the LION’S
ROA R
Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Boston, MA Permit No. 54523
Volume 31, Issue 4 140 Brandeis Road Newton Centre, MA 02459
Newton South High School’s Student Newspaper · Newton, MA · Established 1984 · November 26, 2014
‘Rent’ cancelled, ‘Rocky Horror’ to run instead
A NEW
FORMULA
Bella Ehrlich, Karen Kwan & Clare Martin Sr. News Editor, News Contributors
Beginning next year, students will have the opportunity to participate in a new interdiscplinary program that combines math, science and the arts By David li, Carter Howe and Michelle Sandler
S
photo illustration by Max Baker
outh will be offering an interdisciplinary curriculum called the Da Vinci Program next year. The pilot program, which aims to bridge science, math and arts curriculums, will initially be offered to sophomores, but is expected to be open to be juniors and seniors in the following years. According to history teacher and program coordinator Michael Kozuch, the program’s interdisciplinary mission is beneficial to school learning and exploration. “Our big question … is ‘What is life?’ That’s a biology question, that’s a chemistry question and that can be a math question, but how do you express life? People express that through the visual arts — for example, painting, photography — and, even within that context, understanding the chemistry of paints and photography is really important,” he said. “Understanding the science … makes you a better artist, and art can be a way of accessing an expression of meaning.” The program’s curriculum will be based on holistic projects pertaining to a variety of disciplines. The comprehensive approach, Kozuch said, will focus student learning on application and critical thinking, rather than standardized memorization. “[The program] is really meant to be very much hands on and focused on some real life situations, so [we
are] really putting the idea of assessment as a way of getting students to learn the material as opposed to the teacher driving all the time and saying, ‘Here’s the information you need to memorize and now spit it back on a test’,” he said. “We’re trying to shift the emphasis here.” According to science department head Gerard Gagnon, project-based learning encourages students to contextualize concepts. “I think that a project-based approach to the very abstract ideas in chemistry is an exceptionally important way to go about it … for students … who are going to get more out of it if they can see how they fit into the content,” he said. The curriculum center on problem solving and application to help students synthsize and understand material, Gagnon said. “Our hope is that [problem solving is] going to be a way to get through a lot of the content [in] projects, so that students are … working through those problems and that the information … that they get is stuff that they are going to need in order to solve that problem,” he said. Fine and performing arts department head Megan Crist said she hopes that students in the program will be DA VINCI PROGRAM, 4
After failing to obtain property rights to the musical “Rent,” members of South Stage are moving forward by replacing “Rent” with “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” for the spring musical of the 2014-15 school year. South Stage must obtain property rights for each musical they perform, and, in the case of “Rent.” Musical Theater International (MTI) already bought the rights to the musical and was unwilling to allow South perform it, even as an amateur production. “[The theatres are usually] nice enough to allow us to still [stage the musical] because we are not a professional company, so they [don’t] see us as a threat,” junior Sarah Anderson-Krim said. After “Rent” fell through, theatre teacher Jeff Knoedler considered “Chicago,” “Cabaret” and “Rocky Horror,” and chose “Rocky Horror” because he was not sure whether the rights to the “Chicago” or “Cabaret” were available and wanted to avoid another cancellation, given that the original cancellation took a toll on students. “[‘Rent’ is] huge, and it’s huge in the fact that we can’t do it now. It’s devastating,” stage manager senior Brianna McIsaac said. “‘Rent’ is like the same caliber as ‘Les Miserables.’ Even non-theatre kids were like, ‘Yeah! I’m going to audition for ‘Rent!’ It’s going to be the best thing ever!’” Anderson-Krim agreed that “Rent,” set in the 1990s during the AIDS crisis, is more popular than many other high school productions. “[The show] ... has great music, and a lot of people think it has a great storyline and great characters. Many teenagers seem to relate to the show and the songs,” she said. “I was very excited about doing ‘Rent’. It’s a great musical.” While students said they were unhappy with the cancellation of “Rent,” sophomore Aidan Bassett was among the few who welcomed it, but said he understood the disappointment that his peers felt. “For a lot of people, there were dream roles in that show, and to get to do it would be really fun. To not get to do it, when we thought we were, is a big letdown for a lot of people,” he said. “We don’t also do shows as big-ticket as ‘Rent’ that often. We’ve been getting lucky, and I think this is one of those times where it just didn’t happen. Normally, companies are little more flexible with amateur productions doing them.” RENT CANCELLATION, 2
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Suicide prevention
Students participate in the nationally-recognized Signs of Suicide (SOS) program.
4
SEXTING
The Roar examines the growing trend in sexting and its various consequences.
12
Early recruitment
Junior Emily Chang made a verbal commitment to Brown University’s basketball team.
20
NEWS 2 GLOBAL UPDATE 5 EDITORIALS 6 OPINIONS 9 CENTERFOLD 12 FEATURES 15 SPORTS 20