The Insight | September 2015

Friends Seminary

Edition 1

September 2015

On Becoming a Senior

By REBECCA FINLEY ’16

Photo by Matteo Boria ’17

Welcome to Friends 2015-2016!

Welcome to The Insight. Our goal is to provide the Friends Seminary school community with a trustworthy and comprehensive news source, as well as a platform for Friends to freely communicate their concerns, thoughts, and ideas. We strive to represent the diverse perspectives of the school community.

Last year, The Insight published four lengthy editions. This year, our goal is to increase the rate of publication in order to provide the Friends community with a maintained stream of reliable content. To ensure our ability to do so, The Insight has begun to foster an online presence, emulating the current shift of modern day journalism towards online publications.

This year we hope to further integrate the newspaper into the lives of Friends students and faculty by providing an outlet for student concerns. In our first edition of The Insight last year, we said we wanted to “act as a timecapsule for the student body.” This year, we want to do more than that. In order to facilitate a truly timeless student publication, we have to go beyond just preserving what happens at Friends. We need to affect it. We need to amplify the student voice and provide insight into each and every student’s perspective about the world around us. This is not just a “club project.” It is a platform for the entire student body to be heard.

Inside

With this goal in mind, we’d like to invite everyone to participate in The Insight. If there is a topic you want to read about, you can email us your idea and we’ll write it for you, or you can write the article yourself, even if you are not a member of the club. You can also advertise club or service events in upcoming editions by emailing us with the details. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions on how to improve the paper, feel free to reach out!

Make sure to pick up your copy of The Insight at the stands located in the main lobby, the gallery, or the Annex lobby!

Contact us at: insight@friendsseminary.org

HOW BAD IS TANNING?

MARRIAGE EQUALITY IS NOT LGBTQ+ EQUALITY

ALL ABOUT AGENDA

TEENAGERS ARE LAZY

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On September 9, I walked through the doors of Friends for the first time as a senior.

Reading those words on my computer screen fills me with nostalgia and pride, not for the academic accomplishments of my class, but rather for the small but memorable moments that have shaped us over the past three years.

Of course, many of the courses at Friends could be found at Saint Ann’s, Grace Church, or any New York City private school. The textbooks may be interchangeable, and the teachers are likely equally qualified.

But there is something about the culture here that makes us uniquely Friends. We see it when a student stands up in Meeting for Worship and expresses her love for Oedipus Rex. We see it when teachers convert the Common Room each night into a shelter for 14 homeless men and women. For me, it came alive when the challenges of our curriculum pushed me to find and pursue my true interests.

As graduation looms in the distance, I worry that we have not always carried this motivation with us. As we spend our time in pursuit of AP classes, perfect grades or recommendations, we may find ourselves either too tired or too preoccupied to commit to our true interests. We might find ourselves so motivated by the promise of future accolades that we lose the feeling of Friends, that yearning desire to throw ourselves into our passions without guaranteed rewards.

In my time at Friends I have learned that the best rewards come from following my genuine curiosities and authentic expressions of self. I do not desire to justify my choice of colleges with rankings of prestige. I do not desire to justify my hobbies with the guarantee of social approval. I do not desire to justify anything that I do with an easy explanation.

I want to see our grade recklessly and inexplicably pursue passions – for fencing, singing, foreign affairs, or whatever it is that inspires us. Because that is what we did on our best days at Friends. That was the reason for staying at this school rather than another.

This year, I hope to find myself staying late in Studio Five, working on Photoshop or attending a lecture in the Meetinghouse, not for a reward I can expect to be given, but for one that I create for myself, one that we create together.

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Looking in the Mirror: Why Don’t We Love What We See? As stated in Miss Representation, a documentary concerning the portrayal of women in mass media, 78% of 17-year-old girls in the United States are unhappy with their bodies. In 2011, 65% of American women were reported having unbalanced eating habits or eating disorders. “Girls get the message from very early on that what’s most important is how they look,” says Jean Kilbourne, the director of Killing Us Softly. Every three out of four teenage girls experience shame, depression, and guilt after three minutes of flipping through a fashion magazine, and 31% of teenage girls reveal that they have starved themselves in an effort to lose weight.

According to the Representation Project, a typical U.S. teenager consumes over 10 hours of media each day in the form of magazines, television shows, movies, commercials, the internet, and music. The constant exposure to media shapes how teenagers judge themselves and others. The images with which teens are bombarded in areas such as television, movies, and advertisements promote a specific standard of beauty that is physically unattainable for most women. The standard has become increasingly unrealistic with the advent and increased use of Photoshop. Yet women and young girls continue to compare themselves to the irrational standard and begin to believe that in order to be accepted, powerful, and successful, they must have “the perfect body.” We learn very early on that our beauty or sexiness is not for ourselves but for others.

“We learn that men want and women wantto-be-wanted,” says Dr. Caroline Heldmen, a professor of politics at Occidental College.

According to a report released by the American Psychological Association in 2011, “research indicates that the media often depicts a narrow and often unattainable standard of women’s physical beauty and links this standard with a woman’s sexiness and worth.” The same report explores objectification theory, which proposes that countless women are sexually objectified and regarded as an object “to be valued for its use by others.” Sexual objectification happens when a “woman’s body or body parts are singled out and separated from her as a person and she is viewed primarily as a physical object of male sexual desire.” 96% of instances of sexual objectification in mass media involve women. Objectification theory postulates that sexual objectification leads to selfobjectification, which has become rampant especially among teenage girls and women.

Self-objectification occurs when a woman places a greater importance on her physical appearance rather than her competency and

By MORGAN CARMEN ’17

often scrutinizes her appearance. Effects of self-objectification include depression, eating disorders, reduced confidence, lower ambition, diminished cognitive functioning, lower GPA, appearance anxiety, body shame, and anxiety about one’s physical safety.

When a woman self-objectifies, she also has lower political efficacy, which is the belief that one’s voice matters in politics. As stated by Alice Walker, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking that they don’t have any.” When women view themselves as objects, they view themselves not as actors but as those acted upon. In order for a woman to reclaim her power, she must believe that she is a subject rather than an object.

Habitual body monitoring, yet another effect of self-objectification, is the practice of surveying one’s body and thinking about how one appears to others. In her TED Talk, Dr. Caroline Heldmen states that the average woman engages in habitual body monitoring every 30 seconds. Another result of selfobjectification is increased competition with other women. A woman who self-objectifies closely considers male attention she receives and may perceive herself as competing against other women for the male attention. Selfobjectification and the negative consequences that follow squander a significant amount of mental energy of women and young girls that could be used for more productive means. Yet most women do not realize that they are selfobjectifying; self-objectification has become part of their daily routine. The majority of women in the United States live in what is called a Sexually Objectifying Environment, which is an atmosphere in which sexual objectification is promoted and intensified.

Sexually Objectifying Environments may be one’s workplace, educational institution, or even a social gathering. Within Sexually Objectifying Environments, individuals

begin to not only self-objectify, but also objectify others. Rachel Wolchok, a junior here at Friends, reflects, “I find that when I look at someone it’s not about what are they like it’s about how they look. And I don’t like that...you get super self-conscious. ” One of the first steps in shifting the culture of objectification is to determine if we are engaging in self-objectification. We must ask ourselves: Do I constantly worry about how I appear to others? Do I think that my voice does not matter? Do I refrain from raising my hand and speaking up in class because I think my opinion is of no importance? Do I believe that I am not competent or capable of success? Do I think people will like me better if I look a different way? Am I constantly scrutinizing my body and wishing I looked different? Am I placing a higher value on how I look than what I say and do?

And do I judge others solely on their physical appearance? Awareness is key in stemming self-objectification. If you do find yourself self-objectifying, start a dialogue with friends, family, or if you deem it necessary, seek professional help. We must change our story from one in which we view ourselves as subject to the views of others to one in which we care most about what we think of ourselves. We must celebrate ourselves and others on the basis of what we do and say rather than merely our appearance. When we do see a person being objectified, we must challenge it. It is time to end this culture of objectification because how we look is not the most important part of us. It is critical that we terminate the notion that bodies exist to be decorative and initiate a narrative that bodies exist as vehicles necessary to experience the world. We must accept and be kind to ourselves instead of continuously trying to fix ourselves.

Finally, as a society, we must become media literate. Media literacy is the ability to effectively analyze, assess, and produce media. As a media literate population, we will be able to interpret and pinpoint sexual objectification in various forms of mass media. Thus, I propose that Friends Seminary establish a media literacy course with an emphasis on gender issues.

If we are to solve this issue, we must all participate in a dialogue. No matter what gender you identify with, you can engage in the conversation and discuss what can be done to shift the way women are portrayed in media and the way they are viewed and judged by themselves and their peers. If you would like to learn more, you can watch the documentary Miss Representation, which examines the portrayal of women in media.

Sports Schedule Wednesday September 30th JV Boys’ Soccer - Away Varsity Boys’ Soccer - Home Varsity Girls’ Soccer - Home Varsity Volleyball - Home

Friday October 2nd JV Boys’ Soccer - Away Varsity Boys’ Soccer - Away Varsity Girls’ Soccer - Away Varsity Volleyball - Home

Monday October 5th Cross Country - Away Varsity Boys’ Soccer - Home Varsity Girls’ Soccer - Away

Tuesday October 6th Varsity Volleyball - Away

Wednesday October 7th JV Boys’ Soccer - Home Varsity Boys’ Soccer - Home Varsity Girls’ Soccer - Away Varsity Volleyball - Away

Wednesday October 14th Cross Country - Away JV Boys’ Soccer - Away Varsity Boys’ Soccer - Home Varsity Girls’ Soccer - Away Varsity Volleyball - Home

Friday October 16th Varsity Girls’ Soccer - Away Varsity Volleyball - Home

Monday October 19th Cross Country - Away JV Boys’ Soccer - Away Varsity Boys’ Soccer - Away Varsity Girls’ Soccer - Home

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September 2015

How Bad is Tanning?

By ISA SKIBELI ’18

There are so many great things about summer. Shorts, bathing suits, flip flops, swimming, and most of all, sun. Have you ever decided to lie by the pool and tan, but instead gotten a bad sunburn? If you have, you’re not alone. Many teens wear little to no sunscreen during the summer when they hang out on the beach with their friends in an effort to achieve a glowing, golden tan, but instead it often backfires. A lot of times, teens (and grown-ups too) can easily forget to wear sunscreen amidst their fun in the sun. Unfortunately, trying to get a tan forgetting sunscreen can be a lot more dangerous towards your health than you may think.

Many healthy teens and young adults can develop various forms of skin cancer due to sun exposure. There are two types of ultraviolet rays the sun emits that can damage your skin: UVA and UVB rays.

UVB rays can burn the top layers of your skin and are responsible for sunburns, while UVA rays penetrate the deeper layers of your skin causing cells called melanocytes to release melanin, the pigment responsible for that often desired tan.

Besides producing pigment, melanocytes can bond together to form moles, or harmless skin growths most people tend to have. However, in some cases the sun’s UVA and UVB rays are able to alter the DNA of skin cells so that they start to grow out of control and overwhelm the “good” cells in your skin, forming tumors and lesions, which become cancerous. It is more likely that moles will develop into skin cancer over time if a child or teen gets several bad, blistering sunburns throughout his or her adolescence.

Most forms of skin cancer don’t threaten your life, but that is not the case with melanoma. Melanoma, if not caught while it is still on the exterior of the skin, will extend downward until it reaches the body’s internal organs, with fatal results.

Each person’s likelihood of developing moles with melanoma depends upon several important factors, including how careful you are in the sun (i.e. how many sunburns you’ve gotten), how fair/sensitive

your skin is, the number of moles you have, and your family history of melanoma.

Many people often discover that they have pre-cancerous moles that, if weren’t removed, could turn into melanoma in one to two years. This highlights the importance of visiting the dermatologist once a year.

An long hour appointment could prevent you from getting cancer. Even though less probable, people who have dark skin and no family history of skin cancer can still contract melanoma because of sun damage.

Let’s say you’ve gotten a few bad sun burns, and you have some moles that seem suspicious. How do you know if they are cancerous, or represent the onset of melanoma? There are a few ways to tell.

First, observe the symmetry of the mole.

If you divided the mole in half, would the left side look different from the right side?

Pay attention to its border. If the margins look indistinct, blurry or if it is extending sideways, it may be an indication that the mole contains melanoma.

Next, think about its shade. Is the color different than any others on your body?

Also, has part of the mole developed into a different color? Look at its size, and compare it to the diameter of a pencil eraser. Take note if it’s larger. And finally, ask yourself, has it changed or developed in any way? Does it appear to be bigger or wider than it was before? Has it changed color or shape? Did it become raised? If you notice any of these things it is important to make an appointment with a dermatologist.

Even if you don’t notice any irregular moles on your body, doctors are often able to tell whether a mole is potentially cancerous.

Is tanning still bad for you if you are someone who tans easily and rarely experiences burns? Unfortunately, yes.

Even if you have dark skin and no family history of skin cancer, you can still get melanoma from sun exposure, not to mention permanent damage to your skin.

UV rays have the ability to prematurely age skin, causing wrinkles as well as sun spots and discoloration.

Many teens and young adults use tanning beds. Some people use salon tanning as a way to boost their confidence and feel better about their appearance, while others want to have a great beach body. Either way, what people don’t know is that spending time in tanning beds can often be more harmful than exposure to the sun. Tanning beds use UVA radiation at higher levels than a person can get from the sun. On average, people who use tanning beds are 74% more likely to be diagnosed with melanoma, 2.5 times more likely to contract squamous cell carcinoma and 1.5 times more susceptible to developing basal

cell carcinoma.

Today, women between the ages of 18 to 39 are found to be eight times more likely to have melanoma than 40 years ago, when tanning beds first started being used in the U.S. The tanning salon industry in America is worth $5 billion a year. Today, melanoma is the most common form of cancer among women aged 25 to 29.

Tanning can have untold effects on both your body and lifestyle. People as young as sixteen or seventeen who use tanning beds or don’t have proper protection from the sun have higher risks of contracting melanoma.

If melanoma is caught early enough the cancerous tissue can be removed, in what is often a painful surgery in which doctors have to extract several centimeters or an inch or so of flesh, depending on how far the cancer has spread. Even so, people who have contracted melanoma before are more likely to get melanoma than those who haven’t.

One alternative to tanning is purchasing spray-on tan at your local pharmacy. It is better to stay on the safe side and avoid getting a spray-tan at the spa, especially since the Food and Drug Administration

has not yet approved DHA, the main ingredient in spray-tans, to be used on mucous membranes such as lips. Inhaling such chemical fumes from spray tans can also have potentially negative effects on your body.

No one wants to experience the fear, pain and regret involved in getting the most dangerous and life-threatening form of skin cancer, especially at a young age.

There’s nothing wrong with spending time outdoors in the sun. Just make sure to bring along some SPF 15 and a nice hat next time you’re on the beach.

FOR HELPFUL TIPS FOR PROTECTION FROM THE SUN VISIT: WWW.EWG.ORG/2015SUNSCREEN

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Same-Sex Marriage Equality is not LGBTQ+ Equality

By CORAYA DANU-ASMARA ’17

On June 26, 2015, we made history: same-sex marriage was made legal across the United States of America. Many consider this a big step forward in the acceptance of the LGBTQ+ into heteronormative society. In the eyes of the government, marriage is more than just a ceremony with flowers and rings, but a legal status which allows spouses to have financial and social benefits, such as being able to leave inheritance without tax consequences or being considered family in medical situations. In fact, marriage includes more than 1,100 new rights for same-sex couples in all 50 states and U.S. territories. The fight to nationally legalize gay marriage was a long one, starting in 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Baker v.

Nelson - a court case brought on by three same sex couples wishing to marry. In 1996 DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, was signed and it ruled that “marriage means only a legal union between one man and one woman.” It would not be until 2004, that a state, Massachusetts, first legalized same-sex marriage. However, bumps in the road remained. Proposition 8, passed in California in 2008, revoked the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, resetting any progress the gay community had achieved. 11 years later, same-sex marriage in all fifty states was legalized.

While a great feat, the legalization of samesex marriage did not mean the end of the struggle for the LGBTQ+ community.

“I’m celebrating still the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage in every state” says Friends Seminary’s Director of Diversity and Inclusion, Jason Craig Harris, “But I don’t want this achievement to be mistaken for arrival.

Arrival looks differently at achievement.

Arrival is a lot beyond us, beyond what we’ve achieved, and it calls us further along.” As an ally, Jason wants to make it clear that, “There is a lot more work for us to do, and I’m going to make sure that we don’t assume because we have achieve this one thing that it means that there is no longer a need to advocate on the behalf of equality for LGBTQ persons.”

“What next?” is the question many member of the LGBTQ+ community are asking themselves. “I worry that, with full marriage equality, much of the queer community will be left wondering how else to engage with a society that still wants to define who we are” writes Chelsea Manning, a transgender activist. “And who in our community will be left to push for full equality for all transgender and queer people, now that this one fight has been won.” In 28 states, a person can still be fired from their job based on their gender

or sexuality. But even those returning to work suffer discrimination and harassment.

In just 2013, The Pew Research Center found that 21% of LGBTQ+ adults were discriminated at their jobs, and a study by the Williams Institute found that 38.2% of LGBTQ+ people have been harassed at the workplace. There are some places in the United States where same-sex adoption is not legal, and many more where it is still extremely difficult for same-sex couples to adopt. The recent introduction of over 25 new bills limit LGBTQ+ rights, such as the ability for business owners to refuse to serve customers based on their sexuality or gender due to their religious views. Some bills, such as the House Bill No. 2453

even extend this law to police officers and firefighters, or anyone that works under the state, who would be able to refuse to help those whose gender or sexuality disagrees with their religious views.

Being part of the LGBTQ+ community is still stigmatized and dangerous in the U.S., whether the law is on its side or not.

LGBTQ+ women, especially those of color, are more likely to live in poverty, be homeless, or be assaulted sexually and physically. Bisexual people have the highest rates of domestic violence and the highest rates of mental illness of any other demographic. Transgender people, especially women of color, are often victims of hate crimes. Many transgender people feel that they have little representation in the LGBTQ+ community. In fact some sexualites and genders - such as asexuals, pansexuals, genderfluid people, and many others - consider themselves completely erased by the media, the general public, and even by the LGBTQ+ community.

Even when there is representation in media it is seldom more than the white cis gay man - an extremely small percentage of the LGBTQ+ community.

Nevertheless, progress has been made, The majority of Americans are in support of the LGBTQ+ community, as are the majority of our senators. New bills have been proposed to protect the LGBTQ+ community, such as providing healthcare for transgender individuals. New media representation has surfaced recently, from Sophia, a transgender woman portrayed by transgender actress Laverne Cox in Orange is the New Black, the popular television show, to Halsey, a bisexual singer. Large corporations such as Google and CocaCola have also shown their support to the LGBTQ community. We should not deny the progress that we have made, but we should also recognize that there is still a long road ahead before we reach true equality.

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September 2015

Cipher

By RACHEL HODES ’18

This is a polyalphabetic cipher. In this specific cipher, there are two cipher alphabets. In the encoded text, the first word corresponds to cipher alphabet 1, while the second word corresponds to cipher alphabet 2, the third word corresponds to alphabet 1, and so on.

Community Board Meetings: Is it Local Government?

By NAHID MAHMUD ’17 This summer, I had the opportunity to take part in a week-long civics class to learn more about local government and the role we as young citizens play in it. As part of our first assignment, we watched the famous TED Talk “Building a Park in the Sky” featuring Robert Hammond, the executive director of Friends of the High Line. In his presentation, Hammond mentions how his first attendance at a community board meeting led him to meet a travel writer named Joshua David; a relationship that would lead to the preservation of the railroad running through the Lower East and eventually turn it into the iconic NYC landmark and attraction it is today.

But are community board meetings a true facet of local government? Can regular people like you and I expect to have an experience similar to that of Robert Hammond?

Board meetings play a very practical role in involving the public in the process of planning and making authoritative decisions concerning the larger community. Even though these boards may not play a role in the actual making or enforcing of laws, rules, and projects, the mission behind them is to open up the conversation regarding the future of the community to the larger public rather than restricting it to an elitist group of government officials. By doing so, such meetings allow normal, everyday people to take part in shaping their own society in a way that benefits the welfare of the community and its residents.

“When I was writing my thesis for college,” recollects our very own middle

and upper school history teacher Stefan Stawnychy, “I went to a number of community board meetings in the East Village. It really is the purest form of democracy in practice since people from the neighborhood can speak on issues that would directly impact them. There’s no middle man.

The people get to talk directly to those who represent them and their common good.”

Often, a meeting is led by a group of panelists, consisting of around 7 to 10 of the 50 volunteer members of that borough’s board, who are appointed by the local borough president. Once the introductions are made, discussions often go into the most pressing concerns of that community whether it be regarding funding for construction at a lower-tier school or the problems posed by a local restaurant’s unsanitary conditions.

However, labeling these meetings as “discussions” seems a little misleading. Too often, community members are forced to sit patiently while being lectured by a row of speakers rather than given a platform to voice their own opinions and responses.

In more ways than was comfortable for me, these board meetings felt like a boring, lecture-based, eighth-period history class on a Friday evening. Rather than have community members actively take part in the conversation, most attendees were subjected to listening to the perspectives of a select few. Many seemed perfectly comfortable not participating in the conversation at all.

Having such a mentality only prevents such meetings from becoming a true forum of local government. Without people’s input,

the community remains unheard and issues are left unsolved. As a result, the decisions made often favor groups of people such as companies, organizations, and businesses rather than the individual who was too afraid to speak his or her mind. In order to really take into account everyone’s voice, a more logical way of handling these meetings must be put into effect: one that provides a comfortable and inviting environment for anyone to share their ideas. Some ways of doing this might be to divide attendees into smaller group discussions each led by one or two panelists before coming together again.

Another possibility could be to limit the number of people who can attend a certain meeting on a certain day. In both cases, having less people in a discussion space might encourage more people to speak up and thus contribute to the betterment of the community as a whole.

Going into this assignment, I imagined a community board meeting to be exactly what the name suggests: a meeting for the community, which is what it ultimately is but not in the groundbreaking and revolutionary way Robert Hammond’s TED Talk speech made me expect. In order to really become an extension of local government, community board meetings need to modernize into something that encourages people, especially younger participants, to play a role in their society.

Doing so means completely reinventing the way these meetings are executed in a way that makes them more appealing, more inclusive, and more effective.

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Those who solve it can send either the solution or the deciphered text to insight@friendsseminary.org.

The first three to email us will have their names printed in the next edition. Good luck!

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All About Agenda

By LILY WEISBERG ’17 and CAMILLO DURR ’18

WHAT IS AGENDA? We are first and foremost a voice for the students. Please always feel free to come to us with any problem no matter how small, and we will advocate for you.

WHAT IS AGENDA WORKING ON? 1) Clubs will be sponsoring special events at the September social: Cinematics is picking the movie, Friends Foodies is making treats, Art Club is setting up T shirt making, and Spirit is creating a photobooth!

2) A proposal is underway for performing arts credits to be fulfilled by participating in the school play 3) A box will be put on the 4th floor landing for students to write their complaints/ suggestions for the Committee, so we can hear what’s on your mind 4) There is an upcoming Meeting for Business about ways to tweak the new schedule

MEET YOUR REPS! 10th Grade: Camillo Durr and Aleyna Ndaw

Write for

Submit

Email us at Your article A letter to the editor insight@friendsseminary.org An anonymous suggestion

12th Grade: Nick White and Tsejin Bhotia

Clerks: Gio Hooton and Rick Mortenson

Photos by Tsejin Bhotia ’16

11th Grade: Lily Weisberg and Morgan Carmen

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September 2015

Teenagers Are Lazy

By ZARA SCHREIBER ’17

CLUBS DAY 4 CLUBS RAAD (Raising Awareness, Accepting Diversity) FSGSA (Friends Seminary Gender Sexuality Alliance) Art Club Debate Club Friends A Cappella Mindfulness in Music SCAF (Sustainability and Conservation at Friends) The Insight (Student Newspaper) Chess Math League

Teenagers are lazy, self-absorbed, and impulsive. At least, that’s how they are portrayed in the media. In pop culture, teens are often portrayed as bullies to each other and adults, but rarely are they shown as good Samaritans. The portrayal of teenagers as immature and bothersome has been around for a very long time; a shepherd in Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale even states that between the ages of ten and twenty-three “there is nothing [...] but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.”

Teenagers have a bad rep in popular media, and these stereotyped portrayals can leak into everyday life. The assumption that all teens are lazy and juvenile can stunt the potential of the younger generation because they are treated as though they must conform to the “evil teenager” mold. This ill treatment from adults can decay the youth’s view of the adults they are supposed to look up to as role models. The act of prejudice or discrimination based on age is known as ageism. Created in 1969, the term was originally used to describe discrimination against the elderly based solely on their age. However, ageism just as easily applies to any age group that suffers from being told what and how they should do things because of their age.

Ageism against youth provides an interesting conundrum. On the one hand, neuroscientific evidence suggests that teenagers behave differently from adults because their brains are still developing.

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, a professor at University College in London, has specialized in researching the adolescent brain. Her research suggests that adolescent brains do not have fully developed problem-solving skills, social skills, or impulse control. Thus, it may seem accurate to claim teenagers are risky and thus must be treated as such for

their own good. However, Philip Graham, a professor of psychiatry who has done intensive research on adolescents, believes that although there are hormonal changes occurring, most teenagers are not overly risky or moody, and that by treating them as such, adults are cutting off potentially productive members of society.

The damage caused by ageism goes beyond simply restricting the potential of teenagers. A study from the University of Vermont has proven that many teenagers begin to internalize the negative stereotypes forced upon them, leading to psychological maladjustment. The danger of diminishing teenagers can be felt in the court system as well. In 1998, the Supreme Court ruled that if an employee is sexually harassed by a colleague, the employer is responsible even if they did not know about it. However, that same week the Supreme Court ruled that if a student experiences sexual harassment from a teacher, the school is not responsible unless it can be proven they knew about it. The ruling belittles the harassment experienced by the student by not placing any blame against the school for hiring the teacher, despite the fact that in essentially the same situation involving adults, the employer would be held responsible.

Ageism is difficult to combat, especially since teenagers are almost exclusively portrayed negatively in the media. However, everyone is a teenager at one point in life, so everyone faces this type of discrimination.

Nevertheless , the problem continues to flourish. To prevent ageism and its harmful effects, teenagers need to stand up for themselves. Growing up is a complex process. It’s about more than just making the right decisions and behaving the proper way.

It’s a learning experience that cultivates who we are and who we want to become and no one should stand in the way of that.

DAY 8 ROTATION A CLUBS

Board Games Photography Drama RAIN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest Network) Public Speaking Vegetarian Society Middle Eastern Culture Club Knit Witts TOE (Theory of Everything)

OUT OF SCHOOL CLUBS

Empty Bowls Model United Nations Head Start Robotics and Innovation Homeless Alliance PAC Cinematics Society Running for Life Kids Helping Kids Sharing Jewish Culture and Cuisine Spirit The Magpie

DAY 8 ROTATION B CLUBS

Stars (Astronomy Club) Book Club Dodgeball Feminists at Friends Running for Life Human Rights Club Stock Investing Club Sports at Friends Philosophy Society

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Backpage

The Student Lens

SUDOKU

Featuring the work of Rebecca Finley ’16 The following is a collection of photographs taken by senior Rebecca Finley this past summer. If you would like to feature your own work contact insight@friendsseminary.org.

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4 5 6 9 8

7 4 6 7 3 7 8 1 9 3 4 7 9 3 3 1 9 6 7 6 1 9 5 1 5 9 2 2 8 1 2015 & 2016

Writers Camilo Durr ’18 Coraya Danu-Asmara ’17

Chief Editors

Eitan Darwish ’17

Nahid Mahmud ’17

Isa Skibeli ’18 Isabel Clements ’17

Zara Schreiber ’17

Jackson Wald ’18

Designers

Lily Weisberg ’17

Adrian Moore ’17

Max Teirstein ’17

Zara Schreiber ’17

Morgan Carmen ’17 Rachel Hodes ’17

Advisors

Rebecca Finley ’16

John Galayda

Richard Mortenson ’16 Richard Omar Payne ’18 Sabrina Edelman ’16

Deanna Yurchuk