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Volume XX
Bloomingdale High School 1700 E. Bloomingdale Ave., Valrico, FL 33596
October/November 2009
Obama’s New School Agenda By: Sarah Binkerd Democratic President Obama has made it far. He surpassed “100 Day” mark, first coined after the presidential election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 with no difficulty, and surprised the nation with his go-to attitude. Since his inauguration on January 20, 2009, Obama has passed an Economic Recovery Plan and reversed a decision of Bush’s Global Gag Rule. However, his next big plan could come as a shock to students nation-wide, and is currently being surrounded with controversy. According to Obama, students of the United States do not spend enough time in school, and that is putting us at a global disadvantage. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said he and Obama just want to “level the playing field,” something that might not make a lot of sense to a student who is not informed on the school systems of the rest of the world. The United States school calendar is based upon the agrarian society that was in place over a century ago. Most children needed to remain at home and farm, and no specialized skill that could be taught at a school was needed in order to do so. Parents taught children all that was needed in order to perform the agrarian trade, so school was not a necessity for survival. However, as the States urbanized, the school calendar did not change, something that did not seem trivial until the past few years. Other countries around the globe have changed their school schedules with the change of society, something that has given them
an advantage. “Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here,” says Duncan, which therefore results in
Obama gives a speech higher test scores, especially in math and science. It comes as no shock to students that Asian countries continue to outscore the United States in these subjects, and maybe the reason is that they are school for longer periods of time.
An Egyptian Paradise By: Sarah Binkerd On October 10th, 2009, our homely cafeteria was transformed into an Egyptian Paradise in order to suit the Homecoming theme, “A Night on the Nile.” Ultimately a success, with Kelsey Anderson being selected as Homecoming Queen and Justin Feist winning King, the school came together and celebrated with a night of dining, dancing, and dresses. When asked a few questions about the October 10th evening, here is how some students responded: 1. Did you think announcing the Homecoming King winner at the game was better than in previous years, where he was announced at the dance? Yes: 80 % No: 20% “At Homecoming you just want to dance, announcing the King at the game was better.” –Amy Schwartz, 12 2. Did you like the theme, “A Night on the Nile”? Yes: 60% No: 40% “The theme was semi-creative, but when you are dancing no one really pays attention to the theme.” -Brett Kaiser, 11 3. With other schools having a few problems with alcohol disrupting the environment of their Homecoming’s, do you feel that alcohol influenced
the Bloomingdale Homecoming in any way? Yes: 0% No: 100% “I think that because other schools got caught and the kids got punished, students here thought twice about drinking.” –Travis Mayhew, 11 4. Did you like the music that was played? Yes: 80% No: 20% “He kept switching songs in the middle of them, and he played songs that you couldn’t really dance to, like Miley Cyrus.” -Kathryn Haase, 10 5. Do you wish that the Homecoming would have been held somewhere else, instead of the cafeteria? Yes: 80% No: 20% “Our cafeteria is too small for Homecoming, and everyone gets crowded and hot.” –Jory Keller, 11 Do you want to express your opinions on our Homecoming? Write your thoughts down and drop them off in room 244 to see them in next month’s issue!
The new plan would constitute longer school days, maybe only lengthening classes by ten minutes apiece, and a shorter summer. “We’ve let our grades slip,” Obama declared at his March 10th speech, where he first announced his new academic agenda. 21st century challenges are rapidly arising, and the United States could fall behind in their efforts to solve them, simply because other countries are educating their students more efficiently, enabling them to solve challenges they will face in the future. New principles would include urging states to adopt global education standards, improving pre-kindergarten programs, reducing student drop-out rates, and giving teachers more pay if their student’s achievement soars. Obama’s ultimate goal is to give our students a boost, and help prevent an academic gap between other countries and the United States. However, problems will certainly arise with this new plan, especially from the students. Will more kids simply drop out earlier to avoid more schooling? Will standardized tests become more of a priority to ensure a higher teacher’s salary? Time will only tell the fate of our school systems, and the consequences that will follow. For more information regarding President Barack Obama’s plan, check out: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/ id/29612995. Want to express your opinion? Write a letter to the editor with your outlook on Obama’s new plan, and see it in the next issue of the Crimson Times!
School Searches: Are You Next? By: Emily Guthy It was an average day in Mrs.Radebaugh’s Drama I class, and Mrs.Hunsucker’s AP Language class when Mr.Ackett, followed by four police officers, interrupted. The class was assured that no one was in trouble, but a routine search for weapons would be carried out during class. This practice is common. According to site coordinator, Officer Jack Gallagher, the program is already nine years old. A group of officers is assigned 10 schools, and they visit one per day. Which school and class room they visit is based on a random lottery system. Each school is given a number (Bloomingdale is number 7), as well as each section of classrooms within the school. Bloomingdale has been visited only one other time this year, and according to Mr.Ackett, it is a very uncommon happenstance. Officer Jack Gallagher, who was in charge of the team who searched Mrs.Radebaugh’s room, has been in the program for three years. Most of the officers, he says, are retired from other jobs in law enforcement. He reports that it is rare that they find students carrying weapons. The times they have, the most common have been hunting or fishing knives that he suggests might have been misplaced after a weekend hunting of fishing trip. Any weapons found are confiscated and given to the administration to handle. Students carrying a weapon longer than five inches can be charged with a felony.