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Slackers, Senioritis evident on campus
By Simon Newman
Editorial Editor
An epidemic has hit Grimsley.
It’s worse than the Ebola virus.
It’s more contagious than a cold.
So what is this horrible problem?
SLACKERITIS.
Grimsley is full of slackers. Ev
eryone just seems too lazy to do one
th ing or another, no matter whether
it is homework or work at home.
Many people seem to find better
things to do than work. There are
the excuses of T. V., radio, time with
friends, etc.. Even those who re
ally love to work find themselves
slacking at one point or another.
At Grimsley, procrastination is
a result of slacking. If a paper is
due on a Monday, then Sunday
night at 11 o’clock seems to be the
perfect time to start on it. Slack
ers can write an entire research
paper the night before it is due.
The excuse that there was Just so
much to do is often heard in this
case. Many people affected with
Siackeritis seem to know ways to
write numerous pages of absolutely
nothing (large type on computers
helps achieve this).
Slackers are lazy. When there
are dirty dishes or a full trash can,
there always seems to be something
else that you have to do. Anyway,
isn’t that what parents and siblings
are for? In my case, definitely.
Putting things off on other people
is a natural result of Siackeritis.
Why take out the trash or mow the
yard when your older brother is just
as capable and they’re not doing
anything. It’s fun sometimes to just
do nothing.
Many students at Grimsley have
been exposed to Siackeritis, and it
is quickly spreading. Some fresh
men have been diagnosed with it.
They have found out that by giving
the least effort necessary, they have
a lot of time left over to do what
ever it is that they really want to do.
After three and a half years at
Grimsley, I have seen Siackeritis
steadily take over my neural system,
hitting hardest this year. That is
because 1 have attained Siackeritis
to the umpteenth power. 1 have
Senioritis.
Senioritis is the advanced form
of Siackeritis. It results during your
final year of high school, sometime
around February when the college
acceptances come rolling in. Hey,
I know that 1 have a bad case of the
disease. I’ve been accepted to col
lege and I’ve sent in my housing
contract. School just doesn’t seem
to have the same pizzazz that it used
to. I feel that no matter how I do.
Chapel Hill will be waiting for me
just around the comer.
I’m not the only one with
Senioritis. At least half ofthis year’s
graduating class sees the light and
falls in with the slackest of all slack
groups. What once was four hours
of long, tedious homework quickly
becomes two minutes of meaning
less scribble. The minimum to get
by has now gotten lower. Grades
have lost all meaning. Any Senior
will tell you just how bad Senioritis
has hit. Andthey say that college is
even more slack. Tm not sure that
it is possible.
There is help for slackers, but
you have to take the first step your
self by admitting that you have a
problem. No twelve step course can
help you on this one. You have to
make the giant leap yourself.
Siackeritis will always be evident
in this world, but you can help cut it
down. Remember, only you can
prevent Siackeritis. I would keep
writing but Tm too slack to con
tinue. So to all you fellow slackers
out there; There is hope.
Letter to the Editor
Book banning common in schools
Dear Editor,
There is ongoing controversy over
censorship, or editing for content. Tele
vision, magazines, art, and movies have
all been subject to censorship. Literature
has become entangled in the ideology to
cleanse all expression for “impurities.”
While I would not give The Old Gringo
to an impressionable fifth grader to read,
1 do believe that high school students have
the ability to make their own judgments
about what they consider correct and in
correct. For this reason, I offer the argu
ment that at the high school level, no lit
erature should be banned.
Recently, the Pulitzer Prize-winning
novel. The Color Purple by Alice Walker,
came under attack from a family in the
Guilford County School System. The par
ents of high school students objected to
their son’s reading of The Color Purple
for an advanced placement class because
of "offensive language" and “unnatural"
sexual displays such as homosexuality,
masturbation, and incest.
Parents do have the right to protest lit
erature if thc\ think the concepts that are
displayed objectionable, but in the case
of the parents objecting to The Color
Purple, they were wrong when they attempted to have
the book removed from the reading list for everyone.
Opinions are subjective and should be respected, not
forced, on others. Do these parents speak for all the
parents of the students enrolled in the advanced place
ment classes?
A similar case arose earlier this year with The Old
Gringo by Carlos Fuentes. The parents of a student in
an International Baccalaureate literature class expressed
much distaste for some sexually explicit scenes within
the novel. Instead of going to the school for an alterna
tive novel from the IB reading list, the parents went di
rectly to a county school board committee and asked
that the book be taken off the reading list permanently.
Again, does a single family’s views have the right to
dictate an entire school system’s literature regulations?
No. Do the beliefs of the parents in one family mirror
the beliefs of parents in all of Guilford County’s fami
lies? No.
The most important voices in this argument are of
ten overlooked: the students themselves. Literature
which is banned from our eyes hinders our learning. Be
ing a student of the Guilford County school system, I
am greatly inlluenced by the outcomes of all these cases.
Ironically. I read The Old Gringo for a Grimsley En
glish class a few months before it was reviewed by the
school board. No one else I talked to knew of the novel.
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nor had ever heard of Carlos
Fuentes. While reading, 1 noted
the sexual content of the novel but
I was old enough not to dwell on
it.. There is much more to this
novel than the few lines which
were objected to. The Old Gringo
has some interesting themes and
good symbolism, and I used this
novel to compose a paper which I
consider to be one of my best.
Undoubtedly, in the future
other parents and students will ob
ject to literature w'hich portray
society 's “evils.” It is the respon
sibility of the Guilford County
School System to offer alternative
literature if someone finds as
signed readings offensive. How
ever, if single families continue to
attempt to censor certain literature
on the basis of their personal con
victions, the price we pay will be
great. The censorship of any lit
erature threatens all literature.
Ben Peterson
Junior
Whirlies ...
Out
Have you ever experienced discrimination at
Grimsley?
"A t the beginning of the year I was
bald because I had cancer.
People would call me Skinhead."
-Matt Fabish, Senior
Jkd/en photo
"A lot of times, people associate
my name with Taco Bell. Theyll
call me Bean Burrito, or assume
Tm Mexican. Tm Puerto Rican. "
-Jacob Perez, Junior
Ballcii photo
"The first thing they said to me
in Guidance when I was regis
tering was. Are you aware of
the drug policy?'"
-Josh Johnson, Junior
Dmptette photo
"Tve walked by certain people
on campus who'd look at me
and start the old 'ching-chung'
routine."
-Sun Jun Park, Senior
Duquetle Photo