the
l ion’s tale
News
see page 4
HOMELESS WALK: A GREAT SUCCESS
Volume 26 • Issue 3 December 8, 2008 • 11 Kislev 5769
Sports
see page 12
HOCKEY’S STRONG START
Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School • 11710 Hunters Lane • Rockville, Maryland • 20852
Reality check: indecent photos A picture’s worth a thousand regrets by Sam Greenberg and Danny Schwaber “It’s a way for people to have fun … you can get attention from it,” said junior Sydney Liss of inappropriate photos students share electronically. These photos range from pictures of students drinking or smoking to photos of students scantily clad or without clothing. Whether it’s through Facebook, e-mails, mobile picture messages or even videos, students share pictures of themselves they later regret having taken. Many students know that inappropriate photos can cause problems with college admission officers or employers, and some succeed in ensuring that those individuals never see inappropriate photos. However, there is one group students have yet to outsmart: their peers. Fellow students can also make people regret sharing inappropriate pictures. “It’s become a way for girls to judge each other,” senior Laura Hecht said. “I’m sure they regret it once people see things and it’s out there; they can’t really change it,” Liss said specifically regarding naked photos of students. Even once photos are taken off the Web they can be saved and e-mailed around to others. However, multiple students interviewed, including Liss, felt that there is less social judgment of photos involving drinking
See PICTURES, page 6
Teacher harassment incidents addressed by Valerie Cohen and David Goldstein During the past month, the administration responded to two teacher harassment incidents that were brought to its attention recently. At the end of last year, middle school students made a hate group against a teacher on Facebook. “A few different people within the school received an e-mail from a person outside the school community, alerting us to the existence of a public Facebook group, whose purpose was to spread inappropriate speech regarding a member
of the JDS faculty,” Director of Judaic Studies Michael Kay said. These students received an “inschool suspension with a learning component,” according to Middle School Director Joan Vander Walde. Kay said the school will have to grapple with questions related to appropriate use of social networking programs. “There needs to be a way to educate toward appropriate and safe social networking uses. We are working on the educational component right now,” Vander Walde said. “The administration doesn’t look into students’ Facebook accounts to get students into trouble. We do it because
EARTH, WIND AND FIRE Senior Cassie Maxwell examines a test tube containing her DNA during a lab in her Genetics II class. Students prepared their DNA to be sent off to the Cold Spring Harbor Lab for sequencing. Results will reveal students’ ancestral lines and to which races they are connected. There have been various other hands-on science activities throughout the year, including making Winogradsky columns and using dry ice to change the pH of solutions.
For more on science activities, see page 3
we care about students and want to help to make certain that they make good decisions and don’t put themselves into a difficult situation that could come back to haunt them,” Dean of Students Roslyn Landy said. “I would like students to understand that there are channels for them to go to within the school. They don’t need to vent, insult and harass people. There are people here who will listen to them,” Vander Walde said. In the second incident, certain students made derogatory comments about one teacher to another teacher. These students also received suspensions and a reflective writing assignment.
NETA’s effectiveness questioned by David Steinberg There is a question almost every student has confronted at some point: Does NETA actually work? Many wonder whether students learn more or forget more Hebrew in the Upper School. Despite its success on a national and international level, the NETA Hebrew curriculum’s effectiveness at JDS is questionable. In a recent survey, an overwhelming majority of students expressed frustration with NETA. In addition, seventh grade students and juniors scored similarly on the objective part of an identical Hebrew test administered to both groups, while juniors scored higher on the writing portion. In the past eight years, NETA has grown from 13 schools to more than 100 worldwide. A 2005-2007 study by the Henrietta Szold Institute showed that students who use the NETA program are progressing from year to year, whereas less than 50 percent of students at those schools improved their Hebrew between seventh and 12th grade before NETA was used. However, a majority of JDS students express
see HEBREW, page 10
Survey Do you feel that NETA helps or hurts the broader Hebrew curriculum at JDS?
21% Helps 79% Hurts photo by Danielle Levy
survey of 258 high school students