The Lion's Roar 32-3

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Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Boston, MA Permit No. 54523

Volume 32, Issue 3 140 Brandeis Road Newton Centre, MA 02459

Newton South High School’s Student Newspaper · Newton, MA · Established 1984 · October 9, 2015

DIVIDED

Alderman candidates split over Austin St. project

photos by Sophia Fisher

Ward 2 Alderman-at-Large candidates (clockwise, from top left) Marcia Johnson, Susan Albright, Jake Auchincloss and Lynne LeBlanc. Johnson and Albright support the Austin St. project; the others do not.

A

simple parking lot at 28 Austin St. has divided Newton. A proposal to replace the parking lot with a private complex has turned into a referendum on the merits of affordable housing ahead of municipal elections on Nov. 3 and an expected vote by the Board of Aldermen on Nov. 16.

The development has also become a central issue in the upcoming Alderman-at-Large election in Ward 2, which includes the proposed development site.

The division among voters is reflected in the candidates: among the four candidates who emerged from the Sept 17. primary election,

By Jake Rong and Mikaeel Yunus the two incumbents, Susan Albright and Marcia Johnson, are in favor of the proposal, while the two challengers, Jake Auchincloss and Lynne LeBlanc, oppose it.

Controversy over the Austin St. development has been growing for several years, after the Board of Aldermen established a group in 2011 to look into potential future uses for the site.

Following the recommendations of the group, a committee rezoned the site from public to mixed use in 2012, opening the previously

public land to private development. Austin Street Partners was designated as the official developer in May 2014, when the city chose its bid out of the six submitted, and the proposal for the building was submitted jointly to the board earlier this year by the city and Austin Street Partners.

The current proposal would largely consist of commercial space, with 25 percent reserved for single- or double-bedroom apartments. Its location in the heart of Newtonville — near many retail venues, bus routes and a commuter rail line — has provided an economic justification AUSTIN ST., 3

Administration temporarily closes L-Bench Shelley Friedland Managing Editor

Housemasters temporarily shut down the L-Bench area last week in response to complaints about graffiti and trash. The LBench, a popular area for juniors to hang out between the 2000s and 3000s, has recently been painted over, sectioned off by caution

tape and covered in signs reading ‘The LBench area is closed to students until further notice. If you have questions, please see your housemaster.”

“We were noticing that there was an excessive amount of trash being left behind.

Juniors were being actually quite loud — louder than usual, and there are classrooms on both sides of the L-Bench,” Goldrick house-

master Marc Banks said. “The graffiti was starting to get a little out of control, so the housemasters got together and checked with Principal Stembridge and decided that we need to shut it down and clean up the area.”

Several juniors said they were upset by the closing of the area. “I thought people L-BENCH, 5

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Local elections Students debate the importance of local elections and the role of city government in students’ lives.

8

stepping it up

Dance team seeks legitimacy as a sport and finds suport from South athletics.

16

photo by Nathaniel Bolter

Going for the gold

Junior wins gold medals in badminton at an international summer sports tournament.

20

NEWS 2 EDITORIALS 6 OPINIONS 8 CENTERFOLd 12 FEATUREs 16 Fun Page 20 SPORTS 21

NEWS page 2|october 9, 2015|THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM

news@thelionsroar.com|VOLUME 32, ISSUE 3

SOUTH

SPOTS information on school events compiled by Roar editors

‘Eurydice’

South Stage will perform “Eurydice” on October 9 and 10 at 7:30 p.m in the lab theater

The production, directed by Rebecca Price, is a modified Greek myth

PSAT

On October 14, sophomores and juniors have the option to take the PSAT during the school day

The test has been redesigned to align with the new SAT, which will be administered beginning in the spring of 2016

Photo Retake Day

Students who were absent on photo day or dissatisfied with their photos may retake their pictures on October 21 Students should go to Gym B for retakes during free blocks or any lunch period

College Planning Seminar

Students and parents may attend the College Financial Planning seminar on November 5 at 7 p.m. in the auditorium The seminar will focus on how to prepare and save for the cost of higher education

NSC group discusses later start time Sophie Lu & Aviva Gershman

News Editor, News Contributor Composed of School Committee members and NPS administrators, a working group introduced on Sept. 18 presented a detailed plan to research delaying the start time of both Newton high schools to allow students more time to sleep.

The working group, led by Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education and Special Programs Toby Romer and LongRange Planning Manager Julie Kirrane, will deliver periodic updates over the next few months and will issue a report at the end of the school year. Modeled after the group that successfully handled elementary school reassignment earlier this year, Kirrane said the group would like to “adapt and reuse and expand the best practices from the ... group.”

The group still needs to conduct preliminary research and does not yet know by how much it will seek to delay start times, currently 7:40 a.m. and 7:50 a.m. at South and North, respectively. Romer stressed the importance of outlining a clear plan and addressing concerns through collaboration with the community.

“We outlined some of the key stakeholders, partners in the community, that we will work with to create a feasible plan that includes everyone from the Newton Police Department, traffic concerns, athletic concerns [and] after school programming including Newton Community Education,” he said. “There are facilities concerns about lighting of fields, students’ safety ... Students are going home later into the afternoon [and] evening when it may be dark out. There’s a range of concerns and all of them have to be taken into consideration and balanced.”

In addition to partnering with community organizations, the working group will also seek help from NPS and surrounding systems.

“People want information from the

working group, and we plan to report out, but we are also going to be asking for input, asking for information, asking for data ... from other school districts, from our own high school, from our transportation office,” Kirrane said. “We’re going to need people to feed us data, so in a way the process will be intensively data-driven.”

Starting school later may not be the only solution to growing concerns over student health, according to Romer. His predecessor, Cynthia Bergan, who retired last year, looked into different ways of changing the arrangement of the entire block schedule,

“It’s not an issue of feasibility.

It’s simply an issue of what the plan would need to be and if the community at large wants to make that investment.”

- Toby Romer, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education and Special Programs which Romer said the group may consider. “[Some models] allow for more flexibility on the front end, for example, than necessarily we have now, and there’s ... advantages and disadvantages to that,” he said, indicating a possible period similar to J-block at the beginning of the day.

Some other high schools in Massachussetts have already moved their start times significantly. “It’s not an issue of feasibility,” Romer said. “It’s simply an issue of what the plan would need to be and if the community at large wants to make that investment.”

One of the group’s main objectives is to allow students to get the recommended eight to nine hours of sleep per night.

“It’s clear that there are significant health benefits that can be gained from

START TIMES

BY THE NUMBERS In a survey of 250 students, the Roar found that...

10 9 8

11 12 1

7 6 5

national average public high school start time:

7:59 am

infographic by Carina Ramos

51%

of students said they would be in favor of a new schedule in which school would start and end later

80%

of students said they were in favor of a later start time

2 3 4 average start time of high schools with an enrollment of 1000+ students

high school students and adolescents with additional sleep. There are numerous studies showing that high school students ... in Newton just don’t get enough sleep,” Romer said.

“Adolescents’ circadian rhythms change,” School Committee member Ellen Gibson said, “and students would get more sleep. The school department and the School Committee, for a number of years now, has been focusing on social and emotional development and the health and wellness of students.”

Some members of the community, however, including South parent Diane Silverman, are skeptical about the difference the start time will make.

“I think teenagers probably need more sleep than what they’re getting, and whether or not the school day is shifted here or there … in terms of it affecting their biologic rhythm, I don’t know that it’s the biggest difference,” she said.

Although it may be a long process, senior and School Committee student representative Katie Summers said that the group has an opportunity to help make high school a little easier.

“I think going forward, in the long run, we can find a solution that does really help.

It’s out there, and we just really need to work towards it, but I think in the long run it will be really beneficial to teenagers,” she said.

Even though many towns, including Hingham and Duxbury, have already successfully delayed start times, Gibson warned against rushing the process.

“We don’t want to jump ahead of the process. Other districts, I think, have done that and they have ended up with a frustrated year and a report on the shelf, and so we’re very mindful of wanting to see what there might be incrementally, be very mindful of budget impact as well as making sure it’s all vetted and feasible,” she said. “We certainly don’t want anyone or any of these stakeholders to undertake any shift if it’s not going to be worth it.”

10 9 8

11 12 1

7 6 5

75%

of students indicated an optimal start time of

8:00 a.m. or later

2 3 4

7:52 am

sources of information: Newton South High School, National Center for Education Statistics

october 9, 2015|page 3

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|NEWS

Newtonville divided over Austin St. project uter Comm

Rail

ike

Mass P

Star Market

Walnut Street

Bus 59

Austin Street

Masonic Hall

Bank of America

28 Austin St.

Starbucks

graphic by Sophie Galowitz

On Nov. 16, the Board of Aldermen is expected to vote on a proposal for the Austin St. development, which would place 68 apartments in the middle of Newtonville.

AUSTIN ST., from 1 for the development.

“When you build housing near transit, you tend to attract downsizing seniors and young professionals who don’t tend to have cars,” ’14 graduate Hattie Gawande, a member of the pro-development coalition Friends of Austin Street, said.

“They tend to do their shopping in the area, they tend to walk in the area, they tend to stay in the area, which means that you have [several dozen] people who will basically be new, regular customers for all the small businesses in that area.”

More controversial, however, has been the question of whether the proposal is the best way to bring more affordable housing to Newton, and whether Newton needs more affordable housing in the first place.

Proponents have championed the development for its appeal to youth and seniors, which would help increase economic diversity in a city that offers few options for lower-income residents, like recent college graduates.

“The inevitable … is that if we do not build this kind of housing, then we’re going to end up an extremely monocultural, very wealthy, very white area that is not friendly to a diverse range of people,” Gawande said.

On the other hand, opponents like LeBlanc have said that development at Austin St. is unnecessary.

“There is property being developed all the time in Newton. If you take a drive around, there are [many] single-family lots that are turned into six or eight-unit apart-

ment buildings,” she said. “There’s a lot being built, there’s a lot that is available and there’s a lot that we can do with what we have.”

Still others have criticized the proposal for not adding enough affordable housing.

The proposal meets the minimum 25 percent threshold of affordable housing required by the city but does not exceed it.

Since aldermen are asked to refrain from judging a proposal while it is being reviewed by the board, Albright and Johnson declined to comment for this article.

The opinions of both sides were represented passionately at a public hearing

mayor, has partnered with a developer to show us, the residents of Newtonville, what the village vision should be. Is this not conflict?”

Residents also raised concerns about the loss of public parking spaces and a lengthy lease of public land.

According to the Planning Department, the proposal would maintain the current 127 parking spaces and the city would retain ownership of the land, leasing it to Austin Street Partners for 99 years.

LeBlanc has frequently referred to the sale of public schools in the 1980s as

Development is a nuanced issue that requires thoughtful deliberation. To put people on the camps of anti-development and pro-development based on one project ... [is] unhelpful.

It degrades the debate.

- Jake Auchincloss, Ward 2 Alderman-at-Large candidate on Sept. 24.

Following presentations by the developer and the city’s Department of Planning and Development, which has endorsed the proposal, many Newton residents took advantage of the opportunity to voice their views.

Newtonville resident Helen Nayar, who has lived in the area since 1971 and was one of the first to speak, expressed her opposition on the grounds of respect for locals.

“As a taxpayer,” she said, “I’m incredulous that our taxpayer-paid Planning Department, which reports to the pro-development

an example of the risk involved in leasing city-owned land to a private developer for such a long time.

“The selling of public schools in the 1980s has been acknowledged as a terrible mistake,” she said. “We are paying the price at a significant cost that lack of space for our overcrowded schools incurs. With the selling of public land we have few options for the future. So I see surplusing of Austin St. as a shortsighted move as well.”

At the hearing, supporters of the development frequently echoed the notion that the parking lot at Austin St. has much

greater potential.

In one of the most hostile moments of the evening, former Ward 2 School Committee member Reenie Murphy lampooned the protests about parking, emphasizing the need to look toward the future.

“I couldn’t help during the conversation tonight but think about that song: ‘Paved paradise and put up a parking lot.’ I was sensing people saying, ‘We don’t want paradise; we want to keep our parking lot.’

That’s ridiculous,” she said. “Do we really want, a hundred years from now, to say, ‘We preserved our parking lot?’ We have to think about the people that are coming after us, not just the people right here.”

‘07 graduate Sarah Laski touched on a similar theme, saying the city should consider the needs of future generations.

“Growing up, I used to tell my parents that I wanted to continue living in Newton.

However, as I grew up, houses and apartment prices rose exponentially,” she said.

“Opposition to Austin St. is opposition to people like me living in Newton.”

In an interview, Auchincloss took a broader stance, stressing the consequences of dividing residents further.

“We have spoken to a lot of Newton voters. They’re not one-issue voters. What happens is when Austin St. gets overemphasized, we falsely polarize the city, when in fact development is a nuanced issue that requires thoughtful deliberation,” he said.

“To put people on the camps of antidevelopment and pro-development based on one project ... [is] unhelpful. It degrades the debate.”

page 4|October 9, 2015

Reaching Out

SAM FISHMAN

Senate PR Secretary

South Senate Update Welcome to the 2015-16 session of the South Senate. And I really mean it when I say, “Welcome in”. Whether you are at the meetings in the lecture hall on Thursdays or not, you are part of the South Senate this year.

Having been a Senator over the past three years, I have always sensed a disconnect between the Senate and the student body. Sure, I’ve visited classrooms and had dozens of conversations with students about Senate policies. I even have a Facebook page dedicated to my senatorship. But I’ve always felt as if the Senate is separate from students, locked away in the lecture hall with a Facebook connection, a few photos and some pieces of paper tacked onto a wall as our only links to the outside world.

That disconnect is the reason I ran for Secretary of Public Relations in May, and that disconnect is the reason I am writing this column. My thinking is that the Senate and you have been separated for far too long. It’s time to change that.

This year, my goal is to break down the walls between us. I want connections.

And I’m going to use every idea in the book to establish those connections.

Over the summer, I compiled a portfolio with the attendance and minutes of nearly every meeting from last year in the hopes of giving you an idea of what the Senate has done and what the Senate can do. That portfolio will be going out sometime soon on the Senate Facebook page and website. I am going to release two portfolios with attendance and minutes from this year, as well.

I am going to write frequent Facebook posts, update the Senate website, improve our bulletin board outside the library and allow Senators to reach out to you through this column and on Facebook.

After all, there are two dozen Senators without administrative positions, and they deserve to have just as much of a say as I do. We are a diverse body, and it is time that we reflect that diversity.

So, as you might have guessed from reading all of this, the Senate has a lot on its agenda this year. Every Senator is bringing his or her own ideas to the table, and we have plenty of projects from last year that we’re going to be wrapping up.

But, even with all of our ideas, there’s only so much we can come up with, and that’s where you come in.

My efforts to make all of those connections between you and the Senate are not just for us to reach out to you, but for you to reach back to us.

Yes, the Senate has a lot of ideas derived from students, and yes, we’ve turned many of those ideas into legislation, but I want to start a trend where each and every piece of Senate legislation receives the student body’s input.

The legislation we pass on a weekly basis affects you more than anyone else.

You deserve to have your say in our policies.

Welcome to the South Senate. We have some open seats, and we could always use a few suggestions. Please, join us: bring your ideas, make yourself comfortable and let’s get started.

News|THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM

Limits imposed on junior parking Harrison Wong News Reporter

To avoid the problems that emerged last year, the administration and School Committee amended the student parking policy this summer to allow seniors to purchase parking passes.

Unlike previous years, juniors who wanted to use South’s parking lots were not able to purchase a pass until September, when the school created a lottery for the roughly 20 parking passes remaining. Juniors who fail to win the lottery will likely join the students already parking on Brandeis Road and other side streets.

Among the most pressing problems this new policy aims to address is the excessive demand for parking. Last year, more passes were sold than there were spots.

“We decided that it was important to not have a repeat of last year where we oversold,” Principal Joel Stembridge said.

“This year, we actually have more students who want a pass than parking spots, which is the first time it’s happened in the seven years I’ve been here.”

The new policy also relieves overcrowding in the faculty lot. Last year students often illegally parked in teacher spots.

“Students parked all over the front [of the school], and during A block it was sometimes hard to find parking,” math teacher Lisa Honeyman said.

With so many students driving, some teachers found traffic a bigger issue than a lack of parking spaces. “I don’t think find-

photo by Sophia Fisher

Juniors unable to purchase a parking pass may be forced to park on Brandeis Road instead.

ing spots for faculty was a problem, but the traffic on Brandeis Road was a problem for me,” biology teacher Jeffrey Burt said.

Some juniors, such as Isaac Madigan, on the other hand, said they are frustrated with the new policy.

“I’m happy they have the lottery, but I wish I had a guaranteed chance to buy a pass, because I have to get up earlier to make sure I can park on Brandeis Road,” he said.

Junior Victor Lau shared Madigan’s frustration. “Without a pass,” he said, “I would not park at school, because I wouldn’t know whether or not I would be able to find a spot.”

While he acknowledged the new policy

irks some students, Stembridge said the change was necessary to prevent problems in the upcoming school year, and that the administrators tried to make the new policy as fair as possible to juniors and seniors.

“It would be kind of sad if there was a senior who wanted a parking pass but couldn’t get one because they lost out in the lottery both years,” he said. “So it seems fair to have seniors have first option, and then juniors have the option thereafter.”

Despite his frustration, Madigan said he will have to try his luck in the lottery.

“Without a parking pass, I will just continue to park on Brandeis Road and buy a pass next year,” he said.

Teachers, Blocks and Events. The app was designed to be customizable, allowing users to input their individual block schedule, including teachers and room numbers. Following its release, the application drew attention from administrators, including Principal Joel Stembridge. “I love the idea of it. I think that we have some ideas of how we can be helpful to increase the functionality of the app,” he said. “So we’re working through some ideas on how we can provide some information to the students who created the app.”

Shortly after students began downloading the application, NSHS Guide sent out a notification stating that the ‘Absent Teachers’ feature would not be running for a period of time to respect the school and faculty’s privacy. According to lead developer senior David Chu, though the feature is not functioning currently, the design team is working with the administration to get the feature up and running within the coming weeks.

According to Chu, updates in the coming months will include a “Month” view in the “Blocks” tab to show special schedules

and holidays, as well as a navigation system for directions within the building. In the meantime, Chu says he will use incremental updates to add other necessary features.

Although the app has been largely a success so far, many challenges lie ahead.

During the early stages of creating the app last year, Chu had the assistance of thensenior Eric Lin in programming the app.

Now that Lin has graduated, most of the weight of operating the app has fallen on Chu’s shoulders.

“The biggest problem in building the app was balancing it with school time,” Chu said. “As a junior, I didn’t go out as much, so I had a lot of time to program. So that definitely made things easier.”

Now that he is a senior, Chu will be faced with the challenge of running the app and applying to college at the same time.

Taking this into account, he estimates that the forthcoming updates will take at least half a year to complete. To help with the maintenance of the app, Chu and Lin founded the App Design Team, which is devoted to improving and adding to the app.

Students create Newton South app Karen Kwan & Hans Wang News Reporters

Students across South are recycling their paper schedules and turning to their smartphones after the release of the NSHS Guide application earlier this fall. The product of over nine months of development by the App Design Team, the first version of the application was released on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store during the first week of the 2015-16 school year.

Development team member and junior David Dannenberg said that the app was designed to be comprehensive.

“The idea behind our app is that we want as many utilities as possible to be integrated into one source,” he said. “I’m sure all students know how they have to deal with Schoology and Engrade, and every teacher has their own way of doing things, but in this one aspect of their school lives we want them to have a central location so they can get all the information they need from one place.”

In the current version, the application includes four features: Absent Teachers, Your

862 downloads on iOS 138 downloads on Android

4 people worked on the app It took 9 months to make the app infographic by David Li

october 9, 2015|page 5

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|NEWS

A Glimpse of the Globe Information compiled by Roar editors from CNN, The Economist, BBC, Al Jazeera, The New York Times, Twitter and the rest of the Internet.

The end of FIFA’s fraud?

It was like a scene out of a James Bond movie.

On May 27, Swiss police raided a luxury hotel in Zurich and arrested seven top officials of the International Federation of Football Association (FIFA).

Why were the heads of a professional soccer organization the targets of such a dramatic capture?

After an FBI investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice requested the men’s arrest and proceeded to indict 14 current and former officials and associates for “rampant, systemic and deeprooted” corruption. Nine are FIFA officials; five are corporate associates from the broadcasting and sports-management fields.

As it turns out, FIFA is not as innocent an organization as one might expect.

It has routinely engaged in malpractice across its jurisdiction, from using bribery to decide World Cup locations

and corporate contracts to fixing matches to illegally selling tickets.

Most recently, FIFA decided to hold the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, an extremely controversial decision given its soaring summer temperatures and history of mistreating migrants, and then failed to release its inquiry into the decision.

The U.S. investigation examined the organization’s past 20 years of conduct and found its officials had accepted bribes from South Africa, which hosted the World Cup in 2010; Morocco, which lost its 1998 bid to France; and broadcasting companies, for their coverage of five recent CONCACAF Gold Cup tournaments.

Prosecutor Chuck Blazer is investigating a potential $10 million bribe paid by former South African President Thabo Mbeki to former FIFA vice president Jack Warner, who is alleged to have used the money for cash

withdrawals, personal loans and money laundering.

The total sum of bribe money paid to FIFA officials over the past 20 years may approach $150 million.

The investigation has not yet lost steam. Sepp Blatter will be stepping down as FIFA president in February, and on Sept. 17, Secretary-General Jérôme Valcke was placed on immediate leave for allegations of selling tickets on the black market.

Warner’s current residence, Trinidad and Tobago, signed the papers required for his extradition, and two other officials have recently lost extradition rulings, although one has already appealed.

The 2018 and 2022 World Cups most likely will not be moved from Russia and Qatar, respectively, but this investigation will hopefully cleanse the organization of corruption and allow the world’s most popular sport to regain some legitimacy.

An Overview: The issue: The U.S. government is investigating the International Federation of Football Association (FIFA) and has indicted 14 officials and associates.

The result: Many top officials have resigned or been placed on immediate leave. Others are being extradited to the United States.

Public Domain

School Committee approves teacher contract Nathaniel Bolter Editor-in-Chief

The School Committee voted to approve a new contract for teachers and other NPS employees last Friday, a month after the agreement was ratified by the Newton Teachers Association (NTA). The contract will apply to the stretch of time between September 2014 and August 2018.

A press release from the mayor’s office portrayed the final agreement as bipartisan, emphasizing that it is “financially sustainable” while still allowing “the Newton Public Schools to continue to offer very competitive

compensation to all employees.”

The protracted negotiations began in the spring of 2014, when the contract ratified in 2011 expired and the NTA began agitating for wages equal to those of surrounding districts like Wellesley and Brookline.

The disparity in wages between Newton and those districts, it claimed, would hurt Newton’s ability to attract and retain the best new teachers.

The next 18 months saw uncertainty and hints at discord, escalating into a public campaign by the NTA when the two sides seemed at loggerheads. Road signs bearing the slogan “We support Newton educators”

cropped up across the city, and teachers wearing yellow T-shirts handed out fliers to cars before school. On April 13, over 300 teachers marched to the Education Center where the School Committee was voting on the FY16 budget.

Although negotiations appeared to grow increasingly tense as time dragged on, it always seemed that the two sides would eventually reach a compromise. School Committee Chair Matt Hills reiterated with every interview that negotiations were a long and difficult process, and union officials emphasized that more drastic bargaining tools like work-to-rule were not being considered.

While the NTA was forced to make concessions on class size caps and retroactive pay in the agreement, the contract guarantees teachers between a 7.5 and 8.5 percent increase in wages over the next three years and revises the “step system” that determines how wages increase with experience. Teachers will also be allowed up to five family sick days, on top of personal days.

“We couldn’t ask for a better way to start the school year,” Superintendent David Fleishman, quoted in the press release, said. “I am confident that this settlement will allow the Newton Public Schools to continue to recruit and retain skilled and dedicated educators.”

L-Bench closed due to graffiti, excess trash L-BENCH, from 1 writing their names on it was cool, so I think it’s sort of disappointing for everyone,” junior Scott Goldstein said.

Juniors Sammy Saada and Olivia Fredrick agreed.

“It stinks because we don’t have anywhere to go during our free blocks. I feel like a lost puppy walking around South,” Saada said.

“I was actually there one day when … one of the housemasters came and was like, ‘You guys need to leave’ … Then they put up signs,” Fredrick said. “It’s frustrating.

I feel lost.”

According to Banks, however, the general reception to news of the temporary closure has been approving.

“A lot of juniors were asking why it was shut down, but every time any of the housemasters explained it to the juniors, they said ‘Oh, yeah.’ So I’ve gotten positive feedback as

to why it was shut down,” Banks said.

Fredrick said that although she is disappointed, she understands the reasoning behind the housemasters’ decision.

“I think it was gross that people were eating on [the bench] because then it got really, really dirty and disgusting, but I guess they’re going to reopen it with new paint, so that’s cool,” she said.

The L-Bench will be reopened “after the area is cleaned up,” according to Wheeler housemaster Donna Gordon.

Before the bench is opened to students, housemasters will visit junior advisories to explain expectations regarding behavior around the L-Bench, according to Banks.

“I’m hoping the juniors are able to treat the L-Bench with [respect],” he said. “I hope they have … the maturity to take care of the L-Bench.”

Additional reporting by Sophia Fisher

photo by Nathaniel Bolter

EDITORIALS page 6|October 9, 2015|THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM

editorials@thelionsroar.com|VOLUME 32, ISSUE 3

the CAT’S

MEOW All the news that’s fit to print ... and then some!

Pope Visits South In the last stop on his tour through the United States, Pope Francis visited South last week to celebrate Mass with the student body.

A lack of interest forced him to lead a record-breaking Shabbat dinner in the field house instead. Garbed in a yarmulke and talit, the pope led the students in a spirited rendition of “Shalom Aleichem.”

“It was litttt,” senior Vat Icant said.

The Pope ended his visit with an address to South Senate. where South’s resident conservative was reportedly seen crying behind the lectern.

Auchin-hot for Hot-incloss Several South students have reportedly conspired to rig the Nov. 3 elections in favor of hunky ex-Marine Jake Hot-incloss, according to Alderman Jarcia Mohnson’s campaign.

The students allegedly stuffed ballot boxes with blatantly staged photographs of Hot-incloss staring dreamily at a Green Line train and replaced Mohnson lawn signs with signs bearing the slogan “Auchin-hot for Hotincloss.”

“I’ve never been so excited about local elections,” freshman Polly Tix said.

Hot-incloss declined to comment and responded to requests for an interview with a winky emoticon.

System Overload The library catalog crashed Tuesday after frenzied students checked out too many books.

“This is an unsustainable trend,” librarian F. Scott Steinbeck said. “I wish students would come into the library just to hang out and eat lunch. That’s what the Quiet Study area is designed for.”

Librarians have also been flooded with requests for help using ABC-Clio and EasyBib. “I’m just really into reading,” freshman Inst A. Grahm said. “I see our generation moving away from technology and into a more paper-oriented world.”

This latest incident comes just a week after riots broke out over a disputed riddle in the House Cup competition.

Correction

An article in Volume 32, Issue 2 of The Roar entitled “Approved” incorrectly stated that the new teacher contract gives teachers four family sick days per year.

Teachers get five family sick days under the new contract. The Roar regrets this error.

Austin St. opposition misguided; proposal offers valuable diversity

Subscribers, seniors and anyone else of voting age: It’s time to pay attention to Newton politics again. The latest issue making the rounds on the local blogs is actually important.

The Board of Aldermen should vote to move forward with the Austin St. project on Nov. 16 to ensure that Newton remains an accessible and diverse city, instead of an enclave for the privileged.

On the surface, the proposed development to replace a parking lot at 28 Austin St. is a squabble over logistics, but in consequence, the project has become a referendum over affordable housing’s place in Newton, where the average median income is $104,887.

Austin St. entered the Newton political lexicon in 2012, when the parking lot there was rezoned for “mixed use,” opening the site to private development by a group called Austin Street Partners (ASP).

While some of their proposed project would be used for commercial purposes and luxury apartments, 25 percent of the 68 housing units would be required to be affordable.

These proceedings have raised the ire of the anti-development corps, foremost among them

the polemical Newton Villages Alliance (NVA), whidh counters the social justice appeal of the project with a slew of logistical complaints like potential traffic problems, school overcrowding and a lack of government transparency.

The parking lot at 28 Austin St. suddenly has become vital asset to the city, and on its website, and the NVA has stopped just short of alleging a conspiracy between Mayor Setti Warren and the Austin Street Partners, given that the city rejected a larger bid for the site in favor of ASP’s proposal.

As Alderman-at-Large candidate Jake Auchincloss has wisely said, these are “straw man” arguments, some of them pure artifice.

Rob Gifford pointed out in a recent TAB column that the city chose ASP’s $1 million proposal over one that cost $5 million because the latter actually involved a larger development.

But what’s truly disconcerting about the NVA and its supporters is that they never articulate the real reason for their passionate opposition: Affordable housing brings the “wrong” kind of people to Newton.

Knowing this would be perceived as unpalatable, they rely on innuendo,

writing on their website that “when people move to Newton they are becoming part of an established community. They value and expect stability in the character of our neighborhoods.”

The NVA is right about one thing: Development is vital to the character of our neighborhoods.

Far from opening the city to a flood of undesirables, affordable housing makes Newton accessible to people who would otherwise be priced out of the city.

There is certainly room for nuance here. Some oppose Austin St. because they believe the project provides too little affordable housing. Others, like Auchincloss, oppose the terms of the deal. Yet the project ought to move forward regardless, if only because its failure to do so would give momentum to anti-development hardliners and discourage developers from attempting to build any more affordable housing in Newton.

Newton’s future will be at stake on Nov. 3 as polls open for the aldermanic elections. Voters can not gamble that future away on principle and risk ceding the city to the wealthy and intolerant who seek to close Newton’s gates for good.

Editorial Policy

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october 9, 2015|page 7

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|DESK

The myth of the melting pot and the EDITOR’S dangers of dropping Russian class DESK from the

Veronica Podolny Editor-in-Chief

We grow up learning that assimilation is natural — to an extent. That’s what “the melting pot” implies, isn’t it — that the chemical bonds and individual properties of the ingredients that go in are broken down until one uniform substance remains.

Sometimes, I feel like the bonds holding me together are beginning to wear down as well. I feel like the fibers that make up my heritage and my background, that weave together the person I am, are being unraveled. The scariest part of all this is that I sometimes feel like I’m the one pulling the string.

In elementary school, I did not let my parents walk me to the door when I would go over to a friend’s house. I was mortified by their funny clothing and broken speech.

When I was simply trying to fit in, they only made me stand out more. I didn’t always notice the hurt in their eyes when I would nonchalantly remark that they were “embarrassing.” Though they had lived in the states longer than I had been alive, they never quite seemed to “get” it.

In middle school, I forced my parents to let me quit Russian lessons. I was sick of the hours spent trying to decipher

the cyrillic script by syllables, analyzborders to Chinese migrants for over 60 ing Pushkin’s poems or memorizing the years, and similar legislation in the 1920s monologues of Chekhov’s main characters. discriminated against immigrants from At last, I wouldn’t have to mutter “Russian east Asia and southeast Europe, who class” when my friends asked me why I were perceived to be inferior to northern couldn’t hang out — as if it were someEuropeans. thing to hide.

Similarly, many elite colleges in In high school, I stopped speaking Rus- the first half of the 20th century instilled sian at home. The math and science terminol- Jewish quotas for admission; officials ogy I used when I worried that asked my dad for Jewish students help was beyond would “ruin I feel like the fibers that make up my my simple Rusthe school,” so heritage and my background, that sian vocabulary, they limited the weave together the person I am, are so eventually we number of Jews switched over to who would be being unraveled. The scariest part of English and never granted admisall this is that I sometimes feel like switched back. sion each year.

I’m the one pulling the string.

Though I The dean of Yale am not proud of gave explicit it, I think I fit into instructions: the paradigm of America’s melting pot well, “Never admit more than five Jews, take but I’m not even sure why we should embrace only two Italian Catholics and take no that specific concept. blacks at all.”

Are we really that obsessed with And when has assimilation worked conformity? Why can’t the United States well for us in the past? Did the Dawes Act, be more like a salad, a place for distinct which broke up Native American tribes cultures to come together while still and families in an attempt to privatize preserving their idiosyncrasies? When are property, accomplish anything? (APUSH we going to stop pretending that we value students — you tell me.) individualism above all else?

Though we think of this forced asHistorically, Americans have valued similation as long gone, take a look at the anything but diversity. The Chinese Exclu- presidential race. Look at Donald Trump, sion Act of 1882, for instance, closed U.S. who doesn’t want Jeb Bush to speak Span-

ish on the campaign trail because, according to Trump, we live in a country where it is necessary to assimilate.

The problem with the “melting pot” is that it calls for uniformity. But as our world gets “smaller” and communication expands, the melting pot becomes an anachronism. We see an influx of cultures coming to the United States, and we should hope that they continue to bring diversity to our society.

When I sit at the kitchen table and listen to a conversation between my parents, I find it amazing that I can understand them. As I eat my breakfast, lost in my own thoughts, my brain still manages to translate the sounds around me and give them meaning; perhaps I haven’t yet lost my Russian identity.

To most people, the defined rs and aggressive ts of the Russian language create an indiscernible and seemingly aggressive linguistic chaos (after phone conversations, my friends ask if I was fighting with my parents, to which I furrow my brows and explain that I was just telling them I love them), but to me they create a rich and nuanced dialogue.

I recently started speaking Russian with my parents again as a last attempt not to lose the language.

I don’t think that makes me any less of an American; it just adds one more burst of flavor to the salad.

Volume XXXII The Lion’s Roar Newton South High School’s Student Newspaper 140 Brandeis Road Newton, MA 02459 srstaff@thelionsroar.com

Editors-in-Chief Nathaniel Bolter

Veronica Podolny

Managing Editors Sophia Fisher

Shelley Friedland

Section Editors Opinions

Features

Maia Fefer Andrea Lirio Karin Alsop

Centerfold

News

David Li Carina Ramos Jake Rong Sophie Lu

Mona Baloch Emily Belt

Business Manager Andrew Fu

Graphics Managers Sophie Galowitz Celine Yung

Aidan Bassett Clare Martin Ben Rabin

Sports

Noah Shelton

Distribution Manager Daniel Morris

Faculty Advisers Ashley Elpern Ryan Normandin

Webmaster Sasha Badov

Photo Managers Alexa Rhynd Bailey Kroner

OPINIONS page 8|OCtober 9, 2015|THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM

opinions@thelionsroar.com|VOLUME 32, ISSUE 3

Perspectives:

Do local elections matter?

photo by Alexa Rhynd

not at all

of course by eunice kim

W

ith national elections coming up, few of us really think about how important local elections are. Because they’re less dramatic, people pay them less attention and deem them unimportant.

Local elections do matter, however, because America is a huge country with over 300 million people and a highly complex economy.

Our federal government is charged with trying to improve the laws of one of the most advanced nations on earth along with the duties of making peace, waging war and a thousand other things.

The national government simply cannot manage every single state, let alone every city. This is where local elections come into play.

Local elections bring order to a big country. The power of city governments is immense, for they play a far more direct role in our daily lives.

Our local council, the Board of Aldermen, handles the city’s needs like North’s massive renovation. The local government used the city’s tax revenue, and now Newton has a sparkling new high school.

They are also the ones who repair new roads and make sure all the city’s annoyances are fixed, like potholes or shoddy infrastructure. Most importantly, local government determines a city’s budget.

The budget provides the funds for students’ education and is responsible for programs like free lunches, tutors and scholarships which open up new opportunities to students in need.

Since local government controls the money, it also largely control the city’s

appearance. We, as citizens, need to elect competent public officials to help the city reach its full potential. By giving our voice to local government, we help make decisions on issues like the location of new supermarkets, maintaining parks and gardens and fixing roads.

Students can conveniently go to a public library with all the newest books or to a café to relax and study after school.

Living in a place with effective local government means that our city is pleasant and well-maintained, a privilege not afforded to everyone.

Since our generation is known for being disengaged from the world around us, our participation in local government and the improvement of our community is an important step in becoming more involved.

If your neighborhood or local community has a problem, more likely than not it’s your city council who would try to solve it. Those problems will certainly go unresolved if we ignore local elections and allow incompetent leaders to be reelected year after year.

So even though local elections may seem detached from your life, remember that local government basically keeps this city from falling apart.

When Newton has problems that need to be solved, we want to know that there is a system in place to deal with the issues and keep the city functioning properly.

Our city exists as it does because of our local government, and if we fail to elect competent city leadership to manage it well, the state of our community will reflect our negligence.

BY Nathaniel Flemming

D

id you know about the upcoming municipal elections? I’ll admit I didn’t. I didn’t know about the preliminary election that happened on Sept. 17, either. There weren’t any yard signs or bumper stickers, and there was zero discussion in school among teachers or students. In fact, I would be willing to bet that most people either didn’t know or care about the preliminary election since a whopping 4,200 people voted, a mere eight percent of registered voters in Newton.

Perhaps that number will be higher for the actual election on Nov. 3, but it seems unlikely to grow by much.

To be fair, when one of the most exciting issues hinging on the alderman election is the construction of 68 apartments on Austin Street, perhaps this apathy is understandable. The Austin Street apartments, like most of the other projects Newton’s website dubs ‘High Interest Projects’, is only relevant to those in its immediate vicinity. A large portion of Newton’s population will remain unaffected by the apartments’ construction or lack thereof.

South students have even less of a reason to follow local elections: Even if a student did take an unusual amount of interest in local politics, happened to live next to the site of a potential building project and had a strong opinion on the development of the neighborhood, odds are the students wouldn’t be able to do anything about it because they wouldn’t be able to vote. The inability to vote means most students have almost no direct power to influence Newton’s government and its decision making. And the low voter turnout suggests that decisions are minor

at best and insignificant at worst.

Students also have more important things to do than research a political system in which they cannot actively take part. Local elections are no doubt interesting in their own right but are largely irrelevant to the average student.

Of course, most students can’t vote in the presidential election either, yet it is still seen as a topic of great interest and importance. The difference is that the results of a presidential election affect every citizen. Aldermen pass laws requiring homeowners to shovel snow off the sidewalk in front of their houses. National laws will affect students even if they leave Newton after finishing high school.

While they are in Newton, students are affected by more immediate authorities than their aldermen. “Laws” created by teachers or parents have a greater impact than Newton ordinances. If a student shovels the sidewalk, it’s because their parents told them to, not because the aldermen made it a law.

Even when local government directly impacts students, as in the case of the School Committee, students are relatively powerless. South’s early 7:40 a.m. start time has always been a subject of complaint, but only now is the Newton government considering change. Given the pace of local government, anyone reading this article probably will have graduated by the time any change takes effect.

Local elections and politics have little relevance for students, and lacking the ability to vote, students can in turn do little to affect municipal government. If students want something to change, they’d be better off lobbying their parents.

october 9, 2015|page 9

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|opinions

TRUMP HOW DONALD TRUMP IS REDEFINING THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY

By Ben Rabin

BY BEN RABIN

S

on immigration. Indeed, Trump’s call for the deportation of all 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, along with promises to decrease the rate of legal immigration, have spearheaded his campaign. Political correspondent Matt K. Lewis of The Daily Beast has theorized that even the Trump campaign’s motto

c phi gra

ince its inception, the publication National Review has been the semi-official arbiter of right-wing thought in America. Its founder, William F. Buckley, is often considered the father of modern conservatism, and, in fact, accurately defines conservatism in the National Review’s motto: “A Conservative is a fellow who is standing athwart history yelling ‘Stop!’”

By this definition, conservatives are always on the losing side of history.

In the words of former Washington Times columnist Samuel Francis, “The Right, whatever the historical context, tends to be composed of history’s losers — people whose interests, ideas and values represent a social and political order that is on the wane.” The converse is true as well; the Left, in all of its iterations — from Martin Luther’s Protestantism to the 20th century’s Bolshevik communism — has typically represented history’s winners, people who look toward the future as visionaries, not reactionaries. As a result, conservatives have hardly ever been able to “conserve” anything they feel worth conserving.

In the United States, for example, both Buckley and his publication have lost on nearly every issue they took a position on. Gay marriage is legal in all 50 states, universal health care has been implemented, the formerly influential religious right has been reduced to a joke and the neoconservative interventionist foreign policy that Buckley championed is universally despised.

This brings the conversation to a man named Donald Trump.

Since late July, the corporatetycoon-turned-presidential-candidate has led polls by widening margins. It appears that no matter how many sexist comments Trump makes, not one has derailed his candidacy — in most polls, Trump leads his closest competitors in the Republican primary by 10 to 15 points, and many polls have shown him leading or statistically tied with the Democratic front runners. This begs the question — why is Trump so popular?

Trump’s campaign is redefining the American Right into a revolutionary, rather than reactionary, movement.

Most poignantly, Trump’s use of white identity politics sets him apart from the rest of the Republican field. Much of Trump’s popularity and media attention could be attributed to his rhetoric jali An by

n Sha

kar

— “Make America Great Again!” — has white nationalist undertones. According to Lewis, the motto conjures imagery from the 1960s, when the government was passing landmark legislation, the economy was booming, man went to the moon and

the United States was nearly 90 percent white.

Trump’s campaign appeals to those who envision a future in which government policy would preserve the United States as a mostly white nation. In this manner, Trump has successfully positioned himself as the candidate for the white man, something which the Republican party has gone lengths to avoid.

Furthermore, Trump’s vision includes economic retribution against the large corporations, which, according to him, have facilitated illegal immigration for the past several decades due to their demands for “cheap labor.” He plans to increase regulations and raise taxes on corporations that operate outside of the United States. Trump has also promised to raise taxes on the ultra rich and to institute programs that help the poorest Americans succeed. This makes Trump the only Republican candidate willing to critique capitalism and trying to create something new rather than preserve the old. This economic populism coupled with white identity politics makes Trump’s campaign more similar to the rising right-wing European parties than the Republican platform.

Trump’s presidential campaign has the potential to fundamentally redefine the American Right into a revolutionary movement. Perhaps this is why so many on the Left fear Trump — even if he loses this election, future candidates will emulate his model, and perhaps the winds of change will blow toward “Trumpism.”

Meanwhile, the Left would now be the ones to “[stand] athwart history, shouting ‘Stop!’” In this sense, Trump is not a reactionary; he is making history while the political world reacts to him. The Republican party apparently fears the impact of Donald Trump, which is why the party leadership is doing everything it can to “tame” and “stump” him.

This leaves Trump with two options. He could listen to his party’s calls to tone down his rhetoric and soften his unorthodox views on immigration and economics. In doing so, Trump would spark less controversy, yet he would likely lose much of his appeal. Alternatively, he could reject these voices and continue along the trajectory he has set for himself; in choosing the latter, Trump would move towards shedding the constraints of reactionary conservatives and joining the ranks of history’s victors.

Foreign Policy, Part I AIDAN BASSETT

sr. opinions editor

political positions

O

ver the past couple decades, many of the most memorable events in the world and America have reflected or caused changes in American foreign policy. Twenty-first century foreign policy started with 9/11, continued through our conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan — including the overthrow of Saddam Hussein — and more recently involved the Arab Spring, the eruption of the Syrian civil war, the assassination of Osama bin Laden, the Russian annexation of Crimea and the birth of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Despite regional bias, sensationalism and occasional fabrication by the media, these conflicts have pervaded our national consciousness. Foremost among these mindsets on foreign policy is the idea of America as the world’s policeman; this is a dangerous idea, one which must ultimately end if the world is ever to evolve into a safer, stabler and more prosperous place.

Many historians mark the start of modern history with the end of World War II, and since then, America has experienced numerous shifts in its international objectives. From the Cold War to Vietnam to Korea, America has been ensnared in a variety of foreign wars that sapped domestic funds and diverted more to defense spending. The famed military-industrial complex born in the 1900s continues to fluorish and gives the United States the capacity to influence affairs worldwide at the helm of the U.N., NATO and the western world.

Our greatest failures, however, have come from attempts to use this power to rectify distant parts of the world.

If the United States has the power to improve the world economically, diplomatically and militarily, why have we done so much harm?

The answer is twofold: our selfappointed role as the world’s policeman and our inability to respect the sovereignty of other nations in their own struggles to achieve stability and prosperity. We must change our default mindset from one of ever-imminent intrusion to one of economic and diplomatic actions with limited coalition responses in only the most extreme cases.

As an example of this shift, we would more often resort to the sanctions that forced Iran to make a controversial nuclear deal, and we would scale back or eliminate the bumbling, ineffectual mish-mash of airstrikes and limited troop presence currently aimed at ISIS. Beyond merely reforming our style of military engagement, we must also reset our global priorities to align with the Millennium Development Goals, which address the root of the problem (unlike our current armed conflict resolution).

Additionally, if we are more focused on the environment, we can do more to ensure our national long-term sustainability. America must advance by allowing the rest of the world to manage its own affairs.

No one can argue that our track record is substantially better than that of others, and if we aim for proactive solutions rather than reactive blunders, we have a far better chance of helping to heal a broken world.

page 10|october 9, 2015

opinions|THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM

Should South Require Wellness Classes? by risa gelles-watnick

When I began the process of signing up for courses for this year, I wasn’t thinking about graduation requirements or free blocks. I simply considered which courses interested me the most. It wasn’t until I was about to hand in my registration sheet that I realized I didn’t have space for a wellness class. In order to make room, I was going to have to drop an elective.

South’s Program of Studies stipulates that “[e]leventh and twelfth grade students are required to complete a wellness course each year, and must take one from each of the Wellness Strands.” Strand I addresses the mind, body and spirit, while Strand II consists of lifetime activities.

Because of this wellness requirement, I had to give up American Sign Language, an elective I loved taking for two

years. The wellness classes listed in the program of studies didn’t appeal to me at all, but I was forced to enroll in one of them anyway. So why are wellness classes — a niche interest much like other electives — a graduation requirement?

One of the main reasons many high schools support tradi-

little to no physical activity.

Sports Nutrition is essentially a cooking course; Centered Self includes only one short unit on yoga; teaching assistants simply help underclassman classes run smoothly.

If the goal of South’s 11th and 12th grade wellness classes is not to encourage the physical

stress reduction class, however, is entirely illogical.

When I think of things that regulate my stress, breathing techniques or meditation do not come to mind. The only thing that dispels my anxiety is taking care of the things that stress me out. If I have a huge essay due the next day and it’s only half done,

At the end of the relaxation process, I will still have to write that essay. All the deep breathing in the world cannot change deadlines. tional gym classes is because they involve physical activity. Exercising in the middle of the day helps students focus in academic classes and enhances their physical fitness. For students who don’t play sports, gym class may be the only time for them to work out.

The majority of wellness courses South offers after sophomore year, however, involve

health of students, what is it? As the name of Strand I wellness courses, mind/body/spirit, suggests, these classes are designed to improve mental well-being.

Centered Self especially focuses on stress management and relaxation techniques. In South’s high-pressure environment, a class about addressing stress seems rational. Requiring a

doing yoga or going outside to commune with nature will not calm me.

At the end of the relaxation process, I will still have to write that essay. All the deep breathing in the world cannot change deadlines.

By requiring that upperclassmen take a wellness class during each of their final two

photo illustration by Alexa Rhynd

years of high school, South eliminates an opportunity for stress relief.

If these students weren’t required to take a wellness class two blocks per week for one semester, they could use those free periods to work on homework or study for tests. By finishing more of their homework before going home, students could go to sleep earlier, which would actually improve their mental health.

Although upperclassman wellness classes are enjoyable for many and should be available for those who want to take them, requiring juniors and seniors to sign up in order to graduate is unreasonable. These courses, which are supposed to help students relax, lead to frustrating scheduling conflicts and consume precious time that students could instead use to resolve the roots of their stress.

Atticus Finch: Beyond Black and White by cassandra luca

A

mong the startling events that took place this summer — who could have predicted that Donald Trump’s fame would translate from reality TV to reality? — was the discovery that America’s most iconic fictional attorney was actually a racist. Gone are the days when we could all believe that Atticus Finch of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” was one of the few in Maycomb, Ala. who could see beyond the artificial confines of race. The uproar in the media about the discovery of Atticus’ prejudice reveals that our country does not necessarily want to confront some uncomfortable truths; luckily, Lee’s “Go Set a Watchman” breaks it to us gently, allowing us to learn how to see the nuances of a situation that previously appeared black and white.

The manuscript of “Go Set a Watchman” was found last summer, and the book was published this past July.

Taking place 20 years after “To Kill a Mockingbird,” JeanLouise has left “Scout” behind and now lives in New York City, dutifully returning to Maycomb once a year to visit her aging father. While on one of these annual visits, she happens upon one of Atticus’ White nationalist town-hall

meetings, where she sees him actively participating. The rest of the novel follows Jean-Louise as she grapples with reconciling the Atticus she thought she knew and the Atticus that everyone else seems to understand.

At the most basic level, Jean-Louise’s struggle is ours as well. Generations of adults and children alike grew up reading “To Kill a Mockingbird,” watching the novel’s equally iconic film adaptation and, along with Jean-Louise, viewing Atticus as more than mortal. But while this type of idolization may first seemed innocuous, it impeded our ability to critically judge Atticus as both a person and a literary character.

When we reduce ideas and people to simple caricatures, we understandably make the process simpler for ourselves. In a complex world, it suddenly becomes our job to filter through everything we witness and make it easier to digest. Unfortunately, people and ideas are not simple, as the Atticus fiasco so eloquently shows us.

Though his portrayal in “Go Set a Watchman” clearly contradicts his saintly, egalitarian persona depicted in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” rather than dismissing the second

book as a rough draft that never should have seen the light of day, we should acknowledge that we all have some part of Atticus in us as well. This process is important mainly because it gives us the power to understand the people around us more deeply, and perhaps to learn to accept change as it comes.

The polarized reaction to “Go Set a Watchman” indicates that we do not want to accept change easily and that we cling tightly to our heroes without asking what the whole story really is. By embracing Atticus’s complexity, we can thoughtfully discuss who he truly is, rather than continue to blindly accept one version without question.

Inevitably, life becomes harder when we look at all the shades of grey. Instead of demanding that the media we consume and the people we meet display simple, onedimensional personalities and characteristics, we should embrace contradictions, because they make the world we live in much more rewarding. It may also be a lesson that we ought not idolize those whom we perceive to be better than ourselves; many times, there is more to them than we think.

October 9, 2015|page 11

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|opinionS

UPGRADE

9 “How to Get Away with Murder” now on Netflix

campus chatter The Lion’s Roar asked ...

If you could change the world in one way, what would it be?

“I would want to try to decrease science- and math-based gender stereotypes at a young age … They decrease the amount of women that are in STEM fields, and we’re losing half of the contributions.”

Edward Snowden’s Twitter hijinks Girls soccer team Flannel season Demi Lovato’s comeback

- Giulio Cataldo, Class of 2016 “I would spend more money on the pensions for veterans, because they served our country, and they deserve to have more support in society.”

- Amanda Smith, Class of 2018 “I would make the world like Hogwarts, the magical world of Harry Potter, because everyone’s all like, ‘Why isn’t my world like the magical world of Harry Potter?’”

Mac and cheese Homework free weekend Old Disney Channel shows

9

DOWNGRADE

Parking meters Daniel Radcliffe’s new haircut Spotify ads No pockets in girls’ clothing FIFA corruption Starbucks baristas’ spelling Inaccurate Buzzfeed quizzes Disney Channel’s slow decline

- Caitlin Connell, Class of 2017 “I would probably take away all the racism, because that’s a major part of our world today and it’s kind of hurting people, and it’s making people unhappy.”

- Chase Levy, Class of 2019 photos by Kiana Lee

“Black Mass”

BY Kate pozner While “Black Mass” had the potential to be a truly fascinating biopic of South Boston’s most famous mobster, James “Whitey” Bulger, the execution left much to be desired. The film is mostly told through the flashbacks of Bulger’s “Winter Hill Gang” associates during a testimony with the FBI as they recount the various crimes they and Bulger committed.

As one might expect from a mob movie, the violence is grotesque, leaving very little to the imagination. Indeed, the first casualty occurs hardly 10 minutes into the film, and the bodies just keep piling up after that.

But the film also takes a more nuanced angle, showing that despite his career as a brutal mobster, Bulger is also a family man — a loving father, brother and son.

As a matter of fact, Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Bulger is undoubtedly the highlight of the film. Depp’s execution is bone-chilling, possibly his best performance in years. Depp’s lack of remorse and ghostly appearance were almost as frightening as the real Bulger’s actions.

Unfortunately, while Depp’s performance is memorable, the storyline moved ploddingly and was often hard to follow. I left the theater with about as much information about the story as I had when I went in.

Moreover, the supporting cast — a mix of

“Black Mass”

Whitey Bulger (Johnny Depp, left) dines with FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton, center). overly-stereotypical accents, “Donald Trumpy” hairstyles and an overall lack of character development — did not match Depp’s mastery. The breakout star of this film was Adam Scott’s mustache.

Certain scenes made the plot needlessly complicated. The scenes that prominently featured Bulger’s family to capture Bulger’s “family man” persona felt unnecessary — they were short and had rather little bearing on the overall plot.

It seemed like the only reason the writers even bothered to keep the scenes in the script was to showcase Bulger’s opinions on violence, yet the viewers could easily have assumed that Bulger would hold those views, even before watching the film. That being said, I give this film 3½ stars. While “Black Mass” might have a special connection to us Bostonians, and while Depp’s performance was marvelous, the film could have achieved so much more.

A world of difference Ten countries, one school: How life and learning compare across borders

Cuba Ricardo Gessa Spanish teacher

Heloise Pellegrin junior Last February, I moved to the United States from Paris, France. Here, the school is bigger, the students are more open to each other and the teachers listen to students more. It was a culture shock for me, having to adapt myself to a new language, a new culture, a new school, a new house and new friends. But I liked the change, and I am happy here. In France, the school day was very different.

We started our first class at 8:30 a.m. every day, and finished at around 5 p.m.. We often stayed in the same class with the same people for the entire school year. This created deep relationships that could continue for our entire lives. I have noticed that in America, you create relationships with more people, but they are not as strong.

Oliver Todreas sophomore I have moved back and forth between Stockholm, Sweden and Boston every year or so for my whole life. There are many differences between the two countries. For example, my school in Stockholm has a much smaller homework load and emphasizes comprehending material in class rather than at home. On the contrary, here the workload is much greater at home, while the teachers lecture during class. To be honest, they both work, although I think that most people would enjoy more free time at home. One thing that s so great about the system here, however, is that we all take courses with different people. In Stockholm, we have one group that takes all classes together. In the end, I see both places as home.

Sweden

Cuba is an elusive idea that reinvents itself the same way I do, by living and learning from and through others, discovering the new me(s). Cuba is a monotonous sermon that intoxicates and poisons, a suffocating space where State and Nation, government and people, civil society and institutional systems exist in absolute and aberrant symbiosis.

Cuba is a beautiful and demonic space, a magic, damned, closed universe, ruled for more than half a century by the same name. Cuba is national sacrifice, a slow death. Cuba is to survive or to flee, because you don t leave Cuba ̶ you escape from it. And yet, Cuba is also mango and guava scents, sea fragrance, greens and blues, dew at dawn, spontaneity, physical contact, lust, transparency, innocence, absolute tranquillity for living each moment as the only one.

Cuba is undressing yourself, giving away everything, not for courage, but because there is nothing else to lose. Cuba is in my sisters, my friends scattered around the world, my dead parents ... Cuba is gaining and losing. Cuba is learning. Cuba is life. Cuba is my own journey making sense of who I am. Cuba is my blessing, my curse, my fate, my Ithaca.

France Libya

Viviana Planine Spanish teacher

Italy

I was born in Italy, where my family still lives. I miss the people, the mountains where we would ski and hike and the sea where we could stay all summer. I went to school in the late 60s, during a political moment in Europe led by passion and a desire to change the world. That energy has never left me. I was young then, but I felt that my family, gender and a controlling society limited many of my choices. Here, I felt free to express myself without always fighting the system. Now that I am older, I sometimes miss that fight ̶ even if I have discovered that the fight is here, too. You have to look for it.

South Africa Luiza Janela junior I am an exchange student from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As a child, I always thought about doing an exchange program. My goals for my time in America are to get to know another culture, enjoy the holidays and everything that Boston has to offer and also make friends. I want this experience to be memorable. Brazil and the United States are very different countries. At school in Brazil, we are not allowed to study the subjects we want. Also, we do not move from class to class; the teacher comes to our room. Since Newton South is a big school, it took me a long time to figure out where my classes are and how to get to them.

Ghena Bakir freshman

Brazil

Being from Libya has played a huge role in my life. It has shaped me as a person. Libyans are really generous, nice and helpful. Last year I moved to the United States. I was really sad to leave my friends and family, but it was really easy for me to fit in here because there are not any social differences.

School is a lot harder in Libya than it is here. There are many exams, tests and homework assignments in Libya, but it is a lot of fun as well. Libya s food is influenced by Italian and Arab cuisine. The most popular traditional dish is couscous. Cafés are the most important places for Libyans because we go there for breakfast.

Jarryd Nissenbaum senior I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and at the age of five I moved to Newton. My South African identity has played a large part in my life. What always fascinates me are the tremendous differences between the two countries. While open lawns are common here, in South Africa large walls and electric fences surround most of the houses.

Safety is just one concern in South Africa; there are regular power outages, and even a lack of basic medical care. However, there are plenty of bright things about this magnificent country as well, including its diverse culture, amazing weather and beautiful landscapes.

page 14|October 9, 2015

Centerfold|THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM

A world of

difference

Sakshi Das senior

continued

When people think of India, they think of vibrant people, delicious food and, let s be real, Slumdog Millionaire .

But India isn t just that; it is much more. To me, India will always represent my childhood. The 12 years that I spent there taught me so much about hospitality and appreciation. A deep sense of brotherhood and tight-knit community runs deep in Indian culture. This habit of opening one s arms to fellow humans has established strong roots within me. But India is not all colorful festivals and tangy street food. Having lived in India, I have also seen many aspects of a third world country.

This gives me a deep sense of appreciation for things some might take for granted.

Israel India

Alex Schwartzman senior Israel means everything to me. It is where I grew up, where I learned important life lessons, where I developed and expanded my personality and where I truly feel comfortable. Nothing says more about Israel than its differences from the United States: students in Israel help each other to succeed instead of competing harshly with each other. They complete each other s knowledge and work together for their own mutual benefit. Supporting other people or volunteering does not come from the need to make oneself look better for college, but from a real inner desire to help other.

Israel, in my eyes, symbolizes a society with real humane benevolence.

Australia Harry DeVires sophomore I m from Australia, and lived there for 11 years.

It s certainly a place that defines me as a person. But living in the United States for nearly six years has changed the way I see things. I love both of them, but neither more than the other, just for different reasons.

Both countries, in essence, are my home. They are incredibly different. Everything from the food (meat pies and corn dogs are truly novel experiences) to the government (our liberals are your Republicans) is different. The strangest part, though, is how you would expect everything to be the same between two Western countries and yet so much differs.

October 9, 2015|page 15

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|Centerfold

How is life different around the globe?

American students living in the Netherlands and Switzerland discuss how their lives have changed since they left the United States Eleanor Harlan Netherlands

There are not many words that are spelled exactly the same in both English and Dutch, but “school” is one of them.

In Dutch, however, the “ch” is a guttural sound made at the back of the throat and the “oo” is pronounced like the word “old’ without the “d.” Spelled out phonetically, it looks something like this: sch OLE. So there you go — you now know a word in Dutch! Leuk!

That’s practically all I knew myself before I came here, to be honest. I had spent some time with my Dutch Rosetta Stone program, learning how to say het meisje en het paard (the girl and the horse) and ik slaap in mijn bedkamer (I’m sleeping in my bedroom), but that’s not the kind of stuff that helps you when you arrive at a new school.

With the help of my amazingly nice classmates and host family, however, ik kan nu een beetje nederlands spreken. It’s still hard to sit through class and follow the lesson with everyone else, but it is definitely getting much easier. I am actually liking school!

This year, I am living and going to school in Meppel, a small Dutch town in the northeastern province of Drenthe.

There are some big differences between school here and at South (i.e. a LOT less

homework), but in general, the culture and attitude of my fellow classmates is much like they are in the United States.

The school I go to is called CSG Dingstede and is only about five minutes from my house by bike. I’m really lucky that my commute is that short; some kids have to bike for 40 minutes each way just to get to school. Everyone bikes to school here, so we have bike lots that are practically the size of the student parking lot at South. The building itself is relatively small, and it’s very easy to navigate. There are three floors, with four wings: North

days with four classes, some days with seven. I know some kids who have only two classes on Mondays, yet nine on Tuesdays!

For example, on Mondays I start at 10:00 and get out around 1:45, but on Fridays I start at 8:20 and don’t get out until 3:35.

The reason my schedule is so different every day is because we do not have all of our classes each day. In fact, some classes I have only once or twice a week. Never do we have the same class five days in a row, which is nice because you get much more time to study and do your homework.

As many teachers have explained to

Teachers want you to be well-rounded and to be able to succeed both intellectually and socially in the real world.

(Noord), South (Zuid), East (Oost) and West (West).

There are two 15-minute breaks during the day, during which we talk and eat our lunch. Classes are 50 minutes each, with no time in between, but teachers usually allow a grace period of five minutes before they start the lesson.

Another huge change for me is the schedule. Each day it is different. Whereas at South I had six classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and five on Tuesdays and Fridays, here I have some

Having people to discuss Sunday’s Pats game with or being able to satisfy my Switzerland J.P. Licks cravings never seemed like a big deal before “the move,” but now that I’ve Something that nobody tells you when you move is that you’re going to miss left them, they are.

Today, in Switzerland, I have never the weirdest things. It’s always the stuff you felt more American; I have never felt so never paid attention to and the stuff you took for granted.

After moving to Zurich, I realized bit by bit all that I had left, all the little elements of my Newton existence that I never thought I’d have to give up so soon.

For example, raiding the shelves at Star Market after indoor track meets at Reggie Lewis. Or spending free blocks much nationalism for the place where I in the darkroom, accompanied only by was born and raised. tragically overplayed pop music and the Today, my ears perk up when I hear pungent smell of chemicals.

These little things, no matter how in- American accents on the street, and I have significant, were all parts of my life in New- this little flag on my desk that I waved sadly for myself last Thanksgiving when I was ton and, strangely, have been integrated into my identity; all are pieces of who I am. expected to attend school.

Tara Pal

me, the Dutch education system is about educating the whole person. Teachers want you to be well-rounded and to be able to succeed both intellectually and socially in the real world. In their eyes, you cannot truly be social if you are constantly bogged down by homework and tests.

In that spirit, we only have tests during toesweken. Toetsweken (test weeks) are exactly like finals week, but they happen every six weeks. During those weeks, you come to school (sometimes at 11:00 a.m.), take your test(s), and go home. It’s a

I didn’t know the extent to which coming to Switzerland would make everything about the United States precious, but I was even more surprised to find that returning made me notice the little things I missed about life in Switzerland.

Spending the summer in Boston, I

My life in Zurich has become another fundamental piece of who I am as a person. I am an American in Europe and a European in America. felt intensely Swiss as I lamented the woes of the city’s public transportation system, telling anyone who would listen about Zurich’s ever-punctual, almost unsettlingly clean trains.

One day on Newbury Street, I heard some Europeans talking about their home

lot less stressful. Many teachers don’t give much homework either. After some time at South, this was a mind-blowing (yet much appreciated) difference for me. On the days when I don’t have homework, I usually go into town with friends or come home and study Dutch (you can guess which one I prefer.)

I am currently taking 10 classes: Dutch (duh), French, English (my best class), history, geography, biology, general science (which is kind of a combination of history, geography, biology and physics), gym, math and religion. There are a lot fewer options to choose from when it comes to creative classes (like photography and ceramics, for example), which is kind of a bummer.

There are also fewer language options. Dingstede (like most schools in Holland) offers only French and German as second languages. However, they make up for this by requiring all students to take English from their first year on. This means that by the time they are 16 or 17 years old, Dutch students can speak English almost as well as you and I can, which is a bit intimidating!

In the end, school here is a part of your life, but it is not your entire life. Dutch kids have time to play multiple sports, spend time with friends and family and generally enjoy themselves. Since I am sort of a Dutch kid now, I get that, too. And I’m loving it.

country, and my ears perked up just like they do for Americans in Switzerland.

Imagine my shock to realize that, in my own city, I identified with these tourists!

Oh, the irony of returning home only to realize that I’ve never felt more foreign.

Somehow, over this past year in Switzerland, my life in Zurich has become another fundamental piece of who I am as a person.

I am an American in Europe and a European in America, and I’d rather not try to figure out what I’d be in India, where I’ve also lived.

I think that’s the point: Neither Swiss nor American nor Indian can ever describe my identity because I’m all of them all the time.

I know I will never again have a simple answer to the dreaded question, “Where are you from?”

How do school schedules vary around the world?

8:45 a.m.-10:05 a.m. 10:15 a.m.-10:35 a.m 10:40 a.m.-12:00 p.m 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m. 1:05 p.m.-2:25 p.m. 2:30 p.m.-3:50 p.m.

French Advisory Math Lunch Economics Visual Arts

7:40 a.m.-8:35 a.m.

Spanish

3:50 p.m.

Dismissal

8:40 a.m.-9:35 a.m. 9:50 a.m.-10:45 a.m. 10:50 a.m.-12:35 p.m 12:40 p.m.-1:35 p.m. 1:40 p.m.-2:35 p.m. 2:40 p.m.-3:20 p.m.

Math Directed Study Chemistry History Wellness/Lunch Free Block

9:10 a.m.-10:00 a.m. 10:00 a.m.-10:50 a.m 11:05 a.m.-11:55 a.m 11:55 a.m.-12:45 p.m 1:05 p.m.-1:55 p.m. 1:55 p.m.-2:45 p.m. 2:45 p.m.-3:35 p.m.

Biology General Science Math Dutch English History Lunch Break

FEATURES page 16|October 9, 2015|THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM

FEATURES@thelionsroar.com|VOLUME 32, ISSUE 3

One Step at a Time

Dance team seeks to prove its legitimacy as a varsity sport

By Maia Fefer

T

he crowd’s eyes are focused on the field — not watching for the next tackle or touchdown, but following the small group of girls that walks onto the field to dance their routine during the halftime.

“At first it is a little nerve-racking.

You’re scared that you are going to mess up in front of everyone because a lot of people come to watch,” sophomore Alex Nichols said. “But when [I’m] on the field … my nerves go away and I know what I have to do. I try to perform for everyone to entertain them. It is just really fun because everyone’s eyes are on you.”

South’s dance team, attempting to defy popular stereotypes, defends its status as a real sports team.

This year, the team is relatively young with many new recruits. They practice four times a week, preparing a two-minute jazz and hip hop routine to a music mashup. Most performances are at football and basketball games, but the girls also dance at competitions and create a routine for the annual pep rally.

Since last year, athletic director Patricia Gonzalez has instituted changes for the dance team, including hiring a new coach and providing a space to practice at school. Now, the dance team attends football and basketball games with the cheerleading squad, although the two teams still perform different routines and compete separately. “[Practicing at South] helped them to have a sense of belonging to South.

They never felt like part of South because they were practicing outside,” Gonzalez said. “They would come for a game and do some presentations, but no one really knew they were part of our school.”

Even without many competitions, the dance team has done relatively well.

Last year, they competed in the state tournament for the first time a placed third out of six.

More important to the team than the competitions are the football halftime performances, senior and captain Rachel

Cohen said. “[We are there] to pump everyone up during pep rallies and halftime shows,” she said. “It’s a way to entertain the crowd.”

In addition to supporting the football and basketball teams, non-competitive performances help the dancers learn their routines, according to dance teacher and coach Sharon Lynch.

Nichols said the dance, cheerleading and football teams have formed a special relationship.

“We just kind of support each other,” she said. “We support the cheerleaders right before the halftime show, right before we are about to go out. They understand how we feel and how we are nervous.”

Gonzalez agreed.

“At South, [cheerleading and dancing] support each other,” she said. “The cheerleaders are there cheering for the [dance team], and it is neat to see how the dancers help the cheerleaders with jumps.”

Other than the football and cheerleading teams, dance finds little support from the rest of the school, Nichols said.

“A lot of other teams do not support us,” she said. “We don’t get taken seriously by people at our school.”

According to freshman Anna Ventouris, the dance team tries to ignore the criticism.

“It is just what other people think,”

photos by Alexa Rhynd

than sports.

“There has been a nationwide conversation about the changes that need to occur to make it a sport,” she said. “It has to do with the way the activities are managed at the national level.”

Although dance is labeled as an activity, freshman Carly Saada said the team does the same amount of work as a sports team.

“A lot of us don’t just do dancing at South. We do competitive dancing or

Dance is a sport — you work as hard. Like if you take a football player and put him into a dance class, he would be struggling.

Dancers have so much stamina and have so much strength.

- Rachel Cohen, Class of 2016 she said. “We just do it for ourselves because we really like it, so I don’t think it really matters what other people say about it.”

Some do not think dance qualifies as a sport. Gonzalez said this miscategorization has arisen partially due to dance and cheerleading being placed under the Massachusetts Principal Associations, meaning they are considered activities rather

competitive gymnastics, so we take what we learn there and we put it into what we do here,” she said. “We exercise just as much, but not here. We [do] preparation in other places.”

“Dance is a sport — you work as hard.,” Cohen agreed. “Like if you take a football player and put him into a dance class, he would be struggling. Dancers have so much stamina and have so much

strength … but I think it is more of an art, because you express yourself.”

Despite the skepticism, the team does receive support, even sometimes at away games, Lynch said. “[Recently,] I went to the snack bar, and I had a couple parents from Lexington come up because they saw the dance team and told us what a good job we did,” she said. “It was nice to hear that. You don’t always hear that at an away game.”

Besides sharing a passion for dance, freshman Talia Feinberg said the team has found other shared interests.

“I have noticed that as we have gotten closer, less and less of our conversations have become about dance,” she said. “We have really come to get to know each other in a way.”

The community aspect is a key element to the team’s success, Lynch said.

“Sometimes in practice you have eight different people with eight different ideas, but they do a good job in molding it all together and making it work,” she said.

“Everybody has different visions, and in the end, they really are creative and come up with new concepts and new ways of movement ... It’s a beautiful result.”

October 9, 2015|page 17

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|Features

THE

COMMON APPLICATION

The Roar follows four seniors with different interests as they navigate through the college application process and will reveal their identities and college plans as they make their decisions

By Andrea Lirio

K

yle* is in the process of starting his applications and his personal essay.

“I was thinking that I was going to write about my school year abroad ... and how it made me more independent,” he said.

His top three schools are University of Arts London, London College of Communication and Camberwell College of Arts.

Kyle said he has not completed anything for the application process.

He regrets not preparing over the summer and wishes he had planned more to make the process easier during school.

“Over the summer I was super focused on working, and I didn’t really look into the whole application process. I looked at a couple of colleges, but that was about it,” he said. “I didn’t really consider what I was going to go into until ... the school year.”

He has so far found the application process to be very time-consuming and has not had much time to spend with friends, he said. Kyle advises juniors to plan ahead for senior year and not follow his example.

“Definitely start much earlier than I am,” he said. “I didn’t have that much time to talk with a college counselor over the year, but it would have been much easier if I had spent more time [on the application].”

Between juggling his school schedule and college applications, Kyle said he believes the application process will take a very long time to complete. “[I have put in] a few hours. I don’t know how long it will take me to finish. I know that I am pretty far off,” he said.

For Kyle, the college application process is something that sinks in over time and requires experience.

“It’s really just something that you need to figure out,” he said.

S

ydney* has changed the colleges on her list. Her list now includes Union College, Hamilton College, Denison University, Center College, Providence College and New York University.

She is taking the college process one step at a time and is currently working on her applications for scholarships.

“I don’t think I’ve completed anything and I think I’ve just started everything,” she said.

Sydney said she is not struggling, but rather, she enjoys doing something new and learning.

“I learned that it doesn’t have to be stressful and I’ve learned that the process itself can be really fun,” she said.

“Right now I don’t think I am struggling with anything. I am just trying to stay as calm as possible and not struggle and not stress out.”

Although Sydney is happy with her progress, she said she wishes she completed more work over the summer.

“I definitely wish I had done more. I wish I had done more research and also I wish I had finished my essay,” she said.

She said she is quite confident of being admitted.

“I think that just by the stuff that I have done in the past, like my activities and my grades in general, will get me there, but also just personality traits that a lot of people look for,” she said.

Sydney recommends that underclassmen ask for help sooner rather than later to make the process less burdensome during the school year.

“Seek help if you need it because doing it by yourself is not easy,” she said. “A lot of my teachers are really understanding in that you have a lot of other stuff going on, and [my] coach knows that sometimes you need to take a break and get some work done for the future.”

N

icholas* has already finished his personal essay and only needs his recommendation letters and SAT scores. He has decided to add UMass Amherst to his application list.

After brainstorming ideas for his essay, Nicholas decided to write about his experience as an exchange student.

“I wrote about ... the process when I became an exchange student and the process when I left home for the first time for more than a week,” he said. “I’m writing about how hard it was for me to adapt to a whole new environment, a whole new country and a whole new culture.”

He said that although the process is time-consuming, the work load is manageable.

“If you are good at time management you can definitely work out every single thing and make it work,” he said.

To finish the application in time, he suggests students work on a little bit of the applications and essay each day.

“Almost every day I work on a specific part of [the application] so that [I] don’t get really pressured or rush because that’s the last thing that you want,” he said.

Nicholas is optimistic about his acceptance to all his schools, but as he studies for the SAT he said he is concerned about receiving scores that are high enough.

“I meet the requirements and expectations that the universities want, but the only thing would be the SATs. That would be the only thing that I am worried about because I have been preparing for it, but still I believe it’s something hard,” he said.

Although the application process can be laborious, he believes the beginning is the hardest.

“Once you get started with it, it becomes much easier than what you thought,” he said.

L

graphics by Celine Yung

ayla* described the college process as stressful, rewarding and demanding.

She has sent in two applications so far and is working on her essay.

After much deliberation, she has decided to remove Boston University from her list because she said she is set on attending a military college.

“I realized I really do just want to go to a college offering me a more military experience that offers the corps of cadets,” she said.

She is struggling specifically with the essays, which differ from the personal statement.

“The [essay] question is ‘Why do you want to be in the military?’ and ‘Why do you think you will perform well as an officer in the military?’” she said. “The essays [are] very difficult because I know it’s a large part of my application. It will either win it for me or just push me away and put me into the denied applicants pile.”

She has spent over 24 hours on her application and as a result has not spent much time doing activities she used to do as an underclassman.

“It gets in the way of your social life a little bit. You don’t get to hang out with your friends as much as you thought,” she said. “A lot of your friends are also doing the college application process as well but it definitely puts a lot of stress on. If you have extracurricular activities you are stressing over the weekends to get everything done.”

In order to avoid late submissions and procrastination, Layla proposes juniors create a timeline and follow through with plans.

“Find the deadlines you need for each college and according to the deadlines choose which ones to prioritize first and adhere to that,” she said. *Names changed to protect students’ identities

page 18|October 9, 2015

Features|THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM

Insta-Artist

Instagram is now a place for artists to share work, not simply a social media app

By Andrea Lirio

W

photos courtesy of Matthew Barnett, Maggie DiMarco, Rhea Dudani, Jon Greiner and Nathan Strauss

ith 75,500 Instagram followers, junior Rhea Dudani takes hours out of her day to plan future posts.

Over time, Dudani noticed that balancing her popular account and classes was making her grades suffer.

“I would do my homework and then keep checking Instagram—checking how many followers and how many likes I was getting, which was very stressful,” she said.

“I would always try to gain more.”

Like Dudani, ’15 graduate Maggie DiMarco created an Instagram account when she first became interested in photography in middle school.

“In eighth grade, I hadn’t really taken any photo classes before. I was just looking for new apps for photographers,” DiMarco said. “I found Instagram and it was just a platform to look at other people’s work easily.”

DiMarco, who took photo classes at South and now attends Rochester Institute of Technology as an advertising photography major, said that while she made the account to share her work with friends, many of her peers use Instagram to promote their photography.

“A lot of people have bigger fan followings,” she said. “It was more of me just making and posting my pictures for my friends at school to see my work. I don’t even have that big of a following, but it’s mostly just a platform for myself to post pictures for my friends.”

Former South student Nathan Strauss, who is now a junior at Milton Academy, said that Instagram is his favorite photo-sharing application because he can receive feedback on his work from friends.

“When I post something and people say they like it, I can ask them why they like it and what I could do to make it better,” he said.

Strauss’ main concern is the aesthetic of the image he is posting.

“If I think an image is going to make people think ‘How did he take that?’ or ‘Wow, that’s really cool,’ that’s the basic criteria,” he said.

Dudani also uses a rigorous vetting process to choose photos. As a result, many Instagram users, who, like Dudani, first created accounts as a way to share photos with their friends, said it has developed into a time-consuming and sometimes stressful activity.

“Usually I do a few test runs, so I would post [a photo] and I would say ‘test,’ and based on how many people said yes or no, I would choose to post that one,” she said.

Senior Matthew Barnett said he noticed that over time he started taking pictures specifically for posting.

“At first, it was definitely just about sharing my pictures with my friends,” he said. “It developed into [going] out and [trying] to take pictures that I could post.”

Because Barnett is very particular

with his posts, he takes up to 150 pictures of the same subject in order find the perfect one. With multiple pictures to choose from, Barnett said it takes him three to four weeks to post.

“I am picky with my pictures, and I want to make sure they are perfect. It is hard to always get a good picture to post,” he said.

Before posting on his Instagram account, Barnett reminds himself that likes and followers aren’t everything.

“It can be a little stressful. I feel like, when I post a picture, if I don’t get as many likes as I used to on an old picture, I’ll think ‘People don’t like this picture as much as my other ones,’” he said. “I also know that Instagram isn’t all about the likes and it’s more about people enjoying the pictures.”

History teacher Jon Greiner, on the other hand, said he does not find Instagram stressful “at all.”

“The consequences are whether people smile at [the post] or not ... I honestly don’t care,” he said. “I don’t sign on to see how many likes I had, and it’s not really anything that feeds into me or my personality.”

Greiner created the account to share pictures with his friends and family.

“I got an Instagram account because it was the type of information that I wanted to know about my friends and that they wanted to know about me,” he said.

DiMarco and Dudani agreed that Instagram is also useful in that it allows for a glimpse into the lives of others.

“It’s definitely a great tool for getting inspiration. We always need that as artists,” DiMarco said.

Even though getting highly involved in an Instagram account can be timeconsuming, Strauss said that the app is the best way to share images when used appropriately.

“It can be your first way to put out your work publicly because Instagram is public most of the time,” Strauss said. “Instagram can get very stressful if you get too involved — it’s not life or death.”

In order to avoid stress, Barnett suggested that people post pictures that they themselves like.

“When you are starting out, just do what you think looks beautiful. Post whatever you like, and don’t post what you think other people want to see,” he said.

Dudani, who is learning to manage her schedule, still recommends downloading Instagram.

“If you want to start a big account on Instagram just be mindful that it does take up a lot of time,” she said.

Greiner also advised caution.

“If this technology had been available to me as a 14-year-old I would not have thought twice about the stuff that I sent,” he said. “In a way you are branding yourself. Make sure that the brand is something that you want to put out there.”

October 9, 2015|page 19

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|Features

Teacher Reflections

By Andrea Lirio

Veteran teachers take a look back at their time at South

Relationships

“I began with very few students. The students were wonderful, and they are still wonderful. I hope students will think about becoming teachers because it is a wonderful life. Students are always interesting, and every day your job is different. Teachers, as they say, ‘touch the future.’”

Alice Lanckton, 13 years “My first day was just overwhelming because I had five different classes ... The students were fantastic, but I was exhausted by the end of the day. They have so much energy and I feel like I learn a lot every day. That’s what’s great about being a teacher — it never feels the same. There is not a single day, in 20 years, when the day feels the same as the previous day.”

Robert Parlin, 28 years

Editor’s Note: Every issue The Roar publishes a different anonymous student’s perspective on relationships. The views expressed in the “Relationships Column” do not reflect the official views of The Roar, nor are they intended as a guide or a source of advice for others.

The Roar has decided to discontinue the “Relationships Column.” Here are some of the best moments from its long history.

Jeffrey Wixon, 31 years “When I was in high school, I really loved to hang out in the art room.

The art teacher was really cool, and I said, ‘I want to be a really cool art teacher and provide a place for kids to hang out.’ ... I feel like I just started teaching. They just awarded me for 30 years of service, but I was the only one [from South].

I felt very alone and I was wondering why other people haven’t kept their careers. ... It’s kind of odd. ...

A lot of teachers have moved on but I’m still the same old guy, and I still get excited when I go to school after 30 years.”

Faculty perform at O’Reilly’s Pub Karin Alsop & Celine Yung Features Editor, Features Contributor

When English teacher MaryKate Kasper, history teacher Gene Stein and music teacher Ben Youngman first mounted the stage of Terry O’Reilly’s Irish Pub on open mike night, they practically had to yell over the bar’s clamour.

“We didn’t have any microphones,” Youngman said. “We all had to sing crazy loud.”

The three teachers started playing covers of mostly ‘80s, ‘90s and ‘00s songs together last year, practicing on Friday afternoons and performing at O’Reilly’s in Newton Centre on Wednesday nights.

“It’s just fun to work with my colleagues and see their musical selves,” Youngman said. “I’m able, as a music teacher, to do music all the time, and I think it’s sort of a welcome respite for Mr. Stein and Ms. Kasper, being able to just sing, and explore [their] artistic side.”

The open mike night is relatively new, according to Warren O’Reilly, the pub’s general manager.

“We thought to ourselves, why don’t we incorporate the [All-Newton Music School] and the fact that we have the ability to have a performance space and kind of incorporate the two of them?” he said. “We’ve got so much talent in Newton Centre.”

O’Reilly said he wanted to create a relaxed environment for performers.

Farewell, Relationships

“The people who run it … [are] really big on letting everybody know that this is a room where people grow, so be respectful,” he said.

Kasper said the pub provides a warm atmosphere. “[O’Reilly’s does] a really good job of opening their establishment to the community and even underage people [who] can go there at 10 p.m. on a Wednesday night to perform,” she said. “It’s quite a mix of people.”

“I think that all of us really enjoy making music, and it’not as if it’s for profit or anything like that. It’s just because it feels good.”

- Ben Youngman, music teacher

Although performers are not paid for open mike night at O’Reilly’s, the three teachers agreed that the experience is enjoyable.

“Everything’s really informal. I think that all of us really enjoy making music, and it’s not as if it’s for profit or anything like that. It’s just because it feels good, and we like to sing, and we like to play,” Youngman said. “It just feeds that part of our artistic selves.”

Kasper has been singing for fun since she was a child.

“I’ve always loved singing. …

Ever since I was little, it’s been something I wanted to do, but I had parents who really focused on the realistic side of life and said, ‘You’re going to have to pay bills some day; that might not be the best way of going about it,’” she said. “They were always supportive in terms of knowing it was something that I loved.”

Youngman added that the atmosphere at O’Reilly’s is supportive as well.

“There’s sort of a community music aspect to it where it’s not a talent show. It’s not a competition. It’s just get up and make music, and it’s all good,” he said.

In addition to performing, the teachers hold several practices every month.

“We try to figure out what songs we want to play, and then we’ll work on those,” Youngman said. “Sometimes we get easily distracted picking all these songs we want to do.”

Terrance Reeves, who organizes O’Reilly’s open mike nights, said the personal nature of Kasper’s performances comes through.

“I think she’s a very great, enthusiastic singer. You can tell that the songs that she sings always have a purpose,” he said. “She’s not just singing to show off, like, ‘Look how great I am.’ It’s very

Volume 26, Issue 7: “Recently I even bought my girlfriend a promise ring. What’s a promise ring? Is it a ring that promises you are going to marry that person? No, it’s not.

When I gave it to my girlfriend, I told her that I will promise to love her and care about her forever. And I’m not worried about keeping that promise whatsoever because I know in my heart I will always love her and care for her whether I’m with her or not.”

Volume 27, Issue 2: “The Friend Zone. That imaginary dreaded zone that everyone has entered at one point in his or her life. That fear of becoming so close with someone you like that a relationship isn’t even an option.”

Volume 27, Issue 5: “I’ve made quite a few terrible drunken choices. The list includes, but is not limited to, sending mortifying text messages, breaking an upperclassman’s antique mirror as a little baby freshman and dancing around a room with an unused tampon taped to my forehead ... what? I probably should have learned my lesson after each of these incidents, but I am glad that I didn’t, because they all led up to one drunken decision that I will never regret: hooking up with the guy who is now my boyfriend.”

Volume 28, Issue 6: “Overcoming the age barrier in a relationship is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. During a time I gave up trying, thinking that pursuing underclassmen was hopeless. They’re like beautiful untamed animals, enticing and not too far off, but easily frightened. Trying to get them out of their comfort zone is almost impossible.

But I’m not here to mope about lost love; my story in the end is happy.”

Volume 28, Issue 7: “Warning: Relationships ruin friendships! It doesn’t matter how hard you try to remain friends with your ex after you break up; it’s just not possible. My best friend and I dated over nine months, and the whole time we said that when things ended, we would remain close. ...

As time went on, though, we both felt like the friendship was forced. ... Relationships are just too much work, and who really has the time for one?”

Volume 28, Issue 8: “I’m scared of boys. You would think that living with two males for 17 years would cure anyone of such a phobia. My father and my brother, however, have done nothing to accustom me to the ways of the Y chromosome. I went on a date once. ...

He put his arm around me at the movies. I felt so uncomfortable that I counted to 10 and got up to go the bathroom.”

page 20|october 9, 2015

A College Essay COREY SAMUELS sr. fun editor

E

BFFLS & BAD PUNS

very October, I witness the expected, yet nevertheless jarring autumnal tizzy that accompanies the college application process. As college representatives parade into Ms. Sabet’s office with swatches of color-coordinated stationary and pamphlets declaring diversity, and the seniors prepare to announce their humble maturation through three fastidiously selected adjectives, I often find it best to share my college essay with my students to provide an exemple of how even a contrived prompt can produce a response that evokes both awe and charm.

Prompt: Recount an incident in which you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

“I was born and grew up in West Philadelphia.

As a child, I spent most of my time outside playing basketball. One day, some older kids who had a penchant for incendiary acts of recklessness started to incite discord in my neighborhood. This particular afternoon, they began picking on a short, scrawny, helpless boy. Having been taught that violence only begets hatred, I was plunged into an internal struggle between my moralistic leanings and my street-taught need to assert masculine dominance. And as I stood there between that pathetic kid and these menacing bullies, I realized I was challenged with my biggest fear: confronting someone different from myself.

You see, the bullies had just moved to Philly from Bel-Air, a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles. They slung argyle sweaters over their shoulders, stretching out the sleeves in a loose knot over their hearts; they danced by flailing their hands from side to side, snapping in sync with Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual.”

These boys never lacked anything they desired, continually indulging their transient whims with a careless swipe of their parents’ credit cards. This was a stark contrast to my household, where my mother and father instilled in me the value of hard work from a young age. I paid for my first PlayStation by mowing my neighbors’ lawns and selling chocolate bars to the local commuters who took the subway in the morning.

My father used to tell me that the only thing in life that ever mattered was effort; there was no triumph without a little “try.” When I complained that something was too difficult, or that a task was simply too large, he would stoop to meet my eyes and, with every ounce of wisdom in his soul, whisper encouragement in his odd cadence.

It was with this voice in my head that I was able to convince Mr. Greiner to change my second term grade from a B+ to a low A- after hours of debate over the importance of the Wilmot Proviso, just as his absent hand steadied me as I was finally able to lift my X-Wing out of the swamp while on my service trip to Dagobah.

After my parents’ divorce, my overdeveloped work ethic became alienating. None of my friends understood me. I developed a deep attachment to the only thing in my life that remained constant and loyal throughout my tough years: Roofus, my fern.

I tended to Roofus daily, sprinkling precisely 119 water drops with a rhythm inspired by mid-Atlantic rainstorms, while caressing it with the carbon dioxide of countless confessions. When I accidently dropped Roofus from his perch on my nightstand, I was reduced to tears; loss had shattered my resolve like a clay pot falling four feet onto a hardwood floor.

So, that scrawny boy and I high-tailed it outta that playground. This was the biggest challenge I have ever faced, and I learned a whole lot from it.

Making my way through “The Hobbit” was also extraordinarily difficult. Why anyone thought that stretching that into a trilogy was a good idea is beyond me.”

fun page|THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM

South Crime Watch Editors’ Note: Individuals are presumed guilty until proven innocent.

TRUANCY Sept. 25, Newton Centre Skipping the annual One School One Book event, a group of students gathered at intellectual salon Tango Mango to discuss “Eleanor & Park” instead.

SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY Sept. 25, Field House A black man in a beige suit was seen addressing 1,800 South students the morning of the One School One Book event. South’s resident conservative reported the man was “probably up to no good.”

AGGRAVATED ASSAULT Sept. 28, Goldrick House In a fit of hysteria, a recently engaged history teacher reportedly attacked a Barry Goldwater lookalike with a selfie stick. The teacher claimed the rampage was brought on by election season emotions.

MALICIOUS DAMAGE Oct. 3, Commonwealth Ave A candidate for Ward 2 Alderman-at-Large was caught conspiring with South’s resident conservative to egg an incumbent’s campaign headquarters.

ILLEGAL TRAFFICKING Oct. 5, Senior Lot Investigators have uncovered a black market run out of the 9000s where juniors can buy parking passes from seniors at marked-up prices.

graphic by Sophie Galowitz

Overheard at SOUTH Yes, we heard you say that.

Fashion-concious senior boy: “How do you find pants that fit your thighs? I’ve just accepted that my thighs are going to be constricted.”

Therapy-bound freshman: “I don’t think my mom loves me very much.”

Consoling friend: "Get up, you lazy f***!”

Germaphobic junior: “I don’t want your fingers in my mouth!”

Aggressive junior: “How about you put your lips around my face?”

Disappointed driver: “Ugh, I have such a problem — I have a car but I can’t get my license for another two months.”

Embarrassing Roar Staff Photo of the Month:

Lee’s Burger Place 216 Sumner St. Newton, MA 02459 Tel. 617 795 2022 Bassett practices smizing for his modeling debut.

SPORTS page 21|October 9, 2015|THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM

Sports@thelionsroar.com|VOLUME 32, ISSUE 3

Isaac Strikes Back

photo courtesy of Isaac Ehrlich

Isaac Ehrlich was selected as one of six under-18 badminton players from the United States to participate in the Maccabi Games. He played against teams from across the world.

Junior Isaac Ehrlich won gold medals in badminton at Berlin’s Maccabi Games, an international tournament for Jewish athletes Sophia Fisher & Noah Shelton

Managing Editor, Sr. Sports Editor Junior Isaac Ehrlich was surrounded by his sleeping teammates. It was 10 p.m. in Berlin, Germany — but 4 a.m. in Boston — and they had just arrived for the 2015 Maccabi Games, an international sports tournament for Jewish athletes.The flight had been nine hours long, and the teammates, along with their coach, were headed to their hotel.

“We were all completely exhausted,” Nicole Frevold, Isaac’s teammate and a senior at Marblehead High School, said. “I almost fell asleep on the bus when we initially landed, and [Isaac] kind of had to catch all of us and be like ‘Guys, you’ve got to wake up now’,” Frevold said. “He was the only one that was extremely energetic.”

This passion and a strong work ethic earned Isaac a place in this summer’s Maccabi Games as one of only six under-18 badminton players from the United States.The athletes, according to coach Sasha Boyarin, were hand-picked by the team coaches, who based their decisions on the athletes’ past performance.

“Isaac, he’s one of the strongest juniors in the U.S., and we also know he’s very responsible and very mature, so he can handle a trip like this to a different country,” Boyarin said.

Although Isaac had some prior knowledge that he might be chosen, Frevold said he was elated.“We had been texting, obviously, and talking before that, and he was just completely freaking out,” she said. “He was so excited when he finally got the email [that said] he was going to go.”

“It was my first international tournament, and

I was super excited even before we started playing,” Isaac said.

The Games were held over 10 days, although the badminton tournament lasted for only two.

During those days, Boyarin said, the U.S. junior team played for nearly 12 hours. Isaac’s usual weekly training consists of 12 to 15 hours on the court and an additional three hours in the gym.

This work schedule has not affected his schoolwork, according to his French teacher Catherine Hammond.“When it comes to Isaac, he doesn’t come in with incomplete work. If it is incomplete then there usually is a good reason for it,” she said.

This same work ethic is apparent to his teammates. “Everyone on his club, especially him, is an extremely hard worker,” Frevold said.

Although the Maccabi Games are primarily viewed as a competitive sports tournament, they are also intended to strengthen the international Jewish community. “There was a lot of events and a lot of things centered around the religion.” Boyarin said.

“We might not celebrate those [events] on a regular basis, but it’s something that we did as a whole group with everybody else.”

The team toured synagogues, took part in prayer sessions and attended the tournament’s Shabbat dinner that broke a world record, with 2,322 people in attendance.

“I know this sounds a little bit clichéd, but you kind of just felt like a sense of community everywhere you went, because you knew that everyone was Jewish around you,” Frevold said.

Yuliya Ehrlich, Isaac’s mother, agreed that the tournament helped him connect to his heritage.

“I think it just gave him a little bit of a broader sense of the Jewish community, and [of] a lot of

stories that we’ve been telling him about how it was to be a Jew here, or in the country where we were born,” she said. “Sometimes it’s not easy to relate to things just from the stories. Sometimes it’s a lot easier to relate to who you are and understand who you are when you’re put in the actual situation.”

Isaac competed in both men’s doubles and singles, winning a gold medal in each.

“Winning was a great experience. I mean, who doesn’t like winning? I think that the Maccabi games are so much bigger than what I am used to,” Isaac said.

“I joke that he is not shy about sharing his success, but I find that he is not a bragger,” Hammond said. “He is really quite humble. It certainly is not something that he flashes in the classroom. Bragging does not seem to be a part of his personality.”

Boyarin added that Isaac is a leader on his team. “Everybody likes him, and actually the little kids look up to him and he always helps out with the younger kids’ training,” he said. “He’s almost always in a good mood and very upbeat, so having him at training definitely raises the mood of everybody around him.”

Even wellness teacher Alan Rotatori, who taught badminton to sophomores and has played the sport for 25 years, received lessons from Isaac. He and Isaac have played in friendly matches. “He usually just destroys me. He is on a way ... different level than myself. If I can score seven points on him in a game to 21, that is like winning the championship.

Usually I get one or two points,” he said.

Although Isaac has had recent success, he said he does not plan to pursue badminton professionally. “Even if it is at a less competitive level, I do want to keep on playing.”

page 22|October 9, 2015

Unwritten Rules NATHAN ELBAUM & NOAH SHELTON

Sports|THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM

Girls soccer headed to tournament

sports columnist, sr. sports editor

O

Stealing Second

n Sept. 17, Jung Ho Kang was taken out by Chris Coghlan with a hard slide into second. Though normally it is perfectly acceptable to slide to break up a double play, the fact that Kang is now out for the season with a destroyed knee is calling into question the morality of the slide.

Baseball, like many major sports, has a number of unwritten rules. These rules keep the players honest, and prevent blood from spilling on the field. Many rules regulate how players celebrate, such as not dilly-dallying around the basepaths after a home run. Failure to comply with these rules prompts “revenge rules,” like hitting a batter who has shown up the pitcher.

Coghlan was completely within the written rules to slide hard into second base. The unwritten rules, on the other hand, told him to slide into second base and not into Kang. By not following this code of ethics, Coghlan prevented the game from being as enjoyable as baseball normally is.

Players need to understand their position in the game and which rules to follow to keep the game at its height.

With the Red Sox, unwritten rules come up a lot. Every single Big Papi home run features a 28-second home run trot. In Major League Baseball, 28 seconds is quite slow, and many pitchers have called out Big Papi for showboating.

Of course, we are now contradicting ourselves, because we love Ortiz and do not want him to speed up. The beauty of unwritten rules is that they do not have to apply to everyone. Ortiz has played for almost 18 years in the majors and is often considered one of the most clutch hitters ever. A player with that reputation in the game can take the luxury of picking and choosing which unwritten rules to follow.

The Patriots also sometimes tread the unwritten line. With all the complaints about the Pats toeing the line between legal and illegal — light and dark — heroes and villains — Red Sox and Yankees — Celtics and Lakers — Patriots and Nobody — Bill Belichick’s ethics have come into question. Football’s unwritten rules include: no outsmarting your opponents (John Harbaugh’s feelings are still hurt from the 2015 divisional round of the playoffs), taking a knee while winning and allowing your opponent to take a knee.

Everything the Patriots do is within the NFL rulebook, but because they don’t follow some unwritten rules, the other teams or the media complain. Harbaugh and the Ravens organization took matters into their own hands and attempted to stop the Patriots’ championship run by whining to the league about Belichick’s genius.

After listing numerous unwritten rules, we have come up with our own: Don’t talk about fight club. This is not technically our own unwritten rule as it comes from the movie “Fight Club.” (Good thing we cited this, or else Ms. Elpern would dock a week of our pay.) We think finding one’s own unwritten rules for life is very important. Figure out what to live by.

As for some of our rules, we cannot write them down because then they would cease to be unwritten.

photo by Cael Howell

The girls soccer team huddles before a game versus Cambridge on Sept. 25. The team won 3-1 for their ninth victory of the season.

Nathan Elbaum, Thomas Patti & Noah Shelton Sports Reporters, Sr. Sports Editor

The girls soccer team has qualified for the state tournament after only 12 games with a 3-1 win over Weston on Wednesday. Last year, the team did not clinch a playoff berth until near the end of the season, finishing with a 9-7-2 record.

Senior captain Ava Shaevel said the team was not expecting this level of success, but credited the hot start to solid preparation.

“We worked really hard throughout preseason and through the season,” Shaevel said. “We’ve only come up with [three] loss[es] so far, which is pretty good for a young team.”

After the win against Weston, the team sits at 9-3, their best start in years.

“I didn’t really have any expectations on anyone going [into] this season, but I am just really excited about how well we

are playing together,” freshman Audrey Lavey, one of the crucial young players on the team, said.

The team has focused this year on teamwork. “We have had a few team dinners which I find really fun. We also held a car wash at South,” Lavey said. “But overall, just the level of energy and spirit of the group at practice, in school and on the field is high.”

While teamwork may have played a role in the team’s dominant start, the team has also had a few surprise stars.

“Two freshmen have really stepped up and filled in roles of graduated players — Maia Madison and Audrey Lavey. Both work extremely hard and contribute a lot to the team,” junior Ali Nislick said.

“The seniors have done a great job leading the younger kids in their new roles, and the kids that are new to the team have really stepped up and learned quickly,” senior midfielder and captain Katie Summers said. “My co-captain

On the Green for Par Swinging with the Golf Team

[Shaevel] has been a really strong asset in our defensive line, and forwards senior Lizzie Walkes and freshman Audrey Lavey have played a huge role in helping us get the ball in the back of the net.”

The team has played as one cohesive unit even though the starting line consists of three freshmen, four juniors and four seniors, according to Summers.

“I think everyone has really surprised me by how much they really give their all in each game, the entire game, regardless of who it’s against or the score,” she said. “Even in the last minutes against L-S as we were down a goal, not one girl had her head down, and we all truly played our hardest until the final whistle blew.”

The high level of play has helped the team grow closer, Nislick said. “I was already friends with the returning players, but the new additions have fit right in,” she said, “and I’m happy to call all of them my friends.”

The Captains: Captains: The

Seniors Marget JasonMarget Lange Seniors Michael Jason Lange andand Michael

$100

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holes played per match

Average price for a golf club

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300 golf balls per season

The firstgolf golfballs balls were made Titleist, theofSouth The first were made Titleist, the brand SouthKorea-based Korean based sports of wood, but now they are of wood, but now they are equipment company, sports equiptment company,isisthe the most most popular made of plastic and rubber made of plastic and rubber ballcompany company in the world popular golf golf ball in the world

THE LION’S ROAR|THELIONSROAR.COM|Sports

Coaches’ Corner The Roar’s Cam Miller and Thomas Patti asked two coaches for season updates

Q A Q A

Have the young players been doing their job?

Certainly we have some younger kids who have come up that have put their time in, and certainly there are some of them who have amazing abilities that can help the varsity team. We’ve been fortunate to have a couple juniors play at a high level, and even a couple sophomores. So we’ve got a nice balance; it’s not just all on our seniors at this point. The seniors are doing a good job. The juniors are coming along, and a couple of them are filling in some roles that need to be filled, and then you’ve got a couple sophomores who have snuck into varsity who are also helping the dynamics of play.

Field Hockey Coach Head Coach Stephanie Pavao Do you think you are on course to achieve your goals this season?

Well, I already think we achieved one of our major goals: We already got a victory. Now we’ve added our second goal, which is to have hopefully another. The solid point is to meet our objectives every game. Our objective every game isn’t necessarily to win; it’s to work on whatever key skill has been our focus in the practice leading up to that game. So, as far as achieving our goals, I think we’ve been able to do that consistently over the season. If our goal one day, during one practice, is to communicate better, we absolutely bring that to the next game.Our objective is our overall growth, and I think we’ve been able to meet our goal, but our goal is always changing during the season.

South Scoreboard

***All information is as of 6;30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 9, 2015***

Team

Next Game/ Meet

Football

October 9 at A-B

4-0

Girls Volleyball Boys Soccer Girls Soccer

October 13 at Westford October 10 at Needham

6-4

Boys Cross Country October 14 vs Cambridge Girls Cross Country October 14 vs Cambridge

POV of A Goalie

ROBIN MEDOFF

sports contributor

Floating Column EDITOR’S NOTE: Every issue, The Roar publishes a different athlete’s perspective from his or her position on a sports team.

Contact srstaff@thelionsroarcom if you are interested in writing this column.

Girls Volleyball Head Coach Todd Elwell

October 9 vs Framingham

October 9, 2015|page 23

Record (W/L/T) 4-5-1 9-3 0-3 2-1

Golf

October 13 vs Cambridge R&L

4-7-1

Field Hockey

October 14 vs Westford

1-9-1

The first day of my freshman year, I had a new school, new classmates, a new sport and a new position — field hockey goalie. I stood in the goal, unable to keep my hands steady as my nerves began to overcome me.

The piercing sound of the whistle made me jump — the game had started.

I got a headache trying to remember all the things I was supposed to do: follow the ball, keep my angles and talk to the defense.

I don’t remember the score; all I remember is that when the other team scored, my stomach sank.

I thought I was horrible and would never play goalie again. I thought that I had let down my coaches and my teammates. By when the game ended, I remember seeing my whole team running toward me to tell me how well I had played.

That moment was enough to convince me not to give up. My teammates and coaches inspire me to keep my head up and stay positive during games. If it weren’t for the support of my teammates, I don’t know what I would do.

When I was an incoming freshman trying out for field hockey, I was asked if I wanted to be a goalie. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I tried it.

Naturally, I was scared. I knew there would be a lot of pressure involved. My freshman year I was the only goalie on JV, and my sophomore year I was the only goalie on the varsity team.

Now, I am able to keep my head up during games and keep the score from affecting my playing. I have learned to accept the fact that goals will be scored on me in every game, but if I try my hardest, the score doesn’t matter.

Being a goalie in field hockey, I never get bored. I am constantly watching the ball and trying to guess where the other team will pass it and when they will shoot.

I try my best to tell my teammates which players to mark up and which player is the biggest threat, but it doesn’t always work.

Before the opposing team winds up to take a shot, I line myself up with the posts to have the best angle to block it.

In my mind, I tell myself that the ball will not hurt me and that I have saved tougher shots during practice. If the ball goes in the goal, I usually think about what I could have done to prevent the goal. I take a moment to replay the shot in my head and picture myself saving it. This prepares me for the next shot.

I love playing goalie. I know that my teammates and my coaches support me and have my back, no matter what the final scoreboard.

Every time I put my helmet on, I feel a sense of pride in representing my team, and I know that I will do my best to defend our goal.