The High 80 by International School of Lausanne

THE HIGH EDITION 80 | MARCH 15, 2019

VALENTINE’S

GAY? Illustration by Quentin Bachelot

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Hannah Besson DEPUTY EDITOR

Suhasini Mehra

STRIKE FOR INTERNACLIMATE TIONAL DAY

BOYOLOGY

Will you march?

thank u, next

Miam yum ñam

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

read with interest Ms. Grabowska’s well-constructed article entitled “It’s Personal” in the most recent issue of The High. As the new Personal Project Coordinator this year, I welcome feedback from the students as I am always striving to make the Personal Project the most positive experience possible. I appreciate the time taken to provide us with suggestions on how Personal Project Week can be improved. It is clear that Ms. Grabowska found many aspects of the week to be useful and that students appreciated the dedicated time ISL awards to this part of the process. As Ms. Grabowska points out “most MYP students” in other schools do not benefit from a week given entirely to writing the report with support from teachers via workshops. Nonetheless, I feel it is important to draw attention to three factual inaccuracies in Ms. Grabowska’s article as it is essential that the current Year 10 group, who will start the Personal Project process in May 2019, are truthfully informed. 1. Students only “found out what our reports had to include” on the first day of PP week. Factually incorrect. Students were given the Personal Project Student Handbook in May 2018 and it includes the full assessment criteria for the report. New students who arrived into Year 11 have also had the student handbook since their first workshop for new students in September 2018. 2. “The aspect that they (the students) focused on most (the process journal) turned out to be unimportant in the report, therefore their journals and hard work did not provide any help”. Factually incorrect. It was explained to students during every workshop throughout the process that a good process journal is hugely beneficial as you can literally copy and paste entries from it into your report. Students were given dedicated

EDITORS

Liam Printer is the Personal Project Coordinator time to write process journal entries on the various ATL skills that are required in the report. If these were written well, they could be put straight into the report. 3. “Teachers should have underlined that what we have been doing was just a draft of the personal project report, not a final extended essay” Factually incorrect. During every day of Personal Project, both Mr. Anderson and I highlighted that “this is just a draft” and “don’t worry if the appendices are not perfect, it is just a draft”. This was repeated on many occasions during the workshops and in email correspondence with the year group. I commend Ms. Grabowska’s journalistic endeavour and having the courage to write about something that reflects the opinions of many of her peers. However, in future I would urge her to firstly make contact with the lead teacher relating to the topic of her article to ensure that what she is writing is based on fact. Her article and the feedback of current Year 11s will be taken onboard in order to improve the Personal Project process going forward.

Mark Besson Tom Secheyron Artémis Faulk Jade Tan - Graphics Editor

Khwaish Vohra Raquel Muzquiz Eleanor Payne Tanvi Anand

TABLE OF CONTENTS Valentine’s Day School start Boyology Surveys Procrastination Chewing gum Stress Readers response

03 04 05 06 07 07 08 09

International Day Skiing Rupi Kaur China The Boring Co. Strike for Climate The Last Laugh Word Search

10-11 12 13 14 14 15 16 16

OVER THE RAINBOW Danix Santos chooses love

nless you were absent or late,you all got to see an interesting and amusing presentation on the LGBTQ+ community on the 14th of February. This was based on the fact that that day had been arranged to be Pride Day . As some - if not all of you - know, the 14th of February is Valentine’s Day. The day where EVERYONE celebrates their love. Usually love shared with a partner. Now, I do not see any exceptions to that. No one, especially at our school, has ever said that expressing love between two guys, or two girls or whatever, is forbidden on that day. No one. So my question is why was the day arranged simultaneously with Valentine’s Day, when everyone just really wants to see the reaction of Rashid when he gets 15 love letters. Sorry Rashid. So, first of all, my question is: why did the LGBTQ+ society feel the need to have Pride Day on the 14th, effectively diminishing its impact. It never crossed the society’s mind that by combining the two, it would make both have less importance. Now you might be asking yourselves in what way? Well, some people, at least in Year 12, wore a suit or something dark. The society wanted everyone to wear bright colors. Wearing a suit, however, is something typical of Valentine’s Day. And usually a suit isn’t bright. If it hadn’t been Valentine’s Day, people would have focussed solely on wearing bright colors. Also, after the presentation, did anything happen for Pride Day? Maybe a parade or something? No. But guess what did happen; people handed out chocolates. People got love letters. People gave flowers to their loved ones. Generally, even though Pride Day had a whole presentation, I’ve only been hearing about who gave flowers to whom lately and nothing about LGBTQ+ awareness. I spoke with other students and asked some people about this point. Here is one response by a male in Year 12: “On the grand scheme of things, I do think that if we have a whole day ONLY to pride and there is nothing else big on that day it would have made the message from Pride Day stand out more”. Now, who in ISL, said that gay people can’t be part of Valentine’s Day? Basically almost no one in high school openly hates LGBTQ+ members and at least respects them. Nowhere is it written that it’s forbidden for LGBTQ+ members to celebrate Valentine’s Day. A Year 11 Male said: “Most people agree with the love is love idea that the LGBT community has brought up. I think that Valentine’s Day is free for anybody who is in love regardless of sexuality or sexual orientation. And for that reason there shouldn’t have been a need to put Pride Day on Valentine’s Day as it is generally accepted for be a day for any type of relationship.” This, by the looks of it, is the general consensus among a lot of people. Don’t get me wrong: we should be trying our best to make LGBTQ+ members feel welcome in our society, because they are. I am fully in favour of having a Pride Day. But by hav-

ing Pride Day on Valentine’s Day, you made everyone think the two were separate. That Valentine’s Day was a day that discriminated against gay people. “By having arranged Pride Day to be on the same day as Valentine’s Day it has conveyed the message that they are somehow separate. That Valentine’s Day somehow does not include the LGBTQ+ community, which it should and does.” said a Year 12 Girl. It very clearly does. If LGBTQ+ members at ISL did feel discriminated on Valentine’s Day why has this not been brought up with the school? Lastly, we all got shown a video about Pride Day in the presentation. Some of you may have noticed something at the end of the video. Something that may have seemed normal at the time. It said: “Happy Pride Month”. That would not seem unusual to the average human. Not to me. Pride month is June. Pride Day is the last Sunday in June. Not February. Not the 14th. Not a day with a well established and celebrated tradition. To those of you who want to say: “Oh, but some people celebrate it on Valentine’s Day” or “It’s not June everywhere in the world”, you are right. ISL holds it in February. That’s about it. Almost no one else does. It is well established that pride month is June. Everyone agrees to that. And yes I get that Phillip and Minnie wouldn’t be there in June anymore so that’s slightly impractical. So a suggestion: hold it on the 13th to make everyone fully aware of it for Valentine’s Day while not trying to upstage an established tradition. Interestingly, you may have noticed that some of these quotes from other people were unnamed. And to be perfectly honest, those are the only quotes I was permitted to use. Everybody else I talked to didn’t want to be quoted on anything. Even anonymously. It scares me how societal standards are moving away from free speech. How people are scared to express their opinions due to fear of heavy backlash from their peers. No one should be scared to voice their opinions, however controversial they may be. Because what good is saying something that everyone agrees with. Or is basically forced to agree with. No one expected Trump to win the election. Why? The polls made everyone believe Hillary was the strong favorite. People were scared to speak against her or show in a poll they agreed with someone that might show some character traits that are controversial. It isn’t going to get better. Hate speech is something that has recently come up as a hot topic, where many people have been calling to ban it in their countries. This article could be considered hate speech. And it scares me and it should all of you who have an opinion on important matters that we are living in a society that reminds me of totalitarian regime. Anything that was against the regime (new societal standards) would be shut down (punished for “hate speech”; there have been cases of arrest). It’s gone too far and we must do something about it.

SLEEPING BEAUTIES Kaia Grabowska snoozes her alarm

aking up in the morning is a struggle for most teenagers. The sound of the alarm clock welcomes us every day. We slowly open our eyes, turn off the alarm and go back to sleep - even five minutes make a difference. Soon we hear the voice of our parents or siblings, a daily reminder of how exhausted we are. Nevertheless, we get up and go to school knowing that the next day will be exactly the same; the same scenario is going to repeat again until the long-awaited weekend comes. Nine hours is a sufficient amount of sleep for teenagers, however, on average, a teenager sleeps only seven hours per day. This results in adolescents suffering from sleep deprivation, which unfortunately is rarely taken seriously by others. When I tell people I am extremely exhausted their usual reaction is always the same: they just tell me to go to bed earlier. But going to sleep earlier is not as easy as it sounds. Teenagers’ sleep cycles vary from that of adults and children, due to melatonin, the hormone that controls tiredness, which is released later in teenagers than in adults. This delayed production of melatonin results in it being impossible for many of us to fall asleep earlier, as we just don’t feel tired. The naturally shifted circadian rhythms of adolescents conflict with most school start times. A high school student at ISL says, “At 8:25, I am not fully awake”, and it is a problem a majority of students encounter. A teenager’s body keeps producing melatonin early in the morning, and therefore adolescents still feel tired at 9 or 10 am. Due to the delayed production of melatonin, teens are more awake at night, which makes it easier for them to work later. The amount of homework many students have makes it impossible for them to balance sleep and social life with good grades. Many wonder if starting school later would benefit adolescents, but people are hesitant towards that idea as they are worried that teenagers will end up going to bed even later. A survey was sent to students asking at what time they would like to start school. 82% of all 108 respondents, claimed they want to start school later than it starts now. When asked to justify their answer many students said the distance they have to travel everyday to get to school was a major factor. Plenty of ISL kids live far from the school campus and due to traffic have to wake up earlier. Starting later would enable them to miss the morning traffic and sleep longer. One-third of the surveyed students claimed 9:00 am is the best time to start school. Opponents of the idea said starting school 35 minutes later does not make significant difference for students. However, one ISL student sayid, “My train times make me arrive at either 7:57 or 8:27, the fact that I must take an earlier train and leave my house at ungodly times of 6:50 every morning makes me tired and unprepared for the day.” It is obvious that a school schedule is never going to satisfy everyone, but even a 35 minute difference in school starting time would benefit those who live far away.

On the other hand, there are people who prefer studying in the morning, rather than later at night. For them, starting school later may not seem tempting at first, but, giving it a longer thought, having extra time in the morning to work on homework could also benefit the early birds. Furthermore, it could give students the opportunity to start a day with a dose of physical exercise, as people who usually do not have time or energy for going to the gym after school could do that in the morning. Starting school at 9am, is the most appealing time for the majority of ISL adolescents, but it has some drawbacks. One High School student says it “could negatively affect parents not being able to pick up their kids from school after work”. This is a fair point as the time our school starts and finishes corresponds to the times in which the working environment functions, therefore it enables the parents to drive their children to school and often back from school. If school started later it would finish later, making it more complicated for our working parents. On the other hand, this could result in people becoming more independent as they would use public transport to get back home. Moreover, the change in the school starting time would affect the ASA times and be a problem for some students who belong to sports teams. The change in the school schedule would impact many students in a positive way. We often just need some time alone to focus on our interests. For most of us, the only available time is at night, after finishing our homework. If school started later, we would be more productive with our work and gain some time to spend alone in the morning.There are various ways, except changing school schedule, to help teenagers get better quality sleep. Nevertheless, giving students at least one day when they start school later, or changing the structure of homerooms, could benefit sleep-deprived teenagers. As an example, having two or three established 45 minute homeroom periods throughout the week instead of having a 25 minute homeroom every day before classes could make this time more effective and better for teenagers’ sleep cycles. By that time students would be more awake, therefore would approach homeroom in a more active and positive way. This would also give students an opportunity to start school 25 minutes later, which makes an immense difference. Illustration by Jade Tan

BOYOLOGY Tanvi Anand kisses boys goodbye

estled between various guides on dealing with divorce and surviving puberty lies a somewhat iconic book: Boyology: a teen girl’s crash course in all things BOY. Intrigued, I decided to give it a read; it was the best use of my morning recess after all. Upon cracking open the first chapter, I knew I was in for a treat. It lists the “fundamentals” of all boys:

individuals. They are just part of one group or the other,” said a male interviewee. “We all have our own mindsets, our own personalities, and you can’t change that. The ‘Grant On’ sections have some truth to them, but they’re not representative of all our thoughts. Plus, it’s creepy that a middle aged man is providing advice to teen girls telling them how to be appealing to men.”

• • •

This book also promotes harmful mindsets for girls who are questioning their sexuality. The book’s blurb states that it is “an essential guide for every teen girl”.

Guys hate shopping. Guys are really defensive. Guys are competitive.

I was hooked. This was comedy gold for someone like me who has no use in a book like this. I decided to read on. The next amazing section about the different “boy breeds” as all boys can be classified into eight distinct types, including the “tortured artist”, the “jock”, the “hip hopper”, and “the president”. I was amazed at all these categorizations and how inaccurate they were. There was even an interactive quiz to find out my perfect type of guy (I got the “tortured artist”)! The next chapter was even more ridiculous. It was about the perfect date with your “boyfriend” and the perfect playlist to go along with it. Some other gems in this book are: “How to kiss your perfect boyfriend”, “How to tell your Gal Pals about him”, “How to tell your parents about him”, and “Boy Friend vs Boyfriend”. There’s even a math equation that determines the amount of time it takes to get over a breakup. Boyology even has real-life advice from men: there are sections called “Grant on” where the author’s middle-aged husband (don’t worry, he’s a “teenager at heart”) provides advice to teen girls suggesting what teen boys really want. Now, this book can be taken as a lighthearted joke to most people. Even though the author had the intent of writing a serious book, it is evident that most of the advice included is quite far-fetched. “The advice can be harmful to some, especially people who are gullible, but people are generally quite educated and they can make the right decision by not taking it too seriously,” said a Year 10 girl. “Personally, I think it’s just a bit of harmless fun and people won’t really take it too hard.” “I think it’s stupid and messed up. It’s like boys are ice cream flavours and you can pick and choose which ones you want,” said a group of girls with stronger opinions. “I feel like some people won’t take it as a joke, and that can be quite bad. A Year 7 girl could have taken it seriously, I certainly would have.” The sexist ideas promoted in the book are quite far from reality. “This book puts us into boxes. It’s saying boys aren’t

“This book can promote compulsory heterosexuality, as it kind of pressures girls to get a boyfriend,” said a girl who identifies as gay. “If I were to read it in Year 7 or 8, I would have taken it seriously and I would have thought it is the only way things should be. The only mention of lesbianism is when the author jokingly states “the L word is love, not lesbian”. Opinions towards the book weren’t all negative. “I found it kind of funny at first but it also has some really useful advice and can lead girls in the right direction. The advice on consent was pretty good, and there is a part on setting boundaries,” said a Year 10 girl. “The author had good intentions.” Many of the people interviewed were quite surprised that this book would be in the ISL library. Apart from being checked out by myself, the book had never been checked out before. Truth is, not every book is manually checked by a librarian. This is to prevent censorship, and the books are picked up from catalogues and journals recommending the books to purchase. The process to remove a book from the library involves filing a formal complaint stating that there are issues with the book. However, the book does not tarnish the reputation of the library, as all those who were interviewed mentioned that the good books in the library far outweigh the bad ones.

Illustration by Héloïse Coubat

IN GOOD FORM Marek Cottingham asks multiple choice questions

ometimes the surveys we as a student body send are rather poorly designed, despite there being design students behind many of them. However, many of the errors people make are easy to understand and correct - thus improving the survey and the value of the data obtained. Often when designing surveys we are forced to make decisions about how to present questions. However, you might not realise that the way you do this can greatly impact how people respond, or whether they decide to at all. First off, if you send a survey to people where you couldn’t be bothered to spend time proofreading for capital letters, maximizing comprehensibility and removing the dreaded “option 4,” don’t be surprised when your responders put in as little effort as you do. It’s always helpful to proofread in view mode, where you can see what the survey looks like when it’s sent out. A common mistake when making surveys is to misuse the required question option. You see this most commonly in cases of “only answer if you replied yes to the last question.” In these situations, the easiest option is to make the question optional. Alternatively, you might only be interested in the survey responses of a particular group, in which case you can simply title your survey with “only answer if…” Otherwise, if you really insist on making the question required, adding a “not applicable” option is preferable. Despite the importance of these simple aspects of survey design, the content of a survey is equally important. Explain why you are undertaking this survey, including any way it might impact the reader. Careful choice of questions is paramount. Too often I see surveys which offer confusing or unhelpful questions, the most irritating being, “what colour should it be?” and “how much should my product cost?” If these answers really matter to you, sometimes the situation can be improved by giving the user a baseline. In the case of design this can be a drawing or model of what your product will look like or even an image with what “red” looks like to you. When using multiple choice questions, the choices should be meaningful, maybe look to add clarifications such as pictures. Google Forms actually encourages this, with an easily accessible button to add pictures into a multiple choice answer or into the description of a question. Importantly, the choices available should be balanced between being relevant and being varied, you don’t want to turn away potential respondents with a long list, yet you also don’t want to bias them towards responding a certain way. While you might think that adding an ‘other’ option avoids this risk, people will rarely use it, as selecting an available option is easier than formulating an individual opinion. Regarding other types of input, similar suggestions apply. Paragraph text boxes are a mixed blessing, often deterring a large segment of possible respondents, but allowing you to gain additional insight through unexpected answers. They also generally avoid the problem of priming, provided that

you don’t ask leading or loaded questions! These types of questions are problematic as they present a biased perspective, either encouraging the reader to answer a certain way - “How incredible did you find trips week?” - or forcing them to agree with an opinion - “How was trips week a fantastic experience for all the students involved?” While these exaggerated case might seem easy to avoid other means of priming are less obvious in yes or no questions, including the use of absolutes - “Do you always find PE lesson valuable?” - or double barreled questions - “Do you enjoy volleyball and football?”. These types of questions limit the accuracy of responses, as respondents cannot fully express themselves. Instead, use frequency scales - “What proportion of the time do you find PE lesson valuable?” - and split the question into each of the separate sections to tackle these respective problems. Sometimes in surveys we are aiming to get evaluative data, such as how much someone liked or disliked something. A few key points have been discovered about this. First, when using ranking system such as five stars or a score out of 10, people almost never use the bottom options except for the lowest option. Thus I would recommend instead using twice as many options as you want precision in your data. For example, if you want a scale with 5 degrees to distinguish across, use a 10 point scale. Another trick is when using liked/disliked scales. Often people will have an odd number of options, leaving a central “neutral” option. However, this can sometimes leave you will dissatisfying results, as many respondents will select “neutral” for questions they don’t want to consider. Changing the number of options to an even number, generally 4, can alleviate this. Finally, I come to the topic of voting. Often we use surveys for voting, however, all too often we use the terrible ‘first past the post’ system, where each option gets one vote and the one with the most options wins. The problem with this is that far too often the option that wins wasn’t voted for by the majority of participants. Instead there is an incredibly simple solution: allow people to vote more than once for the options they are alright with. Very simply, a larger portion of the group will vote for the winning option and therefore more people will be satisfied. Ultimately, surveys are about finding the right tool for the job as much as composing good questions. While I’ve talked about Google Forms here, it sometimes lacks features that you might want. For example, it doesn’t allow you to limit to a single response per person without forcing users to log on. Sometimes, you need to search further afield, as there are many survey tools out there and many guides on how to use them. Don’t forget that when in doubt about whether a survey will be effective, you can always ask a friend or teacher for advice or to check it for you, drawing on their experience and knowledge and perhaps ironing out the flaws you missed.

I’LL WRITE IT LATER

’m tired. Very tired for many, many reasons. I’m tired of the unstoppable train labeled “High School” which is currently running me over. In the middle of March, it is not surprising that I find myself to be one of many to feel this seemingly unavoidable wrecking ball inching closer and closer to my face. But, what’s really behind it? Is it simply the fact that the International Baccalaureate is made unreasonably hard and straining? Or is there another factor, somewhat hidden by some, but also acknowledged by many, which leads to ridiculously low amounts of sleep? Yes, you know what I’m getting at. Procrastinating. “A high schooler’s #1 pastime” as many would say. Problem is, it’s brought up too many times. Too many of us (this most definitely includes myself) procrastinate, and then repeatedly use it as an excuse. This needs to cease, explanation below.

For me, procrastination comes in phases. Sometimes, it seems simple for me to defend myself against this penetrating virus which affects all teenagers. My mindset is a positive one, and not many things can get me off track. But there are other times when quite the opposite happens: I get caught up with a Youtube video, or a random show on Netflix which ends up ruining my weekend’s levels of efficiency. Recently, I’ve realized that it’s my fault and my fault only. There’s no reason for me to try using it as an excuse. Because it’s not. However, here are some plausible solutions. One tactic which has helped me to avoid procrastination all have to do with the possible distractions surrounding me. When I am in need of an orderly and productive study session, clearing my desk and room of all distractors is my go-to. My phone goes to

CHEW ON THIS

s almost everyone at ISL is aware, chewing gum is banned during the school day. The question is: does banning gum make it an illicit temptation? Studies have found that chewing gum while performing tasks can improve various brain functions, such as alertness, memory, understanding and decision making. The increased brain activity is thought to be the result of increased blood flow to the brain while chewing gum. To elaborate, a study conducted by Schole, a cognitive neuroscientist, found that people who were chewing gum while taking a test performed 24% better in shortterm memory tests and 36% better in long-term. Other studies have found yet another benefit of chewing gum: reduction of stress. Chewing gum reduces stress due to the alterations that chewing causes in the central stress response system and the area of the nervous system that is responsible for the control of bodily functions. Dr Woods, a

neuroscientist is part of the National Institute of Health, concluded that chewing gum reduces stress hormones like cortisol and found from the results of his experiment that students who chew gum for two weeks show a dramatic decrease of feelings of stress, specifically in relation to academic workload. Nevertheless, the gum policy at ISL has been put in place for a variety of valid reasons. Ms. Secker highlighted some of the main reasons why gum has been banned at ISL, saying that “it would get everywhere” specifically mentioning that as of right now, very few people chew gum yet there is still an abundance of chewing gum between the North and South campuses which have left quite a few stains on the pavement. She further emphasized the reasoning behind this policy by recalling times when “gum was left on the seat in the auditorium, which is pretty unpleasant.” Ms. Secker also argued that it was unappealing and unpleasant to be around people who chew gum with

Tom Secheyron charge in the kitchen. That interesting magazine goes back to the living room where it belongs. My little brother is notified that unless his pants are on fire, there is absolutely no reason to come in and distract me. It’s simple: none of us have the right (as much as we want to) to say that procrastination is dooming our existence and ruining our IB Diploma. I’ve come to the conclusion that only one person really controls the amounts of procrastination which take place: myself. Clearing my nearby space is one solution. There are many others, and I’m sure that you can find your own answer to this problem. But please, do not label yourself a “procrastinator” and throw in the towel when you find yourself behind on work and facing an inevitable all-nighter. Your procrastination is surely what put you in this situation.

Ella Irwin their mouths open all the time, and that “as humans we were not intended to chew all day, we’ve evolved to be a species that eats a certain number of meals per day and doesn’t chew for the rest of the time.” Therefore, the gum policy at ISL was carefully considered and has been put in place to ensure a clean and friendly school environment. In many large international schools, gum has never been banned, and chewing gum or properly discarding gum has never disturbed nor been a problem to anyone in the school community. To add on, gum was never a priority in any of the students’ academic lives, which brings back the question: does banning it make it an illicit temptation? As a possible experiment, a trial period could be implemented, that would allow ISL students to freely chew gum for a matter of time, which would allow for observations of their behaviour and possibly provide an explanation to the relationship between gum and students.

PANIC! AT THE DP

he New York Times featured an article, recently, in which a psychologist talked about a simple, childish, yet remarkably effective trick she had learned from a school counsellor in Texas. Whenever students came into her office, frantic and stressed and unable to explain exactly why, she would shake a snow globe filled with glitter and put it down in front of them. Then she would say, “This is your mind right now. Sit down, take a deep breath, and watch the glitter settle.” By the time the all the glitter sank back to the bottom, the student would have calmed down, and would, in many cases, be able to explain to the counsellor exactly what the problem was, and, furthermore, what they thought they ought to do about it. Right now, our minds are all snow-globes full of glitter that have been vigorously and mercilessly shaken by the IB, our families, our friends, and our own irritating hormones. Whether you’re a Year 10 who has yet to face Personal Project, or a Year 13 who has weathered the storm and is just crawling on toward the finish line, high school life has probably tripped you up many times. This is particularly true now, as we enter the spring term. The school year is half gone, and, at this point, most people just want it to be over—and the knowledge that we still have four more months of tests, projects, essays, and science labs makes me, at least, want to crawl into my locker and shut the door. With major deadlines coming up very quickly for many of us, this time of year can be extremely stressful and overwhelming. That’s why it’s important to take a step back from the stresses of the IB and just take a little bit of time for ourselves. Now, obviously, time tends to be a luxury that IB students gaze at longingly from the other side of the glass—and I’m not saying that it is realistic nor beneficial for anyone to ignore their work in the name of self-care. But it is also true that, once you pass a certain threshold of stress, trying to push through and keep on working will only harm yourself and your work. So, if you do get to that breaking point, it may be worth asking for a small extension on just one or two non-essential assignments, and taking just a little time to catch your breath. And, even if you haven’t quite reached that stage, it can be helpful to snatch some time to relax whenever possible, even just over break or during the journey to and from school. What you do depends entirely on you, but, to help you along, I’ve compiled a few useful techniques to help relieve stress on a day-to-day basis. Here they are. Spend some time with family, friends, or pets. Humans are very social creatures, and, even if you are introverted or prefer to be alone, taking some time to reconnect with your friends and family can help you to relax. It’s helpful if you talk about low-stress subjects, like your lives, or shared jokes, or a new show you watched—just to spend some time without

Suhasini Mehra takes a deep breath thinking about your work. It can also be helpful to discuss your stressors with your friends and family, and get their advice on how to handle everything. Really, it all depends on you and your relationships, and what you feel most comfortable with. And, if human interaction seems too stressful, playing or just cuddling with a pet, if you have one, can improve your mood and keep some of the stress at bay. Engage your senses. This one is particularly great because you can do it on the bus, at lunch, or anywhere else, whenever you need to. Try to focus on one sense—whichever appeals to you the most. You could focus on hearing and put on some of your favorite music, or tune in to the sounds around you. You could hold something in your vicinity and focus on the way it feels, or carry a stress ball. Anything you can think of that causes you to focus on a particular sense can be useful, as this can help to ground you and keep you out of your own head. Work with your hands. Whether you’re an artistic person or not, doodling, sketching, and coloring are all easy ways to relax your mind, as long as you don’t start fretting over what to draw or which colors to use. Sewing is an activity that I, personally, find very relaxing. I’m learning as I go along and I’m not very good, but the end product doesn’t need to be anything impressive. It’s the slow, patient act of pulling the thread through the fabric, over and over, that helps me to focus on the task at hand and nothing else. If you think creative activities would only stress you out more, you can always offer to wash the dishes—some people find that this relaxes them! Get some air. We spend most of our days at school doing work, and then at home doing more work. It can be a great stress relief to head outside for a bit. If you’re a sporty person, then take some time to engage in your sport, whether in a team, with friends, or even by yourself. If you, like me, are more of a couch potato type, you could simply go for a walk on a day when the weather is nice. Or, if you’re really pressed for time, just take your homework to your backyard or balcony and work in the fresh air. After all, spring and warm weather are just around the corner. So, there you have it. A few tips to help you relax this spring term. I hope at least one of these is useful to you. And, if all else fails, just remember: our minds are snow-globes. Hormonal, stressed, chaotic snow-globes. And if life has shaken yours up a bit too much, and you feel overwhelmed, just take a deep breath and remind yourself: All you have to do is sit down and wait for the glitter to settle.

HIGH STANDARDS Hannah Besson responds to your feedback

n an age of fake news and controversy regarding the media, it seems only appropriate to take some time to reflect on the role that The High plays at ISL as its main source of student media. A survey was sent out recently to secondary school students as well as teachers in order to gauge what the community feels about the newspaper. Some of the questions asked were, “Did you read the last issue of The High?” and “Which words would you choose to describe The High?” followed by a choice of words including authentic, biased, funny, controversial, and pointless to name a few. The responses to the survey generally offered positive feedback: of the 66 responses received the top three words people chose to describe The High were “interesting”, “controversial”, and “authentic”. At the other extreme the three words that received the least votes were “offensive”, “boring” and “pointless”.

Related, in part, to the fact that The High has addressed similar topics in many issues, another suggestion was to “try including a variety of perspectives, rather than a very leftist view of problems here”. Mr. Foley responded to this comment saying that he believes that The High does “reflect the community’s left-leaning bias”. However he adds that The High has a “responsibility to recognize that bias and to include voices from the other side” as at times “it’s quite easy to assume that we have a very left-wing school, [while] actually some members of the community who are not liberal or left wing [...] have felt very marginalized”. This is a valuable comment and should encourage more writers with strong opinions to write for The High in order to represent those who do not share the liberal views of other students. Similarly, the debate articles aim to address this point by stimulating discussion of subjects from two perspectives.

The positive comments commended The High for addressing important issues within and outside of the school and for serving as an outlet for the student voice. Of course, there was some criticism. These critiques included the notion that The High is repetitive in the issues that it chooses to address, that most of the articles in The High are from a liberal point of view, and that The High is a platform that students use “as a gossip newspaper, to judge people and groups”.

Finally, a few comments reported that The High may have negative social impacts. For instance, stating that “It’s so pointless, it’s used to make controversial points that annoy people and cause issues.” Another stated, “It is clear that the most popular articles [...] are aimed at trashing others [...] Journalism within a school community should not be based on such an immature mindset.” While there is no argument that The High should not maliciously or personally attack individuals, pointing out social issues is a part of journalism whether or not everyone agrees with the points being made. Both of these comments came from individuals who stated in the survey that they only read one section of the last issue of The High: an anonymous submission by a reader regarding the interactions between year 12s and 13s in planning the winter ball after party. The High cannot be defined by one of fifteen articles in its last issue, let alone one that was submitted by a member of the ISL community, nor can it be defined by the handful of articles that have been interpreted as critiquing social dynamics at ISL in the past. The High addresses a plethora of other topics in each issue. Thus, while The High must and will make a conscious effort not to offend particular individuals, readers are encouraged to expand their reading to other articles available to them.

In order to gain a variety of perspectives, Mr. Foley and Mr. Ivett were asked to reveal their views of The High and to share their thoughts about some of the responses to the survey. As individuals who have been at ISL longer than most students, they have seen The High change over the years. One response to the survey mentioned, “We do see the same topics covered frequently,” and another stated, “[...] the articles always have the same opinions on gays, women’s rights, drugs”. Based on this latter comment as well as from discussions during school, the topics that people deem repetitive have been recognized as gender issues and diversity, or a lack thereof at ISL. To this comment, Mr. Ivett said, “It’s not because the topics are not important. I think it’s just that some people really don’t want to listen and I don’t think that should stop you talking about it… There are issues with diversity and there are issues with attitudes to girls. Only by talking about them will people’s attitudes change”. The fact that articles addressing these issues continue to be written is not the issue; the fact that they continue to be necessary should be the real worry. The survey can also provide valuable insight into this comment seeing as only 30% of people surveyed said that they read the last issue of The High cover to cover, whereas 59% said that they browsed through and read a few articles. The High has published countless articles that do not address these issues; perhaps they have just been lost in the process of people “browsing” for articles.

Upon reflection, The High as a student newspaper has room for improvement, yet it also embodies the freedom that ISL students have to be reflective, appreciative, and critical of their community. This is what makes journalism so powerful; by pointing out the good in a community the good is celebrated and consequently encouraged, and by pointing out the bad in a community, while less enjoyable, this invites self-reflection and growth. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, in Mr. Ivett’s words, “anyone can write in”. If you disagree with how The High has approached a topic, write in, be angry, engage in the dialogue, and oppose the arguments. Journalism is discussion.

t has become an ISL tradition to celebrate International Day. However, this day that means to celebrate diversity and the rich culture of our school has become a day for good and free lunch. The attitude regarding International Day has to do very little with culture, and more about what food people will get during lunch. While there are teachers and parents who aim to shift the focus towards learning about our peers’ backgrounds, they are often drowned out as the entirety of ISL suddenly seems to have not eaten for the past week. Every time this day is celebrated, the following happens: Students rush out of their classroom in an attempt to be first in line, and angry teachers struggle to ensure that everyone remains calm. This only works for around a minute, after which chaos picks up again, especially after people start to be allowed downstairs. It is rather difficult to learn anything while you are trying not to be crushed by your fellow schoolmates. Despite the many decorations around the school whether it be flags or items used in special events in one’s culture, students simply do not learn anything new that day. Of course, there are presentations prepared by the CC Club regarding the importance of internationalism or some facts about different cultures, but those are forgotten by the next day. Please note that this isn’t to belittle the efforts of the

Elif Civelekoglu students who have taken time out of their day just to teach us something that we may not know: one can, in fact, learn truly interesting things about every culture. However, due to the sheer amount of things going on at the same time, it becomes difficult to clearly remember anything. When asked, a number of students commented that the International Day is never about anything but the food. A student also talked about how “any activity done is either boring or we get nothing out of it”. When I asked students about what they felt about this statement, they agreed with it. However, it is important to note that the idea of International Day is not frowned upon, what actually happens is. The point of this article is not to bash International Day: it is an amazing concept, and it’s important to acknowledge that ISL isn’t only made up of North American and European students, unlike how it may at times seem. Of course, the people from these places still deserve to be represented, and International Day is the perfect day to do so. Certainly, there are areas to improve upon: which is to be expected as it is impossible to please everyone. Overall, it is a good celebration, which should continue to be such an ingrained part of the ISL culture.

THE DEBATE:

Photographs by Gabi Leach

INTERNATIONAL DAY FOOD

nternational Day is a lot about the food, but in food lies validation. International food fosters international conversations, and not in the usual context of economic development, or the latest racist incident. Instead, this one time, we don’t feel the need to assuage others’ insecurities, or the occasional white guilt, all the while indulging in a more literal rendition of The Hunger Games. Trying food from different places acknowledges that there are, in fact, cultures beyond the Eurocentrism permeating social life at our school. So, by wrenching multiculturalism into our lunchtime conversations, ISL effectively delegates promoting multiculturalism to everyone in the community which, let’s face it, is more effective than anything the leadership team might concoct. Many of us wandering souls create a culture of our own—some combination of where we come from, and the places where we’ve lived—and International Day affords us an opportunity to talk about these complexities and learn from our friends in the process. On top of that, many of us get a taste of passing privilege, in being accepted despite our atypical sartorial choices on the day, and our excessive knowledge of certain cuisines. This acceptance, without having to make ourselves palatable, is something only an international school can support. On International Day, our skin tone and appearance goes from being a part of us we cannot change, to something we can own and celebrate—not in a weird supremacist way, but simply in

that it doesn’t connote anything unpleasant. That said, your fellow commuters on the 22 will still stare at you like you’ve sprouted two heads, should your appearance be that far outside Swiss standards, so consider yourself warned. Maybe it’s unfortunate that some of us need International Day to give us this validation, in an international school, but ultimately, none of us are free of bias. Even the rather hushed form of prejudice, held by some people of colour against white people, is challenged because many predominantly white cultures have a strong tradition of food and drink (and apparently a boatload of desserts) which we are exposed to on International Day. Could we improve? Of course! But our generation seems to have an inclination to complain about everything, and be grateful for nothing, and here we are, at it again. In some cases, the ISL bubble has perhaps protected our sensibilities so much that we don’t realise the effect that some validation can have when we live in a foreign setting, and most of our peers or colleagues are from different cultures. In others, the majority culture in our school is perhaps our own, and we exist in blissful ignorance of such undercurrents. But really, International Day is a wonderful time for many people, whether due to its deeper message, or simply thanks to the good food, and exactly no one wants more assemblies about internationalism.

Pia Tiwari

A SLIPPERY SLOPE Kwaish Vohra stays on piste

t’s ski season again, and with Switzerland being the Mecca for skiers, everyone is gearing up for the mountains and the slopes. Winter tourism in the European Alps is largely dependent on snow-based sports, without which their economy would suffer greatly. Europe had an insight into this problematic outcome in the 1980s- a period with little snow. They quickly realized what climate change could mean for their economies, and decided to capitalize on the time they had. Winter resorts have been, since then, aggressively marketed each year in order to gain as many visitors as possible. This has also led to an increase in the average number of people on the slopes. If you ski, you know that crowded slopes are much more difficult and less enjoyable to ski on. They are also less safe, with the probability of collisions being much higher than that of an uncrowded slope. With only 3 people in every 1,000 being injured, skiing is a relatively safe sport. Having said that, injuries on piste can quickly become fatal; in Switzerland alone, skiing claims the lives of at least 5 people annually. While any number of factors can lead to an accident on the slopes (weather, equipment, avalanches) reckless skiers on the slopes tend to be the biggest threat - a mistake on one person’s part can lead to somebody else’s death. On 28th December 2018, a four-year-old girl was involved in a skiing accident in Lenk, Bern. She was hit by another skier on the piste and died in the hospital from neck and spinal injuries, after being airlifted from the scene. In the case of the skier that hit the four-year-old girl, they could be charged with negligent homicide, as they failed to foresee the threat they posed to other skiers on the slope, and it led to the death of another person. Excessive faith in ourselves and our judgment means that we often ignore our vulnerability to bias and error. Whenever doctors have to treat a patient that has injured their spine while coming down a piste (skiing or snowboarding), they often find an exact pattern repeats itself: the skier was going too fast, they lost control and ended up in the accident. It should be noted that one of the 10 point rules that the International Ski Federation has created states that, ‘A skier or snowboarder must always move in control. He/she must adapt his speed and manner of skiing or snowboarding to his personal ability and to the prevailing conditions of snow, weather, and terrain. He/she must also always be aware and take into account how busy the slopes are.’ Often, as new skiers begin going on pistes, they are unaware of these rules, even if the International Ski Federation deems them to be ‘common sense’. The rules can be (and usually are) posted at the beginning of a piste, but they go largely unnoticed. The rules themselves are simple and easy to follow; for example, a skier must pay respect to signs and markings on the piste. However, if the sport is new to you, you are more overwhelmed and more likely focused on things like

ensuring that your skis are not crossed over one another. This is when the margin for error increases and can be potentially dangerous for both the skier and the people around them. Another potential risk is when skiers become overconfident in their abilities. When we are skiing or snowboarding, there is a sense of anonymity we are provided with; no one can identify a person under all their equipment. This sense of anonymity, also known as ‘deindividuation’, reduces any normal constraint on behavior we have, and encourages us to do things that we would not normally do, like go faster than we know we can because we are not directly accountable for our actions. Once again, this becomes dangerous as we are no longer in control of ourselves, and if a situation were to arise, we would not be able to stop safely. The biggest risk, however, remains drunk skiers on the piste. In an interview, Mr. McArthur made the point that “There are a few instances when someone has had a beer during lunch and are under the influence and not in control. That will lead to a few accidents.”The impairment in ability that drivers face while under the influence of alcohol is not any different when skiing. In fact, many insurance companies will not cover the costs of any medical treatments if the skier was intoxicated at the time of the accident. Despite this, skiing is largely unregulated; there is no such thing as ski police. Mr. McArthur mentioned that the sport is largely unregulated. This is true, if on a piste, you were ‘skiing funny’, you would not be stopped and breathalyzed. While this is may not be the correct solution, it is important that we start taking this issue seriously. When talking to people about their experiences with skiing, a general pattern arose; when someone is learning the sport, they are taught about their technique, not about their etiquette. Yes, skiing may be a safe sport, but we cannot take this for granted. Accidents happen when we grow lazy and overconfident. A greater emphasis needs to be placed on the theoretical side of skiing. An average skier tends to go at a speed of 30 kmh - at this speed, if they are unsure about what they are doing and on a piste well above their level, that’s when things tend to go wrong.

Illustration by Artémis Faulk

POETRY #NOFILTER

apid, lazy, amateur: these are all words used to describe Rupi Kaur’s poetry. Boasting over one million sales of her debut book Milk and Honey, the “instapoet”’s work has attracted as much hate as it has praise. I took to book rating website Goodreads to hear the world’s most avid readers’ thoughts and, although Milk and Honey has a rating of 4.13/5 stars, it is the haters that are the most vocal. “It’s not poetry. It’s shamefully derivative and doesn’t employ any poetic devices except for the most cliched - and not to positive effect,” one user writes, stating a common criticism of Kaur’s work. Another reduces it to the likes of “basic tumblr posts”. Then there’s my personal favourite review: “So if I write my review like this will it automatically become poetry?” Despite the users expressing valid criticism, I think Rupi Kaur’s poetry and the “instapoet” movement as a whole occupies an important space in the media teenagers consume. We should also remember that just because something is trendy, it can still be worth exploring. What Kaur’s poetry lacks in literary merit it makes up for in the amount of influence it has had. Kaur writes poems of simplicity, accessibility and relatability - driving elements as to why she is popular. As people are quick to disregard the “instapoet” movement because of their overly simple methods of crafting poetry, they overlook the positives. Arguably, poetry has never been as accessible as it has been now. Often, art has the “dilemma” -- if you wish to characterize it as so -- of having two inalienable perspectives, that of the creator and of the viewer; it is near impossible for the two to have the exact same view-

Ellie Parsons busts some rhymes point as individuals, leaving accessibility out of the question. The simplicity that Kaur employs allows and even promotes accessibility. They tell simple stories that are universally relatable; they speak of love and of rejection, of youth and the difficulties surrounding it. There’s an immediate understanding between Rupi and the reader as she takes the struggles and thoughts they share and then vocalises them via poetry -- she manages to connect with her audience with nonchalance. Her poetry can be understood without any deep analysing, you understand the story instantly, though, this is a reason why people consider her a “bad” poet. Thanks to the instapoet movement, more people are writing poetry than ever before -- surely this is more important than sticking to the traditions of poetry?

The main goal of poetry is to move someone Our generation suffers from something I’m dubbing “the clown effect”. Clowns have a self-humiliating nature, but get away with it under a layer of makeup and the crowds of the circus. They wouldn’t get away with it without those two things. Similarly, our generation have adopted self-deprecation and get away with it by using it humorously on social media and the casual usage of phrases such as: “I’m so tired, I want to kill myself”. They wouldn’t get away with it if we took away its place in social media and our generation’s everyday discourse. If we remove the mask then suddenly mental health becomes a taboo subject. Kaur often writes on the topic of mental health and the simplicity of her poetry has influenced countless others to do so too. Expressing your mental health problems in the form of poetry as opposed to tweeting “I want to die every morning at school” is a lot more sustainable; Kaur has inadvertently given our generation a new way to cope with mental health issues. Who is to say Rupi isn’t a “real” poet because she capitalizes so greatly on the merit of simplicity? Does the complexity of her poetry matter when she has already achieved what arguably is the main goal of poetry: to move someone? I understand and agree with the criticism that Kaur’s poetry lacks innovation and complexity; I understand the frustration because she isn’t writing about anything we haven’t read before, and we are all aware of the simple themes she tackles. But as one Goodreads user pointed out, the best pieces of literature “reveal the patterns in the fabric of your knowing”. And as George Orwell once wrote, “The best books [...] are those that tell you what you know already.”

CHINA IS WATCHING

f you watch Black Mirror, you’ve probably seen the episode called Nosedive. If not, here’s a synopsis. Society uses a technology where people are rated from one to five after interacting with them. Your average rating is visible to other people. Here’s where it gets bad. Overall ratings determine socioeconomic status. In the episode, a character is not allowed to book a plane ticket because her score is too low, and another character was denied vital cancer treatment for a person a tenth above his rating. Sounds awful, right? Living in a state of constant paranoia, worrying over every little interaction you have because of how directly it’ll affect your life. What if I were to tell you that, in China, it’s becoming real? The Social Credit System went live in China on May 1st, 2018. It will be fully operational throughout the nation in 2020, but even now it’s affecting millions of people. The system, according to the Chinese government, reinforces the idea that “keeping trust is glorious

and breaking trust is disgraceful.” The government keeps tabs on the citizens through CCTV cameras set up everywhere. You can lose points through bad driving, smoking in non smoking areas, playing too many video games, and spreading fake news. And when you see the punishments they have in store for those with low credit, it’ll look even more like Nosedive. Low ratings can also limit travel. Nine million people in China with low scores were banned from buying tickets for domestic flights in 2018, and two million more were banned from buying business class tickets. Refusing military service can also ban you from China’s best hotels. The system can stop you from getting good jobs. “Trust breakers” will not be allowed to do management jobs at banks or firms. One upcoming university student was denied his spot because his father had too low a rating. Apparently they believe very heavily in sins of the father. In some cities it can even result in your dog getting taken from you. The city of Jinan enact-

ed a system where pet owners lose points if they walk their pet without a leash or cause public disturbances. If you lose all of your points, they take your pet away from you. Possibly worst of all is that it’s being used to repress the Uyghur Muslim minority. People can earn points if they inform authorities of Uyghurs who publicly pray or fast during Ramadan, which can lead to their detainment and to them being placed in concentra-excuse me, “reeducation camps”. To me, this is chilling. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if they named the system Big Brother and hung up posters that say “Xi Jinping is Watching You”. However, a few Chinese citizens that were questioned on their thoughts about the system thought it was great. One said that he felt that they were “already becoming better people”. Funny, it’s almost like if they denounce the credit system, they would lose points or worse...

THE BORING ARTICLE

n honor of Elon Musk hosting meme review, I wanted to talk about one of his other interests aside from memes. When most of us think about travel of the future we think of flying cars, but Elon thinks of tunnels. Lots and lots of tunnels. So he founded a side hustle called “The Boring Company”. According to The Boring Company, “To solve the problem of soul-destroying traffic, roads must go 3D.” The Boring Company has huge ambitions, claiming that “hyperloop” technology can get someone from New York to LA in just 45 minutes, but that’s a while down the line. The first part of the Boring Company’s work is well, boring. Modern sewage systems use underground tunnels to transport waste out and water into homes, but these tunnels take ages to dig. By the Boring Company’s estimates, current tunneling machines move 14 times slower than a snail. If

we are going to create a complex cross country tunnel system, there is lots of research and development that has to go into digging the tunnels themselves. Currently, they have the Line-storm, which drills 3 times faster than a normal drill, and another drill called the Prufrock is in development that will drill over 10 times faster. These drills will be used to drill the “loop” and the “hyperloop”. The difference between the “loop” and the “hyperloop” is that the hyperloop is used for longer journeys whereas the loop is for shorter trips. The hyperloop works by reducing air friction in the tunnel by creating a vacuum allowing the “autonomous electric pods” (yes that’s what their version of subway cars are called) to travel at over 950 km/h. Right now they are focusing on “loop” technology, and have already been contracted for some big projects.

Salim Markabi

McKenna Quam

The trip from Washington DC to Baltimore is around an hour and a half by car; in a few years, it could a third of that. The Boring Company’s first big project is a proposed line from DC to Baltimore with several stops along the way. The loop would have the benefits of decreasing commute time, clearing up traffic jams, being greener for the environment, and being cheaper than current public transportation. The project is currently in environmental review, so we don’t have a date to when the project will be completed, but when the project is approved, construction will take anywhere from 12 to 20 months. So, while the Boring Company work could be considered boring now, in a few more years we could be moving across America in autonomous electric pods in less than an hour.

THERE IS NO PLANET B

hy should you bother going to school if politicians won’t pay attention to the facts?

“School Strike For Climate” were the famous words written on Greta Thunberg’s cardboard sign. Following what was Sweden’s hottest summer ever, Thunberg started a school strike for climate outside the Swedish Parliament building, refusing to go to school until Sweden´s general election on the 9th September. Thunberg is a 16 year old girl with pigtails and she suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, OCD and Selective Mutism - not the stereotypical leader of a climate change revolution. “I am doing this because nobody else is doing anything. It is my moral responsibility to do what I can,” she says. “I want the politicians to prioritise the climate question, focus on the climate and treat it like a crisis.” She roasted the global elite at the World Economic Forum by telling them they were to blame for the climate crises and she delivered a damning speech at the United Nations climate conference COP24, telling climate change negotiators they weren’t “mature enough to tell it like it is”. She recently presented a Ted Talk with the title of: “The disarming case to act right now on climate change,” which if you haven’t seen I strongly recommend you do. Yesterday, she was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. But what are the facts? This summer, temperature records were broken around the world. There is no scientific debate about the reality of climate change. Arctic sea ice and glaciers are melting. Sea levels are rising at their fastest rate in 2,000 years. Global flooding could triple by 2030.

People did die, are dying and will die because of it Thunberg’s protest has inspired many young people all over the world leading to what could be one of the largest environmental protests in history, happening over 1200 cities across more than 90 countries, including Australia, UK, US and even Switzerland. You might recall the protests that happened in Lausanne across January and February, where 8,000 younger people marched through the streets. “I am demonstrating so that we can give ourselves and our children a future. We are the ones who are the most affected, we are the ones who will be alive in 30, 40, 50 years,” explained 19-year-old Alexandre Huggel (local Suisse).

Tindra Österling is melting “Planet hotter than my boyfriend.” “If the planet was a bank, it would have been rescued already!” Youths used humour and wordplay to get the message across on cardboard signs. Young climate activists are hoping to spark a widespread dialogue about climate change: “We have the right to live our dreams and hopes, climate change is already happening. People did die, are dying and will die because of it, but we can and will stop this madness,” described a group of youthled climate activists; they also called climate change “the biggest threat in human history”. Demands of students vary from country to country but a common thread among them is that countries need to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Australians, for example, are fighting against a controversial coal mine project and are demanding a full change to renewable energy by 2030. In the UK the demands include lowering the voting age to 16 which would allow students to have a say in their future. In the US they want a change in the economy including ending fossil fuel infrastructure projects, clean water supply where the aim for the public facilities to have clean water, and preservation of public lands and wildlife. In Switzerland, they were expressing their anger about the recently rejected revised Swiss CO2 law. The House of Representatives watered down and then rejected an amended law on carbon dioxide emissions during the winter. Scientists in many countries have released letters of support for the students, suggesting that the demands for immediate action on climate change are consistent with the latest science. However, not everyone agrees. Theresa May has criticized the protests arguing that it increases problems for teachers. Other educational ministers have warned students and teachers there would be punishment if they went on strike during school hours. Luckily for students there is a guide to students’ rights during protests and demonstrations including the fact that you can’t ban student’s political speech. “To everyone who cares about a safe climate future” today (15 March) is the grand finale global protest where students around the world are uniting to stand up against their politicians to show that the climate change crisis is a crisis. #Fridayforfuture and #Climatestike are hashtags you are guaranteed to see across social media. Students at over 1000 schools will be participating and it’s promised to be a success. Perhaps ISL students should do their own climate strike, since each year of our lives has been one of the warmest recorded. Extreme weather events, including floods, wildfires and heatwaves are becoming the new norm. Honestly, I would rather demand climate change action than go to school. Otherwise, years from now, we may no longer be here.

THE LAST LAUGH

WORDSEARCH

Jade Tan