Director’s blog, December 2009

Dear LREI Community,

I hope that you and yours found time to rest over the long weekend as the next three weeks are chock full of events. I encourage you to check out the on-line calendar to make sure that you do not miss anything, including home basketball games. Our middle and high school teams are exciting to watch and love to have fans in the stands. After Winter Break you can also stop by the gym on Friday afternoons at 3:30 to see the 5th and 6th graders play in our intramural basketball league—a great introduction for lower school fans! Thanks to the PA Sports Committee for creating the home game banner that hangs outside the Sixth Ave. building on any day there is a game in our Thompson Street gym.

Book Week, the Book Fair and our annual Literary Evening are next week. All of the info that you need follows this note. These are always fantastic events!

Finally, it is a pleasure to announce a new LREI experience…….
ADULT rED

Have you ever wanted to go back to school in a progressive classroom similar to your child’s? Intrigued by what you hear around the dinner table? Many parents of LREI students tell us how they wish that they could have the experiences that their children have each day.

In response to significant parent interest, this winter LREI will be offering two evening courses for adults, taught by members of our outstanding faculty. These will be seminar style courses, with an emphasis on discussion and open dialogue between participants. Two members of our high school faculty, Julia Heaton (English Teacher, former Acting High School Principal, former Academic Dean) and Tom Murphy (History Teacher, History Department Chair), will be offering abridged versions of their most popular offerings—Dangerous Language and Global War on Terror: American Foreign Policy Since 9/11, respectively.

Each course will be open to 15 participants. There will be pre-seminar reading assignments (to be completed over Winter Break) with additional shorter supplemental assignments during the five-week session. The courses meet simultaneously. If you are interested in participating, please choose one, with the expectation that you will attend all five sessions. While there are no required writing assignments, participants are encouraged to take notes and respond in writing to the week’s guiding questions.

Classes will meet on the following Tuesday evenings—January 12th, January 19th, January 26th, February 2nd and February 9th. Courses will meet from 6:30PM-8:00PM in the high school, 40 Charlton Street.

There is a $100 registration fee for each participant.

If you would like to register for one of these courses, please contact Rowena Penaranda-Askins at rpenaranda@lrei.org or (212) 477-5316, x295.
Course Descriptions

Pornography or Masterpiece: Reading Lolita at LREI

“I shall never regret Lolita. She was like the composition of a beautiful puzzle– its composition and its solution at the same time, since one is a mirror view of the other, depending on the way you look.” – Vladimir Nabokov, 1964.

“What frightens or disturbs us in Lolita…opens our eyes to ourselves and our worlds. Everyone should read it for the pure joy.” — Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran

Published in 1955, Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita was hailed by Graham Greene as one of the best books of all time and also “the filthiest book I have ever read…sheer unrestrained pornography” (John Gordon, London Sunday Express, 1956). For the past half century, this iconic story of a middle-aged professor’s infatuation with his adolescent stepdaughter continues to fascinate, intoxicate and alienate readers of all ages. In this five-week seminar, we will journey together through the novel Lolita, analyzing the text in terms of character, language, formal structure, and theme. Furthermore, we will consider the novel’s publication history (banned in several countries) as well as its complicated position in the literary “canon”. Finally, we will discuss the societal and moral implications of the novel’s subject, and the complicity we feel as readers when we are at once “entranced with the book while abhorring its author” (Nabokov, Lolita). Participants will read an annotated version of Lolita as well as selected works of literary criticism.

The Global War on Terror: American Foreign Policy Since 9/11

“We will rid the world of evildoers.” — Bush, Sept. 17.

The Global War on Terrorism (or GWOT) is the name of a campaign with the stated goal of ending international terrorism by preventing terrorist groups from posing a threat, and by putting an end to state sponsorship of terrorism. This campaign was launched by the United States following the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. carried out by al-Qaeda. After more than eight years the name has changed yet the conflict continues. In this five-week seminar, we will use a combination of primary sources, articles and Frontline documentaries to examine the evolution of the war against radical Islam. By looking at how we got here we may develop a better understanding of what we should do next.

Week One: Al Qaeda and the New Terrorism

Week Two: The Bush Foreign Policy Revolution

Week Three: The War in Afghanistan

Week Four: The War in Iraq

Week Five: The Global War on Terror and Human Rights

THE LOOMING TOWER Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. By Lawrence Wright. Illustrated. 469 pp. Alfred A. Knopf.

Best, Phil

Updates and Announcements:

* View all events with the LREI On-line Calendar
* Click here to see the 2009-2010 calendar.
* LREI Athletics. For general LREI Athletics news go to this link . This page will provide general announcements, game summaries, league standings and season recaps.

*From the LREI Family Handbook….Families (including those whose children are non-allergic) must never send in snacks or food that contain nuts or seeds of any kind, either for themselves or for their children, even if the snacks or food are not intended to be consumed on school property. In particular, backpacks and pockets should never have any nuts or seeds in them.

*As you may know, this year marks the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots which marked the beginning of the gay activism/liberation movement. Tonight, High School English Teacher Ileana Jimenez will be honored as one of the “40 Women of Stonewall” by The Stonewall Foundation. She is being honored for her philanthropy and social activism. We couldn’t be more proud of her!

1. Please remember that Exam Week for Trimester I begins tomorrow with Review Day. On Monday, December 7, all students have Reading Day, then exams are held from Tuesday through Thursday, 9-11 AM and 1-3 PM. If you are a family with a Ninth Grader, you should have received an email from Grade Dean Margaret Magee (mmagee@lrei.org) detailing exam week, including Reading Day. If you did not receive this information, please let Ruth or Margaret know. All families were emailed the Review Day and Exam Week schedule. If you did not receive this information, please let Ruth know.

Community service day is on Friday, December 11! Students may use this day to give back to their community, which is especially needed this holiday season. All students should make plans independently. If anyone needs assistance in finding a volunteer opportunity, please contact the student’s advisor or grade dean or contact our student Community Service Coordinator, Gabe Rudin, ’10, here at the high school.

Here is one opportunity from the LREI Literary Committee: Students needed to help pack up the Book Fair on Friday, Dec. 11 from 6-8pm, 6th Avenue.

2. Grades and Comments for Trimester I will be posted on Backpack on December 23 before 5PM. If you do not have a user name or password for Backpack, or have misplaced this information, please let Adria Maynor know before December 23: 212-477-5316, x323 or x301, amaynor@lrei.org.

3. On December 14, the high school will host CNN correspondent Soledad O’Brien for our annual Book Week assembly. The high school is becoming the place to speak for the most important women in media! Please take a look at this slideshow from and article about MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow’s visit to the high school, planned and implemented by Ileana Jimenez, last spring. (Photos of Rachel Maddow at LREI were taken by Angel Chevrestt).

4. PSAT results are in and will be mailed by the College Office next week. All families will receive their scores before Winter Break.

5. Next week is BOOK WEEK! Authors and illustrators will be visiting all LREI grades. These visitors donate their time to enriching our students’ love of reading. We encourage you to support them by visiting the Book Fair, where titles by all visiting authors will be on sale, as well as a wide selection of other titles for children and grown-ups. The Book Fair starts Wednesday, December 9, at 2 PM, and runs through Friday, December 11, at 6 PM, in the Sixth Ave. auditorium.

The LREI Literary Committee is also hosting a Literary Evening for the adults of our community. This year’s evening, called Only in New York: Folly in the Big Apple, takes place on Tuesday, December 8, at 7 PM in the Charlton St. PAC. Authors include: Jonathan Ames, Susan Choi, Gabriel Cohen, Jennifer Egan, Marian Fontana and Victor LaValle, with Andy Borowitz as MC . Tickets are on sale for $25 in the Sixth Avenue Lobby every morning, along with gift certificates for the Book Fair. Your ticket will get you an evening of New York stories, as well as great food and drink. Click here for details.

Since high school students have exams next week, they will have their Book Week experience on Monday, December 14, during assembly. There will also be a mini book fair at the high school that afternoon. Parents: If you would like to pre-authorize your high schooler to buy books using either a credit card or check, please fill out the attached form. This form could then be used by the student at either the main book fair at the Sixth Ave. building or on Dec. 14 at Charlton St.

6. The Glass Menagerie, LREI’s resident adult chorus, conducted by Susan Glass, LREI parent and teacher, is giving their annual holiday concert this weekend. See below for details:

A Choral Flourish
Saturday, December 5th
8PM
St. Josepth’s Church
6th Ave and Washington Place
8PM
$20/ $15 students and seniors

7. HOLIDAY SHOPPING AT LREI SCHOOL SPIRIT STORE!

The school store will be open the following mornings at the Sixth Avenue building from 8 AM-9 AM:

Friday 12/11

Tuesday 12/18

Wednesday 12/16

Thursday 12/17

Charlton Street, both lunch periods:

Monday 12/14

Tuesday 12/15

8. Joanne Magee is proud to present the middle school production of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” Dec 11th 7pm and Dec 12th 2pm and 7pm.  This stage adaption, which retains much of Kipling’s original poetry, but with all the charm of a middle school play, focuses on Mowgli’s journey of discovery as he grows up with his family and comes to terms with his unique and complex identity. Come to the play as a family and join us as we follow Mowgli through the challenges he faces both in the jungle and in his heart.  Enjoy our colorful set, costumes and of course, the outstanding talents of our middle school students.

Tickets are on sale in the Sixth Avenue Lobby from 8am-9am Dec 4th-11th. Students $10 Adults $12.