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Potomac Stories

Media and Literature explores '1984', the Red Scare, and Chinese censorship

When reading George Orwell's 1984, seniors in the English elective "Media and Literature" often begin noticing connections between the text's plot and themes and historical events or movements. While their teacher, Ms. Virchow, applauds their close reading, she also acknowledges that her own knowledge of history falls short sometimes, so she calls in the experts! Last fall, three teachers visited her students as they were studying 1984: Ms. Charlotte Berlin (history department chair and IS history teacher) led a lesson on the Red Scare and the sociological concept of "moral panic"; Mr. Nick MacDonald (US history teacher) taught a class on the complexities of propaganda used by Nazis during WWII; and Ms. Ingrid Larsen (US Chinese teacher) shared artifacts, information, and stories with the students related to Chinese censorship in the past and present. Students were so inspired by the guest teachers that several chose to write their final essays about the novel on connections between Orwell's Oceania and the societies that were discussed during those classes.

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Potomac School Greek Olympics
From Anubis to Zeus – Egypt Day, Greek Olympics, Living History Showcase

The Greek Olympics is just one of the interactive end-of-year events that distinguish Potomac’s Middle School history curriculum. While each of the division’s three grades undertakes a different culminating activity, all of the projects involve creative applications of knowledge gained throughout the year.

Julie Lythcott-Haims speaks to students at upper school assembly
Julie Lythcott-Haims speaks about mental health

New York Times bestselling author Julie Lythcott-Haims addressed the Upper School at a special assembly on April 27. Ms. Lythcott-Haims’ books include How to Raise an Adult and, more recently, Your Turn: How to Be an Adult. Thanks to Olivia Eads ’23 and Annabel Cronic ’23 for introducing our guest speaker.

Summer Student Leadership Seminar

Throughout August, students in grades 11 and 12 were invited to participate in a leadership seminar facilitated by US Director of Student Life Jake Westermann. The group took part in two virtual sessions, where they sought to understand their own leadership strengths and areas for growth, discuss the characteristics that define effective leaders, and analyze the successes and failures of corporate executives using business school case studies. For the third and final session, students came to campus and used Stanford Design School’s model for problem solving (“Design Thinking”) to tackle a list of challenges they wanted to address and potentially implement at Potomac. This group will have an opportunity during the school year to present their ideas to members of the Upper School leadership team.

Coopertition and Generosity of Spirit

As I was beginning my Potomac journey, I first heard about “generosity of spirit”.  When I asked “what does generosity of spirit look like at Potomac”, I was told a story about our robotics program and two of our teams that were competing in the national finals of the US Open Robotics championship.

Both teams were well-prepared, skilled and highly competitive eager, to win the championship.  In that final match, one team- perhaps the stronger team had a malfunction- their robot needed to be repaired and could not continue without a timeout. The team used a 30 second time out, but unfortunately, they did not have enough time to make all the necessary repairs. 

Just think about the situation. Your team, can win the championship because your opponent cannot get their robot repaired in time to finish. Most of us would allow the team to default and declare victory.

Ben Choi Regeneron Finalist
Potomac senior named a Top 40 Scholar

Potomac senior Ben Choi has been named a Top 40 Scholar in the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2022, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and mathematics competition for high school seniors. Chosen from a pool of more than 1,800 highly qualified entrants from across the nation, Choi will participate in the final weeklong competition in Washington, DC, this March.