Opinion

design by KAtie Wright & Dexter lowerythe occurRence7 tis the HOLIDAY SEASON

Family traditions and Seasonal Depression

Everyone celebrates the holiday season multiple ways. Some ways people celebrate are with traditions. For instance, using an item for decorations or making a certain dish every year. Some share recipes or do secret Santa.

Christmas is a season that many enjoy with grandparents, friends, significant others. They can celebrate and decorate with movies, food, singing, garland, cookie jar, ornaments, a grinch train, or an elf on the shelf.

Christmas isn’t the only thing people celebrate, New Years is another holiday among others. Friends and family’s love to stay up late and wait for the clock to hit 12 am so they can celebrate a new year. Let’s not forget, since the cold is coming back into town people are gonna stay home and those emotions will rise again. It’s about time for seasonal depression, let’s talk about it.

About 5% of adults suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Normally most people start experiencing SAD from the ages of 18-30.

This is why we call everyone to start putting up their lights, their trees, their reefs, or even your candles and start singing. It is time to celebrate the happy holiday. Bake gingerbread cookies, sing with family, watch Christmas movies, and be with your family. Let’s snuggle up to the fire together and help one another with stuff, it is time to show our love.

opinion SECTION Reducing

required classes 8

Editorial Students are stressed with required class updates every year

Over the past two decades, students going into high school may have noticed an increase in required classes; Bryant currently requires 23 credits to graduate. Arkansas’s Department of Education requires schools to enforce a 22-credit graduation requirement.

According to the CDC, “more than a third (37%) of high school students reported they experienced poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 44% reported they persistently felt sad or hopeless during the past year.” With the pandemic causing an increase in teens’ anxiety and depression, the last thing they need is more classes that are going to cause panic and or stress among the student population.

Looking at the other states across the country, Arkansas ranks 41st in education according to US News, yet we have one of the highest credit graduation requirements. Illinois, Iowa, California, Wyoming and Maine all have much lower graduation requirements than we do, but rank higher than we do in education. only 11 credits but ranks 28th in education. Specifically, Maine

only requires two math credits as opposed to our four. The reason behind requiring four math credits is to help prepare students for college. However, college enrollment is down 7 percent since 2019 according to the Washington Post, and according to Statista, less than 40 percent of Americans are college-educated.

More and more students are choosing to go to vocational school or enter into trades. Algebra II and other upper level math is not necessary for these ventures.

There is also the question of the newly required computer science credit; coding is important, but should it be necessary for those who are uninterested in that career path?

The world is evolving. We have access to this information within search engines and can collaborate in real time using technology with people with different skill sets. Do we need to all have the same skills?

Other states are looking at requiring classes for mental health, and there is a call for mental health awareness classes to be required for college entrance. If we are going to increase requirements, let us respond to the issues of the modern world. Let us let students pick paths that fit their lives and future plans.

While some required classes are beneficial we feel making some of them optional would actually help students more mentally. This generation is the future and it is important that school boards and state administration remember that education is not the only thing needed for a successful future, but also a developed self awareness and a healthy mental state.

Editorial

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the occurRence desigN by Teagan Willyard

Divergence OccurrenceA in The

YES YES

People know the history of

Thanksgiving to be the story of the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag natives sharing a feast together and giving their thanks. Despite this being the most popular retelling of the story, it is filled with many myths and inaccuracies that hide the true nature of the holiday’s dark history.

The holiday is celebrated in many other countries globally, each nation having its own traditions. It’s most popularly celebrated in North America.

According to what’s been passed down through centuries, the pilgrims arrived to the new land and were “welcomed” by the Wampanoag who taught them how to grow crops to survive in the environment; but have we ever considered that the natives were not as pleased to see Europeans arrive on their land as stories may say?

In fact, there was no reason for the natives to be welcoming or hospitable, as the Europeans themselves had lacked respect for the natives’ rights they held to the land and as human beings. Europeans had come to the “new world” and focused heavily on expanding their territory which led them to dismiss all concerns for the natives, who arguably, owned the land before them as the original inhabitants.

The colonists brought with them items and phenomena that the natives hadn’t seen or experienced before, and while some may have been beneficial to them, they brought more harm than aid to the natives. One of the more prominent consequences of the Europeans arriving to the new land were the diseases they brought that the native tribes had not previously been exposed to. They had no former immunities to this illness, so an epidemic inevitably occurred.

The reason behind their alliance was not out of the tribe’s kindness, but rather out of their desire for survival.

The Wampanoag had been exposed to the diseases that the Europeans had spread and lost an estimated two-thirds of their population, making them vulnerable to rival tribes. The chief leader, Ousamequin, realized that an alliance, even a temporary one, with the colonists could be beneficial towards protecting his people. The peace treaty between these two groups was maintained for at least 40 years until Ousamequin’s passing, where his first son, Wamsutta, took over. However, Wamsutta died during negotiations with colonists over land, leading to his younger brother, Metacomet, succeeding him. His succession led to war breaking out between the two peoples known as “King Philip’s War.”

This would be the first and only time that a compromise between the colonists and the natives was successful. Many future compromises in which the natives got to keep some of their land were eventually broken or forgotten due to the colonists’ idea of manifesting destiny, otherwise known as westward expansion. Colonists even went as far as to force them out of their land by using threats and physical violence.

Thanksgiving is not as joyful of a holiday as everyone makes it appear to be. I understand why people want to express their gratitude for things in their life and spend time with their family, but must it be done on a holiday that subtly encourages colonialism and with such a dark truth behind it?

column by: Ivana Wang