February 2016

Winter sports teams end their seasons.

Palo Alto Unified School District Henry M. Gunn High School 780 Arastradero Rd Palo Alto, CA 94306

Gunn science clubs carry out experiments.

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Teacher Housing Crisis

Median Home Sale Price In Palo Alto

$ 5,000 Median Home Rent Per Month In Palo Alto

Map courtesy of Google Statistics courtesy of Trulia

Clara Kieschnick-Llamas Reporter

Gunn teachers spoke about the lack of affordable housing in Palo Alto at the school board meeting on Jan. 26, discussing the impact of the housing crisis on their interactions with students and availability for school activities.

Most teachers at Gunn have to commute every day due to an increased price for housing in the area; according to English Teacher and school board speaker Tarn Wilson, this has led to teachers being unable to attend to students’ needs. Wilson had to move from

Mountain View, only a 15-minute commute to Gunn, to San Jose a year and a half ago to afford a house. “When I lived in Mountain View I could tutor after school, go to a lot of school events, I could do clubs—I could just be on campus often and come and go really easily,” she said. “But now, because traffic is generally an hour’s commute, I don’t really know what’s happening in Palo Alto anymore, so I’m not as much a part of the community as I’d like to be.”

English teacher Danielle Kovacich says living situations are not ideal. As she started working here only last year, Kovacich has a lower salary than the average teacher, who

has worked here longer. She lives on the border of San Jose and Milpitas. “[My fiancé and I] live in an apartment that’s just under 800-square-feet. It’s a one-bedroom, [and] we pay $2600 a month,” she said.

One of the major reasons for the exorbitant prices is the concentration of high income earners, lured in by the tech boom that has exploded over the past 10 years.

Government census figures report that the San Jose-Santa Clara-Sunnyvale metro area has the second highest concentration of people earning salaries in the top 5 percent in the country.

Teacher salaries in Palo Alto are getting

competitive with those of nearby school districts. According to “Palo Alto Online,” the mean teacher salary in the Mountain View Los Altos High School district is $101,000, a Palo Alto’s teacher salary is $86,000.

Real estate website Trulia states that the average selling price for a house in Palo Alto is a little over two million dollars, while the average selling price of a house in San Jose is seven hundred thousand dollars.

When this issue was raised on “Palo Alto Online,” many commenters argued that teacher salaries aren’t as bad as they’re made out to be. “A lot of those comments were HOUSING—p.3

Paint Gunn High School gathers students opinions Samuel Tse Reporter

Paint Gunn High School, an organization based on the initiative to repaint the school, began on campus on Wednesday, Jan. 13. This program aims to develop a new color scheme for campus with ideas from students, teachers and parents.

Led by Architarian Design, a Palo Alto firm selected by the School Site Council, Paint Gunn has been surveying students and teachers around school. “[The Site Council] really wanted to have a big component of community involvement,” Architarian Design founder Elaine Uang said. “The posters and things you’ve seen are all part of a process we believe really strongly in which is to be very people-focused and user-centered.”

Their survey posters, which were posted on the side of Spangenberg Theater during the Gunn TEDx event,

include questions such as “How does the campus make you feel?”, “Where do you enter school?” and “What is your favorite hangout spot?”

Paint Gunn values student voice and is trying to collect student opinions.“This campus is built for you to come here and learn and so we really think that the final decision will be up to the students,” Principal Denise Herrmann said.

Much of the student interactions have occurred in focus groups during Flex Time. “We discussed some possible color schemes and our first impressions of different color palettes,” freshman Audrey Li said. “We also talked about how we want to feel on the campus and what colors could bring out those feelings.”

Students have been reacting positively to the increase in student voice. “I think it’s great that the students could have their voices heard in this big decision because I think a color change could have a lasting impact on our campus

and students,” Li said.

In addition, students feel that Paint Gunn will bring a positive change to the school. “It’ll be a brand new Gunn campus that is able to nourish a love for learning and a certain pride for your school and campus,” freshman Kristie Huang said. “If our campus can embody our school community, it will impact the way we all feel and act at school.”

Color can also be used to highlight landmarks in the school. “When people come to the school and they have to go to the N building, that can be hard to find if you’ve never been to the N building,” Herrmann said. “So that can be one thing so everyone feels like, ‘Wow, this is a big campus but it’s really easy to get around.’”

There is also a possibility that murals and student art will be included. “We want to make sure that color is used well and can help you guys navigate, give you a cohesive sense of place,” Uang said.

Photo illustration by Jackie Lou and Alexandra Ting

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News

MONTHLY HIGHLIGHTS: Choir/Staff musical AND Love Week “They did an amazing job of including the staff in fun, goofy ways to show a different side of them to the school.”

—Courtney Griffin (12)

“It was fun seeing everybody’s love matches, even though it didn’t seem too accurate.”

—Aryan Iranmanesh (11)

“It was a really good quality show (as usual) because of the good humor. It’s also really nice to take a break from school and have a fun evening watching talented friends perform.”

—Salome Blain (12)

“Love Week is open to everyone. It’s really inclusive and it allows everyone to express love and affection for people they care about.”

—Anna Reitman (9)

Photos by Mei Yun Tang

Photos by Alexandra Ting

—Compiled by Akansha Gupta

Common course survey tested to streamline evaluation process Helen Nguyen

Business Manager

on their own practice. “I wanted to have one survey with ten questions in common, so that way teachers can see their results and compare them to everybody else that teaches the same class, compare those to the whole department and then to the whole school,” McGee said.

The main goals that Herrmann had for this survey was to test questions that the district and union thought might be useful and to evaluate whether or not to keep using them.

“I’m assuming that the teachers are doing the absolute best with the knowledge and skills that they have, so if there’s some sort of a deficit that the students have identified, then that means the teachers either need to learn something new, learn a different skill or stretch themselves in some new way,” Herrmann said.

another program or go back to the original.

Senior Cristobal Gonzalez says that compared to last year, these surveys lost a lot of applicability. “It’s not clear how general questions of whether you liked the class or not will help a teacher improve the class,” Gonzalez said. In order to improve this survey, he says, more teacher input is necessary.

“Ultimately, these surveys are made so that teachers can get feedback on their classes, and although it’d be nice to have a common survey so the district can have a consistent way to measure data across multiple courses, it’s not the primary goal,” he said.

Gonzalez hopes teachers will try to address common themes in the responses. He believes that most teachers at Gunn are constantly trying to improve their courses, but he doesn’t know whether a survey drives that, or just their experience in the class. “I think the previous [individual surveys] were probably more useful, but at least this one was short and didn’t take that much thought on my part,” Gonzalez said.

“Perhaps that speaks to the poor quality of the new survey.”

McGee stated that all analytics of the survey was done through an independent third-party contractor, but that the district has an important role in making sense of the data.“What we did was a statistical analysis and say, ‘Within this range is pretty much where everybody fell—if you’re above that range, think about how you can help some others, or improve if you’re below that range and reflect on what you could do differently,” McGee said. As a district, McGee strives to continuously give prompt and meaningful feedback.

In the future, Herrmann wants to do some troubleshooting for the May survey implementation. She would like to see teachers get additional, ongoing feedback and wishes for the district and union to do a better job with technical aspects to avoid glitches. Herrmann also wants to give better analytics to the teachers when she coaches them for their own improvement goals. “It’s not about evaluation, but I think that what

District administration returned student course evaluations to teachers in January. Students took the districtmandated student survey regarding teacher performance at the end of first semester.

Principal Dr. Denise Herrmann stated that this survey is the first time that the district has done a common survey across all teachers. The original teacher contract stated that teachers must gather feedback from their students, but they were able to ask whatever questions they wanted and no one else had to see their results. Herrmann has asked the district for more school-wide and trend data, so she can learn how to better support the teachers. She explained that the district is still work“I wanted to have one survey with 10 questions in common, so that way ing with the teacher’s union to figure out how teachers can see their results and compare them to everybody else that they can share data in teaches the same class, compare those to the whole department and a way that doesn’t feel then to the whole school.” threatening to the teach— PAUSD Superintendent Dr. Max McGee ers. “This is supposed to be for growth and reflection and not a rating necessarily, so that’s one of the McGee stated the district wasn’t expecting such trethings I’m trying to make sure I work really delicately with,” mendous success from the survey and acknowledged its Herrmann said. importance to the community. “The survey provides a more Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) Superintendent accurate, factual perspective than the opinion of an individual Dr. Max McGee explained that the survey was administered or small group that can often be blown out of proportion,” to provide the opportunity for teachers to reflect and set goals McGee said. “If a former teacher contends, ‘All the kids are getting crushed with homework,’ we now have data to either verify or contradict that statement.

The survey showed the substantial majority of students think they get the appropriate amount of homework.” McGee also pointed out that when teachers have the right tools for reflection, the qual“What we did was a statistical analysis and say ‘within this range ity of their teaching is pretty much where everybody fell–if you’re above that range, and connection with think about how you can help some others, or improve if you’re their kids improve.

After the district below that range and reflect on what you could do differently.” decided to switch to —Superintendent McGee an online, standardized course evaluation, Palo Alto Educators Association (PAEA) teachers learned from their student survey and how they’re agreed to try it out as a two-year pilot. According going to inform their goals that they set for themselves for to PAEA President Teri Baldwin, PAEA will con- next year is the most powerful way to use survey data,” Hervene a committee to look at survey effectiveness rmann said. and ease. “We want to make sure that teachers McGee believes the newly implemented student survey get valuable information back from the students can improve the community wellbeing of the community. that help them inform their instruction before we He is glad that students in the community were given the opmake this new program a permanent part of our portunity to provide feedback on a uniform and anonymous contract,” Baldwin said. According to Baldwin, platform. “I am happiest about the fact that the survey gives PAEA will discuss the committee’s findings after students a voice,” McGee said. “The fact that we had 21,000 a few semesters, making a decision on whether student responses and that our students took it seriously was they should keep the new student survey, pilot arguably the greatest win of the whole initiative.”

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Friday, February 19, 2016

Staff face high price housing HOUSING

comparing our top salary bracket—somebody who’s worked here 30 years,” Palo Alto Educators Association (PAEA) President Teri Baldwin said. “That’s a small percentage of our teachers—most of us are not at that wage. You can’t just take our top little bracket and say that [all] our teachers are there.” Although young teachers are still coming to Palo Alto, English teacher Mean Teacher and PAEA executive board Salary (Mountain member Marc Igler argues View Los altos High that they won’t stay for long.

School District) Is “After a couple of years, you’re going to realize, ‘I’m never $101,000. going to be able to save money paying this much for housing on a teacher’s salary; I’m never going to be able to take a summer trip to Europe; I’m never going to be able to buy a new car,’” he said. “And so you take a job somewhere where you can save more money.”

Wilson worries that as the housing market becomes more competitive the diversity of not only students but also teachers will change. “If you get out of college with a lot of student loans, you have to pay those back, so you don’t have money put away for a down payment; you won’t attract certain teachers,” she said.

Kovacich agrees that the cost of living will affect her future. “I would like to go back and get my Master’s, [but it’s] unattainable at this point,” she said.

Igler says that the housing market is not only pushing teachers out of Palo Alto—it’s discouraging them from coming. “Palo Alto has not been able to hire its first or its second choice job candidates, because they get here and they have to pay so much money,” he said.

The Cupertino Union School District has also suffered the same issue of unaffordable housing for teachers. To adMean Teacher dress the problem, the district Salary (PAUSD) is building 200 housing units Is $86,000 . for teachers on district-owned property, a move Igler thinks could be applied to Palo Alto.

“The old Cubberley campus is sort of in play at the moment,” he said. “I would hope that they might think of doing something [there] like Cupertino school district.”

Baldwin argues that teachers’ demands are not unreasonable.

“We do love our jobs, and there’s no question about that,” she said. “But we have to make a living, too. We’re not asking for what people at Google and Facebook make. We’re asking to make a livable wage in this area—to be able to afford to live within a reasonable distance. That’s all we’re asking.”

Adviser Kristy Blackburn

Alto is really helping the community and making it a lot greener so that we can have these beautiful places like In February, the Gunn Art Depart- the Baylands to enjoy.” ment teamed up with the company For the group, the project has been GreenWaste in a project to paint a a new artistic experience. “This is our trailer that will be used in a Repair first time spray painting so it’s interCafé, a nonprofit organization that esting to use these different materials repairs and recycles items. It will be and experiment at the same time,” located at the Museum of American Griffin said. “I feel really proud that Heritage in Palo Alto. GreenWaste, a we get to take this art into the comrecycling and mu nit y a nd waste comsha re it w it h pany, focuses kids who might on achieving be inspired by zero waste it.” and sponOn Feb. 20, s or s R e p a i r the trailer will C a fés. T hey be featured at re ached out a Repair Café. to the district G r e e nWa s t e office and the Public Educasustainability tion Specialist representaEliza Lubetkin tive Rebecca says t hat t he Navarro, who trailer will be recommendut i l i z e d a s a ed Gunn art storage faci lAlexandra Ting teacher DeanSenior Courtney Griffin and sopho- ity for Repair na Messinger Café tools and more Hailey Qu paint the GreenWaste and her stusuppl ie s . “At dents to take trailer with nature-inspired designs. [Repair Café] on the project. events, people can bring materials and Messinger selected five students items that are broken and hopefully to design and paint the new trailer. get them repaired,” she said. “The “I chose students who have a strong more that we’re fixing things and not foundation in rendering and acrylic throwing them away is a whole difpaint and are very responsible peo- ferent mindset. It helps make a bigger ple,” she said. “They decided that one statement when we have a beautifully side [of the trailer] is going to be of the painted trailer.”

Baylands, with a variety of waterfowl, Lubetkin hopes that the painted and the other side is open woodlands, trailer at the Repair Café will help with golden hills and a big oak.” draw attention to preserving the enSenior Courtney Griffin says that vironment. “Working at GreenWaste, the design of the trailer was inspired we deal with garbage and recycling, by the nature in Palo Alto. “We see and we see how much goes to the [the hills] every day but a lot of people landfill. It’s so easy to just throw take them for granted. It could have something away, but it has to go been industrialized a long time ago somewhere and sit there,” she said. but it wasn’t,” she said. “We wanted to “Instead of buying a new pair of pants, show the environment and how Gre- you could fix the hole in the pants you enWaste Pa lo already have.”

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Please include your name, grade and contact information should you choose to write one.

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Reporters Cassie Bond, Sherry Chen, Elizabeth Chung, Alex Dersh, Paulo Frank, Akansha Gupta, Clara Kieschnick-Llamas, Carolyn Kuimelis, Amanda Lee, Tone Lee, Evalyn Li, Jack Mallery, Matthew Oh, Samuel Tse, Kaya van der Horst, Mikaela Wayne

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January 29, 2016 The Oracle was a good read and did a good job updating on current events in the Gunn community.

—Zoe Banks, 10 I would like to see some stories about struggles of students and how they overcame it, like a “Making a Change” one.

—Angierile Yun, 11

Letters and Comments may be edited to meet space requirements and the writer is solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Letters to the Editor and Comments and ideas for coverage may be sent to oraclegunn@gmail.com or posted on our Facebook page.

These letters need not be from current students.

I liked the articles about the new changes at Gunn and in the district. For example, the articles on the Paly Rally, SEC and TEDx were good.

—Olivia Aspegren, 9

I like that the articles covered events that I didn’t know about. I would like to see more articles about the teachers’ various experiences since teaching at Gunn.

—Grace Tan, 11

I would like more features on sports game, that recaps all of the games for kids who can’t attend any game.

—Vidar Thukral, 11

I enjoyed the variety of topics in the new issue and liked how each article was comprehensive and informative in its own way. As always, the visuals were spectacular!

—Jessica Li, 11

I like how there was a variety of different topics [in The Oracle], ranging from fun things to serious issues.

—Shristi Sig, 10 I would like to see something about anything really important in the current world.

—Kayla Yee, 11 I enjoy seeing stories about specific people at Gunn. It’s more interesting when I can connect a person with a story, rather than a generalization about the entire school.

—Aidan Drake, 12

The Oracle is a 2014 NSPA Pacemaker Award finalist.

Forum

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Admin should take ownership of Gunn affairs Matthew Hamilton As you pull into Gunn High School one of the first things you see is the office, filled with administrators who interact with students every day, who visit classes, who stand in the walkways during passing periods and who can be seen across campus on golf carts or talking to teachers. Members of the administrative team attend sports games and rallies, conduct assemblies, chaperone dances and attend school plays. They are in contact with Gunn students every day, but when changes are made to the lives of the students they see so often, either the changes come from the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) office, or the administration avoids taking ownership of decisions by using a recent district change to def lect students’ criticism and opinions.

Consequently, decisions have been handed down from the PAUSD office that are out of touch with the reality of Gunn’s student life. Based on reporting done by The Oracle, these actions demonstrate a pattern of the Gunn administration def lecting blame on many consequential decisions to the district and school board instead of taking accountability for the changes to student life at Gunn, leading to decisions that are not aligned with the reality of student life.

The majority of major changes made to student life at Gunn, ranging from scheduling to social life, have been made by the district and school board while the Gunn administration has remained idle. Starting with the controversia l elimination of zero period classes, a pattern began to emerge. A change would come from the PAUSD office, concerned students would turn to the Gunn administration for answers, but would find an administration member informing them that unfortunately the administration could not take a course of action on the issue because the district or school board had made its decision. It

is understandable for one issue, but has become infuriating as the same chain of events repeats itself, always ending with the administration playing a minimal role in the recent district or school board decision.

The 2014-2015 school year revealed the first of many decisions made by the district instead of the administration. In a letter from Superintendent Max McGee, students learned that zero period classes, with the exception of Physical Education and Video Production, would no longer be offered. Many students were upset and felt that the decision made by the district was out of touch with the reality at Gunn. When a forum was held for students to voice their concerns, not one of the adults answering questions was a member of the Gunn administration.

E l i z ab

e t h Zu

Elizabeth

Zu

It seemed as if the 2015-2016 school year would go by without any changes mandated by the district or school board, but the recent cancellation of the Paly Rally proved this school year would come

with changes as well. The Paly Rally was eliminated by the administration as reported in the January issue of The Oracle. Students with concerns found an administration repeating that they could not get involved because the decision was based upon a recent change to PAUSD’s sexual harassment policy.

Gunn’s decisions should not be made in 25 Churchill Ave. Members of the Gunn administration know much more about the student experience at Gunn and are in t he be st posit ion to make changes to Gunn as ne eded .

They talk to students and know that

some students attend morning practices and could benefit from a zero period course. Members of the administration visit classes, witness students during passing periods and are more qualified to determine students’ opinions on events like Paly Rally. The administration is in the best position to make changes to Gunn and should be the ones held responsible for doing so.

Decisions made by the administration

such as the elimination of the Paly Rally should be backed up by the administration’s on-campus experiences. Instead of substantiating the decision with a school board policy, the administration should answer student concerns with observations from campus.

When decisions do come from the district or the school board, it leaves Gunn students with no outlets to voice their criticism. When a decision such as the zero period cancellation is announced, the administration makes clear that the district is the orchestrator of the decision, making it harder for Gunn students to voice their opinions to the relevant authority figure. It is much easier for Gunn students to hold the administration accountable than to hold t he d ist r ic t or school boa rd accountable.

School boa rd members a nd district officials are much harder for Gu n n st udent to cont ac t , t hu s t he administration is t he preferred actor for most, if not all, consequential decisions.

Instead of allowing the district and school board to control the student experience at Gunn, the administration should advocate for students. If the administration agrees with a decision from the district or school board they should clearly communicate that to Gunn students.

This provides students with an outlet for criticism and concerns that is on campus instead of at a school board meeting across Palo Alto. If the administration disagrees with the decision from the district, they may not be able to change the policy, but they should advocate for Gunn students based on the knowledge they gain from being on campus every day. Following this model would allow for the administration to make the majority of decisions that affect Gunn students, but when the district inevitably does make changes, Gunn students will then have an outlet on campus to voice their concerns.

—Hamilton, a junior, is a News Editor.

Even those who can’t vote should be politically aware Anyi Cheng In the 2012 election, only 42.1 percent of United States citizens aged 18 to 24 voted, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement. The other 57.9 percent have various reasons for not voting, the most common being political apathy. Many young adult citizens do not believe that their political voice matters enough to be heard and considered; others simply do not care about politics or do not feel the need to be politically active or even aware. This is a mistake.

Understanding politics is something everyone, regardless of whether they can vote or not, should be able to do. Students in particular should be politically educated because politics discusses issues pertinent to their everyday lives and exemplifies how to formulate and defend opinions.

Politics is defined as activities associated to the governance of a society—a society even those who cannot vote are a part of. Today, many of the controversial issues being discussed by politicians around the country are directly relevant to even minors. Drugs, unemployment, gun control and civil rights are all topics discussed in politics; they are also all topics that have direct impact on not just

eligible voters’ lives but also everyone else’s. ally, what runs the government. However, in a journal It should be in the best interest of even published by the research journal Demos.org in 2014, those who cannot vote to stay informed, researchers found that the non-voting body was more ensuring that they understand changes liberal than the voting body. This means that vothappening around them. ers—those who are meant to represent the entire Understanding politics also encountry—do not accurately represent the will of hances day-to-day life sk ills t hat the people. Therefore, it is extremely important that everyone should possess. Discussing those who cannot vote, including minors and nonpolitics is an act entirely built upon citizens, stay politically aware and active to hav i ng a n opi n ion a nd bei ng ensure that their voices are heard. able to adequately advocate it, Being politically aware or just getting Joan ne L ee a critical skill that also applies involved is not nearly as difficult as to cou nt less ot her i mpor ta nt many might think. Merely following parts of life including jobs, the the news and staying updated is one classroom and even friendships. of the easiest and most effective ways Hav ing a t horoug h polit ica l anyone can stay informed. Beyond understanding teaches people that, however, there are countless othhow to think. It demands that er ways to be proactive when it comes to we t a k e i n i n for m at ion a nd politics. In the current presidential election thoughtfully use that informarace, for example, one does not need to be tion to establish not only what a registered voter to attend political rallies we believe in, but also why. or contribute to candidate campaigns.

When we discuss politics, In local communities, all community we h on e a n a l y t i c a l a n d members are able to speak at public Joanne Lee critical thinking skills. forums or other city-wide meetings.

Political awareness is not just beneficial to the indi- Being politically active is far from impossible, even for vidual, but it is also critical to the well-being of the entire those who cannot vote. nation. America’s government is built around democratic representation, wherein the will of the people is, ide—Cheng, a junior, is the Oracle-TBN Liaison.

Forum

Friday, February 19, 2016

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Online debates provide helpful insight Public

PRO

Evalyn Li February 19 at 9:50am · Palo Alto ·

Since its conception, the Internet has simplified many of our everyday tasks. In addition to gaining free information from around the world and online shopping, we have gained a new platform to express ourselves freely. As a result, a virtual Internet community forms. With this community, so comes the inevitable clashes. While bullying and personal attacks cannot be prevented, arguments in Facebook comments can encourage discussion.

According to Facebook, its mission is “to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.”

Arguing in Facebook comments, therefore, is a pathway towards such openness and connection. We live in a world with different cultures, religions and races. Each group has its own unique viewpoint. Arguments between groups could promote better understanding of each other’s perspectives.

Facebook is an accessible platform for individuals or groups that usually do not interact with one another to exchange their ideas.

Since the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debate, debates between candidates have become a custom in presidential election in our country. These presidential debates not only provide opportunities for candidates to present their ideas, they also promote dialogue between candidates and voters.

Likewise, arguments in cyber communities

Like

Online forums are catalysts for productive discussion

also help to enhance their healthy growth and keep those communities well-balanced.

Cyber communities cannot thrive without discourse, just as a neighborhood cannot hold a block party with only one vocal citizen. In a 2014 research paper titled “Growing Closer on Facebook: Changes in Tie Strength Through Site Use,” HumanComputer Interaction scientists Moira Burke and Robert Kraut found that Facebook interaction, particularly commenting rather than simply “liking” increased personal ties— especially in relationships where people do not see one another often. For those friendships, virtual communication plays a major role in maintaining the relationship.

Having conversations through messaging is not adequate enough to exchange values; disagreements are necessary to not only maintain, but also to grow personal relationships. Furthermore, the community aspect of arguing in Facebook comments emulates interaction in the public. Friends or family members who are geographically apart can still have thoughtful discussions beyond pleasantries.

Argumentation is also essential to effective communication. Communication without argumentation is often superficial.

Being able to withstand harsh disagreements attests for the strength of a relationship. Personal opinions define and shape

Comment

oneself, therefore sharing those thoughts, even when they conflict with someone else’s, builds the foundation for a strong relationship. As the Internet is a space to maintain current and create new friendships, argumentative comments often reflect one’s genuine concern, one’s closeness of connection.

Some may argue that having arguments in the comments is futile, causing unintended emotional pain. The negative consequences, such as personal insults and imposing opinions on others, are realities of arguing in real life as well as online.

Argumentation devoid of these problems is a goal both communities of citizens and communities of netizens strive to build.

With the inevitable future that the Internet will take center stage more in everyday life, these arguments are not useless, but rather instrumental to creating an online world that simulates in-person discussions.

In the real world, bullies and personal attackers are unavoidable, but rules and regulations exist for minimizing those negative incidents. The world of the Internet has the same issues and rules for control. Arguing in Facebook comments can not only be harmless, but can also be beneficial to people’s lives.

—Li, a junior, is a reporter.

CON

Like · Reply · February 19 at 10:05am

The Internet has been a revolutionary invention that impacts our daily lives profoundly. Social media such as Facebook especially has taken the world by storm through providing a myriad of platforms that promote communication.

However, participating in a comment section argument is unnecessary since it is a negative action that can damage relationships and inflict emotional harm on participants.

The anonymity and lack of face-toface interaction on social media can cause people to say or do things on cyberspace that they wouldn’t ordinarily say or do in person. The anonymity on various social media websites such as Reddit or Facebook gives people the opportunity to say anything without facing consequences. Anyone who has a social media account must have seen a comment section with a long thread of heated arguments. Many people tend to feel more liberated on the Internet.

They loosen up and are able to express themselves more openly. However, with this feeling of uninhibitedness, people

Cyber discussions are unnecessary, hurtful

are more likely to use bolder words and harsher tones in their comments.

Another problem with engaging in comment section arguments on social media is that it creates a negative environment for the participants and put sthem in a bad mood. When people get into comment arguments, they often get frustrated over things like what a better comeback could have been, or just the fact that they were unable to prevail in the argument. These small things could cast a negative atmosphere and keep one unnecessarily low-spirited.

Comment arguments can also harm relationships in real life. Unlike faceto-face conversations, many emotions are hard to convey and tend to get lost in online comments, therefore causing misunderstandings that can be very damaging to relationships. Sarcastic comments might be taken as insults and jokes might be seen as insolent remarks. These misunderstandings in arguments could cause disastrous results if not handled swiftly and properly.

Faces in the Crowd Is posting arguments on the internet worth the effort?

Rachel Gates (12) “No, not worth it. They’re a waste of time. There are better ways to get your message across.”

Nolan Gao (11) “I like them because we can use pictures in the arguments.”

Andrew Shen (11) “They’re fun to watch but a waste of time to participate in since online debates usually go nowhere.”

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Shawna Chen, Arjun Sahdev, Kathleen Xue and 22 others like this.

Sherry Chen

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Some may argue that arguments can enhance growth of communities by healthily promoting better understanding of each other’s perspectives. However, online arguments cause more damage than benefit. Often times, arguments do not lead to better communication but rather jabs and insults that have no relation to the initial debate topic. Rather than helping people see things from different perspectives, the arguments often become people’s aggressive attempts to force others into accepting their idea, leading to disrespectful comments and impudent insults that far stray from the argument’s original purpose.

Whenever people see vehement arguments in the comment section of a post, they should carry on with their lives and not get involved. At the end of the day, getting into these kind of arguments will not benefit participants in any way, and can only inflict unnecessary emotional harm.

—Chen, a sophomore, is a reporter.

Aleks Tycz (10) “I think that they’re invalid, they’re just people saying whatever they want behind internet avatars.”

Kelly Lim (9)

“No, because everybody’s going to have their opinion.

Even if [people are] misguided and misinformed, they’re not going to learn from words on a computer.

From behind a monitor, you don’t seem human or accountable.”

—Compiled by Alex Dersh, Paulo Frank and Ryeri Lim

Like and follow The Oracle Facebook page.

Graphics by Elizabeth Zu

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Electives promote wellness, creativity in curriculum Fiber Arts provides a relaxing outlet for students to be creative and further their crafting skills. Taught by Cindy Peters, the course teaches students how to create works of fabric and develop their own fashion style. The class deals with all sorts of fabric crafts ranging from repurposing to applique. It teaches students constructive skills that can be used outside of academic and intellectual pursuits, such as different embroidery methods and quilting. “[We’re teaching] something [students] can use to make gifts forever,” Peters said. “They’re able to accomplish a lot by making the product.”

In addition to making gifts, students acquire skills that could potentially stay with them for a lifetime, such as quilt-making. The process of quilting allows students to invest their creativity in whatever fabric form they wish. “Some people make a quilt the size of a twin-sized bed; some make queen-sized quilts,” Peters said.

The course includes knitting and crocheting. Previously, students worked on reusing old clothes for future projects. “We are dealing with repurposing where you’re taking a product and you’re repurposing it for something else and you’re making a nice big sweater or a pillow out of it,” Peters said.

According to junior Margaret Redfield, the course provides therapeutic aspects in addition to life skills. Redfield remembers the stress relief as one of her favorite elements of the class. “[Fiber Arts] is a great class to take because the environment in the class is really relaxed and a lot of the time is just spent on working so you can relax with your friends while still getting work done,” Redfield said. “If a student wants a place to unwind during the day and learn useful skills, this is a great class to take.”

Redfield also emphasized that the Fiber Arts curriculum can be personalized, allowing students to focus on what they want to study. “[Fiber Arts] was centered around what each individual student wanted to create,” she said. “Ms. Peters would help you reach your goal of what you wanted to create in terms of different skills such as sewing and embroidering.”

Through the course, Peters hopes to foster a class that helps students concentrate on what they are enthusiastic about.

“The most important thing that I want students to take away from this is to have a hobby, a passion, something that they can really sit back and enjoy,” she said. “In good times and bad times they have something they can fall back on and relax.”

—Written by Barrett Zhang

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Social studies teacher Ronen Habib started teaching Positive Psychology three years ago. “Positive Psychology is a class that teaches students how to live a better life, how to be happier and be well,” Habib said. “I wanted to offer a class that would help kids understand how to prioritize their well-beings, their health and happiness above just academics.”

Students engage in diverse exercises during class. “We end up doing a lot of class discussions, journals, we write some papers,” Habib said. “Students learn about positive psychology concepts and theory, but they also experience personal growth through different activities.”

Senior Giannina Yu enjoyed the activities throughout the course and said they helped her become less stressed. “After taking the class, you find that you unconsciously think about things you are grateful for; you are unconsciously meditating,” Yu said. “It just changes the way you see your life and handle things that stress you out.”

Habib ultimately wants students to take the lessons and incorporate them into their daily lives. “The primary goal is to teach students how to be more peaceful, more mindful about the way they go about their lives, to be more self-compassionate and kind to themselves and also to recognize their strength,” Habib said. “I do want students to understand specific concepts and positive psychology theories, but what I really want them to do is to then take this information and assimilate it to themselves and to their own lives and really to understand that we live life choice by choice basically, and we have a lot more choices than we are aware of.”

The openness and the sense of community differentiate the class from others.

“People open up and are vulnerable with one another and they share,” Habib said. “That allows actual growth to happen and it’s special.”

Yu believes students who are more open to sharing experiences that they encountered will be able to get more out of the class. “Just keep an open mind and be willing to get to know yourself and other people,” she said.

Habib says students should take a chance with the class. “If they care about learning how to be at their best self and the happiest with their well-being, then they should just come,” he said.

Po si tiv e

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—Written by Elizabeth Chung

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Interior Design helps students explore their inventive sides while providing instruction in architectural design; students come away with real-world lessons.

“Interior Design helps students to improvise and improve their world,” teacher Cindy Peters said. “They discover ways that design inf luence their moods, environment and Co community.” ur te s Peters studied Interior Design while pursuing her Home yo fK Economics degree and has been interested in it ever since. Her ath lee class is heavily project-based, with students involved in activities such nJ i as using different materials to recreate a magazine picture of an interior space and designing their own interior space. “The final project in Interior Design is the students creating, drawing and developing their own living room and possibly bedroom design for a client they come up with,” Peters said. “Learning how to accommodate their clients’ likes and dislikes, budget and needs helps the students become familiar with their own selves.”

The course taught sophomore Annalise Rozak how to lay out a room and create harmonious color schemes. “We learned how the aesthetics of a room can evoke certain emotions based on the color scheme, lines and symmetry,” Rozak said. “We also learned how to plan designs and draw room plans.” These skills help prepare students for real-life experiences and professions, not just the classroom. Rozak believes she has benefited from the lessons in the course. “It has prepared me for the professional world because we spent a lot of time in groups collaborating on planning projects which is common in many careers,” Rozak said. “The skills we learned in mapping are translatable to engineering profession, and the technique of balancing color is good practice for artwork.”

According to Rozak, the students become invested in their work and are inspired to create more room plans and projects. “It’s also very unusual because the students enjoy the projects so much that some will work on a project at home, even though there is never any homework,” Rozak said.

—Written by Cassie Bond

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Cera mics helps students express t heir origina lit y while instilling skills that are used in other subjects. “It teaches kids how to be resilient, creative problem-solvers, fluid flexible thinkers, not to give up and to be persistent in their attempts to solve difficult art problems,” teacher Jordan King said.

Junior Sophie van Seventer enjoys the freedom Ceramics offers. “My favorite part of Ceramics is experimenting on the wheel,” van Seventer said. “You can incorporate yourself and your personal tastes into everything you create.” ain Sp King traced his inspiration for teaching this class back to when he h s Jo was in high school. “I was introduced to clay when I was a junior in high school, and I was immediately drawn into the material and it changed my life,” King said. “It was my ambition and motivation to make Gunn High School have the one of the best ceramic programs in the country.”

According to King, Ceramics is different from most classes because of the handson aspect. “It’s a lot of fun to make something with your own two hands, and that’s not something really common,” King said. “You have a good connection to your work and what you’re making.”

During most class periods, students have time to work on their projects. “Sometimes I’ll be demonstrating techniques, sometimes we watch videos about other artists and what their approach is, sometimes we have critiques where we lay out are our work and see what can be worked on,” King said. “But most of the time we are working on projects.”

Having taken art classes all through high school, van Seventer notes that Ceramics gives her the most control over her work. ”I absolutely love the fact that you can be the artist,” van Seventer said. “You can do what you want to do stylistically.”

King enjoys passing down his love of pottery to his students. “The most rewarding thing is seeing my students get excited, seeing them develop their own passion with their material and being able to pass on my knowledge, my experience, my passion to them,” King said.

—Written by Sabrina Chen

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Cultural Framilies: Relatio Turks find importance in long-term relationships

Mexican c

Katie Russell

Forum Editor Senior Alper Karakaş and junior Sitara Simons, both of Turkish descent, consider their relationships with others from Turkey to be as close as family.

Karakaş, whose parents hail from İstanbul and Kastamonu (both in Turkey), considers Turkish culture to have had a strong influence on his life and relationships.

“In the Bay Area, people are very diverse and come from a lot of different backgrounds, so there are a lot of things to learn about other people and their cultures,” Karakaş said. “In Turkey, though, everyone’s similar, which makes people closer and kind of like family. Even if I’m not related to someone, I feel very close to everyone.”

Simons, however, comes from a different background; her mother is from Turkey, but her father is American.

Due to her own experiences, she sees comparisons between how relationships differ between her Turkish and American sides. “Here, I feel like my friends come and go,” Simons said. “In Turkish culture, though, long-term relationships and friendships are much more important.”

Karakaş cites the affectionate aspects of Turkish culture as major influences on his approach to friendships at home. “I definitely feel like I am the person who tries to make it a more sensitive and emotional environment,” he said. “I care about my friends’ happiness, and I’m a bit warmer than other people.”

Simons has also noticed that some aspects of Turkish culture have become a part of her own personality. “In Turkey, people tell you how it is. If something isn’t nice or doesn’t look good, people are going to tell you the truth,” Simons said. “I think I take a little of that with me here, and sometimes it’s taken as me being rude, but it’s definitely a cultural difference that has a lot of positive effects but also some downsides.”

Similarly, Karakaş considers Turkish people in general to be more open than Americans. “If I were standing at a bus stop and some guy came up to me here in Palo Alto, it wouldn’t be very natural for us to just start talking,” Karakaş said. “But in Turkey you would just start a conversation about anything, and you immediately feel like you know each other.”

This open environment contrasts with Karakaş’ own experiences in Palo Alto. “Here you see that it takes so much energy for people to open up to someone, because they don’t feel comfortable,” Karakaş said. “In Turkey, though, people feel more connected and more like a family, so it’s easier to be able to open up.”

Simons agreed that interpersonal connections are very strong. “In Turkey, people check in on each other all the time,” Simons said. “Even if they haven’t seen each in other in years, they’ll call each other often. They’re very warm, and they genuinely care about each other even if they barely know each other.”

Karakaş views his place in both American and Turkish cultures as very beneficial. “A lot of people who have grown up here and their whole families have grown up here don’t have that global perspective on their relationships. The bubble is a lot more apparent in their lives,” Karakaş said. “My parents didn’t come from much in Turkey, so I see how my grandparents raised my parents, and how that compares to my life here, and what a huge difference there is from Palo Alto to İstanbul.”

Senior Alper Karakaş with Turkish family friends.

community

Mikaela

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Junior Sitara Simons and her famliy at a concert.

Junior Sitara Simon at age four with her mom and little sister in a tent.

Senior Alper Karakaş and his cousin in Eyüp, Istanbul.

Photos courtesy of Alper Karakas and Sitara Simons

Mexican culture is kn and having very commun Marriage can be consider tradition, something that s mother, Dennise Dalma, e The event was both memo life and perceptions of her In most Mexican cities a munal meeting places w and townspeople gather each other’s company. Pla the center of the town and lasting tradition in order to together. “What usually hap order to welcome the week start walking in a circle in plaza, and the guys will st direction in order to see o In many indigenous M portant for young women the same community; the help the young adults ach pen, the communities or “There are dances that the young people to meet each leave the town,” Dennise s people don’t need to go else In contrast, because sh politan area where this ritu married an American ma ized wedding. “The wedd where in Mexico you live, cosmopolitan areas are m indigenous areas have v However, one thing th mon is the tradition of ha “In America, you write o party is from 6 to 9, but if one would show up,” Den party will go from lunch on Because music is such an e in Mexico, the band, too, w “The mariachi band chor way that made it so they w for around fourteen hours iel Saal said. “The whole t Mexican culture can so American culture; howeve remained just as extravaga

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Friday, February 19, 2016

onships ACRoss the world Korean social customs emphasize respect Ryeri Lim

culture prizes

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Forum Editor Junior Jueun Pyun with her teacher and classmates in Korea.

a Wayne

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nown for being affectionate nity-focused love traditions. red an especially eccentric senior Lauren Saal-Dalma’s experienced in Mexico City. orable and impactful on her r culture. and towns, plazas are comwhere many street vendors together to eat and enjoy azas usually stand right in d have been used for a long o bring young, single people ppens is on a Friday night, in kend, all of the single women n one direction around the tart walking in the opposite one another,” Dennise said.

Mexican families, it is imn to marry someone within e adults in the community hieve this. For this to haprganize a social gathering. e towns put together to get h other so they won’t have to said. “Because of this, most ewhere to meet their mates.” he is from a more cosmoual is less common, Dennise an and had an Americanding traditions depend on ,” Dennise said. “The more more modern, whereas the very different traditions.” hat both areas have in comaving a party all night long. on your invitations that the f you did that in Mexico, no nnise said. “In Mexico the ne day to breakfast the next.” essential part of the culture will often stay all night long. reographed themselves in a were never not playing music s,” Dennise’s husband Danthing was very impressive.” ometimes be influenced by er, their love traditions have ant as they have always been.

Junior Jueun Pyun and her friends at a cafe in Korea.

Junior Jueun Pyun at age six, with her family.

Junior Jueun Pyun’s friends at a restaurant in Korea.

Photos courtesy of Jueun Pyun

Upon first contact, the semantic formalities of South Korean speech often frustrate foreigners. Couples who are married for 40-plus years may still refer to each other by respectful titles. Someone may show marked subservience to a friend only six months older. Yet with some perspective, a method to the mannerisms emerges.

This is perhaps most understandable within the family structure. According to Hanna Lee, mother of senior Young Hye Lee, one of the most important things parents expect from their children is respect: an attitude that includes honesty and propriety. Many children, well into their own old age, speak to their parents with a restrained formality. “We always use honorific words, not only to adults [in the family] but also to older siblings in some cases,” junior Jueun Pyun said. This type of formality soon turns into a habit.

The respect is returned with something particularly valued in Korean culture: all the scolding and nagging by parents holds unconditional support.

Support is also often prioritized in romantic relationships. Hanna expressed that she’d like her three children to date only a short time before pursuing marriage. “You can protect one another in marriage,” she said, verbalizing the high sense of duty and commitment taken on in Korean marriages, in exchange for essential partnership. Very few couples live together before marriage; closeness of that extent is typically interpreted as a signal to marry.

With this sentiment, social conservatism is natural in South Korea. For example, public displays of affection are a general faux pas. Couples instead claim each other through ranging levels of outfit “twinning.”

Some simply coordinate patterns—polka dots or blue plaid—while some match exact androgynous articles from head to toe. According to “Refinery 29,” coupletwinning is generally a way to share interests and grow closer. While individuals may feel conspicuous and cheesy at first, the matching “uniforms” convey that the two belong together. The underlying sentiment remains loyalty and dependability, two universal relationship goals.

Propriety is even prevalent in friendship; honorifics between friends or classmates of the smallest age difference are still significant. “When I moved to the United States, I was surprised that many American friends welcomed me,” Pyun said. “[In Korea,] there’s usually an awkward atmosphere on the first day of school.” Still, Pyun emphasizes that while the process may differ, the expectations are the same. “I think it’s similar to all countries,” she said. “Even though the Korean relationship seems difficult.”

These ritualistic aspects of interpersonal communication, rooted in generations of culture, are unlikely to dissolve anytime soon. For these formal words mark an informal contract: as such mannerisms create distance, they also guarantee societal respect for the institutions of family and friendship, and for the individual. Beneath the surface, they emphasize the values of trust and integrity in their world—a world which expands beyond national borders and even citizenship.

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Features

Science clubs display learning through hands-on experience Elinor Aspegren news Editor

For students interested in exploring biology in a new way, the Anatomy and Physiology Club brings an outlet. The main purpose of the club is to carry out animal dissections. “Gunn Anatomy and Physiology Club is to explore the beauty of life— particularly of anatomy—and the way animals are connected,” President senior Grace Kuffner said.

Kuffner transformed the club—originally named Gunn Student Doctors—to eliminate the club’s narrow niche. “I decided to make [the club] more open for anyone who is interested in biology to explore an important facet of the study,” she said.

Club member senior Erika McPhillips also joined because of her interest in dissection. “I have always been interested in how animal bodies work,” she wrote in an email. “When I found out

Mei-Yun Tang

Seniors Eleanor Su, Khoa Nguyen and Ricky Shin hold up dogfish sharks they dissected during a weekly club meeting.

that there was a club at Gunn where members could learn about anatomy through dissection, I had to join.”

The Anatomy and Physiology Club meets every Wednesday in J-4 and students carry out dissections to explore and create basic biology skills. “The point of dissections is to learn as much as possible about the anatomy of the animal, and that can’t be achieved without some work beforehand so club members know what they’re looking for,” Kuffner said.

Biology teacher and adviser Jena Lee agreed, adding that anatomy helps bring together many important parts of biology. “Anatomy ties together many of the big themes that we study in biology because the physical structures that we see in an organism are the result of evolution, gene expression, metabolic processes and the idea that form fits function,” she wrote in an email.

Both Kuffner and McPhillips said that they have dissected many fascinating animals this year. “In my opinion, the coolest thing we have done is dissect sharks,” McPhillips wrote. “The sharks were about two feet long and were very different from the other animals that we dissected.”

According to Lee, there is not just one exciting part of dissection; what makes it so intriguing is how it can connect to one’s own life. “Each of the dissections has been interesting in its own way, because the students can see how each organism has evolved unique anatomical structures that allow it to survive in its particular environment,” she wrote. “I like listening to the conversations as the students compare what they are seeing in one animal to the others they have previously dissected or to their own bodies.”

and activism.”

Currently, the club’s main project is on the containment of the chemical trichloroethylene The Investigative Medicine Club (I- (TCE), a chemical that is toxic to humans in MED) is a group of students who are dedi- the Bay Area. “[Hewlett-Packard] used to have cated to searching for solutions to issues in a factory where they manufactured electronic the science field. I-MED not only operates chips,” Yong said. “As part of the process, they on a local scale, but also in places as far as produced TCE, some of which went into the Africa. “What we do is we find scientific groundwater and underground pockets.” causes,” Vice President senior Katina Yong Their main goal for decreasing the threat of said. “After that, we look for ways that we TCE is to make sure people are protected. “First can change society for the better.” we want the city to implement revised building I-MED President junior Brent Han policies that will better protect existing and believes that the club is different in its wide future buildings,” Han said. “We have met range of affairs, as well as its action-taking with a member of City Council for quite some stance. “Part of what makes the club unique time, and have come up with a building plan.” is that it’s so versatile; we have to incorporate The interest in solving the TCE probso many different areas,” Han said. “We are lem is personal for both Han and Yong. the only club at Gunn that combines science “There were several times that my family woke up in the night to a burning, acrid stench in the air,” Han said.

“I wanted to know where they came from and what they were.”

As a side project, I-MED is holding a drive to send sanitation wipes to Burkina Faso, an underdeveloped country in Africa. “We have an annual hand sanitizer drive for my pen pal’s school in Burkina Faso,” Han said. “This year we’ve extended it to include more medical supplies, because we can’t ship prescription drugs Mei-Yun Tang or liquid disinfectants.”

Investigative Medicine Club President For those interested in getting junior Brent Han presents on the club’s involved with the club, I-MED meets medical supply drive to Burkina Faso. Thursdays at lunch in room L-2.

Paulo Frank reporter

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Sports BODY IMAGE: 12

ATHLETES STRUGGLE WITH EATING DISORDERS, DYSMORPHIA

when you’re stressed you tend to eat more. Then I thought I looked bloated and I needed to eat less again,” Qi said. “And that just really spirals downward because you see your body [gaining weight] but in your mind you think, ‘I only ate blank calories; I shouldn’t look like this.’”

When sophomore Jojo Qi began dancing in elementary school, it According to Cleere, this increase in stress and attention to detail can also cause a person’s was a form of art. The stage was her canvas and she was the athletic performance to debilitate. Athletes with body image issues will often end up feeling paintbrush, decorating the blank slate with intricate piv- fatigued, as they do not receive a proper nutritional balance and cannot sleep at night as a result ots and vibrant pirouettes. But as the paintings on her of anxiety or other side effects. Depending on the severity of an athlete’s disease, the brain and stage developed through middle school and eventu- physicality of an athlete could be affected as well. “Anorexics are starving themselves, which also ally high school, Qi began to dislike what she saw. means they’re starving their brains, so they can’t think well a lot of times,” Cleere said. “They Sure, her movements looked fine. But did she look don’t have a lot of endurance, their bones get frail and a high number of injuries tend to come fine? along with people with eating disorders as well.”

At around age 13, Qi, like many young ballerinas, beSo, with all these adverse effects on an athlete’s performance, why would athletes put themgan to strive for the “perfect dancer’s body,” but through un- selves through so much just to look a certain way? According to Cleere, athletes do not neceshealthy means. She started restricting her diet and consciously sarily attribute their poor performance to their eating disorder, seeing their appearance and calorie-counted to ensure that she could maintain the ideal bal- athleticism as two separate entities. lerina physique. “When you see dancers that are professional, For instance, when Qi began losing weight, compliments about her figure would further her they have got legs that go on for days and arms that are like desire to become thinner, regardless of how she sticks and you’re like, ‘I don’t look like that; should I look like felt when she was performing on stage. “Famthat?’” Qi said. ily friends started noticing and the parents According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), would be like, ‘Oh you have such a nice Qi’s case is not an isolated incident. Dancers are 10 times more figure now; I can see you lost weight,’” likely to get an eating disorder than their non-dancing peers. But she said. “That just made me want why is that so? In sports across the athletic spectrum—wheth- to restrict my diet even more beer it be dancing, wrestling, gymnastics, running or figure cause if they were saying positive skating—a certain body type is often expected or things, then you think this is obprevalent among a sport’s athletes. At times, viously the right thing to do.”

One in four female colthese sports can allow athletes to feel

legiate athletes develmore comfortable with their bodies, The Positives but for others like Qi, the aesthetWhile for some athletes, sports have op an eating disorder. ic expectations of a sport can exacerbated body image complications, cause an athlete to create an for others such as Maltz, sports have allowed unhealthy perception athletes to appreciate their body type and use it of how they should as an athletic prowess against opponents. “Before wrestling, I was always the slow, overweight treat and regard friend and I really didn’t have a lot of close friends to hang out with,” Maltz said. “Wrestling their body.

The Catalyst taught me to not only look past my body issues, but to embrace them. I finally found a sport Most athletes’ body image issues are where I could use my weight and size to my advantage, and where I could be successful even sparked through insecurities that are present though I was not the most athletic.” Since his freshman year, Maltz has gone on to win multiple even before the athlete first joins the sport.

Central Coast Section titles and competed at the state level for wrestling.

According to sports psychologist Michelle Horpel attributes the wide-range of success among wrestlers of various body types to the Cleere, low self-esteem and feelings of lacking very nature of wrestling: athletes prioritize what helps to win and not what helps them look the control manifest at early ages and eventually best if they can overcome their body image issues. “The beauty of wrestling lies in that it doesn’t translate into the more physical forms of selfreally matter what body type you are as long as you use technique tailored to it,” he said. “Wresharm that athletes exhibit later in life. These tling is a sport where luckily, training is what makes you have the body type you want.” cases, however, are most prevalent in judged According to Maltz, when a wrestler looks more heavily built than the other, it can cause sports that have an aesthetic or performance a sort of “intimidation factor.” But sometimes, Maltz says, looks can be deceiving because the value attached to the required athleticism, such as wrestler is ultimately judged on his or her ability to knock down the opponent. “If the smaller dance, cheer and gymnastics, in which the way an wrestler has more skill, then he’s got just as good a chance of winning as the bigger wrestler, and athlete trains and how they are expected to look are that reduces the pressure to look a certain way,” he said. often at odds with each other.

The pressure does not solely come from the judging Recovery and Hope aspect; it also stems from a desire to fit in to the perfect, Despite increased awareness of eating disorders and dysmorphia in sports, one-size-fits-all mold often portrayed in surrouding aththere is still a prevalent but detrimental stigma that questions athletes who letes’ physiques. In dancing, for instance, the preferred body have eating disorders and their intentions. For bystanders, the idea of an type depicted in media and often manifested in studios is lithe athlete damaging their own health is hard to comprehend. However, and thin. According to ballet dancer sophomore Kim Li, this stimuto transform from a bystander into a confidante for athletes with lates unhealthy behaviors in young athletes. “Most dancers are built like body image issues, Qi recommends that students support their everyone else, but when we see professional dancers, we compare them to ourfriends in ways that do not solely reselves,” Li said. “To get that body type, many dancers try stretching more often and volve around their looks. “Tell sitting in oversplits, but I also know of a few dancers who [your peers] something else starved themselves to thin out their body.” about their personality and In wrestling, the pressure to maintain an exact not just their physical apweight to fit into certain weight classes can bear pearance,” Qi said. heavy on athletes as well. “[There have been cases Once an athlete where] making the weight became more imforms a support portant than winning, and athletes would eat system, athletes too little, have no energy or have a messed For should receive an up perception of themselves,” wrestling coach athletes official diagnosis.

One in two people Chris Horpel said. Varsity wrestler junior Anwho are strugFrom t here, drew Maltz noted that wrestlers may have to go gling to cope with medication, therawith eating disorto extremes to ensure they can compete within their body image, py and other forms ders show signs of their weight class. “Multiple wrestlers this year have Maltz believes a change of recovdepression had to lose seven to eight pounds in a matter of a few in mindset is imperative ery can days to make weight for a competition,” Maltz said. to begin a process toward tran“Some have to sweat out five pounds of water in a single practice, while others have to reduce recovery. “I’ve been down the spire. their food and water intake to almost zero.” same path that they are going down, and I know that in the end, The Negatives looks won’t determine your performance As general body image and dysmorphia begin to take over athletes’ lives, essential and even as an athlete,” Maltz said. “If you can learn to use mundane tasks become difficult to complete. Athletes can become so engrossed in their rela- what you have to the best of your ability, you might surprise yourtionship with food, body image or training that their relationships with friends and family begin self [with] what you can do.” to wither. “It’s harder for people to be social because they sort of want to hide,” Cleere said. “They Both Maltz and Qi agree that eventually, it is the transition usually spend a lot of time thinking about food and a lot of time training, so they don’t always from self-hate to self-love that is most impactful in an athlete’s rehave a lot of time for social life.” covery. “You are the most important part of the process,” Qi said.

Qi’s eating disorder resulted in drastic fluctuations of how she perceived her body and her “So just love yourself for who you are right now and find other dysmorphia would occupy her mind to the point where it was hard to concentrate on much things that make you happy besides the way you look.”

Art by Joanne Li, Jackie Lou, Alexandra Ting and Elizabeth Zu else. “I started getting really focused on the nitpicky details, which made me really stressed, and Shagun Khare and Grace Ding

Sports Editor and Tech Editor

Sports

WINTER SPORTS

LOOK TO CCS 1 BOYS’ BASKETBALL (16-2)

The boys are off to a strong season, winning their first two tournaments and proving its mettle with a victory over rival Palo Alto.

Junior Sahib Gill felt that the tournaments against Los Gatos and Prospect were highlights of the season and boosted the team’s morale. “The mentality we had after those two games was really positive,” he said.

Senior Jonathan Davis saw their victory over Palo Alto High School (Paly) as the team’s greatest success so far this season. “It’s been a goal since I was on the team sophomore year,” Davis said.

Gill felt that the team did what it needed to do to win against Paly.

“The second Paly game, where we beat them­—we just played the way our coach wanted us to, and we just played well on defense,” he said.

However, the team still faces challenges. Chief among them, according to Davis, is keeping up a tough work ethic. “As the season goes on we get a lot of injuries, we get a lot of sicknesses and people’s legs just give out,” he said. “So definitely just bringing it 100 percent to every single practice and 120 percent to every single game [is our biggest challenge].”

Davis believes that the team will do well in the upcoming Central Coast Section (CCS) tournament. “We’re a really strong team, one SENIOR ANDRE of the strongest public school teams in the AUGUSTIN Bay Area right now,” he said. “I think as long as we stay healthy we have a very good shot at making it pretty far.”

2 GIRLS’ BASKETBALL (13-9)

The girls’ basketball team is currently 3-7 in league and 12-9 overall and will be competing in CCS later this month.

Although the girls did not win all of their games, they generally lost by small margins. “We’re competing in every game and haven’t had many games where we were outworked,” coach Hamadah Sharif said. “Our girls compete at a high level and don’t like losing.”

The team’s main struggle has been off the court. The team has had four coaches in four years, which forces players to adjust to multiple practice schedules. New coaches spend more time getting to know a team before understanding what strategies will work.

“Coming in as a new coach, nobody knows who I am and what I expect at the beginning so a lot of it was learning a new style of play,” Sharif said.

With a new team, the girls have not played with each other before, so much of the focus has been on fostering teamwork and friendship. “We have a lot of team bonding events,” Hake said. “We begin to communicate more and get more comfortable talking to each other about what we need to improve versus change.”

The team is also improving focus during practice. “We’re just really fun and we all love each other,” senior Asha Bacon said. “We should sometimes be a little more serious but JUNIOR it’s hard because we’re all friends.”

Consistency in games is also a goal for the TIAZHA JACKSON team. “We tend to come on the court and not know what’s going to happen in the game and throughout the game,” Hake said. “We tend to have ups and downs in energy and game speed, so hopefully, we’ll be able to maintain better consistency.”

The girls value teamwork above all. “At the end of the day, we’re playing not only for ourselves, but we’re playing for the other people on our team,” Bacon said.

Friday, February 19, 2016

13

3 WRESTLING (6-3) The wrestling team, coached by Chris Horpel, former Stanford varsity wrestling coach, has had an impressive season so far. The team is 4-2 overall in dual meets and 1-2 in league, with losses to Wilcox and Fremont.

Wrestling may be an individual sport, but all the competitors will be the first to say that they play a team game. “We are all like a family,” sophomore Emily Milner said. “Everyone is really close and supportive of each other.” Milner hopes to qualify for CCS. Successful in and out of league, the team has many rising stars with impressive records.

In the Bianchini Invitational, junior Andrew Maltz won in his weight class, adding to his 11-2 overall record with a 6-0 undefeated league run.“I had my first varsity tournament ever and ended up winning it, which was huge for me,” Maltz said. “It just really showed me what I have been doing for the past six years has amounted to something.”

Maltz’s goal for the season is to qualify for CCS and make

it to the state competition. “My goal for the league is to just do my best and keep working as hard as I can and be the best that I can be,” Maltz said.

In the Girls’ Harbor Invitational, sophomore Romi Miller placed second in her class along with junior Natalie Jue. Sophomore Emily Milner and Miya Miller both received third place honors.

The next stages of the season are the CCS and league meets. “I hope that we have people who continue on,” Horpel said, “They have to qualify for CCS by placing sixth or better in league [out of 15 teams], and we have a pretty big girls’ squad. So overall, I think we will end up qualifying a good number [to] CCS.”

JUNIOR THOMAS CHANG-DAVIDSON

4 BOYS’

SOCCER (1-13-3)

After losing their six top goal scorers, boys’ soccer struggled through a tough season. Many athletes went down with injuries as the season progressed and at one point the boys played without their entire starting defensive back line.

Despite early struggles, the team grew together and bonded after games, analyzing their efforts in order to improve in the future. The presence of many seniors further improved the camaraderie of the group. “We all know it’s our last year so we’re sharing it with everyone,” senior Seena Huang said. Head coach Ken Luis has seen his seniors mature and enjoys watching the end of a long run for the graduating players.

“Most of the seniors have played on SENIOR the same club team SEENA since middle school, HUANG so for them, it’s kind of a culmination,” Luis said. “It’s neat to see them stick together and play together for a long time.”

Toward the end of the season, the return of injured players lifted the spirit of the team and Huang believes players concentrated more. “Getting everyone back gave us a morale boost and it helped with our confidence since we were more invested in the team,” he said.

With more key players back on the field, the Titans were able to get their first win of the season in the tough De Anza League of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. Co-captain and goalie senior Denis Vaschencko thinks the team grew during the year despite rough spots, and the win was a result of their hard work. “Getting the first win gave us energy and brought us together as a team,” he said.

Going forward, the team’s future is bright as many underclassmen are set to return next year.

“We have four freshmen on varsity, and they’ve been growing all season and doing a good job,” Luis said.

5 GIRLS’

SOCCER (10-7-1)

The girls’ soccer team finished the season third in league but will not be continuing on to compete in CCS. The overall season was still successful, says junior Inger Smuts. “We had a few early losses but we were able to bounce back and beat the opponents we lost to [earlier],” she said. “That helped us improve our ranking and consequently made us a team that everyone wanted to beat.”

Junior Lucy Augustine believes the team stayed competitive throughout the whole season. “We had a lot of freshmen but we managed to do quite well,” she said. “[We had some] lastminute goals and underdog wins through a fivegame winning streak to briefly sit atop the standings.”

The season had a number of highlights. “[Los Altos is] one of our biggest rivals since they just came down from the upper league this season, and it was incredible that we were able to beat them twice,” AugusSOPHOMORE tine said. Her best AINSLEY moment was the game against ROH Fremont, who are the current league champions. “It was a hard fought game...but we battled for every ball and got the revenge win,” she said.

For next season, Smuts and Augustine both hope that the team works hard and makes it to CCS. —Compiled by Alex Dersh, Prachi Kale, Jack Mallery, Ariel Pan, and Tim Sun

Photos by Josh Spain, Alexandra Ting and Richard Yu

Sports 14 Q&A WITH POPBLOGILATES.N.A Inspired by a YouTube fitness guru, sophomores Ainsley Roh and Nicole Nemychenkov started an Instagram account, popblogilates.n.a, to share their progress in fitness challenges. The account expanded and they now share a variety of healthy living posts. To them, “Pop Pilates is a great form of exercise. It’s fun, it’s effective and it’s easy to do at home. It’s a version of pilates that is a little more upbeat and with a little more energy.”

The Oracle: What was your inspiration for the popblogilates account?

Ainsley Roh: We followed this fitness person named Cassey Ho on YouTube.

Nicole Nemychenkov: When I was younger I used to do a lot of sports, but as I got older I stopped. Ainsley introduced me to Cassey—Blogilates. We first just started doing her YouTube videos, and then she started her Instagram monthly challenges. We decided that instead of doing them on our personal Instagram accounts, we’d make a separate account and do the challenges there. Our first main expansion was when the official poppilates account reposted one of our pictures and that got us a lot of followers.

TO: What are some of the challenges that you participate in?

AR: There’s a lot of f lexibility challenges. There was one called Journey to Splits that helped you improve your splits. The Journey To Splits challenge was started to help popsters get into the splits in just one month.

Although this challenge requires a lot of dedication, it was very rewarding. Increasing your flexibility takes time, but surprisingly, we improved a lot, and surpassed our expectations for the month.

The stretches were hard and took practice, but in the end, we were able to get them.

NN: There was a certain pose for each day, and each day you would post that pose along with a caption. You would be following a whole bunch of other people with accounts like that so there would be a whole community of people all posting the same thing and all on this journey together.

TO: How would you put your goal into words?

NN: If we’re not doing one of the Instagram challenges, we post if we do any runs or specific foods to just tell people. If they’re informing us about their fitness, then we tell them too.

AR: We’re just trying to lead a healthy lifestyle, help others achieve the same thing and have fun. Our account is mainly about fitness, and through fitness, if we’re able to inspire others, that’s what makes us happiest.

TO: What was your favorite challenge?

AR: The first monthly challenge, the Stretch Project, was fun—it was the first one, we were just getting started and there was a lot of motivation. Cassey created this month-long challenge to do something fun and different. She wanted people to focus on flexibility because it prevents injury and helps you sculpt a better posture. She also said that you can get into “more intense workouts when your movement is not restricted.”

TO: How do you think fitness blogging has made you more conscious of your choices?

AR: I think that when we do an activity—like sometimes we go for runs, we did a 5km—I don’t think we would have done that before.

NN: We’re more open to trying new things. Earlier, we would have said no running, but now we want to try it. There are other people who we follow who are way more healthy, and they’re coaches or personal trainers and they post all the time about they’re doing, so we say, “Maybe we could try that workout.”

The awesome thing about the challenges and the instagram accounts are that everyone really came together, and we all saw each other’s fitness journeys along the way. We were all in different places; it ranged from competitive gymnasts to stay-at-home moms. And the challenges were hard for everyone in a different way, but we all worked hard to complete them and improve our fitness, flexibility or whatever else. Before, we all knew that there were other people working out and following Cassey’s program but we never interacted with each other.

Getting out there and exercising is a lot easier with a community or even a friend, and it’s often hard to do on your own.

TO: What would your message be to the Gunn community from what you’ve learned from this?

NN: I feel like it’s “don’t be afraid to try new things.”

Personally, with fitness, I didn’t think I would have anything to do with it later on in my life, but I tried it. Especially if you do it with a friend, it’s way more fun, and when Courtesy of popblogilates.n.a you have that community that’s supporting you, you know that you’re not alone and you’re not the only one that’s struggling with it.

AR: It’s just trying to be healthier and eat healthier and feel better about yourself.

I know that if I eat a bunch of bad food and don’t exercise, I’ll feel gross for the rest of the day until I do something active. I am a competitive soccer player, but I quit for a little bit, so that was definitely missing from my life. With doing the account, fitness and exercise definitely have become a larger part of my life again, and that makes me a lot happier. It can be hard to be motivated, but while running the account, there’s the motivation to post and stay on top of the calendar, because you do have other people watching you, as well as motivating you. And even while it can be hard to get started, I think you always feel better after a workout. Exercise is important, not only to stay in shape and be healthier, but it also helps relieve stress and maintain happiness.

—Compiled by Hayley Krolik

All photos courtesy of Ainsley Roh and Nicole Nemychenkov

Photos courtesy of blogilates

To find Cassey’s workout calendars and more tips from Ainsley and Nicole, go to gunnoracle.com

Lifestyle

Friday, February 19, 2016

15

2016 Leap Day brings new inspiration for festivities Leap Day Birthdays carry special intrigue

Anita Wybraniec

My birthday is that one thing that I can say in those “get to know me” ice breaker games at the beginning of the school year. When I was 6 years old, I remember asking my mother if my birthday was special that year. She replied, “Yes, but not as special as next year’s.” I remembered being slightly disappointed, but never fully understanding why my birthday was so different. I never completely understood the significance of Leap Year until I was 8 years old and finally able to celebrate my birthday on my actual date of birth: Feb. 29.

I always celebrate my birthday at the end of February, but usually not on a specific day. Every four years, Feb. 29 becomes the 366 day of the year, and every four years, I have a birthday. Because of this, on the years that my birthday does come by, it is a huge deal. Most years, I get a birthday cake with three candles on it, and a tod-

dler birthday card with my “true age” as a joke. Common misconceptions about Leap Year birthdays are their importance. There is nothing overly extraordinary about this birthdate other than the high degree of interest taken by others when they find out.

Most ask me the same two questions: “How old are you?; When do you celebrate your birthday?” and some go so far as to tell me that if I’m three, I should not be in tenth grade. Another challenge is explaining to children that I am not actually 4 years old.

All toddler jokes apply to me as well, and many times, I cannot escape the teasing and jokes for being the same age as a toddler. Aside from the small jokes and being made fun of at times, I enjoy being born on Leap Day. I remember being able to boast about how I could celebrate my birthday on both Feb. 28 and March 1 and how jealous the kids in class would get over this. Since as long as I can remember, I have really loved it when people’s eyes light up once I tell them my birthday, and how their fascination sparks in me simply because I was born on a specific date. While Feb. 29 may have a special appeal, it is still just a regular birthday for me.

—Wybraniec, a sophomore, is a Guest Columnist.

Entertaining ideas for celebrating Leap Day You have a day to waste. Live Action Roleplay school board meetings.

Safety first! Make sure you don’t hurt yourself in the process, physically or mentally.

Buy a JetBlue plane ticket for $29 using their Leap Day Sale, fly to Rome where the Leap Year was founded, stay there for exactly four years and fly home on the next Leap Year ticket sale.

Lie to a chain restaurant that you have a Leap Day birthday and pity them into giving you cake. Remember to act your age (toddler)!

Celebrate the fact that you don’t have a Leap Year birthday with a party and cake. Don’t forget to invite your friends and ask for plenty of presents.

S-leap the whole day so that you will have gone to bed on the 28th and woken up on the 1st, just like non-Leap Years. Alternate option: Don’t make generic Leap Day puns.

Play leap frog! It is by far the most productive out of all of the things you can do on Leap Day. Get limber and fit so you can jump really high over your partner; try not to hit them on the way down, and take turns because sharing is caring!

—Compiled by Alex Dersh and Kush Dubey Graphics by Joanne Lee and Elizabeth Zu

Hop into Leap Day facts

The chance of being born on a Leap Day is one in 1,461.

In Irish tradition, women propose to men on Leap Day. In Medieval Denmark, a man who refused a Leap Day proposal had to buy the woman 12 pairs of gloves.

Only people born on Leap Day can join the Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies.

Many countries have different dates when it comes to the legal birthday of a Leap Year baby. For example, the United Kingdom sets the legal birthday for March 1.

16 Revisting our favorite childhood memories

Childhood Bests Best Foods Dino Chicken Nuggets: Pretending that your nuggets are from the Jurassic era until your mom says to stop playing with your food, but continuing to do so until the last piece is fully devoured.

Candy: when your mom lets you buy one of the chocolate bars at the check-out line in the grocery store.

Best Toys Hot Wheels: Begging your parents to buy the buildable tracks to recreate the ultimate race like the one you saw on TV. Barbie Dream house: Having tea time with Barbie in her dream house—every 6 year old's dream back in the day.

Game Boy: The earliest generation of Nintendo DS and PSP. showing this to your friends at school made you the coolest kid on the block.

Best Fashion Graphic T-shirts: Showing off the newest Pokemon.

Velcro Sneakers: Being Too lazy to tie shoelaces.

Wait. I guess nothing has changed.

White Ankle Socks: They are making a comeback.

Heelys: rolling down the street with your shoes instead of walking, with trails of lights illuminating your path.

—Compiled by Stina Chang

finding the child in you 1. Watch movies and listen to songs that remind you of your childhood. Playing games such as Cranium Cadoo (the kids’ version), Heads Up and simple jigsaw puzzles makes you feel carefree. Watch Disney classics—“Aladdin,” “Lilo and Stitch” and “The Parent Trap” are feel-good movies that elicit positive memories of family time from childhood.

2. Believe in miracles. Don’t question how Santa Claus is able to deliver billions of presents in one single night; just accept it. Sometimes it’s easier to believe in the unbelievable.

3. When you are using your adult coloring book, remember that it’s okay to color outside the lines, just like it’s okay to care less about being perfect.

—Compiled by Yuki Klotz-Burwell

Graphics by Cheryl Kao