What if ... 

What if you could ask any absurd question that comes to mind, and what if there was a whole book devoted to the subject? Randall Munroe’s book, What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, allowed Loomis Chaffee students the opportunities to take their minds all sorts of places this summer and ask all sorts of hypothetical and weirdly fascinating questions. 

Mr. Munroe’s book was one of 27 choices students had as part of this year’s summer reading program. The titles were selected by Loomis Chaffee departments and centers with the intent of connecting to students’ interests, hobbies, and passions. All across campus on Friday, September 27, faculty and students engaged in chats about the specific books.  

Students gathered in the PHI for the discussion of Mr. Munroe’s book. Each took a turn saying why they chose the book and identifying their favorite part. One student said he chose the book “because these were the kinds of questions I asked my mom when I was a kid.” As part of the book chat, the students engaged in a group activity in which they came up with their own “what ifs.”  

What if everyone lived in one big building?  

How large would a gas tank need to be for an 18-wheeler to circumvent the world with no stops? 

What would happen if everyone went vegan? 

What if we stole the moon? 

How much would a toaster need to heat up to disintegrate the bread? 

At the Head’s House, Head of School Jody Reilly Soja led a group in a discussion of Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng, a novel that rang all too true. In the book, notes its description, “Bird Gardner knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. ... Authorities are allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic — including the work of Bird's mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who left the family without a trace when he was 9 years old.” 

The author’s note in the book says, “As I wrote this novel, real-life examples were never far from my mind” — one of them being an increase in anti-Asian discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students spoke about “the polarization of the world that exists today,” “media bias and the echo chamber where you see what you want to see,” the need “for everyone to have a voice,” and the danger when “access to the truth” is being restricted.

 

Meanwhile, in the lecture hall of the Richmond Art Center (RAC), Cathy O’Neil, the author of Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, answered students' questions via video conference. Her book, notes a description, “sounds an alarm on the mathematical models that pervade modern life. ... We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives — where we go to school, whether we get a car loan, how much we pay for health insurance — are being made not by humans, but by mathematical models. In theory, this should lead to greater fairness: Everyone is judged according to the same rules, and bias is eliminated. But the opposite is true. The models being used today are opaque, unregulated, and uncontestable, even when they’re wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination. Models are propping up the lucky and punishing the downtrodden. ... Welcome to the dark side of Big Data.” 

A few doors down in one of the RAC classrooms, students were making scrapbooks, illustrating what they had taken from reading the book Griffin and Sabrine: An Extraordinary Correspondence by Nick Bantock. The book’s description says, “With its combination of lush illustration, creative storytelling, and the guilty pleasure of reading other people's correspondence, Griffin and Sabine is part romance, part mystery, and completely a work of art. Each turn of the page contains a new card or letter to be unfolded from its envelope, and is vibrant with wildly imaginative creatures, landscapes, and intrigue.” 

The book chosen by the Athletics Department was written by Julia Allain ’10, Everything I Got: 30 Lessons on What You Give, What You Get, and How You Grow Through Sports. Julia has been around sports for much of her life. She played soccer at Loomis Chaffee, and her father Keith is the longtime hockey coach at Yale. Her book deals largely with the mental side of the game. 

In part of her book, Julia writes: “Accept that emotions will happen, so when they arise it is neither surprising nor startling. Focus on controlling your body so it reflects how you want to feel and what you want to do. And finally, talk the talk by intentionally filling that space in your head with the words you want and need to hear.” 

And go out and score that goal, make that catch, get that hit.