Spring 23 MCPS Amplifier

The Amplifie Montgomery County’s

SPRING 2023

Student-led Magazine

HOW DO WE SAVE OUR SCHOOLS THIS TIME?

TABLE of CONTENTS WHAT WE NEED FROM

SCHOOL BY ANY MEANS

P

g. 4 The Reluctant Revolutionary

As a teenager, Betty stood up for her right to learn. Sixty six years later, we can stand to learn from her strength.

P

g. 8 Un-muting Themselves

Banned from school since March 2022, Afghan girls and women raise their voices.

NOW

P

g. 24 MCPS Student Opinions

on what our schools need to do to meet today’s challenges

The Amplifier Editors in Chief Bennett Galper Gabe Gebrekristose Special thanks to the following leaders of “School By Any Means,” a team of MCPS students striving to ensure that the girls and women of Afghanistan are not left behind Sayed Erfan Nabizada Naveed Ahmad Anosh Sediqi Art and Art Editing Spring 2023 Edition Emerson Delfin Isabella Kriedler Editors Emeritus Michael Shapiro Aaron Tiao Elyas Laubach Joshua Garber

Meet the Amplifier Editorial Team Milan Bhayana Shelby Roth Kaitlyn Schramm Auva Vaziri Rachel Smith Indira Kar Elizabeth Mahler Francesca Lisbino Michael Demske Michaela Boeder Jaylen McCullogh

Special thanks also to the following members of MCPS Printing and Graphics. Their vision and hard work allowed us to share our ideas and project our voices beyond our school walls and wildest dreams.

Thomas Bourdeaux Bill Cabell John Marshall Marina Ortiz-Munoz Robert Russell Scott Scates

Meet the Amplifier Art Team Riona Sheikh (editor) Carol Li (editor) Lizzie Varner Helen Marie Besch Daviana Marcus Katherine Barnett

And, finally, we want to give special thanks to...

Diana Goodman Jennifer Solove ...for incomparable advice and encouragement.

Faculty Sponsor David Lopilato

3

A More Perfect Storm s “more perfect” a thing?

Idescribe It may be the only way to the storm of challeng-

es pummeling schools today.

Of course, schools had plenty of challenges before 2020.

Then came the pandemic.

Then came the bans. From the Taliban’s ban of Afghan girls and women from school beyond 6th grade to the proposed bans of AP African-American History and college diversity programs in Florida to the banning of books including This Book is Gay from school shelves across the country.

Then came the threat of Artificial Intelligences (AI). From reports of colleges using AI to soullessly sort through the dreams of thousands of applicants to the meteoric rise of ChatGPT and GPT-4 ghostwriting essays- many are worried the machine apocalypse is here.

Then last month, the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey gave us a startling glimpse into the dire state of student mental health.

In short, an already-perfect storm of challenges for schools got a lot more perfect in recent months.

It’s How Knowledge Works

W

An attack on education anywhere is an attack on education everywhere

e often take our education for granted. We show up to class, listen to our teachers, and hopefully pass our exams. But for women in places like Afghanistan, the fight for education is a daily struggle.

In 2021, the Taliban regained power and immediately restricted the education of girls, announcing on March 23rd that girls were banned from attending secondary school indefinitely.

It was a stark reminder of the challenges that women face in their pursuit of knowledge. In a way, their struggles mirror those of African-American women in the United States during the fight for civil rights in the 1950s and 60s.

One such woman is Dr. Betty Holston Smith, one of the first African-American student to integrate Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School.

Her story, featured in this edition of the Amplifier, is a reminder of the determination and resilience required to fight for one’s rights and the respect they deserve.

Recognizing the need for expanded educational opportunities, in the summer of 2022 we launched “School By Any Means,” an educational organization that provides resources and education to people no matter where they are.

This Amplifier is a product of the program that we developed with some women and girls from Afghanistan where we taught them how to write journalistically during a two-week Zoom class.

At their essence, these women are

About the Cover Meet Hadia who lives in Kabul, Afghanistan. We asked her to pose with a book that has special meaning to her.

fighting for the same things as we are: personal agency, the ability to learn more about the world around them, and acceptance into a world that doesn’t always want to see them succeed.

The American superhero is ubiquitous in mass media and culture today.

He’s buff, blonde, white, hetero, and always ready to rescue helpless women in order to “save the day.” But what about the women becoming their own heroes, saving themselves and their communities?

In this issue, we want to move past the trope of white saviorism and hear from real women about the trials and tribulations they faced in their pursuit of education.

During weekly Zoom meetings with Afghan women who lost their access to education after the Taliban takeoversome women had their Zoom names as only “iPhone 6” or “iPhone 7.” There was a language barrier (assisted by student translators), alongside poor connection at times. Yet even with these limiting factors, what shone through were the questions the women asked, the fascinating discussions held, and above all, their stories that deserve to be heard.

Some heroes don’t wear capes, and some keep anonymity in Zoom meetings. As students in the DMV, let’s recognize these women as heroes in their own right, and instead of taking education for granted, stand in solidarity with those who are still fighting for the right to learn.

“

- The Editorial Staff

I chose Think Big! because it helps to make my self-esteem stronger,” said Hadia. “Reading it creates a deep impact on my life in hard times like these for girls like me in Afghanistan. Think Big! helps me not judge myself for all the terrible things happening.”

4

A RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY

Dr. Betty Holston Smith In June of 1956, Betty Holston’s father told her she was not going back to Carver, the “colored” high school in Rockville. Instead she would attend B-CC, the local high school a mile from her house. At first, Betty hated the idea. By the end of that first year, no one (and we mean no one) was going to convince her she did not belong.

By Bennett Galper, Gabe Gebrekristose and Katherine Jones

F

or many high school students, the first day of school is filled with hugs and joyful chatter as they gather in the hallways, reconnecting with friends and teachers. For Betty Holston, the first day of school was filled with hushed silence and stares from white students.

She was not the only African-American student to enroll in Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in 1956; there was Nancy Browne who lived on River Road in Potomac. But unlike Nancy, Betty lived on Hawkins Lane, an unpaved road that led to a small number of wooden homes which were occupied by black families who held service jobs for wealthy white families in the area.

“We were segregated racially, of course, ” Dr. Betty explained, “but we were also isolated from other black communities.”

In short, Betty stood out immediately at B-CC for two reasons: she was definitely not white and her family was definitely not well-to-do.

“

I

n high school today, you guys have your friends.

And, you see them after school. And, you do whatever you do. Go to movies.

Whatever. I didn’t have that... I never had that throughout high school.”

Dr. Betty

6

Betty ( far right) on the “Lady Barons” basketball team 1957-58 A Rough First Year Betty’s first year, 10th grade, can be summed up with a single word - isolation. She was spat on, called racial obscenities, and was physically abused.

After being jumped on the way home on her first day, she never rode the school bus again. She also did not feel comfortable taking the shortcut path through the predominantly-white East Bethesda neighborhood surrounding B-CC. So each morning, Betty’s mother dropped her off in front of B-CC. Each afternoon, she walked east on EastWest Highway, turned left on Connecticut Avenue, walked to Jones Bridge Road, and eventually made her way to her house on Hawkins Lane. This was her routine, all school year, in all kinds of weather.

After a series of taunts at lunch , she never ate in the cafeteria again, choosing instead to get take-out from the back door of a local diner. She ate her lunch while walking back to B-CC. “I would go home every day and cry,” recounted Dr. Betty wistfully.

A “Better” 11th Grade “11th grade was better, meaning I was better,” said Dr. Betty. “But everything else was the same.”

She still lacked friends and the administration demeaned her, advising her to switch from an academic track to a commercial one because her brain “wasn’t developed enough” for college study.

Despite these obstacles, Dr. Betty was determined to push forward. She joined the basketball team and the Biology Club. Her interest in biology stemmed from the hours she and her siblings spent in the then-untouched woods surrounding Walter Reed Hospital.

“We could be free, running, playing and figuring out how to entertain ourselves. Because of segregation, we didn’t have playgrounds.”

Growing Resilient Even when things were bad, Betty’s determination did not waver.

When her history teacher, for example, referred to her and all African-Americans as less-than-human, Betty knew she needed to do something.

Betty leaned into whatever power she did have.

“I babysat for white families in Chevy Chase, including Maryland State Senator Edward Northrop.”

She wrote, rewrote and rewrote again a letter detailing her history

teacher’s treatment of her and left it on Senator Northrop’s home desk.

Within days, she and her parents were called into the principal’s office and given a choice of other teachers.

Betty refused to switch classes.

“I wouldn’t do that and run from the problem.”

Instead, she threatened to send her letter to the Washington Post.

Shortly after that, her teacher left the school.

Having grown up in the South, her father was not happy about this new assertive side of Betty. He feared for her safety.

“He grew up with a ‘go-along to getalong’ philosophy. My mother, on the other hand, was smiling.”

A Semi-normal Senior Year Dr. Betty’s enthusiasm for education started from a young age at home.

“My house was the ‘homework house’ of the neighborhood. Education was the route out of where we were.’’

Biology Club became one of many outlets for Dr. Betty at B-CC, kindling her passion for education and knowledge.

7 Graduation and Beyond After graduating from B-CC, Dr. Betty passed the US Civil Service Commission typing test and landed a Grade 2 typing job at the US Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau—she hated it. Seven years after graduating from B-CC, she married. While working fulltime, she enrolled at D.C. Teacher’s College where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Education with valedictorian status. She became a mother,.

Her education continued.

She enrolled in Southeastern University where she earned an MBA/MPA combination degree. And finally she enrolled in Nova University’s doctoral program and earned an Ed. D. in Early and Middle Childhood Development and Education. 32 years after graduating from B-CC, she completed her formal education.

During this time of nonstop, parttime education, she landed a support job as a research assistant for the Federal Cardiovascular Data Processing Research Center, housed at D.C.’s Veteran’s Administration Hospital.

The V.A. program was focused on incorporating the use of computer technology to improve cardiovascular medicine.

Over the eight years that she worked there, she learned everything she could about the heart, including how to diagnose electrocardiograph tracings.

Her director encouraged Betty to pursue a medical degree but the closest medical school did not accept black students.

Undeterred, Dr. Betty established and operated the BH Smith Education Consulting Company which trained child development programs throughout the USA and world. She worked with migrant programs, Native-American reservations, Alaskan villages, universities, the Department of Agriculture, the IRS, and the US Army which operates hundreds of child development programs throughout the world She ran BH Smith for more than 25 years before retiring to help care for her grandsons.

Along the way, she became a long -distance runner, covering over 100,000 miles over 50 years.

Along the way, she wrote two books: Ageless/Ouchless Running in the Second Half of Life and an autobiography titled Lifestyle by Nature.

Along the way, she was awarded a patent for her Chick Pee design which allows female runners to “go on the go.”

She has never stopped learning, tak-

ing courses in “every and anything” from auto mechanics, swimming, diving, Tai Chi, Qigong, and Karate.

Decades ago, she became an organic vegan, eating only foods she prepares.

According to her doctors, Betty, an Octogenarian, has the “fitness age” of 40 with a resting heart rate of 28 to 30 beats per minute.

Living Above According to Dr. Betty, her parents and their focus on education as “the way out” taught her who she was and who she was not.

“I had no power to wipe out discrimination, ” explains Dr. Betty. “So, like the bald eagle whose strength allows it to use the wind to fly above a storm, I used the strength of education to rise above the storm of discrimination.”

Even in 1959, there were those who still refused to embrace the reality of school integration. One of the seniors pictured at left, actually whited Betty’s picture out of his copy of the yearbook. We are not naming names.

Since graduation, Betty has developed close friendships with a number of her B-CC classmates.

A year ago, they were banned from high school.

Three months ago, they were banned from college.

“ S

chool is like the sun that illuminates the great earth,” writes Bushra*, a 16-year old in the Baghlan Province, Afghanistan. “It is the light and also what leads people to the light.

In school I was flying and progressing in life.

After the school gates closed, the dreams I had for my future disappeared [which made me feel] like a dove without wings and I can’t fly anymore.”

Interviewed by Hadia

Now, Afghan girls & women are

UT NH ME UM TS I E NL GV E S

* We will only use first names in this section to protect the identities of our contributors from Afghanistan

“

We cannot abandon our friends and family in Afghanistan” Shabnam B-CC High School

10

Taliban Bans Afghan Girls and Women from School

by Anosh Sediqi and Naveed Ahmad

I

n 2001, after eleven years of rule, the Taliban government was toppled.

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was established in its place.

School doors at all levels swung open for Afghan girls and women.

A vastly more-even playing field was created. Girls and boys studied the new curriculum side-by-side. Academic rigor was demanded of everyone. Highstakes tests were taken. And, everyone had the same chance at acceptance to one of Afghanistan’s exceptional free public universities.

Punctuating this extraordinary shift, a young Afghan woman scored the highest marks among 197,000 students who took the entrance examination in 2020.

In short, for young Afghan women, the future was full of promise.

All that progress, however, proved short-lived.

On August 15, 2021, the Taliban entered the city of Kabul, taking back full control of government, financial institutions, policing and schools.

all grades. Girls were allowed to go to elementary school. But, there was no news about secondary schools for girls or university for women.

In August 2021, the Taliban announced that women could attend universities- filling countless young women and girls with hope that the Taliban had adapted to the 21st Century.

But, still no news about secondary schools.

Would this Taliban Government be Different?

Girls Banned from Colleges and Universities

Two days into The Taliban takeover, there were signs that things might be different this time around. Ministries were reopened. Markets started working again. People felt comfortable leaving their homes.

Boys were able to attend school at

On Dec. 20,2022 the Taliban morality ministry issued an order banning women from all public and private universities in Afghanistan.

A fews days later, in a separate decision, women were told not to work in national and international organiza-

Girls Banned from Secondary School On March 23, 2022, the Taliban made its decision. Girls were banned from attending secondary school.

When thousands of girls and women showed up at their schools on the first day of term, they were turned away at the gates.

Women were still allowed to attend university and college. Yet, with only a 5th grade education, what chance did most have of competing with men for coveted college acceptance?

tions, including aid agencies.

Speaking Out In late December, 2022, protestors assembled outside of Kabul University, holding banners and chanting slogans such as, “Education is our essential right!”and “Universities should be reopened to Women!”

The demonstration came to an abrupt end when the Taliban cracked down with physical intimidation and arrests.

Following the announcement to ban women from colleges and university , the United Nations and several other countries and international agencies condemned this decision, called it “a setback” for this entire nation.

No Sign of Relenting Almost a year after the ban on secondary schools, the Taliban looks no closer to lifting restrictions on girls and women. In fact, given recent restrictions on girls in public parks, amusement parks and transportation, the Taliban seems poised to continue their hard-line stance against women’s rights.

Despite early promises to rule more modestly and respect the rights of women and minorities, the Taliban has widely implemented their strict misinterpretation of Sharia law.

11

Afghan and MCPS Students Meet Online for Journalism Class

by Bennett Galper

WHEN THEY CLOSE DOORS F

or the better part of two decades, girls and women in Afghanistan were able to pursue secondary and higher education. But, on March 23, 2022, the Taliban government ruled to bar girls from attending school above the sixth grade. Now, for the first time in a generation, girls and women who have first-hand experience with education have seen the promise of school vanish.

A group of Montgomery County High School students wondered if there was something, however small, they could do.

Within a month, the group of Afghani refugees and U.S.-born students had identified and reach out to dozens of school-deprived girls and women in Afghanistan. Together, they drew up plans for a virtual academy “School by Any Means” (S-BAM).

During S-BAM’s inaugural series of Zoom classes, 25 Afghani girls and women attended nine journalism workshops taught by Bethesda Chevy

Chase High School (B-CC) teacher David Lopilato and members of B-CC’s newspaper.

During those classes, the Afghani girls learned the basics of journalism, such as how to conduct interviews and write different types of stories (news, feature, etc).

Opening their two week virtual academy for Afghani girls and women was S-BAM’s first of many goals. Going forward, S-BAM plans on organizing more virtual schooling, launching workshops that help kids learn more about themselves and their strengths, and hosting panels with educational experts.

In response to the online course, one Afghani girl said “Being in this program motivated me to not give up and surrender to ignorance and find a way possible to get educated and overcome all the difficulties,” adding that “This program showed me how to raise my voice against cruelty, especially the ones that shut us down.”

According to founder, Anosh Sediqi, S-BAM has learned so much about how to run its virtual academy and hav furthered their understanding for today’s direction of education from countless interviews with parents, teachers, educational experts, students, administrators, and community members.

S-BAM co-founder, Sayed E. Nabizada, said their mission “Is to ensure that students around the globe are engaged with education and basic learning.” Nabizada later added that they seek out, “The hidden talents [of students around the world] impacted or stopped by poverty, immigration, war, etc. - domestically and abroad - by any means.”

In addition to educating those who don’t have proper schooling, or don’t have it at all, S-BAM hopes to share out

While girls are currently allowed to go to school through 5th grade, they are now “physically” separted from boys in all grades. Compare a third-grade class before the Taliban take-over (pictured far left) to a third-grade classroom today (pictured near left).

the voices of their students, primarily those who have been suppressed by their government or culture.

One of S-BAM’s assistant teachers, Michael Shapiro, said the program has “Put into perspective how important education is… This lesson has really pushed me to teach and help these remarkable students as much as I can in this program.”

S-BAM ran into several technical difficulties during the classes due to the lack of adequate Internet in Afghanistan, but it wasn’t long before S-BAM teachers learned how to maneuver around them. “Those are the kind of workarounds we need to learn because we need to help [the Afghani girls] keep learning,” said Mr. Lopilato when talking about how he dealt with the lack of connection in Afghanistan.

“We pride ourselves for doing this, we are taking risks to ensure everyone is in school,” said Nabizada, adding that, “For some people [school] seems surreal, but we want to make it happen… so they get what… they need to have an education.”

OPEN A WINDOW

SNAP SHOTS

13

SATARH

by Anosh Satarh was a high school student when the Taliban banned girls from going to school.

Fortunately, she still had her hair salon job.

Hair dressing became more than a way for Satarh to earn money to help pay for her family’s food and rent; hairdressing quickly became the foundation for her aspirations and dreams.

“I want to be a great and famous hairdresser,” said Satarh.

Yet, The Taliban poses a serious risk to her new dream as well.

“Since the Taliban came to power, we cannot do our work

as well. We are not even allowed to put photos on the walls. We are at their mercy. We have to do whatever they tell us.”

The salon grows less and less profitable every month.

“The number of customers is decreasing. It is too difficult.

Too many restrictions. No one has money for luxuries like beautiful hair.”

Satarh is in danger of losing two dreams in one year. She is not able to go to school and she fears losing her favorite job and future career.

SOAP FOR HOPE

by Asila

D

espite the limitations of women’s education by the Taliban, Afghan women have still not lost hope. Fatemeh, a resident of Kandahar Province, is a woman who has created a working space for about 18 other women by creating a shampoo factory in her home.

She says they produce up to 300 liters of shampoo daily. She has also signed an agreement with one of the wholesale companies to distribute their products to the market. This factory employs about 3000 Afghans, also living under the Taliban’s rule.

14

S N A P

HADA

by Saeda

H

ada is a 9th grader resident of Paghman district. School was going well for her until the 9th grade. She would enjoy going to school with hopes and dreams, looking forward to graduating and pursuing a career as a teacher, where she would be able to support her family of four. Her family members include her mother, a sister who is in the first grade, and a five-yearold brother. Life was difficult for Hada in the absence of her father, who had died in a suicide attack many years ago.

Despite being busy with school, Hada would wash clothes of the rich through-

out Kabul by her mother’s side in order to continue living and find a piece of bread for her younger siblings.

In spite of the hardships she faced, Heda wanted to finish school to find employment as a teacher so she could support her family and keep her sick mother from washing. Yet the Coronavirus pandemic closed the doors of schools, and the Taliban banned girls from returning once the pandemic subsided. Left with no choice but being patient, Hada is heartbroken, and feels that she has no hope of getting a university education.

NAGINA

W

ARIFA

by Starah

hen the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and forbade girls from going to school, my close friend Nagina Akaya was sad and depressed. Nagina was always eager to learn and acquire knowledge, under the belief that school illuminates a person’s future.

She considers school as her second home and says that she learned the true meaning of life and how to live in school.

Yet, she was forced to dropout of school in

11th grade.

Nagina believes that if she goes to school, she would become a more useful member of society. She says that by not going to school, poverty and destitution will cover our society. Nagina says that if the government wants, it can facilitate many ways for girls to study. With the government not paying attention to girls, she says she has no hope of living.

MURSAL

by Nargis

M

usal was 24 years old, studying law at Kabul University, before the Taliban takeover.

When the Taliban came in her third year of University, the Taliban banned schooling for girls, and she was forced to cease her studies. Now, Nargis finds herself dreaming of going back to university. Though, nowa-

days studying for Afghan women is like a dream that may not come true. Upon being asked of her reaction if the Taliban were to allow girls to learn in schools, she responded “maybe you [would] see the tears of happiness in my eyes and I’ll go with fantastic positive energy and complete my studies”.

by Somaie

A

rifa graduated with a degree in Stomatology (oral medicine) from Kabul Medical University. During her studies she went through a lot of hardships and problems. Whether it was economic problems, or her father’s illness, it was difficult. Particular hardship occurred when her family had to travel to Iran for her father’s treatment, but she stayed in Afghanistan to continue her studies.

All these hardships made her stronger than before and gave her more effort and perseverance to fulfill her dreams and finish her studies at the master’s level.

After graduation, she started her work in this department or field and worked in several clinics and gained enough skills and experience to work at her current job at a top Kabul dental clinic. Her great enthusiasm and interest in this field has led her to want to continue her studies so she can better serve society with her profession.

15

FARHAT

SHABANA

by Hamida

by Asila

F

arhat was once a 9th grade student at a school in Kabul City. Now, since the closing of the schools about a year ago, she says she no longer has the ability to think and wait for the reopening of her school.

She remarks that her and her peers are suffering from mental and emotional stress. To cope, she started sewing so that she could keep her mind occupied while learning to run a business. Though she did not envision this for her future, she remarks that the thought of a future for Afghan women is highlighted by uncertainty within the darkness. Farhat pleads for the international community and aid providing agencies to address the problem of the afghan people, specially afghan women.

S H O T S

H

opes were not realized and the girls went home again. After over six months of waiting to go to school again, they were told to stay home until further notice.

In a friendly conversation, one of my friends told me to do my homework, saying, “Despite the failure of the Taliban government’s promises, we are very depressed and hopeless and worried about our uncertain future But again, I

am impatiently counting the minutes for the opening of schools.”

Shabana’s only wish was to become a heart surgeon, and he wanted to serve his society and people through medicine. But, since girls were banned from school, he is very depressed and disappointed in the education system.

MARYAM interviewed by Sahar

“H

ello, my name is Maryam.

I am a student in grade 11 of one of the schools in Kabul, Afghanistan. I went to school with great enthusiasm and interest, and I was also preparing for the entrance exam, but the arrival of the Taliban has resulted in the closing of schools. And, after the closure of schools, now I am at home.

The rest of the girls above the sixth grade have left school, they are unable to do it, and some of them do household chores. I am one of these girls…

I do these things and the leftovers of sewing or stealing to earn money, and unfortunately, some of my friends I had in school, unfortunately, their families gave them to husbands, and this is very embarrassing for us. I don’t have hope in my life and I was very disappointed. Girls can’t go to school and study. I hate the Taliban and I have no future in my country. We ask the international community to help us Afghan girls and I want to study and progress.”

LATIFAH interviewed by Sadaf

“M

y name is Latifah Mohammadi, I graduated from Kabul Medical University in Public Health. I was able to successfully complete my studies before the spread of Coronavirus in the country, and then I worked in the Department of Public Health in the screening team and rapid response team. And then,

I was responsible for helping the poor in the SDO Institute.

With the arrival of the Taliban, the project was canceled by the World Bank, and a large number of people became unemployed, especially the female category, because the Taliban created many restrictions in various fields.”

16

REFLECTIONS REFLECTIONS

Where our Future is Paved

Light Behind The Darkness

by Satarah

by Nabila

School is a place that paves a person’s future, School is a place that makes the future of a country, School is a place that makes the world, School is where our future is paved.

M

School is a place where a person finds his place and value, School is where we learn to study, write and educate, School is where we’re taught how to live, School is where our future is paved.

School is where we become teachers, School is where we become doctors, School is where we learn to live in the world, School is where our future is paved.

School is the place to complete a person’s life, School is not just needed by an individual, but by his country, School is the most valuable place in the world, School is what makes us think of knowledge or learning, School is our first steps, School is where I started my life, School is where our future is paved.

School is where people are brought together, School is where we are led to our goals, School is where an understanding of the world is cultivated, School is where our future is paved.

y name is Nabila, and I was born 21 years ago in the Paghman district of Kabul, where I have lived since. I dreamed of being a journalist until I graduated high school in 2017, when I enrolled in teaching school at my family’s request against my will. Yet, in teaching school, I studied with a hope.

I was eager to acquire knowledge, unaware of a difficult future under a government where women would have no rights, value, or opportunities to contribute to society.

When the Taliban took over the government, women were completely ostracized from society, making life like living in a desert full of snakes. Yet, hope means seeing the light behind the darkness. Thus, we must accept the hopelessness of this dark situation, yet never lose hope itself.

Worth Every Risk

by Hadia

L

ife under Taliban rule in Afghanistan is like a return to darkness for girls and women.

But despite all these difficulties, the girls bravely created secret training classes. These classes include a small number of students above the sixth grade. They say “We do our best to do it in secret, but even if we get caught or beaten, it’s worth it.”

17

“It Was Our Second Home”

by Ellis Chung

O

n March 23, 2022, the Taliban officially banned girls in Afghanistan from attending school past the 6th grade. While most people’s first concern is how this will impact these girls’ futures in Afghanistan, we must not overlook the social and emotional impact of this dark reality.

Nabila (age 21) and Hamida (age 26) have been grappling with their loss of education since August 2021, when the Taliban first took control of Afghanistan.

To Nabila, school is “where I can acknowledge, improve my ambitions, and rebuild to protect myself from trauma.” With this loss, however, she says, “Our self-confidence is destroyed. We lost the courage to speak up. When the Taliban closed schools, I felt like I died.” Hamida, as a student and teacher of young children, has seen the debilitating effects of the ban from all angles: “They’re suffering from a terrible situation; they are depressed - not feeling well.” For her, the most significant loss was friends. “In school, I competed with my friends to get the first position and be the top student. The entertainment, the fun that we had, I really miss spending my life with my friends to go out and be at school,” she reminisced.

However, while the Taliban has made accessing education difficult, girls in Afghanistan are finding new ways to educate themselves. Hamida expressed how “some of the teachers… make courses at their houses to continue teaching students.” The girls discovered B-CC High School’s summer journalism class through a network of siblings and friends. It gave them an opportunity to reclaim the education that was so swiftly taken from them.

“It’s difficult for me to say how hard everything has been,” Hamida said, “What the Taliban did to us was unforgivable and unforgettable.” While these changes have shocked daily life, girls in Afghanistan are not giving up. Even through the Taliban’s heavy regulations and enforcement, they continue their search for knowledge.

S

chool is a place that makes the future of a person. School is a place that makes the future of a country. School is a place that makes the world. School is the future maker of the entire young generation. School is a place where a person finds his place and value.

The world understands that in school we learn to study, write and educate. School teaches us how to live. School makes us a future. School makes us professors. School makes us doctors. In school, we learn to live in the world.

School is the place to complete a person’s life and a person needs school and a country needs school. School is the most valuable place in the world. When we say school, the first words that come to our mind are knowledge and learning. We are the first steps. I start my life from school. School is a place of education. School is our second home. School is a place that brings people closer to their goals. School is a place of knowledge and culture.

School holds an intrinsic value to the life of an individual and greater society. Human dignity depends on science and knowledge; if there is no school to learn, it would be impossible to know the truth. Since the beginning of human civilization, the road to progress has been paved by means of education. The only difference between an intellectual and illiterate is the opportunity to learn.

The level of development and prosperity of societies can be measured by their literacy rates; Any society that has a high cultural and scientific level will live with security, progress, development and prosperity fueled by the intellect of their citizens to improve their home. Without school, we will be unable to improve where we live; it is imperative the situation in Afghanistan improves, and therefore it is imperative that Afghan girls can be educated.

LONG-TERM 18

By Sana

E

ducation is a basic human right, yet the Taliban have closed the doors of schools to girls. Islam says men and women should educate themselves but the Taliban doesn’t allow for this. For a year now, women have been banned from schools. This creates big problems like depression for society and especially women. If a woman is illiterate, it affects generations to come.

If the Taliban limits educating new generations of women today, there will be no female engineers, doctors, teachers, etc, tomorrow. In conclusion I want to say that we need to open the doors of schools to girls, instead of being a barrier against them. Make a way for women to achieve their academic goals. I believe that women, like men, can be proud of our country too.

The Taliban closed the doors of schools to girls.

Education is the basic right of human beings. Islam says that every man and woman should educate themselves. Education is the only way that we can improve our life, and it helps us to achieve our goals.

Yet, the Taliban closed the doors of schools to girls.

They don’t let girls educate themselves. Since last year up to now, girls can not go to school. This will create a big problem for society, if girls will be illiterate, one generation will be illiterate and depressed.

On the other hand, if the Taliban limits girls to educate themselves today, tomorrow there will be no female doctor to treat their daughters.

At the end of the day, I want to plead for the opening of the doors of schools to girls, instead of a barrier against them. I hope we make a way for women to achieve their academic goals. I believe that girls, like boys, can make our country proud.

Dear Mr. Taliban Good education is crucial in preparing those who will move the country forward, especially in fields such as engineering, medicine, and science.

Good schools can prepare students to become exemplary citizens who make a society based on respect, equality, and rule of law.

I am devastated by the Taliban’s ruling to forbid girls from attending school beyond 6th grade. This decision will exclude Afghan girls from having the same opportunities as other girls around the world.

There is nothing more un-Islamic than prohibiting education to half of the society.

Islam has always encouraged education.

19

By Sadaf

S

chool is the most important educational and social institution. The main pillar of education has been established and carried on to properly train students in religious, moral, scientific, educational and social skills, to discover talents and make way for a balanced mental and spiritual growth. Using and internalizing the basic values of society has been the main focus of the educational system. Different values are taught in different subjects and the effectiveness of understanding those values in each subject heavily depends on the teacher’s understanding of that topic. By knowing the content, the teacher can equip the educational environment through knowing the interests and abilities of the students.

This guides the students in the right direction of learning, because for them to be successful teachers must first learn to accept their opinions. The education system places certain values ​​and perceptions in the minds of students through the methods they use to educate. The chosen course content makes it possible for students to successfully accomplish their goals.

The contents of the education material should be arranged in a specific way, and according to the special construction of each discipline and the previous education of the students. Educational content should be related to daily life and social environment. All these things are possible in a classroom environment.

Through evaluation the teacher realizes the strengths and weaknesses of their teaching and the adequacy of the tools they used in their teaching.

IMPACT

Prophet Muhamad said, “Whoever follows a path in the pursuit of knowledge, God will make a path to paradise easy for them.”

Prophet Muhammad also said, “A parent gives their child nothing better than a good education.”

Good education helps reduce poverty around the world.

Indeed, kids can graduate and get well-paid jobs. This will benefit them and their families.

I hope you will reverse this decision and allow girls to continue their education and have equal opportunities as boys.

Hiba Bougatfa B-CC High

20

“Why shouldn’t we have the same rights Hello and thank you all.

Personally, as a politically active person in society, I was very appalled when the already narrow medical field for girls got narrower. From the start we were shocked by the talks surrounding Hijab, but tried to stay positive and focus on doing everything we could to not give the Taliban a reason to ban girls from going to university. We still had hope for the future and a belief to find a way to help our sisters and family members. As a representative of a group of 45 students who studied with us, we faced many problems.

Personally, I was facing many social and economic problems; seeing my sister not being able to go to school and graduate high school the same way I did was very hard for me. To see other girls in my community who had so much potential and wanted to become the future of the country no longer having the means to do so. I was teaching in a school when the government changed the laws, and that was just the end of the school year when we were having final exams that the schools closed.

I had many students who called me and were crying asking about school, asking when the schools would open again and what would happen to their future. I was trying to calm them down and make them feel better. I tried to give them hope that one day the school doors will open again. But it didn’t get better.

It became worse.

I was the teacher of the class and was receiving many calls each day from students about when class would start but I had nothing to tell them. I didn’t know what to say to them and how to make them calm down or how to reduce their stress.

I was seeing my friends, my sister, my classmates, and girls in my community who were not able to do anything about their future. They were depressed and in a dark moment in life.

All of this pain depressed me as I wondered what would happen with our future and how we should deal with this. Every time we heard news about girls’ education my father would call all of my sisters and me to check what they were going to say, but time and time again we felt hopelessness and sadness. With all of those economic issues and hopelessness, I started to go back to the private university to start my education. It was just less than a week away from the start of our first test, with all of us studying hard to get good grades and pass, when we heard that the college gates would be closed for girls, that we would not be allowed to go back to the university and take the test.

I received many calls from my friends and classmates, once again wondering what was going to happen and what we would do. We were crying because we knew we would not be able to go back to classes any time soon. My eyes were full of tears too but I was trying to give them confidence and help them by telling them good news and giving hope that they would be able to go back to university.

We all went to the university door in the hope that they would allow us in, but we received calls not to go there and that it would be dangerous for us, that people may hurt us. At that moment my eyes filled with tears. I tried to go to my job to distract myself and relieve myself from this pain. Girls like me were the hope of our families.

I had to stay strong and deal with this because there was nobody who could reduce this pain; I didn’t want to bring hopelessness to my younger sister's faces. On that dark day everyone was sad.

I saw a girl in the street alone who was crying about not being able to go to school. I went to her and tried to calm her down but I was not able to control my own tears. I learned to stay strong in hard times and to

control my fears and help others like this girls, but this was the time when I remembered my own future.

I remembered what will happen to me and what would happen to my dreams. I didn't want to cry, at least in front of her, so I wouldn’t make her hopeless. I wanted to give her hope for a bright future, When I started coming back from my job I wasn’t able to control my pain and started crying.

People were surprised when they saw me; everyone could see and feel the pain that Afghan girls were feeling at that moment. I was always asking why we shouldn’t go to school; because of not having Hijab, but we all do. Because of not participating in our religion, but we do. Because of Islam, but one of the biggest rights that has been given to every girl in Islam is education.

So, what is the problem?

Why shouldn’t we have the same rights that every other girl in this world has?

Why are we not granted an education?

I don’t know how to talk about this, how to express this feeling and to whom I should tell this to.

Me and girls like me who are all in this classroom, we all have the same feeling and have this experience in our lives. This has always been a pressure on Afghan girls to have a peaceful and war free future. I am now asking, “why?”

On behalf of all 45 of my (former) students, I thank you.

Yours, R----(former) Graduate Student and Teacher The Health Sciences School Ena’am University Kabul, Afghanistan

21

that every other girl in this world has?”

22

BY THE NUMBERS Number of Afghan women refugees admitted by Arizona State University for Spring 2022: 61 Number of Afghan refugees admitted by Bard College (New York) in 2022: 80 Number of grants between $2,000 and $5,000 awarded by the Institute of International Education (IIE) to help Afghan refugees attend college in the U.S.:100 Month and year President Biden announced the U.S. withrawl from Afghanistan: August,

2021

Month and year that the Asian University for Women (Bangladesh) first saw a dramatic increase in the number of applicants from Afghan women refugees: August, 2021 The number of Afghan refugees (mostly women) enrolled in American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan: 300 Number of applications from Afghan women received by the online University of the People (UoPeople) immediately after the Taliban banned women from college: 5,000 Number of $1,200 scholarships UoPeople awarded to Afghans women who lost access to higher education. 2,000 Average monthly household income among “food-secure” families in Kabul (families that can afford 3 meals a day): $250 The median monthly household income across all families in Kabul: $80 Typical monthly cost of phone-based internet access: $12 Average number of hours of electricity a day for a household in Kabul: 4 Percentage of household income that the average participant in our summer Journalism class spent on three Zooms a week and doing on-line assignments: 23%

We Must Do More.

We Must Do Better.

by Sayed Erfan Nabizada Secondary education. Higher education. Work. Parks.

What will the Taliban take from women next?

When the Taliban re-established The Emirate of Afghanistan, they promised that they would adopt a more moderate stance towards women’s rights. They said women could go to school and hold jobs in the government and the private sector.

These were nothing more than broken promises and lies.

It is easy to conclude that Afghanistan under the Taliban is a failed state. Infrastructure is broken. The economy has crashed. Fear and insecurity have grown as torture and false imprisonment have become more common. People are leaving the country in droves and seeking refuge in other countries.

The truth is: Afghanistan is worse than a “failed state” The Taliban “government” is no more than a loosely connected network of local “leaders” making their own policies based on their own faulty interpretation of Sharia law. These local jurisdictions only have one thing in common; they systematically deprive women of their rights.

It is easy to assume that Islam, unchecked by Western influence, is hostile towards women’s rights.

This, too, is false- absolutely false.

In Islam, women, like men, are obligated to pursue knowledge. In the Quran, Allah orders both men and women to increase their knowledge and condemns those who are not learning. The Qur’an puts significant importance on seeking knowledge, and encouraging education for all.

As we approach one year since Afghan girls were banned from secondary school, millions feel helpless and uncertain about their futures.

Will Afghan women be erased entirely from the public sphere?

Does the U.N. need a name for such a systematic, brutal purge before it can act?

The world’s silence...America’s silence...our silence is shameful.

We must do more.

We must do better.

THINK

23

BIG!

The numbers (opposite page) clearly show that current college-level attempts to help are woefully inadequate.

How can MCPS, the 10th largest school district in the U.S., help fill the need?

Introducing

The Montgomery Project

S tep2 S tep1

Raise Funds and write grants

Create courses

Teachers and students create on-line, asynchronous courses. These courses will be made up of engaging lessons and activities that in a format that students can download and do offline.

Internet access is too expensive and electricity too unpredictable in Afghanistan to require synchronous learning or massive downloads. Last summer, we learned this the hard way.

S

tep3

Step4

Award Certificates

Many of the Afghan girls and women we met hope to go to school and work in Afghanistan in the future. Others hope to leave Afghanistan to study and work elsewhere.

All said certificates of participation and completion would do wonders for their self esteem and future prospects. We should award them certificates for the work they have already done (for this magazine and beyond).

We should give them certificates for courses they complete going forward.

S

tep5

Repeat steps 1-4 for girls and women in other countries

Create courses

An MCPS4All App. Make all those classes we create over summer available through the app.

Women who don’t want people to see what they are learning can simply, temporarily delete the app. The work they previously uploaded will not be lost. logo by Anosh Sediqi

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ChatGPT BANS The Taliban bans girls & women from high school and college. Florida bans AP AfricanAmerican History. Schools ban books.

CULTURE fights, skipping class, vaping BUDGET teacher pay CELLPHONES CHEATING plagiarism CLASSROOMS COLLEGE ADMISSIONS Unfair playing field NO CONSEQUENCES ongoing CURRICULUM DEBATES Fights over how to teach about Race and Reconciliation Fights over how to teach about Gender and Sexuality fights over Assessments. Fights over how to reverse learning loss Fight over equity. Fights over grade inflation

WHAT WE NEED FROM NOW

Students What is school? Need to talk about difficult topics like

25

by Lila Ben-Yehuda

S

chool is the place where creativity and differences go to die.

You enter it, full of ideas about the world, and how you might want to contribute to it. But as years go on, the differences between students fade together as the become about how to be a good student; how to get those good grades. By the time you are out of high school, you know how to solve for x, how to read the table of elements. You do not know how to truly help society, you do not know how to persuade people, nor do you know how to manage your finances. You are a product of the American learning system, a factory that punches out kids who are all the same.

School should be a place where creativity and difference thrive.

Where, at the end of their educational career, students are all different; contributing to our country in different ways.

In 2019, I was in sixth grade.

It was the second year my middle school was open. It was as good as new. Well, that was until the winter, when swastikas were found in the second-floor boys’ bathroom.

Small ones, big ones, they were scribbled everywhere, along with phrases such as “hail Hitler.”

At the time, I was one of only a handful of Jews in my grade. A lot of my friends wore crosses on their necks and spoke of Christmas as soon as November came around.

I was struggling to accept my differences, and that being Jewish meant being a minority. So when this happened, I felt personally attacked. I felt like I didn’t fit in at my school, like part of me wasn’t acceptable. It made me feel like my classmates hated me. I was already struggling with social anxiety, but before the incident, I had a pretty good handle on it. Suddenly, I was paranoid that it was one of my friends who wrote that, with me in mind. It consumed me for about three months. Flash forward, it’s

2020. I turn 13 this year! It was the year of my bat mitzvah, the celebration of a young person becoming a Jewish adult. I was becoming a better writer and speaker too. I had gained back my confidence and was ready to use it.

During those three months, more swastikas were drawn. In an attempt to make the kids who drew the swastikas sympathetic, the school dedicated a day to learning about the past of the Jews, but the school only focused on the Holocaust. My family, like almost all Jewish families, was affected by the Holocaust; my great-grandfather was the only one in his family to survive it.

The day made me feel like the Holocaust is all people see when they think of Jews. No one thought of much else when it came to the Jews, I learned.

It pained me to think that that was how my people were seen--victims of a terrible genocide.

I was in seventh grade when the last of the swastikas were drawn. It was in February. As it happened, I was due to write an essay in English about my identity, and where I see it in 5 years. I saw fit to take these swastikas as an opportunity to talk about my Judaism, and how being at my middle school affected my overall view of the culture and myself.

I asked my teacher if this was okay to write about, seeing as it could be seen as a little sensitive to some. To my surprise,

she said no. She said that I was too young to truly know the whole meaning behind the Holocaust, too young to have that deep of a reflection of who I am. But the truth of the matter was that I had already been exposed to real-world situations, such as the swastikas and the kids who drew them.

My teacher shutting me down made me question everything, again. Was this part of my identity not good enough?

Am I blowing this out of proportion? If I did write about this, would I not get a good grade? All of these questions were bouncing around in my head, and it messed with me.

I ended up writing about a sport I played and how it affected my physical health. I got an A, though I never stopped wondering what would have happened if I had chosen my original prompt.

I also learned something I’m still trying to unlearn--that the easy prompts that are unoriginal are the ones that get you good grades. Sticking to the easy and safe path is preferable. This prompted me to lose my sparkle--what made me different. I switched up my writing style to one I knew my teachers would like.

I almost fell victim to the terrors of American teaching. I was lucky enough to pull myself out of it, but not everyone can.

My teacher should have said yes. She should have said yes to the other unique prompts people wanted to write about.

The genocide of the creativity of students is silent, but it is significant. If students were not forced to risk a bad grade to write about something consequential, our country could welcome a new generation full of brilliant, beautiful, and different minds.

WE CANNOT LEARN IN FEAR

by Colette Mrozek

W

e walk into school every day, aware that someone else might walk in too, and pull out a gun. Any day, our friends and teachers could be victims of a school shooting. Our friends could die, our teachers could die.

We could die.

We carry this knowledge with us in the backs of our heads; always floating a few layers beneath the surface. 'We' is me, my friends, my classmates. 'We' is students across the US. School should be safe. It's not.

School is supposed to be many things, serve many functions. It’s supposed to be a place of learning, where our nation’s children gain the knowledge and skills needed to pursue careers. It is supposed to be a social scene; a place to spend time with friends, some of whom we only get to see during the school day. For some kids, school is their first foray into close friendship. School is supposed to be a place where creativity thrives. It is meant to be a place where students can discover and pursue new interests.

But how can school be any of this,

when each time an announcement comes on, students and teachers flinch inside, knowing we could be about to go into lockdown; when each time students sit down in class, we mentally map our path to the nearest exit — in case we hear gunshots.

Because it is unsafe, school is inherently dysfunctional to any of its purposes.

Elementary school children are taught what to do if there is an active shooter in the building before they even know what a school shooting is. When I was in elementary school, my teachers told us the drills were in case someone was in the building “who wasn’t supposed to be.” I didn’t understand what that meant.

I do now.

I am lucky. I have never experienced a school shooting, and my high school, Bethesda Chevy-Chase, has never had one at all. But this doesn’t change the fact that the threat of a school shooting is always there, looming behind the curtains in my subconscious, ready to spring.

Each time there is a school shooting, I am relieved it didn’t happen at my school.

But next time, it might.

There is always a next time.

The US has had 57 times as many school shootings as all the other G7 nations combined, according to an analysis done by CNN in 2018.

There are dozens of school shootings in the US each year, and that number keeps growing.

105 in 2018, as researched by Everytown for Gun Safety. 130 in 2019. 202 in 2021.

Over 100 so far in 2022.

Even in 2020, when the pandemic led to a mass closing of schools, there were still 96 school shootings, almost a hundred.

When I say students are in danger every time we walk into school, that isn’t an exaggeration.

It's a fact.

This is not OK. This is so far from ok.

The rate of school shootings in the US is atrocious.

Every time there is a school shoot-

27

The 300-round gorilla in the room

ing, I am struck by the feeling that the playing field has thinned, the chopping block shortened. How many more of these tragedies until a shooter picks my school as their target?

10? 20? 100? That means that at recent rates of school shootings, I and those I love could be a victim this year, perhaps within weeks.

200? By next semester.

400? 500? In a year.

This is the reality I live in as a student in the USA. Where children are shot at, injured and killed by school shooters, each and every year. Where I face the constant threat of becoming one of those children.

I am 15 years old. I should not have to contemplate my own death. I should be worrying about grades and SSL hours and clubs.

We live in the “land of the free” — but what does that freedom actually mean?

Who is it given to?

Does it mean having the freedom to go to school unburdened, unafraid? Do I have the freedom to live my life knowing that I am protected from individu-

als who use guns for murder?

Am I given the freedom to go to school in safety?

Three days after I originally wrote this article, my school went into lockdown while police responded to a report of a gun in the building. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and in fact there had never been a gun at all.

That does not change the fact that for an hour I sat in the corner of a darkened classroom in fearful silence, texting my parents, and then my friends, to tell them I loved them. I sent what I knew might be my last words so that if I was shot dead — the people I adore most wouldn’t be left to grieve alone.

I already felt the specter of a school shooting looming over my shoulder before this. Now, to go into lockdown mere days after writing about the danger I face everyday from just walking into school — it makes that fear all the more visceral.

What then, does that promised freedom mean?

Does it mean that those murderous individuals have the freedom to buy a

gun, often with very few restrictions, very few safeguards? Does it mean that those individuals then have the freedom to walk into a school building and start shooting?

Does it mean those individuals have the freedom to buy and carry the weapon with which they will take the lives of children?

I, my teachers, classmates, and friends, we are all lucky that it was a false alarm. But we were terrified during that lockdown because so, so, so often a school shooting is tragically, brutally real.

Each day that I go to school, my life is in danger. As long as this is true, I am not free. As long as I can’t live my life secure in the protection of my right to literally live my life at school, I am not free.

My friends are not free; my classmates are not free; my teachers are not free.

We are not free.

28

“Thank you for holding. A Specialist will be with you shortly.”

by Roya Kenny

T

hink of an airport; numerous groups of people, countless procedures, fumbling for documents, endless wait times, and general discontent. That doesn’t seem so appealing, so why do we go to the airport? Because the airport is the holding place we have to get through before hopping off that plane and doing something new.

For an increasing amount of students, high school has become this same holding place before students can start their lives, and not a very useful one at that.

75% of high school students reported negative feelings towards school, according to a survey conducted by researchers at Yale. Consequently, the average American uses only 37% of what they learn in school, according to a survey done by H&R Block.

High school could be a time of learning, becoming independent, and figuring out the world. Unfortunately, stress looms heavily over most of our time. According to a study by NYU, “Grades, homework, and preparing for college were the greatest sources of stress,” for high schoolers.

When I asked other students why they worked hard in school, many said college. We’re ready to move on, but we need to get the grades for college first.

I asked another fellow student if high school seemed like a joke, like we are not learning practical things.

“Yes.” People need to hear this. Students think school is a joke, and not because we all think learning isn’t fun.

In fact, high school students generally have high motivation for achievement academically. According to a study done by NYU, high school students have an average of 2.35 out of 3 on a scale of how academically motivated they are. We want to be prepared for the future and learn about subjects that interest us more.

With the pressure of getting into college, getting good grades, and meeting our own standards, students are spending their time learning things with generally limited practical value for what they will do later in life.

We sacrifice time studying obscure math formulas, meanwhile, we don’t spend time learning the most practical situations we would use math in our adult lives. We spend our time studying the perfect ways to write an AP essay when in our adult lives an AP essay just isn’t what anyone is looking for.

Don’t forget about homework. Constant homework every day does not help as much as people may think, so much busy work makes us lose sight of the importance of what we are learning. According to a study by Stanford researchers, 56% of students said homework was their primary source of stress. It's time to start figuring out better ways to ensure students learn.

But, what if stress was taken out of the equation? The high school experience could be a time spent still working towards academic success but in an environment where we are capable of exploring areas of interest and applying skills to life. We should be able to get rid of the idea of the seemingly never-ending holding place that is high school and shift it to the idea of something new, an adventure.

Let’s get rid of this nightmarish airport parallel and create a fulfilling school experience that students can remember as something beneficial and important to who they are. To do this we should have more opportunities to enrich interests we may already have, learn things that will be practical in the future, make sure our teachers are doing well, and focus less on constant assignments and grades as a whole.

A school could then feel like real life instead of a holding area that assesses you before sending you off into life.

29

Our schools are preparing students

by Suryah Mathurin for college, not for life.

W

hat are we teaching our students to become in our school systems?

What are we preparing our students for? Are we preparing them to be entrepreneurs, or employees? Students are forced to wake up at 6:00 AM, sit in 7 classes a day, be tested, provided extra work to take home in order to come back the next day, and do it all over again. They're told when they can and can't eat, sleep, communicate with each other, and even use the bathroom.

They’re trained to think that if you work hard enough, you'll be successful, but no one ever takes the time to teach students how to be creative or how to believe in themselves. Everything students are being taught is all in preparation for college. The United States high school systems prepare students for college, not for success.

To prepare for a career you need certain life skills that school just doesn’t provide. Skills like how to file your taxes, or knowing what your social security number is, as well as how to use it. Now does school provide you with some skills? Of course. Students learn how to calculate percentages, and the contents of the Constitution, as well as how to calculate the volume of objects.

All useful tools, but where will these tools come into play? Will you need to know the contents of the Constitution when it’s time for a job interview? Will it matter that you know how to calculate the volume of certain objects when it’s time to pay your taxes? I’ll give you a little hint, no.

According to CBS News, H&R Block developed a survey that would inquire if adults in the US felt like the information they were taught in school was useful. The results determined that 84% of working adults were taught topics and skills in school that they didn’t use after graduation.

This means out of the fourteen years of American schooling, only 16% of all of the information students have spent their lives studying, stressing over, and

being tested on, is almost worthless. 8 times out of 10, that quiz you’re studying for, won’t matter in 10 years. That 5 page essay you’re being forced to write, will not serve any purpose when you’re 25. Even that project you spent all night crying over because it just had to be perfect, won’t really pick you up and take you anywhere.

So if all of that hard work won’t be relevant in a couple years, why do it?

What are our schools preparing us for?

United States schools prepare us for college. They teach you that the harder you work, and the higher your points are, the better schools you’ll make it to. The class president with straight A’s and MVP on the soccer team will make it to all of the greats. Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Duke, UCLA, and Columbia just to name a few. Schools like this are known for producing success stories; for producing top doctors, government officials, and top-paid corporate lawyers. What about the digital artists, or the cosmetologists? What about the business owners or the entertainers?

The skills for careers such as those would not be mentioned in school, because you don’t have to go to the big named schools to become those things.

You do however need to be yourself, and that’s something that the school system cannot teach. They can’t teach us how to become the best us.

So what do we teach then, if we can’t teach you how to be you? What teachers could be providing students with more information on, are things like how to file your taxes and pay bills, or how to detect an internet bug. Skills that these students can actually take outside of class, and apply to their everyday lives. If we take real life skills and provide students with the tools in order to further develop these skills, we can open up more opportunities for creativity and expiration for these young minds to further their education in the career that they want to pursue.

30

School killed fun, and now it’s actively killing kids

By Tasia Mallombasang

S

chool used to be fun. If I had to be absent from school for any extended period of time when I was younger, whether it was due to a cold or a bad case of strep throat, I would beg my mom to take me to school anyway.

Didn’t matter that I wouldn’t get better any faster; didn’t matter that I could get my classmates sick—I just wanted to learn. I soaked up new knowledge like a sponge. I loved learning, and many of my fellow students felt the same.

We used to hate missing school simply because we hated missing the opportunity to learn. Today, we hate missing school because we’re terrified of falling behind and becoming failures.

School needs to be fun again.

Right now, school is an endless ocean slowly drowning all of its students, and it needs to stop. While I’ve been told it is an undeniable fact that we need school when we are young to support our futures better, constant academic stress makes it almost impossible to see my future. That’s how endless this ocean feels.

Bustling school hallways are no longer filled with a sea of kids ready and eager to learn. Instead, those kids are sinking, and it’s starting to show. According to the New York Times, 13 percent of adolescents reported having major depressive episodes in 2019, a 60 percent increase from 2007. Don’t let that seemingly small statistic pass you by, because it isn’t what it should be—zero percent. No one should have to experience this, let alone children

who have barely experienced life. Unsurprisingly, suicide rates also jumped nearly 60 percent in about the same time period.

So many kids with so much potential will never make it out of school simply because it has stopped being fun. I’ve been on the edge of the proverbial cliff myself—many of my sleepless, tearfilled nights have been permeated with the belief that I’d be better off dead than have a B in any of my classes.

A belief like that didn’t fill my head when I was younger. School has become completely inhospitable, and it is killing kids in droves. It could be yours next.

Clearly, something isn’t working here, right? If school is so necessary for our futures, why is it cutting our futures short? Why is it no longer fun? Via the National Education Association, Denise Pope of Stanford University cites two main factors—early school start times and excessive homework. While many experts emphasize the academic benefits of homework, too much of it raises stress substantially and leads to sleep deprivation. Early school start times also contribute to chronic sleep deprivation among teens, prompting the American Academy of Pediatrics to recommend delaying the start of school to 8:30 a.m. or later.

The AAP also urges kids ages 13-18 to get eight to ten hours of sleep per night.

Yet, all my friends and I are running on much less sleep than that with Mount Everests of homework to boot. Take a

guess as to why. Evidently, change is in order.

“The entire education system has created a pressure cooker for students and staff,” Pope says. “Twenty years ago, when you asked teenagers about what stressed them out, you would typically first hear things like ‘my parents’ divorce,’ or ‘my Dad’s an alcoholic,’ or ‘I don’t fit in socially.’ Nowadays, it’s always about school.”

Learning can be fun, and is fun, if you’re in an environment that allows it to be so. School is no longer that.

What should be a safe space to gain new knowledge and enjoy doing so has now become home to an unbearable cycle of sleep deprivation and depression.

It is constant. It feels completely endless. Teens and kids cannot possibly be expected to succeed if what they need to succeed is constantly being ripped out from under them by an institution that is supposed to help them, not hurt them. Shouldn’t school become fun again, lest we let yet another kid’s life end?

31

The Yellow Stall

By Hannah Pomeranzeva

Y

ou walk down the corridor of school, fist gripping the hallway pass. The air thins in your lungs and wont come out. the walls all around sink into your flesh and their hidden eyes watch every step, every twitch. you duck inside the bathroom, crouch on the cold ,hard ground of a suffocating yellow stall, and bury your head in your arms. you need a moment alone, away from class. somewhere where you will be safe from the impossible fractions and never ending algebra.

In the next couple moments your going to take a breath, raise your sunken head off of your aching arms and pick yourself up. Your going to return to class, and pretend to listen. Between multiple advanced placement classes, intense after school sports and extracurriculars, this is your only time to breathe.

This is not a unique story of a singular person. Far too often students' complaints and anxieties are taken as them being lazy or unfocused. The overwhelming expectations and pressure pounded on students today is labeled as the bare minimum, but those who go above and beyond to prove themselves, end up losing something much more important - themselves.

An aggressive schedule not only tires high school students out, but also concocts a negative mindset. Nothing

is ever good enough - I'm not good enough. According to Globe NewsWire, as of 2019, 45% of high school students reported feeling stressed all the time.

On a 10-point scale, American teens have rated their stress rate at an average score of 5.8, compared to normal values of 3.8. a consequence of this, is teen depression.

Currently About 57% of high school girls and 31% of high school boys feel sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks in a row, such that they stop doing activities that they love and enjoy. Social situations are also a source of stress for teens. We feel a pressure to fit in, to be popular, and to have a lot of friends - whether they are real or not. The past two years have highlighted that.

As we come out of the shock of the pandemic, we begin to see the consequences that, one way or another, affect every single teenager. Within one year - a year of captivity, online school, and minimal to no social interaction - anxiety and depression rates in students have soared a shocking 25% increase.

Social anxiety has increased and students are constantly trying to make up academically for the disruptive learning of online school.

We get a sense of being left behind and not being able to catch up. It creates a repetitive cycle, we get lost in it

and struggle to find a way out.

But where do the pressures and expectations to constantly achieve something come from? Nobody knows where they're going. No one is 100% certain what career they're going to pursue or what they're going to be like once they graduate. Yet, today’s school system expects little to no slip ups, they encourage us to explore different hobbies and interests, yet expect us to know exactly what we're doing and where we're going.

Our focus is shifted on college and the future - which is always uncertain - instead of the present. The whole concept of high school is to get in - consistently prove yourself, as if we're not good enough in the first place - and rush to get out. Grades overtake happiness, and hobbies and interests become just another point on your college application. And so, as adults, we're going to do the same thing.

We're going to look to the future, and rarely enjoy what we have. Always wanting more, and yet never having enough. were going to remember our teen years as the pressure we felt, and those daily trips to the yellow stalls.

Adolescence is a fragile age, an age to explore and discover who you are and learn from mistakes. But Today's world - and the school system - doesn't leave much room for mistakes.

32

MIND THE FUNDING GAP

By Annalise Bailin

M

any idealize the American public school system as a great equalizer. We love the idea that everyone has access to education, no matter their financial status, race, ethnicity, or religion. Even the most impoverished children can study hard enough to secure a future for themselves. But what happens to our glorified perception of American education when funding disparities come into play?

To understand the inequities of the American public school system, we first need to examine the institutions that fund it. Three areas allocate resources to public schools: federal, state, and local governments. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, during the 2019-2020 school year, state and local governments granted a combined 93% of funding for public schools, while the federal government provided a mere 7%. Consequently, financing varies among states and regions.

Property taxes are the largest source of state and local public school funding. According to Tax Foundation, "A property tax is primarily levied on immovable property like land and buildings, as well as on tangible personal property that is movable, like vehicles and equipment."

Because property tax rates depend on the value of homes in a neighborhood, school districts across the country receive access to unequal resources.

The bottom line: reliance of school districts on property taxes leads to racial inequalities and performance disparities in schools across America.

In our current situation, community wealth carries over into education. Students who are fortunate enough to live in wealthier districts are virtually guaranteed to receive a quality education. A majority of these students also happen to be white.

According to Education Trust's analysis, “Funding Gaps 2018”, "school districts serving the largest populations of Black, Latino, or American Indian students receive roughly $1,800, or 13 percent, less per student in state and local funding than those serving the fewest students of color."

This deficiency may not seem consequential, but in a school district of 5,000, it adds up to a shortage of $9 million per year.

Some may argue that a funding deficiency doesn't significantly impact the quality of a student's education. But a recent analysis of reading and math test score data says otherwise.

According to the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford, children in school districts with the highest clusters of poverty score an average of about four grade levels below children in the wealthiest ones.

Because racial minorities are more likely to live in these poorer districts, the education gap disproportionately impacts them.

Even if students from these areas work extremely hard in high school, many will still struggle in higher education because of learning disparities.

So what does this mean for our current method of funding public education? It's as simple as this.

The United States government needs to reform its public school financing system, or racial minorities and low-income students will continue to face institutionalized barriers to success. Schools should promote equality instead of dividing students based on wealth and race.

DIVERSITY SHOULD NEVER BE DIVISIVE

33

by Amelia Zalubas

a

gag is a device put over someone’s mouth that is used to prevent free speech and loud outcries. In the past gags have been used as part of punishment or torture. Recently this seemingly medieval form of restriction has begun to quickly grow in its new form, gag orders through law.

Gag orders can concern a plethora of topics and are primarily used to prevent schools from teaching students about everything from LGBTQ+ identities to critical race theory. Just because you don’t personally believe in a concept, belief, or personal identity doesn’t mean you have the right to prevent others from learning about them and having genuine discussions.

Teaching about the diversity of identities and their cultural experiences in the United States is not an attack on already acknowledged individuals, but it is about eliminating the constant feeling of otherness in this country and including everyone in conversations about the past, present, and future.

As a white high school student, I am constantly prompted to read books by white people and learn about white history.

Because I am in a progressive school district I have seen more incorporation of culture in the curriculum than most, but I’ve mostly learned about other identities of my own volition.

Despite not looking around for it, I can clearly see a brightening of hope in people when teachers acknowledge accomplishments done by people who are like them. This doesn’t hurt me in the slightest, it actually strengthens the conversations we have at school and relationships within the student body.

Other people also clearly believe this, as there has been a lot of rallying recently regarding diversifying school curricula, ensuring more widespread resources to thrive in school, and a general fight for history to be peeled back in layers like old wallpaper rather than whitewashing everything.

This year I attended the National Book Festival and had the opportunity to listen in on a talk with Samira Ahmed and Sabaa Tahir called “Rage Against the System: Teens Who Won’t Back Down”. These two Muslim American authors provided their personal perspectives on the absolute necessity for diversity in literature and the acceptance individuals feel when they are seen.

A couple of recurring themes in the talk were there being no “valid reasons to ban a book” (Samira Ahmed) and the necessity to ensure that “kids… feel like they are seen and they are witnessed. And whatever their truth is, it is accepted and witnessed and there is love for them there” (Sabaa Tahir).

These two women came from small towns that didn’t have many Southeast Asian people and grew up with nobody looking like them in the media, and no Muslim American women successfully getting promotion for their work. It takes a lot of bravery to speak up about issues that don’t directly affect you, but when you take your time to fight for your dreams and share your experiences, you are sharing a part of your soul with strangers.

If other people are willing to stand up on a stage for you to understand the hardships their communities face, it is not enough to just read a book and educate yourself, you need to make sure that the people around you are also learning. If you are born with a metaphorical mic in your hand, share it with the people who have to shout to be heard after fighting for a voice in the first place.

So much division between people is caused by a lack of understanding due to less experience and knowledge about others. Also, as only hearing one person’s side of the story is the cause of this inequity in the first place, we need to make sure that the community is displayed rather than use a spokesperson for millions of people.

If we allow curriculum to be banned, and gag orders to win, community divisions will widen, and advancements in self-understanding and solidarity between people will diminish.

If one group of people is upset, society feels the echoes of those cries even if they stick them into the deepest caves.

Amplifying cries makes them into empowering speeches that bring change to society and commonalties between people to unite them. Future history is as we make it so we need to be teaching hard history now.

As the saying goes, “the pen is mightier than the sword.” But if all of the ink is taken in the fear of controversial ideas, who gets the last word?

SCHOOL SHOULD BE...

...a place where you get to explore and make mistakes, a place where you’re supposed to learn how to be a global citizen, and a place where you learn to accept others. School should be a place where one learns life skills and how to be a good person, but public school systems often fail us and end up crushing creativity and, in turn, they prioritize results over understanding.

- August Goldstein ...a place where I can educate and better myself in a comfortable environment. Every class I take prepares me for my future whether it be learning about the economy in microeconomics or becoming more tech-savvy in my computer science class. Beyond education, school is a comfortable place for me to find community and people who share interests with me. I’ve met all my closest friends through school. I even started my own club and have formed many meaningful connections from there. I also find school to be a place where I never feel afraid to ask for help with things. Whenever I have a question, I simply go to my teachers or counselors and feel comfortable enough to ask. As I enter my last years of high school, having a good support system that’s always available to me is helpful.

-- Nano Nikuradze

..a community. Although the main purpose of schooling is to obtain a well-rounded education, there is far more to appreciate about an educational environment. Every student is on their own journey, but the common thread between everyone’s individual path is that we are all working towards a tangible goal together. Extra-curricular activities, sports, making friends, and school events give students a fantastic opportunity to learn the social aspects of adult life and gain crucial, real-world skills.

- Ellla Beaudet

has ...appreciated. School is a thing I didn’t appreciate before, but, whether I like it or not, it tons me granted benefited me greatly and will continue to benefit me in the future. School has k school of opportunities, including meeting new people and joining clubs. Many people overloo on. educati our and don’t truly appreciate all the staff, resources, and time that is put in for - Kimberly Trang ...a place where I go to not only learn, but to meet new and different types of people. Each year, I take different classes, and each class holds a different memory that I’ve created. Participating in school events gives me the chance to live my high school life and youth. Writing for the school publications integrates me into my community.

- Samantha Wang

35

...about acceptance. The chance to be uniquely me. I don’t have to worry about what latest trends I should hop on. I can dress how I want and be who I choose to be. Staying true to yourself is how you thrive in school and life.

- Imani Bunton

...a place where I learn and gain more wisdom pertaining to life. It also is a place to form relationships and go through lessons that will help us later in life. School is a community that simulates what the real world is, however, it enables us to learn lessons without having severe repercussions.

- Meze Ivit

...a place to socialize. Over the summer, I find that I feel more distant and disconnected socially; school is a convenient way for me to interact with people and develop friendships.

- Emily Mann

nces. ...a place where you learn various subjects, but also learn from other people and experie for a up School allows us to express our interests in various forms: by joining a team, signing club or creating your own, and building new relationships.

- Katelyn Jackson

...an important step in life. I am a perfectionist and because of this I planned out a large portion of my life already. I know what college I want to attend in the near future, the job I want, what degree I want to obtain. However, I tend to forget that school isn’t just about academics. School gives you the life and socialization skills that every human being needs. School gives you experiences that you can smile about in the near future, when your day isn’t as great as you want it to be. School is a key to the many doors of life.

- Abagail Murphy

...a place where I can educate and better myself in a comfortable environment. Every class I take prepares me for my future whether it be learning about the economy in microeconomics or becoming more tech-savvy in my computer science class. Beyond education, school is a comfortable place for me to find community and people who share interests with me. I’ve met all my closest friends through school. I even started my own club and have formed many meaningful connections from there. I also find school to be a place where I never feel afraid to ask for help with things. Whenever I have a question, I simply go to my teachers or counselors and feel comfortable enough to ask. As I enter my last years of high school, having a good support system that’s always available to me is helpful .- Nano Nikuradze

We Need to Chat... or Not

It’s a Digital World Adapt or Die

by Isabella Kriedler

I

n recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly prevalent in many aspects of our lives. This has been particularly evident in the world of academia, with AI-powered solutions being used in everything from teaching and grading to research and the writing of scholarly papers. The latest development in this field is OpenAI’s new chatbot, GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), which has the potential to revolutionize the way people interact with AI in academia.

GPT is an AI-powered natural language processing system that is capable of understanding and producing human-like conversations.

This has the potential to make academic discourse more efficient and productive, as it allows for the rapid generation of ideas and questions. It could also help to reduce the burden of grading, as GPT can be used to automatically assess the quality of a student’s work.

However, the use of GPT in academic settings also raises a number of ethical questions. For instance, some worry that the use of AI for grading could lead to a “black box” situation, where students do not understand how their work is being evaluated. Additionally, there are concerns that GPT could lead to plagiarism, as students may be tempted to use the system to generate their own work. Finally, it is unclear how GPT might affect the quality of academic discourse, as it

could lead to a decrease in critical thinking and creativity.

Ultimately, the use of GPT in academic settings is an exciting prospect with many potential benefits. However, it is important that the ethical ramifications of using this technology are carefully considered before it is implemented.

This includes ensuring that students understand how their work is being evaluated and that GPT is not used to facilitate plagiarism or to reduce the quality of academic discourse. If these considerations are kept in mind, GPT could be a powerful tool for improving the efficiency and productivity of academic discourse.

--If you haven’t already detected, the above article was written by ChatGPT. I simply entered the prompt “What are the ethical ramifications of using OpenAI’s new chatbotGPT in academic settings?“ I provided neither outline nor pitch.

ChatGPT has only been around since November 3rd, 2022; yet it has already been heralded as a game changer and vilified as an existential crisis.

One thing is clear. Schools need to figure out how to detect, regulate, use and/or embrace ChatGPT and ChatGPT4 as soon as humanly (or faster-than-humanly) possible.

by Jasmine Ferrell

I

nevitably, the days become monotonous. Kids enter the machine wide-eyed, gap-toothed children and spit out unmotivated, disinterested young adults. Our schools need to be rebuilt but, where do we begin to amend one of the world’s oldest institutions? Logically, it’s best to start with the people most affected by this system, the students.

Teens aren’t oblivious; they can picture a better future for themselves but lack the platform to execute their vision. Starting with the students at the epicenter, we can rework school for the better.

Education needs to be compelling. If you ask any student if they find school engaging and they say, “yes” they are lying to you! Although it may be a hard pill to swallow, the truth is students aren’t going to start trying unless they are being taught.

The rapid pace of life in the digital age has made school experiences unique for our generation so much so that people who have been out of school for only 15 years can’t relate to the obstacles that we face in school. Now more than ever we need those in power recognize where our struggles differ instead of forcing a narrative they have written upon us.

For hundreds of years school has been a uniform system meant to mold students into ideal workers and it does just that. But shouldn’t we strive to mold the nation’s children into more than just workers?

Demanding uniformity from such a diverse entity is almost criminal because of how the youth is being robbed of their creativity and individuality. If school is an institution created to prepare students for the “real world” what does it say about our society?

I’ll tell you what! It says that there is always a linearly correct answer, it implies that mistakes are something to be afraid of and that the arts are inferior to other, “more important” subjects. Although this is the case in school, most people living in the real world can attest to the fact that these statements are wildly inaccurate. In order to do well outside of school, we have to conquer this mindset so preparing us to fit those standards only prepares us to fail.