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prospectornow.com
FEATURES 5
DECEMBER 7, 2018
Hearing loss speaks volumes ANGELINA JASINSKI Entertainment Editor
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oming out of the pit from a Fall Out Boy concert, senior Tia Sadlon could immediately feel the effect that it had on her hearing. With other concerts it wasn’t as bad; with this concert, her hearing was worse since she had been closer to the speakers than any other concert she had attended before. Listening to music and going to concerts are common pastimes for students. However, if their music is too loud, it might lead to longterm hearing consequences. Although Sadlon realizes that there can be repercussions for going to loud concerts, she notes that they are always good experiences, even if she can tell that her hearing is a little off afterward. According to psychology teacher Daria Schaffeld, sound goes through your auditory canal and strikes the eardrum, which is responsible for amplifying sound. The eardrum takes the sound wave and passes it into three bones in your middle ear which continues to amplify the sound. After it passes through the three bones, they send the sound wave into a structure in the ear called the cochlea, a bony structure that is shaped like a snail. In the cochlea, there are
sensitive hair cells, called cilia, which interpret sound waves and regulate balance. These cilia, however, can be damaged by listening to loud sounds. Schaffeld explains that once these hair cells are damaged they die and cannot be replaced. After a constant barrage of loud sounds, such as from concerts, the hair cells die, causing hearing loss. Even though one might associate hearing loss with intense music, such as metal or hip-hop, that isn’t the case. Dr. Julie Sweeney-Grana, an audiologist with the Special Education District of Lake County (SEDOL) explains that genre has nothing to do with hearing loss. “It doesn’t matter if you’re listening to Bon Jovi, loud jazz, rock, or classical,” Sweeney-Grana said. “It’s just loud, which is the problem.” Sweeney-Grana also explains how there is a rule called the “80 dB doubling rule,” which means you can listen to something that is at about 80 decibels for eight hours, 85 decibels for four hours, and so on. For each increase of about five decibels, you should cut the time of listening in half. She also mentions that typical concert levels are around 100 to 120 decibels in volume and, although it may only be a one-time event, the minute you walk out of a concert,
TURN IT DOWN: Concerts and listening to music with earbuds are common pastimes for students; however, these activities may have unintended concequences. “If [students] listen to their music at the highest volume they could listen to, they will definitely have hearing loss in their future,” Sweeney-Grana said. (photo illustration by Mara Nicolaie) you will have some noise-induced hearing loss. What people typically experience will be a ringing or a buzzing in their ear, which is called tinnitus. While this should go away after a few hours or a couple of days, there can occasionally be some permanent effects. “It doesn’t really matter where you are in the concert hall, it’s just how the volume is getting in your ear,” Sweeney-Grana said. The effects of concert noise levels can have effects that differ in severity from person to person. As Sweeney-Grana explains, some people can go to a concert one time and experience hearing loss. Others can attend concert after concert and won’t experience any repercussions. However, for a typical person, if exposed too many times, there can be permanent hearingloss. According to Sweeney-Grana, with earbuds, the amount of damage that you can cause to your ears may be different depending on
what kind of earbuds you use. The deeper it is, the more damaging it may be since there is no way for the music to come out of the ear. She mentions that using headphones that go over the ear are better since possibly-damaging sound waves can leak out and they won’t be as harmful. Furthermore, it is important to avoid listening to music at full volume and to limit time when listening to music through earbuds. To further emphasize this concern, noise-induced hearing loss is on the rise among young adults and teenagers. According to the American Osteopathic Association (AOA), one in five teens will experience some form of hearing loss, which is an increase of 30 percent from 20 years ago. Although hearing loss can be caused by playing loud music with earbuds in, for senior Matt Bielawski, he uses his earbuds as a method to pay more attention to what he’s doing and to focus.
Occasionally, when teachers don’t allow their students to listen to music, Bielawski finds that he is distracted far easier. However, when he has a teacher who allows him to listen to music, he finds that it helps him to zone in and focus on what he’s doing with ease. On the other hand, Schaffeld, who doesn’t allow music in class, explains that this policy is because listening to music can be distracting and the ability to multitask has not been proven by science. In addition, Schaffeld doesn’t know what students are listening to. Occasionally she puts on instrumental music since she believes it’s beneficial to not have to sit in a quiet environment; however, anything that students would want to sing along to can be distracting, in her opinion. As Sweeney-Grana also noted, if students aren’t careful with the volume on their earbuds, there may be life-long consequences for their hearing.
Lets’ talk sex ... education OLIVIA KIM Staff Writer Most upperclassmen remember their sex ed curriculum as an uncomfortable unit of awkward silences, detailed diagrams of human genitalia, and depending on the teacher, unintentional innuendo. But regardless of their experience, every grauduting senior at Prospect has to have taken one semester of health class, one unit of which is dedicated to sex education. The choice to have sex or not to have sex are the equally important factors of psychology and biology. These factors should be understood by all before engaging in sexual activity, which is where sex education plays an important role. “If you don’t understand the possible consequences of sexual activity, those consequences can affect you for the rest of your life,” parent Lara Solonickne said. A University of Washington study found that teenagers who took comprehensive sex ed were 60% less likely to get pregnant than teens who were taught an abstinence-only curriculum. Illinois does not require schools to teach sex education; however, it’s required that information must be medically accurate if taught, and there must be information on both abstinence and contraception methods. District 214 teaches “Abstinence-Plus Education”, which is a compromise between abstinence-only education and comprehensive education. Parents reserve the right to remove their child from the classroom for this unit; however, this is rare. In Michele Burnett’s 19 years as a health teacher, only two students chose not to participate in the course. The importance of sex education is clearly understood by students, parents, and teachers. “I 100% think that [sex education] is important,” Burnett said. “I would say out of all the units that we talk about in health, this is the one where the most questions come.” This is because health class is one of the only commonly accepted places to talk about sex. As a teacher, Burnett wishes that she had more time to teach this unit just so there can be more room for discussion. Because school is the primary educational source of information for most students on this topic, they rely heavily on the course’s information and want it to cover as much as possible, as bluntly as possible. “Those classes need to be honest and they need to be practical,” an anonymous Prospect
senior said. “And they need to be taught, [especially] with the spread of things on the internet. Kids are going to learn about all these things either way. They can’t just teach what they want to teach, they have to teach the truth, they have to teach what’s actually going on.” According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, over 75 percent of prime-time programs contain sexual content while only 14 percent of those shows address responsibilities and risks of sexual activity. Even with the sexualization of the media and people being more open about their sexuality, some teens may find it awkward and uncomfortable to talk about sex. While teens are constantly taught how to study or function in a job or workplace, sex education may be de-emphasized despite its relevance. “The age of fifteen to eighteen is seen as not adult yet, but we’re not children, and we’re in that awkward phase of not totally puberty, but it’s still awkward,” senior Molly Ruhl said. “I think that most people find this very uncomfortable because they don’t consider themselves adults, so talking about [sex] is not acceptable to [most].” Parents may also find it awkward to discuss this topic. According to the Journal of Sex Research, 30 percent of teens report that their parents have never spoken to them about sex, while at the same time, 40 percent of high schoolers have had sex. One Prospect parent, Agnes Polinska, however, has a different view about having “the talk” and feels comfortable talking about sex with her child. “I want [people] to know this topic is natural, but I also want them to know the safety [precautions] and dangers of sexual intercourse,” Polinska said. Most parents see the benefit of conversations about sex with their teens in addition to participating in formal sex education programs. “I think ideally they should learn [about sex] in both places [at home and in school],” Solonickne said. For teens and parents alike, talking about sex is not easy. Burnett knows this, and tries to make the classroom environment as comfortable as possible to allow discussion. “A lot of my friends will laugh that I teach sex ed,” Burnett said. “And they’ll [say], ‘Oh my gosh, that has to be awful,’ or, ‘Isn’t that awkward?’ And every single time I tell them that it’s my favorite unit to teach in health, because of how much discussion gets done and how much we have students asking honest questions.”
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