The use of phones in class will always be impossible to regulate

The never-ending debate between teachers and students

Lourdes Almalab

The use of phones in class is a constant subject area that teachers are having to cover more and more. It’s not uncommon for a teacher to interrupt a class in order to tell a student to put their phone away. I think that phone usage in class is annoying, and I get the teacher’s standpoint, but in reality, technology being such a huge part of our lives and continuing to grow makes it hard for students to disconnect themselves from it.

However, students do need to learn that there are boundaries when it comes to using phones in class because sometimes it’s simply disrespectful.

Logan Scarlett ‘24 said, “I feel like there’s a time and a place for [the phone] to be away like when you’re taking a test but other than that, I think it’s fine.”

Teachers, especially mine, have continued to show frustration with phones being out in class because they want their students to make use of all their class time and worry about their phones during their free time. These teacher complaints make tons of sense, but it is hard to follow these guidelines when bored out of your mind in class.

Gigi Scaglia ‘26 said, “Sometimes I text my friends or when I have nothing to do I might go on social media.” It is a chal-

Let’s talk about sex-ed for all four years of high school

Why barely one-quarter of sexual education at VHS just isn’t enough

Sophia Nacu

Soraya Stegall

During their freshman year, VHS students are required to take a course in health. This class is paired with college and careers. Since each course is a semester-long, there is already a shorter time frame to cover a vast area of subjects. Toward the end of the health course, students cover sexual education. As for the rest of high school, a health course for each following year isn’t required, which means that sexual education is seldom taught. This is different depending on what science course you take, but for those not taking a medical class, there is little to no knowledge given regarding it.

Teachers should not have to continuously interrupt their lectures to get you to put your phone away. Be respectful and considerate. Graphic by: Lourdes Almalab lenge for many students to stay engaged in class because of all of the busy work and downtime, especially right now, closing out the second semester.

Something that needs to be considered when thinking about whether phones in class should be eliminated or not is what students are using them for and if they are beneficial to the learning experience. I think phones are one of a student’s biggest assets. Nothing else allows for so much access to the internet, and honestly, sometimes, using my phone just helps me learn complicated things in such a simple way.

Continued on. . . thecougarpress.org

Get rid of socratic seminars

So, not only is the overall subject of health crammed into one measly semester, but sex education is crammed into an even tighter time slot. It’s simply impossible to cover all the bases in such a short time.

Jack Rose ‘23 said, “I’ve never really had a sexed class at VHS. I think it’s something many can benefit from. I think there’s valuable information in any sex-ed course that if you apply in the right way, can be very helpful in everyday life.”

The time allotted for “sex education” – if one can even call it that – consists of a video of a woman giving birth within a documenta- ry, an explanation of what a menstrual cycle is and a demonstration of how one uses a condom and a halfas*** presentation regarding the other ways to prevent pregnancy or STI.

London Fletcher ‘23 said, “I don’t think that the sex education in VHS has prepared us for the real world at all, and I think that it should because I think it’s pretty common sense for people to assume that kids in high school are engaging in sexual activity. I don’t feel as though VHS has educated us enough on it.”

Abigail Block ‘23 said, “I feel like there isn’t really any sexual education [taught at] Ventura High. I honestly only remember one segment from freshman year health class in the one semester that we get, but I feel like for the most part it’s catered towards students that are practicing abstinence and people who don’t partake in any sexual activities and it’s not preparing anyone to engage in those [sexual] activities.”

For the longest time, the practice of celibacy has been the primary response to preventing unwanted pregnancies or STIs. Yet this method is outdated and useless.

Obviously it’s common sense that if one is not sexually active, then they will not be faced with the risks that come with it, but as long as testosterone and estrogen continue to exist, so will the

Socratic seminars in classrooms can be anxiety provoking for students and are negatively affecting the classroom environment.

Kendall Garcia

Socratic seminars are a method used to try to understand information by creating a dialectic class in regard to a specific text. However, they do not belong in a high school classroom environment. Many English, science and history teachers on the VHS campus use socratic seminars to grade students on their knowledge of a topic.

Claire Clay ‘23 said, “I’ve participated in a couple socratic seminars but I don’t think the method is better than just doing quizzes and stuff. They seem kind of outdated.”

A socratic seminar is a student-led conversation based on texts that are appropriate for the class being taken. Students may have socratic seminars on books, articles, essays, videos or movies.

There are many problems with using socratic seminars in the classroom. The biggest problem I see with this method would have to be that socratic seminars can often be anxiety provoking for students. The grading scale of most socratic seminars is also a big issue. The majority of socratic seminars are graded based on how much a student talks during the discussion and what ideas they bring to the table. But is this really fair to the students?

I say that in a perfect world, all students would be comfortable enough to speak up in discussions, but in reality that simply isn’t the case. Just because a student doesn’t talk during a seminar does not mean that they didn’t do the same amount of work a student who speaks a lot during a seminar does. It’s not fair to grade a student based on how much they did or didn’t speak in front of their classmates.

Greg Raney, an English teacher, said, “I assess [students’] preparation for the discussion [when grading]. Are they prepared with notes? Are they ready to discuss or have they done their reading?

I also evaluate whether they know basic factual information about something, and at the same time if they are able to use that information to formulate their own opinions and ideas and interpretations.

I also evaluate how often they refer to the text, you have to cite evidence and point to certain things, which takes patience. I kind of evaluate how well they listen and how well they actually build off of each other, and use each other’s ideas to reach a deeper understanding.”

Another flaw in the grading scale is grading students on how much they talk but not really what they say. Some students can speak a lot during a seminar but bring no new ideas to the table, while others only speak a little but have the most intellectual ideas.

Raney said, “I think getting students talking and discussing over any text, or just having a discussion as a class is a great strategy and routine. I think discussing anything is challenging, especially after distanced learning and COVID-19 and with the amount of time we spend on screens, I think having a face-to-face conversation is essential and powerful. It’s one of the learning goals for my class, it’s also a state standard, to practice listening and speaking.” natural human instincts and urges to be sexually active. We need to throw away this dismissive response and instead provide students with methods to practice safe sex as well as actual solutions to turn to when they find themselves in a rut.

Block said, “It isn’t fair and it’s honestly unsafe that educators aren’t teaching anything because then kids go into these sexual situations basically blindsided and uneducated, we’re more likely to make mistakes and get pregnant.”

Deniyah Alvarado ‘24 said, “[Sex education] is basically nonexistent, no one’s really learned anything about sex. I feel like we should learn about sex, we should be educated.”

In all honesty, it’s a complete joke that VHS has gone almost three years without sex ed instruction. The necessity for sexual education exists as long as students grow and curiosity blooms about their sexual orientation and preferences. The need to know about one’s self, inside and out, is important. Even the simple act of putting on a condom or putting in a tampon can be difficult, scary and shameful for some. When young adults find themselves in environments that deprive them of proper information about sexual health and practice, they can turn to other outlets.

Continued on. . . thecougarpress.org

Socratic seminars are regularly used in VHS English classes for all grade levels, but the method is seemingly outdated. Graphic by: Kendall Garcia

Cougar critique: “Barry”

HBO Max hit series, “Barry,” is entering its final season as one of the best shows on television

Hugh Murphy

Miles Newman

“Barry,” the widely acclaimed series on HBO Max, has started its fourth and final season. HBO released the first two episodes of season four on April 16, with the first episode reaching 710,000 viewers, the highest for the show since the finale of season two.

The show was created and predominantly written by Bill Hader, a Saturday Night Live alum, who stars as the titular character.

Henry Winkler has won three Emmys himself, playing Gene Cousineau, a failed actor turned acting coach.

The series follows Barry Berkman, an honorably discharged Marine turned hitman under the guidance of his father’s friend Fuches, played by Stephen Root. While following a target in Los Angeles, Berkman stumbles into an acting class led by Cousineu. Berkman becomes captivated by the art of acting and attends the class while simultaneously carrying out his hitman work. While attending the class, he meets Sally Reid, an aspiring actress who becomes Berkman’s perpetual love interest. His relationship with Reid, acting and murdering for compensation, is an impossible juggling act for Berkman, and his dysfunctional life weighs on his mental health and eventually affects his loved ones.

Cooper Conrad ‘23 said, “I think Barry is a highly relatable character, aside from the whole hitman part. He is someone who is trying desperately to fit in and become a better person, but his previous actions keep catching up to him.”

Berkman’s main clientele is the Chechen mafia. Namely, a Chechen named NoHo Hank, played by Anthony Carrigan. Hank is a comic relief character with a depth rarely seen in the stereotype. He develops unexpected love interests and has his own plot line while coinciding with Berkman’s plot line simultaneously. Each character has singular plot lines that all coordinate with Berkman’s moral descent, each character’s journey exploring a unique facet of the modern human experience.

Morality is a major theme in “Barry.” In a Scorsesian fashion, we as viewers simultaneously root for Berkman yet are appalled with his actions, echoing Travis Bickle of “Taxi Driver” or Henry Hill of “Goodfellas.” Berkman makes us question our own morality at times. His actions deserve personal disenfranchisement. However, his choices almost warrant understanding, which makes him difficult to hate. We, as viewers, pity Berkman. His choices are made out of desperation to stay afloat, and these choices catch up to him, and he only falls deeper into the depravity that he has created yet cannot escape from.

“Barry” also

Cougar critique: “Untamed”

This non-fiction No. 1 New York Times bestseller leaves readers questioning things about their own lives questions the ability of people to change. Every character in the show has something they are running from, a past that haunts their present and a facet of their life that they desperately want to change. The success of this change teeters back and forth throughout the show; with every triumph comes a downfall waiting around the corner.

Liam Clemow ‘23 said, “ I want the show to continue, as it is one of my favorite shows right now, but I think four seasons is good so they don’t overdo it.”

Conrad said, “I think that the show coming to an end in season four is bittersweet. Obviously you want one of your favorite shows to continue forever, but it’s better to end when it’s good and not put a blemish on the legacy of the show by making more poor and dry seasons.”

As “Barry” enters its final season, there are many loose threads to explore and get wrapped up in the story of this world. The first three seasons have been absolutely fantastic, and it will be hard to see such a great show end its time on the air, but it is good that Hader and the other staff involved get to end the show on their own terms, not by cancellation or a repetitive dragging out that eventually kills everything that the show originally stood for. The finale will be bittersweet, a hopefully satisfying conclusion to the story, yet also the end of one of the brightest spots on current television.

Cougar critique: “No Country for Old Men”

How the Coen brothers crafted one of the most iconic villains to date

Christian Montecino

Ethan and Joel Coen are no strangers to making movies with incredible antagonists. Tom Chaney from “True Grit,” Marge from “Fargo” and even Jeffrey “The Big” Lebowski from “The Big Lebowski.” However, none of these antagonists even come close to the level of evil, wits and determination that Anton Chigurh has from the 2007 movie “No Country for Old Men.”

“No Country for Old Men” is a crime drama thriller set in 1980s Texas, revolving around one briefcase full of cash. Out hunting, Llewellyn Moss comes across the aftermath of a drug deal and takes the briefcase full of cash and runs. This catches the attention of Anton Chigurh, our antagonist, who is the closest thing we will get to a true psychopath in movies today. Chigurh eventually hunts down Moss and threatens to kill his wife if he doesn’t hand over the briefcase, but we never know what happens next because the movie ends with Chigurh walking out of the house of Moss’ wife and getting into a car crash.

The reason Chigurh is the most real psychopathic villain is not because he kills. We already have an abundance of that in movies and television today. It’s the way he does it. In the movie, Chigurh goes all around Texas looking for Moss, and in this expedition, he comes across his main weapon for the rest of the movie, a cattle gun. This cattle gun is so important to Chigurh’s character for multiple reasons. It

A captive bolt gun, more known as a cattle gun, is a retractable metal rod hooked up to a carbon dioxide tank that, when used, swiftly launches and retracts a metal rod. This weapon is Chigurh’s weapon of choice, using it in different ways, like shooting the lock off of doors and killing other people. Illustration by: Emily Nguyen gives us an outlook on how he views humans: as cattle. The intuition to also use it to break into rooms and bust locks is only rivaled by the likes of MacGyver. The reason he kills is probably the most important thing about his character. When Chigurh is set on doing something, he will do it not for himself but in the name of fate. He walks around with a coin in his pocket, waiting for a moment to flip it. He believes that he is a harbinger of fate with a complete lack of remorse and his own twisted set of

Kendall Garcia

“Untamed” is a memoir by Glennon Doyle published in March of 2020 by The Dial Press. The book revolves around Doyle’s real life. “Untamed” is a great memoir but leaves readers with a lot of much-needed self-reflection.

Doyle’s book begins at the zoo. Her family is watching a cheetah. It is then that Doyle realizes she is just as tamed in her current situation as this cheetah is at the zoo. Doyle feels as though she’s spent her entire life in a cage, just like the cheetah. From this point on in the book, Doyle writes all about how she has been tamed previously and how she broke free from her cage. She had been previously tamed by her marriage, boss and church. Doyle then begins to write about how she fell in love with a woman while she was promoting her book “Love Warrior,” which was written to tell the love story between her and her husband, Craig Melton. This book shows how Doyle found herself and found tools to help rebuild her marriage with Melton. The only problem with the book became the fact that while promoting it, her marriage was falling more and more apart. Her husband was caught having an affair, and she was secretly falling for a girl she met at a work conference, Abby Wamboch.

She was telling the story of her love, but it was all a lie. Doyle then had to make a serious decision. She had to decide whether or not she would leave her husband and pursue a relationship with the new woman in her life.

Before Doyle’s now-wife Wamboch, Doyle had never been with a woman. The book discusses Doyles’ internal and external struggles with what seemed to be the biggest decision of her life, then shows how Doyle found peace and became “Untamed.”

To me, Glennon Doyle’s book displayed many different messages.

Continued on. . . thecougarpress.org morals that bewilder even the deputy, who has seen almost everything there is to see in his line of work. herself how to truly

The thing that really ties Chigurh together is the acting. Without the incredible acting from Javier Bardem, this article would never be written. Bardem is a master at making characters pop, fully embracing the character that is Anton and playing into it perfectly. The way he has that cryptic and always empty look makes the viewer unsettled and scared for what might come next.