Issue 5 of The Standard 12-13

TEASER CULTURE

NEWS Digital Age: A look at the ramifications of the incoming Bring-Your-Own-Laptop program.

Pages 4-5

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: A reflection on directing a play. Pages 16-17 standard.asl.org

standard.asl.org

THE STANDARD

March 2011 2013 || Volume Volume XXXVII, XXXVIII Issue Issue IIIV November-December

The American School in London | 1 Waverley Place | London NW8 0NP U.K.

The

Good +

E D A R G

PILL

Clayton Marsh | Lead Features Editor with staff writer James Malin

Students have begun illegally turning to academically performance enhancing drugs, such as Ritalin and Adderall, as pressure over grades and competition for college admissions builds. Pills that have been a staple in some college and graduate school circles are becoming prevalent in many academically competitive high schools, including ASL. In light of this, two students who use these drugs illegally have stepped forward to share their stories.

Graphics by Hamish Stephenson and Daniela Al-Saleh

Story on pages 12-13 (Please recycle after reading)

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News

THE STANDARD VOLUME XXXVIII ISSUE V MARCH 2013

Phillips outlines ambitions Culture Editor Matt Bentley meets with incoming Interim Principal Jack Phillips to learn of his plans for the 2013-2014 school year Jack Phillips will take over as Interim ply for the full-time position. “I’m playing High School Principal for the 2013-2014 for keeps,” he said. school year, Head of School Coreen Hester One of his goals is to remove the idea confirmed on February 14. Phillips comes that the principal is above everyone else, from Phoenix Country Day School in and thereby he hopes to build an environPhoenix, Arizona, where he served as High ment more conducive to communication School Principal. between faculty members.

Phillips has worked at Phoenix CounAnother goal is to be as approachable try Day, a K-12 school with around 240 as possible. He plans to be open to student students, for six years and has worked as feedback and hopes that all students will the school’s High School Principal since feel comfortable speaking to him.

2011. He received his B.A. in Physics from As principal, Phillips will also have a Brown University and his M.A. in Music say in disciplinary issues. “There are alComposition from Arizona State Univer- ready practices in place at [ASL] and I plan sity. Phillips is currently working on his to work within them,” he said.

Ph.D. in Education Leadership and Policy Phillips likes to consider each discipliat Vanderbilt University. nary case individually; as such, he does An important part of Phillips’ plan for not believe in any standard punishments. the upcoming year is to implement his He declined to comment on any of the educational philosophy. “Learning is the cases he has dealt with at Phoenix Counmost complicated thing we do,” he said. “I try Day to protect the students’ identities. believe students can accomplish remark- “I would hate to give even a hint of an imable things. We pression to anyone have to engage [stuthat I might have dents] now. They been discussing discan impact their ciplinary issues with world now.” any outside parties,” Phillips came he said. to ASL for his in Phillips plans to terview in Janutake a more individary, which involved ualistic approach to select members of aiding students enthe Student Countrenched in the colcil. He impressed lege process, as well. students by rememAt Phoenix Country bering everyone’s Day, he encourages name the first time students not to just he heard it. write what colleges Student Counwant to hear. Instead, cil Grade Reprehe wants students to sentative Dariush find their voice and Yazdanpanah (’15), convey who they are. who attended Phil“A high school career lips’ interview, afshould be preparafirmed his positive tion enough for the Phillips congratulates a graduate at demeanor at the college process,” Phoenix Country Day. time.

Phillips said. “Col“[Phillips] was very warm and enthusi- leges are looking for authenticity [in their astic throughout the interview,” he said. applicants].”

“He asked each student individually what Phillips does, however, understand the their favourite subject was and who their concept of “second semester syndrome” favourite teacher was and noted down for seniors and said that success is finding what they said.” the right balance between school work and Phillips’ move to ASL comes at a con- social life. “We have to realize that high venient time for his family, which is also school is eight semesters long and you are going through a period of transition. His about to go off to college, but you can’t undaughter will start K-1 in the fall, and Phil- plug completely,” he said. lips will welcome a son in July.

Phillips is known for his affinity for Phillips has been preparing for his technology – his master’s degree in Music move to London since he was informed Composition was partially based upon inthat he got the job by watching British teractive technology. Phillips will take the television shows. “I have been watching leading role in the institution of the Bring Downton Abbey and old Doctor Who epi- Your Own Laptop (BYOL) program at the sodes again,” he said. beginning of the next school year.

Even though this is an interim posiPhillips considers technology to be imtion, he plans to work as if he will be at portant, but he is not a “zealot” about it.

ASL indefinitely. “To do anything less “[Technology] is not the answer to student would be a disservice to ASL,” he said. Ad- engagement, but to ignore technology is ditionally, he said that he does plan to ap- foolish,” he said.

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Photos courtesy of jack phillips

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THE STANDARD | March 2013

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Looking to the

Future

Online Editor Tyler Zschach sits down with Student Council President Issy Kelly (’14) and Vice President Adam Koren (’14) to discuss their upcoming tenures President issy Kelly (’14)

What are you planning to build on from last term from Julian Nebreda’s (’13) presidency?

Julian set a very high standard so there really is a lot to live up to. He did a great job of connecting different student leaders in the school with the admin. My main priority is to work on relationships

between the students and our school and different community members.

As President, do you have any intentions of changing the way the elections for the officer positions in StuCo are done?

We felt that it was best to nominate within the council because we know the work each individual has done throughout the year, but I think it would be okay to have students hear the speeches. I feel if in the future we had some sort of way [to] listen in on the meetings as all of our meetings are open. It wouldn’t have violated rules if students had come [to the elections], but maybe publicizing it a little more that every meeting is open.

How would you answer students who complain that Student Council lacks a fresh perspective and a fresh opportunity for change at election time because the candidates have been participating in Student Council for the past several years?

I would argue that each President has their own personal style, so I feel that the council does evolve a little bit with each new presidency, and that there is definitely going to be room for change. Also, change occurs when students nominate their grade reps.

Vice President adam koren (’14)

photos by emily mark

As Vice President, do you feel that you should look to reform the election voting process?

I definitely believe that the election voting process has flaws and I do believe that it needs some sort of reform, but I stand by my belief that it should not be opened up to the whole student body. I believe

that the election voting process should be changed into a way where it represents more of what the student body wants.

What are some major reforms you are targeting for your vice presidency?

I want to change the Student Council constitution. The constitution hasn’t been updated in a long time and it needs some major reforms. In addition, something that I have been working on before the election, and still am working on, is improving the relationship between the librarians and students along with some other Student Council representatives.

But my biggest goal is to better the communication between the student body and Student Council.

How will the dynamic between you and Issy differ and compare to the relationship between Tark Masri (’13) and Nebreda? Will you be taking a more assertive role in the activities of the Student Council?

I think that Issy and I have a really strong dynamic mainly because of how different we are. The past two Vice-Presidents did not have a very strong role in the Student Council, so I am determined to change the role of the Vice-President during my tenure into having a more important role.

Flash

Quiz Bowl: (From left to right) Alex Ericksen (’13), Bret Silverglate (’13) and Shahid Mahdi (’13) compete in a round of Quiz Bowl on March 15. The trio went on to win the final of the competition against The Latymer School by 39-24. Photo by Emily Mark

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THE STANDARD | March 2013

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Closing the

Special Report

Digital

Gap

Editor-in-Chief Fares Chehabi explores the implications of ASL’s next step into the digital age, the Bring-Your-Own-Laptop program It has become clear that ASL is ready to embrace the digital age like never before. Undoubtedly, the appointment of an Interim Principal with a background in technology – Jack Phillips served as a technology coordinator at Phoenix Country Day School from 2008 to 2010 – and the hiring of an Integration Specialist to effectively usher in the incoming Bring Your Own Laptop (BYOL) program serve as strong indicators of ASL’s more encompassing approach to technology. The implementation of the BYOL program, which will begin in conjunction with the commencement of the 2013-2014 school year, has generated plenty of discussion concerning its necessity and its purpose in particular.

The process of implementing the BYOL program, which has been subject to discussion by members of the administration, Technology Coordinator Mariam Mathew, Middle School Technology Coordinator Colin Bridgewater and Director of Operations and Technology Jim Heynderickx for the last two years, was described by Mathew as “an evolution of ideas and models and concepts and discussions.”

Students also had their say on the implementation of the BYOL program. “Once the technology administrators of the school developed the idea for the one-to-one laptop program, Ms. Mathew came to Student Council meetings to introduce the idea and hear the initial thoughts, concerns, and ideas of the representatives,” Student Council Public Relations Representative Elizabeth Robertson (’14) said. “The

Digital Age Spread for News.indd 4

Student Council then became more specifically involved in the laptop program through our Technology Committee, which meets with Mathew in order to help express the needs of their respective grades.”

Student Council representatives are awaiting the results of a survey of all High School students conducted by Mathew concerning the BYOL program. The results will be interpreted and discussed

by Mathew and Student Council representatives, who will remain involved in the development of the BYOL program after its implementation.

High School Principal Paul Richards, who oversaw the process of implementing the BYOL program, clarified the program’s purpose.

“It’s completely to do with the fact that if we don’t incorporate technology into your daily experience educationally, we’re actually doing students a disservice. We’re missing a lot of learning opportunities, we’re missing of a lot of opportunities for collaboration between students, their connecting to the world and the resources out there,” he said. “We’re also not setting you up as well as we should for what you’re going to be asked to do as young professionals.”

Additionally, lateness was significant in bringing the realization of the BYOL program forth. “In the big picture, in the wave of technology, we’re kind of at the end of that wave. We’ve jumped on at a later point than most schools, but it’s now time to jump on,” Richards said. “We can no longer just allow

[the incorporation of technology] to be organic ... there has to be a system that supports it.”

Director of Curriculum and Instruction Roberto d’Erizans called attention to the importance of uniformity across the school when considering the BYOL program’s necessity. “In looking at it from a K-12 piece, for a long time it has made no sense that we have a structured one-to-one laptop program in the seventh and eighth grade and then nothing in the ninth grade. Why do we believe in it then and not later?” he said. “The same thing is happening in the Lower School, where we’re piloting iPads in the fourth grade, but then what are [students] going to do in the fifth grade?”

The BYOL program’s only real requirement of students is that they bring a laptop and its charger to school every day, entailing that the checking out of laptops from either the Tech Office or the Mellon Library will become a virtually defunct practice, but students who forget their laptops at home or whose laptops are broken may still check out a laptop. Richards described the laptops as items that should be considered a part of a student’s everyday inventory. “Laptops are a tool, just like pencils or books are tools. It’s just part of what students need every day,” he said.

Heynderickx hopes that the BYOL program will create a learning environment similar to the one found in higher learning institutes. “In colleges and universities, it is common for students to own and carry their own laptops and handheld-devic-

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THE STANDARD | March 2013

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Special Reportdd

es. This allows students to decide which tools are best for them, and when and how to use those tools,” he said. “We want to create a similar environment at ASL, and the check-out laptops are a hindrance.

They are less flexible, less reliable, less available, less efficient and less individual than personally-owned laptops.”

In addition to better supplying students with effective learning tools than before, the BYOL program provides Mathew with hope that discussion regarding digital ethics will be fostered. “In high school, we talk about relationships and substance abuse ... very mature things that are crucial to students’ lives and their futures. Their digital lives are just as important, and I think it’s important that students have an opportunity to consider things like copyright, talk about privacy, consider issues of their futures related to what their digital

Newsddd “What is exciting about next year is that faculty can assume that all students will have ready access to laptops each day, which will enable more routine and integrated uses when needed. Increasing the focus and benefits of that availability will always evolve as time and skills develop.”

Bridgewater, who is in his fifth year overseeing a 10-year-old school-owned laptop program in the Middle School, said that a “learning curve” can be expected with the BYOL program. “You’re going to have some classes and teachers who are going to just grab the bull by the horns and they’re going to do amazing things from day one, and you’re going to have other teachers and classes that will take some time to figure out the best way to use the technology in the classes,” he said. “Even 10 years into [the Middle School laptop] program, we still have a variety of teachers using

they have a laptop or not. So, I don’t know that a student daydreaming off into space is any better or worse than a student who’s cruising the Internet when a class is boring,” he said. “I think technology is often an easy scapegoat when either students get distracted or aren’t doing what they’re supposed to be doing.”

The future following the BYOL program leaves a plethora of possibilities up in the air when taking into account the rapidly changing and increasingly flexible role of technology in the modern world.

Richards speculated that an iPad program may follow and highlighted the practicality of the fact that the BYOL program does not require any monetary outlay on the school’s behalf, although financial aid may still be requested. “Two years from now there may be a different program, maybe a bring your own iPad program. [The BYOL program] allows us some flexibility so that we’re not

Teachers’ thoughts on the BYOL Program Math department head Neil Basu

World Languages teacher Victoria hamadache

I love the way that technology is a part of the lives of students and my life, and I look forward to the laptop program next year as a time to really delve in and develop a lot of new ways to teach effectively.

I really don’t like [Google Translator] because they don’t get the syntax and the mood of the sentence. So, at least with the laptops, I can show my students how to use online tools to improve their language learning.

footprint looks like,” she said. “All of these different things become more in the forefront when you have a laptop program than when you don’t.”

As with the introduction of most learning-based programs to the school, a period of transition, experimentation and difficulty can be expected with the BYOL program.

Mathew is aware of the worries associated with the program’s first year but has faith that its potential benefits will be realized. “I think there’s a concern now that [the laptops] won’t be used much, and that’s always a concern especially as you’re getting going. Maybe the first year will be tough, but I think as time goes on people will find uses and find ways [to incorporate the laptops]. The magic happens when the tools are there,” she said.

A year of transition with laptops, however, is considered anything but new by Heynderickx. “In some ways, we’ve had many transitional years to using one-to-one laptops already in the High School. Not only have we had the loaner laptops, but also a large percentage of students already bring in their own laptops on a daily or weekly basis,” he said.

Digital Age Spread for News.indd 5

the laptops in a variety of different ways.”

Indeed, Richards expressed High School teachers’ differing levels of comfort with the implementation of the BYOL program. “Maybe a third of the teachers are already in a really good place [concerning technology], a third of the teachers are really going to have to work hard at it because it’s still kind of scary to them, and a third of the teachers are just motoring along and will make good progress,” he said.

Although d’Erizans will continue his curricular collaboration with teachers next year, he indicated that he would not force the use of technology upon them. “I would never go to a teacher and say, ‘You’re not using technology, use it now.’ I would say, ‘Tell me what you’re doing ... Google Docs might be a cool way to collaborate,’” he said.

The issue of distraction was inevitably a topic of consideration while the process of implementing the BYOL program was being discussed.

Bridgewater, though, downplayed technology’s role in the distracting of students from their work. “Students who get distracted in class are going to get distracted whether

English department head Meghan Tally

[The English Department has] designed our program around reading, writing, speaking and listening, and we can use laptops to reinforce that program. We’re looking for [the BYOL program] to support our program and give the day-to-day process more ease.

spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on some hardware that we then regret,” he said.

Mathew, meanwhile, foresees the school moving toward “more and more mobile and fluid” technologies. “I do see, probably, the evolution of a laptop to the hybrid where you could also use [the laptop] as a tablet. Therefore, maybe, some of the kinds of things that we can see with iPads and some of the things we do with laptops can merge, and you can have both worlds,” she said.

“Phones might cut it ... you could dock it, take the phone and make a virtual keyboard on any flat surface.”

The nearing launch of the BYOL program has led to tentative discussion regarding a rethinking of graduation requirements. “We’re starting to think that having a halfcredit technology requirement doesn’t make sense, that what’s more important is students that have a baseline of skills ... how to do a good search, how to use online forums or social media appropriately,” Richards said.

Hamish Stephenson contributed to reporting.

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THE STANDARD | March 2013

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Outside the Bubble Hugo Chávez -out of the ordinary news-

Thomas Risinger News editor

Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s death on March 5 sparked both celebration and mourning throughout the world.

During his tenure, Chávez influenced the lives of millions of people, both Venezuelan citizens and those living around the world. His actions as President have reached so far as to even affect the lives of students and teachers who walk the halls of ASL. Chávez can only be described as a polarizing leader. His socialist views and aversion to capitalism generated both enormous public love and hatred. Through his socialist reforms of welfare for the poor and his usage of mass media, specifically his weekly show Aló Presidente, Chávez gained the adoration of the impoverished Venezuelan majority who kept him in power for the last 14 years despite pressure from countries, such as the United States, who opposed Chávez because of his socialist views and relationships with leaders such as Bashar Al-Assad of Syria and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.

Julian Nebreda (’13), a Venezuelan citizen who has lived there for six years, is a supporter of the Venezuelan opposition party. Like a growing number of citizens, Nebreda sees Chávez and his administration as ex-

tremely harmful to the nation as a whole. “The country is out of control and we need someone to regain control. Houses are being taken over by [squatters]. Corruption is high, and the government, although not sponsoring it, doesn’t attack it,” he said.

Director of Curriculum and Instruction Roberto d’Erizans lived in Venezuela for 11 years and still has family living in the capital, Caracas. d’Erizans sees Venezuela under Chávez as a country wasting all of its potential. “Venezuela has an incredible amount of potential, the beaches are beautiful there and the country has huge amounts of oil. We should be at the top of Latin America,” he said.

During Chávez’s presidency, the city of Caracas deteriorated from being a safe and touristfriendly city into having one of the highest murder and crime rates on the entire continent.

“Venezuela used to be much safer than it is now, as a child I never felt that I was in danger. Now when you visit Venezuela you can barely take a taxi for fear that they will rob you,” d’Erizans said.

Chávez instituted many programs that were designed to relieve poverty and provide care for the impoverished lower class during his presidency. Nebreda understands the support given to Chávez by the lower class and acknowledges that many of these social welfare programs that

Fast Facts 1. Venezuela’s population is 28,946,101.

2. In 1999, 23 percent of Venezuelans were living in poverty.

Chavez has been president of Venezuela for 14 years, first coming into power in 1999. He died on March 5 due to a heart attack.

PHOTO by FLICKR.COM/EVENTEO

Chávez instituted have been at least, in part, effective. “A lot of projects that Chávez has done have worked well and a lot of the poor people align themselves with Chávez because they see him as hope,”he said. “However, countries like Brazil and Chile are growing so fast and Venezuela hasn’t grown at all.”

Just as many of his followers, Chávez rose from humble beginnings. He was born in the village of Sabenta in the state of Barinas to a working lower class family.

From the age of 17, Chávez studied at the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences. During his time at the Academy, Chávez and a number of his fellow students became highly interested in the

life of Venezuelan revolutionary Simón Bolívar who fought to free Latin America from Spanish rule.

Bolivar inspired their attempted military coup in 1992 and many of Chávez’s policies since he was elected president in 1999.

For Nebreda, Chávez’s presidency has taken on personal overtures as well as political ones.

“My father worked in the Caracas electricity company and when it was taken over by the government he refused to work with them. If it wasn’t for [Chávez] we would still be in [Venezuela],” said Nebreda. “When he [Chávez] passed it was just weird. He had imposed himself in my life in a really concrete way and now he is gone.”

3. In 2011, eight percent of Venezuelans were living in poverty.

4. 24 murders per every 100,000 people in 1999.

5. 49 murders per every 100,000 people in 2009.

all statistics from venezuelaanalysis.com

Library punishments under review PAUL RYAN

Staff writer The Student Council recently held a discussion with the librarians on the issue of punishments in an effort to quell the rising tension between the librarians and students. The librarians have received much criticism from students in past months due to ostensibly unjust punishments.

Head Librarian Karen Field, who said that behavior exhibited by students has not changed over the years, expressed the frustration felt by librarians when trying to make students happy.

“When [students] have a free block they are breaking rules and talking loudly, and when they have work to do they are mad at

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us for not keeping [the library] quiet,” she said.

Field also expressed the challenge of retaining uniformity across five librarians. “I do see we need some consistency, but it is hard to be consistent with five people,” she said.

Student Council Vice President Adam Koren (’14), who is leading StuCo’s effort for library punishment reform, said that the intention is to solve the problem with the librarians before the situation worsens. “[Student Council’s] goal is to meet with the librarians and discuss ways to better our relationship so as not to have the issue reach a culminating point with strict regulation and students being sent to the Student Faculty Disciplinary Board (SFDB),” he said.

SFDB President Leland Swift (’13) said that the tension stems from a lack of a communal space.

“Rather than draconian rules like banning from the library, we need to try a different solution.”

Paul Richards, High School Principal “The problem is that people use the library as a gathering point where we can do work, which you can’t really do in the Commons,” he said. “I think that either the library needs to recognize itself as a gathering point for High Schoolers, or ASL needs to make

an alternative place where they can work.”

Koren indicated that a source of the tension between librarians and students is a lack of consistency regarding the punishments administered to students for various infractions. “The main challenge is the issue of uniformity, in the expected uniform behaviour of respect and appreciation on the student’s behalf, the punishments themselves, and the librarians in deciding when to punish,” he said.

High School Principal Paul Richards said that harsh punishments will not resolve the issue.

“Rather than having draconian rules such as banning students from the library, we need to try and find a different solution,” he said.

Richards said that flexibility on both the librarians’ and the students’ side is key to reducing the tension. “We need to be clear on expectations on how not only students should behave but how the students should be treated by the adults and how the adults should be treated by the students, and fill the void with a really clear statement on values”, he said. “Everyone has to do their part.”

Koren also indicated the Student Council’s intent to carry on the conversation with the librarians in hope of generating more solutions. “Our committee will continue to meet and hopefully continue our conversations with the librarians so that we can work towards an even more concrete solution,” he said.

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Opinions

THE STANDARD VOLUME XXXVIII ISSUE V MARCH 2013

THE STANDARD FARES CHEHABI Editor-in-Chief ANNA YOUNG Deputy Editor-in-Chief THOMAS RISINGER News Editor PATRICK COLLINS Opinions Editor CLAYTON MARSH Lead Features Editor MINA OMAR Features Editor IAN SCOVILLE Features Editor MATTHEW BENTLEY Culture Editor SHAHID MAHDI Culture Editor Patrick Mayr Sports Editor HAMISH STEPHENSON Design Editor SVENA BHASIN Copy Editor TYLER ZSCHACH Online Editor JESSICA HAGHANI Photo Editor EMILY MARK Photo Editor Charlotte Young Assistant News Editor Rebecca Ellis Assistant Opinions Editor Gabriel Ruimy Assistant Features Editor Kate Kennedy Assistant Culture Editor NIKOLAI BIRCH Assistant Sports Editor William MuOio Assistant Sports Editor Alex Pabarcius Assistant Design Editor Katie Dillon Assistant Copy Editor Sayer Devlin Assistant Online Editor STAFF WRITERS Alec Ashley, Zack Ashley, Laura Galligan, Annabel Kronfeld, Zack Longboy, James Malin, Paul Ryan Andrew Plonka Adviser

cartoon by EMILY MARK

An ideal worth striving for As the school welcomes a new interim High School Principal through its doors, we look forward to the fresh inclination that Jack Phillips, who will succeed current High School Principal Paul Richards at the helm, brings to the position. There are a few topics – not necessarily issues – that still need to be addressed, and as Phillips strolls through Waverley Place’s automatic doors to his new office, these topics need to be brought to attention.

Primarily, the Core Values initiative needs to be settled.

In a series of grade-level meetings held to reinforce and modify the properties of the Code of Conduct, Richards hosted dialogues. Students were asked to circle, highlight and change what they saw fit in order to strengthen the constitution that safeguards the standards for our community. But where was the demand for the changes? There must have been a discussion, either within the Board of Trustees or between administrators, to begin the talks leading to the revamp. Phillips has the potential to be a more vocal intermediary, a “middle man,” so to speak, between decisions made in top boardroom meetings and the choices imparted to us at class meetings. Richards informed us that the Board and the administration were looking to modify these values. Now that we’ve understood the situation, our next principal should keep all of us in sync with what the Trustees are discussing in order to bring about schoolwide cohesion.

Which brings us to the next point: Reconsideration of the individualized laptop program. Middle School students are cyclically transformed into gigabyte-munching

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fiends, their procrastination rates bolstered by countless YouTube tabs and iChat windows. This mentality will only be spurred on by the institution of a mandatory laptop program that is supported throughout High School. Sure enough, classes won’t exactly tailor their curriculums to include laptops, but surely it’s within boundaries to state that asking students to bring computers to school everyday might have unfavorable side effects. Therefore, in order to quell any technology-related fears or concerns, we ask our next principal to publicly assess the validity, necessity and effects of a High School laptop program.

Furthermore, we believe that Phillips can be the first to delineate the school’s boundaries. A previous Features article, which dealt with the school-issued party cancellations, clarified the situation for many. But, if Phillips was to begin his term with an ongoing dialogue regarding where exactly “the line” is for the school to intervene, Dean of Students Joe Chodl’s phone calls to parents would be justified and understood. Less hostility between the administration and partygoing students would become apparent, and the rule book regarding the school’s view of parties would have a chance to be written.

The final point is one that doesn’t pertain to any concrete achievements, but deals with the day-to-day relationship which students want to foster with their principal. We ask that Phillips maintains the precedent that Richards set of transparency. We look forward to having a constant open forum and working with “Action Jackson” to clarify and confront any issue that needs conquering.

MISSION STATEMENT The Standard staff and adviser are dedicated to creating an open forum that strives to promote productive dialogue among the student body, and within the greater school cumminity, by publishing exemplary student news media according to the strictest standards of journalistic integrity in writing, editing, coverage and production.

CONTENT The Standard covers news related, but not limited, to the school community. Issues-driven coverage that aims to explore ideas, themes, concepts, trends and recent developments beyond the campus that are relevant to members of the community are also included.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send submissions to the journalism lab, room O-329, or to the_standard@asl.org. These must adhere to the same set of ethical guidelines that all staff content is held to, and will only be published at the discretion of the editorial board and the adviser. The Standard retains the right to edit letters for length and AP/Standard style. All letters must be signed in order to be considered for publication.

EDITORIALS Articles published without a byline and presented in the same location issue-to-issue represent the majority opinion of the editorial board. They are unsigned.

COLUMNS Articles with a byline and a photo of the author in the Opinions section of the newspaper are opinions articles. They represent the view of the writer only, and not necessarily the staff of the newspaper or any other individual or group in the community.

ENGAGEMENT WITH READERSHIP The Standard encourages all readers to submit their thoughts through letters to the editor, guest columns and story ideas.

Contact the appropriate section editor(s) for submissions.

ONLINE VIEWING The Standard can be viewed online at standard.asl.org.The Standard can also be viewed in PDF format on the high school page of the ASL website, www.asl.org.

Printed by Mortons Print Limited, 01507 523456

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THE STANDARD | March 2013 THE STANDARD | Se

cartoon by Emily Mark

Living up to our mission statement Our school prides itself on its diversity and global perspective. These ideas that are ingrained into the Mission Statement are, however, seemingly not receiving the attention that they deserve from the administration.

There are numerous unexploited or underexploited ways for the administration to diversify the school community, both by bringing students into ASL and by having a more active role in the greater London community.

All students, faculty and the administration have to do is take a step outside the “ASL bubble.”

There needs to be more opportunities for ASL students to partner with students in other local schools in extracurricular activities. Programs like the ASL-QK Robotics Team should serve as an example. ASL students go to QK and QK students come to ASL to work together on a robot as equals.

There is something flawed about parading the community parternship program as one of our few links to Greater London. While we are provided with many opportunities and community service should be continued, what about creating other ways to interact with London students? Exposure to students from other schools would foster a global perspective because of the diverse viewpoints we would encounter in these interactions.

ASL’s debate team should have more official debates with students from the London schools, whose teams are considered some of the best in the world. Using an out-

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side director for A Midsummer Night’s Dream last year is a strong example of using London’s resources for our school.

Partnerships would not only have to be intellectual.

Sports such as rugby, track and field, swimming and football are ones that students everywhere compete in. Participating in sporting events with other London schools would give students more experience with competition, in addition to introducing them to other students from around London. Although this already occurs to some degree, athletic participation with other London schools has the potential to expand greatly.

ASL also has the opportunity to expand diversity inside the community. At present, only 5.1 percent of students are on financial aid. Though much of the tuition is spent on paying teachers and maintaining the school, there’s also money from tuition and from the Capital Fund spent on building new, cutting-edge facilities. By shirking on financial aid, the school makes a farce out of the Mission Statement and, though in terms of facilities we are ahead of the curve in comparison to other international schools, our lack of diversity leaves us far behind the leaders of the pack. The school is planning on allocating 8 percent of our tuition to financial aid, but there needs to be more. Diversity starts here, at school. The solution to this problem comes not simply from breaking away from the “ASL bubble,” but from merging this bubble with that of London’s.

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THE STANDARD | March 2013

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Opinionsddd

Eliminating anonymity Patrick Collins patrick_collins@asl.org

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A wall is put between the writer and reader when the anonymous form is used, making it possible for writers to hide behind their views, instead of being forced to stand proudly in front of them.

Photo from flickr/jazminmillion

Gambling – ASL has taken a defined stance against gambling and I hate it. It started with the systematic barring of all online gambling websites and it has now turned into an all-out ban in the Lower and Middle Schools on any activities that may be seen as betting. This ban was clearly seen when Clayton Marsh (’14), Ben Abrams (’14) and I attempted to sell March Madness brackets to Lower and Middle School students for our club SWISH in order to benefit the Winchester Project. We were told we couldn’t involve non-High School students in our charity project as the administrators in the other two factions didn’t want to involve their students in gambling.

In a betting-obsessed country like the U.K., a Prohibition-like ban on all activities that may be seen as gambling is not only irrational but frankly stupid. ASL students of all ages are bound to be exposed to gambling, whether it is by walking past the Coral on the high street, through advertising or seeing elder members of the community participate in it. So instead of attempting to stamp it out, why not educate students about gambling? Softcore examples of gambling such as March Madness brackets present a perfect opportunity for education.

Students could be taught that, although if done too much it can become a deadly vice, gambling can be a positive activity that gets participants more involved in events and can create friendly competition amongst gamblers.

I am not asking to set up a betting shop next to the Booster Club before sports games, no matter how badly I want to run over-under lines and put a couple cheeky twenties on

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During my childhood, I was taught a saying: Don’t say something about someone behind their back that you wouldn’t say to their face. This simple childhood lesson has dictated the vast majority of opinion-sharing I have participated in ever since. By expressing my views with such a mindset, I have developed a sense of comfort in placing my name and face behind each and every one of my opinions.

No matter how bold, no matter how controversial, I place my name on every view I have because I believe in them. When people fail to do so, choosing instead to shield their identity while expressing their views, their opinion loses all credibility and respect. Writing in an anonymous form is no better than talking behind someone’s back; it is a cowardly act that should be shunned and completely eliminated as a norm of expressing opinion.

In general, people use the anonymous form for one simple reason: The writer does not wish to be linked to their view. They want to express it, they want others to be able to read it, but they do not want the responsibility of defending it when called upon. Using anonymity therefore becomes dangerous

when people are sharing their beliefs. It allows people to ridicule, to mock, to judge, to offend others without ever being held accountable.

Anonymity is the tool of a coward. A wall is put up between the writer and reader when the anonymous form is used, making it possible for writers to hide behind their views instead of standing proudly in front of them.

By using this protection, writers are allowed to say whatever they desire without having to support it. When one shares their opinion, they should be forced to face up to any response, positive or negative. However, they shouldn’t have to be forced to do so. Writers should want to stand up for their opinion, willing to argue and fight for their opinion. A writer should convince himself of his opinion before convincing others. By requiring this self-belief, writers would only say things that they truly believe in. Writers would no longer be able to make ridiculous statements, throw out outrageous assertions and then cower behind the wall of anonymity, out of the reach of any repercussion.

I fully support writers being able to ex-

Opinions Editor Patrick Collins, Editor-in-Chief Fares Chehabi and Deputy Editor-in-Chief Anna Young break down recent key investments our home basketball games and how many game-winning freethrows Louisa Phillips (’15) can make in a season. I am not even asking to turn Multipurpose Room 2 into a card house, despite the fact that its underground location would make it perfect for such a use.

But let us check the odds on football games between classes using ASL’s wifi. Allow the occasional charity-aiding, community-wide bracket event. Let us play with our money a bit in school. No one is betting limbs. No one is going to go bankrupt. Although I can see Vikrim Prasad (’15) making a couple hundred off smart bets. - PC Russell Brand – On March 6, Russell Brand hosted the Give It Up for Comic Relief event, in which he managed to gather talent from the likes of Frankie Boyle, Nicole Scherzinger and Kasabian to put on a show. In addition to having all of its proceeds donated to Comic Relief, the event strengthened Brand’s continual fight against drug and alcohol addiction in the U.K. So, what we must applaud here is Brand’s transformation – a former substance abuser who was arrested 12 times, here he is now, sober since 2003 and helping those afflicted by the problems that caused him so much trauma. The man’s a legend, purely and simply.

Throw into the equation his playful demeanor and entertaining use of verbose and bombastic language in his interviews, and the man’s appeal grows even further. Just watch his talk show, BrandX, to begin an appreciation of his comedic approach to news and mastery of conversational skills. His session with the Parliamentary Committee on drugs

and his interview of two members of the Westboro Baptist Church on BrandX are up there with the best illustrations of his personality, if you’re interested. Or you could just watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall or Get Him to the Greek to witness his portrayal of the brash Aldous Snow, the greatest fictional rock star created since “Spinal Tap” was released in 1984.

“African Child” has nothing on “Big Bottoms,” though. - FC Gangster rap – Admit it: Even the whitest girl around town is allowed to listen to a little bit of scary rap music if she wants to. In that vein, I got really into “All Gold Everything” about a month after it became popular. Cool.

Thoroughly inspired, I went through every song my slightly more “with it” sister had ever bought, searching for rapper names that I’d actually heard of, such as Kanye, 2 Chainz, Eminem, Jay Z and (my favorite) Chingy.

Armed with a lot of curse words and some intimidating beats, I walked onto the pool deck at ISSTs with a swagger that Snoop Dogg would be jealous of and danced it out to “A$$” every time I didn’t make a final (oops). I’ve gone back to my more softcore musical roots since I returned from the land of chlorine and ripped swim gods, but when I’m going on my fourth hour straight in the journalism cave and life is looking grim and way too backlit, not much can beat shaking it out to a little bit of gangster rap.

FYI if you ever need a brain teaser, actually listen to the words in these songs and try to understand what they mean. Shoutout to craftily hiding really inappropriate messages.

press every opinion they may have, but I believe it is imperative that they also put their name on their belief. By exposing their identity to their readers, writers add credibility to their views by placing themselves in front on their opinion and allowing readers to know exactly whose view they are reading.

Opinions are something to be proud of.

They play a large part in forming our identity, as every view we have shapes our person, making each of us the unique individuals that we are. However, when a person decides to hide from his opinion, not backing uphis thoughts with his name, he cheats himself.

By using anonymity, a writer virtually detaches himself from his view. This sends a strong message to any reader, as the anonymous writer is telling everyone that they are afraid of their belief or are afraid to stand up or it. This fear has no place in the sharing of opinions. Writers should be proud of what they think. They should have the confidence to speak what is on their mind, believe it is true and stand up to any response, all while identifying themselves as the person whose opinion is being shared.

Photo by Jessica Haghani

(Did you know that the square root of 69 is eight something?) I wish I had that lyrical genius. - ASY Class of 2014 - Damn, I love the Class of 2014. It’s simply a beautiful group of individuals. A beautiful group of dominating individuals that, with a wondrous air of cockiness, brought the brooms out and swept through Spirit Week with the efficiency of a German automaker.

We dominated every competition, making everyone that came up against us look helpless. However, the fights that were put up were admirable. Although none of the competition was making us sweat (that was something else), if I were any other class, I would have bowed out at the beginning of the competition when faced with the straight genius of the Class of 2014, so well done to them.

The crowd surfing, the cheeky stacks during dodgeball, the constant banter, Peter Skow (’14), it all added to the beauty of the situation.

Spirit Week might as well be renamed Class of 2014 Appreciation Week, with each day celebrating the glory, the brilliance, the greatness that our class holds. I wouldn’t be against some art being commissioned in our honor. I am sure there is a little space in the budget to build a couple David-esque statues or Mona Lisa-like portraits depicting the Class of 2014.

And if anyone thought we had a celebration this year, just wait for our victory next year when we clinch the back-to-back Spirit Week championships; it is going to be ratchet.

Long live our glory. Long live our greatness.

Long live the Class of 2014. -PC Post Scriptum: Bring On The Sundresses.

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THE STANDARD | March 2013

Curing the cognitive cramp Shahid Mahdi shahid_mahdi@asl.org

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The kid who always answered the teacher’s questions wasn’t necessarily the most intelligent – rather, he or she had just worked hard to spurt out the right answer.

We have a strictly academic alter-ego. It is the weary-eyed version of ourselves that highlights AP study books and drags our forlorn souls to school every morning, tearfully aware of the fact that we have more than one assessment awaiting us. But, because it’s so taxing – and strange – to look at ourselves from the third person, we’re never aware of this alterego as much as we ought to be.

When you see a senior in the hallways, you are looking at the glossy final product: The refined sculpture of the person he or she might’ve been as ninth grade classes begun, chiseled and hardened by the trials in the classroom, on the field or on a blank Microsoft Word document.

But how did they get to this point? Did they rely on pure, rote hard work to get there? Or was there some God-given “talent” that drove them to glory? Why is it that some people never really seemed to study hard or get stressed about their tests, yet consistently ranked at the top of the class? And why is it that people who did stay up all night with their phone switched off and their eyes glued to their review books never beat their “naturally selected” counterparts in the gradebook?

If I was to standardize the amount of working hours, say, two hours per day, for every student in my grade over the past four years, would all of us receive the same grades on our assignments? No. Certain scholars may prefer to memorize material in a visual way (graphing, charting or otherwise), others may turn to flashcards and some are naturally “gifted” enough to internalize the lesson with the supposed photographic memory. So is it “unfair” that student X, who barely studied, receives a 98 percent on a test when student Y was on the verge of drowning in a sea of completed papers and only managed an 86 percent?

AP United States History is an intriguing model for the situation. Having taken the course in my junior year, I found that the actual content isn’t difficult to absorb. But the sheer volume of work including, but not limited to, countless essays and documents, forces everyone to toil away to the point of enriched exhaustion and gives the class a daunting feel.

We all had the same workload and same rate of assessments per week, but the label of the “smartest kid in the room” was an unspoken consensus. The kid who always answered the teacher’s questions wasn’t necessarily the most intelligent - rather, he or she had just worked hard to spurt out the right answer. If an intelligent kid doesn’t answer the teacher’s questions correctly, does it strip away from his or her intelligence?

In search of the elusive answer to the El Dorado of scholastic questions, I consulted countless sources. Ranging from renowned psychologists’ articles to the meager lowly forums on college search websites, wherein driven teenagers under nonsensical pseudonyms sparred to find a statement they could all agree with.

One of the foremost experts in the field is the author Paul Tough, who projected two hypotheses in his book How Children Succeed.

First is his “cognitive hypothesis” which reveals that children succeed based off “the kind of intelligence that is tested on I.Q. tests,[the ability] to calculate, [to] detect patterns.” The general consensus with this theory is that the more one practices these skills, the better he will become. Tough also propounds a new theory known as the “character hypothesis”: That “life skills”, so to speak, are what really give kids the advantage. Curiosity, self-confidence, grit and determination, he argues, are more essential than this seemingly naturally

selected intelligence to succeed.

A New York Times column by David Z. Hambrick and Elizabeth J. Meinz, who are associate professors of psychology at Michigan State University and Southern Illinois University, respectively, proposes the complete opposite. In a piece titled “Sorry Strivers” published in the November 11, 2011 issue, the two reported an experiment in which 57 pianists carried out various tasks.

They found that, although all the pianists had practiced the same amount, the ones with a higher memory capacity – a component of natural intelligence – performed significantly better on the tasks assigned. Although puzzles and logic problems may sharpen one’s cognitive function, they are not a surefire way to obtain a memory of higher capacity. Thus, techniques and methods to improve a person’s intellectual toolbox, are, for the most part, either artificial or only ever effective when done on a specific case-by-case basis. Hambrick and Meinz sum up their revelations with an almost apologetic statement: “Sometimes, the story of science – a.k.a. the one that prefers practice and hard work over this apparent, mythical inborn talent – isn’t the story we want to hear.”

Of course, keep in mind that these are just two of the hundreds of theories being thrown out there. The point, as with all El Dorado questions, is merely to raise awareness with regards to how we learn and who really has the sacred “edge” in a heated environment, such as ours at ASL. Rationalizing what makes students different, rather than just being confused or in awe about their academic inclination, is key to understanding learning methods for generations to come. It’s a matter of when, not if, more questions about this eternal battle will rise. If we begin asking them now, we’ll all leave that much smarter.

Promoting an active senioritis Matthew Bentley matthew_bentley@asl.org

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I care about the classes I want to care about, not the ones I am forced to care about. On top of that, I can actually sit back and enjoy my time at ASL.

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English Teacher Stephan Potchatek mentioned, off-handedly, that I should go visit an art gallery. I had been slammed after school with work, but I still wanted to see it. So, I negotiated with one of my other teachers into letting me go. Alone, in the middle of the day, I left school, travelled to Cork Street and spent 15 minutes in a tiny art gallery, with probably 20 digitally enhanced photos ringing the walls. That was all that was there.

I would never have been able to do any of this without senioritis.

Many teachers try to vilify the idea of senioritis. Work continues to be collected on a daily basis, pop quizzes are handed out and teachers emphasize their classes more than any others. This is wrong. For the last year and a half, “college,” this mythical place I could never reach, became the most important thing in my life. Every conversation was, in some way, directed towards college. It dominated me. While I was touring colleges I realized, for the first time why I was working so hard, and why my teachers were pushing me. So, I rose to the challenge. I worked for grades. I worked for the future. I didn’t care what a derivative was, what the subjunctive conjugation of “estar” was or how the Vietnam War began; I just needed these facts in my head to get an “A”. Not everything

went well; some things went quite poorly, in fact, but it was a means to an end. And then it ended. I walked out of my last mid-term exam. I pressed the dreaded “submit” button on my applications. I was done.

I have four months left in London: Four months taking classes at ASL, four months with these classmates that we have all gotten to know so well, whether it has been over 12 years or six months. I have been here since sixth grade. I have been friends with Alex Ericksen (‘13) since the first day of seventh grade. And now, for better or worse, we will not attend the same school next year.

Moreover, we will not live in the same city.

Why, then, should I worry about grades that do not affect me? I should focus on enriching myself and my relationships while they last. Time becomes incredibly limited when you get to senior year. Everything begins to come to an end and the end seems impossibly close. I want to spend this time with the people from my grade and not stressing out about a homework assignment.

Now, I am not saying that one should stop doing work; that’s a ridiculous proposition for a student reporter for a school newspaper to make. Instead, the last six months of your senior year should be for you. Whatever that means for the individual, that is what

the final part of senior year is for. For the last 18 months, I have learned for college, not me, but now I can learn for myself. Walking around that gallery, I realized what derivative art meant, more than any class I could take, because I experienced something. That’s the fun of it. In Calculus, I actually think, conceptually, about what we have been studying.

I care about the classes I want to care about, not the ones I am forced to care about. On top of that, I can actually sit back and enjoy my time at ASL. I have made a new rule with myself: Go to bed at 10:30. Period. I can do that now and it is just spectacular. As a result, I can focus better in class, and engage with my own learning. I could never do that if I had to do all the work I was supposed to do last semester. Last semester, I was constantly strung out sleepdeprived and blurry-eyed in class. Now, I am generally happy, sleep well, and able to focus in class, for the joy of learning.

I think it is time to redefine senioritis; make it a time for seniors to do what they care about. Learn because they enjoy the class, experience London because they will not be here much longer. I could go on, but I am going to go see a play. And then an art gallery. And then just walk through Regent’s Park.

3/19/13 4:29 PM

Features

THE STANDARD VOLUME XXXVIII ISSUE V MARCH 2013

LUNCH WITH THE STANDARD

From classrooms to bookstores Deputy Editor-in-Chief Anna Young sits down with this year’s Bergeron Fellow, author and teacher Selden Edwards, to discuss the process of publishing and his experiences in the print industry

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elden Edwards was hunched over his lunch when I entered the English office. I could barely see his face. When he looked up and greeted me, I saw a nice-looking older man with a beard that some of my friends would be jealous of.

This year’s Bergeron Fellow, Edwards was an English teacher and headmaster at various private schools in the U.S. before he published his first novel, The Little Book. The story is about time travel between 1980s America and turn-ofthe-century Vienna.

Edwards became involved with the Bergeron Fellowship through his friendship with former Head of School Bill Mules and his wife’s friendship with English Department Head Meghan Tally. Even before his success as a writer, he had been interested in the fellowship.

Edwards’s rise to fame was a long one. It took him 30 years and, he estimates, six increasingly large drafts of his novel before he was eventually published. Tally helped him edit the novel, working with him for days at his home on Lake Tahoe.

Words, he explained, could not describe his feelings when his manuscript was sold. “When I was in college, I played JV basketball and I always dreamed of being a star on the varsity [team] and I never got there,” he said. “[Being published] is like that. I’d been invited to be on varsity.

I dreamed of it so long that I couldn’t believe [it] when it happened.”

“I thought people would say, ‘He’s a onetrick pony and he had his chance and this one [book] isn’t as good.’

All of a sudden some people were saying it [the second novel] was better than the first one.

I must admit that really surprised me.”

Selden Edwards, Bergeron Fellow Each time Edwards’s manuscript was rejected, he would give up on the book for a while. “But then time would pass and I’d think ‘Well you know, I’ve already got so much invested in that story,’” he said. “And

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I kept thinking of new wrinkles so then I got it out, dusted it off and sent a new draft out and it would get rejected [again].”

Edwards’s main focus, though, was adding to the depth and richness of the story. He believes that it eventually became perfectly substantive and that is when he started the publishing process.

The nine-month publication process he underwent seemed, as we sat facing each other over a small table in an English classroom, like a whole different world. For his first book, Edwards sat down with an editor and went through the entire 600-page manuscript looking for errors and editing. Editors looked over multiple drafts of the book before it was deemed ready for publication. “I worked for 30 years trying to get the book published and then all of the sudden when you do get it it gets very serious very fast because all of the sudden your book is going to get published and all of those little things that you thought you wanted to change, things that weren’t quite right, you have to fix,” he said.

Edwards knew right off the bat that his second book would be published and said that once his foot was in the door of the literary world, publishing a second book was much easier. He started the book by writing a 50-page summary, then a 150-page

Selden Edwards originally began writing his first novel, The Little Book, 30 years ago when he was still a teacher in the U.S. Edwards has now published a second novel and is working on his third.

Illustration by Caroline Tisdale

version and added onto the book in increments of approximately 100 pages until his editor said the story was ready to go. “I thought people would say, ‘He’s a one-trick pony and he had his chance and this one isn’t as good.’ All of a sudden some people were saying it was better than the first one,” he said sheepishly. “I must admit that really surprised me.”

Since the publication of The Lost Prince, the sequel of The Little Book, in which the main character travels to Vienna during World War I, Edwards’s literary career has taken off.

Edwards has been active in the international literary community since entering it with the publication of his first book. “You get invited to lots of events like authors’ panels and book-related things so I run into a lot of authors,” he said. “I love that.”

As the Bergeron Fellow, Edwards came to ASL to work with students and faculty, as well as to give a lecture to the community. He spent a week working with sophomore English classes to produce their own book. As we sat together, he proudly took out a copy of one class’s book.

A solid 50 pages, the book contains pieces written by members of the class as well as their own photos and illustrations. The purpose of the exercise was to teach the classes what it was like to work for a publisher, and to help them understand how each step in the publication process is dependent on the ones before it. “I knew it [making the book] was possible, and I’d never seen it done before,” he said. “But I wanted them to know about publishing rather than working for a grade and that, when you are working with a publisher, it’s a very different process.”

The Little Book, Edwards said, was the culmination of a whole life spent around books and a dream come true. Out of everything he has experienced since its publication, his favorite thing to do is simply to hold the book.

When he travels for book tours, he can usually find a copy or two in an airport bookstore or a local bookstore. He often goes into the stores and offers to sign the books. He gleefully described the way store clerks become excited that an author is in the vicinity. His eyes widened as he said “author,” and for a second I had a vision of him dressed as a Waterstones clerk restraining his delight over a literary hero walking into the room. “I sign the book and they put the sticker on it and it’s pretty exciting,” he said. “It’s beyond my beliefs.”

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Features

The good Grade Pill A look at illegal prescription drug use and its prevalence within the High School Clayton Marsh | Lead Features Editor with staff writer James Malin

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top shaking your leg.”

Caught by surprise, the student snapped out of focus, looked at his friend obliviously and replied, “What?”

The student, too deeply engaged in his English class’s Harkness discussion to realize what he had been doing for the past few minutes, was tapping his foot uncontrollably against the table. He was unusually focused on what people were saying.

He was no longer looking at his peers blankly, but rather truly understanding what they were talking about. A couple of hours earlier, as he was going through his morning routine, he took a Ritalin pill, a central nervous system stimulant used to treat attention deficit disorder (ADD) and

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photo by hamish stephenson

attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). He did not have a prescription.

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration lists prescription stimulants like Adderall, Vyvanse and Ritalin as Class 2 controlled substances, the same level as cocaine and morphine, because they rank among the most addictive substances that have a medical use. New York Times columnist Roger Cohen, in his recent column “The Competition Drug,” wrote that, “Adderall has become to college what steroids are to baseball: An illicit performance enhancer for a fiercely competitive environment.” Research shows 10 percent of U.K. students admit to taking “cognitive-enhancing” drugs to help them concentrate, stay up late and complete deadlines on time; this number rises to 16 percent among U.S. students,

according to the Huffington Post.

The two ASL students first came across prescription drugs like these in very different scenarios. The first student, who needed his friend to snap him out of his period of intense concentration, first bought an academically performance enhancing drug at Top Orange from another High School student earlier this school year. “I bought one pill of Vyvanse for £5.

I made the exchange at Top Orange and popped it in the bathroom,” he said.

The second student, who has illegally taken Adderall around ten times, receives his supply from a sibling.

The first student’s original motive to try a stimulant like Vyvanse was a combination of curiosity and pressure from himself to succeed. “I just wanted to see what it would be like and if it would make

things better, and it did. I didn’t feel any pressure from my parents, but more pressure from myself to stay up to speed with everyone and do well academically,” he said.

Health Teacher Joy Marchese sympathized with the afflicted student. “I think that the pressure on students to be perfect and achieve very high grades needs to be addressed,” she said. “There are a lot of these students using this drug that are striving for perfectionism or striving for excellence and they can never achieve it because they will always want to move up.”

After taking Vyvanse, the student found himself “super focused” and saw everything with “complete clarity.” He estimated an academic improvement of a whole letter grade on a test (e.g.: a C+ without the pill to a B or B+ with the pill).

After benefiting from the positive effects of Vyvanse, the student bought Ritalin from a friend outside of school, which he began using this academic year.

Fearful of the addictive qualities that come with the drug, the student has been cautious to avoid taking the drug on a regular basis. Also aware of the common side effects of the drug, including insomnia, lack of appetite and stomach aches, he remains careful to use the drug sparingly. However, the student plans to begin taking the medication again in preparation for finals in the spring.

Marchese is apprehensive that students struggle to see that those who are not diagnosed with ADHD or ADD do not need the medication and taking the medication unprescribed could actually result in more harmful long-term effects than positive ones. “The drug is addictive, and their body doesn’t actually need it.

When someone is prescribed Adderall or Ritalin, it’s because the chemicals in their body are different,” she said. “They need that drug to balance out the chemicals.

When you don’t have that chemical imbalance and put that drug into your body, it changes what is happening in your

body.” Marchese said that for those who are not diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, the positive short-term effects are significantly outweighed by the negative longterm effects.

Ilay Sheves (’16) began taking Ritalin at the start of eighth grade after being diagnosed with ADHD. Sheves noticed a similar improvement in academic performance, as his grades improved from high “C”s and low “B”s to high “B”s and low “A”s after taking the medication. Since taking Ritalin on a regular basis, Sheves has experienced many of the common side effects, especially insomnia. “I try and sleep but I don’t sleep because my brain just tells me, ‘Work, work, work,’” he said.

Sheves said that this drastic change in his grades would not have been possible without Ritalin, and described the drug as giving him “laser focus and instant recall.” These benefits, at least for Sheves, have a concrete reward and outweigh the adverse side-effects. “You notice the side effects but the benefits are very strong.

It’s worth not being able to sleep well if you get an ‘A’ on a math test,” he said.

While Sheves finds it easy to look past the adverse effects of Ritalin, Sam Evans (’15) has grown to abhor his medication, Adderall, which he began taking in the eighth grade after being diagnosed with ADD. “I actually hate taking it because it dulls my mind. I sort of lose my creative spark,” he said.

Evans compared himself to “those crazy people in movies who are always saying a million things at once. That’s what I’m like when I’m not on Adderall. I’m always thinking of new things.”

Despite losing his creative instincts when he uses Adderall, Evans praised the medication for helping him focus on material he has no interest in. “The reason I think it’s worth it in school is because I’m learning about things I don’t really care for, and taking Adderall helps me focus in on those sort of things,” he said.

Additionally, Evans is not bothered by students without prescriptions taking medication like Adderall. “My grades are my grades and their grades are their grades,” he said.

In fact, during his first year at summer naval school, Evans sold about six-weeks worth of his medication that he deemed superfluous to one of his peers. “I brought the medication because I didn’t know if I was going to need it or not. After the first couple of days I realized I didn’t and one of the upper classmen bought it from me,” he said. “Apparently you can get high off it, but I didn’t know that. I thought, ‘Yeah, sure’ because I was just going to throw it away anyway. I didn’t really care.”

On the other hand, Sheves sees illegal usage of academically performance enhancing drugs as an unfair advantage to

people who aren’t diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. “Without a prescription, it is unfair [for people] to take a drug like Ritalin because they have never been diagnosed with the disorder. They must be tested by a doctor first,” he said.

The first student doesn’t view the abuse of prescription drugs as cheating, but rather a way to compensate for some teachers’ inability to teach. “The academic environment at ASL is obviously very hard and intense, but sometimes the teachers don’t teach you well enough for the tests they give you. If they can’t teach me, then why should my GPA suffer?” he said.

He was also adamant that taking Ritalin is not cheating because it doesn’t give the student any new knowledge; it is only aiding you in the recall of information.

Additionally, he said that the usage of unprescribed drugs is ethically acceptable.

“I take it with a clear moral conscience. It really is just like stronger coffee in a way,” he said.

However, Marchese was resolute that students taking these medications without prescriptions are cheating. She sees it as a shortcut and an unfair advantage in improving students’ grades. “What about all the other students that are not taking this pill that are working their butt off to perform and to do well? Some of them aren’t achieving what they wanted but they’re working really hard for it. Is it an unfair advantage? I think so. I see it as the easy way out. I see it as cheating,” she said.

Dean of Students Joe Chodl primarily sees taking medications like Adderall or Ritalin unprescribed as substance abuse.

“Taking prescribed drugs when they’re not yours or not prescribed is illegal,” he said.

Chodl has never encountered any problems with prescription drug abuse during his time at ASL. “I have never had any issues about this in my whole tenure at ASL, and the StudentFaculty Disciplinary Board has never encountered a case involving prescription drug abuse,” he said.

Because of this, Chodl is unsure how students abusing prescription drugs would be punished because the SFDB operates on a caseby-case basis.

The first student is aware of the rise in illegal use of these prescription drugs, and anticipates that the availability of these medications will decrease in the long-term. “I think in five years it will be a lot harder to get because of what has been happening. I know of about two or three people in my grade who do it, but there are probably more who have done it but just don’t talk about it,” he said.

‘‘

I bought one pill of Vyvanse for 5 pounds. I made the exchange at Top Orange and popped it in the bathroom.

ASL sophomore

‘‘

‘‘

I actually hate taking it because it dulls my mind.

I sort of lose my creative spark.

Sam Evans (’15)

Sam Evans (’15) began taking Adderall in eighth grade after being diagnosed with ADD. He did praise the medication for helping him focus on material he has no interest in.

Cartoon by Daniela Al-Saleh

Amid these concerns that some students are “cheating” by taking pills to improve their results, students around the world could face compulsory drug testing around exam time, according to the Huffington Post.

While the first student has no plans of getting tested for ADD or ADHD because he knows he would not be diagnosed with either, the second student, who began taking Adderall unprescribed last April, plans on getting tested in the near future.

This student was keen to point out the negative effects of Adderall, which, along with limited access to the medication, have stopped him from more frequent usage. “When you take it, you feel sad. You kind of shiver. But when you finish a session on them and you look at all the work you’ve done, you say, ‘Wow, that was awesome,’” he said.

He praised the medication’s ability to block out distractions and described it as a performance enhancer. “Whenever I have too much work or I can’t focus, it’s easy to just take a pill. You finish all your work quickly and it motivates you to finish it all,” he said. “It doesn’t make you smarter or anything, it just focuses you so you get everything done so much faster.”

Cautious about becoming addicted or dependent on the medication, the student only uses Adderall when he feels he really needs to. “I haven’t used the medication more frequently because I’m afraid that I’d become addicted. I’m doing okay without it, so I only use it when I’m in dire need of it,” he said.

For example, he explained that rather than staying up until 4 a.m. to write a paper, he could complete the assignment in two hours. “It’s not pleasurable taking it, it’s not a high. You take it to get your work

done. You don’t take it for anything else,” he said.

This student has found Adderall to be most effective when used in conjunction with studying. “It’s preparation. Taking it the day of won’t make you remember everything. If I forgot a lot of things I wouldn’t suddenly remember everything when I took the test,” he said. “It’s not a miracle drug, it just focuses you.”

He also described Adderall as “a dying medication,” referring to its potential to be abused by students like him. However, Marchese sees the abuse of these prescription drugs on the rise. “I think it’s a growing issue, certainly in universities, and it has definitely trickled down to the high school level. I don’t know the exact amount of usage in high school students but I certainly know that in very high academic and high pressure schools it is a growing problem,” she said.

The illegal usage of prescription medication presents dangerous risks of dependence and addiction. The increasing prevalence of this in universities, which is now being replicated at the high school level, is highlighted by cases of addiction leading to depression and eventual suicide.

In a moment of hindsight, the second student, who is being tested for ADD and ADHD in the near future, reflected on his abuse of Adderall. “I should’ve waited to be prescribed before I took it because I didn’t really know that much. I could’ve died or something,” he said. “I wish I had never taken the medication. It was a massive risk and I didn’t think it through properly.”

Ian Scoville contributed to reporting.

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THE STANDARD | March 2013

Features

Aid&

Opportunity Features Editor Mina Omar looks into the financial aid system at ASL

B

efore being accepted to ASL, Maalik Mbatch (’14) had never dreamt of what a private school education could entail. He previously attended Capital City Academy (CCA) in Willesden, an area in northwest London, which is a part of the London Borough of Brent. Mbatch compared the school to QK. “They accepted literally everyone, and since they accepted everyone, there were many different types of people at the school,” he said. “The school had everyone from your potential genius to kids who are predestined to live a bad life.”

The biggest difference between CCA and ASL, however, was cost.

CCA, a public school, was free, as opposed to ASL, where families pay £23,550 a year per High School student. However, Mbatch was so skeptical about his chances of being accepted, that he chose not to worry about the tuition until after discovering whether or not he had been accepted.

Mbatch’s mother, who suggested that he apply to ASL in the first place, knew about the school’s prestigious reputation because she worked in the St. John’s Wood area and had met ASL students through community partnerships.

“I thought that my chances of getting in were slim to none,” said Mbatch said. “I assumed that kids only got into school on a merit basis and that ASL would only take potential

[

scholars.”

Mbatch described himself as an “untraditional learner” and said that since his previous school did not offer programs that catered to students like him, he gave up on his schoolwork. The education he was receiving at CCA did not interest him at all. “I decided that if I wanted to make a success out of my life, I had to leave [CCA],” he said.

“I was scared that if I didn’t leave, I wouldn’t be able to do well later on in life.”

After learning of his acceptance to ASL, Mbatch’s next step was to apply for financial aid. His family had informed the school that he would need a significant amount of the tuition covered but this information was given openly. Generally, students apply need-blind to the school and then seek aid only once they’ve been accepted.

ASL uses School and Student Services (SSS), a service provided by the National Association of Independent Schools, to process financial aid applications and determine the amount of aid a family is rewarded. The calculations for financial aid given consider all aspects of a family’s finances, including assets and expenditure.

Mbatch comes from a singleparent household and has the majority of his tuition covered by the school. His aid covers both the SLD program and any standard-

cartoon by emily mark

ized tests that he has to take. “[The school] takes an amount of tuition from us that is acceptable and still makes it okay for us to afford other necessary things,” he said.

However, Mbatch’s is a rare case. In most instances, the school awards 67 percent of tuition, which comes out to be around £15,600 to those students who apply for financial aid. ASL also covers the tuition of students whose parents work at the school and makes aid available for trips and extracurricular activities both to families who are on financial aid and to those who do not normally receive aid. The purpose of this is to ensure that all students have equal opportunities to go on the school’s trips.

This year, the budget for financial aid was 7.2 percent of the tuition that came in. However, the strategic plan for aid set by the Board of Trustees hopes to increase the budget to 8 percent by 2015. Even with the increase, the budget is about 3 percent less than the amount provided by other National Association of International Schools institutions. Dean of Admissions Jodi Warren said that ASL has offered less aid than other NAIS schools since she started working at ASL. Warren also said that the goal for financial aid is to give students access to an American education and to what ASL provides. “It’s really

]

“It highlights the fact that I’m part of a different world than some of the people that go here. I hear people joking about ‘the thug life’ and ‘living in the ghetto,’ but that’s really how I grew up.” - Maalik Mbatch (’14)

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THE STANDARD | March 2013

Page 15

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“It benefits everyone if there’s an increase in socioeconomic diversity at the school.” - Head of Admissions Jodi Warren

about access,” she said. “I think that it benefits everyone if there’s an increase in socioeconomic diversity at the school.”

She said that the increase in amount of financial aid is necessary as, in the last two years, there has been a substantial waiting list for financial aid. “Last year was the first time that we have had more applicants for financial aid than we had funds for,” she said.

Unfortunately, the lack of aid meant that families who had been accepted into ASL had to withdraw their acceptance as they were not able to afford the tuition fees without any form of aid.

Warren explained that there is an order to the way aid is distributed The first priority goes to families who are already in the school and receiving aid. Next, aid is given to families who are already in the school but were not previously receiving aid. Finally, aid is given to those who are newly applying to the school.

One student, who wishes to remain anonymous, has been on financial aid for five years and doesn’t feel as if it is something that she has to hide. She believes that the level of wealth is spread out at ASL and because of this she does not feel different from students who are not receiving aid. “I have friends that are really wealthy and I have friends that are not,” she said. “It makes me feel better because I’m surrounded by both types of people and I don’t feel too set apart.”

On the other hand, Mbatch said that in some ways being on financial aid does set him apart from his peers. “It highlights the fact that I’m part of a different world than some of the people that go here,” he said.

“I hear people joking about ‘the thug life’ and ‘living in the ghetto,’ but that’s really how I grew up.”

Mbatch does not feel as if his financial aid status puts him at a disadvantage at school, but rather that it sets him apart in terms of what he can and cannot do during the weekends. “It’s impossible for me to go out to dinner or see a movie with friends,” he said. “It’s just not going to happen.”

Although some students do not feel the burden of financial aid while at ASL, the topic becomes much more apparent to families when students think of leaving ASL and applying to college. The student who wishes to be unnamed is only a freshman but already knows how financial aid will change her approach to the college process, but that it will not affect where she applies. “I’m going to be taking out student loans,” she said. “My parents will take out the loan and then I will pay them back.”

Mbatch’s future after ASL, is heavily affected by whether he receives aid or not. He is hoping to get almost all of his tuition through either aid or a scholarship. Mbatch said his counselors have been extremely supportive, and are pushing so that he is able to receive aid.

Although aid is essential,

]

Mbatch is planning on applying predominantly to the U.S. He does not want to go to a British university after attending ASL. “I guess if I had wanted to stay here I wouldn’t have switched systems,” he said. “I’ve gotten used to the idea of a different type of education and now I want to finish that journey.”

If Mbatch is not able to receive aid from the schools he is applying to, he intends to stay in the U.K. until he makes enough money to be able to pay for university himself rather than putting any of the strain on his mother. “I would never want to put the burden of that much money on my mother,” he said.

“There’s just no way.”

Although Mbatch has put himself into a difficult position by enrolling in the American system, he does not regret his decision to do so. He said that he is thankful to be one of the students that the school offers aid to. “I’m proud of myself and the fact that amongst all the failures and past school experiences, I was able to get into this school,” he said.

He feels as if the opportunities offered to him because of financial aid will one day help him achieve his dreams. “No one in my family really got to fulfill their dreams.

They all became parents or were exposed to unfortunate events before they were able to do what they wanted to,” Mbatch said. “I want to be able to look back and feel proud of what I’ve achieved because of being on financial aid at this school.”

Furthering aid HAMISH STEPHENSON hamish_stephenson@asl.org

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As a student at ASL for almost eleven years, I have always been on financial aid. My mother was interested in the approach to education at ASL, and when she looked around the school she was encouraged to apply for financial aid. I feel the program is an incredible way for students that might not be able to afford the tuition to get a great education. However, I do feel more could be done with it.

Although the program assists those not as wealthy, it does not diversify the school as much as it possibly could. The main way I feel it could help the school vastly diversify is through the introduction of a scholarship program. The introduction of scholarships for students who are incredibly talented at a certain subject, art or sport would allow for students who cannot possibly afford the fees to come to the

school. The introduction of a program of this sort would be a win-win situation. Not only would students worthy of a platform and education that can help them explore and pursue their interests be able to attend the school, but we would also get a range of students from different backgrounds, ethnicities and most importantly, socioeconomic statuses at the school. This would go a long way to significantly impact students’ knowledge of the outside world, something a significant number of students at ASL lack.

On the whole, the financial aid program at ASL is remarkable and I am extremely thankful to the school for assisting me in getting an outstanding education. However I do feel there is more to be done if the administration wants to achieve its goal of greatly diversifying the school.

3/19/13 5:30 PM

Culture

THE STANDARD VOLUME XXXVIII ISSUE V MARCH 2013

All’s hell but ends well: Prologue The audience files in. As the play starts, someone forgets a line. The stage falls uncomfortably silent. The audience begins to shout at the actor. Then, they attack the director. How could he allow these actors to go on when they were clearly not ready? They then question his decisions. “A wall? Just a wall? Not barrells?” the crowd jeers. “Those costumes? That blocking?”

They are shouting at me, ridiculing me. I wake up sweating. This is not the first nightmare I have had regarding our show. And it will not be the last.

I never feel stressed about a show, mostly because I do not care what the other people do, really. As long as I hit my cues and marks and do not forget a line, I am happy. But, this is a new kind of stress. I do not just care about myself.

Everyone else’s problems are my problems. As I l try and fall asleep again, I do not understand why I did this to myself.

Act 1 Scene 1: Planning I have worked with six directors in the last six years on a series of more than 20 projects at various schools and summer programs. Every director has a different style and gets different results. Some are overpowering, others very loose. One director never said anything unless asked a direct question by an actor. Some shouted out line readings during a rehearsal and expected immediate correction to be made.

I always noted what kind of director I wanted to have; that was the director I wanted to be.

I first read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead on a recommendation by my brother.

I had never before laughed while reading a play.

I wanted to put this on. When Head of performing Arts Buck Herron was looking for a play and asking former students for recommendations, I mentioned R+G. I knew ASL and Herron wouldn’t put it on; it’s a small cast and a very difficult play. So, in an offhand conversation with Co-Director Austin Price (’13), we decided to do the play ourselves.

We organized a schedule with Dean of Students Joe Chodl. We bought the rights to the play. All that is left to do was cast.

Act 1 Scene 2: Casting Casting was a weird experience. I had always been on stage, being judged by a director, and now I found myself in the awkward position of looking at people and “deciding their fate,” as I used to joke. I didn’t really like it, because I knew the other side of it, so I tried to make it as comfortable as possible as Price and I read with potential cast members and discussed the play with them.

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Ultimately, it was easy to make the decisions.

After the first day of auditions, Price and I had ideas of the casting, and most were confirmed on the second day. We only needed two days.

Intermission.

Take a ten minute break from reading. Buy a cookie. Wait for the lights to flash.

Remember, no food when you continue reading.

Act 1 Scene 3: Rehearsals begin, and our first artistic decisions I’ll admit we were disorganized in our approach to the play. Our cast originally tried to analyze the play, as we had done in Dramatic Literature class, but when that took too long, we moved on to rehearsals. All of our scheduling was thrown out the window, and we mostly just went with the flow, which was stupid of us and brought a lot of stress down the line.

A decision arose quite early as to the direction of the piece. Tom Stoppard, the playwright, loves his stage directions, especially his pauses.

His best directions include “Pause. Beat. Sit. Long pause,” or “Hiatus,” or “A light, moon lantern?... light.” Included in these, many of his stage directions directly make fun of Hamlet, such as “Hamlet enters weighing up the pros and cons of making his quietus,” directly making light of “To be or not to be.” We needed to find a way to have “To be or not to be” happen on the side of the stage without any words. What directions would we listen to, and what would we ignore?

Additionally, Stoppard is very particular with his blocking. He tells people exactly where to go, stand, sit, when to move, etc. I prefer to be a bit more loose form in blocking. So, we worked with our cast to find a middle ground between Stoppardian rigidity and my natural movements.

The script was just too long, and our cast was not big enough to have all the characters, so cut 30 minutes from the two-hour play. A scene between Claudius and Ophelia was cut. Most of both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s long monologues were pared down to bare essentials. The character of “Soldier” was eliminated.

Act 1 Scene 4: Personal struggles Personally, I was in an awkward spot. I was directing and had one of the three leading roles.

This meant that I constantly had to look on stage with a third eye, being part of the scene, and yet also thinking about everybody else’s character choices and blocking. Price was excellent at helping out with this, and I could not have done this alone. Often, I would be caught up in a scene, and then I would see a note and totally break character. This brought the play to a screaming halt. On more than one occasion, I was asked by an actor how they thought a scene went, and I responded with: “I don’t know how that went, I was acting.”

Photos from the dress rehearsal of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. The show featured 11 cast members and starred Emily Lovett (’15), Kamillah Brandes (’13) and Matthew Bentley (’13). The show was directed by Bentley Austin Price (’13).

Photos by Andrew Bentley

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THE STANDARD | March 2013

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Culture

Reflections of a first-time director ell: Culture Editor Matthew Bentley reflects on his experience as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead co-director

lights to flash.

Act 2 Scene 1: Set, Props and Costumes I had never really thought about costumes, set or lighting for any other show, so I did not really know what to do. But now I was forced to learn. I spent time assuming they would just happen. As a result, our set was lacking, and we didn’t have many props. We grabbed a chair and a mirror from the working set of The Portrait of Dorian Gray, and decided that that was enough.

For props, we went into the weapons cupboard two weeks before the show, and dug around to find a few old rapiers.

Costumes was the gift that kept on giving.

After going to three different stores, I booked an appointment with the Royal Shakespeare Company. When I got off the Tube in Stratford I called the RSC to ask for directions. They sounded confused on the other end and told me that they were actually in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Eventually we decided on a more minimalist costumes to match our minimalist set. This is a workshop, after all.

Act 2 Scene 2: Rehearsals continue As rehearsals continued, I became more and more nervous. This is not going as well as I had hoped. People do not do the right thing.

People miss their cues. They forget their blocking. I make mistakes; my lines are a bit of a mess.

Price is good for support usually, but he was on honor orchestra two weeks before the show.

I was alone with these cretans. Little is achieved for a week, which leads me to panic. I could not

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead was performed at ASL on March 13 and 14. The cast was: Matthew Bentley Emily Lovett Kamillah Brandes Milo Rechler Sarah Fletcher Ian Ware Alie Floe Katja Kukielski Rowan Yearley Reed Campbell Austin Price

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Guildenstern Rosencrantz Player Claudius Gertrude Hamlet Polonius Ophelia Ambassador Laertes Musician

sleep. I could not focus on school work.

I tried being an aloof director, allowing actors to make their own decisions, while guiding them, so everything would feel more natural. I wanted them to make choices, and they often struggled to. We would be doing a scene, and people expected me to jump in and take a more active role. As a result, I became more controlling and micro-managing. I retained the tricks I had learned from other directors to help people develop characters. I worked on specific words with Rosencrantz. We put Rosencrantz in a box of sorts for her speech about being dead in a box.

Act 2 Scene 3: What director I became I tried to be a nice director, and hoped I came across as one. Although I would occasionally shout at the cast for missing a cue we had just worked on for 20 minutes, I always tried to be respectful to outside of school commitments. I occasionally had to tell someone what a line meant.

But I finally realized the merit of a controlling director. I did not want to be a dictator, but the occasional shout was used to keep people in line.

I ended up giving people, although reluctantly, line readings and directions of exactly what to do and where to go.

Act 2 Scene 4: Tech I have been through a lot of tech rehearsals, the long process whereby the lights are set. The show is run from lighting cue to lighting cue.

When we get to a cue, we stop the scene and usually spend five minutes determining what the lights will be for this moment. There is some argument and discussion between the lighting manager and the director. Tech rehearsals have taken from two hours to the infamous 12 hour tech rehearsal for The Drowsy Chaperone last year.

Price and I arrived early in the morning to work through lights just with stage manager Christine Rudolph, who ran the show for us. It took us about two hours to set the lights for the measly 25 cues (to put this in context, Drowsy had upwards of 200). When the actors arrived, we rapidly ran cue-to-cue, a process that only took two hours for us.

Tech was awesome. Sitting in the lighting booth, Price asked for upstage light to be a blue and downstage to be a warmer red. Rudolph’s fingers ran across the various levels, and in half a minute, the stage transformed. This process, which is usually purely boring, was stressful but eventually helped our show begin to look like a proper one.

Tech has an interesting effect on people.

Somehow, once lights are shining, everything is taken more seriously. Our first rehearsal with costumes helped clarify the play.

There was only one thing left to do: Perform. I took a deep breath. I barely slept the night before our first show.

naturally. It took five minutes for the audience to begin laughing. It was a small crowd, roughly 50 people, but we did a good job. A few, minor things went wrong, but we quickly moved past them. No cues were missed. Everything that had gone wrong before went well.

At the end of the show, the applause was all the more gratifying; this was our creation.

Usually when you act, you are just proud for yourself, but now I was proud of everyone onstage. The next day, our call time was 4:30 again.

We worked through a couple cues. Price gave a speech backstage. We realized we hadn’t distributed programs.

At the last minute we set up a camera in the back row to film it. I calmed down Rosencrantz, who panicked she would trip over the wall. The audience filed in.

Minor things went wrong again, but I stopped caring; by the final show, I was not the director. Instead, I was another actor, giving it everything I had. Three months of work culminated in applause without bows, and one young girl’s loud exclamation, “Oh! They’re dead,” which left me giggling backstage. I was given a signed poster by the cast. I thanked them for everything. I walked away.

Act 2 Scene 5: The show

I realized now that directing is both an art and a skill. I used to think it was easy, but it is very difficult. I have a great deal of respect for the directors I have worked with, and what they have been able to do. It is still an avenue I am interested in, but a bit more wary about. I want to be a director and an actor now.

The show premiered on Wednesday March 13.

I tried not to think about it during school. When the play started, I relied on instinct. I knew the play so well, and the blocking and lines came

Epilogue: My future

“

On more than one occasion, I was asked by an actor how they thought a scene went, and I responded with: “I don’t know how that went, I was acting.”

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THE STANDARD | March 2013

t s u j t no

Culture

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Culinary treats for cabbies Staff Writer Alec Ashley tries the food from the exclusive Green Cab Stand

photo by emily mark

There are many private clubs existing in London. The most exclusive and secret of all these are the inconspicuous green shelters that you must take a test, called the “ Knowledge”, to enter. They are perhaps the most iconic historical structures in London. The shelters are located in the middle of streets, contributing to their significance in English culture.

The Green Cab Shelters, as these structures are called, were established by the Earl of Shaftesbury in 1875. After several years the number of shelters in central London reached 63, but the number has recently declined to only 13.

Any of these shelters, with their walls of green-painted planks, tiled pitched roofs, surrounded by parked black cabs, are worth a visit for some hearty English fare. Each of them evokes their own quaint vibe, but all are very British.

I visited the cab shelter on Acacia Road right off St. John’s Wood High Street. Created in 1875

by Arthur Kinnaird, it was the first Green Cab Shelter. It is currently rented and run by Andre Markovic. The idea to open cab

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shelters stemmed from the problem of taxi drivers drinking in the middle of the day. The shelters were meant to bring cabbies out of the pubs to help them to stay in the right condition to drive their customers; I wonder if it might do the same thing for students at

“Taxi drivers do not pick their shelter on the food, but rather on the people who eat it.”

Andre Markovic, Green Cab Stand owner

ASL. The shelters are worth a trip for anyone who wants to experience a piece of British History, as well as taste some hearty british staples. However, you should not expect to be invited inside, unless you are part of the club, and even then conditions do apply. The traditionalism of these shelters can be seen even today.

Joan Little, a female taxi cab driver who came to grab a cup of tea and a mars bar, said, “I like to get

my lunch by takeout from this shelter about twice a week, but I never go inside as that is only for men.” These English shelters are extremely exclusive.

The shelter was almost full with five cab drivers inside, and six people outside in line to get their food. Everyone was talking and briefly turned to look at me, but went back to their conversation. After I had ordered I started talking to Andre, the tenant of the cab shelter for 10 years, about his shelter. As I was talking, a few cab drivers butted in saying what they thought their favorite shelter was. One taxi driver said, “I really like the one in Little Venice, as the tenant Benny, is quite a character.” Andre then said, trying to explain the taxi culture to me, “Taxi drivers do not pick their shelter on the food, but rather the people who eat it.”

I ordered a cheeseburger with lots of onions for £2.40. The fiveounce burger was quite hearty, but did taste more like pork rather than beef and lacked the juice that a burger at, say, Meat Liquor contains.

The menu consisted of burgers, cheeseburgers, a pork loin

sandwich,a bacon sandwich, tea, Kit Kats, and Mars bars. The most popular items, Markovic said, “were the tea throughout the day, the bacon sandwich in the morning and a burger for supper.” I was one of the few people to order food and rest appeared to come more for the social aspects of the shelter than to eat.

I ate the burger outside watching several cab drivers come by and be invited inside to sit and eat. I did not receive any such invitation, as I was an outsider to this club of taxi drivers. I watched as the taxi driver who ordered before me went around the side inside the shelter to sit down and talk to the other cab drivers. Markovic opened the door for him, but otherwise it stayed locked. After standing outside for five minutes eating my food Markovic pointed to a bench nearby suggesting I sit down, but making it quite clear I was not welcome inside.

One taxi driver, Paul Jones, who bought cab receipts, said, “I used to eat here everyday a decade ago, but I now prefer eating from chains such as Pret or Cafe Nero.” Markovic, said he has noticed some people have switched

to eating at chains, but since 90 percent of his customers are regulars it has not been much of a problem.

He said his customer base is made up of about 50 percent cab drivers and 50 percent of the people who work on the high street.

He did have Paul McCartney come by to grab a burger just a week ago and has seen all classes of British society eat from his shelter.

I also tried the pork loin sandwhich, which was significantly better than the cheeseburger.

This meat had a nice char grilled taste to it and was accompanied by a roll and the same onions I had on my burger, which were perfectly caramelized.

All in all this shelter is worth a visit. It gives you a glance into the Victorian culture of London and exemplifies London’s own unique cultural identity, greatly represented in these green cab stands. The food may not be any better than the burger stand outside a football stadium, but the old world ambience and cab drivers who will eat beside you, like the friendly Markovic, make it an enjoyable and interesting experience.

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THE STANDARD | March 2013

Page 19

Cultureddd

“roy lichtenstein at the tate modern?!”

Roy Lichtenstein’s retrospective, which opened in London earlier this month, has been met with critical acclaim and hour-long queues. Culture Editor Shahid Mahdi visited the exhibition to examine the hype surrounding this iconic pop artist

From counter-clockwise: Whaam (1962), Still Life With Portrait (1974), and Drowning Girl (1963), all on display at the Tate Modern as part of Lichtenstein’s focus on varied subject matter. photos from www.tate.uk.org Given his status as one of the indisputably most iconic artists of the 20th century, Roy Lichtenstein has always seemed rather underappreciated by our generation. As the evergreen definition of art becomes more elastic, it seems that the zenith of pop art is confined to Campbell soup cans, brilliant stylised images of American flags, and, of course, the odd Marilyn Monroe portrait that seems as ubiquitous as the Coca-Cola logo. So when news that some of Lichtenstein’s most emulated and revered works were shipping over to the Tate Modern in mid-February, all of us were given another heavensent chance to appreciate - and perhaps make a meagre attempt at understanding - the wave of “comic-booky” art that has swept upon our shores.

Having been converted from a power station following its closure in 1982, the Tate Modern’s hulking stature hasn’t really changed.

Waves of eager families make a Hajj-like circular pilgrimage around the building, with streams of people flooding in on over the Millenium Bridge to get a taste of 1960s America, as told by Roy himself. I realized that I too was swirling in this ocean of curiosity- I thought I knew Lichtenstein’s work pretty well, but the charged, monumental works of beautiful, idealized women sobbing on the phone I knew were barely fractions of his portfolio.

As one of the central figures of the Pop Art movement, Lichtenstein and his contemporaries sought to capture a uniquely American perspective on a variety of matters - from fan-

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Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective is open at the Tate Modern until 27 May. 10am -6pm daily, until 10pm on

tasising about mid-flight combat in Whaam, (1962) to the melodramatic dating antics of his ever popular Drowning Girl (1963). As with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and David Hockney, Lichtenstein wasn’t necessarily concerned with abstaining from capturing reality - rather, he preferred to capture the zeitgeist of the time by simply taking a grand, sublime approach.

On that note, part of Lichtenstein’s injection of the sublime was also multi-faceted.

The exhibition explains the artist’s fascination with the tranquility of Japanese techniques, notably his imitation of the Eastern landscapes.In these staggeringly simple works, Lichtenstein applies his signature Ben Day dot system - the minuscule dots which act as the signature backbone to his repertoire - to a figure-less, blanched space.

Lichtenstein’s operating theater isn’t at all limited, and includes subject matter from far

and wide. His series of little known still lifes, most notably Still Life with Portrait (1974) and Interior With Waterlilies (1991), draws attention to the quiet, homebrew, suburban American household that was popularised on countless TV shows and films throughout the swinging 60s into the equally stormy 70s. The numerous Explosion works not only celebrate the potential of a blank wall, but allude to the wartime mayhem and puzzlement as American intervention in Vietnam became increasingly tense.

Many may subscribe to the fact that finding “truth” in art contradicts its purpose. For some, Lichtenstein’s retrospective, in 2013 fifty-something years after his zenith, may be a nostalgic, wailing salute to a lost time. For other viewers, this American giant’s design and content conjures up a brilliant style icon for future generations to capture and emulate.

So, stroll into the Tate Modern and follow the mass crowd that shuffles through the Turbine hall. You’ll find that everyone comes to this exhibition expecting a certain takeaway, much like dining at a restaurant. True, an artist of Roy Lichtenstein’s stature needs no introduction. The massive, multifaceted array of works you’ll find will change your predetermined perception of what this most worthy exhibition will bring you. The allure of Lichtenstein is the labyrinth that such simple works force you to navigate - an attraction which deserves every last drop of the veneration it receives.

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THE STANDARD | March 2013

Culture

Behind the scenes: The V&A Assistant Features Editor Gabriel Ruimy meets with Martin Barnes, the chief curator of photographs for the V&A Museum, for a private, behind-the-scenes tour The Victoria and Albert Museum is the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design, with a collection of over 4.5 million objects. Located in Cromwell Gardens, South Kensington, the museum houses a permanent gallery that ranges from architecture to theatre - and nearly everything in between. Outside of Italy, it holds the largest collection of Renaissance sculpture. Its collection includes works from the last five millennia from the world over. Founded in 1852, the museum still upholds a reputation as one of the most important museums in Britain and Europe. But beyond the grand galleries, how is it that such a large cultural institution is run? What happens behind the curtains that allows for the Victoria and Albert Museum to function on such a scale?

Above left: The V&A’s intricate logo. Above right and below: the collections of unused artifacts held within the V&A. Photo by GAbriel Ruimy

On the other side of the walkway are similar imitations of pieces of architecture and statues, including Michelangelo’s David, surrounded by scaffolding. Barnes explains the room is under construction as the paint has been peeling and there is a leaking in the roof. It’s a huge visitor favourite to see art illuminated by daylight, but when it is not properly maintained it can severely damage the works.

We then go to the photograph gallery.

Organized chronologically, there are about 100 pictures being displayed. Barnes explains that is only a fraction of what the museum has. Photographs usually take precedence over others when they have been recently acquired, otherwise they follow a simple rotation. Up above us are the same type of windows from the plas-

Up above we can see the cloudy London sky through the windows, and to our right are

HUGE

The entrance gives onto a high-ceiling space, giving grandeur to Chihuly’s Rotunda Chandelier. To the left spreads the Light From the Middle East: New Photography, and to the right the famous Renaissance statue collection. Martin Barnes, Chief Curator of Photographs, soon arrives at the front desk for us to begin the tour.

Barnes has been working at the museum for twenty years, gradually ascending in influence, and his passion for the institution is evident in his invigorated voice and comprehensive knowledge.

Barnes first guides me to the central garden, a closed-in courtyard surrounded by mid-19th century architecture walls. He explains that the museum spreads out far to the left, where we see Buddhist figurines through the huge windows. The museum encompasses seven miles of gallery, which doesn’t include the majority of items in storage. Most of the art was transferred from the Crystal Palace in the 1850s.

We walk back into the museum and proceed to the Ancient and Medieval Europe room, that we look into from an elevated walkway. Up above we can see the cloudy London sky through the windows. And to our right are huge features of history, such as Trajan’s Column. In my immediate shock, I ask if they are real. To which he chuckles and answers that they are plaster casts, which museums around the world make based on originals. Such huge constructs are usually switched around between cooperating museums and their main use is to provide to local art students.

Museums have been destroying them though, he continues, as they feel they are unauthentic and take away from the rest of the pieces.

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FEATURES OF

HISTORY

ters room, but these ones seem boarded up. Barnes tells me that at its inception, the room was supposed to house oil paints which light wouldn’t affect. But for watercolors, photographs, and other prints, sunlight can severely damage the works over time.

Barnes shows me into the restricted space, where the staff works. Through the windows we can see the construction site of the piazza the museum is envisaging.

Burrowing machines are also present on the site. The V&A is working on making a new underground space for temporary exhibitions.

We walk through corridors and into elevators, the place is currently vacant as the weekend is off for most of the ‘behind-thescenes’ staff. Soon I am asked to sign in a room where Barnes and my discussion is reduced to a whisper. It is a research lab, in which students are allowed to come and work by appointment. Many works, ranging from photographs to drawings from the V&A library, is made available. We leaf through a varied selection of photograph, stumbling upon some McCullin pieces.

Our last stop is at the textiles restoring facility. Textiles are a prominent feature of the museum, and, being so fragile, are rotated quickly so as to restore. We look through the window and see a few of the David Bowie costumes that will soon be on display, including the iconic Union Jack coat.

We re-emerge into a room filled with Buddhist statues and pottery. I thank Barnes and he returns to his office as I make my way back to the glass-blown, multi-colored chandelier.

3/19/13 4:38 PM

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Alumna sets national track record Nikolai Birch

assistant sports Editor On February 22, at a meet at Boston University, Alex Morris helped her team of Middlebury College to break the Division III national indoor record for the Distance Medley Relay (DMR) event by running the 400 meter leg. The team, comprised of three seniors and Morris, a freshman, beat the previous record from 2007, set by the University of Wisconsin at Plattville, by more than two seconds, running a 11:32.36 compared to the previous record of 11:34:46.

After six successful years running track at ASL, alumna Alex Morris (’12) took the next step by deciding to perform at the collegiate level. “I didn’t seriously think about running track in college until my junior year, when my college counselor, Patty Strohm, suggested it was something I might want to consider,” Morris said.

Originally a soccer player, Morris stumbled upon her skill as a track runner by choosing track as a spring sport in the seventh grade. “My favourite memory is when I was first introduced to Jonathan Ingram, the high school track coach at the time, as an eighth grader, after I had ran a 29.65 in the 200 and qualified for ISSTs. I just remember being so

Morris (center) running the 400 meter for Middlebury College. She ran track for six years at ASL. Photo courtesy of Alex morris unbelievably excited that I had ran that time,” she said.

For a freshman on a varsity track and field team to have such success is not common, but Morris found her stride early, breathing fresh air into the team after it had lost many seniors. “She has exceeded my expectations of her as a first year and has run faster than any first year has ever run the 400 meters here at Middlebury,” said Martin Beatty, head coach of the Middlebury Track and Field team. Beatty, who has coached for 26 years, praised Morris and her work ethic. “Alex has been a joy to coach. She works hard at practice everyday and never has a complaint,” he said.

In the record-breaking heat, Morris significantly beat the time set by the previous year’s 400 meter leg runner, a senior. “Very rarely will a freshman break through at the events Alex has chosen to specialize in during their first year,” former ASL Track coach Michael Johnston said. “The 400m in particular is a grueling event that places huge demands on any athlete, especially on younger athletes with less hard training sessions in their system.”

Morris said that what gave her success was her work ethic, saying, “My parents never really pushed me to do sports but have supported me every step of the way, they knew that

my life should be made up of my own choices, so it was something I always truly enjoyed doing. However, to be successful, especially in track, I knew that I really had to dedicate myself. It’s really easy to be willing to put in the hard work when you love something as much as I love racing.”

Morris also gives credit to her coaches for her successes. “[They] all really pushed me to be the best I could, and their hard work and dedication really prepared me for what was to come in college,” she said.

This year, Morris helped secure a spot for her team to compete for the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Division III Championship, with the number one seed in the DMR event. They will be competing against a pool of teams including Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Amherst College, among others. In the top 10 seeds in the event, there were only two freshmen, one of whom, was Morris.

Morris and her coaches are optimistic about her future, both at the school and later. “I’m definitely planning on running the remaining three years at Middlebury, my freshman indoor season has been more than I could have ever dreamed for and I’m really excited for the future,” Morris said.

Where’s the support? james malin james_malin@asl.org

“

It’s fine to disagree with a decision, it’s fine to hate a manager. However, it’s not okay to take that anger and release it in a way that is ultimately detrimental to the team.

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I’m a Chelsea supporter. I’ve been a season ticket holder since 2002, and I love the club.

However, over the past four months I feel that I’ve become alienated from Chelsea Football Club.

When I go to Stamford Bridge, I go with every intention of supporting my team through good and bad times. Unfortunately, that cannot be said for a very vocal majority of fans.

These people go to games with the intention of harming and bullying, a certain individual. That individual is Spanish coach Rafael Benítez, who is currently Chelsea’s interim manager, and who replaced fan-favorite and Chelsea legend Roberto Di Matteo. Under Di Matteo, Chelsea enjoyed great successes, winning the highly-sought after Champions League and the FA Cup last year. In November, Di Matteo was deemed surplus to requirements at Chelsea following a period of poor results in the Premier League and early elimination from the Champions League in the group stage, the first stage and earliest elimination in Chelsea’s history. What happened next was a shock to all Chelsea fans as Rafael Benítez, former Liverpool manager, was appointed interim manager.

-Since his appointment, Benítez has been public enemy number one because during his tenure as Liverpool manager, he spoke several times in an insulting manner about Chelsea and its fans.

From that day in November Chelsea have been a mess both on and off the pitch. The fans that were so integral to Chelsea’s success last season have become disillusioned. The only noise made by supporters at Chelsea games now are merely protests against Benítez.

When I see this taking place I am filled with

rage. These so-called “fans” are doing nothing but creating a poisonous atmosphere for the players. Chelsea’s form has dropped since Benítez’s take over as manager, as one would expect when there is no positive support to speak of, and people are quick to call for Benítez’s head. Not only is this oversimplifying Chelsea’s problems, it is worsening Chelsea’s situation. For a struggling team the only way to get back to form is if everyone is pulling in the same direction and this is obviously not the case at Stamford Bridge.

Back in the glory days, Chelsea adopted an “us against the world” approach. This philosophy remained after Mourinho’s departure and was a huge factor in Chelsea’s Champions League success last season.

The collective belief and hope that circulated around Stamford Bridge in the latter stages of last season’s Champions League competition was remarkable. Players have recently spoken about how important the support was for the team. Now that this support has dissipated, success has gone with it as well.

Chelsea is not the only club where a poisonous atmosphere is beginning to spread; its London rival, Arsenal is suffering a similar problem.

Arsenal’s situation is much worse than Chelsea’s, though. Chelsea is a club that has been extremely successful, winning 11 trophies in the last decade. Arsenal, on the other hand, is without a major trophy in the past eight years. For Arsenal, success has dropped down the priority list, replaced by the need for “beautiful” football and massive profits as the main goal.

Arsenal used to pair beautiful football with success, most notably in the 2003-2004 season, when they went a whole Premier League sea-

son unbeaten and broke the record for longest streak, finishing at 49 consecutive games without a loss. In those 49 games Arsenal took the league by storm, led by Thierry Henry who epitomized their class and sheer quality.

Fans are, however, beginning to grow extremely tired of Arsenal’s lack of success and ambition. Recently, there has been a growing amount of Arsenal’s “support” calling for Arsene Wenger, their manager’s, dismissal.

Similar to Chelsea, there is a growing culture of discontent at Arsenal’s stadium on match days. These fans bring an air of hostility to Arsenal’s home games at The Emirates Stadium, fully committed to their campaign: “Wenger Out.” The fans that go to Arsenal games every weekend booing the team and singing negative songs such as “we want our Arsenal back” are only hurting the team. Similar to the Chelsea situation, the team is losing its fans and is playing in front of an atmosphere equivalent to that of a funeral: Somber.

I believe that paying supporters have the right to harbor and voice their opinions but not in a way that isn’t beneficial to the team.

While they claim to be acting in the best interests of the club as supporters, they are harming more than benefiting their team.

It’s okay to disagree with the manager.

It’s okay to hate the manager. It’s not okay, however, to hurt the team’s collective effort.

When fans enter the stadium they have to understand the consequences of their booing. The creation of a hostile and poisonous atmosphere is merely entering the club into a self deprecating cycle; the team loses, the fans boo, the team loses, the fans boo and so on.

It’s time for these supposed fans to get behind their team and push them over the finish line.

3/19/13 4:38 PM

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THE STANDARD | March 2013

Sports

on the

life RIVER Patrick Mayr Sports Editor

Originally a volleyball and basketball player looking for a spring sport, Emma Nealis (’14) was not born into the crew culture like other ASL students. During her freshman year, the prospect of a crew teamsponsored weeklong trip to the sunny Spanish city of Seville with her friends enticed Nealis to join the team and pick up the sport.

From that point on, Nealis never looked back, developing each of her strengths and won the womens J16 Single Sculls National Schools Regatta last year.

Head Girls Crew Coach Chris Clark said that Nealis has the “potential and work ethic needed to become an Olympic athlete. If she continues working hard, she can go all the way.”

Nealis trains everyday except Fridays with the ASL crew team and sometimes with the University of

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London rowing team. On Mondays and Wednesdays, she works out in the gym on a specialized weight program, and practices technique on the ergometer. Tuesdays and Thursdays are spent training on the river for around 2 hours. On weekends, Nealis participates in races all over London.

Nealis acknowledges that her gruelling training schedule and race calendar consumes a large part of her life and requires wise time management. “I definitely don’t have as much free time as some of my friends and can’t procrastinate when I’m doing schoolwork,” she said. “But I’m working towards my future and doing something I love.”

Nealis doesn’t have any concrete plans for her future and wants to see how far she can go in rowing.

“Right now the only longer term goal I have is to perhaps try out for the U.S. national team,” she said.

“Other than that, I just want to see where rowing takes me.”

3/19/13 4:39 PM

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The Sports Roundtable Assistant Sports Editor Nikolai Birch sits down with student fans to look at the latest issues in sports, from the San Antonio Spurs’ fine to the upcoming NFL season and professional sports’ financial issues

photos by emily mark

Nikolai Birch (’14) Should all professional sports incorporate a salary cap?

Who are the big winners in this year’s NFL free agency? Who needs to do well in the draft?

Should NBA/Premier League teams or all sports teams be punished for resting starters?

What do you think about the experience of having American sports played in London?

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Austin Brush (’13)

Erik Hess (’14)

William Muoio (‘14)

Louisa Phillips (‘15)

Salary caps have their place, but should not be a universal concept.In many North American leagues, salary caps have helped enforce financial responsibility and accountability when combined with other efforts.

It also helps even the field, enabling smaller teams to compete with larger teams financially.

As a Yankee fan, the luxury tax or salary cap is a painful yet necessary evil. If you look at the major American sports, all have a form of a salary cap, and for a reason.

The salary cap was implemented for the fans. It ensures that the league is exciting and each team has a chance to win.

I think that a salary cap really does depend on the sport. For example, the one implemented in the NBA works really well as it does not limit super teams such as the Heat or Lakers, but it also does not mean that teams will find success. There, however, should not be a set cap for all teams as it would be unenjoyable.

I think the salary cap is good.

It forces teams to actually allocate their money instead of dominating the competition by buying all the star athletes. The salary cap enforces an equal economic balance between teams, which is good in my opinion.

As a Giants fan, some changes need to be made. Defensively we weren’t as dominant as we had been in the last few years, and offensively we lack depth, especially with wide receivers. With the possible departure of Osi Umenyiora, we will need to find a replacement in order to maintain our pass rush capabilities.

As of now, the Broncos and Bears seem to be the winners. The Bears have signed two players who should help tremendously this year, Martellus Bennett and Jermon Bushrod.

The team that is one draft away from being playoff contenders would be the Jets. If they get their act together they could easily compete in the AFC.

As a Browns fan, I feel as if we are definitely one team that has done well, signing Paul Kruger from the Ravens. I feel as if the biggest thing that needs to be decided in the draft are teams and their quartback issues. There are at least 8 teams that had multiple starting quarterbacks last season, and that can be covered in the draft.

The Seahawks are the biggest winner. Percy Harvin is an absolute monster, and has destroyed people for the Vikings, his QB just sucks.

Adrian Peterson called him the best player he’s ever played with. The 49ers are big winners as well getting Anquan Boldin, but not as much as the Seahawks. Smith, surround him with some talent, right?

With so many fixtures and games throughout the years, resting starters is necessary when fatigue begins to show. Why should a team be forced to play their starting team during every game? Why should a team play their starters in a game that is not as important as, for example the Premier League?

It’s called tactics.

I don’t think teams should be fined for resting their stars. I thought about it from a fan perspective. If I went to a Giants game in week 17, and the backup QB, David Carr, was starting rather than Eli Manning I wouldn’t mind, because I wouldn’t want Manning to get injured for the playoffs.

I find it very unsportsmanlike when teams rest their starters during the season. I do find it unfair to the fans who buy tickets to see superstars play as well as the team who they play against. Fans pay a lot to see the best athletes compete, and if a team on puposely puts a sub-par team to play, they should be penalized.

Yes, they should be fined for resting starters. Fans pay a ton of money to go see them play, and it’s a fan’s league. It may seem unjust because athletes get tired, but it’s their job to play for a team at a high skill level and entertain the viewers.

American sports are becoming more international every year. Basketball, baseball and football are being played throughout the world, and this is good for both the sports and their American leagues. Yes, there may be some differences in how the games are played, but the experience is still very similar.

Watching American sports here is a great and refreshing experience.

Living here, I miss not being able to go to many games. The experience in the U.K. compared to the States is similar to a degree. While at games here you don’t get the same fan participation just the fact that the game is here.

I think that it is a very good decision to play some games in London.

The experience is not the same as the experience in the states. It should definitely continue, and I find it enjoyable to attend the games that take place in London, and throughout the rest of the world.

I appreciate American sports being played in London. I think a major difference is at a NBA or NFL game in America most of the fans go to see specific teams playing while here most people show up just to see the sport, and will wear whatever NBA or NFL jersey they can find.

3/19/13 5:28 PM

Sports

THE STANDARD VOLUME XXXVIII ISSUE V MARCH 2013

EMMA NEALIS Photo Editor Emily Mark attends a grueling training session of ASL crew team captain and under-16 girls National Schools Regatta champion Emma Nealis (’14) SEE PAGE 22 PHOTOS BY EMILY MARK

Girls lacrosse club formed William Muoio

assistant sports Editor This spring season, a new club will be introduced in the High School. The girls lacrosse club has entered their first season as a club sport, and new student Caroline Kopfler (’15) is excited for the program to begin.

“Moving to ASL, I wanted to play lacrosse,” she said. “I realized, however, that they did not have a varsity or club team but I still wanted to play.”

Kopfler has been playing competitive lacrosse since seventh grade, and played for both a club team and her school team before she moved to ASL. The introduction of this new club was not an easy one, and Kopfler spent some time during the summer speaking with fellow teammate Megan Stracener (’15) about attempting to form a

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club team. Stracener, who moved from Virginia last summer, had previously played on her school’s JV and varsity teams. She knew that ASL did not have an actual varsity girls lacrosse team. “I was upset when I saw that there was no team for girls. I moved to London wanting to continue my passion towards lacrosse but saw that there was no team,” she said.

Stracener is unsure about the future of the club and how the season is going to unfold. She is confident that regardless of the outcome, the season will be a success because the formation in its entirety is a success. “The most important thing is to have a positive mindset about the club team. The goal is to form a varsity team and compete like every other sport, but we understand that it will not happen this season or next season,” she said.

Kopfler is also unsure about how the season will turn out regarding participants. “The majority of participants are sophomores. There are a few freshman and a few juniors, but there are a lot of sophomore girls who are interested in playing.”

After the first email was sent out on January 18, girls showed interest in playing this season.

Michaela Etre sees this club team as a chance for girls to try something new. “Lacrosse is a sport where you can go out there, have some fun and make new friends,” she said. You do not have to have experience, and there is not such a high commitment in comparison to other sports at ASL.” Practices are on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Primrose Hill, and will be on the same field as the varsity boys lacrosse team.

Lacrosse is a sport played by 12 players, and is similar to field

hockey. Girls lacrosse is a sport known in and around London; however, it is usually played in the fall, making competition very minimal against other

“I moved to London wanting to continue my passion towards lacrosse but saw that there was no team.”

Megan Stracener (’15) teams. “We hope to go to at least one tournament this season, but it is not the time of year to play lacrosse. We know that TASIS has a team but besides that, there may be one or two other games to play this year,” Kopfler said.

Athletic Director Sandy Lloyd

also sees this as an issue in the formation of lacrosse as an actual varsity sport in the near future.

“While boys lacrosse became a varsity sport last year, there were more teams that they could play against within the ISST community. This is not the case as of yet with girls,” Lloyd said.

Another main difference between the club and a varsity team is that the opportunity to play will be offered to girls from seventh to twelfth grade. While this may bring more participants and determine what the future of the program will be, it may become an issue if a varsity team is assembled only of High School students.

While the future of the girls lacrosse team is unknown, the passion that its creators have and their desire to continue to play their sport within the community cannot be overlooked.

3/19/13 5:29 PM