Should MCPS Change College Curriculum?

The current MCPS agenda is designed to steer students towards college life. This curriculum’s emphasis on college-readiness is believed to help create efficient and productive students who will be well-prepared for a higher education. However, not all students are fit for a life on a college campus, and MCPS’s curriculum may not be preparing them for the real world. Should … Read More

How Valuable Are Honor Societies?

Why do the majority of students join NHS? Do tutoring hour policies need to be changed? Should it make more of a difference in the Community? Students in the National Honor Society (NHS) are certainly academically talented students. To be considered for admittance into Sherwood’s NHS, students must have a 3.7 unweighted or 4.0 weighted GPA and provide evidence of … Read More

Graduation Standards Need Critical Changes

By Meagan Barrett ’15 For 13 straight years of American schooling, whether you truly understand and retain the content or not, you are pushed through classes that you may or may not excel at in order to keep up with the ever-competitive “standard.” As the United States education system has progressed, it has developed this obsession with encouraging—or pushing, really—students … Read More

Uber Deserves a Shot

By Jack Armstrong ’15 San Francisco based startup Uber, a taxi service which offers luxury sedans to riders from an app on their smartphone, has been under attack by major cities around the world, most recently Toronto, for operating ‘illegally’ by offering non-licensed taxi drivers in unmarked cars to riders. Since its founding in 2012, the San Francisco based company … Read More

Print with Caution

By Steven Witkin ’16 Recently, global resource sustainability has evolved from a casual consideration to an urgently relevant issue, spawning government agencies and studies dedicated to finding out how to delay the exhaustion of resources. There have been numerous efforts to reduce resource consumption, yet most of these developments and attitudes have not reached schools, especially involving the consumption of … Read More

‘Black’ Isn’t Derogatory

By Zachary Stubblefield ’15 Do not be afraid to use black as a descriptor. Far too often people tip-toe over someone’s skin color like it is sacrilege to point it out. They fear that if they refer to someone by their skin tone and ethnicity, they’ll be labeled as racist. That is such as unnecessary taboo; all it does is … Read More

Dancing around the Issue

By Betselot Wondimu ’15 On November 11, MCPS’s Board of Education voted 7-1 to only list days of school closed for the 2015-16 school year while not relating those days to any holidays. The vote came after outrage from the county’s Muslim community, whose protests to close schools on two of their main holidays were rejected with a Board vote … Read More

Japan-America Exchange Program Positively Affects Sherwood Students

By Amy Mercedes Hesselroth ’16 For the past 28 years, 40 American students from around the country have gathered at Princeton University to welcome 40 Japanese students for ten days of fun, friendship and cultural exchange as part of the AIU High School Diplomats Program (HSD). During HSD, also called “The Best Ten Days of My Life” by the staff … Read More

Should U.S. Troops Directly Confront ISIS?

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been waging genocide on Shia Muslims and religious minorities in the Middle East for months, in addition to beheading two American journalists. A plan of action is needed, but how far should the United States go? Should our nation take a head-on approach until the threat is completely eliminated, or do … Read More