The Eagle George Washington High School 600 32nd Ave, San Francisco, CA 94121 Issue III. Feb. 13th, 2015 Website: gwhs.co Instagram: gwhsofficial Twitter: gwhs_official
American Democracy/Eco
American Literature
nomics
Algebra
Year 1 L a
uage
g Year 2 Lan
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ra English 10th G
Visual and Performing Arts
ucation
Ed hysical P 1 r a e Y
nguage
What’s Inside First Impressions In A Partner
Health Education
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es Histo t a t S d e nit
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European Literature/Expository Reading and Writing
College and Caree
r Face it: we’ve all wondered what guys and girls look for in their significant others. We surveyed over a hundred students and here are the results! for more, see pages 8-9
graphics by Stephanie Tam
Requirements Do Little to Get Students Into UCs BY ANNIE LEI
“H
aving many other classes and music makes high school tough,” complains sophomore Alyssa Woo. “Personally, music is more important to me than anything, so balancing academic classes and music is hard because you have different priorities than what the school wants you to have.” Woo is one of the many members of the Washington community that feels affected by the recent changes in the SFUSD high school graduation requirements. Changes in Washington’s graduation requirements were adapted from the San Jose Unified School District back in 2010 and started with the graduating class of 2014 as freshmen. A heavy emphasis was placed on the University of California system’s A-G requirements. The A-G requirements are meant “to give every student an opportunity to take courses that could make them eligible for a 4 year university right out of high school,” says assistant principal Susan Saunders. A second year of foreign language as well as a third year of mathematics have been added to the list of high school graduation requirements. Prior to the changes, only one year of language and two years of math were required. The additional year of math means all Washington students now need to take a more advanced level of mathematics, Advanced Algebra. Jean Nanjo, Department Head of Mathematics at Washington, says that math should be a four year requirement just like English is. She believes that “being literate in math is a crucial life skill,
just as important as being able to read and write.” However, many students disagree. 22 percent of the 137 students surveyed want to eliminate the third year of math, with one saying that “Advanced Algebra is a more difficult level of Algebra, which already is hard enough to understand.” Another surveyed student added that there’s no point in taking an extra year of math “because advanced algebra would only apply to those who plan on using it during college or future careers.” “Second-year Algebra includes really abstract topics like trigonometry, which isn’t very applicable to most people’s lives or jobs,” says Nanjo. But she also feels that the third year of math can also benefit students in the future because “it also includes useful topics, such as probability or exponential functions, which everyone needs to understand in order to make good decisions about things like investing or borrowing money.” After the additional year of math was adopted by the SFUSD, the most recent change to date is the addition of the second year of language. 38 percent of surveyed students disagree with the foreign language requirements. Before the additional year of foreign language, students were only required to take one year of foreign language, which taught the basics of the language. “Language shouldn’t be two years; it should be optional because it’s a waste of time, and interferes with other classes,” says one student. However, even with the additional year, Spanish teacher Kimberly Ellis says, “to really be proficient in a language you
need about five years of study so even two isn’t enough.” Some students argue that, “there’s no pointintakingalanguagefortwoyearswhen you’re going to forget most of it the moment you step onto the graduation stage.” On the contrary, the Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) department has constantly been cut down due to budget cuts, and more academic requirements mean less time for electives. “When I first got to Wash 20 years ago, the drama department was full time,” states John Propster, longtime VAPA Department Head, meaning there were three beginning classes, one intermediate class, and one advanced class. Currently, the drama elective is limited to a one period beginning class. The change that took place 12 years ago that so heavily affected the arts was when UCs started to require only one year of a VAPA class instead of two. UCs used to only accepted the advanced levels, which could only be accomplished during the second year of the elective. This requirement used to be the underlying foundation of VAPA in the SFUSD, and pushed students to strive for the next advancement in the arts, making the VAPA department very strong. Changing the VAPA requirement from two years to one discouraged students to take that additional step of advance to the next level of the arts. As a freshman, you have a choice of either taking your one year of VAPA or starting your language requirement. If a student decides to start on their language requirement, they must wait until junior continued on page 2...
Physical Education for All Four Years of High School
Some feel like PE is their favorite class of the day; others dread changing into that gym uniform and the forced physical activity that they have to participate in. Which one sounds more like you? for more, see page 15
Fashion Through the Decades
Trends come and go, and in fact, a lot of the trends we have today are based off of fashion from earlier decades. for more, see page 4