THE HIGH E D I T I O N 6 8 | O C TO B E R 1 3 , 2 0 1 7
Photographs by Eleanor Payne
WHO CAIRNS?
(found on page 8 and 9)
EDITORS-IN-CHIEF
Edward Fraser Amara Sarao
TRIPS APLENTY
LGBTQ+ CLUB
LIFE AFTER DP
Fundraising, phones, art...
Proud to be out
More than noodles
2
LETTER FROM THE EDITORS
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ou may find it slightly ominous for us to be printing this year’s first issue of The High on Friday the 13th, but we thought it’d be fitting as both Halloween and half-term break quickly approach. Although there may be a scarcity of scary stories in this particular October issue, we do have a wonderful lineup of articles covering a range of subjects for all to enjoy. On the cover, we have an in-depth interview with ISL’s new director, Mr Cairns. In fact, he’s not the only new name you’ll see in this issue. We’ve got a lot of new faces here at The High and that means a lot of new content. With each new writer, we haven’t only gained a new member of our team, but we’ve gained a new perspective, range of interests, style of writing, and for our readers, all new content. Continuing with the theme of new beginnings, we have a brutally honest view of the real-world struggles many of us face after graduating from high school, a review of the new one-to-one laptops, and a new round of suggestions for things to listen to, watch, and places to visit. Some may be reluctant to immediately accept all of the change around them, especially when it concerns things that have long stayed the same. However, it is important to keep in mind that with new changes come new opportunities, and ultimately we must learn to either adapt to them or be willing to voice our discontent.
EDWARD FRASER & AMARA SARAO Editors-in-Chief
EDITORS Fredrik Falk Giovanna Rojas Genta Hemmi Salim Markabi
Nick Jennings Tom Secheyron Suhasini Mehra Sophia Scokalo
TABLE OF CONTENTS Pride & LGBT Club Fundraisers No Phones Medair Venice Art Trip Non-MYP Students Impressions of ISL Introducing Mr Cairns
03 04 04 05 05 06 07 08
Social Media Mass Shootings Prepared for University Did You Know: Ms. Secker What is Power? Watch, Listen, Visit New Laptops Friends 20 Years On
10 11 12 13 13 14 14 15
3
PARADING OUR PRIDE
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ed. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Indigo. Violet.
These were the colors, amongst others, that I experienced in abundance early this summer. A short family trip to London in July happened to coincide with London Pride, and I had the privilege to follow the parade as it worked its way through the city. The streets were packed—it was near impossible to move more than one step without bumping into another cheering person with glitter on their skin and a grin lighting up their face. There seemed to be at least a hundred people packed into each street, and a hundred more on the other side of the road, not counting those participating in the parade. I remember darting through a rare split in the crowd and thinking, man, it would be so easy to kill someone here. A morbid thought, I know, but, in my defense—it was summer. For months, it had seemed like the only news stories to be seen about were the ones about the bomb in the crowded street, the bomb in the metro, the bomb in the concert hall… you get the idea. And this was more than just any packed street; it was Pride, the congregation of hundreds of people all celebrating a religiously controversial subject. Riding on the spirited high of the crowd, it was easy to get lost in the music and the laughter and forget the danger of such an event - but, in the rare moments of calm, even in the broad daylight, I couldn’t help the twist of fear in my gut. With acts of terror rising in frequency, particularly in London, would it be all that strange to expect the worst? For that matter, would it be stranger not to? Although I managed to avoid thinking about it for the most part, the tension lingered in the back of my mind throughout the parade, the suspense settling like a bird on my shoulder—a vulture waiting for something to go wrong. And yet—nothing did. There was no scream slicing through the air, no chaos reigning free as people scattered from the scene of a crime, no big news story the following morning about the growing death toll of the parade. This is what happened instead: I spent the day walking alongside the parade and taking pictures of everything interesting I saw, which, as it happens, was a lot. I saw people twirling rainbow-colored umbrellas and painting the LGBT flags on each other’s face, and not one, not two, but five different dogs dressed up for the parade. I saw a lady dressed like Wonder Woman, a man dressed like Loki, several people in feathered headdresses, Wonderland’s Red Queen, and, inexplicably, two women in banana suits. Not to mention the lady with colorful butterfly wings and the two men sporting metallic golden mermaid tails. I saw massive floats from supporting brands, featuring broken walls, inspirational videos, and, at one point, a dominatrix garden. I saw rainbow fedoras, rainbow capes, and so,
Suhasini Mehra is queer to stay so many rainbow flags that the following day it felt like the world was suddenly duller. The most, the utter most, antagonistic thing I saw that day was a young woman with green hair run up to a group of men carrying anti-LGBT signs, throw an arm around the leader, and grin into her friend’s camera, middle finger raised to the sky. The men didn’t react at all, only waited for her to run off and then continued the civil discussion they had been having with two parade-goers and a pair of policemen sporting the popular face glitter. That was all. I remember sitting on the plane home and wishing that I could bring some of it back with me—the optimism, the sense of unity, the sheer life of the people in the crowd. I wished that everyone could share in what I had experienced. And, as it happens, you can. As some of you may have heard, ISL’s first LGBT+ Alliance Club is being opened by two Year 12 students, Minnie Lowin and Philipp Geiger, set to run every Tuesday during lunch. The club aims to put together fundraisers for organizations that provide help to LGBT youth—and eventually start an annual Pride day for ISL—but its main purpose is to serve as a safe space for the LGBT students of ISL to hold discussions, have conversations, and generally achieve the sense of support and belonging that I observed at London Pride. According to one of our own LGBT members of The High, another major function of the club should include the spread of awareness and education about the LGBT community— because the general population of ISL, as she puts it, hasn’t the slightest clue about any of it. So, whether you’re LGBT, know someone who is, or generally want to learn more or help out, drop by the venue (once it’s announced) after the break, and help Minnie and Philipp bring some of that life and color into ISL. Photograph by Suhasini Mehra
4
FRANCLY, MY DEAR
A
s the school year rolls into October, we gradually get warmer in our seats and can start to feel the pressure mounting. Those of us who dared sign up for one of the service trips at ISL can be seen running around the campus organising one fundraiser after another, in an attempt to amass the target amount of money. This money will soon go to the betterment of a community in need. Now, while this is a wonderful thing in itself, if one stops to think about it, one might begin to wonder where this money comes from, since these fundraisers do all seem to be done around school. The answer, of course, is us. The truth is that the thousands of dollars that go to Cambodia and Tanzania come straight from our parents’ pockets. This is not such an unpleasant thought, since if you have a roof over your head and food in your stomach, you are better off than over 4 billion people around the world and can probably afford to lend a hand to those who can’t say the same. Yet, am I alone in thinking that these trips are not only an outreach from the ISL community, but also provide others from the broader Swiss community with the chance to be a part of something bigger? Rather than a few of us grudgingly dishing out weighty donations, wouldn’t it be a better and more wholesome experience if we knew that every franc we raised came with the good intentions of someone wanting to
Pia Tiwari
change the world in the small way that they can? Being a part of numerous fundraisers for Tanzania myself, I noticed that even those of us who signed up to go, treated the planning and fundraising as tasks to be ticked off and hours to be clocked, instead of going through with the promises we made with any level of enthusiasm. And here, I, too, will admit that after a week out of homeroom and three without a hot lunch, I was incensed. But while reflecting on the trip for CAS, I realized something. For the first time in my life, I was doing something for someone else with nothing to gain. For once, instead of throwing money at others’ problems like we all do through service and charity, I was taking time out of my own busy schedule and helping people where they were unable to help themselves. It was a good feeling. So my message here is that those of us involved in a service trip, whether it is by spending three francs to rickroll the entire cafeteria, or spending months meticulously planning what we are going to do on the trip, we should be proud of ourselves, and that whenever we are given a chance to do so, we should spread the love and share this feeling of warmth, happiness and accomplishment. Because, thanks to you, someone somewhere is getting a chance to live a life worth living.
NO SIGNAL ON TRIPS
A
new rule was implemented this year for the September field trips. The school added new restrictions to some of the year’s trips: years 7-11 were not allowed to bring phones on their trips. Some people were upset, wondering how they were going to occupy their time, while others were frustrated at the thought of their ‘streaks’ being lost. Some resigned themselves to the fact that the school said they couldn’t bring them, so they wouldn’t. However, a surprising number of people disregarded the rules and brought their phones along anyways. A survey was sent to all years that were forbidden to bring phones on their trips. Out of the data collected, 16% said they did bring their phones. Some simply brought them to keep up with social media, some brought them to listen to music on the bus, and some to call their parents when they got back. One or two said they brought it because they thought it was just a stupid rule and that “teachers must adapt
to the technological advances.” So why was this ban put in place to begin with? “Previously, when phones were permitted on trips, we found that whenever the students were given free time – to socialize and get to know one another better – they disappeared into their phones and that opportunity for peer interaction was gone,” says Mr. Kirby. “We did have a policy in the past of allowing students to use their phones for limited times (half an hour or so), but these were the times when they had the chance to socialize, so it seemed illogical to do this.” Even though we may complain about the ban, our teachers may have been doing us more of a favor with disconnecting us from our phones than we think. A recent study showed that teens spend over 9 hours a day on screens. A few kids said they brought phones because they “they needed them”. Getting addicted like this to a phone can im-
Salim Markabi
pede a person’s ability to concentrate and to focus, both of which seriously affect how much one learns at school. Electronics also produce something known as ‘blue light’, which may stop the brain from producing melatonin, a hormone that allows you to sleep. Blue light can also disrupt hormones that control hunger, which can lead to obesity. Prolonged exposure to blue light from the screens can leave you at risk for cataracts, depression and even breast or prostate cancer. “Basically, people need a break from technology and a four day period away from it is a positive thing,” says Mr. Kirby. “From my personal experience, the sight of Year 10 students playing tennis, volleyball, football-tennis, basketball and playing the piano during their free time was a real pleasure…and a very different sight to a year ago, when students sat zombie-like staring at mini screens.”
5
DRAMATIC EXPERIENCE
F
or those who know what a drama class taught by Mr. Fessler holds, you surely know that it seems to be an unstoppable ride of surprises. Once again, it feels like another year of drama is bringing another year of excitement for all students involved. The latest example? A morning field trip on October 27th to help out Medair, a humanitarian organization that vows to serve on the some of the planet’s worst conditions in order to help people that have been affected by oppression, natural disasters, or even war. At the end of the month of September, all Year 11 Drama students got to participate in a simulation that would greatly influence what type of employees would work for Medair in different parts of the world. The students were taken out to the Jura forest (heading towards the French border) by bus and were all given vague roles, but the goal was to represent a refugee camp in the middle of nowhere: starvation, desperation, sadness, grief, and many negative emotions had to be on display. Helped out by some guides, Mr. Fessler, and a few props, the students were to welcome potential Medair employees, not only for them to see if the job was a good fit, but also to get a feel for a real, disturbing, post-trauma scenario. In addition to being a huge benefit for Medair, this simulation also made the drama students practice their acting. Talk about killing two birds with one stone… Four different groups of five to eight potential staff members showed up in 15-min-
ute intervals. On average, they stayed inside the camp for about 10 minutes, which meant that the students were in full action for those ten minutes, before a five-minute debrief with Mr. Fessler and the guides. This created a fast-paced environment for the Year 11s, somewhat simulating a play. The funniest moment of the excursion came when the second group had to come into the camp. The students were all so enthusiastic that it became too scary for many of the future representatives of Medair: the group could not muster up the courage to enter the daunting environment. By combining screams, worried looks, begging, and an overall feeling of desperation before the official entrance of the camp, this poor second group became the joke of the field trip. When asked why he was so keen on making this field trip happen, Mr. Fessler said: “It’s really important to support a local organization, and the fact that the students get to see what it’s really like, it’s an eye opener for them. And mainly, it’s a lot of fun.” Overall, the student reaction was a very positive one: none seemed mad to have missed part of a day of a school. Elliot Turner, who was one of few first-timers of the simulation and the camp leader for the morning of the simulation seemed very enthusiastic: “Overtime I began to feel like the real leader of the camp trying to feed my family, not like I was simulating.” After a bit of investigating, it looks like it was a successful day for the Year 11 Drama students.
VENI, VIDI, VENICE
W
hilst some of the high school students were sitting in a stuffy room taking their SAT’S, I was in Venice, with 5 other visual arts students in my year. Around January of this year, I asked Ms. Hannell if it would be possible to do a visual arts trip. She said she’d consider it, and after a lot of hard work, perseverance and dedication on her part, we were getting on a train last Friday morning on our way to Venice. We were lucky to have both Ms. Hannell and Mr. Fazan on the trip, which made it the perfect balance of humour and interesting conversation. The train ride was 6 hours, and around 2pm we arrived in the heart of Venice. For those of you who haven’t been to Venice, it’s a city full of culture, canals and art. So. Much. Art. Galleries at every corner, Gelato galore and Venetian masks by the hundreds compose the city’s soul. The architecture is unique to its location, and the second we stepped out of the train station we could feel the vibes of the bustling city. We visit-
Tom Secheyron
ed Damien Hirst’s exhibition after we had dropped off our bags at the hotel. The Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable was an incredible exhibition, with a combination of film, sketches and sculpture. This was almost 10 years in the making, and the concept followed the recovery of items from a shipwreck (The Unbelieveable). There were items from across cultures and time periods, which really did make the exhibition unbelievable. The next two days were filled with installation pieces 10 times my size and works unlike anything you could imagine. The Biennale was incredible, and for those of you who love art as much as I do, I highly recommend going. The trip not only inspired me to start planning more installation pieces for my final exhibition, but it also brought the group together. It was such a wonderful experience, and I hope ISL continues to take the visual arts students on this trip. Thank you Ms. Hannell and Mr. Fazan for the endless laughs and good company!
Sophia Scokalo
6
MYPREDICAMENT Raquel Muzquiz is thrown in at the DP end
E
veryone knows the feeling of being new to a school. Some of you may not remember it because you’ve been at ISL for almost your whole life, but most of you will, and most of you will remember the horrible feeling of being completely disoriented the first few days, weeks or months at school. Socially it gets better. You meet people, make new friends, go to parties, have fun, etc. But academically? Does it really get better? Well, obviously it does, but it’s extremely hard, especially when you come to ISL in year 12, and you come from a school which didn’t have MYP. Personally, the first few weeks, and even now I find it really hard to get the hang of it and keep up with the class in some subjects.
Students do not want their teachers to think that they are stupid.
I think the main issue for new students is that they want to make a good impression and they don’t want the rest of the students, or the teachers to think that they are stupid.This is very important to individuals because it determines how people think you are and how they see you. For this reason, new students prefer to keep quiet during class, go home, and do a lot of catching up, which isn’t good. I thought it would be interesting to see this from a teacher’s point of view and interviewed the DP coordinator, Mr Alexander, and asked him a few questions about this topic. He said, “I think there is often an
assumption on the teacher’s part that if the students are quiet, that they understand what’s being presented to them. Generally as a teacher, I only realise that there’s a gap in knowledge when a student raises their hand and says, ‘What does IA stand for?’”. Don’t get me wrong, I feel like ISL has amazing teachers, but at times, when I’m being explained some concepts in class like Paper 1 or IAs, I don’t understand a thing, and because the teacher already assumes everyone to know what it is, we, new kids, are left at a disadvantage. Mr Alexander made me realise that this happens to everyone, even teachers; “To be honest, I was actually at a work shop once with teachers, when one of them raised their hands in the first session and said, “Excuse me, what does IB stand for?”. It’s only when someone says something like that, that you realise that they don’t know”, he said. When we were handed our calculators for math none of us knew how to use them, and we had to get help from students because our teachers moved on, to avoid slowing down the pace (which is totally understandable, don’t get me wrong, but it’s very hard for us to keep up if we barely have help). When we do our first test or hand in our first assignment, it’s hard for us to get a good grade, because we don’t know what to say or write to be able to get full marks, or how the marking system works because no one has explained it to us before. I feel like even though we can look at this from a negative point of view, teachers also love having new students in their class. Mr Alexander said, “I love having new students in the class, because I think they add new perspectives and they can contribute a lot to the community as well. I enjoy having them in class, mainly for what they can offer that other students in the past can build on”.
A student’s transition to ISL also depends what program you are coming from (country’s national system, or GCSE). GCSE is a system which a lot of students who come into ISL have done in their old schools. These systems are very different to the ones they offer at ISL and their essays have a different structure, the grading system is different, and most importantly, the language is also different. I feel like there are some aspects which teachers at ISL can’t do anything about, like the change in language, but I would definitely say that helping new students on things like essay writing and giving them guidance on some assignments would put them on the same level as everyone else.
“New students add new perspectives and contribute a lot to the community” So, in a nutshell, my point here isn’t to criticize or say that teachers don’t care about new students, but I want to point out, that it’s really hard for us to be at the level of the other students who have been here for the past few years. At times, it makes us really happy to have someone who explains everything, resumed, but that can be understood. We know we have to work hard, and we know we have to study, but we have to learn how to do so correctly.
7
SOMEONE OLD, SOMEONE NEW
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n 2015, ISL introduced a brand-new addition to the school: the South Campus, a 3-story state-of-the-art building equipped with updated technology, a snack bar for the students, and a world class auditorium! It allowed the school to double in size and prestige and created a building solely focused on science and the arts. In terms of school facilities, the South Campus has had a tremendous impact on ISL. But what else has this expansion lead to? In August 2015, more than 200 new students and teachers started school at ISL, expanding the school population by almost 50%. Year groups went from having two homerooms per year to four. Classes dramatically increased in size, and all of a sudden there were hundreds of more faces to see walking by in the hallways. Some could say that’s “hundreds of more friends to make.” Since the expansion, ISL just kept growing and new students kept arriving, and not everyone is happy about it. Lately, I have noticed that people have very mixed opinions on the expansion and on ISL in general. I’ve heard people applaud the expansion for allowing them to make strong connections with new students, while others have said that it destroyed the tight-knit community that was established years ago. I have found that typically the students who have been at ISL for years, and witnessed the change from before and after the expansion, have strong opinions on its negative effect on the school. One student I talked to, who has been at ISL since primary and lived through the expansion, said that for her, the biggest change it brought was the dramatic increase in students and how that caused old friendships and school unity to be distanced. She told me that she felt that ISL was a “community” before and that “everyone from all ages
Maddie Johns is somewhat blue
knew each other”. However, she now thinks that community atmosphere is lost, and even says that she “doesn’t know if she likes the expansion all that much”.
these designated times of new-student introduction, I found myself alone. My classmates seemed irritated with all of the new students, not excited for their arrival.
I heard similar ideas from another student who has been at ISL for 5 years. He told me that before all of the new students came, there was much more of a “family-feel” at school. He explained that students from all years were a lot closer as a unit and that it was easy to know everyone’s name. Now, he says that “the idea that everyone knows each other is completely lost” and instead cliques of friends are much more common than unified year groups.
Now, two years after ISL doubled in size, I can still see this reluctant attitude persisting amongst the ISL “veterans”. My peers still bring up their frustration in how big the school has gotten and the lack of unity amongst the student body. But for a new student this year, what was it like joining ISL?
Despite these opinions, I also discussed this with a student who has been at ISL for 10 years. She told me that although the expansion radically changed the dynamics at school, she thinks it was worth it because she got to meet so many new people. “Without the expansion”, she says, “I would have never been able to meet the people who ended being some of my closest friends now.” After hearing from students who have been at ISL since before the expansion, I talked to two students who came at the time of the expansion. When asked about their first impressions of ISL, they felt that it was an “exclusive environment of people who had been at the school for years”. They explained to me that this made it difficult for them to make connections with people early in the year because everyone who had been at ISL before was so close. Even so, they both told me they eventually formed strong bonds with other students and began integrating into the community more. As a student who came in the August 2015 invasion, I can say that I too wasn’t met with the most open arms. Students were welcoming when it came to buddy day and the first day of school, but after
To answer this question, I talked to two new students, both of whom moved from schools with a large student population, and I asked them about how the transition to ISL has been so far. They told me that making friends and finding their own place within the school was difficult in the beginning, mainly because everyone had their own closeknit friend groups, and it took time for people to open up to them. But now they feel that they are both well acclimated into the community and truly love it here! One student even said that she loves “the family type of feel” the school has. The “family feel”,the “close-knit community”, the “exclusive society”, what does it all mean? Why does everyone have such mixed opinions on the outcome of the expansion? Personally, I think that students will never find a medium in their viewpoints when it comes to this. Increasing ISL’s campus and student body so tremendously has changed the fundamental ways in which students look at our school and how they will for the rest of their time here. Despite this, despite whether it’s too big or too disconnected, ISL will always be a family.
8
MOVING IN
S
ome of you may be familiar with our new director through his quirky introductory pieces featured in the school’s official newsletters, but there’s a lot more to this new leader than first meets the eye. Directors have had the tendency in the past to maintain a fairly inconspicuous, albeit influential presence in our school community. We at The High are looking to discontinue that trend and enable you to better understand this powerful figure behind the curtains. So, aside from being ISL’s new Director, who is Mr Cairns really? Mr Cairns spent most of his early childhood in Dagenham, a very working class area in northeastern London. Although, like many of us, he has spent the rest of his life living and traveling around the world: Tibet, China, Japan, France, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and most recently, Singapore just make up a small portion of the ever-lengthening list. This is also not his first time here
in Switzerland; he previously was at Nations for thirteen years. He truly is the epitome of a multicultural person. Just as his location has been dynamic, so has his career. “[He has] been a journalist and a teacher, and in both of those contexts, [he has] travelled quite a bit,” to say the least. Being a director has not always been his career interest; in fact he has worked his way in and out of a range of interesting experiences simply as they emerged, as he explains, “I kind of fell into journalism by accident.” He graduated from university with degrees in Physics and Philosophy, but got his start working as a management consultant, which he reflects was “a bit funny really, because I was telling people what to do with their businesses and I knew absolutely nothing at all.” But in this position, he found himself doing more and more writing which sparked his interest into the field of journalism. As he began to form new relationships within that en-
vironment, he used these connections to maneuver his way into even more unfamiliar experiences, ending up at one of Japan’s top newspapers, the Yomiuri Shimbun. He then went on to one of the UK’s most well-known newspapers, one we’re sure many of you may frequent: The Guardian. In both these roles, he worked as a staff writer, but quickly moved onto features writing as his interest shifted further into political journalism. In keeping to this theme, he found himself researching and writing lots about the border disputes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, once even spending three months in Tibet studying monasteries that the Chinese had closed down. All of this would constitute a prolific career for any journalist, though “[he] had never been to journalism school; it was more by luck than by judgement.” Through this wealth of experience, Mr Cairns has remarked on his sheer support of the freedoms we have here at
“It’s completely acceptable to be critical of the school, as long as you’re working within an ethical framework.”
Photographs by Eleanor Payne
9
A NEW DIRECTION Amara Sarao and Edward Fraser meet Frazer Cairns ISL — something unparalleled by many other schools. In terms of our school’s student-led journalism, namely what you’re reading right now, Mr Cairns understands “journalism [to be] important in trying to understand the truth about things, which is as true in student-journalism as it is anywhere else.” We at The High are grateful for the freedoms we’re given by the administration, and as many of you know, are never afraid to confront controversial issues. Mr Cairns agrees that “in student journalism, it’s completely acceptable to be critical of the school, as long as you’re working within an ethical framework.” Furthermore, the essence of journalism is that “[whatever] you say, you have to provide evidence for, and you have to be ready to defend what you say to your colleagues and peers.” Through journalism, the challenges he was made aware of in his experiences in Pakistan and other war-torn regions arose pressing concerns in his mind in terms of what could be done in trying to provide a solution to these sensitive issues. He found himself in some difficult situations and saw some things that made him uncomfortable. Really, at the heart of all these issues is a severe lack of proper education. And “being an idealistic young man at the time, I thought I should do something. And through education, you can make a difference in the world.” Now, you may be wondering, wouldn’t it be most effective to combat those issues directly and work in schools in Pakistan rather than within an international setting as our own. Mr Cairns explains, “My own personal theory is that if I want to bring about the most change, then I need to put myself in a position where the young people that I teach will go on to make significant decisions in the world.” This very basis has brought him to international schools like ISL all around the world, as he acknowledges that international students have a “far greater chance of being in a position which affects not two or three people,
but hundreds or thousands of people.” He really does believe that our heightened global connectivity gives us greater power to influence change in the world. So, there’s really no contesting his internationalism, but that’s not the only way in which he is quite like the rest of us. Like many of you bookworms out there, he absolutely adores reading “anything about anything at all,” ranging from “history and science books to the backs of cornflakes packets!” He also loves sports, and loves to cycle in his free time. He was even a 10,000-meter runner for Great Britain at one point! Another one of Mr Cairns’ many talents is open-water swimming. In fact, he stated that “on [his] first weekend here, there was a race from Lausanne across to Evian,” in which he enthusiastically participated. Fitting for a family living in the beautiful Swiss Alps, Mr Cairns and his wife love walking in nature and mountaineering — though he claims he’s “not as brave as [he] used to be.” If there was something that changed over the years, Mr Cairns said, “I suppose, more and more, I appreciate quiet. When I was younger, I used to imagine that unless I was jumping out of a plane, I was wasting my time. And now, I’m much more aware of the fact that walking in a forest is a really lovely way to spend your time. Everything doesn’t have to be scary.” He’s also a family man, so an international school setting, especially one in Switzerland, is extremely nurturing for raising a family. With a range of experience in international schools and previously having been at UWC in Singapore, you may be wondering what brought our new Director specifically to ISL. In answering this, Mr Cairns explains which types of schools he is often drawn to: “Really outstanding schools have a really clear view of their purpose, and I think ISL is a school whose purpose can be defined in a very humanitarian
kind of way.” For Mr Cairns, a ‘good education’ isn’t solely an obstacle course of challenges through which we must navigate to get to a good university and then eventually onto a good job. There is no question that he absolutely wants his children to go to university, but it is important they are able to assume a position in which they can bring about positive change. He thinks that “to bring about real positive change, you need to be in a position of power. Now power,” Mr Cairns explains, “is a loose term. It doesn’t mean you have to be the president or the boss of everything, [but merely] in a situation where you can affect things.” ISL, in this regard, was very attractive to Mr Cairns as, in his eyes, it “has the capacity to be a real leader in a values-based education. Saying that education is important in the world because of what it can do for society more generally rather than just to prepare children for university.” The values that ISL have established and maintained over its long course of history really aligned to much of Mr Cairns’ values that he holds true in his own life, and in a more parental pointof-view, the principles he wishes to raise his children upon, too.
10
SO CALLED SOCIAL
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e live in a day and age when, in developed countries such as Switzerland, we do not have to worry about whether or not we will have food for dinner, or if we will find shelter or not to sleep at night. However, we still have lots of worries in 2017: worries like, “What shoes should I buy?” “Are my grades good enough to get into X university?” or “Am I liked by enough people?” One factor that I realised has achieved major importance for us is self-promotion, which has become as important as getting good grades and being admitted to a good university. If you don’t believe me, look at the Instagram accounts of most of our classmates. We strive to have a good theme, a large amount of likes and comments, and we want our pictures to portray us in the best light possible. We are even at the stage where we have created “fake” Instagram accounts to share our so called “actual lives” with our actual friends. At concerts, instead of listening we try and take the best pictures possible. Why? Well, obviously, for our snapchat story. When hanging out with friends, we beg them to take a good picture of us - “take another one, I look so bad there!” - again for the sole purpose of sharing it online. When looking at those picture-perfect Instagram accounts, and perfectly shot concert pictures on snapchat, one may wonder why so much effort is put in making our social media accounts seem perfect.
Illustration by Minnie Lowin
In my opinion, we strive to have perfect stories and a flawless Instagram account because in some ways, social media has now become a portfolio or curriculum vitae of some sorts. It indicates our experiences in life and arguably, even our worth. Game of Thrones actor Sophie Turner stated in the Telegraph that she got the part over a far better actor (according to her) due to “timing and luck, but... also… about [her] big social-media following.” While this example is extreme, it gives us a hint as to how our professional futures might look: will our success on social media be far more important than our skills and experiences? This desire for perfect social media accounts also means that what we see on our bright screens is cherrypicked. While this is not necessarily a problem in itself, it does make you, the viewer, feel self conscious and wonder “Why am I not like this?” Like an optical illusion, we don’t think of the pictures we see as shot at the perfect angle, filtered, and sometimes even photoshopped. With this in mind, those pictures still affect us subconsciously and make us feel bad about ourselves. How many times have you looked at a celebrity’s account and wondered why your were not more like them? Could you ever wake up as a “better” version of yourself? With a different this and that? Also, this constant worry of when you will post, what others have posted,
Leonardo Morosini sees the whole picture and what you should comment makes us lose time. How much precious time without friends and family will we never get back because of social media? How many times have you been in a conversation and seen your friend pick up their phone and juggle listening to you and answering texts? How did you feel after that? Hell, just like me, you probably have done the same thing; been in a conversation and just picked up your phone to reply to someone else, see who commented on your picture, or check your feed. Our world has taught us to take what we want and input our ideas and opinions which are two valuable lessons, but learning how to listen has not been taught. This leads me to how social media can make us feel alone and isolated. According to a study carried out by the university of Pittsburgh, by spending a lot of time on social media, individuals “may elicit feelings of envy and the distorted belief that others lead happier and more successful lives.” Again, while we might not see it, social media will trigger us to compare ourselves to others which, in the long term, is unhealthy. The worst part is that what is conveyed through social media is an enhanced version of people’s realities. Obviously social media has brought perks to society too, by connecting us to our long-distance friends and families which is important for people like us at ISL, who might not have much family here in Switzerland. Additionally, social media has given us the opportunity to have a platform where we can share our ideas and thoughts, which can speed up the process of innovation. While I will not tell you how to live your life, I do think that social media is good and should be used, but moderately. I also hope that the focus will change from how many likes and comments you have, to you just enjoying yourself and sharing interesting and fun content.
11
WHAT HAPPENED IN VEGAS
S
teven Paddock was a 64 year old white male living in Mesquite, Nevada. He open fired from a hotel room over a country music festival in Las Vegas and killed 59 people, injuring more than 500. He was found dead on the 32nd floor. The shooting was described as the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. Paddock had had no run-ins with the law, bought all his weapons legally and had no apparent mental illness. So why did he do it? No one really knows. His family are completely shocked. Police discovered that Paddock had in his possession at least 64 weapons, some of which were automatic and semi-automatic weapons.
Automatic machine guns aren’t weapons of self-defence, they’re meant for killing a multitude of people.
The pro-gun community in the United States uses the Second Amendment of the Constitution to justify their “right to bear arms”. However, this is only one interpretation of the Second Amendment, and one not everyone agrees with. It states that “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Militia is defined as “a military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergency.” In fact, it was not until 2008 that the Supreme Court decided that the 2nd Amendment “protects a civilian’s right to keep a handgun in his home for purposes of self-defence”. But automatic and semi-automatic machine guns and rifles just aren’t weapons of self-defence, they’re ones meant for killing a multitude of people. What would have happened if this man was black, or Muslim, or viewed in any way as “different” from the rest of society? It would have created so much more backlash and hatred than there has been. Assumptions, not just by the public but the police and the President aswell, would have been made. Racist, discriminatory assumptions that could have only worsened the situation. Everyone deserves to be treated under the same conditions and with the same rights and respect, whether they are black, white, Asian, Muslim, Christian, Jew,
Eleanor Payne targets gun control
etc. The US Declaration of Independence states that: “all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” This isn’t necessarily always the case in modern-day America. Sad! In the 1980s, a game called lawn darts was very popular in the US. Over the course of 10 years, 6,700 people were taken to hospital from lawn dart related injuries, and 3 children died. For comparison, approximately 33,000 people die from gunshot wounds in the US each year, and more than 70,000 people are injured. In 1988, lawn darts were banned in the US. There was a similar number of deaths in 2015 (approx. 35,000) from a different cause: motor vehicles. Many people are campaigning for gun control, but why is no one asking for a car ban? One difference between these two apparently similar statistics is the notion of “acceptable risk”. Cars and lorries are considered by most people to be a vital part of our society, which is what makes the risk acceptable. Without them, society as we know it would cease to function. What makes the risk of gun ownership “acceptable”? The powerful gun lobby uses the argument of Second Amendment rights to convince the public. Many don’t believe that the risks are acceptable, but this opinion struggles to fight against the strength of the NRA. Immediately after the Las Vegas mass shooting, Trump’s spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, shut down attempts made by journalists to raise the issue of gun control by saying: “There is time and place for political debate but now is the time to unite for the country.” House Republicans have offered their “thoughts and prayers” for the victims in Las Vegas, and that’s about it. House Speaker Paul Ryan said “We are all reeling from this horror in Las Vegas. This is just awful.” He is one of the few in the country that has the power to change the gun laws in America, but instead he encouraged people to donate blood. Compare this to the typical official reaction to a major aircrash. Investigations would immediately start and they would improve safety in an effort to insure that nothing like this would ever happen again. Will America impose new laws making it harder to buy guns everywhere in the US? Paul Ryan, in an interview last month, blamed the “frequent acts of domestic terrorism” on mental illness, saying that gun control wasn’t the solution. Statistics from other countries show that this is clearly not true. Texan Senator Ted Cruz voiced a similar opinion to that of Ryan: “The fact that a psychopathic killer murdered innocents is cause for grief. It’s cause for more vigorous law enforcement—for stopping madmen and killers,” he told Time Magazine. “But it is not an excuse for Democrats to try and strip away Second Amendment rights from law-abiding citizens.”
12
NOT VERY FRESH, MAN
W
ith a new year beginning, university visits, and IB points, current year 12s and 13s are starting to seriously consider life after the IB. This begs the question “What would it be like to move out and live alone?” After all, this will be a reality in roughly 24 months for current Year 12s, and even less for the Year 13s. Once we’re out of high school, we’re confronted with the fact that there there are many small, but essential, skills that we aren’t taught. Whilst you’re not alone in university, the jump from your parents doing almost everything to doing everything yourself is a big one. Thus, we begin to wonder how Pythagoras’ Theorem and binomial expansion is supposed to help us in the real world. The solution? I asked some high school graduates what they thought was missing from our syllabus. According to five high school graduates from international schools (three of which are ISL graduates) in the nearby region: “handling [their] own money was quite difficult,” and proved a shocking realisation out of ISL. One of the students took HL Economics and pointed out that in her second year of university, “[she found] it crazy that [she] could describe, in detail, things like information asymmetry and game theory; yet [she struggled] to realize that buying five avocados instead of three can make paying rent impossible.” Other than the ridiculous price of avocados, this highlights the lack of financial education that we are taught in school. Another graduate mentioned that “Things like choosing mobile phone contracts was a big surprise. It’s the simple things that normally just get done, and once you’re on your own, you realize someone has to do those things. And that someone is you.” The idea that in 15 years of education, we aren’t taught how to responsibly handle money is unbelievable. With financial education throughout high school, students would develop this skill and participate in modern society. The International Network on Financial Edu-
cation has found that, “surveys show that young adults have amongst the lowest levels of financial literacy. This is reflected by their general inability to choose the right financial products and often a lack of interest in undertaking sound financial planning.” A commonly known fact about teens is that unless you force us to do something, we’ll find a half-assed way around it. This applies to both school work and our health. Between a tight budget and stress-eating, many young adults find themselves on a strict diet of Chinese take-out. One graduate said, “Fresher’s 15 is a thing. I don’t think I ate a single vegetable in my first year.” Nutrition is another issue that isn’t addressed in the IB. To maintain a healthy lifestyle, along with nutrition, sleep and time management are essential. A recent Boston University graduate mentioned that, “time management is cool in theory but to be honest with you, I never mastered it. Everyone brags about finding a balance, but in reality, there’s no way to find a balance between a social life and six hours-worth of neuroscience and behaviour homework... in one night. Unless you don’t sleep; which is always an option.” All students will experience a buildup of work leading to an all-nighter at some point, and once again, IB doesn’t teach us much in this respect.
Hannah Besson sends a care package to her older brother Last but not least, the graduates articulated that there was a deficit of social interaction and effective communication at school. While programs like circle time, have been integrated into most international schools, there are obvious problems in the way that young adults interact with others. This is demonstrated in the following quote: “I remember at ISL, our work was graded with criteria and one of them was communication; but I still find myself in argument with my parents every weekend about the improvement I need to make in ‘communicating’.” Another graduate said, “Social interaction is something that we generally leave adolescents to figure out for themselves. However, I see the value in including a subject in which we teach high school students how to interact with potential bosses; and sometimes more importantly with the people they love and care about.” There is no denying that social interaction is an essential aspect of daily adult life, whether it be with a professors, coworkers, bosses, or partners. But drawing a line between professionalism and colloquialism language is becoming harder to do. Some of these things, we learn for ourselves, but others need to be included in our curriculums to nurture and develop truly well-balanced students.
Illustration by Manon Libine
13
SECKER’S LOG
I
n the 1960s and all the way through to the early 80s in Britain a portion of the population decided to try out self-sufficiency – that is to say they, turned off all the electricity in their houses, invested in packets of vegetable seeds and lots of soil, and set about living a life of home-grown food and candlelight. It might sound like a strange idea for many of the students in ISL today, but to one of ISL’s teachers it was a reality for seven years. “I think the catalyst was the political situation in the UK,” says Ms Secker. “The 1984 Miners’ Strike revealed attitudes in society that I didn’t want to be a part of.” With striking miners and the oil crises of the 70s the idea of life without any reliance of fossil fuels, widely spread by Edward Goldsmith’s Blueprint for Survival, was sown in the minds of the British public. It had been building up for a while, but the decision to become self-sufficient eventually took hold. After a six-week holiday in southern Spain, Ms Secker and her partner returned to London to find that the situation in Britain was no better. Together, they made the decision to sell their London house and buy a patch of land they had seen in Spain during their holiday. “It was incredibly exciting,” says Ms Secker. Initially, their only source of water was an abandoned well. “It only produced 120L of water a day, which isn’t very much, but we established some irrigation and ended up with 70,000L of water a week.” The next step was to begin growing food. “We
Joseph Nobs didn’t really keep animals”, explains Ms Secker. “We planted avocado, lychee and mango trees. Hundreds of them, and onions, leeks, carrots, potatoes, garlic, all sorts of herbs, courgettes, aubergines, chillies, peppers…” The list goes on. However, the self-sufficiency was only partial. Ms Secker and her partner continued to buy meat, bread and dairy products and owned a car. But clothes were cleaned using buckets and soap, a gas cooker was used to prepare food and at night the house was lit by dozens of candles. “We didn’t have a telephone, but we met some people like us and we communicated with them using citizens band radio.” A self-sufficient life is a very rewarding one, though a hard one, and the arrival of two children made it still harder. Eventually life became too difficult, and so the “return to mainstream life” happened. The Seckers moved to a more urban life in Spain. “It was arrogant of us,” reflects Ms Secker, “to think that if we did enough research we would be able to make it work. There are actually good reasons why large areas of rural Europe are abandoned. Life on the land is hard.” Overall, however, Ms Secker looks back on that period of her life very positively. “It was character building,” she says. “It made me much more certain about myself.” And, although self-sufficiency is not as fashionable as it was in the 80s, it seems like a movement that deserves to be revived in this age of Global Warming. It may not be as easy as veganism, but it is certainly more rewarding.
POWER PLAY
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e all have a pretty good idea of what makes a good leader, or at least we think we do. It’s someone who understands the value of teamwork, who shows modesty over arrogance, who isn’t afraid to get their hands dirty, and knows how to get through to other people. So why do we have so many powerful people who don’t seem to have any of those traits? Why do people like Machiavelli say “it is better to be feared than be loved,” and more importantly, why do they seem to be right? The part we seem to overlook the most is the last trait I listed, but it’s arguably the most important factor that goes into who gets the promotion, who wins the election, and who gets what they want at the end of the day. Based on my observations, what people want more than anything in a leader, are not modesty, integrity, nor even competence, but rather one’s ability to influ-
ence others. We see this happen all the time. It’s why the popular kids and the people who climb the workplace ladder the fastest are often the ones that make their voices heard the most. It’s why we want people we like to be right, and why we negatively view the people who disagree with them. The most important quality to have when holding power is to make people see things the way you do. There are many ways to go about this, but the one we’re focusing on is what Tony Robbins calls “interrupting the pattern.” If you’re trying to get someone to do something, and they keep resisting, you won’t get anywhere by repeating yourself. You interrupt the pattern by altering whatever unstated beliefs give context to our interactions and what you or someone else says. When you manage to change or even just slightly affect someone’s beliefs, that’s when they’re most open to be influenced by
Nick Jennings you. This is why so many leaders can get away being terrible at their jobs or lacking any warmth or compassion, because they manage to change how other people think. So when you’re looking at whoever seems to be the leader of a group, team, or organization, the leader is going to be the one who gets everybody else to see things their way. You can even test this on yourself by asking who most wants the same things that you do. The answer might not be obvious, but that’s the beauty of it. Because it’s not about who has the most experience, who works the hardest, or who has the most money. What people look for in a leader is one whose interests line up with their own. It’s about how well you make other people want the same thing that you do. A lot of people see this, but very few figure out just what it really means.
14
WATCH, LISTEN, VISIT
Fredrik Falk & Sophia Scokalo
CUT YOUTUBE CHANNEL
REX ORANGE COUNTY
CAFÉ POINTU
Both an interesting and educational channel that discusses everything from travel to food reviews. The videos usually place a person or group of people in a situation and then record their reactions. For example one video has two parents explaining the birds and the bees to their 10 year old for the first time. While there are several videos that explore these lighthearted topics, there are also many that delve into more serious issues. For example some videos show people talking about selfharm and suicide. Other videos are focused around a specific word that has become controversial for some reason. These videos will have the people whom the word effects talking about it, so for example, a video that’s focused on the word “police” has black people talking about their connotations to it, and the video on “abortion” interviews women.
I was recently recommended Rex Orange County by one of my friends, and I was not disappointed. His style is indie and his lyrics are relatable and well written. He’s the record-the-album-inmy-bedroom type of guy, and his music is very unique and true to himself. It’s hard to pick some of his songs individually, but I narrowed it down to Sunflower, UNO and Corduroy Dreams. Since he’s started writing music, he’s done collabs with Tyler the Creator (Boredom) so whether it’s a chill Sunday morning or you’re watching the sunrise at 5am, this is your guy.
Right near Riponne, tucked in between two streets is a café called Pointu. The location is an ideal cosy study spot, as well as a nice place to grab a quick bite to eat. Aside from being a pleasant change from Starbucks it also allows us to support a coffee house which isn’t owned by a multinational corporation. The café offers both inside and outside seating, however with winter right around the corner this might not be something that we want to take advantage of. Aside from being a café and restaurant, they also serve beers and a selection of cocktails (for those of you above the legal age of course). If you do choose to check this place out, I would recommend going there during the weekend when you can enjoy their renowned brunch.
NOT A PC REVIEW
T
his year, the IT department has taken a risk in scrapping the older model Laptops for newer and lighter ones. This is going to be a small breakdown on the laptop’s hardware and then what they are like to actually use. Before I begin, I would like to premise this article by saying that the IT department has been doing a lot of work in fixing any bugs or problems with the new computers in the few transition months we’ve had so take everything thing that is said with a pinch of salt, as the IT department may fix these in the coming months. So without further ado, a user’s review of the new laptops. I would look at the exact specs of the computer if I could, however, the device manager has been disabled by the It department, so this will be a simple, user based review. The laptops this year are much lighter and run much faster. It takes much
less time to boot the laptop and start up software. It also runs windows ten. This makes the computer much more modern and more adaptable to adding software or using usb plug ins. One of the biggest draws of the new laptops is the new touch screen mode. If you haven’t paid attention this year at all, the new laptops can be turned over and can be used as tablets. It tablet is then used as a touch screen device. The issue that I have found is that in the 2 months that school has been running, I have used the tablet mode only once. For most subjects, it is much easier to use the laptops in the laptop mode. This makes the tablet mode feel more like a gimmick rather than an actual feature for the laptop. There are also a few issues with the laptops as well. There laptops seem to have a nasty habit of crashing software like word when the user doesn’t touch the laptop for five minutes. It can
Lewis Martin also start making a loud beeping noise when it turns on sometimes. It also has a strange magnetic spot where metal things will get stuck and not move. This is just the students point of view. Many teachers have had strong opinions on the laptops as well. This is because they have been used to using the simple dock last year, while this year, just connecting the laptop to the screen is a hassle. One teacher, who wished to remain anonymous stated that, “they seem to just have spasm every five minutes and stop working.” Another stated that, “It just it that more of a pain to use. You can’t just slap it in a dock and use it. It doesn’t work and then you need to go to the IT and get it fixed and it just wastes time.” Most people have had issues like these but hopefully these will be ironed out sometime soon.
15
HOW THEY DOIN’? Rafael Ribas revisits old Friends
N
o one had ever told us that life could be this way. In the mid 90s, as my generation was coming out of University and facing the usual challenges (get a job, live by yourself, find true love), it was hard to find a reflection of our life experience in the culture we consumed. And suddenly, this apparently innocuous sitcom about six New Yorkers who drank lots of coffee and were always hanging out together, really hit close to home. Revisiting “Friends” two decades later is both a trip to the past, to the memories of those years and to the people we shared them with, and a stark realisation of both the similarities and the differences between then and now. For what it’s worth, a lot of what made “Friends” great when it first aired is still wonderful today. It starts with one of the catchiest theme tunes ever written (admit it, you are hearing it in your head right now). It has genuinely likeable characters, played by great actors who clearly enjoyed sharing a set together. It has some incredibly tight screenwriting that allows those characters to develop over the years, while always keeping their fundamental traits. And most importantly, it is still often mind-bogglingly funny; a combination of sharp dialogue and some genius physical comedy, taking place in apparently normal situations that quickly veered into the absurd. These are all standards for a sitcom; but unlike all the ones before, this was not taking place in a family living room, or by the watercooler in an office, or in the corridors of a high school. These people were slightly older than us and getting by on menial jobs; how they could afford those large apartments in downtown Manhattan was one of the show’s inexplicable mysteries – as well as how they always managed to find a spot on the largest table and couch of a busy café. But, like with any good story, we were prepared to suspend our disbelief and enter the world of “Friends,” because it was a warped mirror pointed at our very own lives.
Twenty years on, many aspects of the landscape where the show unfolded strike us as terribly dated. “Friends” is, perhaps, the last analog show; many of the plot points of the first few seasons hinge on an answering machine or a payphone, even a pager, and the techno-archaeologists among us can track the appearance of the first laptop, the first flip cell phone, or the first mentions of the Internet. It is a universe of post-it notes instead of texts, of a myriad of dates without Tinder, and of witty responses that nobody calls memes. The passage of time is also evident in the dress choices of our protagonists, as well as in the limitless collection of questionable hairstyles, but here again we discover that fashion comes back in cycles; while nobody in their right mind would wear one of Chandler’s ties, you can see many versions of Phoebe’s choker necklaces around the corridors of the South Campus. The most chilling reminder of the gap between their time and ours, however, comes unexpectedly in the panorama shots of Manhattan that serve as scene transitions. There, the towering presence of the World Trade Center is a testament to a simpler world, one where you could take your loved one to the boarding gate of an airport without going past three layers of security. When 9/11 changed history, “Friends” (which was entirely filmed in Hollywood, fake snow and all) decided not to acknowl-
edge it, and our characters kept living their lives as if nothing had happened - perhaps that was the start of the show’s slow decline. In many respects, we have become better people than they were. Nobody would dare to include the same amount of homophobic jokes in a comedy set in 2017, and it would be impossible to have a show set in New York City with so few people of colour among its cast. But we hark back to simpler times, when all we needed was a hug, a homebaked cookie, one of Joey’s smirks and a cup of joe. Towards the end of my summer binge, I realised that I had never actually watched the last few seasons of the show. The story lines became more adult as the cast turned thirty; the plot revolved around marriages and pregnancies, job interviews and mortgages. I had also grown older; I had found a job, I was living by myself and would soon start a family of my own. I did not have time for silly comedies that looked less and less like a life to aspire, and more like a parody of real life. But now, with hindsight and possibly wisdom, it is time to look back at the lessons we inadvertently learnt while laughing along with the studio audience. Monica and Chandler, Phoebe and Joey, Rachel and Ross, were the friends we always wanted to have. They were there for us; they are there for us now, too. Illustration by Joseph Nobs
16
THE LAST LAUGH
WORDSEARCH
Anne-Marie Rusu