Open for Debate: Are iPads Beneficial in the Classroom?

February 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment
iPad-in-education-classroom

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Canvass or The Seven Hills School.

Introduction

In 2011, Seven Hills began an iPad pilot program to explore the advantages and disadvantages of iPads in sixth and ninth grade classrooms. For the 2012-2013 school year, the program was expanded to the entire middle and upper schools, and iPads were given to all students in grades six through twelve to use as a learning tool. Six months into the school year, students and teachers weigh in on the usefulness of iPads in the classroom. Read the full debate by clicking on the title links.

The Debate

A Distraction-free Environment is Necessary to Develop Learning Habits 

Senior Priyanka Parameswaran.

Responsible use of technology and self control will come with age and maturity. For now, keep the iPads at home so students learn to pay attention to critical moments in class, even when their minds begin to wander. Help students build better habits for the future in a distraction-free environment. 

 

iPads Teach Lack of Respect in the Classroom

Senior Katherine King.

The iPad program introduces new technology into the classroom and is cohesive with the school’s goal of creating “future-ready learners.” However, the iPads are eliminating the last of the students’ technology-free time. Now, the devices teach students to ignore their surroundings, and to develop a lack of respects for classmates and teachers. 

 

iPads Are Useful If Students Take Initiative 

Senior Cullen Deimer.

Students should take it upon themselves to find creative uses for the iPad instead of waiting for specific assignments from each teacher. iPads can make school work more organized and efficient with note taking apps, and lighten the backpack load with electronic copies of handouts and textbooks. 

 

Classroom iPads Encourage an Unhealthy Addiction to Technology

Freshmen Bennett Smith.

Students reach for their iPads during class because the connection to other people through instant messaging or the internet provides an instant gratification. As teenagers, seeking this instant reward often wins out over giving the class full attention. However, we cannot remove technology from the classroom because is vital in our everyday lives. So, we must work to find a healthy balance.

 

Technology is an Amplifier of Productivity and Distraction

Junior Gregory Sun. 

With the increasing speed of access to information, productivity can be multiplied. But, distraction can be amplified as well. iPads are not the source of distraction, but an aid. If students are passionate about a subject, the class will interest the student more than the content on the iPad, and the iPad will not be a source of distraction. 

 

 iPads Make Teaching and Learning More Productive and Efficient

Upper English Teacher Nate Gleiner. 

The introduction of the iPad has allowed teaching and learning in my classroom to function more efficiently and productively. Students now take reading quizzes in Socrative, submit essays to ebackpack.com, and review research paper assignments in Goodreader. While the iPads pose a potential distraction, Seven Hills have never shied away from empowering our students with responsibility.

 

 

See the results of the Student Survey Here.

 

Photos By Cullen Deimer.

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Book Review: American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

February 3, 2013 By Leave a Comment
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By Priyanka Parameswaran.

Curtis Sittenfeld will be coming to Seven Hills on Friday, February 8 for the 27th annual Books for Lunch. Read our review of Sittenfeld’s first novel, Prep, here.

American Wife is the third novel written by this year’s Book’s For Lunch author, Curtis Sittenfeld, whose previous works include Prep and The Man of My Dreams.  The novel is based upon the life of former First Lady, Laura Bush, and takes us through a harrowing childhood accident, the majority of her adult life, and her time in the White House. Despite the seemingly political set-up, Sittenfeld has decidedly apolitical intentions for the novel. In the Reader’s Guide included with the novel, Sittenfeld says, “I wanted to explore the human heart much more than I wanted to explore politics.” The politics and the heart are inextricably intertwined, and Sittenfeld tries to de-politicize the novel by offering insight into the couple’s personal life by providing various anecdotes.

Curtis Sittenfeld, the 2013 Books for Lunch author. Photo provided by Curtissittenfeld.com.

The book is divided into four parts, each based around a key event that closely parallels a similar incident in Laura Bush’s life. The first section describes the protagonist, Alice Lindgren’s, childhood and adolescence. The second section shows Alice as a single, independent librarian who begins to fall for the charming and funny Charlie Blackwell. The third section shows their tumultuous married life. The fourth and final section describes a few days in Alice’s role as First Lady.

In the first section, Alice describes her middle-class upbringing. Her life mirrors that of a normal teenager’s until she is involved in a tragic car accident, killing her crush, Andrew Imhof. The accident and its repercussions echo throughout the novel. Sittenfeld describes Alice’s psyche after the accident beautifully, saying, “Yet all the time, the accident is with me. It flows in my veins, it beats along with my heart, it is my skin and hair, my lungs and liver. Andrew died, I caused his death, and then, like a lover, I took him inside me.” Sittenfeld uses the accident as a means to develop Alice’s character, transforming her into a self-conscious and cautious woman.

The first two sections of the novel develop Alice into an interesting character with multiple facets. We are able to empathize with her, and understand why she resigns herself to a life of solitude. Her life changes dramatically when she meets Charlie Blackwell, a rich, loud and bawdy member of a large political family, who sweeps Alice off her feet. Charlie seems to be everything Alice is not, and Sittenfeld provides an accessible and comical side to Charlie’s real-life counterpart, President Bush. Their courtship is fast-paced, and sets up the ideological conflict to follow. Alice, whose working-class background contributes to her liberal ideology, often contrasts with the staunchly Republican Charlie. The dichotomy between the two is the driving force of the novel; Alice introduces herself in a prologue saying, “I lead a life in opposition to itself.” This opposition is alluded to numerous times in the novel, but I would have liked to see it developed more fully.

Laura Bush. Photo provided by loc.gov.

Upon realizing that Alice and Charlie have divergent political views, I looked forward to seeing how Charlie’s presidential campaign would affect Alice. I wanted to get into her head, and see how believing something but presenting a different picture to the public would take a psychological toll. Instead of diving into what I saw as the most promising part of Alice’s story, Sittenfeld skipped over the entire presidential campaign. I understand that she didn’t want to emphasize the political aspect of the story, but I believe that Sittenfeld had the opportunity to explore the campaign from the point-of-view of a First Lady who fundamentally disagrees with her husband’s policies. Furthermore, Sittenfeld had an opportunity to expose the toll a campaign takes on  presidential candidates, who are portrayed as larger-than-life, and their wives, who are expected to execute their jobs with perfection. Prospective First Ladies are often scrutinized as closely as their husbands. I believe that skipping over Charlie’s presidential run was the novel’s biggest disappointment.

Before Sittenfeld places Alice and Charlie in the White House, she devotes almost a third of the novel to their married life and mid-life crises. The pacing of the third section was slower than that of the previous sections, and was sometimes hard to get through. During this section, Alice’s character becomes subject to Charlie’s whims, and she begins to lose some of her personality I had previously loved. The fourth and final section of the novel is the weakest. What I found most interesting in this section were Alice’s thoughts about her role, and the blame the American public places on the First Lady. The “plot-twist” present in the last section was resolved too easily, and I thought it could have been drawn out longer.

Overall, the book’s most significant accomplishment is that it allows the reader to empathize with Presidents and their spouses. The novel makes them normal people, and Alice often wonders how she landed in her role. Many of the supporting characters Sittenfeld includes are likeable and have unique qualities. My personal favorites included Charlie’s mother, Priscilla Blackwell, a sharp woman who makes her mark, and Alice’s sister-in-law, Jadey. The first half of the book was an extremely entertaining read. The latter half didn’t maintain the same momentum, and failed to explore some issues that I would have liked to see included.

 

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Alumna Responds to “The Best and the Brightest, At What Cost?”

January 17, 2013 By 2 Comments
school hallway

Broti Gupta, a 2012 graduate of Seven Hills, wrote a letter in response to our recent article, “The Best and the Brightest, At What Cost?“ The opinions expressed in this letter are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Canvass or The Seven Hills School.

 

In my experience, Seven Hills has some of the brightest, most passionate students that I have ever met. But, I have found that oftentimes they lose sight of great characteristics they have that cannot be quantified. I loved my time at Seven Hills for so many reasons: I had teachers that loved their subjects; I had friends that made my days there brighter. But at the same time, I found myself losing my identity in the pool of numbers that we slowly started using to define ourselves. I found myself seeing a B- on a Biology exam and thinking, “Well, how am I supposed to go to Med School now?” That sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? How many doctors can say that they’ve saved lives with their knowledge of xylem and phloem? I read Katherine’s article on the 7hills Canvass website and was very touched by it. I’d like to share my thoughts on the matter – something I felt very strongly about during my time at Seven Hills.

Certainly, there is a culture that can come with having such an academically rigorous school. But my biggest problem with this culture was seeing how isolated everyone was becoming. GPAs separated students, SAT scores published in the Seven Hills Buzz made some students feel worthless, and this invited a sense of loneliness. I am in a great college now, where I am absolutely thriving and I have to thank Seven Hills for so much of this opportunity, but I still find myself looking at my grades more so than I need to. There was a feeling that your GPA held a direct relationship with your self-worth, and that you were a number. You were 4.0, you were 3.6, you were 4.2, 3.2, 3.1, etc. Even though it was said that we didn’t have class rankings, we had self-imposed rankings. But, at the end of the day, we were all just a group of insecure teenagers looking to be appreciated for our characteristics that merited appreciation. So much of that appreciation was related to grades. How was anyone else supposed to feel confident? And those who were only appreciated for their “above 4.0″ GPAs – how were they supposed to feel like they had any other qualities?

Teachers at Seven Hills are college professor-quality. The amount of love they have for their subjects is inspiring. While they were so ready to teach, why couldn’t we be that ready to learn? Why did learning become a collection of grades that we will have to become a cumulative number defining how “smart” we were? And how does that number have anything to do with how “smart” we were? The more we became obsessed with grades, the more we became those grades. If we only look at numbers to define our lives, our high school GPAs, our college GPAs, our SAT, ACT, PSAT, MCAT, LSAT scores to define ourselves as people, and our future salaries to define our self worth, then we will not have realized the true value of anything and we will effectively become those numbers.

I remember on a few different occasions when my teachers would give me articles they thought I’d be interested in, or just let me know that they appreciated me as a student. I remember meeting with my college counselor and having wonderful conversations that extended much, much further than just “which colleges my scores are good enough for.” Those are the memories that resonate with me more than any “A” I’ve ever gotten. Those are what made me feel valued as a student; not as a number. Seven Hills students are unique because they have a drive and motivation that can take them anywhere – it’s just a matter of creating an environment in which they can use those things to become confident, loving and happy people.

Kind regards,

Broti Gupta

Wellesley College

Class of 2016

 

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Movie Review: Lincoln Declared an “Entrancing Epic”

December 15, 2012 By 1 Comment
Lincoln-Movie-Poster final

By Cullen Deimer.

Steven Spielberg has long been renowned for his science fiction and historical epics. Films such as Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, and Schindler’s List have been entrancing audiences since the 1970s, and his latest historical work, Lincoln, is no exception. Lincoln chronicles the waning months of the Civil War and the sixteenth president’s attempt to pass the 13th Amendment.

Spielberg handles the subject matter well, and turns what might be a dull two days of history class into an engaging two hour film. As the Civil War comes to a close, Abraham Lincoln, played by Academy Award winner Daniel Day-Lewis, attempts to secure both public support and votes in the house to pass the 13th Amendment, outlawing slavery. Day-Lewis is supported by an all-star cast of Sally Field, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Tommy Lee Jones as Mary Todd Lincoln, Robert Todd Lincoln, and Thaddeus Stevens, respectively.

While Spielberg directs the action masterfully, the greatest praise must go to the actors. Day-Lewis is notorious for his dedication to roles, and it is evident throughout Lincoln. Thanks in part to the spot on makeup, Day-Lewis blends effortlessly into his role and makes the audience forget that he is not actually the former president. Lincoln is known as an excellent orator, and Day-Lewis’s affable speaking voice and equally charismatic personality make him one of the most engaging and interesting characters in the film.

A majority of the film is centered around the characters giving rousing speeches, which is actually more exciting and fun to watch than it sounds. Some of the most humorous scenes in the film come on the House floor, while watching the 19th century legislators yell at, bicker with, and insult each other. Throughout the movie, several characters are introduced that make you think back to US History Teacher Lowell Wenger’s class: Ulysses S Grant, William Seward, and Charles Sumner (of “Brooks beats Sumner” fame) all make appearances.

My only complaint about the film is the little time dedicated to (spoiler alert) Lincoln’s assassination, and John Wilkes Booth, in particular. Spielberg made the directorial decision not to show the assassination on screen, but to have other characters relay the news. While I agree that depicting the actual assassination is not necessary, this movie would have been the perfect vehicle to showcase the motives of the actor-turned-assassin John Wilkes Booth. In the end, however, this movie is about Lincoln, and perhaps steering away from the less popular aspects of his presidency was the correct choice for Spielberg.

Overall, Lincoln is an extraordinarily well made film from every angle. The acting, directing, set direction, makeup, dialogue, script, and soundtrack by John Williams all combine to create a historical epic that makes you believe you are in the midst of a changing 1800s America.

 

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The Best and the Brightest, at What Cost?

December 4, 2012 By 11 Comments
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By Katherine King.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Canvass or The Seven Hills School.

There is an eighth Seven Hills value: Quantifiable Achievement, and it is slowly taking precedence over all the others.

If you visit the About page on the Seven Hills website, you will learn that “Seven Hills produces a singular outcome: intellectually vibrant, individually attuned, future-ready learners prepared to shape rewarding lives.”

This emphasis on the future is no accident. Seven Hills is not advertising the experience students have here but the experiences that they will have because of the school. True, on the surface this is only a slogan, a mere marketing ploy. But over the past few years, the attitude it expresses has permeated the Upper School and come to define the way our community functions.

Every year our teachers criticize us for being too grade obsessed, for seeing each class only as a step on the path to college.  They express frustration that we care so little about actual learning. And they’re right. We have created a frighteningly achievement-based culture. A favorite question of the Seven Hills student is: “Do we have to know that for the test?” Since my freshman year, classmates have justified their extracurriculars with the claim “It’ll look good for college.” In my AP Biology class last year, two girls spent an entire bell begging our teacher to give them two points back on an assignment which was already curved. It’s acceptable for us to cry publicly about a disappointing test grade. Every day, we reveal ourselves to be shallow learners, focused on what lies ahead and not on what we can gain from our classes.

But I don’t think that this is entirely our fault. Seven Hills drills into us the idea that we must constantly consider the ways our work in high school affects our futures. A poster near the study hall room, a location that every student walks by many times a day, asks: “Where Will Your Scores Take You?” As one former student put it, “We quantify everything.” Because our future is a number, whether it be SAT, ACT, AP or GPA, numbers become all that matter. The school needs to advertise itself, of course; it needs a concrete way to prove its worth, but the obsession with scores has become engrained in daily life at the high school. We are constantly bombarded with accounts of Seven Hills “achievement”: 800s on SAT subject tests, National Merit recognition, National Spanish Exam awards, Yale admittances. Eventually we forget that there isn’t a direct correlation between grades and intelligence, and more importantly, that there isn’t any correlation between intelligence and worth.

Many times a year, students hear about Academic Honesty. We are told over and over again what the consequences of cheating are; teachers try to frighten us into honesty by listing the punishments of dishonesty. But what’s lacking is the mindset that leads us away from cheating. I don’t mean to suggest that teachers are to blame because I think that individually they are all doing their best to make us value learning for learning’s sake.  Still, when school-wide recognition is constantly given for high scores and grades, we begin to place less value on our work itself. We are led to think about what our tests and essays can do for our futures. When we receive an essay prompt, we think about it as a chance to raise our grades, not as a chance to clarify and share our thoughts. Students at this school are also aware that high achieving students who cheat are not severely punished but instead continue raking in the type of accomplishments that the school celebrates. In light of this, it’s difficult for us to believe that the school puts its values (like Honesty and Integrity) before its reputation.

I love Seven Hills. I’ve been here since first grade, and my teachers have shaped who I am today in many wonderful ways. But there’s been a frustration in the Upper School for the past few years which I think undermines our sense of community. Students feel pressured by the school and the administration to get high scores and go to “good” colleges. This makes us more stressed and more competitive with each other. As one student said, “GPAs separate students and everyone becomes isolated because of this culture.” Teachers are irritated at us for our superficiality. When I truly care about a subject, I always wonder if my teachers believe in the sincerity of my interest. Seven Hills’ greatest asset is its teachers. It’s really remarkable to have people so excited about their subjects and passionate about teaching. In order to live up to its potential, the school needs to take the pressure off students and lessen the focus on scores and college. If we are put in an environment where not just the teachers but the leadership of the school is excited about learning, we will flourish as people, not just as numbers on a transcript.

 

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Should the School-Wide Charity Effort Support a Local or Global Cause? A Look at Unified for UNIFAT

November 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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By Kyle Patel.

The Seven Hills chapter of Unified for UNIFAT (U4U) was launched in the the spring of 2011 after a presentation by Moeller High School math teacher Connie Ring during Seven Hills’s Global Education Day. Students, moved by the presentation, took U4U Faculty Advisor Nate Gleiner up on his offer to start a student chapter of the club in the upper school. Now, in its second full year at Seven Hills, U4U has held various fundraisers, all-school assemblies, and spread to the lower divisions of Seven Hills.

Head of Upper School Nick Francis said U4U had “a lot of momentum in the community.” U4U spread across all four divisions of Seven Hills after coming up in various faculty meetings. Francis said he felt the primary reason for the fast spread of U4U was the initiative taken by students of all ages. From an administrative point of view, Francis said that U4U “gives one thing [the school] all work[s] towards” and is “a nice way to focus the [community’s] effort on all fundraisers.” A combination of “strong student leadership,” “good energy from the club,” and tremendous support from all four schools captured the attention and garnered the support of the administrations of the four divisions.

Despite the school-wide support given to U4U, some students question whether the “school’s main charity” should benefit the local community instead of people in a foreign country, and whether U4U is the most efficient and effective channel to funnel the community’s fundraising efforts. Francis’s concern with supporting a global charity is the question of whether “the same connection is going to be there.” He expressed that the school is strongly committed to local charity efforts, notably junior Jessica Seibold’s recent efforts in organizing upper school students to tutor at the John P. Parker Middle School. He said he is open to hearing ideas from students for charity efforts that “are local as opposed to global.” For a cause to be considered, it is important  that it is student run, has a high degree of student energy, and can be linked across the four divisions of Seven Hills. For now, Francis said that the school “is committed to U4U.”

Senior Laura Gonzalez leads the U4U chapter at Seven Hills. She is thrilled with the community fund raising efforts, but also understands there are many worthwhile charities in Cincinnati and abroad. She says, “The main goal of U4U this year is to raise awareness. We want everyone to help out, but we understand that everyone has different commitments; so if we can get people to even become more aware about the situation, then we are doing our job.”

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Shantytown Raises Awareness About Homelessness

November 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Shanytown participants set up their boxes.

Article and Photos by Priyanka Parameswaran.

The Shanytown participants slept in boxes in the Commons.
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The Shanytown participants slept in boxes in the Commons.
Seniors Kerry Hoar, John Larkin, Sebastian Hoar, and Bob Seibel set up their boxes.
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Seniors Kerry Hoar, John Larkin, Sebastian Hoar, and Bob Seibel set up their boxes.
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The Shanytown participants set up their boxes.
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The Shanytown participants set up their boxes.
English Teacher Tricia Hoar sets up her box.
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English Teacher Tricia Hoar sets up her box.
The participants slept on tarps, boxes, and sleeping bags.
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The participants slept on tarps, boxes, and sleeping bags.
Seniors Katherine King and Marisa Steele cook dinner.
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Seniors Katherine King and Marisa Steele cook dinner.
The students each received $5.00 and pooled their money to buy hamburger buns, hummus, cereal, and toblerone chocolate for dinner, breakfast, and lunch.
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The students each received $5.00 and pooled their money to buy hamburger buns, hummus, cereal, and toblerone chocolate for dinner, breakfast, and lunch.
Freshmen Marney Briggs, Camille Williams, and Lauren Colette eat lunch, spending a total of $4.00 for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on food.
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Freshmen Marney Briggs, Camille Williams, and Lauren Colette eat lunch, spending a total of $4.00 for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on food.
Senior Sara Hodgkins the morning after sleeping outside in a cardboard box.
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Senior Sara Hodgkins the morning after sleeping outside in a cardboard box.
English Teacher Tricia Hoar and Head of Upper Nick Francis eat lunch the day after spending the night outside in cardboard boxes.
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English Teacher Tricia Hoar and Head of Upper Nick Francis eat lunch the day after spending the night outside in cardboard boxes.
English Teacher Erich Schweikher the day after sleeping outside to raise awareness about Homelessness in Cincinnati.
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English Teacher Erich Schweikher the day after sleeping outside to raise awareness about Homelessness in Cincinnati.
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Students and faculty at Seven Hills participated in the second annual Shantytown, an experience that raised awareness about homelessness in Cincinnati.

When I signed up to participate in Shantytown, I don’t think I fully grasped how hard the process would be. I knew that I would be sleep-deprived, but I figured that I could deal with the hardships as they presented themselves.

When Shantytown began, at 4 pm on October 28, the group of students and faculty gathered in English teacher Tricia Hoar’s classroom. The group consisted of faculty members Science teacher Lenore Horner, Dean David Brott, English teacher Erich Schweikher, Upper School Head Nick Francis, and Mrs. Hoar. The students that participated were Marney Briggs (9), Carly Cohen (9), Lauren Colette (9), Catherine Shanahan (9), Camille Williams (9), Zoe Barnhart (10), Claudia Fernandez (10), Maggie Gosiger (10), Shannon Murray (10), Matthew Sharpe (10), Chris Shoemaker (10), Bailey Wharton (10), Margaret Cummins (12), Kerry Hoar (12), Sebastian Hoar (12), Sara Hodgkins (12), Katherine King (12), John Larkin (12), Priyanka Parameswaran (12), Adeline Sawyer (12), Bob Seibel (12), Marisa Steele (12), and Olivia Williams (12).

We all began Shantytown by setting up our boxes in the main courtyard area in the Upper School. There were a variety of structures present, ranging from completely erect cardboard boxes to pita-pocket cardboard pieces. Students formed clusters of boxes with their friends, and added embellishments such as mailboxes. Everything was wrapped up in tarps, to provide a buffer against the wind and possible rain. Setting up the boxes required copious amounts of duct-tape, teamwork, and determination against the wind.

After the boxes were set up, we regrouped in Mrs. Hoar’s room to map out the rest of the evening and night. We then drove to a nearby Krogers to buy food for the next three meals. All the students and faculty were given five dollars to buy three meals to simulate living on food stamps. An actual food stamp is $3.75 per day, but we were given a little more money. We pooled our money with our friends in an attempt to buy enough food for three meals. All groups were successful, and most managed to save enough money to buy a candy bar or two. (My group managed to buy two Toblerone Bars which made our trip extremely successful.) The five faculty members were the most successful, and were able to buy luxuries like parmesan cheese, two cans of pasta sauce, and milk.

After returning back to campus, we began what became a cooking debacle. After combing through the entire school for cooking pots, we finally amassed enough to supply all the groups. The only stove in the building was in the faculty lounge, so the cooking space was limited. My group opted to grab a hot plate from the chemistry lab, and cooked in the library kitchen.

After we were fed, the educational part of the night began. Two speakers came to talk to us about homelessness in Cincinnati, the causes of homelessness, and the false stereotypes surrounding the homeless. Jeni Jenkins, a member of the Homeless Coalition, began by describing the history of the Coalition. She then spoke about various prejudices against homeless people, such as hate crimes committed against the homeless, their inability to get a lawyer, and their mistrust of the police. She spoke about misconceptions about the homeless, such as the idea that all homeless people are drug addicts, suffering from a mental illness, or beggars.

The second speaker, Deborah Poindexter, a homeless woman, spoke to us about the series of events that led her to her current situation. She began her talk by showing us a picture of her “cabin,” a construction made of tarps and wood where she currently lives. She spoke about the immediate dangers of being homeless, and the fear of losing the few possessions she had.  She then spoke about her life: she worked in the tobacco industry in Virginia, and later had a job in a hotel. She lost her job in 2009, and lost her home soon after. A car crash left her with numerous broken bones, and eventually led to a morphine addiction that she fought to overcome. Six months ago, Deborah came to Cincinnati to make a fresh start, hoping to find a new job. She was unable to find a job because she didn’t have a stable living situation. She was stuck in a vicious circle: she didn’t have enough money to rent a home, and couldn’t get a job because she didn’t have a home. She now makes her money selling “Street Vibes,” a newspaper published by the Homeless Coalition.

Deborah spoke about the everyday hardships of living without a home. What struck me the most was her inability to shower frequently. She said that there is only one public shower facility in Cincinnati, and it has five showers stalls for men and one for women. She said that women often wait in line for hours to take a shower, and are often unable to clean themselves over the weekend. The inability to remain hygienic is a big impediment to finding a stable job. She said that her “day-job” is being homeless, as she has to walk everywhere, and feels like she never has time to spare. Listening to Deborah speak reinforced the idea that homeless people often become so because of a series of unfortunate events that are often beyond their control.

After listening to the speakers, we participated in an exercise describing the seven things people living in poverty don’t have, including food, access to health care, housing, electricity, and most importantly, hope. After the activity, we were given time to finish up homework, or watch the film “The Pursuit of Happiness.”

At 11:30, the bulk of our experience began. We all settled into our sleeping bags and boxes, and tried our best to shield ourselves from the bitter cold and wind. Many of the lights outside the school were on, making it hard to fall asleep. The various noises heard throughout the night made it difficult to fall asleep soundly. I often woke up many times during the night because of the cold or noises I heard. Without a watch or my phone, it was difficult to gage how long I actually slept, how many times I woke up, and how long I was awake. Mrs. Hoar woke us up around 7:45, giving us enough time to get ready for school, eat breakfast, and most importantly, drink coffee.

When the school day began, I felt fairly rested, and no more tired than I would on a normal school day. I was alert for the first half of the day, and was able to concentrate in all of my classes. All the students and faculty regrouped during lunch to eat together and talk about our day. After lunch, it was significantly harder to keep my eyes open, and I finally realized how fatigued I actually was. I spent the afternoon in a sleepy haze, and found it much harder to function properly. When the day ended, we met one final time to tear down our boxes, recycle them, and clean up the mess we had made.

Overall, Shantytown was the experience it was supposed to be: partially fun, while simultaneously difficult and exhausting. It was a very enlightening day, refuting misconceptions I had previously held.

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Shen Works the Local Obama For America Campaign

October 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Forest Park office of Obama for America on July 26. Photo provided by twitter.com/ramsey4Ohio.

By Katie Shen.

A Cincinnati Office of Obama for America on October 25. Photo provided by twitter.com/ramsey4Ohio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First of all, I would like to state that working on a campaign is nothing like the movie, The Ides of March. There are no George Clooneys or Ryan Goslings scheming for personal advancement. If only, right?

Instead, working on President Obama’s campaign has been a lesson about the strength of collective passion. The regional coordinators and volunteers I meet are enthusiastic and energetic. And most of all, they are genuine. Their involvement in the campaign stems from a sincere motivation, whether it is a personal connection, such as a son or daughter serving in the army, or a true belief in President Obama. This is what the President was hoping for when he identified his campaign as a grassroots campaign. By definition, a grassroots campaign is one driven by the community. Support for the campaign should arise and grow organically. What I have noticed is that the volunteers working every week are united by their common belief in President Obama, and that they are especially eager to get the word out in their local neighborhoods.

In Cincinnati, the Obama campaign reinforces its focus on a grassroots campaign by setting up offices in each of Cincinnati’s neighborhoods. In those neighborhoods, the campaign has developed teams, such as Team Terrace Park or Team Mt. Washington East. This is to encourage locals to speak directly to their neighbors. The campaign becomes more personal and relatable by bringing the national campaign closer to home.

Photo provided by twitter.com/ramsey4Ohio.

Personally, my work for the campaign is to support a canvassing site in Mt. Lookout and work in the office in Symmes Township. In the office, I put together turf packets for my canvassing site and make confirmation calls to people who have been either invited or scheduled to join the canvassing event. Turf packets have maps taped onto the front of the folders with dots representing houses. Inside each folder, there are papers identifying each house, a list of the eligible voters and their basic information, such as age and gender. We pull this information from a database that filters through voters to find people in the area who are likely to be persuaded to vote for President Obama or who have supported the Democratic Party in the past. The filters are used so we can canvass productively, speaking to people who are more likely to vote for President Obama, instead of talking to Governor Romney supporters. Typically, the process of making packets and confirmation calls happens a couple of days leading up to an event on the weekend.  When the volunteers arrive at the event, I help assign turf and train the volunteers.

From the time I first started working on the campaign until now, I have noticed a change in the purpose of canvassing. I began my work for the campaign in late September with six weeks left until the election. Then, the focus was early voting. The strategy was that early votes would show where the President has support and where he lacks support. Especially in Ohio, a battleground state, this data is helpful in productively allocating resources to the places where the President needs more votes. Now, the campaign is entering a phase called, GOTV, or Get Out the Vote. Twelve days out from the election, the campaign’s goal is to ensure maximum voter turnout on November 6.  Canvassing sites now have up to three shifts a day on Saturdays, trying to cover as much turf and hit as many houses as possible.

The work on a campaign can be time-consuming and frustrating. A mysterious amount of surgeries and vacations seem to arise when we make confirmation calls. One canvasser has even reached the point where he goes around to backyard fences and calls out, “Are you really not there?” The first time I saw him do this, I was taken aback, but this canvasser loves to joke around. His persistence has a touch of humor, and we all like to make fun of his nontraditional approach. This is the kind of spirit in the campaign that makes up for its shortcomings. There may not be any Hollywood glamour, but there is something more important: camaraderie. In the office, there are jokes and races to see who can hit more doors in a day or make more calls. There’s a ping-pong table and during breaks, we hold mini-tournaments. Volunteers come into the office to hang out and discuss ideas to help the campaign. In fact, I never notice that I’m only a high school student or one of the youngest people there. We all perform the same tasks, and we’re all working towards the same end. That’s what is special about President Obama’s campaign. Not only has the campaign spread to multiple communities but it has also formed its own community, bringing people together united by a common passion, a common goal: the reelection of President Obama.

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Book Review: Prep by Books for Lunch Author Curtis Sittenfeld

October 9, 2012 By 1 Comment
Photo provided by NYtimes.com.

By Bennett Smith.

“Books for Lunch is an incredible opportunity for students to…gain first hand knowledge about the writing process, how the author was inspired…it is always interesting to hear stories of how people got started in their careers, to hear about their difficulties and failures.”-Christine Cho, Books for Lunch Co-Chair

Curtis Sittenfeld, the 2013 Books for Lunch author. Photo provided by Curtissittenfeld.com.

Books for Lunch is back, with published author and Seven Hills alumna Curtis Sittenfeld. The community has been touched by the Sittenfelds before: art history teacher Betsy Sittenfeld once ran the library, and her son P.G. was elected to City Council last year. Returning to the school she once attended, Sittenfeld now has the opportunity to give back herself, nurturing the skills of younger writers while imparting wisdom and words of courage to older, aspiring authors. Sittenfeld will talk to students about her personal experiences with writing, from her younger days at Seven Hills to her high school experience at the Groton School, from her studies at Stanford to her first published novel, Prep. Sittenfeld has garnered the respect of many, publishing three novels and having her work appear in The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Curtis Sittenfeld burst on the writing scene in 1992, when at the age of sixteen, she won Seventeen magazine’s fiction writing contest. Then a student at the prestigious Groton School in Massachusetts, Sittenfeld began to take note of a day in the life of a prep school student. Published in 2005 to mixed reviews, Sittenfeld’s first novel Prep, thinly veils her high school experiences.

The book cover of Curtis Sittenfeld’s novel Prep. Photo provided by Marshall.edu.

The first  pages of Prep pose an introduction unlike most novels: no character profiles, no details of the prep school setting, but an immediate taste of the thought process of Lee Fiora. An introverted and observant individual, Lee, a small town girl from Indiana, feels lost in the brutal and unforgiving prep school environment. In the opening weeks of freshman fall, her paranoid self-consciousness squanders any chance of her making friends. “I would never have friends; the best I’d be able to hope for from my classmates would be pity” (Sittenfeld 6).

Soon Lee’s social status begins to affect her academics. Back home, Lee was a motivated, aspirational student. At Ault, her new school, she’s no longer the smartest in the class, she’s not an athlete, and above all, she’s not popular. She notices the other students have a preconceived sense of identity, something Lee doesn’t posses. She doesn’t just envy their unselfconscious-ness, she becomes obsessed with it. To Lee, every innocuous detail, every harmless comment opens a world of debilitating paranoia. With nobody to vent to, the compounding pressure of Lee’s world ends in a single destructive decision that derails her hard-fought social standing.

For three years Lee loses sight of who she is. Only in senior year does she regain a sense of identity, but even then her disingenuous idea of self-confidence is built on an unstable relationship with the class jock. Lee is quickly inveigled with the smooth confidence with which he overflows. Most of the confident people at school earn Lee’s silent, jealous hatred; however, one boy, Cross, somehow earns her affection. Lee is infatuated with him since the end of their freshman year, and she is utterly shocked when he visits her room one night. Unable to tell people of this promiscuous relationship for fear of not being believed, Lee becomes submissive to Cross’s power in order to maintain their weekly encounters.

The Groton School, the boarding school that Sittenfeld attended. Photo provided by Grubin.com

One day, a New York Times journalist visits Ault to interview students. Lee, a fragile wreck, spills personal details of her negative experiences and becomes public enemy number one when an exposè is published reinforcing the prep school stereotype. Rich “bank boys,” racial favoritism, violations of school rules, rampant drug and alcohol consumption, and a wide latitude of other factors stereotypically associated with a boarding school, are among secrets divulged in explicit detail to a journalist who is all too happy too take advantage of Lee.

Over the summer, I attended a five week summer camp at Phillips Exeter Academy, in New Hampshire. Like Groton, Exeter is a famous boarding school. “You can’t go wrong with a program like Exeter,” said eighth grade English teacher Linda Maupin, as she wrote my recommendation last winter. Yes, I submitted an application for a summer camp in July back in February. That’s how competitive the atmosphere in these New England boarding schools are. Daniel Yeh, a Korean-American student at the Governor’s Academy in Massachusetts, says, “In terms of academic stereotyping, the work load lives up to the preconceived notions of many.” However, Sittenfeld does not directly address academic stereotypes, instead sticking to the social aspect, detailing the frantic mind of adolescence.

But does Lee really represent what a boarding school student feels like? Not for me. When I first picked up Prep, I assumed I could make connections to the main character. I was wrong. All connections I made to Lee were in the first few weeks of school, where she sits alone; my first two days at camp, I went to breakfast alone. I understand where I differ from Lee. I am not contempt with eating alone or spending Saturdays in my dorm. I was not okay with that possibility. In fact, I don’t think anybody is. Who wants to stay in their room when they can go into town and get fried rice from a restaurant you can’t tell is Chinese or Japanese, or go swim in the frigid Atlantic before class on “Polar Plunges”? Not even Lee, the most introverted character whom I have ever read about, enjoyed being alone. But she just could not bring her shy self to go out and make a few friends.

The Groton School, the school on which Ault, the fictional boarding school in Prep is based. Photo provided by Stepitup2007.com.

That was the first mistake Lee made, not being a “yes man.” In order to establish yourself in a new environment, it is imperative to try and befriend as many new people as possible. Try and get to know everyone. Unlike the scene that Sittenfeld portrays of the opening weeks, where it seems as though a person’s social status and circle of friends is predetermined by race and money, the experience I remember was an amazing atmosphere of blended cultures and friendly faces. Nearly half of the 850 students were from a foreign country, and people seemed more than willing to befriend kids from other races and backgrounds. The number of foreign students does drop significantly to 9.6% for the regular session, but even then 44% of U.S. students are students of color. My first friend at camp was African-American, and I had other friends from Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Ecuador, Thailand, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Mexico, and Australia. Although this extreme example of diversity is not a likely representation of the regular session, campaigns against racism and a general globalization have changed modern culture since Sittenfeld’s high school days in the 1980s.

But is money the root of all evil? Or even the evil at Ault? No. Lee was not ”shortchanged” by her parents income level, but rather her own shortcomings. She passes the blame onto the easiest scapegoat, an already established stereotype. Yes, it’s likely that she wouldn’t have become friends with the vodka drinkers or the bank boys, but she cannot blame money for her troubles. Yeh believes that “money doesn’t really have an impact on the social structure of the school [and] income inequality doesn’t establish any boundaries or barriers for students.” In a sense, money is a cipher: it means nothing. In this case, Lee’s social life is affected not by a predetermined factor, money, but rather the course of action she chooses to pursue. For Lee, that wasn’t socializing and participating in the prep school life, in which she would have made friends, but rather dissecting Ault’s social hierarchy, analyzing its faults, and projecting her negative qualities onto its shortcomings. Money isn’t to blame for her being a loner, her obsession with fear is.

New York Times Bestselling Author Curtis Sittenfeld. Photo provided by Bookfinds.com.

One aspect of a prep school social life that Sittenfeld touches on are the cliques. At Ault, Lee wasn’t in the popular group, the group of pretty girls, or the girls who didn’t care about their public image. Lee assumed that fitting into the crowd would destroy what was left of her personal identity; she struggled with the urge to give into the mainstream, to hang out with the drinkers and the partyers, and to give up her moral security to follow the guidelines of YOLO. According to Yeh, however,”There isn’t a need to ‘fit into the crowd’ or follow any trends. Personally, I haven’t felt the need to shift my personality for others. I’m 99% sure the entire student body feels the same way.” Yeh describes a social culture seemingly less intense than non-boarding schools. One major reason is that at boarding school, you don’t only have seven hours a day to impress your peers. You have twenty-four hours that you can use to hang out with friends, catch a movie, or take a bus ride into Boston.

Personally, I didn’t feel the need to go out of my comfort zone in order to make new friends. I simply acted like my normal self, and I quickly developed my core group of friends within the first three days. It seems as though social life at a boarding school is similar, if not better, compared to normal schools, in the sense that a higher social position does not necessarily constitute a loss of identity. My friends cared not about their social status, but rather about the quality time spent with each other. These people were the same friends I ran through three terminals at JFK to say goodbye before their plane ride home whisked them away, hopefully not forever.

Actually, probably not forever. Seven Hills, along with these boarding schools and some American schools in Hong Kong, are breeding grounds for college admissions to places like Harvard, Yale, and Oxford. Odds are, if these motivated students who attended a five week academic camp continue on their trajectory, a reunion in college may be possible. In the past three years, nearly thirty percent of all graduates of Exeter end up at Ivy’s, and many more attend other top-notch universities such as Stanford, Chicago, Georgetown, and Northwestern. The stereotypical student for these schools are essentially great students who may play an instrument or a sport, but almost always have a defining characteristic or endeavor that interest admissions counselors. For boarding schools, that characteristic is the fact that this student went to Exeter or Groton, and succeeded. For Seven Hills, that defining thing that puts a candidate over the top is the Challenge Project. Both types of schools prepare students for success, not only for college, but for a life ahead of them.

But success in life isn’t determined by where you go to high school or college, it’s determined by what you do with the opportunities you are provided with. Lee, who constantly battles social and emotional struggles, wastes all thought with self-doubt, and subsequently gets nothing of her Ault education. Lee’s challenges, although existent, are not prevalent in the boarding school culture. Through years of progression and the integration of women, the classic stereotype of an immature, discriminatory system are no longer true. Having broken the mold, boarding schools have evolved beyond the stereotypes set forth by Sittenfeld in Prep, and now represent a diverse community of earnest individuals eager to leave their mark in the world.

 

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Students, Teachers React to Dress Code Changes

October 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Dean of Students David Brott demonstrates the length of 1.5 inches: the required width of girls' tank top straps. Photo by Emma Uible.

By Priyanka Parameswaran.

Last year, a committee of three students, faculty members Anne Ramsey and Jen Faber, Upper School Head Nick Francis, and Dean David Brott met to reform the Seven Hills dress code, and instill a new policy for its enforcement. Major changes include allowing yoga pants but forbidding leggings unless worn with a long top, raising the required length of shorts from a student’s finger tips to a student’s knuckles, and narrowing the required width of a tank top strap from 2 inches to 1.5 inches.

Dean of Students David Brott demonstrates the length of 1.5 inches: the required width of girls’ tank top straps. Photo by Emma Uible.

A committee to discuss dress code was originally organized because many students were dressing modestly and appropriately but simultaneously violating rules in the dress code, putting teachers in a difficult position to decide whether students should be punished. These inconsistent decisions led to some students feeling unfairly targeted for dress code violations because others wearing similar clothing were not punished. Taking into account current fashioned trends, the committee aimed to relax the dress code so that it could be consistently and fairly enforced. The changes were implemented, and new questions about dress code have emerged.

The main concern with the new dress code is that it still does not clarify the confusion surrounding dress-up-day clothing. The Upper School received complaints after the 2011 Thanksgiving Assembly, when parents noted that the girls were dressed in skin-tight skirts and dresses. The parents felt that the inappropriate dress gave the wrong impression about the school and its students. However, while reforming the dress code, the issues that spurred the change were not addressed.

One issue concerning the student body is the distinction between yoga pants and leggings. The dress code says that leggings must be worn with a shirt that covers the butt, while yoga pants can be worn with a normal t-shirt. As committee member Jen Faber notes, “Yoga pants and leggings are no different from the knee up. The rule makes the issue look like it’s about the ankle.”

A pile of Seven Hills spirit wear that students are instructed to put on over their clothing if they are out of dress code. Photo by Emma Uible.

Another area of confusion regards wearing tank tops under sheer tops or wide-knit sweaters. The dress code says that anything worn under such tops must have a 1.5 inch strap. Faber, Francis, and Brott went back and forth over the issue of wearing a camisole under a wide-knit sweater, before coming to the decision that anything underneath a sheer top must be in dress code. Students have protested against the rule, saying they are being penalized for trying to cover up when they are actually wearing extra layers of clothing. As senior Rachel White notes, “The fact that the shirt underneath has to be in dress code is annoying… It’s a shirt that you’re wearing and what everyone predominantly sees. If you have a cami underneath it, it’s not inappropriate.” Another issue is whether a sheer top or a wide-knit sweater is okay to wear with tights if it covers the butt. As Faber notes, everyone agrees that it’s a tough issue; there are never going to be rules to cover everything.” However, she does call for the committee to meet again to address some of the lingering concerns about sheer tops and wide-knit sweaters.

A major change with the dress code is the way it is being enforced this year. Now, morning attendance taking serves a dual purpose: students check in with a teacher of the same gender to ensure they are in dress code. Faber says that the new system is working better, because “checking-in in the morning prevents the worst infractions.” The same-gender enforcement was a change spurred on by parents and faculty and has been popular with the student body.  The new dress code is clearer than the previous one, but still has some gray areas that need to be refined.

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