Video Project

NSA News Report

Video:Bathroom Construction

Controversy Over a New Bathroom

by Celeste Brown, Kathryn Dawson, and Gwen Schultz

Video: NSA/ Northwood Game

NSA vs. Northwood Hockey

by Celeste Brown, Kathryn Dawson, and Gwen Schultz

Video: Marcel the Shell

Marcel the Shell:

The Inexplicable Internet Sensation

by Celeste Brown, Kathryn Dawson, and Gwen Schultz

 

Proposition 19

Proposition 19
By: John Wilkins
     Proposition 19, also known as the Regulate, control and tax cannabis act of 2010, was put on the California statewide ballot on November 2, 2010, and was rejected.  The vote was close with 54% of voters voting no, and 46% voting yes.  Unfortunately the mass majority of people voting were parents who didn’t want there young children smoking marijuana, and not as many younger people between the ages of 18 and about 25 years old.
     If Proposition 19 had been approved it would have legalized various marijuana related activities allowing local governments to regulate these activities, and to impose and collect taxes.    People over the age of 21 would be allowed to possess up to an ounce of marijuana for personal use.  Cannabis would permitted to be used in a non public place such as a residence or a public establishment licensed for on site marijuana consumption.  Also people would be allowed to grow cannabis in a private residence in a space up to 25 square feet for personal use.
     The question most people are wondering is why legalize marijuana?  Marijuana should be legal for so many different reasons.  Prohibition has failed to control the use and production of marijuana.  It is illegal but for people under the age of 21 marijuana is easier to get than cigarettes or alcohol. A regulated and legal market would reduce marijuana use among children and teenagers, as well as exposure to other drugs in the illegal market.   To get marijuana now you have to go to a dealer who just wants to make some money.  He doesn’t care about how old you are or check your I.D. unlike trying to get cigarettes or alcohol where the salesman can lose his license or job for selling to a person that is under age.  By legalizing it you would be able to control who can get it and who can not.  By legalizing it and making the person have to be 21 in order to buy it, marijuana will be much harder for a child to receive.
   Our government has put criminal penalties on the plant to prevent the use of it, yet it is still being used by approximately 25 million people annually in the Unites States.   This regulated, legal market would then reduce the flow of money to “criminals” and put that money into our economy that is suffering so badly and could help us get out of this depression we are currently in today.
   The legalization of marijuana would simplify the development of hemp as an extremely valuable agricultural crop.  Cannabis can also be hemp.  Hemp is the most durable, robust, natural soft fiber in the world, and has more than 2,500 different uses from paper, to dynamite, to cellophane.  Up until 1883, and for thousands of years before, Cannabis/Hemp was one of the largest agricultural crops in the world. The majority of fabric, lighting oil, medicine, and papers were made of Cannabis/Hemp.  The first marijuana law in the United States was a law ordering farmers to grow hemp in Jamestown Colony, Virginia, 1619.  Benjamin Franklin started one of the United States first paper mills with hemp.  By using hemp for paper like we used to hundreds of years ago we would be able to cut back on cutting down tress for paper, and deforestation.  In fact the first two ruff drafts of the United States Declaration of Independence were written on cannabis hemp paper. 50% of the medicine made in the last half of the 19th century was made from cannabis.  Also one of the most important new uses for hemp today is the use as a bio-fuel.  Using hemp for energy for you car to reduce the use of oil and reduce carbon emissions.
   People were asked in a survey how many deaths per year they thought there are from marijuana use?   Some answered 5,000 others thought 500,000.  But in actuality there has never been a single death in history of a marijuana over dose.  It is scientifically proven that marijuana is not toxic to humans and its nearly impossible to over does on. If there were any, the government would parade it all over the news.  Obviously its not good for your lungs but only because your inhaling combusted plant matter. If look look at death from substances a whole new picture occurs.  The number one killer in the United States, it beat out AID’s, heroine, crack, cocaine, car accidents, fire, and murder combined, this would be tobacco.  Averaging at 430,000 deaths per year its a question why tobacco is legal and why marijuana is not?  Tobacco is even given government subsidies and grown with radio active fertilizer.  Next on out list is Alcohol at second most deaths in the U.S.
   Unlike Alcohol and Tobacco, Marijuana is not an addictive substance, meaning someone using marijuana will not experience withdrawal symptoms when you are denied the substance for a period of time.  There are more kids in addiction clinics for marijuana than any other drug, which would make you think its the most addictive substance today.  But the DEA never tells you why this is.  A kid gets caught smoking or possessing marijuana and goes to Court, there he is given two options.  You can either do some horrible penalty or you can go into treatment for addiction, so of course they are going to chose that.  In fact if you were going to rate drugs in order of how addicting they are it would go: Nicotine, Alcohol, heroine, cocaine, continues threw more drugs then ends up at coffee, and then more before getting to marijuana.
     Why is Marijuana illegal?  “People will abuse marijuana”, well you can abuse cheeseburgers too does that mean we should go around closing every cheese burger place in America? I can jam a fork in my eye, does that mean we should we outlaw forks? The first thing that seems odd about this is how legal it once was.  It wasn’t only just legal it was one of the largest agricultural crops in the world, including the United States.  Prohibition is based off of lies and false information.  “Reefer Madness” came about in the early 20th century when yellow journalism had surfaced.  Articles about Blacks and Mexicans as “Frenzy beasts” who would smoke marijuana, and plays devils music, as well as disrespecting the leadership (which the majority were white).  Offenses such as looking at a white women twice, laughing at a white person, or even stepping on a white mans shadow.  Hemp continued to be illegal until World War II when the government decided hemp was a good thing again and even came out with a video “Hemp for Victory”.  Then it was made illegal again after the war, but this time for the exact opposite reason.  It didn’t make you angry or aggressive at all, it turned people into pacifists and make people not want to fight.  Also the hemp industry was a big threat to the tobacco and paper industry and they were so big that they helped criminalize it.
     Crime and marijuana.  As a police chief, Norm Stamper says he saw time and time again “the obvious evidence of harm cause by alcohol, and the absence of evidence caused by marijuana.  And I mean the complete absence, I cant remember a single case in which marijuana contributed to domestic violence, or any crimes of theft.
By legalizing marijuana we would stop waisting tax money on the failing prohibition that is obviously not working today and put money into our economy from the sales revenue and taxation of marijuana.  We could also lower numbers of children in rehabilitation centers,  and people in the over crowded jails we have today.
   By voting yes on Proposition 19 you would have voted for individuals from the age of 21 and up may, under state law, possess and cultivate marijuana for personal use in limited amounts.  In addition the state and local governments may regulate and tax commercial marijuana-related activities under certain conditions, all though these activities would continue to remain illegal under federal law.
  By voting no to Proposition 19 voters would be voting to keep the possession and cultivation of marijuana illegal under state law for personal and commercial use, unless allowed under the states current existing medical marijuana laws.
  This bill has many pros to it.  Stops waisting tax payers money on the obviously failed marijuana prohibition.  Controls and taxes marijuana like alcohol and tobacco.  Makes marijuana available to ONLY adults.  Adds criminal penalties for giving it to anyone that is under the age of 21.  Weakens drugs cartels and even generates billions of dollars in revenue.  
  Of course with the list of pros there is always a list of cons.  It is opposed by “Mothers Against Drunk Driving” (MADD) because it allows people to smoke marijuana until they get behind the wheel.  Endangers public safety (which I personally do not believe is true because it makes people peaceful not aggressive).  Jeopardizes $9,400,000,000.00 in school funding, billions in federal contracts, and thousands of jobs (even though it will create thousands of jobs).  Also it is opposed by California Sheriffs, Police Chiefs, Fire Fighters, and District Attorneys.
   During the prohibition of alcohol everything got worse.  It gave rise to huge criminal groups and was worse than marijuana is today.  Alcohol poisoning went up 600% during the prohibition of alcohol.  It led to a general disregard to the law, as well as a general disregard of police activity.  This is because most of the people would not obey it.  There were many problems during the alcohol prohibition that went away when it was legalized.  This is the same for marijuana, once it is legal people will not have to buy from a criminal market.

Facebook- not so good

Facebook:
What Is Facebook Addiction?

Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world today; it has more to it than meets the eye.

Facebook was founded in 2004 by a young genius, Mark Zuckerberg. The site began as a networking site for the 4000 students at the university of Harvard.

It quickly grew into a nation-wide college networking site and soon after became a worldwide site used by over 500 million people.

Facebook used properly has all sorts of great uses.  Facebook users create a personal profile where they can include whatever they’d like to share about themselves. They can download pictures, videos, add other Facebook users as friends, join groups and download applications.

College and high school graduates can get in touch with old friends who would otherwise be lost to them unless they went to a reunion.  Kids who go away to boarding schools or colleges can keep in touch with friends from home. They can keep in touch with the friends they made while they were away.

You can send invitations to friends for social events, fundraisers, and work or school related events.  Facebook sends notification reminders of the event to the people invited to and attending the event. 

Facebook has an application that tells you about all your friends’ birthdays for each day.  I have personally been saved once or twice by this notification; sisters don’t give good birthday gifts to little brothers who forget their birthdays.

Facebook is a good way to get a hold of people. If you don’t have someone’s number then you can always Facebook him or her by using either mail or instant messaging on the Facebook homepage.

Facebook is also a good way to meet people who may be interested in the same things as you if you are someone who are into the whole cyber-friend thing.

Although there are many things that make Facebook great, these things happen to be same reasons that Facebook is the devil.   The worst thing about Facebook is how addicting it can be.  There are 500 million active users. On any given day, at least half of those users will log onto Facebook.            

Two hundred million of these users have Facebook on their mobil device; these users are twice as active on Facebook then non-mobile users.

People who are truly addicted are like alcoholics; they need to “Facebook”.

Addicts spend all day uploading new pictures playing games and making sure everyone on Facebook knows exactly what they’re doing.

Addicts tend to post things like Cameron Bobeck –“I’m cooking a feast tonight. NY strip. Sliced cheese potatoes casserole and croissants. Apple pie for desert. What’s good chef Bobo.”

Thanks Bobeck. I was wondering what you were eating tonight.

The world spends way too much time on Facebook. People spend more then 700 million minutes on Facebook each month. (Facebook.com)

There are many applications or “apps” that people waist hours of their day working on. For instance, last year’s phenom app. Farmville. An application that became very popular at the end of 2009.  It seemed like everyone had a little pretend farm that they were attending to with utmost vigor and consistency.

Farmville is a simulation game that replicates running a farm. You can plant crops and take care of animals and buy whatever farm equipment you would like with the money you make.

The thing about Farmville is that you have to tend to your farm; if you don’t water your crops or feed your animals, they die.

 So the pathetic part is that everyone who got sucked into Farmville would have to get on Facebook at least once or twice a day to make sure his or her farms stayed “alive.”

At my school, kids would have competitions for having the largest farm. They would spend whatever free time they had tending to their farm.   I even caught a teacher on Farmville during class.

Although farming isn’t the most glorified job, Farmville has more then 53 million active users.

The “book” serves as a distraction even for those who aren’t addicted.

People who have jobs where they spend lots of time on computers and kids who have to do a lot of school work with computers can easily get distracted on Facebook, since it is just a click away.

At my school you can walk by someone on his or her laptop and expect him or her to have Facebook open somewhere on his or her computer.

I have found if I just shut “the Book” out while doing work, I’ll get work done twice as fast and I don’t even consider my self as a big “Facebooker.”

Although Facebook is a social networking site it can ruin real social experiences for people.

Individuals stop socializing in person but via Facebook instead ruining real social experiences.  Often people become Facebook “friends” with people who they don’t know or have met only once.

Some people send requests to people who they don’t know or accept requests from people they don’t know so that they can increase their friend’s list.  Their friend’s list becomes a sort of fantasy list of people they would like to know.

Some users with a low self-esteem will create a profile of themselves that is really a portrayal of someone who they want to be, not who they actually are. 

They take pictures with angles in the mirror that show their good sides, have only pictures that make them look good, make their profiles say the perfect stuff. They lie about their age and say what ever seems to be appealing.

In an article I read about avid Facebookers being narcissistic, there was a quote that I believe sums up most “Facebookers.”  “Using Facebook is the online equivalent of staring at yourself in the mirror.”

While this doesn’t apply to every Facebook user, it may apply to the 200 million with Facebook on their mobile device or to the kids putting “1 arm pull-ups in Chile” or “Just did 45 min. of intervals” (thank you Logan Mackie for letting us all know about your athletic abilities.)  

But the perfect example again goes to our favorite bigheaded NSA graduate, Cameron Bobeck, “so I’m in the gym lookin’ ripped. All hot and sweaty. Hot chick keep eyeing me and dropping hints. yet i still say nothing to her and walk out like a little wimp. what the”.

Kids put way to much information on their Facebooks.  Young kids put their names, numbers, addresses and other personal info up that people from around the world can see.

While this doesn’t pose a problem when their true friends are looking at their profile, the thing is their friends aren’t the only ones looking. There are predators all over the web.

Although there are many ways to hide your information, and make it so only select people can see it, Facebook can provide all the information some of these sick people are looking for.

Facebook can get people in all sorts of trouble.

Kids can forget that they’re not the only ones on Facebook,.  One kid may post pictures of parties, or whatever shenanigans their friends and them are involved in on Facebook.

School, parents and bosses look at their pictures. Then they find themselves getting in all sorts of trouble just because someone decided they should post a picture.

Facebook can also be used as an electronic type of bullying or harassment. This is called cyberbullying.

People can have pictures and information posted about themselves by other people. Even if someone doesn’t approve or want something to be posted about themselves online.  

Once someone posts something there is little anyone else could do about it. So I could post an embarrassing picture of an individual and all of my friends would see it.

It’s easy for someone to mess with a person’s profile. If some one leaves their profile logged in on a computer or has a password that someone else knows.  It’s possible to change all their info to say stuff that would make a mockery out of the person.

At my school, a kid forgot to log out of his Facebook and some of his friends messed with his profile and sent some stuff to a few friends. Although they didn’t post anything too serious, the kid who’s profile was used was irritated by it.  The school found out and the kids got in a boatload of trouble.

Facebook gives folks a great opportunity to make huge idiots out of themselves.  Facebook has taken over the Internet.

Facebooks chat box has made Instant messenger obsolete people used to communicate through AOL’s instant messenger but instead now they just log on to Facebook.

Myspace was one of the first online social networking sites; it was the most popular site for a few years until Facebook took over.

 Although I can’t say I am very disappointed that Myspace is out of the picture… there were way to many creepy people on that site.

Facebook becomes more and more like a billboard everyday.  When Facebook first began there was a few advertisements on it but it has quickly blown up.  There is advertising all over the site.

Although I’m sure it is beneficial to many companies, it get a little annoying to have so many products waved in front of my face whenever I log in.

My cousin deleted her Facebook profile a few years back.  When I asked her why she didn’t have a Facebook any more, she gave me a long spiel about how bad Facebook was.  Well a few months later I got a notification that she was back on Facebook.

Although my stance is clearly against Facebook, I am not going to delete my profile because, well, I think it’s obvious how that would end up a few weeks later! Instead I am going to move it from being my first bookmark on my laptop’s toolbar to the last, right after the new bookmark.  

     

setting goals

            Goal setting is important in every aspect of your life. This means that you have a specific picture in your mind, you write it down, and achieve it. It is important to see it every day. There are many factors that go into goal setting one general rule about goal setting is SMART (specific, measureable, attainable, realistic, timely). Now timely doesn’t mean that you have to set a hard goal to be done tomorrow this means that you put a time constraint on it to give a specific point to work towards. It is very simple a SMART goal would sound something like “my goal is to have room clean by the end of tonight” it has all of the components; it is specific: clean room. Measureable: clean can be measured. Attainable: yes, I can clean my room. Realistic: yes, I can have a clean room. Timely: by the end of the night. This all shows how simple it can be. Goals, to be effective, have to be positive. Writing your goals down is very important because in doing the writing it becomes more prominent in your mind every time you see it. keep goals at a low level and break them up if they are too big otherwise it will seem like you are not making progress. If you have a big goal then breaking it up is easy. Out-line the steps you need to take in order to reach that goal then set the different steps as a goal to work towards. Effective goals are performance goals not outcome goals. That means that you have to set goals that you have the most control over.

           

            “First and foremost, having goals paved the way for me to accomplish things that I probably could not have achieved without having a road map of short term goals leading to long term goals.” Said Jeff Symons, an 8 time All-American diver, 3 time world master diving champion. He has been a big inspiration in my life with his athletic success and business success. Jeff told me “My biggest goal in sports was to be an All American. That goal was set my freshman year in high school maybe even 8th grade. The time line was by the end of my Senior year.” He won his first All-American honor his sophomore year in high school and every other year in high school (1980-1982). His success story, the way he tells it, is heavily based upon setting goals. He would make a list of goals, both long term and short term. He would write his long-term goals on a sheet of paper and put it on his wall near his light switch so everyday he would read it. He also put them on his mirror to be sure he would see it everyday. He worked tirelessly everyday just to get better. “My main goal was to get better every single day and that would lead to achieving my long term goals.” Jeff said. “How did I achieve the goals?” said Jeff  “Hard work dedication, being mentally tough at all times, practice, practice, practice, and setting goals.” Upon graduating he went to Arkansas to dive for them. He won 2 All-American while attending that school. In his senior year he transferred to Iowa State University where he won another All-American award. He set the Iowa high school records for diving and they still stand today after 28 years.  

           

            A key part of setting goals is “you have to be all in” as Jeff puts it “If you second guess yourself you will not be able to accomplish the goal in my opinion.” I am a firm believer in this statement. This is true for any goals you set. If you just set a goal and don’t actually want to put the time and work necessary to accomplish it then it will never happen. Again, I’m going back to the clean room example. I set the same goal a few weeks ago but when I set it, it was more of a want then an actual goal. Therefore it never got done. This week however I set the goal with the intention of doing so. It worked out very nicely I found that I made time to do it and it got done quicker than I imagined. Goal setting can work wonders if you are willing to put in the time and effort. Effort is the biggest part. It is not achieving the goal is only part of it because if you put an honest effort in then even if you fail you would still be able to feel good about your effort. Setting goals is as much of a physical thing as a mental thing.

           

            Jerry Symons former head coach of the ISU dive team (1964-1998) is a great coach and athlete. He always talked about setting goals to both his teams and his family. As a child my dad told me about setting goals and how effective they are. When Jerry became a coach his record included a lot more than winning. In 1973 he won the College Swimming Coaches Association “Swimming Coach of the Year” award. In 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, and 1992 he won the Big 8 Diving Coach of the Year. In 1992 he also won an All-American award for coaching. He coached 29 Big 8 diving champions. And in 1998 he won “Veisha – nominated Faculty of the Year” award. His biggest lifetime goal was to become a coach. As an eighth grader in 1948 he spent his summer working for his high school coach. “ I did about everything from breaking up concrete to cleaning the bottom of the swimming pool with a hookah unit.” He worked a 40hour week for only 3 cents an hour. He was graded on the quality of work he did. “Every 2 weeks, pay day; $3.60 for the 2 week of work (if you got perfect pay; if not somewhere less).”  He worked for Coach Hefner for the next three summers. The pay stayed the same. By his senior year he was a lifeguard and helped with swimming lessons. “A lesson I learned was; to achieve anything in life, you need to work hard and to it to the best of your ability.” As a sophomore he broke his back while playing football and was in a walking cast for 12 weeks. When he got out of the hospital he helped manage the football team. That led him to become the manager for the basketball team. He returned to high school athletics. Technique was of great interest to him. He had very encouraging coaches that helped him formulate his ideas. Through this the seeds of his goals were planted. It took him eight years to develop his goal. The first step to achieving his goal was to graduate from college. In college he played football, was on the dive team, and ran track. He was a letter winner in all of these sports.

           

            Jerry usually started his goal setting with a question. For example, what would the team like to accomplish, and what would each individual like to accomplish. This way they can work backwards to create their goals both short term and long term. They also know where they need to be and when they have to be there. It is a very effective strategy. He taught that strategy of thinking to all of his divers.

           

            You need to set goals high enough to make you strive to achieve them. They cant be something easy that you can accomplish without much effort they need to be difficult and challenging. The higher the goals you set the better you will become. If you work to achieve your goals you will be surprised on how much you can actually achieve. “If you can picture it/believe it – you can achieve it,” said Tom Randall. Tom Randall played football for ISU and won an All-American award. He went on to play for the Cowboys and the Oilers. He also reiterates that goals give you a map of where you are going and how you can get there. “A lot of my athletic and business accomplishments have taken place after I had a clear picture in my mind of what it would be like after I accomplished my goal.  When it took place, it was very natural because I had already lived it out in my mind.” When you set goals properly this is how it usually feels. You are not surprised when you accomplish your goal no matter how big it is. By the time you do all of the work to reach your goal it feels like you deserved to win it. It only feels like a surprise when you are not properly prepared. Like my coach says “If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”  Goal setting is the building block for improving or changing your life. Even saying somewhere you would like to be in a year is a goal that you set. Goal setting is inevitable to achievement.

            Goal setting is important for every aspect of life. It can help you improve where you are and get you to where you want to be. It can also help you with getting stuff done that you wouldn’t normally get done. It has been proven by many people that goal setting works. Goal setting is very easy to do all you need to do is identify where you want to be and give it a time period to complete it in, SMART. Athletically goals are very important and most every athlete sets goals, whether they know it or not.

           

Research Paper: Bullying

Raising a Generation of Bullies 

by Kathryn Dawson

 

            In the last few years, schools have been cracking down more and more on bullying. Media attention has focused on cases where the bullied student gives up and kills him or herself, and often the reaction is that the school has not done enough to protect this child. Harsher anti-bullying laws have been passed, and schools have enacted stricter anti-bullying statues in an attempt to stem the tide of fatal bullying incidents. At National Sports Academy, bullying has been a hot topic as well; students have been subjected to countless lectures on bullying and stricter rules have been enacted. However, this societal obsession with bullying can be seen as part of a larger movement in the way children are treated. We coddle them into dependence and don’t allow them to develop social skills and coping mechanisms before they encounter bullying. Parents and teachers then rush to intervene in the bullying and realize that they are incapable of truly resolving the issue. Bullying is difficult to address because it’s pervasive but varying, has elusive boundaries, may occur in many different environments, and requires crossing a generation gap. Bullying is clearly harmful, and society’s goals should be to stop bullying, rehabilitate victims and bullies, and restructure our culture so children have a sense of independence, responsibility and empathy. 

 

Tyler Clementi, a student who recently

committed suicide due to gay bullying.

            Bullying is undeniably hurtful and countless examples of its effects fill the national media. Victims of bullying are at risk for behavioral problems, impaired performance in school, increased tendencies towards violence, and suicide. Students suffer because they feel continually threatened and unsafe, often at school, and frequently begin to show signs of depression. Unfortunately, these consequences were only seriously considered after the highly publicized suicides of Tyler Clementi, Seth Walsh, Jessica Logan, and many others.

            To consider the effects of bullying, one must first decide what bullying is. There is physical bullying and verbal bullying, and can have an impact both on the victim’s body and his or her psyche. An NSA student who preferred to remain anonymous said that bullying must have, “prolonged malicious intent. It requires premeditation and motive. Like the bully must have some sort of goal, some desire in mind. They are either threatened…or they see weakness.”

 By this definition, bullying is a conscious choice, with an intention to cause some kind of pain to the victim. Bullies are willing to take the risk of getting caught in order to either disarm a rival or torment someone lesser than they are. It is not accidental, and always assumes that the bully is not only responsible for his actions, but is also conscious of the effect that s/he will have on his/her victims. This means that true bullying cannot occur at a young age because we don’t attribute a fully formed moral compass or sense of empathy to a child.  The legal system says that children are incapable of truly understanding right from wrong, so how can these same children be able to comprehend the fact that their bullying is hurting another human being?

            Considering that society has increasingly leaned towards the idea that children are helpless and hardly capable of working a microwave, let alone understanding moral complexities, is this belief contradictory to our supposedly progressive views? If one is to believe that children understand that their actions can have such severe consequences, then one must also acknowledge that they are able to function at a higher level than we give them credit for. If children are largely undeveloped, schools should aim to instill morals and perspective taking and question why this generation’s children are particularly disposed to bullying.

Before the highly obsessive childhoods of the baby boomers, children were given much more freedom and responsibility than they have now. What child hasn’t heard tales of the depression, when children played in the streets and only had to be home by dark? This was also mixed with the care of younger siblings, and sometimes the responsibility to help parents with whatever work that could be taken home. The idyllic, devil-may-care childhood idealized in Leave it to Beaver was then a pipe dream, as the idea that children would never help with work was considered absurd.

            As birth rates dropped and prosperity grew, children were being considered more and more fragile, especially as the almost unreasonable fears of kidnapping grew. In the baby-boomer days, children were no longer expected to work at all. However, fighting was still permitted in schools, and corporal punishment still occurred. Children were not considered breakable, and the idea of the child that could be irreparably damaged was not widespread. The spoiled baby-boomers grew up, and suffocated their children even more.

 

‘Helicopter parenting’ has handicapped children

            Parents created the idea of planned play-dates with close supervision. They intervened in every argument their children had, and so issues that would have once been resolved by children without adult action suddenly became reasons to worry. Children now are less responsible for their social interactions than at any time in history, and adults are more involved than ever before. This removes the idea of telling the adult as a last resort, and rather than resolve their issues themselves, children are often told to go to an adult first. While bringing serious problems to an adult can sometimes be necessary and beneficial, children must learn to interact on their own terms. If a child never learns to reconcile a fight without an adult making compromises and doling out punishments, that child will not be able to cope with future problems on his/her own. The child could grow up to be a bully, solving problems through aggression, or a bullied student, unable to confront the bully without an authority figure present.

            We have created an atmosphere where bullies flourish and all students are reliant on adult involvement. However, we have also made adults difficult for students to reach. A bullied student may be initially hesitant to confide in a teacher because bullying carries a stigma. The student may also be concerned that the teacher would say, “that’s not a big deal, just talk to the bully about it,” which carries the double embarrassment of belittling the student’s problem and making him/her a tattletale. Conversely, the teacher could overreact, as is likely at present, and put the bullied student in an uncomfortably public position. While the student’s initial bullying problem may be resolved, if the bully is treated harshly, it is likely that the bullied student will feel guilty and the bully (or his/her friends) will seek retribution. Once any teacher has reacted incorrectly, students will stop trusting all teachers because they won’t risk being similarly embarrassed. NSA has provoked that reaction, despite its close student-teacher relationships, by mandating that teachers report all bullying-related activities to the administration.

            Now that bullying has reached epidemic proportions, schools and parents must decide how to handle it. But to counteract bullying, schools need to recognize the problem and outline specific unacceptable behaviors. The term ‘bullying’ has come to encompass everything from “non-verbal body language,”(Oklahoma’s Parent Center) to “fighting, threatening, name-calling”(National Crime Prevention Council). NSA recently sent out an announcement classifying bullying as “deliberately, directly or indirectly embarrasses, threatens, causes harm or injury to or invites ridicule to” another person. Although extensive, these definitions are rather ambiguous. Correcting bullying requires a disciplinary system that is as flexible as the many types of bullying, because students who “indirectly embarrasses” someone should be handled differently than students who injures someone. Schools should evaluate bullying on a case-by-case basis and diversify whom they rely upon to judge the severity of each case. The victim should be consulted; although the school must be mindful that the victim may play down his troubles due to guilt, loyalty, or embarrassment and may exaggerate them due to ulterior motives, anger, or wanting to avoid seeming weak. More than one school official must be consulted because teachers and administrators are biased from prior knowledge of the student. While it is good that a teacher may have a sense of students’ personalities, s(he) is too biased to be the sole authority on punishment. Schools should recognize when bullying begins to become a trend, and try to deal with it effectively, rather than bombarding students with assemblies and aggressive punishments.

             Before combating bullying, schools must question why it arises and try to think like children and teenagers. Schools, including NSA, are hypersensitive to bullying because they want to avoid problems, as well as the accompanying liability and their initial reactions are to immediately crackdown on bullying with harsher punishments and find examples to hold up in front of the other students. When dealing with a disciplinary problem like bullying, faculty members seem inclined to resort to ordering students to behave, and occasionally educating them on the specifics of behaving. However, teenagers are not known for their attention spans or their inclination to follow orders.  They have the often-irrational need to rebel, so schools must be careful how they approach students. One student at NSA said, “every time [a teacher] tells us something tight-ass, we feel the need to go out and do the exact opposite.” Similarly, at NSA’s recent bullying seminar with Dr. Ray Havlicek, the atmosphere became immediately defensive and then angry when students felt Dr. Havlicek was yelling at them. Although he was logical and ultimately correct, students couldn’t take advantage of his expertise because they were too busy bristling at the rough treatment. When talking about bullying, faculty at NSA must avoid alienating students by being too authoritative. An unsympathetic approach would force bullying further underground and set students against faculty.

 

A recent Nationial Institute of Health study showing the

severity of depression in various bullies and victims.

Bullies may have complex motives for their actions and need more than punishment to help them change. According to Medscape Pediatrics, bullies, with the exception of cyberbullies, usually exhibit signs of depression equivalent to those of their victims. Without intervention, bullies are also more likely to engage in other violent behaviors, including carrying a weapon and fighting, according to the National Institute of Health. While a simple Google search will beat the subject of bullying into the ground, there are startlingly few articles on the rehabilitation of bullies, which should be key to creating a more peaceful environment. The initial goal should be to punish and remove bullying, but the long-term goal still needs to remain helping the victims and the bullies. A bully will not stop bullying because of a school suspension and a victim will not feel safe until the bully is removed from the school

NSA must approach bullying differently than other schools because of the community relationships but chiefly because NSA bullying is rarely malicious. While it could be argued that everybody thinks they’re an exception, NSA’s familial dynamics really seem to override most bullying behaviors. The only apparent example of bullying at NSA is boys wrestling to establish a pecking order, which is a social custom and therefore more difficult to change. Since this bullying isn’t spiteful, it’s habitual, students cannot be shocked into new behavior patterns.. One NSA student said, “change is necessary” but “they’ve gone from one extreme to the other and I feel like students at NSA, particularly the boys, they don’t understand that the old way isn’t acceptable anymore…they just don’t know what to do, that’s what provokes such extreme responses.” Bullying at NSA is be equally harmful but isn’t stemming from a conscious decision to hurt someone; it’s a method of establishing a social hierarchy, ‘the old way’. Students cannot instantaneously change their social interactions and will not react well to punishments and abrupt changes in policy. To be effective, a new policy has to be considerate of the student population and especially careful to be consistent in procedure, definitions, regulation and punishment of bullying. NSA must guide the students into a new custom without alienating them.

           

Are Humans Becoming Dumber?

Milan Bubic  

[Editors Note] Before you go about reading this article it is prudent you keep one thing in mind, I genuinely believe that we as humans are losing crucial brain matter in our inevitable path towards decreasing our brain potential.  If you do not agree or are offended by this in any way, I would strongly suggest you refrain from reading this article any further and offer my sincere apologies to you in advance.

In the last century or so, the human race has witnessed great progress through leaps in technological development. Take into consideration how we progressed from pen and paper, to type-writer, to computer and finally to telephone texting. Just imagine what scientific breakthroughs are responsible for building on the concept of a primitive box that “plays pictures” to a ridiculously wide paper thin sixty-inch televisions.  It is obvious that we crave and thrive on such breakthroughs.  Have such advancements, a testament to our great achievements, made us so dependent on technology that it is slowly turning our grey matter into mush, and us into sluggish, half-witted fools?

Since the existence of life on earth, all types of delightful and enchanting creatures have come and gone. Monstrous dinosaurs roamed the earth 65 million years ago and only 10 thousand years has passed since the last Wooly Mammoths of the Ice Age grazed on prehistoric shrubs and foliage. Earth has been home to some very interesting species that are now extinct, which raises the question, where do we fit into all this? Scientists, doctors and the like agree that the human race as a whole has evolved from being like every other creature on earth to at some point in time, becoming self-aware, conscious beings.  This simply means that we have evolved a higher understanding of our surroundings and have established ourselves as the dominant species while simultaneously establishing a complex civilization. Despite all these achievements and our cultural evolution, according to Stefanie Olsen of CNET News, we as humans have gradually become more dependent on technology and in turn, slowly strayed from the path of intellectual godhood.

Let us for a moment however, disregard the huge technological advances and take into consideration the daily rituals of the common person of today. He wakes up to an alarm set on his I-pod, heats up precooked sausages in a microwave, and toasts bread in a toaster. The kind of person who drives a car or rides a bus to get to work and one who writes his reports on his computer and who uses their cellular mobile at lunch to plan his day. Now for argument sake, if we were to suddenly remove the fridge (containing the sausages), the microwave (used to cook them), the toaster (for toasting the bread) as well as the car or bus (used for transportation). spell-check, the computer and the cell phone, what would we get? You would in turn be left with a very lost individual who wouldn't have any knowledge of how to go on about his day. Granted it is very unlikely that all these things just happen to disappear, but there is no denying that we have become dependent on such a lifestyle. We as humans have become so needy and reliant on technology that without it we are all but paralyzed, unimaginative entities with a bleak future. Most of the human population can no longer comprehend a life without a television or a computer, let alone a car or cell phone. For so long now, we have been consumed by technology that little children cannot grasp the idea of what it would be like live one day without video games. If this doesn't shock you in any way, then I fear you may have been compromised as well. To support this argument, as strange as it sounds, I will reference a movie I have recently watched, “Grown Ups”.  This film does a fantastic job of depicting the modernized children of today.  It clearly shows how they are dependent on their house-sitter and they are only calm when they are given either what they want or play some type of video game. They live in a society where “nonparticipation” in the outdoors is the norm. Mind you, these children are a very obnoxious and obviously spoiled-rotten, but the film does a noteworthy and honest job of illustrating the technological standard and its hold on the business of daily living within modern society.

In spite of human’s increased dependence on technology, let us examine now the flip side of this particular dependence.  There is a place in our society for increased use of technology, especially in the medical field. For example, the latest advances allow us to increase our ability to detect diseases, treat and operate on the human body.  Fortunately this has lead to a better quality of life and increase the human life span significantly. Imagine a world without cat scans, laser surgery and even something as basic as insulin injections for diabetes.  Radiation therapies that shrink and obliterate malignant cancers, laser eye surgery that restores normal vision, and defibrillators that reinstate a normal sinus rhythm are just a few examples that illustrate the use of medical technology to save, improve and prolong human life.

It is imperative to note here that lives are saved not purely by the advanced technology itself, yet by humans who invent this technology, and know how and when to use it best.  What we have here then is two paradigms going hand in hand; one is useless without the other.  The saying goes, “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish, and you feed him for life”.  Basically, without the proper knowledge, the fishing rod is useless.

Where do we go from here?  How do we achieve a balance between technological development that is enriching and development that is robbing us of our human dignity?  The internet is a great tool that has reshaped our life and touches almost every facet of our lives, yet there are more and more individuals who are paralyzed by its power.  One can spend hours upon hours on the internet, surfing endless useless avenues.  Facebook and other such inventions have deprived the youth of our society from normal human interactions, real relationships, intimate contact, non verbal cues and skewed personal space norms.  Frank Lloyd Wright said “If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger”.  We must not let this happen.

Albert Einstein once said “All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual”.  We must draw on this wisdom, and learn how to balance technology in our lives.  A child must be exposed to the newest technology in order to understand it, to master it and to continue its development for the greater good. 

I believe that such balance should begin in ones’ home sand then be reinforced in schools and eventually at work.  Little Johnny can play for thirty minutes on his X-box, after he has finished his homework and has come back from hockey practice.  Our schools must instill the importance of reading real books, storytelling, writing with a pencil and paper before computers are introduced.  The workplace has to be a gathering of a great team first, which use computer technology as a tool to bring their ideas into fruition. 

Technology and nature are intrinsically opposites.  Arguments can be made that technology is contrary to nature because it destroys ecological habitats, its factories pave over wetlands, its rare metals dug from the ground, and it can extinguish species:  an act that cannot be undone.  Damage done is final. 

Technology is contrary to humans in that it erodes human character, it separates us from nature which in turn diminishes our natural self.  We become consumers instead of receivers. We absorb rather than dream or create.

Contrary to technology itself, it is no longer regulated by nature or humans and can no longer control itself.  The Fermi Paradox suggests that none or very few civilizations have escaped the self destructive capacity of technology itself.  Contradiction is at the root of this debate, for the more we advance the closer we come to self destruction.

Contrary to “God” technology can be associated with an evil force.  The most catastrophic injuries to our species have come at the hand of technology:  atomic bombs, toxins in water, mind altering drugs, technological warfare, persistent radiation etc.  Technology amplifies violence, and such destructive warfare is designed with the sole purpose of killing as many humans as possible. At one point the ease of destruction becomes de-humanized. The mere push of one button could end over a million lives.  Pure evil at its prime.

In the end, technological development is a classic struggle between good and evil, paradise and hell.  As B.F. Skinner quotes, “The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.”   We have to be responsible for where technological development will take us in the future if we are to remain in it.  Development, scientific advancement, knowledge, all are neutral, it is rather how we use these that define us as human.  “The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers.” Sydney J. Harris.  Balance is crucial if we are to maintain our greatest gift…which is to be human.

Research Paper- A bridge to Prep school and College

Studying away from home

By: Frédérick Hallé

Some students on a sunny day walking to go to class and to the library.

When we talk about studying away from home, people think College/University. It’s a right thinking but there’s more, much more. Students start to go away as young as 14 and I am insisting that it is the students’ decision and not the parents. Depending on the age, there are some different questions but thousands and thousands that people ask themselves before taking the decision, are the same. It is not a small decision, because most of the time, it involves money, big money. I agree that there are scholarships and financial aids but there is so many people out there that only a third of them get something. I’ll go trough all the questions, give you examples, and advice. The purpose of this writing is to help people or inform them about something decently important. I’ll focus on studying away from home at college because it’s a long and hard process but Preparatory school is also going to be part of my writing.

Studying, myself away from home, I left my French Canadian hometown only knowing how to say yes and no. I studied In Alberta, Canada for a year, and I am now in grade 12 at National Sports Academy in New York. Seeing and talking to my teammates and classmates, I can tell you that emotionally, still depending on your age, the first couple months, to a year can be really hard. When it’s your first time away, you miss your family or friends but as the time goes by, you get closer to the people in your school and it becomes your new family. Everyone without exception get homesick at least once during his or her first year. I said first year because after that you find ways to stay busy and you don’t have time to think about home. And people being away from home for a long time usually lose most of their friends. Everyone in this school that I’ve talked to, told me that they have around 4 close friends left. It is just inevitable because when you come back home you’re not on the same path as your friends. Being away from home completely change you, even though you don’t feel like you are, you end up gaining in maturity. With that, comes a new view of the world and new friends. Every time you change school or I would rather say boarding school, you only keep two and if, three good friends. It’s just the way life is made. Just to make it clear, when I talked about boarding, it could be also living in an apartment in college, or in a host family.

I know it might be hard to image or think of what I just said, for someone that have never lived away, and I remember saying that I would never be homesick or lose my friend but its just the way it goes. Destiny is made like this. Oh! And let me be clear about losing friends. You don’t become enemies; you just involuntary start not to take as much news from them as you use to, and verse-versa. I remember when I was in Alberta, the first 3 months I would called my best friend every week and when I started to have more friend at my new school I had less time to call and I didn’t care as much. It might sounds hypocrite but at one point you stop thinking about home. The truth is that usually when you’ve been away from home for a couple months you look forward to go back but once you get there, you are happy for two or three days and after you want to go back to your boarding school/dorm. This is obviously for people that enjoy there time of being a boarding student. If you don’t enjoy it, it’s either not the right school for you, or being away from home is not for you. Once you start to live away from home, you like it. And be careful, I’m talking about students from the age of 14 to 23. This time range is where you make most of your friends that you will have until you get really old. By being away as many as 8 months a year, you will become even more proud of where you’re from, and you will never forget where you grew up.

Money and time are such precious 

things that you can't just throw it 

out the window.

Unconsciously the question that people ask themselves before going away is if they will, emotionally, be able to go threw that huge step in life. The second biggest question is usually from the parents. Money! Some parents would ask themselves, even if they can, if they really want to spend 30 grants. Other parents would need to make sacrifices and get financial aid or the child could get a scholarship, which helps him to have an experience that would last in the kid souvenir forever. Usually it’s a family decision. For financially well-off families, the decision is much easier because there are not as many sacrifices involved. 

If you want to spend your money wisely, make sure you shop colleges. You want to apply to a college that you can reach, SAT’s wise, GPA wise, grades wise and the type of student that goes to that college. You want to make sure that, if you play a sport, that the coaching wants to have you on their team and that you will play at your sophomore year. I said sophomore because as you might know, unless you are really good, you don’t play at your freshman year. It’s a non-written rule. You have to wait for your turn. Eventually will come yours.

There is always a school for everyone you just need to find it.

99% of the time, the only thing that matters to get in college is academics. When we hear that if you’re a really good athlete you can get into a school, it’s a lie, it only happens 1% of the time. Even if you think that you’re an amazing hockey player or basketball player you shouldn't rely on that.

Unless you have an athletic scholarship, you will never get in the school that you don’t have the school curriculum for.

The story differs from college to preparatory school. To get in a prep school, its 55% academic, 30% is your personality and the other 15% is you as an athlete or artist.

Now that we’re talking on how to get in college or prep school, there are requirements more than just your grades that you need to think about a couple months before you apply. At prep school, they ask for your psat/ssat and for the toefl if English isn’t your first language. In eastern colleges they ask for your SAT and the western colleges asks for the ACT and also the toefl if you need one. If you want to know the SAT/ACT average of a school, you can order the U.S news and world report, best colleges rankings magazine of the year on the U.S news and world report website or you can find it on the website itself. I would definitely suggest you to go read more on that site. You can also read about health, science, money, travel and many other important subject of today’s world.

Recently, still on the same website, Kim Clark, the 15th president of Brigham Young University-Idaho and the dean of the Harvard business school from 1995 to 2005, wrote an article on 8 big changes to college admissions in 2010 and 2011.  Basically, colleges raise expectation for tougher classes, better essays.

1. Less time per application- 15 minutes is allow to the first read of an application.

2. Earlier deadlines- It gives more time to the staff to go trough the applications.

3. Less reliance on recommendation- "Ninety-eight percent of recommendations tell us what        students already told us," says Philip Ballinger, director of undergraduate admissions at the University of Washington.

4. Less emphasis on high school class rank- More high school are refusing to rank their students.

5. More emphasis on tougher high school courses- "We would much rather see a student challenge himself and get a B" than take an easy class to inflate a GPA, says Kent Rinehart, dean of admission at Marist College.

6. More emphasis on application essays- The percentage of colleges that give essays lots of weight rose from 14 percent in 1993 to 26 percent in 2009, NACAC's survey found. Essays are especially crucial to elite colleges, where they "can make or break your application," says Pitzer's Perez.

7. More attention to the applicant's senior year- In the past, many admissions officers focused on an applicant's sophomore and junior years, and didn't put much weight on senior year courses or grades, says the University of Washington's Ballinger. That's changing. "We think senior year is the most important, and we don't want to see any slacking off. We want to see acceleration of educational difficulty."

8. More application auditing- Stanford, Harvard and a few other colleges have increased their factchecking of applications in the wake of the Adam Wheeler scandal. One tool that a growing number of colleges are using, says NACAC president Miller, is Turnitin, a plagiarism software program that looks for phrases in essays that match those in millions of websites, articles and books.

The eight points above were taken from Kim Clark article posted on November 15^th.

She wrote another interesting article: College living prices rise faster than inflation.

Personally, I think that those changes will help low students in a high ranked school and that it will decrease the chances of high students in a low ranked school.