start.

by Vera Eidelman ’05

The Library Gallery features student art work through the end of the year.photo by P. Schamp ‘05

photo by P. Schamp ‘05Emmett’s bags on display in the school store.

In an effort to encourage Up-per School students to pursuescience after leaving Park, threealumni, Lisa Medalie ’98, MattHoffman ’00 and Irit Altman’95, spent April 18 and 19 at theschool as part of the seventhannual Millhauser FellowshipProgram.

After an introduction by Up-per School Science teacher LouRosenblatt, the three Park alum-ni briefly detailed their careers inscience thus far.

Medalie is currently doinggraduate work in neuropsychol-ogy with an emphasis on sleep

disorders.Hoffman is pursuing a Ph.D.

in applied mathematics at theUniversity of Maryland CollegePark, having switched out ofpure mathematics in favor ofsomething more meaningful.

Altman is working in the fieldof marine biology, performingextensive research on saltmarshes. In her presentation,she spoke of the joys of diggingin the sand for parasites.

After presenting in assembly,the Millhauser fellows visitedvarious classes and spoke toUpper School students.

Millhauser Fellows encourage study of science

photo by B. Weinstein ‘06L. Medalie ‘98 and I. Altman ‘95 visit an AP Spanish class.

FACA to review senior year

The Fair Share bill, a bill thatwould force Maryland’s largestcorporations to offer affordablehealth care coverage to employ-ees, passed the legislature April9. Fifteen Park students, joiningothers from area schools, hadtraveled to Annapolis in Febru-ary to speak to legislators andparticipate in a rally supportingthe bill. After the Lobby Day ral-ly, several students continuedlobbying by e-mailing SenatorJames Brochin, who had prom-ised to vote for the bill. The bill,which will only affect Walmart,is currently in danger of beingvetoed by Governor Ehrlich.

by Peter Schamp ‘05

Lobby Day billpasses legislature

With questions about seniori-tis and senior projects pervadingthe Upper School, teachers haveorganized a Faculty and Curric-ular Advancement group(FACA) that will address the is-sue of senior year. The group,led by Upper School Englishteacher Kevin Coll and UpperSchool Mathematics teacherTony Asdourian, aims to look atwhat other schools do with se-nior year in order to design amore senior-friendly curriculumfor Park. “There are all of thesedifferent pressures on studentswho happen to be in their senioryear,” said Coll. “I’m wonder-ing if we haven’t constructed itthe right way.”

The FACA will run for fourweeks over the summer. Ac-cording to Upper SchoolPrincipal Mike McGill, a similarprogram existed last summerbut was not funded to run for

more than one week.The way the current year is

designed, the curriculum“doesn’t allow students to focuson a course even first semes-ter,” said Upper School HistoryChair Jon Acheson, a memberof the group. This leads to ten-sions between faculty andstudents. According to seniorYohance Allette, “The year itselfdoesn’t lend itself to doingmuch work.” Because of theperception by many seniors that“expectations are lower” secondsemester, said Madeline Brager‘05, the seniors don’t feel as in-clined to work as hard as theyhave.

This acuity is strongly tied tothe common feeling that moststudents have “senioritis” secondsemester and suddenly have noimpulse to work. Certain as-pects of senior year, such assenior privileges, free blocks,and senior projects will be re-viewed during the FACA.

Park’s latest exhibit, Measur-ing Art will run May 9 to June7. The theme speaks to measur-ing the success of a work of art.The student portion of theshow, on view in the RichmanGallery of the Wyman Arts Cen-ter, will combine projects bystudents in all three divisions.Work by six outside artists willbe exhibited in the Lobby Gal-lery.

The work in the first part ofthe show focuses on displaying“what goes on in the class-room,” explained ChristineTillman, Assistant ExhibitionsEducator. Pieces will rangefrom collaborative first grade let-ter paintings to eighth gradechess sets to work by theGraphic Design class.

Work by six professional art-ists will be on display in theDavison Lobby. Each artist willexhibit one piece, which will beaccompanied by a description ofthe work’s level of success aswell as an explanation of thatassessment. In choosing the art-ists, who range from sculptors

to trompe l’oeil painters, the Ex-hibitions Department made aneffort to find artists with vary-ing methods of measuringsuccess.

The third part of the show,which is a subset of the first,will involve a series of seniorshowcases. A group of roughlya dozen seniors is “free to dis-play how [it] sees fit,” statedTillman. Seniors, who have beenallotted eight feet of space each,must submit the work by today.Most of the pieces are two-di-mensional, though severallight-up sculptures will also beincluded.

Tillman is excited about theseniors’ exhibit. “Most [of thesestudents] are committed and se-rious and have a body ofindependent work…This is thefirst time we have the space todo this. It’s a rare and uniquespace. The exhibition programhere is incredible, but it doesn’talways serve advanced studentsin the best way, which makes itmore difficult for students toshow work. [This show] givessenior work the space and atten-tion it deserves.”D a n i e l l e

Emmet ’05 is planning a recep-tion for the senior show.

“Any time you put student arttogether, it raises the question ofhow you assess work…[That]varies, especially at a place likePark. There is no right andwrong, but there is room for in-ternal critical dialogue,”explained Tillman.

Prior to the installation ofMeasuring Art, Carly Ries ’05will display a collection of herpieces, entitled figures, in theDavison Lobby. “Carly has beenworking independently very se-riously and approached[Exhibitions Educator] Peter Br-uun [about having a show] andPeter honored that request,”Tillman explained, going on tocredit Park’s progressivism forthat decision.

Ries’ show will run April 27to 29; her family is planning towill host a reception on openingday.

Open Call, an all-UpperSchool show which includeswork volunteered by students, iscurrently on display in the Li-brary hallway, and will runthrough the end of the year.

NEWS

Page 5 April 22, 2005The PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe Postscript

One of the most remarkableaspects of Park School is theextent to which it follows thewords of its eloquent philoso-phy. One line often quoted is,“learning need not be alienatingor painful, nor need success bemeasured by comparison to oth-ers.” For this reason, Park isone of the few college prepara-tory schools in the country thatgives no final exams and gener-ally keeps the number of tests toa minimum.

Rather than alleviating painand creating an environmentmore conducive to learning, thelack of exams leaves studentswith grades that are inaccurateindicators of their accomplish-ment. Students are no strangersto the same stress that plaguesevery other high school student.Because it lacks a fair system ofevaluation, Park should intro-duce final exams.

Park undoubtedly provides arigorous curriculum, with class-es ranging from Calculus toWestern Philosophy. It is diffi-cult to master many of the

concepts introduced in thesecourses in the span of a fewweeks, however diligent one is.Once a student applies the con-cepts time and time againhowever, they become veryclear. But by that time, he hasalready been graded on his un-derstanding and is given noother opportunity to demon-strate it. One could realisticallyreceive a B- as a final grade be-cause of one’s initialunderstanding of the course ma-terial despite one’s ultimatelyimpeccable understanding.

At most high schools, each

semester ends with a week ofextensive final exams, whichgive students the opportunity toshow their understanding. Be-cause the exams generallyaccount for 10 or 20 percent ofone’s final grade, his transcriptin turn reflects his actualprogress rather than his ability toapply a small subset of what he’slearned at an artificial interval.This is the definition of progres-sivism.

Rather than considering themerits of a final exam, Parktakes the most simplistic view ofits philosophy and scoffs at anynotion of systematic standardsof evaluation. Many teachersgive only a handful of tests persemester, trying to minimizetheir importance, but the unin-tended consequence is that thestudent’s grade is influenced bya few seemingly unimportantevaluations rather than a mea-sure of his overall performance.

Park needs to accept the re-ality of grades and find a wayto accurately evaluate its stu-dents. Currently, a student cantake the SATs multiple times ifhe is unhappy with his score,but cannot redeem himself when

tested on far more difficult ma-terial in class. This actualitymakes Park’s grading systemless accurate than the most con-servative preparatory schools.

In an ideal world, there wouldbe no need for tests or gradesand students would work sole-ly because of their unwaveringdesire to become more educat-ed individuals. This is not thecase and rather than utilizing asuperficial, inaccurate system ofevaluation, Park should build itsphilosophy around reality andconsider the merits of final ex-ams.

by Jenna Breiter ’06and Eric Gottlieb ’06

Final exams would offerbetter gauge for progress

Park’s academic expectationsare definitely reasonable. Buthear me when I say there is asizeable glitch in the system. AsI see it, formal class debates areunfair. Before you label me a“slacker” or just plain dumb,please allow me to explain.

Not all kids were born totake the spotlight. I did notemerge from the womb with agavel or briefcase in hand,though I’m convinced otherPark students did. These stu-dents, the ones that preferredLaw and Order to Barney, arenow the great debaters. Butwhat about the rest of us?

I’m sure if you know me, ev-erything I’ve said thus far seemshypocritical. I act in shows,speak my mind, and, on the sur-face, appear to be brewing withconfidence. Though I hate toadmit it, this image projects thewrong impression. As reality hasit, I’m fairly insecure and pre-fer being introverted. I say thisnot because I’m looking for pityor a way to express my teenageangst, but because I think itdraws a logical connection to

not wanting to participate in de-bate.

There’s a huge difference be-tween normal class discussionand fiery debate. During a nor-mal discussion, you aren’texpected to talk for five straightminutes without breathing. Con-versely, if you don’t have thelung-power to propel a model-ship across the Pacific Ocean,you’re pretty much screwedwhen it comes to debating.Whereas day-to-day conversa-tion allows you to prattle onwithout getting caught, any fab-rication or straying away fromobjectivity will destroy the de-bate; your team will lose if you,let’s say, mix up esoteric minu-tia about a subject like the JimCrow Laws. Basically, a debateat Park is high-level, and youcannot fake it. Is it not reason-able to say, then, that thesefactors have the potential to pro-duce a destabilizing anxietywithin the student?

Of course Park should notentirely do away with debates.Many students and teachers lovethem. I, too, give some value tothem because I believe that pub-lic speaking is an important life

by Carly Schleider ’06

NoNoNoNoNot Born tt Born tt Born tt Born tt Born to Debato Debato Debato Debato Debateeeee

iPods. They’re everywhere.Everyone seems to have one; ifthey don’t, they want one. AtChristmas, the precious iPodwas apparently the only giftworth getting, but I told my par-ents I didn’t want one.It seems to me that I’mthe only person I knowwho still clings to theCD. “Why?” peopleask. “Why would youpossibly want to carryaround a big bulky CDcase that holds onlytwelve CDs when youcould have all your mu-sic in one convenientlittle package? Whatcould you possibly haveagainst iPods?”

The answer is: a lot.People keep espousingthe merits of the iPod,and yet I find myselfthinking that most of itsso called “virtues” arevery unappealing. Sothat people will stopcalling me a mindlesstechnophobe, I’ve made a listof my arguments:

a) You can have all yourmusic in one place! No morewishing you could listen to asong and not having it withyou! See, I’m not so sure thisis a good thing. Being able to lis-ten to the song you want is nice.But not being able to listen to thesong, thinking about it on and

off all day, and then finally get-ting home to play it, that’smagic.

b) The shuffle feature is soawesome! You don’t have thatwith CDs. Great. So this thingis going to allow me to jumpfrom Radiohead to Outkast to T-

Rex? Count me out. Maybe Ihave a more eclectic music col-lection than most, but I find theprospect of switching artists af-ter every song perverse. Somegenres really aren’t supposed tomix like that. Are we all soA.D.D. that we can’t listen toone artist and the mood he or sheprovokes for more than threeminutes at a time?

by Rebecca Martin ’06

The Limits of the Almighty iPodc) You don’t have to buy a

whole album, just the songs youlike. This is the argument thatbothers me the most. Because Iam a big fan of the album. Ab-bey Road, The Dark Side of theMoon, Kid A: these are not justcollections of songs, but cohe-

sive works that fittogether as wholes.My greatest fear isthat as we abandonCDs, artists will stopmaking albums all to-gether and just makesingles, since that’s allpeople will download.If that happens, theambitious, longer con-cept albums willvanish.

And besides, I hatethe idea of people lis-tening only to “thesongs they like,” be-cause often thattranslates to “the songsthey’ve heard of.”How many times haveI bought a CD becausethere were a fewsongs I knew I en-

joyed, only to discoverunexpectedly the songs that en-thrall me the most? If wewander down the “buy only thesongs you know” path, it will bethe mass media, not the artist’svision, that will dictate what wehear. I know one day I’ll givein and buy an iPod. But for nowI’m going to carry my beat-upCD player with pride.

skill. Still, because of a debate’sdisconcerting nature, I do notbelieve it is fair to evaluate a stu-dent on his/her performance.Perhaps students should be of-fered the alternative of writing ashort paper, or taking a quiz. Itwould make me happy, at least.

I guess here is where Ishould apologize to anyone whohas been subjected to my hor-rendous debating skills. If theschool doesn’t consider whatI’ve said, I give you permissionto pelt me with tomatoes nexttime. Because trust me, whatcomes out of my mouth inthose five minutes will be ago-nizingly stupid. And I’m notstupid, or at least I don’t thinkI am.

photo by P. Schamp ‘05The Mini iPod holds 1000 songs.

photos by B. Weinstein ‘06

Park needs to accept the reali-ty of grades and find a way toaccurately evaluate its students. photo by M. Levy ‘06

COMMENTARY

Page 6April 22, 2005The PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe Postscript

EDITORIALS

Brooklandville, MD 21022April 22, 2004

We welcome letters to the editors: postscript@parkschool.netwww.parkschool.net/upperschool/postscript

The Postscript

Editors-in-ChiefVera Eidelman, Laura Gordon, Peter Schamp

Abel Fillion, Ben Ryugo

Commentary Editors Eric Gottlieb, Sarah Raifman

Assistants: Jenna Breiter, Jen Webber

News EditorsBen Hyman

Assistants: Lucy Silver, Cassidy Fein

Brad Mendelson, Ezra Rosenberg

Contributors

Reviews EditorsYohance Allette, Charlie Hankin,

Rachel Kutler

Photography EditorsDavid Al-Ibrahim, Michael Levy,

Saba McCoy

Faculty Adviser Susan G. Weintraub

Nick HudkinsInternet Editor

Cartoonists

Julian Charnas, Tony DeMarco, Ben Gamse, Wes Jamison, Rachel Katz, ZackLeacock, Rebecca Martin, Saba McCoy, Hank Nathan, Ezra Rosenberg, Carly

Schleider, Alex Trazkovich, Ben Weinstein

Photography AdviserTerry Lansburgh ‘66

Sports Editors

It’s hard to think that it hasbeen a full year since Brad Men-delson ’06, Zach Gidwitz ’05,Michele McCloskey ’05, and Iwere elected to serve on the Stu-dent Council. Certainly, a lot hashappened in those short months.It turns out I was correct in pre-dicting that being Presidentwould be something I was bothproud of and ashamed of, a po-sition I have loved and hatedalmost simultaneously for itscommitment and responsibility.At times, having a place on theStudent Council or Student Sen-ate is the most progressiveopportunity in the school, sole-ly because it has the potential tobe anything you want it to be.The positions in student govern-ment are therefore defined bythose who hold them, and it isbecause of this that those stu-dents are both blessed withunlimited opportunity andcursed with the burden of cre-ating good initiative.

So many times students haveserved on the Student Council,content with settling for theleast amount of work (that isnot to say that at times I haven’tbeen guilty of the same thing).My advice is to only run foroffice if you have the time, in-terest, and initiative to takeadvantage of Park’s essentiallylimitless community.

Growing up, I have alwaysbeen one to compromise and at-

tempt to see and recognize ev-eryone’s views. At times, thisprevented me from forming myown individual thoughts. Thisyear, one of the most importantthings I have learned throughworking on the student councilis that it is imperative to pickyour standpoint before leadingothers, to pick the one side ofan issue which you agree withand fight for it. Taking thesekinds of risks in front of a com-munity in which I’ve grown uphas been the most intimidating,yet arguably the most reward-ing, aspect of being President.

I want to thank the StudentCouncil as well as the rest ofthe Student Senate. Brad,Michele, Zach, and RachelleWork (our faculty adviser) haveworked so hard with me thisyear, going way beyond expec-

by Sarah Raifman ’05

tations to benefit the Park com-munity. We could not have hada more well-rounded, motivated,and creative group. I hope thatthey, too, have learned from theirexperiences working togetherthis year.

I encourage next year’s Stu-dent Council and Senate torecognize now the extremepotential of the student govern-ment at Park. Take the time andeffort to plan and organizesomething that you care aboutthat can contribute to our com-munity and motivate others todo the same. The rest you willhave to figure out on your own,those things which come onlywith time and experience, an-guish and laughter, frustrationand relief.

Good luck and thanks for agreat year!

Student Council members M. McCloskey ’05, B. Mendelson ’06, Z.Gidwitz ’05, and S. Raifman ’05 celebrated their election last May.

photo by A. Lichtenfeld ’06

Every year, after college applications have been sent in or earlyadmissions letters sent out, we hear about the same thing- seniori-tis. Its very name implies the way it’s perceived: as a disease, anaffliction, a problem that unavoidably strikes seniors. We specu-late as to why it happens, what we can do about, and what it isthat makes seniors so lazy and unwilling to work. But perhaps,given that the “problem” has never been solved, we aren’t askingthe right questions.

Senioritis is simply what happens when the Park School philos-ophy is allowed to function. It’s what happens when, finally,students are free to ignore the confines of grades and college en-trance demands and simply pursue their interests. Most seniors, ifnot all, still work extremely hard in school, be it as part of an X-block activity, a sport, or a production. Sure, every senior’s workhabits suffer after first semester, but is this solely because we’veapplied to college and finished our final projects? Many would ar-gue that senioritis is simply a post-stress lapse, the result of seniorstrying to catch their breath after one of the most, if not the most,difficult semesters of high school.

The central tenet behind progressive education is that the stu-dents are motivated to learn, that they are sincerely interested inthe material and take initiative to become educated. Unfortunately,that isn’t exactly how this school works. Students still take class-es because they feel obligated to, we still worry about grades andcollege. All of that is perfectly reasonable. But once these thingsare finally removed, and we’re able to actually relax and pursuewhat truly matters to us, the progressive philosophy is finally ableto come to life. Should we not celebrate and in fact facilitate thisattitude, not only senior year but throughout high school?

It’s unfair to pin such a negative shibboleth on an entire classwithout trying to take a reasonable look at why it happens. Like itor not, seniors are transitioning from one stage of life to another;as Upper School History Chair John Acheson puts it, seniors are“not really high school students anymore, but they’re not reallycollege students either- they’re something else.” Perhaps, takingthis into account, seniors need to be treated accordingly.

Fulfilling the Philosophy

This is our last issue as Editors-in-Chief of Postscript. We’vespent hundreds of hours in the Publications room. Over 50 ofthose were spent on this issue alone. We ordered Chinese, weordered pizza, we ordered our lives around issues of the paper,and we revised our lives to get those issues in order and to press.We instituted changes in layout, tried to find more relevant and up-to-date news, and concentrated on the quality of the writing.

A few weeks ago, we appointed new Editors-in-Chief to takeon the job for next year. We wish luck to Eric Gottlieb, RachelKutler, and Ezra Rosenberg and trust them to do a spectacular job.

This year has flown by too fast for all of us given the amountof energy and heart we devoted to our Postscript.

Farewell to Postscript The Potential of Government

Page 7 April 22, 2005The PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe Postscript

COMMENTARY

1. Wedge Heeled Shoes:Honestly, people, it looks likeyou are walking on some sort ofcolorful, repugnant cheese. Inthe eighties, when these shoesfirst became popular, people hadfew inhibitions as to what theywore. Now they’re a bit morefashion conscious. Hence, donot wear the cheese shoes.

2. Maternity Shirts: I knowthey aren’t really called mater-nity shirts, but they stronglyresemble them. The ones thatcinch around the bust and flareout below the bust line? Those.These are possibly the most ste-reotypical hippie-flower-childshirts and they should havestayed dead and buried. I trulyhave no idea how they cameback in style, but Juicy seemshappy enough to produceenough in terrycloth to soak upall the water on the face of theplanet. And even though LindsayLohan wears them, I still hatethem, and frankly, she can pullanything off.

3. Flipped Collars: Theylooked better on the Fonz.

4. Tie-Dye: I know notmany people wear tie-dye, butfor those who do — it’s good

Ten comeback fashion items that shouldn’t have come at allfor camp and color wars, but it’sreally, really tacky.

5. The Mullet: Yes, Karen Ohad one. But again, she is justone of those people who canpull it off. There are far toomany hairstyles nowadays thatclosely resemble the mullet, andI find them too close for com-fort.

6. Add-On Fur Collars: Iknow right now a lot of you areprobably thinking what the hell?But I assure you, these havecome back in style after theireighty-odd year absence. Atleast I think they originated inthe 1920’s or thereabouts. Letme describe these collars foryou: they come in various taw-drily dyed collars (or plain furcollars if you so prefer) withribbons in the front to tie themaround your neck. They aresupposed to resemble the collarof a nice fur coat and are meantto accessorize plain sweaters orshirts. For some unknown rea-son, yet again, my mother hassome sort of fondness for themand I have a few around myhouse. You can make your ownassumption as to what I think ofthem.

7. Absolutely ExcessiveAmounts of Necklaces: I love

by Rachel Katz ’06 jewelry. I really do. But I agreewith Melissa Rivers (Joan’sdaughter) when she said that youreally should only wear gaudyearrings with a plain necklace (ornone at all) or a really gaudynecklace with plain earrings (or,again, none at all). So seeingpeople wear about fifty-thou-sand necklaces is a bitoff-putting for me. It’s another1960’s thing to go along withthe maternity shirts, and the peo-ple that wore them then weremost likely so incredibly highthat they didn’t even knowwhat they were wearing any-way. As long as it was fitting toget naked and fling mud at eachother at Woodstock.

8. Boots that Lace Up theAnkles: These originated withpoint shoes, so I’m guessingthey go pretty far back. And Idon’t actually believe they areunattractive. I actually just thinkthey are such a pain in the assthat it isn’t even worth it towear them. Last time I did, I al-most broke my ankle because Itripped and the shoe slid fromunder my foot, but remained tiedto my leg. So they didn’t makemy list because they are ugly,but more so because I am hold-ing a grudge.

C. Attman ’07 shows off her flipped collar.photo by M. Levy ’06

9. Ruffles: I had ruffles ona bathing suit I wore when Iwas three. Seeing them now onshirt sleeves and skirts just re-minds me of how much I hatedthem back then.

10. Louis Vuitton: I reallydon’t see why everyone is so

infatuated with these purses. Mymom has some from back inthe 70’s when they were hot(and much less expensive) andthey look exactly the same asthe current “classic style.” Idon’t see anything special aboutthem, and I think that the white/colored and black/colored ones

are even worse. And don’t evenget me started on the knockoffs.The point of the purses in thefirst place is just for the LV em-blazoned all over them and withthe hideous replications, youdon’t even get that.

11. Bonus: Whatever theHell Adele Had UsWear For Parksing-ers: Though not trulya comeback fashion,since I actually haveno idea what wasgoing through the de-signer’s head and itdoes not deserve tobe considered fashionat all, I felt I shouldgive the ugly shirt/skirt ensemble ashout out. It is possi-bly the ugliest thingI’ve ever worn (savethat one shirt mymother forced me towear in first grade, a

pearl and lace and rickrackabomination…until Rachel Kut-ler tried to cut the tag out withmy Lisa Frank scissors and cutthe shirt instead…) and I don’teven have the words to describehow strong my distaste is forthese outfits. That, and they’rereally staticky.

by Vera Eidelman ’05

This LS flyer raises questions.

According to the Park Schoolwebsite, the Partners at Parkprogram was created eightyears ago in an effort to“support…all students as webecome a truly diverse commu-nity.” The program, which“pairs Lower School studentsof color and all new students ingrades two-five with an Upperor Middle School student,” ob-viously has good intentions. It’smeant to encourage diversityand provide a comfortableenvironment for “diverse” stu-dents.

And yet, by doing so, theprogram defines and limits di-versity. Although new students,regardless of race, economic sta-tus, or religion may be invited,the program is intended for “stu-dents of color.” Does that mean,therefore, that Park’s definitionof diversity is confined to dif-ferences in skin color? Andconversely, does that mean thatdifferences in skin color auto-matically create diversity?

Diversity is not a concept thatshould be defined by demo-graphic statistics, nor can it be.For true diversity to exist, dis-tinctions between races shouldno longer be recognized:differences in opinions, in per-sonalities, differences in who weare rather than what we are

should create the diversity.Much of Park’s admissions

campaigning targets society’scurrent fixation on this golden

concept of diversity. There is aspecific section on the websitededicated to diversity and ourefforts in cultivating it. There isalso a bulletin board in the Low-er School dedicated to AsianAwareness. The board is cov-ered with pictures of LowerSchool classes and activities.The purpose of the board is tobreak down stereotypes by us-ing pictures of Asians doingthings that are not stereotypical-ly Asian and others ofnon-Asians doing stereotypical-ly Asian things. Tacked-up flyersask viewers to find what is thesame about the students in eachpicture. And what is the same?

They are all Asian Americans.So, Lower Schoolers learn thatall Asians are the same.

Why do we continue to strivefor this artificial, politically-cor-rect diversity? Yes, Park coulduse more diversity. But not in thesimplified form of higherpercentages of non-Jewish,non-white, non-rich kids.

The second problem I seewith Partners is that, after cre-ating this definition, the programhighlights it. By giving certainkids an Upper School partner,the program says, “Hey littlekids, in case you didn’t notice,this kid that has a partner is dif-ferent (or perhaps the programwould say diverse). And nowhe/she has something you wantbut can’t have.” As a result, thedivisions between the twogroups, between the “diverse”and the “not diverse”, whichshould not exist in a truly di-verse community, are firstcreated and then solidified.

Of course the purpose ofPartners is the exact opposite.And, having been a Partner fortwo years, I know that the re-ality of the program is not asgrim as what I have painted. Atthe same time, I do disagree withthe program’s underlying princi-ples. Diversity is great. Butdiversity is not about race andreligion. Diversity is about opin-ions and beliefs.

See, in the Macks-Fidler Black Box theater, there’s this reallynovel concept. When you plug in a bunch of lights and flip theswitch, they actually turn on.

Oh sure, this sometimes happens in the Meyerhoff, but often Ifind a live leprechaun in my box of Lucky Charms. You see, thelighting system in the Meyerhoff was installed in the 70s, and itdoesn’t work nearly as well as it used to.

The following is a step by step description of what my fellowtechies and I once had to do to get a light to turn on.

· Run up to the catwalk. Lower a pipe. Run down. Hang thelight. Raise the pipe. Plug the extension cord into an unlabeled cord.

· Run down the catwalk. Run up to the booth. Turn on each ofabout 30 circuits, one by one, waiting for the light to turn on. Notethat it doesn’t turn on.

· Run up to the catwalk. Lower the pipe. Run down. Plug thelight into a regular outlet. Note that it doesn’t turn on.

· Dismantle the light’s cord and note that the wires inside havecome undone. Rewire them. Plug it back in. Note that it doesn’tturn on. Open up the light and note that the bulb is burnt out. Re-place the bulb. Plug the light in. Note that it came on this time.

· Re-hang the light on the pipe. Raise the pipe. Run up the cat-walk. Plug it into a circuit. Run back to the booth and try circuitsone by one. Note that the light doesn’t turn on.

· Run back up to the catwalk. Plug the light into a differentcircuit. Run back to the booth. Try the circuits one by one. Fi-nally, the light comes one.I really wish that this case was unusual.I really wish that this was the worst it ever got.

Even when the lights actually turn on, the problems with thesystem continue. Few of the circuits work, and we have few dim-mers, working lights, and working extension cords. In addition,when the lights do turn on, they’re a menace. Techies are rewardedfor their hard work with second degree burns and electric shocks.

Fortunately, Two Gentlemen of Verona was the last show forwhich your friendly neighborhood techies had to suffer throughthis system. This summer, thanks to the senior class, a new sys-tem will be purchased to return the Meyerhoff to its former glory.

“Trazzy,” you ask, “if we’re getting a new system right afterthis show, why did you just write an article bitching and whiningabout the old one?”

Why? Because Gottlieb told me to write something for Post-script. That’s why.

Now, if you excuse me, I’m going to go apply some lotion tomy burns.

by Alex Trazkovich ’06Park’s definition of diversity is wrong Let there be light

photo by S. Weintraub

PPPPPararararartnertnertnertnertners Prs Prs Prs Prs Program emogram emogram emogram emogram emphasizes difphasizes difphasizes difphasizes difphasizes difffffferenceerenceerenceerenceerence

Page 8April 22, 2005The PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe Postscript

REVIEWS

Think Bend it Like Beckhamwith more singing, dancing,and Bollywood. Directed byGurinder Chadha, Bride andPrejudice is a colorful roman-tic comedy about two sistersfinding love (much like in its

namesake, Pride and Prejudiceby Jane Austen). The film fo-cuses on Lalita Bakshi (playedby Aishwarya Rai, probablyone of the most beautiful wom-en in the world), a headstrongyoung lady, looking for lovewith the help of a persistent,wealth-seeking mother, Mrs.Bakshi (Nadira Babbar). Jaya(Namrata Shirodkar), Lalita’solder sister, begins falling forBalraj Bingley (Naveen An-drews), a wealthy Indian manbased in London. Balraj bringshis friend and business partner

Will Darcy (played by MartinHenderson, also seen in TheRing) to accompany him to awedding and look at a hotel thatDarcy’s family might buy.

The two invite Jaya and Lali-ta with them for a weekend atthe hotel. Despite sparks flyingbetween Balraj and Jaya, Lalita

and the American Darcy cannotget past their cultural differenc-es, and don’t quite hit it off.Lalita meets another man,Johnny Wickham (DanielGilles), who seems to strike herfancy.

In a complicated web of con-nections, Johnny and Darcysomehow used to know eachother. After the weekend, thetwo sisters never hear fromtheir prospects again. Mean-while, Mrs.Bakshi is attemptingto set up Lalita with Mr. Kholi(Nitin Chandra Ganatra), a bois-

Complete with Tiffany chan-deliers, dusty bookshelves, andvintage photographs, EvergreenHouse is usually just the typical19th century mansion-turned-museum. But, until May, it isalso the location of an excitingart exhibit, Music, Art, andBeautiful Things, which fea-tures work by members of thePark community among others.

Evergreen House was onceowned by the Garrett family,bought when John W. Garrettowned the B&O Railroad in the19th century. John Work Garrett,grandson of John W. Garrett,left the house to Johns HopkinsUniversity when he died in 1942,and it has since been convertedto a museum.

But now, instead of simplyseeing the bright yellow diningroom after turning the first cor-ner, you will also see writing byEva Fillion ’07 hanging on thewall.

The art exhibit is directed byPark School Exhibitions Educa-tor Peter Bruun and includeswork created by Baltimore-areastudents.

Students in the first semesterWriting about Place class visit-

ed Evergreen house with UpperSchool English teacher GregBrandt earlier this year andwrote about a particular place inthe house.

Their work, along with the

work of students from theJohns Hopkins Advanced Writ-ing Seminar, is placed throughthe house. Also featured will bean original composition byUMBC Percussion professor

and Park School parent TomGoldstein, to be performed in thehouse’s Bakst Theatre on Satur-day, May 7.

Among other installations inthe exhibition are reflections by

eighth grade students at RolandPark Country School about theirfavorite childhood books, pho-tographs by students atYouthlight, an afterschool pho-tography and media literacy

Putting the biases of being aclose friend and featured in threesongs aside, Articulate’s ThePreface is a great album. Youwon’t get any formulated raphere; Articulate gives his audi-ence an original and versatileassortment of lyrical excellence.

The Preface gives the listener aglimpse into the inner workingsof the mind of the artist. Fromthe pain after his father’s andgrandmother’s deaths to his feel-ings about politics, Articulatespeaks the truth. Proving hisskills as a great producer as wellas a lyricist, Articulate also pro-duced 18 of the 21 tracks on ThePreface.

Articulate shows off his lyri-cal skills on stand out trackssuch as “You Crazy”, “YouKnow That’s Right”, “KnockYou Down”, “It’s A Fact”, and“At The Last Minute,” andproves that he has what it takesto spit with “the big boys”.Boasting that, “I make studiosexplode when I go in it/Youdon’t wanna go toe to toe I’llleave you roasted kid/I’m hotenough to ignite a fire with my

terous, sloppy, loud-laughing In-dian man living in Hollywood.When Lalita rejects Mr. Kholi’sproposal, he gets engaged to herbest friend instead. The movieunwinds when the women ofthe household take a trip to Hol-lywood for the wedding. Jayaand Balraj are reunited, Darcy

and Lalita meet again, thistime on better terms, andLakhi, the third eldestBakshi sister, seems tohave run off with Johnny.

Bride and Prejudicemight not be the most re-alistic of films. Theactors lack chemistry, themovie unravels in a com-pletely ridiculous plot, anda lot of the singing looksfake. Still, as with manymusicals, the characterstend to break into songand dance at any givenmoment. What could bebetter?

In one scene where Lalita andher friends are shopping, thewhole town begins singingalong in a toe-tapping, brighter-then-bright number that includedmen dressed as women. All ofthe songs featured in the filmwere catchy and amusing,weaving together a fun story.Bride and Prejudice is a differ-ent breed of romantic comedy,which will most definitely pro-vide for a night of entertainmentwhile highlighting aspects of In-dian culture.

saliva/Burn down your empireand make your sire retire,” Ar-ticulate draws the line betweennovice and expert.

He is also conscious of thetrials of the world and societyaround him, vocalizing histhoughts in “Take a LookAround”, and “Cash Rules Ev-erything Around The World”.

Articulate is not afraid to sharehis pains and struggles; ontracks such as “How Do I KeepGoing” and “Don’t WannaCome Back,” he expresses thepain of growing up after thedeath of his father, how hemisses his grandmother, and theordeals of being a black adoles-cent. A tribute to his girlfriend,“Thinking about You,” dismiss-es the stereotype of degradationtowards women in rap.

The Preface is one debut al-bum worthy enough to sit onshelves accompanying currentrappers in the game (most ofthem are garbage anyway). Withsuperb lyrics and production,The Preface is a show of highquality talent, skill, originality,and versatility. If you haven’t gotit yet, I encourage you to spendthe $5 on this superb album.

Evergreen House features student artprogram, and sculptures by stu-dents at the Baltimore FreedomAcademy. The eighth graders’storybooks are paired withsimilar storybooks that werepopular in the early twentieth

century and which childrengrowing up in Evergreen housewould probably have read. TheYouthlight photography is pairedwith photographs of the Garrettfamily that are in some way re-

lated. The students at the Balti-more Freedom Academy createdmasks to depict what their re-action would be to being invitedas guests to Evergreen House.

The way I saw it, the pur-pose of the works of art was toshow the similarities between thelives of the Garrett family andcontemporary Baltimoreans, toshow that there is true impor-tance in the valuable things atEvergreen House. Perhaps itspeaks to a broader associationabout art itself.

One downside is that, occa-sionally, the art is accompaniedby excessive explanatory writ-ing. For example, under eachpair of photographs, their simi-larities are detailed. Explainingthe purpose of the entire instal-lation and allowing the viewer tocome to his/her own conclu-sions about the photographsmay have been just as success-ful and effective.

There’s no exhibition moreexciting than one that featuresthe work of your peers, so govisit. Evergreen House is locat-ed at 4545 North Charles Street,near Loyola College. A gallerytalk and tour session will be heldWednesday, May 11 at 4:30 pm,free of charge.

Bride and PrejudiceBride and PrejudiceBride and PrejudiceBride and PrejudiceBride and Prejudice: Bollyw: Bollyw: Bollyw: Bollyw: Bollywood Food Food Food Food Fununununun

by Ben Starr ‘07

by Rachel Kutler ‘06 by Devon Scott ‘05

Articulate is worthy

photo courtesy Miramax Films

photo courtesy Johns Hopkins University

The Preface is one debut album worthyenough to sit on shelves accompanyingcurrent rappers in the game...

Page 9 April 22, 2005The PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe Postscript

REVIEWS

Soul Calibur II: Add it to your video game collection

The Dark Elf Trilogy(Homeland, Exile, and So-journ), focuses on the darkelf Drizzt Do’Urden, creat-ed by fantasy master R.A.Salvatore. At first glance,the series looks like a cheappotboiler, a knock-off ofthe “sacred” Lord of theRings world written solelyto sell books and makemoney rather than bringsomething new to the nextgeneration of fantasy read-ers. However, much likesampling a loop from asong to make a beat foranother, Salvatore takes thepremise of dwarves, elves,and trolls, and transformsit into something entirely new.

According to Salvatore, thedark elf society is the exact op-posite of their cousins, the“surface” elves, better known asthe elves starring in the worksof J.R.R. Tolkien. The darkelves are portrayed as a hateful,warmongering society, brokenup into family groups. Eightfamilies rule their world; never-theless, wars are waged on onefamily by another in order togain a better status in their twist-ed hierarchy.

Every dark elf, except for

Drizzt, lives for this constantcarnage and bloodshed.

Drizzt, perhaps the bestknown of all of Salvatore’s cre-ations, stands against thesociety he was raised to love.From an early age, Drizzt pos-es the question of “why?” tothose involved in the constantkilling. He is quickly dubbed asan outcast, and is foreverplagued by his family who try toconvert him to evil. Drizzt isseen as a “beacon of hope” byhis father, who once held thesame values. When a terrible

Crap: Vulgar Slang, n. 1. Ex-crement. 2. Foolish, deceitful,or boastful language. 3. Miscel-laneous or disorganized items;clutter. 4. Cheap or shoddy ma-terial. See The OC.

I was hanging out with abunch of girls one night and theyall wanted to watch The OC. Ithought I’d give it a shot to seewhat all the hype was about, soI asked them to give me somebackground on the charactersand plot. Half an hour later I stilldidn’t get it, but we decided towatch anyway. While the showitself is pretty awful (the bestacting came from a plastichorse), what really bugs me is

everyone’s obsession with it. Idon’t understand. In fact, I’mvery excited to never watch itagain.

The OC is a soap opera, andyet you don’t see people talkingabout Days of Our Lives. Atleast I don’t see people doingthat.

This is not the first time theFox network has put crap ontelevision. Let’s not forget thelesser of the two Jackson scan-dals and of course, the reality hitThe Simple Life. In case youhad any doubts, let both Nanny911 and Trading Spouses: MeetYour New Mommy assure youthat the people running the Foxnetwork are, in fact, entirelyheartless.

by Quinten Rosborough ’08

From the first time you putSoul Calibur II into your sys-tem and button-mash your wayinto an awesome combo, yourealize that it’s a classic. If youdon’t know by now, Soul Cali-bur is a pretty amazingfranchise. Starting out on thePSone under a different name,this fighting game originated inarcades and made its true con-sole debut on the SegaDreamcast. Now the popularweapon-based-fighting game isback with a new game modeand more characters. There areabout four different gamemodes, each with a minor vari-ation. The only quality mode,however, is Weapon Master,where you travel through a mapin search of the ultimate weap-on: Soul Edge.

The game is extremely deep.The Weapon Master mode lastsaround 10 hours, during whichyou travel across a map, SuperMario World-style, and partici-pate in a variety of battles withmany extraneous characters.There is a story, but it takes alot of reading to understand. Idon’t mean Mario-style speech-bubble reading, I mean bookreading, I mean dissertationreading, and I mean Lord of theRings reading. Most gamers

won’t bother. The Weapon Mas-ter mode really helps you getbetter at fighting other oppo-nents, and with the complexfighting system of the game, youwill need it.

Once you get past the read-ing, this game becomes one ofthe best fighting games ever.There are 15 different charac-ters, all with different weaponsand moves. From the mysteri-ous Voldo, to the massive

Astaroth, to the awesomeYoshimitsu, the characters allhave amazing move sets andweapons. There are samuraiswords, staffs, axes, daggers,and much more. And as a bo-

nus, each console has a uniquecharacter. If you have aGamecube, you can play asLink from the Legend of Zeldaseries.

The controls are easy, espe-cially if you just mash a bunch

of buttons. The main problem isthat the game reassigns letters tothe buttons: “x” becomes “g”and “b” becomes “a”. Thismakes it extremely difficult tofigure out moves, which means

that mostly you will just punchrandom buttons on the control-ler.

A huge plus of this game isthat the environments and play-er models are beautiful. It’s notquite realistic—fans of the Halo

Why all the hype?by JJ Wilner ’05

tragedy befalls Drizzt, heruns from his former life andtries to make a better life forhimself.

No matter how many gooddeeds Drizzt performs, he isconstantly beleaguered by vi-sions of his former self, andhaunted by his family and fel-low dark elves. Instead offocusing on the common fan-tasy action, Salvatore createsthe character behind Drizzt,compelling the reader to delvedeeper into the story and fol-low the struggles of Drizztmuch more closely. At theend of the trilogy, you feel asif you truly know Drizzt, asif you have been in contactwith him for years. More im-portantly, Salvatore continues

to throw twists and changes inthe plots to hold the reader’s at-tention. This keeps the storyfrom getting stale, and enticesthe reader to keep track of Drizztand his adventures.

I do not consider myself afantasy fanatic, yet I immediate-ly wanted to learn more aboutDrizzt from the first time I readone of his stories. The Dark ElfTrilogy is definitely worth a lookfrom anyone. It has elements ofa variety of genres, more thanenough to make this book a fa-vorite on anyone’s list.

by Yohance Allette ’05

The next big fantasy trilogy

games will recognize a familiarshininess in the animation.There are a variety of arenas tofight in and also the attacks arecrazy. You can just put the con-troller down, and watch thecomputer kick your butt—it’sthat entertaining. There is an in-sane number of special movesthat will make you want to re-wind the game and watch thebeatdown again.

Admittedly, the game hasplenty of problems. Even thoughthere are 15 different charac-ters, there are a select few thatare way cooler and the charac-ters aren’t very balanced. Forexample, my favorite charactercan recover health and take itfrom other people; while thismay be fun to do against thecomputer, when playing multi-player, it can really make yourfriends angry. You can becomeattached to one character, soyou really don’t get to experi-ence the other characters. Thevoices in the game are lame andfilled with a bunch of phony ac-cents, which will just make youlaugh. And the music? It’s hor-rible.

All in all, Soul Calibur II isdefinitely one of my favoritefighting games of all time, andat $20 as a “Platinum Hit”, Iwould definitely recommend itfor your video game collection.

photo courtesy Namco Games

photo courtesy Wizards of the Coast

photo courtesy Fox Television

Page 10April 22, 2005The PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe Postscript

SPORTSBruins Baseball team powers through MIAA-B;steps up as major contender for championship

by Hank Nathan ‘06

Girls JV faces tough teamsby Ben Gamse ‘05

This year the Girls JV la-crosse team hopes to findsuccess in the very competitiveA2 conference. Facing teamssuch as McDonogh, Garrison,and Spalding, Park has a diffi-cult schedule to deal with. TheBruins will have to work hardor wins will be a rare commod-ity. At this point in the season,the team is 0-3-1. The tie cameagainst Friends.

The team is relatively inexpe-rienced because it is mostlyfreshmen. “Our team needs

more high school experience tobe competitive at this level,” ex-plained student coach Julie Hess‘05.

Additional experience andimprovment in on-field commu-nication skills are two areaswhich will boost the team. Asthe season goes on, the girlsmust become more comfortableif they hope to achieve a higherlevel of play.

The team is led by captainsMolly Coplan ‘06 and RachelWiner ‘06. Key players are Jes-sica Oring ‘08, Gabbi Lessens‘08, and Carrie Young ‘07.

The Boys JV Lacrosse teamhas been working hard to kickoff the season. The JV team,which only has 14 players, mustbe well conditioned and disci-plined to live up to the successof last year’s JV team whichlost to John Carroll during thechampionship.

This year’s JV squad is luckyenough to include several of lastyear’s key players, includingstarting goalie Max Struever ’07

and top attackman Olav Goelet’07. Captains Eric Baylin ‘06,and Eric Dembert ’08 lead thedefense. The team has beensupplied with several strongfreshmen including Colin Smith,Ben Levin, and Michael Hess.

Park has already jumped outto a fast start, winning most ofits games quite easily. Theyoung squad has only fallentwice this season, to conferencefrontrunners Curley and JohnCarroll.

Park challenged the undefeat-

ed Friars at Archbishop CurleyApril 18.

After three quarters, the Bru-ins had a 9-7 lead, but in thethird quarter their play began tofall apart. The team allowed 4goals and lost 11-9.

Park showed strong perfor-mances by Smith with fourgoals, and Levin with three. Bay-lin played admirably despitesuffering a concussion early inthe match. The team’s recordfell to 2-2 in conference and 3-2 overall.

Boys JV Lacrosse fields strong team;pulls off 2-2 record in conference playby Brad Mendelson ‘06

photo by B. Weinstein ‘06 T. Taborn ‘06 pulls the ball down the third base line in the Severn game April 13.

Pre-season has come andgone, and the baseball team isprepared for another solid sea-son. Last year the Bruinsfinished in third place, surpris-ing the MIAA B-Conferencewith a 14-2 record in the regu-lar season. Supported by astrong nucleus of returningplayers, with Captains BradRifkin ’05, Jon Gill ’06, and BenHyman ’06, this year’s teamwill be a major contender for theB-Conference Title.

Last year ended with a heart-breaking loss to Chapelgate. TheBruins had defeated Chapelgatein the regular season and oncein the playoffs, but lost to theteam in the second match-up inthe playoffs, signaling the end oftheir Cinderella season.

“This season looks promisingso far,” said Gill. “Now thatpractices are more consistent,we go back to the fundamentalsof the game. I think we will bewell prepared for a good year.”

The Bruins are setting out thisyear to prove that they are a le-gitimate contender and not justa one year wonder.

Although the team has a nicecore group of players, it lostsome essential members of theteam from the Class of 2004,ace Jon Bookstein and utilityplayers Matt Rogers and DaveCarleton. Still, the team nowboasts some young and prom-ising freshmen including RexGelb and Tony DeMarco. Gelbwill back up catcher Hymanwhen he pitches and will alsoplay left field. DeMarco will fillin the middle infield when Gillpitches and when Stefano Calv-ello ’05 leaves for his SeniorProject in Texas. The outfieldappears to be strong and in-cludes lots of speed thanks toEzra Rosenberg ’06 and TyTaborn ’06.

Park opened the year with anin-conference game at BethT’filoh. The bats were electri-fied in this game, resulting in a12-2 win. This was just an ear-

ly test for the Bruins in theirlong season. Gill opened the sea-son as the starter and threwthree scoreless innings. Theteam appeared to have shed allof that pre-season rust and wasready for the season to begin.

In Park’s second in-confer-ence game, the team faced rivalFriends School, which turnedout to be no match for Park.The Bruins had another solidouting, pummeling Friends 13-4.

The early hitters got on baseand the sluggers drove them in.Rifkin went 4-4, nearly hittingfor the cycle. The few timesFriends rallied and put someruns on the scoreboard, Parkwas right there with an answer.Again, the pitching was solid, ledby Gill and relief pitcher Hyman.

Next, Park set out to play atBoys Latin. The Lakers had al-ways been somewhat of anadversary for the Bruins, so thegame was no picnic. Park won11-8 in a shoot out.

Hyman slugged a two-run

home run, his first home run ofthe season, over the Boys Latinleft field fence to put Park upthree and secure the win.

The Bruins then squared offagainst 3-1 Severn on April 13,

but again, Park was too muchfor Severn to handle. Headinginto the game, Severn had onlylost to the defending champions,St. Mary’s. The final score ofthe game was 18-8.

The only reason Severn wasable to put up 8 runs was be-cause Park had some fieldingproblems and committed a sea-son high of seven errors.Notably, Rosenberg went 5-5with 2 doubles, 3 RBI’s, and 4runs.

In its recent match-up April15, at two time defending cham-pions St. Mary’s, Park suffereda crushing defeat. Coming intothe game, St. Mary’s boasted a21 game in-conference winningstreak.

Rifkin started the game offwith a bang when he drilled aball deep over the centerfieldwall with Gill on base. St.Mary’s regained the lead in thebottom of the first and held onfor the rest of the game as Parkcould not chip all the way back.

Not only did the Bruins losea hard fought battle, 7-6 with thetying run stranded on secondbase, but the team lost two start-

ing players. In the first inningafter Rosenberg hit a liner to-ward left-center field, hehyper-extended his left knee onuneven ground causing him toleave the game after the first in-ning. In the top of the seventhinning, Hyman got on base withno outs and then broke his fin-ger diving back to first base.

Unless both players returnby next week, this will be a largeblow to the team’s lineup. Hy-man is the clean-up hitter andRosenberg hits behind him,boasting a .545 batting average.

Currently, the Bruins are 5-1in conference and 5-2 overall.They are off to an auspiciousbeginning and will only look forbetter things in the future. Theteam has averaged a staggering13 runs per game in its first sixconference games.

When asked why the teamhas been an offensive power-house Gill responded, “Our earlyhitters have been getting on baseand the sluggers have been ex-ecuting by driving them in.Hitting has been timely and peo-ple are taking advantage well.”

Ben Hyman summed every-thing up by adding, “I’m reallyencouraged this year. We’ll havea quality mix of young talent andupper-class leadership. This isprobably the best Park baseballteam I’ve ever seen.”

B. Rifken ‘05, who bats third, steals second base successfully after alead-off single. Park went on to beat Severn 18-8 in this home game.

photo by B. Weinstein ‘06

Page 11 April 22, 2005The PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe Postscript

SPORTSGirls fight to stay united under pressure of A2 conference

Softball follows initial game fumble with success

J. Ries ‘06 evades defender as she rockets towards goal in home game against Friends.photo by B. Weinstein ‘06

by Ben Weinstein ‘06

by Ezra Rosenberg ‘06

The 2005 softball team lookspromising for Park, with a re-turning core of starters andsenior leadership. The team isled by Coach Denis Medlin, whois in his third year at Parkthough he has over 20 years ofcoaching experience.

The team lost only two of lastyears starters due to graduation:a first baseman and an outfield-er. Even with the large amountof returning starters, not everyspot is guaranteed, said Assis-

tant Coach Bruce Hamilton.The starting pitcher for the

Bruins against IAAM C-Confer-ence rival Friends school wasMadison Elliot ’07. She appearsto be the team’s ace.

In the season opener, thegirls’ team was at a large disad-vantage due to the weather. Theteam’s softball field, located onSugar Campus, was not readyfor the team to hold practices,so the Bruins hit the field for thefirst time when they playedFriends. As a result, the teamcommitted a medley of errors

and lost 15-0.Despite the season opener

loss, Park currently has a 4-1record.

In their most recent match upagainst Beth T’Filoh, the Bruinswere victorious with a 21-8win. Park dominated throughoutthe game, knocking off its rivalfrom down the road.

Taking on Bryn Mawr onSugar Field, the Bruins were vic-torious, 16-8. They were led bya three-hit game from SarahDewey ’05. Two of the ripswere doubles, and Dewey also

Tennis servesup first winin five years

photo by B. Weinstein ‘06

In a grueling 3-2 win overMt. St. Joe’s March 31, CaptainBen Gamse ’05, Michael Levy’06, and Ryan Maluski ’08swept the singles matches, lead-ing the team to its first victoryin five years.

The team is currently 1-4,having lost to Friends, St.Paul’s, McDonogh, and Loyola.

Still, the team is optimisticabout the possibility of beatingCalvert Hall and Boys’ Latin. Itsgoal is to secure itself a place inthe A-conference playoffs. Thiswould be the first playoff berthfor the team this half decade.

Gamse explained, “BeatingMt. St. Joe’s was a huge boostto the team’s confidence. Withthat win we’re sure we cancompete for a spot in the play-offs.”

legged out a triple that wassmashed over the left fieldershead.

Park’s other victories on theseason have been against StPaul’s School for Girls 13-1 anda 21-4 win versus Garrison For-est School. Both were easyvictories for the Bruins.

On April 30, Park will travelup Falls Road to St. Paul’s fora rematch. The games will bedifficult due to the lack of fieldtime and preparation.

One thing the team has goingfor it is the return of Co-Cap-tain Dewey. She missed herentire junior season due to aslow healing sprain. Deweystepped into the open first baseposition, and despite missing lastseason, she brings a lot of ex-perience.

Captain Erin Lockwood ’05is enthusiastic about this season,especially because of the num-ber of underclassmen who havejoined the team. “There are a lotof new girls in the program.They are working hard and willdefinitely be important to theprogram.” Lockwood believesthis season will be very suc-cessful for Park. “Everyone islooking forward to the season.We have really begun to bondand have the potential to makeit quite far this year, hopefully tothe top of the conference.”

B. Gamse ‘05 revs up for abackhand.

E. Lockwood ‘05 steals third base before Bryn Mawr has time to make the play. The call was safe.

photo by B. Weinstein ‘06

The Girl’s Varsity Lacrosseteam has had a productive firsthalf of the season. There aresix returning seniors, who bringvaluable playoff experience tothe team. Last year’s squad hada fantastic season but lost in thetough semi-final match againstArchbishop Spalding. This

year’s group includes twofreshmen, and two four-yearVarsity players, Erica Gelb ‘05and Allie Zerhusen ‘05.

Due a change in conferenc-es, which moved Park from theB-conference into a more com-petitive A2-conference, the teamfaces major challenges game af-ter game. Park, GarrisonForest, McDonough, Mercy,

Spalding, and last year’s B-con-ference Champion Friendscomprise the new A2-confer-ence.

Coach Robin Lowe ‘84 stat-ed, “Historically, all these teamsare very strong; every game isgoing to be extremely competi-tive.” Because of the stiffercompetition as well as previousstruggles with team unity and

coherence, the team has beenthrough a rocky season. Still,Park has increased expectationsfor this year and Coach Lowebelieves that this team has themost potential of any team she’scoached.

In the past, the Bruins havetended to be a defensively ori-ented team. “[This year,] theteam is really balanced,” saidCoach Lowe. “I expect to scorea lot.”

However, defense is still alarge focus. “Ideally we wouldlike to hold teams to 5 or 6goals”, said Lowe, “If we cando that, we will have a lot ofsuccess this year.”

The first three weeks of pre-season went very well. CoachLowe remarked, “The girlsworked very hard to get inshape, and hopefully we will staythis strong all season.” Overspring break, the team traveledto Florida. They were victoriousin several small scrimmages andone official game versus IND.“Everything was very relaxed,”Sarah Raifman ‘05 said. “Wewent to Disney World and hadfun, but we also practiced real-ly hard. It was a good bondingexperience.”

Park started conference playwith a 15-7 win versus Garrisonand a 6-8 loss against Spalding.

Conference play continued

with Friends on April 7. Parkjumped out to an early 3-1 lead.Offense execution was excel-lent, but Friends battled backand took a commanding lead athalftime. Park had considerabledifficulty preventing counter-at-tacks and Friends scored onthree consecutive fast breaks.

Despite a difficult first half,Park regained some composureand attempted to ground awayFriends’ lead. Despite putting upa valiant effort and scoring twogoals in the last 40 seconds,Park lost 15-10.

After defeating Mercy onApril 12, Park was in third placein the conference.

Last place Garrison Forest,who Park defeated 15-8 in theirprevious game, narrowly defeat-ed the Bruins 10-8 on April 14.Despite the loss, the Bruinsremain in contention in the con-ference.

They spent the followingweekend re-cooperating fortheir second game against Spal-ding.

On April 19, Park played withheart and mind and held Spald-ing to a painful but upliftingscore of 10-11 in favor of theCavaliers. The Bruins have hada successful start in an extreme-ly competitive conference, andthey have the potential to win thechampionship.

Page 12April 22, 2005The PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe PostscriptThe Postscript

Non-Profit OrganizationU.S. PostagePermit No. 2

The Park School of BaltimoreBrooklandville, MD 21022

SPORTSVarsity Bruins hold first place in B-conferenceby Wes Jamison ‘05

(Above) J. Baylin ’05 drives tothe goal looking for a shot in ablowout home game againstAnnapolis Area ChristianSchool. B. Earley ’05 watchesthe play transpire, waiting fora pass, ready to back upBaylin’s shot.

(Left) J. Cornblath ’06 dodgesdefender in the April 5 gameagainst Saints Peter and Paul.The Bruins went on to beat theSabres 19-5.

In a recent Baltimore Sunarticle the Bruins wereranked fifteenth in the state.

“My goals are always thesame,” said Lucky Mallonee,coach of the Boys Varsity La-crosse team. “I want our teamto be better at the end of theseason than it was at the begin-ning; I want to win more gamesthan we lose; I want to make theplayoffs, and I want to make thechampionship.” This year, theteam has a very good chance ofachieving that and more.

Attackman Ben Earley ’05explained, “Since we got a tasteof the championship last year,our drive is not only to get backbut to win. We have the high-est expectations possible.”

Last year, the team made it tothe championship and playedJohn Carroll at Towson Univer-sity. It was a close match-upand Park played well but cameup short. This year’s team hasmany of the same players andnone of them like the prospectof being runner-up.

This year’s Boys Varsitysports have seen some greatteams. Soccer carried a num-ber one ranking throughout theseason only to lose on penaltykicks in the semifinals. Basket-ball also had a number one seedin the playoffs. The team hada double digit lead in the fourthquarter but let the game slipaway. Senior Captain Paul Weitz’05, who was been on both ofthose teams, stated simply,“The window is closing.”

Those lacrosse players whodidn’t play basketball followed astrict training regimen led byRob Slade. They spent hours inthe weight room and running atSlade’s gym. “It was the hard-est of the four years I’ve doneit. We ran in a foot of snow,”recalled R. Scott Sweren ‘05.

Despite having only one out-door practice before springbreak, with two scrimmagescanceled, Park started the sea-son 7-0. In its first game againstKey, Park played very sluggish-ly, but won 10-1. In its secondgame, the team pulled it togeth-er and beat Pallotti 13-4. “Wedidn’t really play well againstKey although the score doesn’tshow it,” explained Senior Cap-

tain J. J. Baylin, “but we madesteps in the right directionagainst Pallotti.” Since then, theteam has been growing strongereveryday, and is preparing for asolid second half of the season.

Last year’s champion, JohnCarroll, along with ArchbishopCurley, should prove to bePark’s best competition this year.Park drove down to Curley forits third game, and pulled out a9-7 victory in the away game.The team will need to performbetter next time however be-cause Curley was missing a starattackman.

The Bruins dominated St.Johns with a 17-2 win in theirfourth game. It was a bitter-sweet victory because both DiaClark ’06 and Kyle Tarver ’06were injured. Clark has alreadyreturned but Tarver is still pac-ing the sidelines.

On April 12 the Bruins metJohn Carroll at Park for a re-match of the championship.Park jumped out to an early 3-0

lead in the first quarter. JohnCarroll stayed close, refusing togive up. With a minute left, Parkled 5-3. The Bruins had attempt-ed to hold the ball and kill timefor about four minutes butJohn Carroll got the ball backand scored with 55.9 secondsleft. John Carroll then won theface-off and drove down toscore another quick goal with

41.8 seconds left, tieing thegame at five and forcing a sud-den death overtime.

In overtime, Park seemed tocontrol the tempo, getting off acouple of good shots. JuniorBrad Mendelson made two greatsaves to keep Park alive. Then,in the second overtime, juniorattackman Jake Cornblath droveon his man from behind the goaland bounced in a shot to win thegame, handing John Carroll itsfirst conference loss in over twoyears.

This year’s defense is prov-ing to be exceptional. While theoffense is averaging over 12goals a game, the defense has letup an average of just over fourgoals a game.

David Berman ‘05, GusBloom ‘06, and Mike Dembert’05 lead the defense. Mendelsonsaid, “I really haven’t had to domuch this season because mydefense has been so dominant.

They’ve shut down some ofthe best offenses in the confer-ence.”

While its future is unclear,there is one thing that is certainabout the team. Coach Mal ex-plained, “This team seems moretogether than last year.”

Team members clearly enjoyeach other’s company and ob-viously love being a team. “Thatis one thing that separates usfrom all other teams,” saidSweren, “we are a true team.”

Park beat Key 13-3 on April19. Though the team pulled outa victory, it did not live up to itsfull potential, according to Bay-lin, having just come off its bigwin against John Carroll.

Today, the Bruins will faceCurley in a home game. Cur-rently the Friars are in fourthplace in the conference, but theBruins, who are in first place,know that Curley can certainlyupset the Bruins.

With 8-0 record, Park has high hopes for championship seasonWith 8-0 record, Park has high hopes for championship seasonWith 8-0 record, Park has high hopes for championship seasonWith 8-0 record, Park has high hopes for championship seasonWith 8-0 record, Park has high hopes for championship season