The Bolt April 2014 The Edison Charger Newspaper ! ENVIRONMENT: BOTTLED VS. TAPPED Emi Yasuda Fresh from Arctic glaciers! Untouched by man! The slogans of today’s bottled water companies would lead us to believe that bottled water is the epitome of refreshing beverages. After all, who doesn’t prefer the sound of “Purity you can taste” over “Fresh from the kitchen sink?” But is bottled water truly a better alternative to the water that flows from our taps? In this day and age, Brands such as Nestle, Arrowhead, Dasani, and Fiji advertise their bottled water as ‘pure,’ ‘natural,’ ‘premium,’ etc. to attract consumers. Reports have shown, however, that the discrepancies between bottled and tap water are minor, such that consumers could be saving thousands of dollars a year by switching to tap. bottled water purchases are on the rise. In fact, in the past 10 years sales have boomed over 10%. While you probably know already that bottled water is not a good choice for the environment, do you know if it is a good choice for you? In recent years, it has become a common belief that tap water is impure and even unsafe to drink without a filter. Luckily, this could not be further from the truth. Tap water in the United States comes already treated for any potentially harmful impurities. While filters do remove parasites and bacteria from your beverage, tap water in the U.S. is always pre processed to ensure these harmful contaminants do not reach your lips. Where safety is concerned, the standards for bottled water and tap water are nearly identical. However, they are regulated through two different systems. Tap water is overseen by the EPA, otherwise known as the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Bottled water, on the other hand, is regulated by the FDA, or the United States Food and Drug Administration. While many people today believe tap water standards are much looser than the ones for (cont. pg. 4) SCIENCE: Is Cow’s Milk Good for Humans? Austin Smith The first milk I ever drank came from my mother. Then, after a few months or so, she started providing me with cow's milk. From all the studies and reports with which modern media directly or indirectly inundated her, my mom formed the opinion that milk, along with a balanced diet, would provide me with everything I needed to be the healthiest I could be. This is an opinion that has held throughout the years, and my mom isn't alone her sentiment is shared with a lot of American (cont. pg. 5) ! More inside… • “The Importance of Being Nervous” – Toby Ngo − exploring the role of nervousness in relationships and communication (pg. 2) • “Big change for the upcoming summers in Huntington Beach” – Meghan Jacinto − some new things to expect in HB as the summer approaches (pg. 5) • “Fruit of Knowledge or Rotten to the Core?” – Christopher Yin − looking at the Common Core State Standards Initiative and how it can affect future students (pg. 6) 1
Transcript
The Bolt April 2014 The Edison Charger Newspaper !
ENVIRONMENT:
BOTTLED VS. TAPPED
Emi Yasuda
Fresh from Arctic glaciers! Untouched by man! The slogans of today’s bottled water companies would lead us to believe that bottled water is the epitome of refreshing beverages. After all, who doesn’t prefer the sound of “Purity you can taste” over “Fresh from the kitchen sink?” But is bottled water truly a better alternative to the water that flows from our taps?
In this day and age,
Brands such as Nestle, Arrowhead, Dasani, and Fiji advertise their bottled water as ‘pure,’ ‘natural,’ ‘premium,’ etc. to attract consumers. Reports have shown, however, that the discrepancies between bottled and tap water are minor, such that consumers could be saving thousands of dollars a year by switching to tap.
bottled water purchases are on the rise. In fact, in the past 10 years sales have boomed over 10%. While you probably know already that bottled water is not a good choice for the environment, do you know if it is a good choice for you?
In recent years, it has become a common belief that tap water is impure and even unsafe to drink without a filter. Luckily, this could not be further from the truth. Tap water in the United States comes already treated for any potentially harmful impurities. While filters do remove parasites and bacteria from your beverage, tap water in the U.S. is always pre-‐processed to ensure these harmful contaminants do not reach your lips.
Where safety is concerned, the standards for bottled water and tap water are nearly identical. However, they are regulated through two different systems. Tap water is overseen by the EPA, otherwise known as the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Bottled water, on the other hand, is regulated by the FDA, or the United States Food and Drug Administration. While many people today believe tap water standards are much looser than the ones for (cont. pg. 4) SCIENCE:
Is Cow’s Milk Good for Humans? Austin Smith
The first milk I ever drank came from my mother. Then, after a few months or so, she started providing me with cow's milk. From all the studies and reports with which modern media directly or indirectly inundated her, my mom formed the opinion that milk, along with a balanced diet, would provide me with everything I needed to be the healthiest I could be. This is an opinion that has held throughout the years, and my mom isn't alone-‐ her sentiment is shared with a lot of American (cont. pg. 5)
! More inside… • “The Importance of Being Nervous” – Toby Ngo
− exploring the role of nervousness in relationships and communication (pg. 2)
• “Big change for the upcoming summers in Huntington Beach” – Meghan Jacinto
− some new things to expect in HB as the summer approaches (pg. 5)
• “Fruit of Knowledge or Rotten to the Core?” – Christopher Yin
− looking at the Common Core State Standards Initiative and how it can affect future students (pg. 6)
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egotistical) is still a technique often used when speaking with people whom one does not yet know. And, to further cloud things up, what can at first appear to be egoism, narcissism, vanity, self-‐obsession, etc. etc. very often isn’t. Nervousness could even backfire in a way and cause you to go on rambling about yourself rather than asking sufficient questions so that the other person, your conversational partner, knows that you’re interested in him/her.
Mutual uncomfortableness also tends to make experiences seem more meaningful and memorable. We all know the unspoken bond and camaraderie of those stuck in an uncomfortably quiet elevator. In the right spirit even a tedious activity like waiting for some invisible thing can seem uplifting and filled with its own kind of sacred kinship, maybe. And, of course, there’s that unavoidable cliché which states that “your life is not measured in seconds, but rather, in moments-‐” purportedly “meaningful” vague amounts of time.
Making a deliberate effort to be a part of these “important” emotional experiences seems like reward enough itself, mostly. And while it may feel pretty futile sometimes, at least in my experience overcoming stuff like unnerving quiet to talk to each other and get along, it may be well worth it to even partially understand one another slightly better. Because the alternative, being misunderstood and quiet and reclusive, almost categorically ‘completely alone,’ is terrifying. Here is a poem I wrote about someone who feels like that a lot:
OBSERVATION:
The Importance of Being Nervous Toby Ngo
Staring flatly at an amorphous blur projected on a screen in a movie theater [or rather two amorphous blurs superimposed atop one another, which are sent to a wrinkly oval-‐shaped pink thing housed in flesh and skull (via the cornea, iris, lens, retina, and optic nerve) and will then travel swiftly through the crowded and sleepless central nervous system], a person (more specifically the author of this article, Toby Ngo) was watching a meticulously contrived human interaction on a big screen with other quiet watchful human beings. I stared at my watch wondering what time it was. When I noticed my watch didn’t seem to be running I looked at it very closely, moving my eyes intensely back and forth along its surface, like a pendulum or a metronome except one that was moving arrhythmically. One where the ticking was hidden and internalized. I let my gaze linger with a feeling of privately held tension, which if the rest of the theater shared at the same moment over the same thing, I imagined, the appropriate reaction would be to explode in fits of screams and laughter and kissing and tears. I exhaled aloud as if to coax the watch into working again by being examined closely and remembering, through my reminding, one of its hopelessly unfixable inherent flaws as a watch. And then the watch would feel conjunctively embarrassed and somewhat dejected at itself, and the world, for not moving in a circle. And because the world had not provided the correct stimuli for it to remember that it was to be moving in a circle. As the watch knows (as all watches know) is what it should be doing at any given time.
The Asian American girl next to me began crying at the movie very hard into her hands. I thought about how nothing had changed physically in the theater (besides the moving colors projected on the screen, sound propelled around the room, positions adjusted in chairs, etc.) between when she’d sat down and when she wasn’t crying and when she was crying so there really shouldn’t be any reason for her to cry unless she was warping reality with her emotions, which seemed likely. I still felt badly for her, deeply and sincerely, and wished to express that in some way but didn’t know how or why I should go to the effort. I was a human being and this happened often. It was hard to move feelings from one person to another. Being understood was a hard thing. Though speaking to another is often difficult, it is not necessarily true that this nervousness (or lack of a particular brand of social confidence) is something to be taken as a wholly negative attribute. In fact, at times it’s quite the opposite. While it may seem initially paradoxical, connecting through nervousness (even when feigned for the purpose of being polite or not overtly creepy &
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Suffering from anxiety/nervousness/panic attacks? Xanax can help you break away from these “pejoratives.” Unless you don’t want to, in which case you shouldn’t. Picture Credit: Tao Lin
Julia Vu watches t.v. sometimes and feels mostly empty inside, a kind of stinging no-‐reason guilt. She sits inside a pool and watches the stars against the midnight blue and feels her skin corroding. She sees the stars and her house and her parents and friends all corroding. Julia Vu draws pictures of birds (like canaries, owls, and egrets) for other people and tells them she loves them. Seldom with words, but this is okay she has learned. Julia Vu has committed to memory the sentence: It is okay not to have the words for someone. She will stare contemptuously at people she loves when they disappoint her and this will hurt them because she will love them too, & at the same time. Julia Vu knows many things that no one else does.
But are our feelings even really transferable at all? There has to be some margin of error on how we communicate these things to each other. We can always understand to a certain degree, but so much is completely internalized and can’t be measured, or directly relayed, or accurately communicated really at all. Like comparing how we experience temperature, there’s no certain way to tell if someone else has it any worse or better than you. And what is the point of getting on the ‘same page’ as someone else? Would you only do this so you could hold some sort of comfort in knowing how similar you are? I mean, that’s almost what I was saying about bonding through nervousness, that it’s another similarity but one which makes things seem more meaningful and well thought out and anticipated. But when it’s rephrased only slightly differently it seems somehow devoid of its ability to uplift. It becomes shallow and empty. A reminder that things are really, deep down, just happening because they are “s’posed to” chemically. Reaction causes reaction and so on and so on. Can you ever actually know if someone is just feigning ‘same pagedness’ or not, considering how much is inside of us? Is it bad to make believe that they are?
It seems if you want to have a "healthy relationship" with any one person it's almost impossible not to make believe total understanding of them and their motives and goals. I even notice myself assuming things like this about people I know very, very little about. If I see some volunteers on the street, I can and likely will construe that these people are “good” because they are volunteering, and then not think much else about it. But I could, with slightly more effort, also take apart the possible reasons for volunteering more analytically, and likely more accurately as well.
One of the more probable reasons for students to be doing volunteer work is that they are trying hard to get into colleges and would like the admissions people to think they are “good.” I have been told by a few people who don’t exercise this belief that this is the “cynical” point of view. Another reason could be that their parents are pressuring them to refine themselves into new, generally better, shiny and happy people. It is not a coincidence that high standards and pressure are conditions to create both
diamonds and “well-‐rounded individuals.” And the interesting thing is that neither of these possibly selfish motives really diminishes the “good” in their actions at all. The benefits are still present and valuable regardless of the human being or attitude that facilitated them. In Mother Night Kurt Vonnegut writes, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
While dismissing all of this as totally anecdotal is probably very easy to do (and I by no means am telling you not to do that), it would be more rewarding I feel to consider things from as many angles as possible, or at least from as many you are comfortable with. Anyway — nervousness does seem like a crucial thing sometimes, but like most things, also not a crucial thing at other times. If you want to overcome your nervousness in order to gain the benefits of both dispositions I can’t act like I know any better than you do how to combat fits of timidity. This is a thing, I think, so dependent on an individual’s “good chemical reactions” and “bad chemical reactions” that to hear from someone with a different background and chemical environment seems almost hopelessly inutile. But it also feels unbelievably unsatisfying to end without resolution, no matter how “true to real life” you can argue it is. So, here’s what to do: Tell the person you would like to talk to your favorite song (should be: Grazie Davvero by PFM Premiata Forneria Marconi) and make them tell you theirs (should be the same). Get married and isolate yourself from the rest of the world, punctualizing your existence with moments of intimacy, which slowly becomes less intimate and less pleasurable to the point where it is only an obligation which makes both of you feel guilty, and bad about yourselves, and stare distantly off with cloudy eyes while you shower every morning. Say goodbye. Let the dice roll and see what comes up. Cross your fingers and never quit. Try hard to fall in love, but only with those who deserve it, whatever that means. Before you die tell all your secrets to a notebook that nobody will read.
Tell everyone you are sorry and mean it. Good luck.
-‐ Toby Ngo
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…from page 1 (Yasuda) bottled water, there are actually very few
differences between the two, such that neither bottled water nor tap water is likely to pose any risk to your health (provided that all regulations are properly enforced). The FDA regularly adapts and reviews its standards based on new EPA regulations to ensure that any harmful contaminants discovered by the EPA are not found in your bottled water.
However, studies have shown that these standards are not always met. While municipal water reserves are regularly monitored, bottled water quality tends to be analyzed less frequently. This was brought to light in a recent study conducted by James Lalumandier, a professor at the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. In his research, Lalumandier found that 25% of the 57 samples of different brands of bottled water contained 10 times more bacteria than tap water, and worse, that 1 in 10 of these samples actually had bacteria levels 1000 times greater! Conversely, in a much larger study conducted by the DWI (Drinking Water Inspectorate), 99.96% of the 4 million tap water samples met or exceeded water safety standards!
Another difference you may want to note is that tap water contains added fluorine. This mineral is proven to help reduce cavities and maintain tooth health. A comprehensive review, averaging data from hundreds of studies, found that children drinking fluoridated water had 14.6% fewer cavities than children who did not. However, there is some controversy over the addition of fluorine to water. Excessive ingestion may lead to dental fluorosis, a condition in which your enamel mottles and leaves white streaks (or in severe cases, brown marks) on your teeth. Luckily, it is highly unlikely that you would consume so
much fluoride in your water as to ever induce these side effects.
Despite minor discrepancies, you can see that the differences between tap water and bottled water are for the most part insignificant. In fact, bottled water often contains the same water that runs from your tap! Between 2006 and 2009, the amount of bottled tap water grew by 66%! In the same time frame, the amount of bottled spring water increased by only 9%.
Another unfortunate drawback of bottled water is its price. While it is often considered a more convenient option, it is frequently accompanied by a not-‐so-‐convenient price. The average cost of a bottle of water, according to the International Bottled Water Association, is $1.45. Though this may seem affordable, an entire gallon of tap water costs less than 1 cent! To put this in perspective, if your household water bill were based on bottled water prices, you’d have to pay around $9000 per month!
Choosing tap water is also better for the environment. The amount of oil required to manufacture, fill, label, and transport plastic water in the US is equivalent to the amount required to fuel 100,000 cars! Imagine how much oil we could preserve if we stopped using bottled water. Plus, data from the Pacific Institute of California shows that the making of bottled water requires 2000 times more energy than tap water.
So although bottled water may be convenient, tap water is an equally safe and in many ways superior alternative. Not only can it help you be more cost-‐effective, but it can also help you be more energy efficient. The next time you drop by the grocery store, be sure to pick up a reusable water bottle so you can drink smart!
-‐ Emi Yasuda
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LOCAL:
Big change for the upcoming summers in Huntington Beach Meghan Jacinto
With the school year coming to an end, many students are counting down the days till summer arrives. And in Huntington Beach, there is one significant event that has been occurring every summer since 1959-‐ the US Open of Surfing. This big-‐time surfing event involves free music, skateboarding, and various vendors that never fail to attract
Last summer during the US Open of Surfing, a stop sign was smashed through a bicycle shop window, fights broke out in the streets, portable toilets were overturned, vehicles were damaged, and cops were provoked into firing rubber bullets and tear gas. | Photo credit: latimes.com
thousands to the golden sands and glittering waters of the city’s beaches. Each year, more and more people take notice of this event and gravitate toward Huntington Beach. However, everyone knows that last summer’s competition brought some unwelcome visitors that instigated riots in the downtown area, resulting in destruction, robbery, and vandalism. A city council meeting was held three months after the riots, at which locals urged the administration to make changes for the event to focus almost exclusively on surfing. In response to the debacle, the City of Huntington Beach has now implemented restrictive laws that will significantly affect the US Open of Surfing experience. Alcohol will no longer be permitted in the VIP areas, live music will be abolished, and the size of the vendor village will be reduced. The event will strictly focus on surfing.
Locals have many different opinions about these new restrictions. Some people think it will be better for the environment downtown. Others worry these changes may reduce the economic benefits of the competition for the city and its residents, and that they will interfere with the spirit of the event. However, it cannot be denied that a financial toll was also exacted by the riots, which cost various small businesses over $1000 dollars in damage. And according to City Council member Connie Boardman, the new plan for the US Open of Surfing will continue to celebrate the city’s 100 years of surfing history. She also hopes these new adjustments will encourage safer behavior among festival goers and help prevent a repetition of the drunken chaos of 2013. If all goes well, this year’s US Open of Surfing event will be beneficial to everyone.
…from page 1 (Smith) parents today, who provide their children with
dairy milk to ensure they will have strong bones and
a healthy diet. In fact, over 80% of our population drinks dairy milk on a regular basis. Even the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proclaims that milk is essential for a balanced diet. So if the chief agency in charge of promoting and protecting Americans through the supervision of food singles out a particular product for its nutritional excellence, shouldn’t we readily accept and endorse it?
Well, the FDA has made some questionable decision in its past. For example, in 1993 the FDA approved a hormone for increased milk production in cows known as rBST, claiming to have found it safe both for cows and for human consumption. Conversely, the European Union conducted a study that found rBST can cause cows "severe and unnecessary pain, suffering and distress." Moreover, the study produced evidence that rBST leads to cows excreting large amounts of pus that contaminate the milk destined for human ingestion. These findings induced the European Union to ban rBST in 2000.
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In fact, almost every developed country, with the notable exception of the US, has banned rBST within its borders. Lucky for us, public opinion has forced all agribusiness companies to stop using rBST. But the fact remains that the FDA still claims rBST is safe for cows and humans. Questionable, huh? I am not saying the FDA is completely wrong on everything; I am merely pointing out that their judgment should not be blindly swallowed without further scrutiny or research-‐ including of their ardent support of milk. Before beginning my own research, I had a lot of questions. First: Why and for how long do cows produce milk?
Well, for the same reason humans do-‐ to nourish their young. Generally, cows provide their calves with milk for two weeks to a month, and then wean them off over a period of a month or two. Is milk all the same? Consider, for a moment, what it would be like to drink the milk of an animal aside from a human or a cow. How about a dog? Or maybe a rat, or a horse, or even a pig-‐ doesn't that sound delicious? Well, probably not. Natural selection has logically resulted in dog milk being tailored to the specific nutritional needs of infant dogs, cow milk to the needs of infant cows, human milk to the needs of infant humans, and so forth. This is because every mammal species has its own specific needs and requirements after birth. For instance, cow's milk is three to four times richer in protein than human milk. How healthy is it to drink dairy milk? Opinions vary. But according to a Harvard Research Study conducted just before the turn of the century, milk doesn't necessarily protect against the main disease the milk industry wants you to believe it does: osteoporosis, a condition in which bones become weak and thus more likely to break. In fact, the Harvard study found that overconsumption of animal proteins may actually lead to the acceleration of osteoporosis. How is this possible? Well, animal protein is very acidic and can disrupt human blood's slightly basic pH levels. As we all know, our body wants to maintain homeostasis, and will
do whatever possible to counteract changes to this delicate balance. Thus, in response to increased acidity the human body will release the basic compound calcium phosphate from our bones to bring blood pH back up. So in actuality, though milk does provide humans with calcium, humans may end up expending calcium for a net loss. And unfortunately, the only sources of acidic proteins in the human diet are animal products. The Harvard Research group even went so far as to say that the link between meat-‐ and dairy-‐based diets and osteoporosis is "inescapable." On the other hand, milk still possesses some very positive attributes. Milk is a great source of potassium, a mineral that helps to maintain a healthy blood pressure. In addition, milk is a fantastic source of vitamin A (essential to the proper functioning of the immune system), riboflavin (which helps to convert food into energy), and niacin (a nutrient that metabolizes sugars and fatty acids). Furthermore, according to Dr. Brian Roy, an associate professor of health science at Canada's Brock University, milk can even play a role in weight loss. In 2008 Roy published a study assessing the impact of milk on the body post-‐exercise in hundreds of 19-‐25 year old males and females. He found that after weight training, subjects that had drunk milk lost more body fat and gained more muscle than those who had consumed different drinks containing the same nutrients and macronutrients.
So overall, milk has its positives and its negatives. Even the Harvard medical study (supra) concluded that milk can still be an important part of a healthy human diet, though overconsumption probably isn't in our best interest. More specifically, the study found that drinking two servings or fewer of milk supplies humans with several essential nutrients. One eight ounce glass of whole milk provides roughly 25% of the recommended daily intake of vitamin D, 11% of daily potassium, 26% of daily riboflavin and 10% of daily niacin. So while lowering your intake can be beneficial, taking dairy out of your diet completely is in all likelihood unnecessary.
-‐ Austin Smith
EDUCATION:
Fruit of Knowledge or Rotten to the Core? Christopher Yin
learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.” -‐ Stanley Kubrick
Education is important. There’s not much controversy about that. It is widely accepted that we need education, that in order to succeed in life we must have some means of furthering our knowledge and intellect. The point of contention has always been-‐ how? How best to prepare students for the “real world,” where grades don’t exist but bills do? And how do you measure a student’s readiness and progress, especially when the way every person learns is unique? People
“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” -‐ Margaret Mead
“Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.” – Leonardo da Vinci
“I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce 6
when the way every person learns is unique? People are constantly striving to come up with the answers, experimenting with structure and design to devise the perfect system. Yet perfection is an ideal, and in a supremely unideal world the best we can do often feels woefully inadequate. People will always yearn for progress, for movement, for change-‐ even if the motion is sometimes more important than the direction. Right now, the Common Core State Standards Initiative is the American education system’s latest attempt to wear the face of progress. Most students will probably have heard the words “Common Core” and the title of the new testing regiment,
decry the Common Core standards as the federal government overreaching itself by stepping in and forcing all states to follow the same guidelines. State and local leaders who opt in do not have the legal right or ability to alter Common Core content or the assessments, even though some believe the Common Core content to be inadequate. The Washington Policy Center (WPC, a self-‐described “independent think-‐tank,”) takes a standards-‐centric approach and claims that Common Core math standards do not conform to the expectations of “the National Mathematics Advisory Panel…of leading states, and [of] our international competitors.” The WPC also argues that English Language
“Smarter Balance,” bandied about like so many other educational banalities (e.g. Race to the Top, No Child Left Behind), dismissing them as irrelevant and insignificant. Which means a lot of students have no idea what exactly Common Core is, and what it will entail for them. Will it be a step forward in that eternal pedagogical crusade? A purely cosmetic shift? Or something darker altogether, a corporate-‐sponsored descent into the terror of enforced uniformity? Opinions differ, as they must. There are many who lean towards the final view. One of the biggest arguments against Common Core is that it threatens to erode individuality and creativity by forcing students nationwide to conform to the same standards. Moreover, many people
Arts (ELA) standards “can best be described as skill-‐sets” that “do not provide an intellectual framework for a coherent and demanding English curriculum.” In accordance with this opinion, University of Arkansas professor Sandra Stotsky-‐ who actually served on the committee to validate Common Core standards-‐ has stated “the standards dumb American education by about two grades worth,” noting that some states will be forced to move their standards backwards.
Money is a big issue as well. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute estimated in 2012 that the nation will have to spend between $1 and $8 billion to implement Common Core, with the majority of profits going to publishers. Interestingly, Common Core was originally devised not by the Obama administration, nor
profit, such as the Pearson company. It is estimated that over 25 million North Americans use Pearson’s digital learning products, and with the computer-‐based Smarter Balance testing program of Common Core, Pearson is looking to increase this number. Yet Pearson has paid over $20 million in fines due to “lost, misgraded, or otherwise mishandled student tests,” making it an interesting choice as a key sponsor of Common Core. Then there is the issue with the Google Chromebooks, for which Google has developed a collection of Google Apps for Education (GAFE). Many teachers are trained in GAFE and Google products by taking classes, attending conferences, and holding workshops (not all of which are funded by Google). After passing their GAFE
by the federal government, but by the non-‐profit NGO the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, at a $170 million expense. And conspiracy theorists can start salivating-‐ the conception of Common Core took place primarily independent of any input whatsoever (in terms of both consultation and funding) from actual school systems. The main contributors to Common Core? Corporations. Achieve, Inc., the nonprofit company that authored Common Core, boasts that it “is the only education reform organization led by a board of directors of governors and business leaders.” Readers will note that teachers are conspicuously absent from this accreditation. And the majority of these corporations are very much for
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exams, teachers earn a certification and proceed to propagate the program to other school districts as what some call “tax-‐subsidized lobbyists for the company.”
But what about the teachers-‐ the real heart and soul of any education system? What do they have to say about Common Core? Well, both the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers officially support Common Core, but a closer look at their rank and file members tells a different story. According to an NPR survey, 7 out of 10 teachers say “the transition to a curriculum tied to Common Core isn’t working,” two-‐thirds of teachers say “they were not asked for input on how to develop the implementation plan,” and interestingly many unions are calling for a delay not in the implementation of Common Core but in the holding of teachers accountable for test results.
All this information may paint a deeply negative picture of America’s latest stab at education improvement. Yet from speaking with a few of Edison’s teachers, I gleaned an overall sense of optimism and excitement. What follows are the interviews I conducted with Mrs. Harrell and Mrs. Barro, Math and English teachers respectively.
* * * Me: Can you sum up the basics of the Common Core program, and what it’s about? Mrs. Harrell: The main goal for Common Core is to create high school students that are ready to enter either college or careers. Mrs. Barro: Common Core is just a new way that teachers are to teach, so that the whole nation (minus a few states) are on the same page. That’s why we’re “Common.” “Core” is that we’re teaching with rationale. That’s truly the main component of this whole thing, to simplify it, it’s that there’s rationale behind it. If we’re teaching 1 plus 1-‐ so what if we get 2? So what? Why do kids need to know
Me: Apply? Mrs. Barro: Yeah, through application of some sort. So if they’re learning fractions, why do they need to know fractions and how can they understand the idea of using fractions? Well, if you take a look at science, they’re going to learn fractions again, in the way things are put together, and in cooking, they’re going to have to understand if they double the recipe, how will one quarter plus one quarter equal-‐ why do they need to know that? That kind of thing. So, I can see in math it’s a difficult process for them to take it to the next step, because it’s going to change the way they teach, but the outcomes will be more beneficial for the student. And, once they’re done, once they’ve adapted to the Common Core, they’re done. It will be easily implemented. Mrs. Harrell: Before Common Core
that? And why we are we teaching molecular structure, so what? What are they going to do with that? And that’s been the question all along, why are we doing this? Well, now we have rationale, more of why we’re doing this. Kids can take it to the real world. Me: So what are the major differences between Common Core and the current curriculum? Mrs. Barro: Well, in the English department there’s not much because the majority of what we teach anyway has always had the real world rationale with the idea of theme, of making connections to the real world. But in other subjects like math and science, and social studies-‐ which, social studies is very similar to English-‐ they’re taking a look at how can we take what we teach the kids, and have them learn what we’re teaching, and then take it another step forward.
Many feel that Common Core treats students as machines “on an assembly line to college or career readiness rather than as unique human beings, each with different gifts and aspirations.” – “Building the Machine”
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when we had just state standards-‐ in the math department-‐ we were focused on it felt like test prep. We were teaching kids how to prepare for a test. You were skilled at calculations and answering multiple choice questions. Common Core prepares you for the real world. It’s more applicable questions. Instead of just being calculations, it’s more theory involved, and we have more open-‐ended questions, so we have more preparing for reality versus preparing for a test. Me: How do you think schools will be affected by the new program of standardized testing? How is it different from what we have been doing? Is that where you get the more open-‐ended questions? Mrs. Barro: Well, teachers don’t really like teaching to a test. And this concept kind of breaks us away from having to teach to a test. Our teaching alone should be the guide to having kids do well, the tests that we give them. So the only problem I foresee is how do they give a test and who is going to grade it, how are they going to grade rationale. That would be more difficult, it seems. Mrs. Harrell: Yes, and Smarter Balance is supposed to be-‐ we haven’t seen this yet-‐ but it’s supposed to be interactive in the sense that it will adapt itself to the level of the student. If you have a student who gets on and answers the first question correctly, the second one should then be more difficult. So you could in theory finish testing in ten, fifteen, twenty questions, if you’re one of those quicker kids. And on the other hand, if you’re not answering them correctly, then it takes a different path, and it keeps moving to try to meet the needs of the kid. Me: But you don’t know how much testing has been done with that, or how successful…? Mrs. Harrell: The only tests we have seen have been normal; the only thing that was different is it was on a computer. And it’s been set questions,
the computer, at the same time. And if we’re having them on Chrome books, that means they’re using our wireless at the same time. So that cuts out computer use for anybody else, and even with that, we’ll be lucky if it works. And then the kids that are on the Chromebooks, the test fits better on a larger screen. So if you’re in the computer lab, you’re getting a pretty good screen of what’s happening, you can see the graph or math with the questions or the options next to it, but if you’re on a Chromebook… So, yeah. And the whole mouse situation versus the pad, that’s a whole other issue. Me: Do you know what people are working on right now to try to fix that or deal with it? Mrs. Harrell: Well, as far as the internet connection, we’ve had more of (and I don’t know the correct terminology) the ports put in, so we’re supposed to have a…wider band now, I don’t know if those are the right terms I’m supposed to use. They’re trying to increase that to be able to have more people on at the same time. Then as far as the computer usage, we’re trying to use computers more in our classes, especially in the math classes, because the students aren’t used to it. So we’ve been checking out the Chrome carts, getting kids on the Chromebooks, getting them used to using and manipulating equations. Like there’s something that asks you with transforming, we have kids learn how to literally take the graph and move it for the transformation instead of the normal paper graphs that you would do. So just teaching students how to do that on the computer is part of the problem. Me: What extra work have you done or will you have to do as part of the implementation of Common Core? Mrs. Harrell: As a teacher? Me: Like attending conferences, or something like that? Mrs. Harrell: Well, you don’t have to do any of those things. To best be
you don’t see things moving around like it’s supposed to be, it’s not “smarter” or “balanced” in that sense. Mrs. Barro: We have done a practice round, teachers all went and did a practice round of the Smarter Balance Test. Then we all gave our critique, and they’re going to listen to what we said… The questions seem good, because they are looking for thinking, because in the past it seems like we didn’t really push our children to think so much, and so now it’s going to cause changes in the way students take a test, because they have to truly think. Me: Okay. Is that in every subject, or what subjects-‐? Mrs. Harrell: The test is only being given in English and Math. But the way that they’re changing the curriculum with the standards is now in your English classes, or in your Math classes, you’re supposed to be reading texts from other classes. So it’s not just reading a book that’s a novel, it’s reading a journal that’s a scientific article. And that way you kind of hit on the other subjects. Me: So do you know anything about how the implementation of Smarter Balance is going to work here at Edison? Because it’s all online, right? So you’re going to need all the computers, do you know how that’s going to go? Mrs. Harrell: Okay, so we don’t actually have to take the test until next year. But this year, and I don’t know if it was as a school or as a district, we have decided that we will be running the test here. It all has to be done on computers so every student has to have access, but it’s only the juniors who take it. So every junior student has to be on a computer taking the test. That can be our computer labs, or it can be our Chromebooks via the Chrome carts. Now, what comes with that is the fact that we’re going to have all of these students, I believe somewhere between five and eight hundred, on
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prepared as a teacher, it is our professional responsibility to get our professional development. We have to develop ourselves to change the way we’re teaching. What we are teaching isn’t changing so much as how we are teaching it, so just trying new strategies and implementing new things in the classroom. It can come in the form of a conference; some of us in the math department, we’ve been to lots of conferences, we get all the curriculum. But we also just need time to be able to plan. Because it’s a matter of changing completely, instead of just-‐ you know, before we would take a test, we would just change a couple problems on it, well now we have a new test. Now we’re changing the entire thing. So it’s just a lot of time to reconfigure all of those sorts of things. Mrs. Barro: I’ve made a little bit more focus doing a lot more close reading, more deep analysis into certain things, and I now teach ERWC, which is Expository Reading and Writing Course, and that class alone is Common Core. Because they’re reading from real world sources, mainly nonfiction (they do have a few
Common Core does answer that for us, our goal is for that to be obvious to the student, so I like that part of it. To me, the drawbacks or the weaknesses of it-‐ in a lot of ways it puts all students in one path. We say college and career readiness, but it ends up being more college, and then a career after college, not the students so much who are going to be in-‐ Me: Vocations? Mrs. Harrell: Yeah, regular vocation students, or going into the military, or anything along those lines. And it’s challenging. The rigor level on it is so high, and our kids, our Algebra 1 kids are being asked to do things that our Algebra 2 kids couldn’t do before. The level of rigor has increased dramatically, which means grades are suffering, and kids are freaking out. So that part of it is hard. Trying to calm parents down when they’re not getting the A they normally get. Me: Because the grades aren’t as important as if they’re learning or not, and I think with the current education system there’s so much emphasis on grades, and it doesn’t really matter
fictional pieces, but it’s mainly nonfiction), and then they understand “why” and “how.” And we teach them how to read things, how to read for detail, how to read for…honesty, for logic. So we’re looking at ethos, pathos, logos. What’s going on, what is the goal of the writer, and then what’s our goal as the reader, after we’ve read it? What do we want from it, and so what? That’s again leading to rationale. Me: In your opinion, what are some positives about the program, and what are some negatives? Mrs. Barro: My opinion: if I had children in school today, I would be happy that this has come about. Because I like to see that children are pushed to think, and they’re pushed to say so what. That’s what I want, I always want that, and that’s what I’ve said with the AP Exam, it’s always about rationale. I mean, what good is any information you get, unless you are able to apply it in the real world. And what we’re trying to do is create really good citizens in our community, in our society. And so I think that Common Core is a good direction.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, left, during an education forum in Nashville on March 19, 2014, with U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander R-‐Tennr. Bush urged politicians to make the case to their constituents in favor of Common Core education standards. | Photo credit: Erik Schelzig
Negative thing I see about Common Core is the attitudes of many people who are unaware of what it really is, and then they take a negative approach because it’s change. When, it seems to me, America has voted to try to change many things in our society, they voted for change, their candidates are change candidates, but they don’t really like change. Mrs. Harrell: I love Common Core. One of the reasons I teach AP Stats is to me the class is immediately applicable. You can take the class and know exactly, hey, I’m going to use this in my life. And I hate more than anything the question of, why do I have to learn this? In my other classes I’ve always had to answer that.
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The StudentsFirst lobbying group first organized Common Core supporters back in December, and has since become a part of Higher Achievement New York, “an organized platform” that will explain what the new standards mean for children and how they offer better preparation for college and careers through social media advertising and lobbying.” | Photo credit: Yasmeen Khan
what you’re doing as long as you get the grade. Mrs. Harrell: Yeah. Like today in my Algebra 1 class, we went through three different activities, we did three different things, and I did not give them a grade on one single thing. They spent an hour and forty minutes, so a hundred minutes here in class, completely busy the entire time, but did not receive a grade on one thing in there. But I think they had the best learning opportunity that they’ve had probably all year. So yeah, it’s an emphasis on learning for learning’s
so that’s a good thing, it’s helping us to push ourselves and become better, and that’s always a good thing. Me: So do you think-‐ well, I can already tell-‐ but do you think that Common Core will ultimately be good, bad, or neutral for American education? Mrs. Harrell: I think it’ll ultimately be good. I think there’s definitely things we need to think through though. The idea of all kids kind of being on the same level, I think we’ve all seen that that’s not the case.
why that information is the way it is. Yeah, close reading is a really great thing! (laughs) I love close reading, because it makes you see things the way you should, because that’s what we as citizens in our society should all be aware of, that you have to look at things closely, you can’t just follow like sheep. Mrs. Harrell: I would like to believe students will become more productive members of society. I don’t think they would leave here wanting to know what grade they got, or wanting to know “what are my options,” but
our job more of a pleasure, because I think we’ll be learning. Teachers, in my opinion, are just lifelong learners, extremes when it comes to learning. So they should be taking this in because it’s all about learning, because we should be learning new things from our students, because they’re thinking, and they’re applying. So the application should be something that we are going to relish in. For students, it seems to be that they’re going to be expected to think more. And they can’t just regurgitate information. They have to figure out
about Common Core, I know what I’ve read and looked at, I’ve close read some of the things that they’ve given me and looked at what it is they want from teachers and students-‐ ultimately it’s all about the students. What do we want from them? And how are teachers going to get that information to them, and assess them for thinking. So I think that that whole concept is good. Give the kids something that they have purpose for knowing. And then assess them on the fact that they know something, that they have thought about it, and
instead being able to find their options, and being concerned of how much they have learned, how much they can apply, how much they’re now able to do. So I think that’s a good thing for students. I think we will have people who can enter real life (although, school is real life still), enter the reality outside of our classrooms, and be successful. For teachers, right now it’s pushing us to be better teachers. We need to change, whereas there are teachers who teach the same thing every year. You’re required to step out of the box,
sake, rather than learning for the sake of a grade. Me: What effects do you think Common Core will have on students and what effects will it have on teachers? Mrs. Barro: I think it’ll make our job more interesting. And I think it will
College and career ready is good, and that’s what we’re trying to do, but we have to remember that some people are not going to go to college. So not leaving that part out. Mrs. Barro: My opinion, though I just know what’s been told to me
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know things, not just regurgitate. Me: More interaction, rather than just receiving and transmitting. Mrs. Barro: Yeah, and so what? So what if our solar system is this way? Think beyond that. Think beyond what it is that we know, and go, take it to the why. And I love that.
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So, is Common Core “good” or “bad?” Can such a simple dichotomy ever really be applied to anything? On one hand you have the more sinister aspects of Common Core’s conception and implementation. On the other, you have changes to the focus of the entire education system about which at least some Edison teachers are very optimistic. There’s always more than meets the eye, and it’s important to look a bit deeper, read a bit closer, to analyze issues from multiple points of view. Consider, for instance, the concerns over implementing national standards; proponents of Common
way, Common Core already has one thing to teach us.
-‐ Christopher Yin For more information, check out the following links: “Common Core and the EduTech Abyss” http://michellemalkin.com/2014/01/08/common-‐core-‐and-‐the-‐edutech-‐abyss/ “The real problem with US Common Core: it further outsources education” http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/10/new-‐york-‐common-‐core-‐revolt “The Common Core: The Good, the Bad, the Possible” https://www.amle.org/BrowsebyTopic/Curriculum/CurrDet/TabId/186/ArtMID/793/ArticleID/140/Common-‐Core-‐Good-‐Bad-‐Possible.aspx “Q&A: A Crash Course on Common Core” http://www.npr.org/2014/03/18/291166780/q-‐a-‐a-‐crash-‐course-‐on-‐common-‐core
Core emphasize the need to take into account the factor of student mobility. A 2000 census (admittedly dated, but nonetheless useful in illustrating this point) found that 18% of kids had moved in the last year. So, the argument goes that “standardizing” the state standards will help students to cope with geographic relocations, making adjustments to new state school systems much smoother. In addition, the development of national assessments could end up saving states money in the long run, which they will then be able to put to use targeting their specific educational deficits. This is clearly a very, very multifaceted issue. There isn’t necessarily going to be an easy answer. And a single article isn’t nearly enough to encompass the terrifying scope of the Common Core debate. The important thing is, whether as a teacher, administrator, student, parent, or other concerned party, that you take the time to think critically about the program, that you push yourself to understand, that you ask yourself “so what?” And in that
More than 200 people from about a dozen parishes rallied at the state Department of Education headquarters in September of 2013 to denounce Louisiana’s participation in the national Common Core Initiative. | Photo credit: Heather McClelland
they now can produce something. I think that’s good. Me: Last thing-‐ is there anything else you want to add about your views on Common Core, that may not have been covered yet? Mrs. Barro: Well, as we’re a high school it’s a little more difficult I think to implement it, but in the lower levels, in the elementary schools-‐ if I were a teacher in Common Core I would have more fun. So I think kids are going to have more fun because we really do, as human beings, enjoy knowing. I think little kids even want to know. And what this is causing us is to push children to
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“The Good Citizen” a short story by A.H.
My brother first found a job with the government when he was twenty-‐three. He
quickly advanced far up the ladder. To everyone else, he was just a businessman for a company that didn’t actually exist. I was the only one he talked to about his job, even if it was only so little. He didn’t tell me much, but from what he did tell me, I knew what he did for the government was extremely important. The knowledge he held and the work he performed were never supposed to be revealed to anyone outside the government. Technically, he was breaking the rules binding him to absolute secrecy by talking to me about his work, but my brother never told me any specific details. He only gave generalizations, and only because he needed someone to talk to in order to get some release from time to time. He was happily married and had two kids. He died in an accident two weeks before his seventh anniversary. A week before he died, my brother told me that he had learned something extremely astonishing. It was a secret that had the potential to destroy the fabric of our society. He said it was almost an end-‐of-‐the-‐world type of secret. The day before he died, I received a phone call from him, asking if he could talk to me that afternoon. I said that I could. He gave me an envelope and told me to open it only if he died. He told me he had gotten into a dangerous situation that he should have avoided. He implied that in the envelope was the “monumental secret” he had been telling me about. Around noon the following day, I received a call from his wife that he had died in an accident. I spent some time contemplating what to do with the envelope my brother had given me. Preferring that the world stay the way it was and not take a turn for the worse, I burned the envelope. Secrets were not meant to be spread.
Oftentimes it seems like modern society is built around the funneling together of people with different interests and talents into a few discrete categories of “success.” Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) is a collection of fields widely touted as providing a reliable route to economic stability. Business and entrepreneurship, while perhaps “riskier” in some regards, are nonetheless also generally treated with respect and approval. Yet tell someone your dream job is an artist, and oftentimes you will receive a derisive remark about “getting real,” or a pitying smile and the condescending advice to maybe come up with a “backup plan” that is obviously intended to entirely usurp your artistic aspirations. Thankfully, many schools are doing their best to encourage artistic exploration. Art is the means through which many of us seek to understand our world, our lives, and each other, even if art isn’t always our primary focus. In fact, many colleges require that applicants take art classes to ensure “well-roundedness,” as is the case with the UC system’s Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) requirement. But what if you can’t paint/draw in the traditional sense, or play an instrument, or have never really considered yourself much of an artist at all? How do you satisfy this VPA requirement? Well, Edison offers a plethora of arts classes, but one you may not have heard of is Digital Cinema. Why should you consider enrolling in this class? Here are 5 reasons:
1. You get to watch movies. Pretty much every day. Films from a variety of different eras, genres, and directors, all the way from Alfred Hitchcock to Clint Eastwood to Christopher Nolan. So if you like watching movies…might as well geta grade for doing it.
2. You don’t really have tests. Or classwork. As long as you can remain engaged with the film and participate in a moderately intelligent conversation about its various attributes, then you can mostly avoid doing anything in class except talking and watching movies.
3. You get to make your own films. Now for some this might be a negative, as previous experience with film projects in other classes may have left you intimidated by the work involved with any such production. But consider this- there aren’t really any due dates. Or rather, the due dates are more like “guidelines.” As long as your film reflects real thought and effort, then you won’t lose points for turning in a film a couple days or weeks (or months) late.
4. At the end of the year, depending on the willingness of your classmates, there may be an opportunity for you to go on a tour of Universal Studios exclusively intended for film students. That means you’ll get a lot of backstage access to sets and equipment currently in use by various production companies, as well as insight into how the film industry works.
5. You learn to appreciate all the effort and technique that goes into making a good movie. In fact, you’ll probably never watch a film the same way again. The use of specific shots or the specific composition of a scene will catch your attention, and you’ll be able to understand why the director made these decisions. Which makes the experience of watching a movie all the more rewarding.
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Note from the Editor -
This is my last issue as Editor-in-Chief. And these are my last days as a high school student. Time is a weird thing; I can barely remember the beginning of the year, what it felt like to be working on college apps, running cross country, studying for SAT Subject tests, with the constant knowledge that the end was soon but still far away sitting in the back of my mind. Well, now the end is just soon. There are a lot of clichés I could dip into at this point. And a lot of people embrace those particular clichés we call tradition. Prom, for instance. How can a high school experience be complete without attending your senior year prom? It’s the culmination of four years of social growth, an age-old rite of passage, a celebration of bittersweet endings and glorious beginnings- right? Well, I’m still not going to prom. There are many reasons. One, I’m a stingy miser who’d rather spend money on food or books than on a school dance. Two, I’m not exactly the most social person. Yeah, it’s always good to meet new people, but right before I’m about to leave for college? The end of senior year isn’t exactly the most convenient time to form lasting relationships. To me it would be more meaningful to spend prom night just with my friends, in a setting of our choosing, rather than to blow a lot of cash on a predetermined event involving large amounts of people whom I don’t really know. That’s just me. My point isn’t that traditions are inherently bad; it’s just that when we allow the past of others to dominate our present, I think we lose something. So when the end is staring at me across a month and a half’s divide, I’m not really focusing on what has been so much as what is and will be. The Bolt has been something I’ve been incredibly proud of. I think this year we broke from a kind of apathy and managed to craft a paper with more polished, more creative, and more passionate articles. And I owe that to my staff, the students who take the time to write about topics that interest them and care enough to share with the rest of the school. But pretty soon this’ll be my past, and I don’t want my past to obstruct the Bolt’s future. I’m leaving the paper in very capable hands, hands that are very distinctly not my own. I don’t expect the paper next year to be exactly the same as the paper this year, because that’s not the point of something like the Bolt. Ultimately, the paper has always been about people sharing their interests through writing, and since not everyone shares the same interests, it doesn’t make sense to let the paper fall into a set format. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote that “consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” and the minds of our writers are anything but little. So I’m excited to see where the Bolt will go in the future, and I know as long as there are passionate students and passionate readers, it will be something the school can be proud of as well.
Thank you for reading,
Christopher Yin Editor-in-Chief
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Difficulty Level: Medium
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Movie Pick of the Month (movies that you may not have seen but should definitely check out)
Half Nelson (2006)
Directed by Ryan Fleck Written by Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden
An inner-‐city junior high school teacher with a drug habit forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students after she discover
his secret.
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps, Anthony Mackie, Monique Gabriela Curnen, Denis O’Hare
Drama
Book Pick of the Month (novels that you probably haven’t heard of but are well worth the read)
A Tale for the Time Being (2013)
By Ruth Ozeki
In Tokyo, sixteen-‐year-‐old Nao has decided to end her life. But before she does, Nao first plans to document the life of her great
grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. Across the Pacific, a novelist named Ruth discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama
and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future.
