Faculty Profile

Mr.

For those still waiting...

Slachta
Page 8

Page 4-5

The Chronicle
volume I

April 2015

Issue 1

Cheerleading team reshaped for upcoming season

By Yunah Han
Reforms in cheerleading tryout
procedures and increased interest will
distinguish varsity and junior varsity
(JV) teams from previous years during the coming winter sports season.
Tryouts will take place over the period of one week, starting Oct. 28. According to Andrea Goodrich, these reforms are to be made for better results
at major tournaments such as KAIAC.

Seventh-grade
teachers introduce Gotcha
Program
By Grace Yang

In previous years, tryouts were

judged by seniors and were conducted
in a single day. Students had approxiPhoto by Haesin Youn
mately five minutes to show their true Waiting for results of the KAIAC tournament, varsity and JV cheerleaders chosen
capabilities. In the upcoming season, through the new tryout procedure sit together as a team.
this procedure will be revised, with
will have very strong bases, which will
them for the whole week.
Coach Goodrich, Marie Janice Lee,
allow us to pull more difficult stunts,
The interest in cheerleading has
JV coach and Amy Thompson, former
said Eunie Jang (11), a member of last
JV coach, judging, according to Coach also increased in the coming season,
years varsity team. Because theres
and is expected to affect positive
Goodrich.
more competition to make it into the
change, according to Coach Lee. Last
[We changed the application proteam, people are practicing really hard
year, the majority of the team was
cess] so that the coaches can actually
with their skills to get in. This effort
made up of girls, and only had one
get to know the girls and their abiliwill really pay off during the season.
male cheerleader. This number is exties instead having them doing just
According to Coach Goodrich, the
pected to triple, as two more boys are
one cheer, Coach Goodrich said. Its
changes will help achieve the goal for
applying for this years team.
hard to judge after just seeing somethis season, which is to rank in tourWith more boys trying out, we
one for five minutes rather than having
naments.

Outer
KoreanAmerican deported due to National Security Law violation
Taeguk warriors bring back new hope in
Asian cup finals

Page 2

Inner
High-end results revealed in early
admissions
SIS to host annual SEOMUN conference

Page 3

Viewpoint
The problem with
the need for speed

-Editorial

Our assessment system: Does it deserve

an A?

-Nakyoung Lee

Make camoflauge

The Lost Art of

the new black

Communication

-Nicholas Kim

-Soomin Chun

Page 6

Page 7

From the start of September, the

seventh grade teachers initiated the
Gotcha Program, in which teachers witness their students engaging
in acts of kindness, ultimately in
order to help promote more kind
acts.
The original target of this program was to make students feel
good about what they were doing.
But actually, it seems like there are
more benefits toward this program
beyond just the students cheering
for each other, Amy Valerio said,
the high school and middle school
vice principal.
Not only do the students feel
accomplished when the teachers
choose them but they are also starting to be more aware of the things
happening around them, like bullying. School officials at SIS have
been working hard for the past few
years to eradicate the problem of
bullying through events like Bullying Week, where students were
educated on the consequences.
The Gotcha Program, however, has taken a completely different approach. Instead of simply
informing the students about the
issue, the seventh-grade teachers
have decided to make students proactive participants.
I think everybody feels good
when theyre nominated by the
teachers for being kind, which actually then makes them do more
good stuff, Lara Kim (7) said. Its
really effective in making them be
more aware of bullying problems.

OUTer

KoreanAmerican deported due to

National Security Law violation
by nicholas kim
Accused of breaking
the National Security Law
(NSL), Eun-Mi Shin, a Korean-American speaker, was
deported on Jan. 10 by the
Korean Immigration Service
(KIS) and barred from reentry
to South Korea for five years
following a ruling by the state
prosecutors office. The KIS
ruled Ms. Shins speeches
urging for reunification compromised South Korean security, a decision that prompted
renewed debate about the application of the law.
Given the unique confrontation between North and
South Korea, the NSL is the
minimum that is required to
protect the security of South
Korea, said President Geunhye Park in response to a Wall
Street Journal reporters question on the case.

2012, Dae-Sung Song, President of the Sejong Institute in

The act of instigating a
Seoul, claimed the NSL was
rebellion itself has illegalicrucial to maintaining rights.
ty on a par with preliminary
The denial and eliminaplotting of a revolt, the Supreme Court ruled, upholding tion of ideologies that threatthe sentence. The same level en and harm the core values
of legal punishment is applied of the nation are the basic
responsibility of the govern[in this case].
ment that seeks to protect the
The use of the law in these
human rights of its people,
cases has generated criticism
Mr. Song said.
from organizations such as
Ms. Shin, barred from
Human Rights Watch and UN
human rights observer Mar- South Korea for the next five
garet Sekaggya, who claims years, continues to voice her
that the law is used for politi- concerns. Speaking to the
Center for Research on Glocal purposes.
balization after her deportaThe criminalization of
tion, she expressed her hopes.
[subversion] leads to a conUsage of Korean National Security Law (NSL) increases under conservative presidents
[The people of the South
siderable
reduction of the
share
space to Percentage
exercise
the that
funda- and North]
Percentage of
arrests the same
of arrests
leading to jail time
allege anti-state behavior
mental right to freedom of ex- history and culture through
pression, Ms. Sekaggya said. thousands of years, Ms. Shin
70%
12.3%
Please move
forward
This has a33%
chilling effect
and said.61.5%
for the1999unification2014of Korea.
leads to self-censorship.
2008
2014
tutional Court.

National Security Law

Ms. Shin currently resides

Others have argued that the
Freedom
House
downgrades
law is necessary to preserving in California, and, claims she
Koreas Freedom of Expression rating
Introduced in 1948, the the nations security.
by the courts
deciIn a Ko- will abide
1999
2015
2011
NSL, according to Amnesty rea Herald article published in sion.
International, states that any
Free
Partly Free
person who praises the activiArrests under NSL by president
ties of an anti-government orNumber
of arrests
ganization shall be punished
2004: Amnesty International
550
by imprisonment for no more
calls for abolition of law
500
than seven years. In 2013,
300
2014: United Progressive Party
250
the law was used in the arrest
disbanded due to NSL violations
200
of United Progressive Party
150
100
member Seok-ki Lee, who
50
was sentenced to 12 years in
prison on Feb. 2014 for planKIM DAE JUNG
ROH MOO HYUN
LEE MYUNG BAK
PARK GEUN HYE
ning to incite an uprising, ac(Liberal)
(Liberal)
(Conservative)
(Conservative)
cording to the Korean Consti1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

Information from Korean Class, Hankyoreh, Nation Index

Graphics by Nicholas Kim

Staff

Editor-in-Chief

Joyce Lee

Grace Yang

Yunah Han

Andrew Ham

Soomin Lee

Nicholas Kim

Sojung Moon

The Chronicle exercises the right to report on and

Soomin Chun

Nuri Choi

those unpopular or controversial, insofar as they

Jaewoo Heo

Marie Park

affect or interest the school, community, nation

Nakyoung Lee

Sean Oh

and world.

editorialize all opics, events or issues, including

Taeguk warriors bring

back new hope in
Asian cup finals
minute goal by Korean strikby soomin chun er Son Heung-Min during injury time. This brought back
In the 2015 Australia-held the hopes of South Korean
AFC Asian Cup final match citizens, but James Troisi, an
against Australia on Jan. 30, Australian midfielder, sucSouth Koreas Taeguk War- ceeded in scoring a goal and
riors took second place after the Taeguk Warriors were unlosing 2-1 during extra-time. able to match the score, endHowever, their performance ing in a 2-1 defeat.
during the Australian Asian
I think South Korea did
Cup surpassed expectations,
really well this year, said
according to their coach as
John Kim (11), another memwell as viewers.
ber of the SIS varsity soccer
According to The Huff- team. The team showed inington Post, Uli Stielike, the credible progress from the
manager of the South Korean World Cup, with no goals
national team, believes the scored on them until the
Korean team just merely did last game. I think they realnot take the Asian Cup back ly deserve the applause of
home, and stated many peo- the South Korean citizens,
ple are contacting the players although in the World Cup
to praise and thank them for many berated them.
fighting well.
According to students and
This year, the manager coaches alike, the Taeguk
of the South Korean team Warriors performance has
changed from Hong Myung- made a definite impact on
bo, who was fired after Ko- the interest in soccer in South
reas disappointing perfor- Korea.
mance at the World Cup, to
Everyday after school
Stielike, a German who has
and on the weekends, the SIS
not only managed numersoccer field is full of people
ous international teams, but
playing soccer, said Alex
is also a former Real Madrid
Lopez, varsity girls soccer
star. His new strategies and
coach. I dont know how
line-ups were questioned at
long it will take for Korea to
first, but soon praised for
win a world cup, but the kids
bringing in good results.
that are growing up right now
[Stielikes] line-up was watching Korea develop and
different from the traditional improve as a team and taking
one Im used to watching in an interest in soccer themgames, said Jay Lee (9), a selves, they make up the talSIS varsity soccer player. It ent that will form a great team
was more effective because he for Korea to win with in the
analyzed Australias strengths future.
and weaknesses and tweaked
The Taeguk Warriors rethe line-up to be able to get
leased press statements saypast their strong defense.
ing they will not see second
In the final match, the place in the Asian Cup as a
Australian Socceroos kept defeat, but motivation to do
their one point lead until a last better.

INNER

High-end results revealed in early admissions for Class of 2015

BY YUNAH HAN
The early admission results have
been released for the seniors, revealing high-end results, according to
Gray Macklin, Testing and AP Coordinator. Students have been receiving
results from the schools they applied
from as early as December.
[Results are] very up and down;
its impossible to figure. However,
[this years results] are definitely on
the high end of what we normally see
at SIS, Mr. Macklin said.
More than 75 percent of 94 students
applied for an early plan, according to
data gathered by Fredric Schneider,
Dean of Students. 23 percent of these
students had positive results. This result shows higher admittance rates
than previous years.

Early admission rEsults

2013 - 2015
Early admissions
: college admission plan
in which students apply
to and receive results
from earlier than regular
admissions
The five schools to the
right are those which SIS
students most frequently
apply to for early
admissions.

= one accepted student

= one applicant

Cornell University
2015 :
2014 :
2013 :

Stanford
University

Columbia
University

2015 :
2014 :
2013 :

2015 :
2014 :
2013 :

University of
Pennsylvania

Princeton
University

2015 :
2014 :
2013 :

2015 :
2014 :
2013 :
From Preparing Your College List, 2015-2016 by Fredric M. Schneider, Dean of Students

Graphic by Yunah Han (9)

I believe this years senior class

is doing exceptionally, said Amelie
Koo (12), who was accepted to Cornell University through early decision. Honestly, this years progress is
pretty positive and I believe [the SIS

community] can look forward to many

more positive results during regular.
Early programs are designated for
students who show high levels of academic achievement and have a clear
idea of which college they would like

to attend. However, high academic records are not the only factor that influences the decision on a students acceptance, according to Mr. Schneider.
Its just unpredictable, because
you cant control the factors, Mr.
Schneider said. They want racial ethnic diversity, socioeconomic diversity
and geographical diversity, so you can
be in the right place at the right time
at one year and you could be at the
wrong place at another.
Despite increasing interest from
students in early admissions, which
can be seen in the increasing number
of applicants to early plans, it is not
recommended to all students. In the
packet Preparing Your College List,
2015-2016 distributed to seniors, Mr.
Schneider warns seniors to avoid listening to rumors such as, everyone
should apply to a school in an early
decision or early plan.

SIS to host annual SEOMUN conference

by Nicholas kim

The SIS JV boys volleyball team defeated

the Chadwick JV boys volleyball team on their
game on Oct. 8 with the set score 2-1 after
their previous 2-0 loss on Sept. 19.
Photo by Sean Oh (9)

The SIS varsity girls soccer team lost to

Chadwick at the AISA soccer tournament
hosted by SIS on April 10.

Photo by Nakyoung Lee (9)

The SIS Model United Nations (MUN) club will host

the 17th annual Seoul Model
United Nations (SEOMUN)
conference from Nov. 6-8 at
COEX. The conference will
seek to provide an opportunity for student delegates to
address global issues with potential solutions. According
to Albert Kim (12), Secretary
General, despite challenges, the SIS MUN club will
attempt to differentiate this
years conference from past
conferences.
Logistically, it is a huge
undertaking, said Ronald
Slachta, MUN adviser. Decisions have to be made quickly, so you need to be on top of
your game.
Under the theme of fostering transparency, participants
will debate and draft resolutions to address world issues
such as government debt and

we tried to promote MUN to

the SIS community by recruitOur theme of transparening non-MUN club members
cy is pretty relevant with what
to become staff members.
is happening in the world
Once the conference is
right now, said Courtney
Caldwell, MUN adviser. Al- over, the SIS MUN club
bert, Judy and the other chairs hopes to, according to Albert,
picked awesome topics, and submit one of the resolutions
that makes for interesting dis- from SEOMUN to the UN in
New York.
cussions and resolutions.

workplace safety.

According to Eugene Yang (12), Administrative Director,

the SIS MUN club recruited more SIS administrative staff than
in previous conferences to help run the
event. Consisting of
both middle and high
school students, the administrative staff will
work to deliver supplies and notes.
The SIS MUN
club is proud to be able
to support itself with
its own resources this
year, Eugene said.
For this conference,

Photo by Andrew Lee (9)

Delivering her closing ceremony

speech, Yoonjoo Kim (12) wraps up
SEOMUN as deputy secretary general.

For those

Still

waiting...

South Korea and Japan are close neighbors. However, this is only speaking
in physical terms. Going deeper down the relationship of the two countries,
discontent and anger constantly sparks, threatening to ignite a flame. 49 years
have passed since South Korea has been officially acclaimed as an independent
government, but issues from the past stand in the path of genuine friendliness.
Former comfort women, also known as halmonies, are fighting to this day for
compensation of their treacherous experiences. However, the Japanese government has not taken responsibility for their war crimes and has failed to take
necessary measures for these actions.

Comfort women are women who were forced into sexual slavery at comfort
stations set up by the Japanese government during World War II. The number
of victims is estimated at approximately 200,000 to 410,000 people, according
to the Japan Policy Research Institute. The majority of the comfort women
were deceived into getting shipped off into comfort stations. In the hope of
finding a job, the women blindly followed the soldiers. Three quarters of the
victims died and most survivors suffer infertility due to sexual trauma or sexually transmitted diseases, according to Supranational Criminal Prosecution of
Sexual Violence.
Yohei Kono, former Chief Cabinet Secretary, acknowledged
the involvement of the Japanese
government in setting up comfort facilities. Though not completely satisfactory, as it failed to
formally apologize and punish
the war criminals, it was acceptable. However, Japanese officials have started walking down
the path of destruction for recon-

ciliation, throwing out statements considered absurd even to Japanese citizens.

Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister, stated in 2007, The material discovered contained
no documentation that directly indicated the so-called coercive recruitment by
the military or the authorities. After numerous demands from outraged survivors and heavy criticism from international society, Japanese parliament issued
an apology for stating so. However, its sincerity remains questionable.
The course of action after apologizing is to seek forgiveness. An elementary concept everybody learns.
However, the discourse of Japanese politics fails to
reflect so, clearly seen from how the Liberal Democratic Party, also the current leading party, adamantly denies the fact that the Japanese military forced
women into sexual slavery. When an apology is not
followed with action, it becomes less significant than
two elementary schoolers pinky promising to never
fight again after a quarrel.

unpersuasive, due to its failure to admit the extent of the Japanese militarys
direct involvement in the establishment and maintenance of these rape centers.

A path the Japanese government could easily follow is already established by

Germany and their actions for victims of the holocaust. Willy Brandt, former
chancellor of West Germany, went through the process of delivering a formal
apology speech, which articulated its past war crimes, visiting sites dedicated
The Japanese government argues that the Asian to Jewish victims and expanding the coverage of Germanys war reparations to
Womens Fund, set up in 1994, is the formal com- reach victims all over the world. These policies received approval from both
pensation to the former comfort women as the or- victims and the international community, proving its effectiveness. It is unknown
ganization was acknowledged by the government. why the Japanese government is having such reluctance to follow the path alHowever, acknowledgment and compensation are ready taken once successfully.
two things of a nature. The funds in the organization According to the manager of House of Sharing, a comfort women housing center,
were mostly sponsored by individual donations, with the average age of the currently living halmonies is 85. Death is an inevitable
minimal state contribution. Then how can this fund stop in their journey and many have already passed that stop. Beyond the stop,
be considered official government compensation? these women still await their apologies, ought to have been delivered while they
Gay McDougall, UN Independent Expert on Minor- are alive. The Japanese government has lost their chance of apologizing to those,
ity Issues, states that the Japanese Governments ar- but there remain a few hundred women still alive. Still waiting. The time to act is
gument that it has already settled all claims through now, or there will be none later.
peace treaties and reparations agreements remains

By Yunah Han

VIEWPOINT

Editorial
The problem with the need for speed

Last week, I saw a car travelling at nearly 20 miles per hour

not exactly what you would call a
street menace, but still fast enough
to steamroll any pigeon idling on the
road. All was calm until the driver
behind that car thought it would be
a bright idea to blast his new, deluxe-size horns and burst out of his
car yelling because, one, we were apparently on a giant express highway
that no one was aware of for the last
five decades; and two, he had such
an important meeting to get to (then
again, if the meeting was so important he probably shouldnt have
been wearing Nike sweatpants). The
entire neighborhood heard him too
well, and the slow car hurried off.
Soon after that incident, an article titled Seoul to Slow Down
Traffic Signals for Elderly from the
Wall Street Journal reported that 34
percent of automobile accidents in

Korea involve elderly citizens. Intrigued, I left the family car alone in
the parking lot for a few days, then
crept slowly to the potential culprit.
Heres my dutiful report: no bloodstains were on the bumper or the
grill, and neighbors didnt hear any
screams. Hours of CCTV reels only
produced suspicious looks from the
guards. And after careful calculations, heres the conclusion: cars
dont kill people. People do.
Drivers in Seoul run red lights,
gun yellows, and surge past greens.
They prioritize speed and are notorious for harassing hesitating cars.
The Korean Herald reported in 2011
that South Korea tallied the highest
fatality rate of pedestrians among
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries
(37 percent). Elderly citizens are so
often on the receiving end because
they tend to take their time, provok-

ing irritable drivers.

trapped in the 1960s.

The root of what is known as

the problematic pali-pali attitude
comes from traditional Korean wisdom that faster is better. During
the post-Korean War period, president Park Chung-Hees (and consequently, our) mantra was lets rebuild this stuff as fast as possible to
catch up with the rest of the world,
and that was reflected in unprecedented economic growthone day,
people were riding cows; the next,
speeding in Fords. Koreans havent
had as much time as their Western
counterparts to develop an adequate
driving mentality for such an urbanized nation. As a result, Koreans
drive like they walk; they sometimes even park in the middle of a
major road, forcing others to weave
around. Although Korea is now one
of the most developed countries
in the world, its mentality is still

Another issue is the serious lack

of a police force. Traffic laws arent
as binding in Seoul because there
arent enough policemen to enforce the laws. According to a UN
report, Korea tallies 195 policemen
per 100,000 civilians, only ahead
of countries such as Iran and Niger.
The government needs to recognize
this and encourage people to become police officers by raising their
salaries, for example.
But more importantly, Koreans
need to understand that for cars
and people to coexist, people must
have priority because life is more
important than an urgent meeting.
Drivers also need to understand that
although they may not get punished
for neglecting traffic laws, the laws
are there for a reasonto create a
safe, sustainable driving environment for the years to come.

VIEWPOINT

Our assessment system: Does it deserve an A?

By Diana Lee

Since when did the word authentic become reserved solely for
Chef Boyardee raviolis? SIS, we
have a problem. The definition of an
A - having gone above and beyond
expectations - has been distorted to
such severity that telling whether the
A-student report card-wise is actually an A student has become impossible. Its time to call the authenticity
of our assessment system to the discussion table. Our system is limiting
us from tapping into the available
potential in improving assessment.

Authentic assessment should reflect

that - a student should have the opportunity to show their learning by
designing a simple program, or hopping into Dr. Valerios room to extend the concepts into calculus.
SIS students are rarely given such
opportunities. When all one hundred
twenty students are evaluated by their
essays on the same quote, the boundaries of an A - genuine, excellent
learning - become one gray smudge.

So I ask, what makes learning authentic? No, authenticity isnt Chef

Boyardees canned mystery-meaty
ravioli goodness. Its showing and
incorporating in-class learning in a
Students are judged by their abil- different, outside setting - preferably
ity to recall and apply knowledge the real world.
inside a subject. But, hold on - is beThe project Give Me Sheling exceptional at math really equivter kicked off in Casco Bay High
alent to being exceptional at solving
Schools social studies lesson on the
word problems? Algebra is used as a
aftermath of the Great Depression.
basis for programming and calculus.

Letter to the Editor

To the editor:
The op-ed Humanities for Humanity by
Nuri Choi brought to the table a different

Make camoflauge the new black

cruit women into fatigues side by side
with men, or risk a regressive culture
which continually enforces backwards
Every year, 350,000 South Korean gender identities.
young men are conscripted into mili63.3 percent of all males believe
tary service, a mandatory duty since that the wife should be responsible
the Korean War. Women are exempt for household chores. By accepting
from this mandate, and even in the the belief that certain behaviors of the
21st century, they are not required to genders is necessary, men in Korea are
fulfill anything close to the same civic also encouraging an inequality that
responsibility as their brothers, class- risks Koreas modernization and promates and future husbands.
gress. In the story of a typical Koreby nicholas kim

The justifications for this have

ranged from traditional views of female weakness to the perception that
women are needed in the home. Thanks
to these views, it is difficult to imagine
ones mothers or sisters in a military
uniform, just like the words firewoman and chairwoman feel strange to the
mouth. In this day and age, these beliefs simply do not hold water, and it
is our responsibility as a society to re-

an mans life, he is supposed to go to

the army, learn to smoke and become
a man. Women write letters to their
boyfriends or begin to attract future
partners. The two never regard each
other as equals again.

students are not necessarily hardwired to believe the socially mandated identities and stereotypes. Those
views are only fixed after military service. So why not get both genders to
participate in the ritualized practice of
military duty, and learn to accept each
other upon merit rather than old-fashioned ideal?
During both world wars, the opportunities for women to advance in the
absence of men were abundant and
helped pave the way for both the female vote in Britain and America, as
well as later liberation movements in
the 1950s. This can be effected now
just as well as it was then, so long as
we follow the ideal of equality, rather
than that of outdated stereotypes.

But we can change this. Young

So women, do your part and parboys and girls are more comfortable
with treating each other as equals until ticipate fully. More importantly, men,
societal pressure intervenes. In school, do your part and reject the shallow

perspective to the ongoing trend in education of STEM, as Mr. Choi pointed out with

notion that women and men can never

be equal. We can, so long as we stop
young girls from believing they must
dress as future wives and start getting them to dress as future soldiers
and scientists. As long as men stop
objectifying women and treat them
as equalsAs long as we accept that
camouflage is the new black.

statistics. Yes, he stated out a current fact but

whether he has successfully proved his point
correct is doubtful. A statistic of how 56 to
60-year-old humaties majors have shown
to have larger salaries than their peers who
have majored in otherwise. However, the
use of statistics based on the previous generation in an article centered on current
educational standards and values proved
nothing. From there on, the rest of the piece

Voice your opinions

Letters to
the Editor
Send to...
Songpa P.O. Box 47
Seoul, South Korea 138-600

was hard to concentrate for my mind failed

to escape the idea of, Why do we need a
solution to this which doesnt seem as much
of a problem?
The point of the article was fair but it has
failed to form a conclusion in my mind in
the direction it was headed to.
Yunah Han
Seoul, South Korea

Students then hit the streets of Portland to explore poverty hands-on. In

Communications class, they conducted interviews and published personal
profiles of the homeless. Photography students learned to capture the
essence of their lives in art. In Literature class, they analyzed works on
historical and contemporary poverty.
At the end, they presented their work
to the subjects themselves.

But not only is same core material covered, just differently assessed,
but once you compare the value of
genuine assessments Casco Bay
High School offers to SISs one-dimensional ones- Explain and evaluate the three biggest impacts of the
Great Depression on the American
people (Application and Synthesis
50) - youll realize that this is about
something bigger.

Its about changing in the dyWelcome to real Synthesis and

namics in which true excellence is
Application.
evaluated. Its about creating real opOf course, therell be practical
portunities to learn. Thats worthy of
limits. Such has never been tried in
investing a couple weeks in freshman
our setting. Itll be costly. Recruitor senior year. (And wont conflict
ing third party help may be out of
with SAT prep.)
the teachers capacity. The pressure a
I admit - its a long-term change
SIS student faces from standardized
tests (oh, SATs) is entirely different needing the commitment of every
from that of the average Portland stakeholder. But its benefits will
high-schooler. Changes in curricula surely leave a long-term educational
legacy.
ensue mass panic.

The lost art of communication

cause it is behind a screen and
screen name identity. Society
needs more picket-sign rioting,
The modern generation of because people find who they
teens has been criticized over truly are while rioting--swaying
and over for a lack of real life in- with the crowd, throat hoarse
teraction--a result of overly prev- and ears numb from the beauty
alent technology in everyday of expressing their beliefs and
life. The worldwide use of tech- having a say.
nology makes teenagers not only
Moreover, technology makes
unsocial but also sucks away the
passion and identity that distin- us less social and inquisitive.
While real-life communication
guishes every individual.
may seem outdated to trendy
With the Internet, it is quite teenagers, it incorporates body
easy to show support for any or- language, facial expressions and
ganization of your desire. In fact, tone of voice--things you cannot
it only takes three simple move- experience through texting. All
ments: search for their Facebook the beautiful messiness and compage, scroll over to the Like plexity of human communicabutton, click and congratula- tion cannot be transferred into a
tions! You have now announced simple text. Talking face-to-face
to the world your support for is becoming a lost art, according
rescuing homeless dogs.
to Janet Sternberg, a professor
But it cant just be this simple. of communication and media
This superficial action alone does studies at Fordham University
not show any real involvement, in New York. There is much less
interest or commitment. There is worth, caring and passion in a
no you in this passive action conversation through text; a coof liking a Facebook page, be- lon close-parenthesis wont ever
by Soomin chun

express more ecstasy than a genuine toothy smile.

The children of the 21st century will never know the fun of
raindrop racing or I spy on
long car rides when they are
stuck in the enrapturing world
of Angry Birds. At an earlier and
earlier age, phones are sucking
us into a vortex of indifference
about the outside world and all
of its problems and blessings.
If we do not put down our
electronic devices for once and
truly care about ourselves, people will take away our opinions
and nobody will care, nobody
will protest, because we have
become lazy hiding behind
our screens. To regain who we
are, we need to power off our
gadgets, go out and take a stand.
A popular hashtag these days,
marking teenagers uncaring attitude is #YOLO, for you only
live once.
Thats right, you only live
once, so stop tweeting and start
yelling.

Life talk

Mr. Slachta

Faculty Profile
By Yunah Han
It is only a handful of students
who
enjoy
the
books
assigned
by English
teachers in
high school.
The general perception is that these
students are those
who become the
English teachers,
passing down their
passion to the next
g e n e r a t i o n s
handful. Contrary to this belief,
Ronald Slachta, head of
the English department,

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was never a part of this explicit circle

during his high school years. Though
he disliked literature as a student, he
has come to appreciate it and is currently a beloved English teacher.
In his early years of college, Mr.
Slachta studied accounting, a completely different path from English
and literature. However, when it came
for his time to determine a major, the
decision was made to follow the path
of his favorite professor/mentorthe
path of literature.
Ever since walking down that path,
Mr. Slachta has become a true admirer
of books. While carefully tending this
passion, he also enjoys sharing it with
his students. His goal is to support students journey of becoming life-long
readers, rather than leaving students
to passively receive reading lists from

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Continued deaths of
Hollywood stars shock public

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fect

school and seek help from Sparky, Mr. on the numeric value of their grades
Slachtas way of referring to Spar- rather than the learning process itself.
knotes, the study material company/
I am concerned for students bewebsite, for analysis.
cause they get so stressed thinking that
I just personally really enjoy not being the best is equivalent to failreading anyway, but the fact that Mr. ing, Mr. Slachta said. Students must
Slachta always emphasised reading embrace their uniquenessnumbers
and interpreting the books in class dont make a person. I believe individmade me more willing to participate, uality and uniqueness of students will
explained Daniel Choi (11), a former bring them success in college and in
student in Mr. Slachtas US literature their future.
class. The enthusiasm combined with
With valuable lessons and carefulthe way we learned made the class
ly formed beliefs accumulated over
more interesting.
the passing years, Mr. Slachta is often
Mr. Slachta not only has the passion seen sitting peacefully in his office;
of planting a genuine love of reading maybe reading a book or maybe gradto students. He also hopes to influence ing a paper. However, this calmness is
students fundamental ideas of educa- not to fool the plain eye, as beneath it
tion. Caring for the future of each and lies much morewisdom and knowlevery one of his students, he expresses edge a student could not dare dream
his concerns for students concentrated of.

Glamorous

Photo by Hank Loner

Robert John Downey Jr., 49,

was found at his home in Los Angeles, suffocated in his Iron Man
suit, on Monday. He had gone to
meet pediatric cancer patients
in his Iron Man suit early in the
evening and had arrived home by
8 p.m. The suit had been impossi-

ble to open from the inside when

Downey was in it due to technical problems, according to the
Malibu Police Department. It is
believed his previously existent
claustrophobia led to Downey
going in shock while trapped.

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Photo by Eva Rinaldi

Photo by Sgt. Michael Connors

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On April 17, popular singer Katy Perry passed

away in Kenya while on safari. The popular
singer had been mimicking the lions distinctive calls when she attracted the attention of a
local lion. She was 29.

Miley Ray Cyrus, American singer and actresspassed away on April 10. The the NYPD found
Cyrus around 6:00 p.m in an abandoned building
in Manhattan. The autopsy of her body showed
that she had been crushed by a wrecking ball.