Alternative School offers some students a new type of education

Photo Courtesy of Bing

By Julie Abraham

        When entering the secluded hallway in the E building, students are seen sprawled out onto couches, reading the books of their choice, and referring to their two teachers by their first names.

           This is a typical classroom experience in Edgemont Jr. /Sr. High School’s Alternative School.

            The school allows students to have a greater say in what they learn. The A-School students, as they are sometimes called, are taught English and Social Studies classes with about 23 other students.        

               In past years, instead of a normal English class, students can opt for a gender as an issue in literature class. Instead of a world history class, they can take a Holocaust class or an ethics class. The school also emphasized community service. Students choose internships to give them experience in professional fields they are interested in.

            While some students are trying to get into the program, others think it’s a bad idea because the traditional curriculum provides more breadth in learning. On the other hand, many students want some of the benefits provided by the A-school.

Latin-a Dying Language in Schools

Latin text book

By Abby Brown

 

There has been at outcry at Stratton Mountain School, a private winter sports academy in Stratton Vermont, which has canceled its Latin program.

 

Peggy DeSantis, the assistant headmaster and Latin teacher retired last year after 35 years at the school, leaving it without a teacher.

And finding a replacement is more challenging than most other schools. A sports academy in Vermont, Stratton Mountain School has many teachers with backgrounds in athletics as well as in their subject matter. Because of the challenge of finding a teacher with a mix of experience in winter sports and Latin, the headmaster decided to discontinue the classes.

Now, parents are furious.  It’s a phenomenon happening throughout the country. While Latin classes are popular, many schools are eliminating them because of budget woes and few teachers.

“I was excited about my child taking Latin, and I am really disappointed that it is being discontinued.” said Carole Brown, the mother of a Latin student.

One-Mile Run is a Marathon for some Students

Kids preforming a sit-up test- photo courtesy of Bing

By Sam Spector

                Casey Rogovin, a student at Edgemont High School, has been playing varsity tennis since 7th grade, but she still couldn’t pass the yearly physical fitness test called President’s Challenge. 
The yearly test, made to measure students’ athletic abilities, also determines who is allowed to be an athlete. Rogovin passed most elements of the test – pull-ups, curl-ups, a sprint, and a mile run. But she didn’t pass a sit-and-reach test. 
                Under the school’s normal rules, she wouldn’t have been allowed to participate in competitive sports without improving her flexibility. But administrators made an exception for her because of her athletic background. 
But Rogovin’s predicament illustrates some students’ concerns that the tests are unfair and aren’t good markers of a student’s health. Students also say that the tests are embarrassing for students without a natural athleticism. 
Schools have had athletic tests ever since Dwight Eisenhower proposed them in 1956, but lately they’ve become more intense. The fact that Rogovin didn’t pass just makes students at Edgemont take the test less seriously. 
                It’s just an example of many new programs that schools are implementing to increase physical fitness, but students don’t think they’re working. 
                Rogovin said that although some students cannot reach national standards (50th percentile), many seem to be able to play on teams despite the physical education policy. It is likely that at the beginning of a season, athletes are not in their best physical conditions thus preventing them from reaching their full potential on the test. 
Rogovin also believes the test takes time away from varsity sports. “It takes away time from our practices when we already have a limited amount of time,” she said. “This usually upsets the coaches.” 
                Other students say that such a strenuous test can be degrading to those who are far from physically fit. Although the test is intended to encourage exercise and fitness, instead it often lowers self-esteem and diminishes any enthusiasm of wanting to try in gym. Consequently a lack of interest to participate in physical activity became common. 
                 

Are You Thirsty For Twilight?

Twilight Eclipse

By Lily Belk

October 5th, 2005, is a day that will live in infamy for millions of teenage girls, and some boys, across the world – the day that the first installment of the Twilight Saga was published.
Although, it was really three years later that the series reached its renown with a cult–like following, when the movie based on the first book, “Twilight,” was released. However, it reached a fever pitch with the recent release of the third movie, “Eclipse”. Even the critics, once skeptical, are now catching on.
Older students indulge in the series, but are aware that the series is not quality literature, but more of a guilty pleasure. Younger students, on the other hand, put a lot of stock into the novels, finding they relate to the story’s protagonist, Bella. 
But many parents, and even some teens, worry that Bella isn’t a good role model.
“She goes off with someone she barely knows, and he hides her from the world and her friends… She never even goes out or cares about her family,” said 16 year old, Emily Levin of Westchester.
Once Bella meets Edward Cullen, a handsome, but somber vampire, she ignores her friends, her schoolwork, and even her family. She even abandons her Dad without any explanation in the second book while he is at his friend’s funeral to risk her life saving Edward from suicide. Bella also refuses to go to college unless Edward turns her into a vampire.

Colleges Not Accepting Sign Language Causes Students to Struggle

Photo courtesy of www.compuworks.com

By Savannah Cassidy

In the midst of the grueling college application process, students are finding themselves lacking the foreign language prerequisite many schools require, not because they haven’t taken a second language in high school, but because they took Sign Language.

“We haven’t really started the college application process, but I know many of my friends only took sign language which could probably hurt them if a school doesn’t accept that,” said Allie Haid, 16, a student at Greenwich High School. She avoided the problem by taking Spanish in addition to sign language. 

Ricky Piper, also a senior at Greenwich High School, took sign language because he is more of a visual learner and says it was fun to learn, but he is worried he will have problems applying to schools.  “Schools should definitely accept ASL as a foreign language,”  he said.

Many colleges say they don’t accept sign language classes from high school because they don’t offer a continuation of the lessons, as they do with many other foreign languages. Mike Hills, the senior associate director of Admissions at Denison University in Ohio, said succinctly: “Since Denison does not offer courses in ASL; this would not be an option.” High schools also don’t often offer the course. It is not considered a foreign language by some schools because it is based on English, and sign language does not have the importance of other foreign languages.

On the other side are advocates for the deaf, who are offended when they hear such justifications, rather than an increase in schools that do offer sign language.

Sherman Wilcox, a linguistics professor at the University of New Mexico, argues with schools’ reasons for refusing to accept sign language experience from incoming students.

 “Reluctance to give foreign language credit for ASL is often based on misconceptions about the language,” Wilcox said in a 1989 article. “ASL provides the same benefits as the study of more traditional foreign languages: the ability to communicate in an additional language, and an awareness and understanding of a different culture.”

Students Heavily Impacted by Rachel’s Challenge

By Julie Abraham 

Images of high school students frantically trying to escape killers in their school cafeteria are played on a flimsy projector in front of the gym as students are filled with horror. 

These graphic images were shown during a presentation designed to educate students about the terror of Columbine and how to prevent bullying on school campuses. This presentation was done by a group named “Rachel’s Challenge” that has made a total of 1,796 presentations hoping to raise awareness of school bullying. 

The program is named after Rachel Scott, the first victim in the Columbine shooting.  Before her death, she kept a series of journals in which she wrote her core values about kindness and compassion. Scott’s main idea was starting a chain reaction of kindness, the same idea behind paying it forward, doing something positive for someone so they’ll also be inspired to do something nice for someone else. 

She wanted to inspire students to start a chain reaction themselves. However, because of other images shown in the presentation, some students came away with a fear of bullying instead of a hope for a kinder school experience. 

“Rachel’s Challenge” treated the Columbine massacre as an example of what could happen if people aren’t civil to each other, though an extreme one. Actual footage of the shooting within the Columbine school, desperate 911 calls made by Columbine teachers in an attempt for help and an interview with Rachel Scott’s brother were included in the presentation. At least one student, Mellissa Itkin, 15, left the gym because she felt so “uncomfortable and over whelmed.” 

Music and Drugs- More Related Than You’d Think

 

By Lily Belk

Teenagers who listen to techno might be more likely to try amphetamines than those who listen to rap, who might be more likely to down cough syrup, according to studies.

While popular music has long been associated with drug use, recent studies show that the tastes in music can actually influence these teens’ choice of recreational drugs.

Ricocheting beams of lights refract of the metal walls like jagged shards of glass. Gyrating, sweating bodies are dancing so fiercely that the entire pack of figures looks like one formidable wave. 

A lanky boy with tangled blonde hair and feet much too big for his slight frame approaches a throng of teenage girls, all in fitted skirts and cropped tops that don’t leave much to the imagination. He whispers something only they can hear, and then shows them something in his hand. Two of the girls follow suit not long after. 

What the gangly boy offered the girls cannot be known for sure. However, it is not that hard to make an assumption about the extreme night life that is so common to raves. 

“Condensed in a few words, it was a bunch of loud and repetitive music, lots of lights, and a decent amount of people on drugs,” says 16-year-old Matthew of Scarsdale, New York. “I was offered drugs… ecstasy and cocaine.” 
Amphetamines such as ecstasy are becoming more and more common in the techno music scene, comparable to the surge of usage of LSD in the psychedelic rock age of the 1960s.