Rioters Want a Voice

By Zach Stubblefield ’15 We have been raised to see police as the pillars and protectors of our community. So it is pretty jarring when we see them killing unarmed people. How can one feel safe when the people who have been tasked with protecting them have been killing unarmed men? More so what should they do when their voices … Read More

Pizza Handouts for Poor

By Meagan Barrett ‘15 In Philadelphia, a former Wall Street worker has left his wealthy life behind to start a pizza restaurant called Rosa’s. Aside from having unusually low prices (1 slice is only 1 dollar), Rosa’s has become famous for feeding the homeless. Because the prices are so low, it’s an option for people to buy a second piece, … Read More

Field Trip Fuss

By Steven Witkin ‘16 It is the same routine every time. You get a field trip form and have to go around to every teacher to get their signature as some sort of approval. The official purpose of this seems to be so that the teachers know in advance when a student is out for a field trip, but many … Read More

An Emoji for Everyone

By Maya Koeppen ‘17 Over the years, everyone’s favorite personality emoticons have been criticized for being too limited in terms of choices. Apple offers a wide variety of Caucasian skin tone emojis, ranging from two girls dancing to a small family, but no other races. The only racial emojis include a dark skinned emoji with a supposedly religious headdress and … Read More

Put Tests in PARCC

By Stacey Wells ’15 As many individuals recognize, our country needs a major renovation of its educational system. Unfortunately, the higher powers seem to believe that more testing will solve everything. The federal government has been pushing for an increase in testing for years and it has finally begun in MCPS. The PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of College and Careers) … Read More

Need To Appreciate Foreign Languages

By Madison Dymond ‘16 When it comes to foreign language classes, most students are lazy. They have no real desire or motivation to speak anything other than English, and these classes are treated merely as obligations. Many students study a language for six years and are unable to hold a conversation in that language. They rarely take these classes seriously, … Read More

The World Will Not End

By Stacey Wells ’15 Americans often strongly voice their opinions about controversial issues, but it would be more beneficial if they would stop overreacting to every little thing. During the NFL Playoffs, McDonalds aired a commercial that depicted different towns and their local McDonald’s signs. The signs contained messages, such as ‘We Remember 9-11,’ ‘Boston Strong’ and even personal messages … Read More

Unhealthy Romanticization

By Julia Gajewski-Nemes ‘15 Over the past couple of years, anxiety disorders and depression have presumably impacted more teenagers nationwide than ever before. While these mental illnesses need to be taken seriously and awareness of them has spread rapidly, social media websites such as Twitter, with pages such as “@cuttingquotes” and “@depressingthoughts,” and Tumblr, with blogs such as “depressingquotesforyou,” have … 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