By SARAH SKROVAN
New to DeWitt Middle School this school year is an interesting experiment in contemporary learning spaces: the “model classroom”. Using what was once a staff development room, this project to create an innovative new learning space was made possible by a grant that was part of last year’s budget process.
The room isn’t quite complete, as the district is awaiting the arrival of a few more pieces of furniture. When it is fin-ished, it will have many unique features. Its walls and tabletops have been treated
with a special paint that makes their sur-faces writable, like giant dry-erase boards; these surfaces are certainly the first of their kind in ICSD. The room will also contain buoy chairs (chairs that wobble, spin, tilt, and bounce), one-to-one mobile devices, and an interactive whiteboard.
Teachers at DeWitt will have the op-portunity to sign up to bring their classes to the space, and the district hopes that lessons held in the model classroom will be largely student-designed. Staff devel-opment sessions will also continue to take place in the room.
“We are hoping the prototype of the model classroom at DeWitt will lead
to us scaling this approach to reach all district learning spaces,” said Superin-tendent Luvelle Brown on the future of the contemporary learning space. “We anticipate making adjustments based on student and teacher feedback. How-ever, the focus will remain on provid-ing learnprovid-ing spaces that promote stu-dent-led creation, collaboration, and thinking.”
Overall, there are high hopes for the model classroom, and the district is ea-ger to complete this exciting new exper-iment at DeWitt. IHS may also install a similar room, but without the special paint on the walls.
DeWitt’s “Special Room”
Developments at DeWitt could be the start of a district-wide change in how students learn.
2
November 5, 2013
2013–2014
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The Tattler is the student-run newspaper of Ithaca High School. It was founded in 1892
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the views of editorial staff.
E
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At the beginning of each year, we all sit down in our social studies classes, sharpen our pencils, and take an open-note, two-page test on the finer points of the IHS student handbook. We review the list of rules and repercussions for less than 45 minutes, after which most of us spend the rest of our year blissfully unaware of the policies and procedures that guide the disciplinary process at our school. The barriers we do run up against—a dress code vio-lation or skipping a class, for instance—can make us feel uncomfortable, but we rarely realize the full extent of the administration’s power until a major transgression occurs. The school’s implementation of standard disciplinary procedures can be blown out of proportion by a student body uninformed about the Student Code of Conduct; i.e., the rules all students are expected to follow. (The code of conduct, a rather large blue spiral-bound notebook, is mailed out to IHS students at the beginning of the year.) For the adults who maintain order in the high school to avoid blind animosity and instead promote understanding about the importance of the policies they enforce, we need to establish a better system of education about these same enforcements. Unfortunately, unless students are directly told what is and isn’t permissible according to the code of conduct, few will actively pursue learning about these restrictions, and even fewer will appreciate their purpose in maintain-ing a safe, educational environment.
Since the beginning of this year, many students have begun to experience the effects of the administration’s power in regulating the school day and activities on campus. Complaints began trickling in about students receiving referrals for going to their cars in C-Lot during their free periods. Then, al-most a month ago, the conflict culminated in the punishment of a group of students for possessing alcohol in the main parking lot.
From the administration’s perspective, the situation seemed simple: con-tainers of alcohol clearly visible within a student’s car indicated a violation of the code of conduct (Board
Poli-cy 5312.1: The Board of Education (BoE) is committed to creating a safe and drug-free school environment), warranting a search of the student’s belongings. The subsequent recovery of evidence in a group text identified others as being in possession of alco-hol and having consumed the same substance on school campus before a school trip. Principal Jarett Powers then contacted the students’ parents and suspended the students for five days, as per district policy.
For the students involved, how-ever, this process was nowhere near routine. Unaware of the exact conse-quences of their actions, students are often in the dark about the district’s powers during inquiries concerning code of conduct violations.
Continued on Page 3.
Searching a backpack, locker, or phone may seem ir-relevant when alcohol was discovered in someone’s car, but these are simply the actions that the district is autho-rized to perform in order to carry out the most thorough investigation it can. Some may be unaware that C-Lot is even located on school campus, and are skeptical that the school administration has the right to enter students’ cars when the district’s rules are broken. However, in the depths of the student handbook, the school does outline that “all vehicles are subject to search if there is reasonable evidence that contraband is present”, and that prohibited items include drugs and alcohol. The student handbook provides a general overview of the rules and disciplinary procedures in place at IHS, but the more specific policies are only discussed in the code of conduct, a document that many students do not know exists and is most easily ac-cessed through the district’s new labyrinth of a web site. Much of the hostility toward the administration is caused by this lack of general knowledge concerning school rules and procedures.
“I am responsible for you from the moment you step foot [on campus] to the moment you leave,” Mr. Powers summarized in a recent statement. This truly represents the task that the district is given in the management of students on campus: responsibility. By punishing a student for violating district rules, the administration is neither acting solely for its own purposes nor imposing a draco-nian system of discipline; it is upholding its obligation to protect and nurture students. The Student Code of Con-duct was not solely created by the district itself, but is rath-er an amalgamation of New York State school mandates and decisions made by the BoE, a group of elected offi-cials from the local community. The possession of drugs on campus or hanging out in the unsupervised parking lot do not promote the healthy education of youth; therefore, the district must make sure that those actions do not take place. The district may even be thought of as an addition-al parent for addition-all students. In this manner, the administra-tion is delegated the duty to both provide safety for and to encourage healthy habits in its students. This includes the task of ensuring the absence of drugs and alcohol from school campus and events as well as the responsibility for the location of individual students at any given time during the school day.
Reliable accountability for student whereabouts hits a wall when students enter the parking lot. Although the area is technically on school campus, there are no means to protect student safety or regulate student activity in the area. Unless students have obtained senior privileges and can leave campus, they are required by school rules to spend free periods under adult supervision. For freshmen and sophomores, this means an assigned study hall, and for juniors and seniors, it extends to the use of the Quad, library, and Student Activities building, with H-Courtyard
to be able to determine a student’s location in case of an emergency. This is the reason why the student handbook outlines that students are not allowed to access their cars at any point during the school day, unless they are driv-ing off campus (page 38, parkdriv-ing rule 5). The high school administration is not trying to restrict our freedom of movement; it is simply upholding its responsibility for our personal safety. The school provides perfectly adequate lockers that can be accessed between classes much more quickly than a car out in C-Lot can.
Despite its need to conduct investigations quickly and completely, the administration must also remain prudent in its treatment of students. One of the concerns raised during the recent event involving on-campus possession of alcohol was the fact that one student related to the sit-uation was pulled out for questioning during the halftime of his senior-night sports game. This interview could have been saved for afterwards, as the administration publicly and awkwardly singled out this student as being involved in disciplinary matters.
Our student body is not one that lets the administration go about its business of punishing those who violate school rules without showing off some blatant hostility. However, this anger and confusion does not stem from the school’s violation of student rights, but rather from a lack of gen-eral knowledge of what the administration is allowed to do when investigating these situations. If the lack of open-ness about the administration’s power is its most powerful opposition, then it is important for the school to ensure student understanding of disciplinary policies. Instead of completing a fill-in-the-blank sheet that gives an overview of the entire student handbook, teachers could give more in-depth instruction on important points to aid student engagement and avoid mindless answer-copying. Topics of discussion could vary based on grade level to increase rel-evancy (no more freshmen learning how to obtain parking permits) and classes could set aside more than one period to review both the student handbook and the code of con-duct. This more in-depth education about the workings of the administration would help to improve the relationship between students and the school administration.
News
By MANDY KLABEN
What do three fires, a bird in a classroom, stray dogs run-ning through hallways, turtles on the floor, a display light exploding, a three-hour lockdown due to a father going to get his kid’s sweater off the playground, crayfish escaping down the hallway, and two power outages have in common?
They’re all events that happened during my six years as a student at Caroline Elementary School, and now, the newest installment in the string of interesting events at Caroline is a broken water pump. As you may know, Caroline is 10–15 minutes east of Ithaca, and is therefore too far away from the city to use city water. Instead, the water for the school is pro-vided by a very deep well and an electric pump. The pump temporarily failed on September 25 and 26, but the district was able to fix it. On September 27, Principal Mary Grover reported, “At 7:02 a.m., we learned the pump continued to malfunction and were forced to close due to a lack of water availability.”
According to Principal Grover, staff tried to get the word that school would be canceled out as soon as possible. How-ever, some of the buses had already picked up kids, and some parents, unaware of the closure, had already dropped their kids off at school. PE teacher Ms. Seldin met parents at the drop off area to tell them that the school was closed, but still, some students had already arrived. These kids waited with teachers at the school until transportation arrangements could be made to take them back home.
Over the weekend, employees from the Beacon Water Equipment Company worked on the pump. By Monday, September 30, the water pump was back up and running, and school resumed normal functions.
Yet Another Odd
Mishap at Caroline
Elementary
By CHRISTINA CONSTAS
On September 10, Joe Cassidy won the Tompkins Coun-ty Judge Democratic primary election. With no competitors, Cassidy will be officially elected on November 5, the day of the general election. Cassidy, with 1501 of the 3768 total votes, beat Pamela Bleiwas, Seth Peacock (an ICSD Board of Education member), Kelly Damm, and write-in candidates to secure his victory.
The Tompkins County Judge supervises half of all felonies, child protective cases, custody cases, integrated domestic vio-lence cases, juvenile cases, and Persons in Need of Supervision (PINS) cases in Tompkins County.
Cassidy was born in Elmira, but spent most of his childhood in Brooklyn. He attended Tulane University and majored in English and Anthropology. After teaching English and West-ern European History at a Brooklyn high school for a year, Cassidy decided to attend New York Law School. Cassidy prac-ticed law in New York City before moving to Trumansburg, where he continued to practice independently. In 2007, Cas-sidy began working for the Tompkins County Department of Social Services.
When Cassidy started working for Tompkins County he “immediately felt great respect for the local [judicial] system.” He ran for the position of County Judge because he wanted to become more involved in such an “innovative and fair” system. During his campaign, Cassidy emphasized the importance of eliminating racism within the court system as well as in our lo-cal community. His experiences as a teacher helped to set Cas-sidy apart from the other candidates. As County Judge, CasCas-sidy aims to keep our court system running well and equitably.
“Focus on the general skills and knowledge that make a good community leader,” Cassidy advised those looking to pursue a career in law or a public office. “Keep an open mind.”
Joe Cassidy:
New Tompkins County Judge
In Other News:
Vitamin L’s
Upcoming Milestone
Vitamin L is celebrating its 1000th performance on Saturday, November 2 by giving a free concert. The con-cert will be at 1 p.m. in the State Theater of Ithaca. Since 1989, Vitamin L has been spreading love and goodwill by performing songs to throughout the community.
Joe Cassidy is an experienced lawyer who hopes to do good for Ithaca.
By ELIE KIRSHNER
Since becoming ICSD Superinten-dent, Luvelle Brown has placed an emphasis on integrating new forms of technology into the current learn-ing environment. I sat down with Dr. Brown to go into depth about what he thinks about technology.
Elie Kirshner ’14: What role do you think technology should play in edu-cation?
Luvelle Brown: Well first, let’s define technology. When I think about tech-nology, I think about nouns: a book, a pencil, and/or an iPad. Here [in the district], we think about verbs: ana-lyze, problem-solve, communicate, col-laborate, etc. Those are the focuses. A robot or a whiteboard just enhances our ability to interact with students around those verbs.
EK: What technological innovations have you introduced in your time with the district?
LB: Infrastructure was in need of sig-nificant improvements when I first came here. We have quadrupled band-width so you are actually able to watch a YouTube video in class, and we now have wireless infrastructure every-where, from schools to playgrounds to parking lots. We have worked on improving distribution and replacing old technology. Every school now has a 2:1 student-to-device ratio, with all of those devices being less than five years old. Before, there were far fewer devices, and many of them were ten or more years old. Professional develop-ment has also improved so that teach-ers are able to effectively interact with technology.
EK: What are the pitfalls of introduc-ing technology in the classroom?
LB: If people see the noun, or tool, as less important than the verbs, it doesn’t work. A piece of technology
can-not love a student like a teacher can. Technology can’t replace interactions, whether teacher-to-stu-dent, student-to-stuteacher-to-stu-dent, or person-to-person.
EK: Is there an upcoming or current district proj-ect involving technology that you are particularly passionate about?
LB: Two things: First, one-to-one deployment. Every student will have a teacher and a device. You see this already starting to happen in some fresh-man English and Global classes, as well as in some elementary school class-es. We want all students to have a device available to them. Second, experi-menting with virtual av-atars and—again, think-ing of verbs—engagthink-ing in class through those virtual avatars which will solve existing problems for kids who are un-able to physically attend school.
EK: Are we (as a district) prioritizing technology over other aspects of edu-cation?
LB: We are prioritizing student need and investing in students. We have not seen a significant increase in fund-ing for technology; we have just been more efficient.
EK: You were recently spotted along-side a robot. What is the story behind that?
LB: I was testing out one of the virtual avatars I mentioned for a young per-son at home. I fell in love with it. It will have many significant impacts not lim-ited to being the eyes and ears of some students. It will also be helpful for
par-ticipation in meetings and transform-ing parent–teacher interactions.
EK: Does the district currently own a virtual avatar?
LB: No, but we’re hoping to purchase one soon. That one is on loan.
EK: You talked earlier about main-taining the bond between teachers and students while introducing more technology into the classroom. What is your strategy for this?
LB: Most of all, it’s to recruit and retain good teachers. A master educator and other guidance positions are also more important than ever. These tools, with-out their guidance, may not be used as effectively. My job is really to recruit and retain good people.
Luvelle Brown: Thoughts on Technology
Superintendent Brown, always dressed to impress, hopes to use technology to influence contemporary learning.
6
November 5, 2013
By ARYEH ZAX
The ICSD Board of Education (BoE) held its bimonthly meetings on October 8 and 22.
At the latter meeting, Adam Piasecki, President of the Ithaca Teachers’ Union, read an open letter to the BoE con-cerning the adoption of Common Core standards. Around 100 schools in New York State have postponed their adop-tion of the Common Core, citing flawed evaluaadop-tion systems for teachers and principals and high-stakes testing. There is currently legislation pending to have a three-year mor-atorium on the implementation of high-stakes testing with serious results (e.g., whether or not a student can graduate on time).
At IHS, the end of the first five weeks arrived; mid-quar-ter reports were mailed out in mid-October. Dates of note included the Open House on October 10 and homecoming, which was the week of October 14. New starting this year, teachers are sitting in on other teachers’ classes—a Gov-ernment teacher in a Calculus class, for example. Teachers who observe others’ classes are allowed to have shorter staff meetings.
The pep rally was held on Friday, October 18, with shortened periods to make room for it at the end of the day. Rumors, IHS’s one-act fall play, ran during the week-end of Friday, October 25. The cheerleading squad won “Most spirited team” at the Southern Tier Athletic Confer-ence (STAC), and the girls’ varsity swim team completed its 24th consecutive undefeated dual meet season. The junior prom will be held at the Statler Hotel, though the location of the senior prom and trip are still to be determined. Ihotu Onah ’14 received a full scholarship to Columbia Universi-ty through QuestBridge. Of special note is that IHS student representatives Michaela Brew ’14 and Noah Frostclapp ’14 received new swivel chairs for their seats at the BoE table.
LACS celebrated Indigenous People’s Day on October 14, showing respect to those living in the Americas before European conquest. The weekend before was the school’s annual fall retreat to Arnot Forest, which all students at-tended. The school’s pecan sales, which serve as its major fund-raiser, have been going smoothly. The school also sent delegations to Power Shift and Bioneers, two conferences focused on climate change. The school’s Halloween dance was held on October 25, and was sponsored by a Katrina relief program.
The PSAT was administered in mid-October at both schools: the test is required for all IHS juniors and optional for sophomores and juniors at LACS, with priority given to juniors. The stated goal of IHS’s policy is to promote equity by ensuring that all students take the test, not just those with a stronger academic focus.
At the October 8 meeting, Jeff Bartholomew gave an extended presentation on the School Tax Relief Program (STAR) property tax exemption, whose basic form is avail-able to those whose yearly household income is less than $500,000. Seniors may also be eligible for an enhanced STAR exemption. More information can be found at www. tax.ny.gov/pit/property/star/index.htm.
The BoE accepted an independent audit of the ICSD 2012–2013 school year budget.
An extended presentation on elementary school math-ematics took up a large portion of the October 8 meeting. ICSD has recently transitioned from the controversial Ev-eryday Mathematics program to Singapore Mathematics, a widely successful program for elementary school students. Current problems with the system revolve around engaging students and getting teachers more familiar with the curric-ulum so that they can better help students who are having trouble with the subject matter.
About 50 percent of Ithaca third graders are proficient by state standards; fourth graders are at 60 percent and fifth graders are at 45 percent. Stricter Common Core standards have caused across-the-board drops in proficiency levels, though these rates are all above state averages. While black, Hispanic, free/reduced-price lunch, and special-needs stu-dents are all performing at or above state averages, they still trail white and, especially, Asian students by significant margins.
At the October 22 meeting, Jason Trumble and Gina Amici, who both work or have worked at Boynton Middle School, gave a report on middle school ELA proficiency. In recent years, ICSD has tried to standardize curriculum at Boynton, DeWitt, and LACS so that all students learn the same things at the same times regardless of which school they attend.
Around 50 percent of ICSD sixth and seventh graders and 55 percent of eighth graders are proficient by New York State standards. Although, Asian students in general do somewhat better than white students, who in turn do much better than black, Hispanic, free/reduced-price lunch, and special-needs students, all the above groups are perform-ing at or above state averages. As with mathematics, ICSD is currently focusing on smoothing out disparities among these groups.
Important School Dates
November 11: Veterans Day
November 15: Parent–Teacher Conference Day November 27–29: Thanksgiving Break
Board of Education Discusses Developments in
Elementary Math, Middle School ELA
By OLIVIA SALOMON
These days, the focus of education is moving more and more towards the exact truths of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Meanwhile, the more aesthetic disci-plines of art, English, and history are being marginalized. STEM subjects are certainly important, but so are more theoretical and subjective concepts. As a student who gets equally excited by graphing as by literary symbolism, I often wish my classes would emphasize the applicability of aesthetics as much as they do algebra. I believe our school system today mistakenly trades art for reason.
Specialization in education occurs more often now, with job-oriented people prioritizing a thorough knowledge of one or two subjects rather than an understanding of many disciplines. But specialization is slanted mostly towards students interested in STEM classes; there are many more “credible” opportunities to focus in on the sciences than on the arts. Students in our ed-ucation system are considered slackers when they stop taking the most difficult math class after junior year, and yet are not required to expose themselves to any art at all after eighth grade. In an ideal system, neither the study of reason nor the study of art would be sidelined.
Even English, a required liberal arts class, has had its curricu-lar priorities change. While people used to discuss themes, emo-tions, and the aesthetics of language, students now learn how to write research papers. Even Shakespeare, a true artist of English, is seen as a “truth” requiring memorization instead of as an in-terpretable thing of beauty. We have traded away the study of prose and the raw expression and emotion of poetry. The hu-manities are devolving into a tool for serving the sciences.
Continued on Page 10.
Trading Art for Reason
By JENSEN LO
As all pundits on political talk shows know, there are two sides to every issue: their side, and the wrong side. At some point in their lives, all scientists must leave their laboratory to defend not only their own work, but the incontrovertible truths of science itself (p-value < 0.001). These noble truths are self-evident and well known to the educated Ithacan: global warming exists and is ultimately caused by human civ-ilization, the remarkable diversity on Earth is the product of millions of years of evolutionary change, and science is clear-ly the best.
Even though everyone knows that science is the best, it’s rather difficult to define exactly the nature of scientific su-premacy, much like it’s difficult to define a vocabulary word. Even though most people are aware of it and can use it in their everyday lives, concisely explaining the reasons behind scientific awesomeness is tricky. For the purposes of discus-sion, we will define the awesomeness of a field as its contri-bution to human civilization; by this metric, it’s clear that the sciences emerge as the winner.
Perhaps the strongest evidence behind science is quite simple: it works. The tremendous changes of human civi-lization in the past 2000 years were the results of scientific advancements, from the printing press to the steam engine. Civilization itself was only made possible by the domestica-tion of crops and the development of agriculture. In fact, even though the sciences have already given us so much, they’re so generous that they’re still giving to us now. Almost every-thing that you can see right now is a product of a science: physics gave us the electricity powering our lights, the plas-tics in your writing utensils were brought to us by chemistry, and you can thank biology for the fact that you have not died from a childhood disease. Let’s take a brief moment to see a small sample of everything that the sciences have to offer us. Your House, The Wheel, Clocks, Pencils, Cereal, Pottery, The Internet, Cooking, Your Favorite Breed of Dog, Remote Controls, Maps, Bricks, Jeans, GPSs, Glue, Television, Cal-endars, Antibiotics, Lasers, Paper, Fire, Coinage, Electricity, Automobiles, Batteries, 3-D Printing, Books, Surgery, Vac-cines, DNA/Fingerprint Identification, Airplanes, Photog-raphy, Computers, Lightbulbs, Plumbing, Fiber Optics, Cell Phones, Weather Forecasts, Fertilizer, Metal, Robots, Radios
Continued on Page 10.
o
pinion
The Sciences Are Supreme
H
umanities
vs
. s
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Origami may not get you a job at NASA, but is that any reason not to do it?
8
November 5, 2013
By RUBIN DANBERG-BIGGS
Allow me to first preface this by not-ing that this is somewhat of a rebuttal to the article written in the October issue of The Tattler titled “Being a Republican in Ithaca” (BRI), although I don’t think “rebuttal” is the appropriate word, as this particular article does
not exactly merit what we would consider to be a re-buttal. “Rebuttal” generally implies that one party states facts supporting a certain position, and another party counters with what it be-lieves are more pertinent facts supporting the oppo-site position. In this case, however, I actually find my-self in agreement with the portion of the article that allowed for such a reasoned response, and only take is-sue with portions that were so far from reality that any attempt to rebut them in the normal sense would be a waste of time. Anyways, I’ve been thinking about this article for weeks, trying to come up with a very pre-cise response. The issue is not that I can’t think of any-thing to say, but that I have so much to say that to comb
through each unbacked and ridiculous claim made by BRI would take pages on pages of what would be best described as somewhat hysterical ranting. My name is not Chris Matthews (it is unlikely that I’ll bring him up again, but in case I do, know that he will be referred to as The Potato) or Sean Hannity, and I only have about 500 words to work with, so that would not do. Instead, I suppose I’ll focus on the structure of the article, its distribu-tion of crazy, and the striking similarities it has to the Republican party as a whole.
The writer of BRI had a pretty good idea. As a resident of Ithaca, I’m well aware of the distinct lack of understand-ing of the liberal viewpoints expressed by so many of my peers. It’s not the lack
of knowledge that many have of the rea-soning behind these views that irked my counterpart (and myself), but the appar-ent disregard that they have for their lack of knowledge when blindly touting their views to everyone who will listen. Of course this is permissible, because they are speaking to nodding heads, people
who already agree and will, as a result, never look to challenge what has been said. It’s the same as how it’s permissible for Governor Bob McDonnell to say on Fox News that the United States Sen-ate hasn’t passed a budget in four and a half years, or for Rachel Maddow to say on MSNBC that a recent Ohio budget required women to undergo mandatory vaginal probes. Both of these claims are boldly untrue, but neither went chal-lenged at the moment it was said because the people who would do so were a safe five channels away. So to this extent, I agree with BRI. But now we have to get to the crazy.
The writer of BRI is a noble man. He does not want—no—is not able to leave
without adding this one last bit. Like the Lorax, he speaks for a forgotten group, and says, “I couldn’t leave without add-ing this: if you blame the decline of America on gun owners, Christians, Tea Partiers, home-schooling, meat-eaters, rednecks, veterans, or hunters, congrat-ulations! You are what is wrong with this
country.”
Yes! He speaks for the Christians (79 percent of America), the gun own-ers (an extremely vocal 37 percent of America), and meat-eaters (93 percent of America). Our writer sees these as groups that have been blamed, and will not finish without adding that point. He does not choose to distinguish between an opposition to certain wars and a hatred of veter-ans. He sees no difference between a promotion of public schools and a witch hunt for homeschoolers. He draws no line between concern about exorbitant rates of gun deaths and the vilification of hunters. But then, I suppose, this makes an unfortunate amount of sense, because what we’re dealing with here is that crazy bit. What we’re deal-ing with here is the Tea Party. A well-thought-out and reasoned article robbed of its ability to appeal to any large audi-ence by the ridiculous claims made by a very small portion of it. If we were to en-vision the Republican party as if it were described by this very article, then the final paragraph would be the minority proclaiming the truth about President Obama’s birthplace (it rhymes with Shmenya). Why can’t a Republican win a national election? Why is this article un-able to appeal to anyone that had not al-ready formed the opinions it states? The answer is not tactics, it’s not style, and it’s not a problem with the general message. The answer is, and has been, that crazy little bit.
t
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OPINION
Despite what you hear to the contrary, politics isn’t just a frenzied, tribalistic brawl.
By NED LAUBER
I attend the Lehman Alternative Community School (LACS). I’ve been there since sixth grade. Throughout my seven years at my school, I have had countless frustrations with and criticisms of LACS. However, I do not regret my choice to go to LACS, and I do not regret my choice to stay there. My school is certainly not a school for every-one, but it has a number of remarkable strengths that many students at IHS know nothing of. My school is more than a school for slackers, hippies, and potheads: it has many unique characteristics that make me truly happy that I have had the opportunity to attend it.
There are three main factors that cause me to love LACS: first of all, the long evaluations written each quarter in place of numerical grades; secondly, the school-wide dem-ocratic decision-making process; and finally, community service and career exploration opportunities and require-ments.
So how have these three things contributed to my ed-ucation and growth as a person? First of all, any system based on evaluating students through numerical grades is inherently and fundamentally flawed. I understand that, in many situations, the sheer number of students means that a grade is the only effective way to evaluate each one. How-ever, a numerical grade reduces an entire quarter’s worth of work into one number, which is simply not an accurate representation in any situation. Written evaluations are an immense amount of work for teachers, but they give students, parents, and colleges a very accurate and specific picture of each student’s strengths and weaknesses. Rather than simply seeing one number, any outside observer will see a student’s specific strengths and weaknesses in each subject.
Additionally, students are asked to write their own self-evaluation in each course. This forces students to reflect on their own learning style, and enables them to recognize both the areas in which they are strong and those in which they need improve-ment. The combination of a student self-evaluation and a teacher evalua-tion really allows me to find out how I learn best. If I graduate high school knowing how I learn, I will be in very good shape for the rest of my life.
The second thing that I value about LACS is the school-wide democratic decision-making process. Every Wednesday, during a different period each week, we miss one of our regular classes to attend an All-School Meeting. At these meetings, we discuss proposed changes to our school. Any student may write a propos-al and bring it to one of these weekly meetings to be dis-cussed. At these meetings, all students and staff members have the opportunity to share their opinions on every proposal and then vote on whether the proposed change should be implemented.
The benefits of these All-School Meetings are complex and multifaceted. They give everyone in our school the opportunity to practice public speaking. They force every-one to think deeply about what would improve our school. And they enable everyone to practice sharing ideas and lis-tening to others.
What I value the most is the emphasis placed on com-munity service. In order to graduate from LACS, every student must complete 60 hours of documented commu-nity service. There are numerous commucommu-nity service op-portunities coordinated by the amazing Jon Raimon, but the net result is that everyone in the school has contribut-ed something to our community by graduation, perhaps through working at a food pantry, helping coordinate an af-ter-school program, or helping out a teacher at school.
There are many other things that I value about LACS: the fact that we have annual spring trips that enable learn-ing outside of the classroom; the graduation-by-exhibition system, where every student must compile multiple port-folios of work and complete two senior projects in order to graduate; and the unique classes based around things like psychology, journalism, and Middle Eastern politics. Finally, I enjoy the freedom to be able to learn the things that I want to learn and take the classes that I want to take.
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November 5, 2013
When discussing the relative importance of art and reason, the argument that the study of art isn’t “productive” always aris-es. This comment cannot be properly considered until we have determined what is productive in the global sense. What are we, as humanity, working towards? And is our end goal already so well-defined that we are confident that art plays no role whatsoev-er in our collective future? Is evwhatsoev-erything we hope to achieve from now on only dependent on our knowledge of math and science? If our objective is to achieve a greater understanding of life and the universe, aesthetic studies can, in fact, provide just as much of an answer as reason can! By being a part of today’s education system, students run the risk of exchanging their appreciation of art for an objective type of knowledge dependent on logic and facts. I do not believe one to be lesser: I only know that it would be a shame to discredit the study of either.
Many artists and scientists throughout history have proved that it is possible and beneficial to be knowledgeable in both fields; why would we not continue to strive for that ideal today? The de-bate of what should be prioritized in the educational curriculum will rage on, but I think that the study of aesthetics needs to be fought for. Science isn’t going away, but neither should the arts.
Let’s face it though; the humanities are pretty great, too, in large part because they borrow from the sciences. The an-cient Greek philosophers spent a large amount of their time pondering the mysteries of the universe, a method made obsolete by actual science and empirical evidence. Even the great Descartes dabbled in mathematics from time to time. In addition, the humanities are frequently invigorated by the unimaginable ideas drawn from the sciences. For example, the discoveries that the Earth orbits the sun, not vice versa, and that the solar system is not even in the center of the galaxy led to a re-examination of humanity’s place in the universe. The ideas of Romanticism were borne out of the Enlighten-ment (the intellectual moveEnlighten-ment that would ultimately shape modern science). Even modernism was the result of the great societal changes caused by the Industrial Revolution.
From all of these examples, we can see empirically that science is clearly the most successful endeavor of humanity. Science—the Truth; the herald of progress and civilization; that soul-sucking, creativity-destroying abomination—call it anything you’d like. After all, a science by any other name would be just as factually correct.
By RAYMOND XU
Just kidding! I actually won “Most Changed Since Ninth Grade”. Bet you didn’t even notice. I do recall my soph-omore year of high school. When I got my first yearbook, I flipped through every page. I remember the senior su-perlatives in that yearbook. Back then, I thought, “Hmm, this seems pret-ty lame.” But then senior year came around, the superlative winners were announced, and I realized, “Wow, this really is that lame.” No hate on members of The Annual. They do a very good job at making a book that always has fewer pictures of me than it should. But the superlatives are silly. “Most Likely to Rush in College”—how are we supposed to know? These superlatives aren’t even complimentary anymore, nothing like “Most Likely to Succeed”, “Most Swag”, or “sm4rtest dude”. Why point out who’s the worst at driving right now? Why not make the superlatives just straight up insults? I would die to see who wins “Dumbest Dude”. So I have created my own categories for what I think senior superlatives should have been:
“Least Likely to Win a Grammy”:
These are the people who you hate to be next to when it’s time to sing happy birthday.
“Most Likely Not to Know How to Read” will replace “Most Likely to Have Read Every Book in the Library”.
“Still Acts Like a Dumb Freshman”
as opposed to “Worst Case of Senior-itis”. Who the heck didn’t change be-tween freshman year and now? I, for one, was wearing size 9 shoes in ninth grade, and now, I still am wearing size 9 shoes . . . wait. I don’t think I’m do-ing this comparison right.
“Least Likely to Graduate”: Better than “Most Likely to Forget to Show up to Graduation”. I mean, how can you forget that? People will tweet about it.
“Most Annoying Tweeters”: A.k.a. biggest tweeters.
“Why Don’t You Have Your License”
to replace “Worst Driver”.
“Gym Is the Only Thing I Have This Year” over “Gym Class Hero”, of course.
“Smallest Flirt”: Hardcore introverts here.
“Most Attached to Candy Crush”: Ru-bin Danberg-Biggs ’14 and all others who have passed level 100: looking right at you.
“Stupid Arbitrary Category”: Tops “Most Likely to Rush in College”.
Bonus:
“Nominate Yourself Here”: People would be schemin’ on the low to win this one.
“I Hate This Person”: Self-explanatory. Self-nominations welcome.
“I See You in the Hallways Every Day but Don’t Know Your Name”: This is a hard one. You probably have a face in mind, but don’t know the person’s name. Draw the person’s face to nomi-nate him or her. I can’t see one way this could go wrong. . . .
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OPINION
Humanities vs. Sciences: Continued from Page 7.
By MADDIE SPITZNAGEL
As a non-athlete, I have very strong opinions about PE class. I have never participated or been interested in any sport, and all of my knowledge of sports stems from what I have learned in PE class. This knowledge has proved to be very lacking and insufficient. PE classes should be less about playing the sport and more about the strategies, rules, and methods of gameplay. More in-depth lessons about rules and structures of games would provide a better understanding of how sports are played and why teamwork is so important.
As PE classes currently exist, they should not be required throughout all four years of high school. They should be re-quired for two years, but those two years should be flexible. Many students, typically freshmen and sophomores, have full schedules with no lunch periods and zero- or ninth-period classes. Having the flexibility not to take PE with a full schedule could allow more students to have study halls or lunches every other day, which they could use to do other homework, eat, or just get much-needed breaks. However, PE should not be made entirely optional because of the beneficial knowledge of sports and physical activity that it has the potential to provide. The completion of only two years of PE, instead of the current four, should be a graduation requirement for attendance purposes.
My overall experience in IHS’s four-year PE program has been negative. The units often try to accomplish too many things in far too little time, with too many skills, games, and rules crammed into a time that is inappropriately brief. The units should be longer, with different units every year instead of always repeating the same rotation of sports and games. Doing different units every year would allow the units to be at least twice as long, allotting time for all of the things currently be-ing crammed into three or four weeks. My experience with the short units has been that, by the time I actually understand a unit, there is only one day left. This lack of understanding drags my participation down dramatically.
The lack of flexibility in the units can also be discouraging. Instead of having one unit that we have to do, a choice of two would be preferable. This would allow us to better choose one that we are more likely to participate in. The other hindrance to my participation are “ball hogs”. In my experience, there are four or five students in every PE class who really put everything into participating. Not only do they prevent the less athletical-ly inclined people from playing, but they take all the fun away from playing. Instead of friendly gameplay, these few athletic students make PE class a competition, which is discouraging to those playing for the fun of the sport. These few over-con-fident players rarely pass to those of us who do not identify as “athletic”, limiting our ability to participate, even if we want to. From what I have seen, PE teachers do very little to prevent this.
By CHRISTINA CONSTAS
Many high-school students do not view PE as a real class. Some think it’s a waste of time; others think it’s a total joke. However, let’s imagine a school day without PE class. It’s in a normal five-day school week packed with homework and tests. You slave for six solid hours in your classes, hop on the bus right after school, and head straight home, where you conclude your day with a night full of procrastination (via your favorite TV show or the Internet) and an overload of homework. Let’s think back on your day. Did you notice that it was the most beautiful day all month, with a cloudless sky and a warm, gentle breeze that smelled of flowers and freshly baked cookies? You probably did not, considering how you spent a total of just five minutes outside all day (spent walk-ing between your house, the bus, and school). Now, had you gone to PE class that day, you most likely would have spent a good 30 minutes frolicking outside, enjoying the wonderful weather, absorbing your daily dose of vitamin D, and possi-bly even getting a little tan.
Those 30 minutes of frolicking would have inevitably re-sulted in exercise (even if you tried very hard not to, you at least burned a couple calories walking to the turf and back). It is widely known that exercise releases endorphins into the human body. Endorphins help us feel happy and less stressed. So the requirement of participation in PE essential-ly helps us to be happy and less stressed during the school day, two feelings that most high-school students constantly crave.
While some athletes seem to understand the rules of ev-ery sport imaginable, most high-school students do not. Though many try to deny it, it is clear that every student learns at least one new piece of knowledge while attending PE class. Whether it’s a new sport, a new skill, or a new move
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Continued on Page 12. Continued on Page 12. In an age in which we spend more and more time sitting in front of
com-puters, it doesn’t hurt to run around for half an hour a few times a week.
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November 5, 2013
The Value in PE Class: Continued from Page 11. By CONOR COUTTS
The United States Judicial Branch is often overlooked. The Founding Fathers created the trio of governmental branch-es to check and balance each other, and when there is a severe threat, a person perhaps, to these three sacred branches, that person—a nuisance to our democrat-ic system—must be removed. Ladies and gentleman: there is no single person that is a bigger threat to our government than Supreme Court “justice” Clarence Thom-as.
George H. W. Bush, widely regarded as a moderate for his time, did indeed have some “moderate” appointments, the most relevant to this article being David Souter, a fair-minded lawyer from New Hamp-shire who was nominated and confirmed as a Supreme Court justice one year before Thomas was. Many expected Bush to ap-point a more moderate justice to fill the shoes of the great Thurgood Marshall, but things simply got ugly.
From the beginning, Clarence Thom-as wThom-as a controversial pick due to his ex-tremist right-wing views on social issues. However, his extreme conservatism was simply the tip of the disgraceful iceberg: a former co-worker of Thomas (from his time at the Equal Employment Opportu-nity Commission) testified at great lengths about how Thomas had sexually harassed
her in a multitude of ways over the dura-tion of two years. Although the co-work-er’s testimonies were all logical, believable, and obviously factual, Thomas, instead of stepping down, denied all the charges, in hopes of clinching an undeserved spot on the high court. Despite this, Thomas— luckily supported by both a patriarchal Senate (it contained only two women at the time) and a Republican majority—was confirmed by an appalling four votes, the narrowest margin for a Supreme Court confirmation in over a century.
Thomas has been surrounded by in-competence since his appointment, and has kept it up during his 20-year tenure. During cases before the Supreme Court, it is expected that justices ask questions, whether they be to the lawyers or to each other. All but one justice—Clar-ence Thomas—frequently ask questions: Thomas did not ask a question before the Court for a whopping seven years. In fact, he didn’t even speak for that entire time, and broke his silence by making a four-word response to a joke told by Justice Scalia—impressed?
Aside from his odd and questionable court behavior, his views are highly tox-ic. Thomas, widely regarded as the most conservative member of the Court, is ex-pected to have “strict” views. However, his opinion and dissents in many cases have just been appalling. He is known to justify
his opinions by being “a strict interpreter of the Constitution”, a well-known excuse for being out of touch. For example, he was the only justice who ruled that the strip search by school officials of a 13-year-old girl did not violate her rights. In trying to defend his heinous opinion, he wrote that “judges are not qualified to second-guess the best manner for maintaining quiet and order in the school environment”. In a case involving school officials forcing a minor to become nude due to suspicion that she had ibuprofen in her undergar-ments, judges are qualified to challenge a school.
Thomas is also well known for his dis-dain for affirmative action, thinking it to be unconstitutional. Ironically, he admits that, without affirmative action, he would not be the person he is today, yet he still goes as far as to compare affirmative ac-tion to slavery. He also holds the view that companies should be allowed to donate an unlimited amount of money to campaigns without disclosing it, and renders reg-ulation of this as “a violation of the First Amendment”.
Clarence Thomas—unable to be im-peached because he has not been convict-ed of the sexual harassment crime (which he did commit)—should, for the better of the Court, the country, and his beloved Constitution, step down and end the dis-grace.
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Other than occasionally yelling something along the lines of “Include everyone”, little effort is made to make sure that there is fair involvement. The third quality about PE that has caused me to dread the course is the FitnessGram. I find this test of our physical fitness to be unfair and inaccurate. I am not an athlete, but stay healthy because of what I eat and my job, which requires me to be always moving and on my feet. I do not feel that the FitnessGram is in any way necessary to test my physical fitness.
In general, I can’t say I find much value in PE class. The class focuses too much on “playing”, and not as much on rules and strategies, or even on ways to stay active that are outside of the norm. Furthermore, the class structure itself provides a very dissatisfying experience, favoring “try-hards” and discrediting non-athletic people such as myself, while not valuing things we do in our own lives to stay healthy in our own way.
to use in a workout plan, you can’t go a week in PE without learning something new. It may seem unlikely, but some day, a new skill learned in PE class may just spark a new interest or hobby for you. So without PE in your school day, you may have missed an opportunity to learn or a chance to discover a new pastime.
Finally, to put it plainly, PE class is an opportunity to achieve an A+ on your report card. I’m not saying that PE is a “joke class”; rather, with full effort and participation for just 45 minutes out of an entire school day, it is simple enough to earn a 100 percent class grade on your report card (which we all know will make your parents a tiny bit less upset about the C you might have received in math class).
From getting your tan to scoring an A+, PE class has many positive impacts that make your day at school a much more enjoyable experience.
OPINION
By TESSA PARISH
Did you know that IHS once had a nightclub? The fol-lowing article is from an edition of The Tattler that came out all the way back on February 10, 1944. It talks about the opening of the new high-school nightclub down-town, where students could go to dance and socialize. Students only had to pay 35 cents to get a membership card, which they could then use to get in. The club was open every Friday and Saturday night.
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“The opening of the new high-school nightclub, La Ca-bana, was a grand and glorious affair. There were over 500 kids there, all of them having a wonderful time. There has been much work done on the club by many willing students, and there is much more to do. A soda bar will be installed within the next few weeks, where members of the club can buy ice cream, pop, and candy. Dancing will be done to a jukebox or some nights to a band. For those who had a hard time finding it the other night, may we just remind you it is on the third floor above Atwater’s.
La Cabana will be opened on Friday night from 7:30 to 11:30 and on Saturday from 3:00 to 12:00. Only members will be admitted; however, membership cards will be sold at the door. The small fee of thirty-five cents will go for keep-ing up the hall. Many students will drop in Friday or Satur-day and dance to their favorite tunes at the club where all their friends are . . . La Cabana.”
By NAOMI POWERS
Before this year, the ambitious right-brainers of IHS mourned a lack of difficult classes for the creative types. If your math friends can take AP Calculus, why can’t you take an AP music class? This was a paradox that puzzled many of us within the IHS community—until now. As of the 2013–2014 school year, IHS has added AP Art Histo-ry and AP Music TheoHisto-ry to its course selection, raising the number of APs offered into the high teens and prom-ising challenge for a new demographic of upperclassmen. AP Art History students are given the impressive task of learning not only about specific works of art through time, but about the history and culture of the era in which they were created. If you imagine all of world history and its complexity, put that in one corner, and fill the rest of the space with artwork, you will have the general idea of what AP Art History is all about. In order to ful-ly comprehend and discuss works of art, students must learn the context as well as intent of the artworks. The AP exam includes tasks such as identifying artworks and artists, providing information about periods and styles of creation, and writing multiple essays. This class is sim-ilar to AP United States History in terms of difficulty, with heavy textbook reading and in-class discussion aug-mented by frequent tests.
The goal of AP Music Theory, taught by choir teacher Ms. Zaryski, is to educate students in the recognition, writing, description, and analysis of musical scores. Dic-tation, the transcription of songs or melodies into notes on a page, is practiced often, and yes, you are required to sing for the final exam. The course emphasizes the un-derstanding and composition of scores in order to pro-duce students who are musically
liter-ate and fluent. When asked about his motivation for taking the new class, Felix Fernandez-Penny ’14 said, “I signed up for Music Theory because of my passion for music; I wanted to learn to transfer between music as it is written and as it is heard.” The AP exam for the course evaluates stu-dents on terminology, notation and composition skills, score analysis, and auditory abilities.
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November 5, 2013
By CONOR COUTTS
Lena Kim comes to IHS as a newbie. However, from teaching in the sub-urbs for 13 years to moving to Ithaca for love (while taking a drastic pay cut), she is no newbie to hard work or sacrifice. “Hardworking” is indeed an attribute that truly describes her. She makes a two-hour round trip com-mute every day from Newark Valley. She still arrives at 7:30 and does not leave until 5, teaching four periods of chemistry. Through her classroom instruction, her knowledge of chem-istry and divine dedication are ev-er-present. Take a moment to read my conversation with Ms. Kim to get to know one of our newest teachers.
Conor Coutts ’15: Where were you born/educated?
Lena Kim: I was actually born in Ohio, but grew up in southern Cal-ifornia. I went to UCLA, where I studied biochemistry, and did my graduate work at a small university in southern California called Califor-nia Lutheran University, where I got a master’s in education.
CC: Describe your childhood in one sentence.
LK: It was exciting. I had a good family and wonderful friends—a good time.
CC: Who are you?
LK: I am a very concerned and caring teacher, and I hope that shows in my teaching. I am also someone who loves to travel and go to different places.
CC: What made you want to leave southern California for Ithaca?
LK: I got married in the summertime. My husband works in Ithaca, and I left southern California to be with him.
CC: How do you feel IHS will be dif-ferent from past teaching experiences?
LK: From what I can tell, IHS is a great school. There seems to be a lot of concern about equity for students,
and I am very excited about that: to make sure all the students are suc-cessful. I think it is also interesting, because you have so many students from different parts of the world coming to the school.
CC: What started your interest in chemistry?
LK: That’s easy! I had a very good chemistry teacher in high school: he made things very fun and easy to learn, and that sparked my interest in chemistry and made me want to pur-sue it in college. I hope to emulate and inspire students to pursue chemistry.
CC: What was the worst experience you have ever had as a chemistry teacher?
LK: I think maybe the worst experi-ence is when students do not follow directions and something dangerous happens; for example, maybe a stu-dent does not abide safety rules and sets something on fire (this has hap-pened before).
CC: If you could give one piece of advice to graduating seniors, what would it be?
LK: Really pursue your interests. Sometimes, parents want their chil-dren to pursue something that they think is more stable, but really, find out what you’re interested in and ex-plore it.
CC: What is one thing you have never done but have always wanted to do?
LK: I have always wanted to go and see Africa.
CC: In what areas of your life have you failed?
LK: There are many things. For ex-ample, I have always been interested in science, but have also been very interested in other fields like art. I would love to be a great artist, but unfortunately, I just do not have the ability.
CC: What skills differentiate you from other science teachers?
LK: That’s a hard one. I know there are a lot of great science teachers at this school, so I can’t say, “Oh, there’s one thing that makes me very differ-ent from others.” However, I know I do care a lot about my students’ suc-cess. I know other science teachers do as well, but feel as though I am just really dedicated and work hard at be-ing successful.
CC: What is your favorite thing to do outside of school?
LK: I like to travel. For example, for my honeymoon, I went up to Alaska and spent ten days there. It was very wonderful, and I hope to see more of the world, such as Australia, Af-rica, and South AmeAf-rica, as well as spend time with my husband. I also like to watch television, like Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey.
CC: Who is the most influential per-son in your life, and why?
LK: Definitely my parents. I believe that they taught me a very strong work ethic and a good sense of moral-ity. I think that that is very important.
Teacher Feature: Ms. Kim
Lena Kim is a dedicated new hire in IHS’s Chemistry department.
By RENA BRAND
Star Trek: Into Darkness was originally released on May 16, and is now available to rent from Redbox or to buy. The movie, which is a sequel to Star Trek (2009), describes more adventures of Captain Kirk and his crew on the USS Enterprise. A new villain (no spoilers!), re-turning from the original series, has arisen, forcing the crew into a war zone in Klingon territory in order to stop him. In preparation for seeing this movie, I watched a few episodes of the original Star Trek TV series, from which the characters in this movie are taken. The show, which first aired in 1966, is actually pretty good, but the cheesy graphics and plot lines made it so that I could only re-ally get through a few episodes. The show did, however, help me to re-familiarize myself with the characters after a four-year break. One random observation I made was that Leonard Nimoy (the original series’s Spock) looked
sixties, which is odd because he is still alive today, and looks older, but not by fifty years. Perhaps he was just somebody who aged young.
Random observations aside, Star Trek: Into Darkness was awesome. It started out with action and did not stop for the entire movie. The graph-ics and special effects enhanced the feeling of actually being in space, and the well-choreographed fight se-quences made the story all the more believable. The script, although a pretty standard action-movie sci-fi script, was good.
The real stand-out feature of this movie was its amazing cast. There is Captain Kirk (Chris Pine), a perfect portrayal of the cocky but self-sac-rificing captain; Spock (Zachary Quinto), amazingly analytical without being completely unemotional; and Scotty (Simon Pegg), adorable and the perfect comic relief at every point in the movie. Benedict Cumberbatch plays the villain; he is one of my favorite actors, and was just as amazing as usual in this movie. He definitely steals the scenes he is in, and plays the villain with just the right amount of tightly constrained but eas-ily releasable anger. He, and the rest of the amazing cast, make the movie very enjoyable to watch.
Overall, I would give Into Darkness four out of five stars: it’s not perfect, but serves its purpose as a sci-fi action and adventure movie, and is thoroughly enter-taining. It is the perfect movie for a night in, because it isn’t boring, so you won’t fall asleep; there is good act-ing, so you won’t be watching the movie with a relatively unimpressed and judgmental look on your face; and it is on DVD, so it won’t cost you a movie ticket plus an eight-dollar popcorn.
Fifty years after the original Star Trek, the universe is still pretty epic.
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November 5, 2013
By NAOMI POWERS
November is a time for thank-fulness: thankfulness for family, for food, and for weather consistently cold enough for people to wear giant sweaters. So, in light of this time of joy, I am giving you a playlist of songs I am thankful for. Don’t worry: there is an absolute minimum of sappiness involved.
1. “So Far”: Cults
There was definitely a period in time when none of us thought that Cults’ new album would happen. However, despite the end of core members Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion’s romantic relationship, the duo has stayed together musically.
Static splits drastically from its pre-decessor, creating a rougher, more atmospheric sound. There is also a distinctive lack of standout songs on Cults’ sophomore album. Although we can no longer expect another “Go Outside”, Static maintains a very co-herent quality, and has set up Cults to become more of a niche group than a pop chart staple.
2. “Breezeblocks”: Alt-J
Is this song about domestic vio-lence? Or Where the Wild Things Are? Or was the whole thing just an excuse to direct a morbidly trippy music vid-eo? Whether you try to discover the answer or not, you will end up listen-ing to this track on repeat for at least the next month.
3. “Simple Things”: Belle and Sebas-tian
Belle and Sebastian are like an op-timistic version of The Smiths. Same chill vibe and blurry lyrics, but more smiles.
4. “Don’t Save Me”: HAIM
This trio of sisters has us all hop-ing for a female takeover of the alter-native chart. Raise your bejeweled, nail-arted hand and make a fist!
5. “Apartment Story”: The National
As much as I love Trouble Will Find Me, Boxer will always have an espe-cially warm place in my heart. This song is of one of The National’s catch-ier tracks, even though the lyrics are consistently low-spirited. So far, only Pitchfork has managed to summarize The National properly: “They write songs about existential dread and the real pressures that result when others are depending on you to have your shit together.” Umm, welcome to be-ing a high schooler.
6. “Ça Plane Pour Moi”: Plastic Ber-trand
In order to create decidedly ob-scure mixtapes, always be sure to in-clude punk-inspired, new-wave Bel-gian hits from the 70s that will get stuck in your head for years.
7. “Teenage Riot”: Sonic Youth
If you’re still afraid of Sonic Youth, this is a good song for you. As well as being the band’s most “easy listen-ing”–type song, it is also its only track you can hum in public without having others worry about your psychologi-cal health.
8. “Not Fade Away”: Buddy Holly and The Crickets
Decca Records initially felt that back-ing Holly with a band would increase the success of both the album and the songwriter himself. The Crickets have since fallen far out of music history, but Buddy Holly will always rave on.
9. “Ask”: The Smiths
As someone who has struggled with shyness my whole life in a culture that glorifies social butterflies, it’s nice to have a song that speaks to the introvert-ed. Morrissey celebrates the awkward, the quiet, and the self-conscious in his full flower-swinging glory.
10. “Finger Back”: Vampire Weekend
The next time someone tells you that you’ll never make it as an English ma-jor, remember this: Ezra Koenig, the lead singer of Vampire Weekend, grad-uated from Columbia with a degree in English. He even taught it at a New York City middle school until he made it as a musician. And now he’s writing beautiful songs about falling in love in falafel shops and probably getting tons of girls in polo shirts. There is hope for you.
Songs to Be Thankful For
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Come join the Cult.
By CHRISTIAN HENRY
Did you go out and see the IHS production of Rumors, by Neil Simon? If you didn’t, you missed a whole lot of fun! Rumors is a hysterical play, and had an amazing cast to support it.
Rumors starts off with Ken Gorman (Noah Elman ’15) and his wife Chris (Sarah Skrovan ’14) at Charlie Brock’s house for a dinner party celebrating Charlie and his wife Myra’s tenth wedding anniversary; but once they get there, they soon discover that things have gone terribly awry. It seems as if Charlie has shot himself in the head and Myra is nowhere to be found. While Ken and Chris search for answers, the doorbell rings! Ken opens the door to find that other guests are arriving to celebrate as well—Lenny (James Slusar ’15) and Claire (Ellen Shockey ’14). When Ken and Chris try to figure out what to tell them, more guests show up. Eventually, all together, there are eight guests at the party trying to figure out what to do with Charlie and his missing wife.
This play was very funny. The actors had a great sense of comedic timing, as well as talent at portraying charac-ters that are just crazy. (The characcharac-ters are supposed to
be rich and very educated but lacking in common sense.) The set and costumes of the play were also beautifully done. The costumes were put together by April Carroll ’15, and the set was put together by Steve Brookhouse. They all did an outstanding job to make the show just phenomenal.
Ms. Tino, an English teacher and the adviser to IHS Drama, was the head director of the show, and Emily Scarpulla ’14 was the assistant director. They both clear-ly know a few things about directing. Everything on that stage was sharp and crisp. All the performers knew exact-ly what they were supposed to do and when to do it.
Rumors is not an easy play to do, especially with only a month of rehearsal. It took a cast and crew of extreme talent and brilliance to pull it off, and they sure did. It was obviously a great play, and for anyone who hasn’t seen it, I recommend looking it up because it was just that great.
And finally, a shout-out to all of those in the cast of
Rumors: Noah, Sarah, James, Ellen, Malama ’15, Mitchell ’15, Claire ’16, Deep ’14, Josie ’14, and Kaitlyn ’16—you all did a great job! You all were hilarious and had every-one in the audience laughing out loud non-stop through-out the entire show!
Rumors
: A Review
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