13 GRADUATION 2013
THE REVIEW
IN A PERFECT WORLD
MIKAELA JUZSWIK
Week-long break before exams needed BY IRIS CRONIN Sometimes, things are controversial. Some issues are complex and nuanced, and feelings surrounding these issues are varied and intense. Other things, though, are not controversial. Some things are simply a good idea. This list includes: Indoor toilets. Antibiotics. Nutella. Spell Check. And I’m fairly certain that this list includes a week off before finals. Revolutionary thought, right? Wrong. This week-long study-holiday is in practice at schools in Houston, namely the Awty International School. Students are living the dream literally five miles away from our school. And what do we get? Reading Day? That isn’t even a whole day. The idea of a week off before finals seems to work on several levels. Level One: So.
Much. Time. There is not a student on our campus who has not battled the evil that is procrastination (and if there is, let him come forward to be properly heckled). A whole week to prepare leaves me one day to scour BuzzFeed and find every list of “Nineteen Reasons Why French Bulldogs are the Best,” or “Kim Kardashian’s 12 Best Crying Faces.” It leaves me another day to watch all twelve available seasons of Law and Order: SVU on Netflix streaming, and then read Stabler-Benson fan fiction in a dark room. Then I get a third day to do whatever else will help me mentally prepare for my upcoming tests, which probably means eating. Look at that. I’ve cleared all the procrastination out of my system, and now I have two more days in
which to actually study. Win-win. Level Two: A week off before finals is a week in which I am not doing any actual schoolwork. The teachers at St. John’s are all marvelous, dedicated individuals but unfortunately some seem to think that the week before final exams is an appropriate time to schedule tests and begin new units. Which is not the case. A paper written a week and a half before Reading Day is bound to be both completely incoherent and moderately upsetting to read. I would imagine it comparable to the ramblings of a marooned sailor shortly before he dies of thirst. Lose-lose. It’s far better for teachers to have the looming deadline of a week off so they spare their students and themselves the
trauma of frenzied, subpar work. Level Three: We deserve it. I don’t think it’s self-congratulatory to say that it is a great victory to emerge from a year at SJS with the same number of limbs and the same level of self-esteem we started the year with. A quick glance through Facebook confessions the night before synthesis papers were due, or even a quick tally of the total number of students currently on crutches, is enough to affirm this fact. We work hard. If the student body doesn’t deserve a break specifically for studying, then how about one to compensate for psychological damages or to catch up on sleep? At this point, those things are probably more beneficial than studying, anyway.
neweditors Lydia Liu Alyyah Malick Samantha Neal
Jake Nyquist
Parker Donaldson
Tiffany Yue
Amy Kang
Cara Maines
Rebecca Chen
Oliver Ruhl
Pallavi Krishnarao
Srini Kumar
Megan Routbort
Emma Gobillot
Claire Dorfman
William Clutterbuck
editors-in-chief
senior design editor
online editor
assignment editor
assignment editor
assignment editor
design editor
JAKE NYQUIST
Editor eight The senior editors on The Review have tirelessly worked the whole year to produce a both visually appealing and informative paper. Thanks, and make sure to visit next year!
FOR 2013-2014
Jessica Lee design editor
photography editor
Iris Cronin copy editor
copy editor
assistant online editor
online copy editor
social media editor
video editor
business manager
Gabe Malek
assistant business manager