by Lexi Kimmel ‘21 The number of people that have access to the internet and social media has expanded exponentially. We have all seen it–children at restaurants or grocery stores mindlessly watching a show on their iPad or scrolling on a phone seemingly too big for their hands. On sites and apps such as Instagram or Tik Tok, kids are … Read More
by Seth Kauffman ‘21 The purpose of a college education is to prepare students for the real world by engaging them in open dialogue with their peers. In recent years, however, a concerning trend–amplified by Gen Z’s entrance into college around 2017–has emerged as a threat to how college campuses should function. In their 2018 book The Coddling of the … Read More
by Anna Haas ‘23 Many teens have probably noticed the difference between their writing and their parents’ or grandparents’ writing. Kids today are usually only taught how to print, while the older generations spent hours learning how to get their cursive just right. Currently, 41 states do not even require handwriting instruction, let alone cursive instruction. While shifting focus to … Read More
by Kate Diuguid ‘22 On March 16, 2021, eight people were shot to death at three massage parlors in the Atlanta area. This horrific attack comes as the latest symptom of America’s gun epidemic. A mass shooting is defined by the FBI as an incident involving multiple victims of gun violence, and these specific types of tragedies often bring the … Read More
by Peyton Blumenfeld ‘22 Living in a world where books are burned and outlawed in order to suppress a group of people from knowledge seems like a dystopia unlikely to happen in a democracy such as the United States. Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” portrays that future and although we’re not burning books, many people simply have stopped reading them. Books … Read More
by Hailey Sepulvado ‘22 “Blue Lives Matter” is a phrase that is used by many MAGA supporters as a response to Black Lives Matter. They shouted it in counter-protests all throughout the summer, made it into flags, merchandise, and have continued to use it as a way to show what they say is their support to law enforcement. As long … Read More
by Ella Casey ‘21 On February 18, NASA landed the Perseverance Rover on Mars, a robot with the goal of exploring the planet in search of evidence of past–or even present–signs of life. With these observations comes the potential to unlock clues to the planet’s habitability not only for potential martian life, but also for us humans. The idea of … Read More
by Naomi Bang ‘23 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee was attacked on January 28 in San Francisco. Ratanapakdee, a Thailand native who lived in San Francisco, died of his injuries a few days later. Why was an innocent man attacked? Ratanapakdee was walking through the neighborhood when a young man charged up from behind, using his full force to shove the elderly … Read More
by Riley Sandoval ‘22 School has been anything but normal lately, and how we learn is completely different than before. As we begin to undertake the process of safely returning to school, it may be the ideal time to reconsider what we are learning and teaching. The coronavirus pandemic has provided us with the opportunity to improve learning once we … Read More
by Apurva Mahajan ‘22 Earlier this year, the Democrat-majority Virginia House and Senate approved legislation to abolish the death penalty. Governor Ralph Northam, also a Democrat, said that he plans to pass the bill into a law as soon as it reaches him. Over centuries, the death penalty has proven itself to be riddled with injustices, particularly racial disparities in … Read More