Newspapers / North Carolina School of … / Nov. 1, 1999, edition 1 / Page 9
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november 99 opinions age 9 A Should athletes really be considered role-models? shannon meyer Athletes have al ways seemed so elevated and untouchable. They’re the all-American good boys, but they’re also the rapists, the bul lies, the drinkers and the partyers. Recent events at Enloe High School in Raleigh have reinforced this particular fact, one that most adults of every community chose to ig nore, though they dealt with it when they were in high school, and every student knows it. Two separate incidents oc curred, one involving consensual sex between one female and ten male students in a locker room, the other concerning the hazing of new members of the soccer team by older members. Though the preferential treatment of athletes hasn’t been a major concern for parents, administrators, or the me dia, it is for me. In the locker room sex scandal, an assistant principle walked in on the girl and one boy engag ing in sexual relations. The participation of the other nine boys was dis covered later. Those nine males, including six foot ball players, were only suspended for ten days and have already returned to school. The girl, as well as the boy she was actu ally found with, were sus pended for the rest of the year. This judgment is seriously flawed. Granted, the two suspended the longest were actually caught in the act, but the others admitted to the same misconduct, so they deserve the same punish ment. A murderer found guilty by the use of evi dence or confession does not receive any less pun ishment than one wit nessed murdering. It seems more than circumstantial to me that the six football play ers just happened to be among those not caught and given the short sus pension, especially dur ing the height of football season. School adminis trators claim that they have good reasons for the two longer suspensions, which they conveniently could not give, but to me, sexual relations on school grounds are sim ply sexual relations on school grounds. How many variations could there be that would war rant such a severe pun ishment in comparison to the others? The principle also claims that the incident with the football players differs from the one in volving soccer players because it was not a team action tike that of the soc cer team. But the major ity of those involved in the sex scandal were foot ball players, and no doubt they assumed that they would get away with it because of their status as athletes. That’s funny— they may as well have, considering what the other two involved re ceived as punishment. Furthermore, the tradition of hazing has been debated in response to the actions of the soc cer team. Many defend it, saying that it is a tradi tion and no one bothered to do anything about it before. That argument is ridiculous. Slavery went on for a long time; women did not have the right to vote— should those things never have been stopped simply because they existed for a long time? The problem is that no one wants to call ath letes— the stars, the role models—into question. No one wants to criticize an institution so integral to American culture. But perhaps it’s time we started. After all, and I say this from experience at more than one school (including this one), that the athletes are as bad, if not worse, than the gen eral populous. In most cases, they really don’t deserve recognition as model citizens of the school community. On the surface, slight favoritism towards athletes should not make that much of a difference in the long run, but it can have serious social con sequences. Consider for a moment the Colorado school shootings. Those boys started shooting athletes first, primarily be cause they had been picked on by all the self- important, egotistical jocks, who, of course, have been bullying the less “manly” male stu dents since Moses was a Boy-Scout. Besides those students who choose to take their pent-up aggres sion out on others, count less male teenagers commit suicide each year because they have been socially ostracized. Often, they are intelligent, sensi tive people who just couldn’t run fast enough or be aggressive enough to consider giving them selves concussions on a football field fun. Luckily, Science and Math does not show partiality towards athletes. But traces of the athlete- worshipper mentality re main. Some athletes here still believe that they should be exempt from harsher punishments sim ply because of their ath letic ability; one recent, well-publicized example proves that fact. I’m afraid that even though we are free from such favoritism, most other high schools, as well as colleges, are not. We’ve dealt with it before, and we’ll be forced to deal with it again. But we shouldn’t have to, and neither should anyone else. Computer...p8 the problem. Dr. Barber has already said that starting in December, we will be getting the wiring for computers in the dorms. I know that doesn’t help everyone, but it will free a few com puters up here and there. Until then, tough- nuggies. The best way to fix the problem is tolerance. For me personally, a little free computer time isn’t a waste of time, but a great way to relax. Doing home work all the time makes it very hard for me to stay focused on the important stuff, you know the learn ing. So, give it a try. In stead of getting angry, see what makes everyone else stay on the computer when you want it. You’ll soon see that it isn’t that big of a deal, and you might just find out some neat things about your self. And if that still doesn’t convince you, then just be happy that you helped out a few classmates, by letting them have their fun. Staff editorial New Grading System for S&M Pro Con A’s, B’s, seven-point grading scale, ten-point grading scale. What do these letters mean? Compare the stan dards of grading “back home” to Sci ence and Math. Take a closer look at the school. In the following scenario, you make a 78 on your most recent test. In most classes it would be a C, on the 4* floor of Bryan you just made a B, and if it was a killer Miller, an A. Grades no longer have clear standards. A system created to give an honest, across-the-board as sessment of a student’s knowledge of a subject no longer has a basis founded on consistency. Therefore the grading system direly needs an overhaul, especially at a school notoriously harder than any other high school in North Carolina. Our proposal involves moving towards a pass/fail system with honest teacher comments. The level to which students would need to perform in order to pass must be raised above where a C- is in every class. By raising the bare mini mum, even the students who do just enough to get by must have a decent understanding of the materials. The teacher comments will be used to distinguish the better students in a class. They would also give a more accurate account of a student’s perfor mance in class. If the student slacks off, it will show up in the teacher evalua tion. If the student goes the extra mile, that will also show up in the comments. There fore effort in a class will also be acknowledged. This pass/fail system shows stu dents, parents, and coUeges exactly how the student approaches their education. As the leading high school in North Carolina, we have a responsibility to demonstrate to the state a new approach towards grading, a better approach to- wards learning. We agree. The pass/fail sys tem with comments is a good idea. That is, if we lived in an ideal world where everyone tried their hardest, where ob jectivity ruled, and where means but not results mattered. In the ideal situation, people would want to leam and be motivated to do so to the greatest extent. In real ity, however, people are inclined to do the minimal amount of work required to get by. With the pass/fail system, those who actually worked hard and put a great deal of effort into their work woidd receive the same amount of credit as those who did only the minimum. Fair? We don’t think so. Even at Science and Math, the attitude that prevails is to do whatever it takes to pass—or get a B. Fxu-thermore, pass/fail does not accurately show the level of mas tery that a student gains over a subject because more than two levels of mas tery exist. An A result is much better than a C- result even though both would receive a pass mark in the pass/fail sys tem. Though effort is important and is worth commendation, in the real world, results matter. Who would you rather hire, someone who works really hard but never manages to produce anything, or someone who may only work a moder ate amount but gets the job done in a satisfactory manner? Another aspect of the pass/fail system that we disagree with is the teacher comments portion. Once again, in an ideal world, teachers would be purely objective and evaluate with only the student’s effort in mind. Instead, teachers are subject to the same ten dency to judge tmfairly. We’re not saying that effort should be completely out of the sys tem. It should count as a percentage of the grade where class commitrnent is noted but mastery is also seen. 0) stentorian north Carolina school of science and mathematics 1219 broad street durham, nc 27705 Editors-in-Chief: Benita Jones and Kyle McLaughlin Adviser: John Woodmansee Departments: News: Editor: Samantha Lea Writers: Teresa Anasti, Mary Guy, Rose Ponton, Patrick Thompson, Stephanie Wall. Features: Editor: Katie Poulos Writers: Audrey Bowerman, Alison Chu, Erica Healey, Shayerah Ilias, Veni Manickam. Sports: Editor: Stephanie Hartung Writers: Marisa Biondi, Jon-Michael Dougherty, Gaby Haddock, Nigel Kirby, Kiki Murphy, Jacob Schonberg. Opinions: Editor: Shannon Mayer Writers: Katye Blackwell, Heather Fried, Jillian Greene,Laura Pipe, Jonathan Raxter. Layout: Editor: Frank Menius Staff: Jaclyn Besas, Marisa Biondi, Emma Blose, Michael Chan, Jesse Flanagan, Gaby Haddock, Stephanie Hartung, Hannah Kim, Nigel Kirby, Jessica Luong, Jonell Stovall. Photograhy: Editors: Sara Hanner and Doug Paletta Staff: Jonathatn Basirico, Andy Greenberg, Stephanie Liu, Sarah Morrison, Christopher Paul, Jamie Pike, Ashley Rankin, Nidhi Thapar, Vinh Tran. Columnists: Jennifer E. Newport, Jonathan Raxter, Stephanie Hartung - spoon http://iluvatar.ncssm.edu/stentorian
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Student Newspaper
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Nov. 1, 1999, edition 1
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