16 million. That is the number of viewers who tuned in to view the hearing of Michael Cohen on Wednesday, February 27th. And giving her legal analytic opinion about the events that unfolded in Washington D.C that same day was Mimi Rocah ‘88.

Former Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and MSNBC, Rocah joined MSNBC as their legal analyst in 2018 and has been giving her legal opinion on newsworthy topics, ranging from Jeffrey Epstein’s investigation to the hearing that occurred five weeks ago in Washington D.C.

According to Rocah, she experienced teachings for critical and independent thinking greatly in her time at Parker. “I feel like those are the skills that people learn in school, whatever the subject if you’re talking about history, if you’re talking about literature, if you’re talking about math, you’re learning the skills at that point, to be analytical,” Rocah said, “and I think Parker is very good at bringing that out in people at a young age.”

Similar to Rocah, Upper School English Teacher and Rocah’s former advisor Bonnie Seebold feels that Parker does a great job of teaching students to critically think. “That’s in the mission of the school, that’s one of the reasons why I love this school, is that the kids learn, over time, to question authority,” Seebold said. “And so you use those critical skills when you look at a text, you’re questioning always, ‘what’s going on here.’ Not in a way to, necessarily overthrow the authority, but to just understand what’s going on.”

On Wednesday, February 27th, former lawyer to President Donald Trump, Michael Cohen, testified in front of members of the House of Representatives about his time serving under the President. Among the many Representatives on the committee, including Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Republican Jim Jordan, Parker Alum and member of the House of Representatives Ayanna Pressley ‘92 raised many questions into Cohen’s past as the lawyer to the President.

In addition to the 16 million viewers that tuned in to see the Cohen hearing, Upper School History teacher Andrew Bigelow viewed the questioning and had some very strong thoughts about Michael Cohen. “This guy is slime, he’s the worst, he defies civic duty, he is someone who should go to prison and spend a significant amount of time,” Bigelow said. “In the grand scheme of things, he really did get off quite well considering all the damage that he did do.”

In terms of Cohen’s information from a legal standpoint, Rocah feels that Cohen was actually quite believable. “I thought that overall he came across as reasonably credible,” Rocah said. “I think that there probably are things that people will and have tried to pick apart about what he said, but for the most part, I think the things he said, to me, seemed true.”

Rocah explained her stance on the hearing. “He seemed credible because he seemed like he wasn’t out to get Donald Trump, he wasn’t making up stories,” Rocah said. “The stories he was telling were, some of them were damaging, some of them were helpful, he wasn’t creating a set of facts that was good for a certain narrative.”

The honestly that Rocah observed resonated with her. “That struck me as, ‘wow, he wanted to lie, he’d be making up a better story’ kind of thing,” Rocah said. However, Rocah had one last point to say about trusting Cohen as a source of information in general. “At the end of the day, no one should rely on Michael Cohen alone, for anything,” Rocah said. “They have to have other evidence.”

After the Cohen hearing, Seebold felt a sense of anticipation for what was going to come out of this news story. “I guess I’m just expectant,” Seebold said. “I’m wondering what’s going to happen as a result of what he said and what he’s saying that we don’t know that he’s saying to the Special Counsel. So I’m looking forward to what’s going to unfold.”

While Parker’s history curriculum does involve current events such as the Cohen hearing, Bigelow believes that Parker can do more to involve these events in students’ education. “I think some kids are really into it, but not everyone’s on board,” Bigelow said. “So we need to get more teachers on board, more students on board, to study and use current events because it’s all rooted in history.”

Similar to Bigelow, Seebold feels that she uses current events in her curriculum all the time at Parker. “For example, in my Film and Literature class, we’re reading Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, which is about refugees, so how can you not talk about the refugee situation when you’re talking about that book,” Seebold said. “So the books that I would choose would lend themselves, some of them would lend themselves, to that kind of discussion.”

Seebold even tries to implement current events when talking about books from hundreds of years ago. “If they’re not a book that necessarily lends itself to that kind of discussion, like maybe The Odyssey might be an example of that, that seems so old because it was written centuries ago, still, when you read it,” Seebold said, “students will obviously bring up things in current events that they are reminded of when they’re reading the book.”

While Parker may have changed in terms of exposing students to the news in the world, Rocah feels that Parker did a good job preparing her and others to observe and analyze the news on a daily basis. “I do know that Parker really puts a value on critical thinking and independent thinking and I think developing those skills are useful for whether you’re going to practice law, or you’ll be a journalist,” Rocah said. “I think Parker is probably uniquely good at bringing that up in students.”