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Volume 72 No. 2
Grimsley Hi^ School
801 Westover Terrace
Greensboro, NC 27408
November 6, 1995
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Mr. Penland, in an attempt to encourage
students to improve their attendance
records, has developed the "Cash In"
Student Attendance Incentive Program.
A student becomes eligible for a free
breakfast during 1 st period and entry in
the grand prize drawing if he or she re
ceives no tardies or absences for
twenty consecutive days. The drawing,
held at the end of the year, has prizes
of up to $250 in cash.
6"eniors David Hyman, Andrew Jordan,
Patrick Kinlaw, Jamie Link, James
Nehlsen, and John Pool have recently
been chosen as National Merit semi
finalists. The decision was made
based on their performance on the
1994 PS AT. Seniors Brent Barkley,
Anne Beatty, Jason Bower, Rachel
Davis, Anna DeCasper, Maia Kaplan,
Matthew Kohut, Benjamin McCoy,
Sarah McCullough, Jennifer Oxenfeld,
Julianne Peeler, Carla Ransom, Luke
Reiser, Rebecca Rolnick, and Michael
Votta received commendation.
Afeagan Renn and School Resource Of
ficer David Robinette appeared on
"CBS This Morning" on October 30.
As members of SAVE, they were in
vited to participate in a discussion on
school violence in America.
J^ennifer Hudspeth won first place in
the recent SAVE essay contest. Mary
Holsenbeck and Jessica Wells re
ceived second and third places, re
spectively, writing about students' re
actions and responses to school vio
lence. First place received $50 and
dinner for four, second place re
ceived $25 and dinner for four, and
third place was awarded $20 and din
ner for two. All winners were
awarded a SAVE T-shirt.
Students react to reality of IB
By Sarah Atkinson
Reporter
Ten out of 15 students enrolled in the
International Baccalaureate (IB) pro
gram believe that the education they
are receiving is worth doing every bit
of the work they have been held re
sponsible for. The other five students
say it is just too much
work.
The general consen
sus among all of the IB
participants is that the
work load is very high.
“There is no time to do
anything. It’s just home
work, homework, home
work,” said Jason Elliott,
a junior.
Tim Danford, a jun
ior, believes Grimsley
has made a step in the
right direction by install
ing the program, but
agrees that the work has
been tremendous.
“There’s not enough time
to do all of the extracur
ricular activities that I
like to do. There’s no
way I can devote myself
fully to any specific ac
tivity.”
Mr. Buczinsky, the
eleventh grade IB En
glish teacher, said, “My
fear is that IB is too ambitious and
that students in the program will not
have the time and energy necessary
to integrate and appropriate the in
struction into their lives.”
Other students feel that the way in
which the program has been set up at
Grimsley has largely contributed to
this problem of having only enough
time in the day to do school work.
Ed Goode, a junior, said, “Most
other places that have IB don’t stick
to the six-classes-a-day schedule like
we do. It’s crazy.”
Elliott agrees that the school could
have taken precautions to help reduce
some of the pressure that comes with
taking the IB classes. He said.
“Grimsley isn’t engineered to help stu
dents in IB like other schools are.
Here, six classes a day means six home
work assignments a night.”
For these very reasons, Kate
Worthington, a junior, elected not to go
for the IB diploma. “I am not going to
give up all the things I love in the name
IB students SunJun Park and John O'Brien begin their
days at 7:30 in Dr. Kee's Theory of Knowledge class.
of a better education when I am already
getting an above average one,” said
Worthington.
Some students chose to enroll in IB
not just to get a better education or to
get ahead in college. Ben Messmer, a
junior, said, “I’m not taking IB to get
college credit, because I am planning
on going to art school. I’m taking it to
challenge myself in high school.”
Goode said, “I took it out of curi
osity. I just wanted to see what it was
like.”
“A lot of pressure was put on me to
take IB,” said Elliott. “Also, I was
afraid that I would have looked back
and said, ‘I think I could have done
that,’ and I don’t like that feeling.”
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Coof^t
Vo a Little
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pages 6-7
Representing the majority of stu
dents who decided not to take the IB
path, Hana Brown, a junior, said, “ I
am not confident enough in my ability
to handle all of that work.”
“Too much pressure is put on stu
dents to take higher level courses that
they might not be ready for,” said Kelly
Youngken, ajunior.
This is the exactly the
situation that many IB
students found them
selves in at the beginning
of the school year. Some
stuck with it, many did
not.
Messmer said, “I re
gret that a lot of students
dropped out in the very
beginning based on less
than one month’s experi
ence with the program.
It’s all about learning,
not the grades you get.”
Even so, the pressure
to make good grades is
still a large source of
stress on students today.
Mohan Sethi, a jun
ior, sees the IB program
as being “too challeng
ing” and therefore “very
stressful.”
However, Messmer
said, “For me, it’s not as
much a stress factor as a
‘lack of sleep’ factor. I was a living
corpse the first couple of weeks, but
now it’s all in my hands as far as time
management.”
Danford noticed the same thing. He
said, “I consistently find that I go to
bed at 1:30 or 2:30 each night. This is
a big change from last year.”
Dr. Kee, the coordinator of the IB pro
gram at Grimsley, has seen such changes
as these in all of his students. “There is a
maturing process going on, which is good
but painful. From tenth to eleventh grade
is a big change anyway, but especially for
these kids because they don’t get a break.
They’ve had to make sacrifices but they are
learning how to prioritize.”
This may seem well and good, but not
everyone can find a good reason behind
making all of these changes.
A1 Bangura, a senior, said, “I could have
taken the courses, but I didn’t need them.”
Stewart Allen, ajunior, feels the same
way. “I could take all standard classes and
still go to a good college. I don’t need IB.”
Justin Parr, a junior, went so far as to
say, “Just because someone is in the IB pro
gram, they seem smarter than they may ac
tually be.”
However, Dr. Kee says, “This is not a
thing for geniuses. It’s about setting goals
and achieving them.”