opinion3
wingspan • april 8, 2011
• Staff Editorial
Americans take First Amendment rights for granted
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What is the most important freedom in the First Amendment?
protesters through his Facebook posts, he had only an idea of how effective those posts were going to be. While the face of a revolution stared at his Facebook screen hoping to change the government and future of his country, many Americans stare at their Facebook screens sharing minute details of their lives without realizing the power that social media can have. Ghonim
quickly came to appreciate this freedom of speech, especially after it was taken away. In an interview with CNN after being held in detention for 12 days, Ghonim commented on the recent events in Egypt: “If you want to free a society, just give them Internet access,” he said. “People will see the truth.”
“The most important freedom would be freedom of religion. I feel that everyone has the right to find exactly what works for them. Trying to make one religion the right one just isn’t possible.”
“Freedom of speech is the most important right to me because we need to be able to speak what’s on our mind and be able to say how we feel and not be restricted on what we say.” “Free speech is important because it gives us the ability to criticize the government openly. We assume that we’ll always have those rights, and we don’t know what it’s like not to have them.” Mary Katherine Thompson freshman
Zachary Younger sophomore
“I think religion is the most important because it allows us to worship and express our beliefs freely. Teens definitely take the rights that our soldiers are fighting every day to protect for granted.” Anna Decker junior
Taylor McGraw senior
• Viewpoint Should teacher salaries be based on student performance?
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rs. Doe arrives at school every morning at 7 a.m. ready to give one-on-one attention to her struggling students. After school, she makes lesson plans, reads her students’ ideas that were left in her suggestion box outside her door and thinks of ways to implement them into the next day’s class. From 4 to 5 p.m. she spends her personal time tutoring the special education children in her neighboring classrooms. Her patience and extra efforts are best rewarded by a bonus she receives in her paycheck. Hailey Johns Merit pay is a performance-based system that Asst. Opinion Editor would reward teachers according to their student’s test scores. The extra bonus added to teachers’ pay checks would encourage them to continue producing well-educated students. Today’s school systems are full of teachers, both good and bad. While the merit pay system would help attract the best teachers, it would also help weed out the bad ones. Schools have teacher evaluation processes where administrators observe teachers in the classroom, but with the current process inadequate educators can easily slip through the cracks. Teachers wouldn’t be the only ones benefiting from a merit pay program. When programs such as merit pay are implemented into school systems, teachers spend extra time and effort preparing their students for their end-of-course test.. For students taking EOC classes, preparation is mandatory, and equal pay for all teachers doesn’t prop(based on a survey erly encourage this kind of groundwork. of 258 students) Merit pay would recruit true professionals into our public school systems. Students are in need of a higher standard than the current one, and vigorous teachers promote that goal. Public school systems would be strengthened enough to make a miraculous comeback, and concerned parents would no longer have to seek expensive private education to be sure their child is receiving proper education. Competition is the best way to produce excellent students. Studies show that school systems using merit pay have students with better test scores than those not using a performance-related system. According to www.educationnext.org, countries using a merit pay system had students that scored 25 percent higher than the standard score on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test in math, 24 percent higher in reading and 15 percent higher in science. Sales representatives, professional athletes and legal personnel are all paid on a performance-related system. Merit pay exists in most professions, so why not teaching? The Obama administration implemented the new program Race to the Top, which supports merit pay to encourage teachers to work harder. It is only fair that educators with the most productivity receive higher pay than those with failing students. Treating teachers equally on the pay roll may be the reason nations like Japan and China are ranked above us in education.
• PRO 39%
EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Katie King Brandi Martin
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR Amy Taylor
SPORTS EDITOR Camen Royse Michael Turlington
MANAGING EDITOR Kim Randall
OPINION EDITOR Kaitlyn Reddy
FEATURE EDITORS Meredith Cole Whitney Howell
SENIOR EDITOR Kiersten Ellsworth (News)
ASSISTANT OPINION EDITOR Hailey Johns
WEB EDITOR Josh Wentzel JUNIOR EDITORS Natalie Rice Catherine Swift
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Hailey Robinson ASSISTANT ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Diane Gromelski
ASSISTANT FEATURE EDITORS Bella Bonessi Daphne Reed
Environmental concerns remain pressing matter
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Art by Christy King
hile tens of thousands of Egyptians protested the oppressive, corrupt government in their country earlier this year, Americans watching at home may not have realized the significance that social media had in organizing and promoting the revolution. By organizing and spreading the word via the Internet, the Egyptian protesters gained momentum in a way that has never been seen before. As the protests escalated, former President Hosni Mubarak did what no one in America could imagine. He shut off the Internet and cell phone service, leaving millions of Egyptians cut off from the the world. In the United States, our Constitution guarantees that this will never happen. Because of the First Amendment, we are able to express our opinions of the government and unite to petition the government to change or assembly to protest what we believe to be unfair. Often times Americans take these rights for granted. According to USA Today, only one in 1,000 people can name all five of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. When Mubarak shut down the Internet, he made a powerful statement about the lack of freedom of expression in his country. In the United States, people constantly update their Facebook statuses, voice their complaints in blogs and expose corruption in the government through the media. However, citizens in some countries don’t have that simple pleasure of checking for new Facebook or Twitter updates, or more importantly, the privilege of knowing what the rest of the world is doing. As Wael Ghonim, a 31-year-old Google marketing manager in Egypt, tried to assemble a group of peaceful
Katie Did
FEATURE WRITERS Collin Armstrong Tyler Bice Kelli Bishop Brandon McArthur Katlyn McCarthy Katie Miller Rachel Shoemaker Aury St. Germain STAFF WRITERS Lara Bannister Suzanne English John Huntley Robert Purcell Tiernan Turner Josh VanWingerden
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principal arrives at school early Monday morning to find a gift basket sitting on his desk. He looks at the card tied to the basket handle and smiles. “From your favorite teacher,” the card reads. Two weeks later the teacher receives a substantial raise for the increase in her class’s “student performance.” Merit pay is a salary system where the most productive workers receive bonuses. This year many states plan to spend much of Diane Gromelski the money that they receive from the federal Asst. Entertainment Editor education program known as Race to the Top on creating merit pay systems for their school districts. Rewarding teachers for their hard work may sound like a great idea, but lawmakers are not considering the problems that merit pay programs present to school systems and teachers. Math teacher Kerry Ravan says that lawmakers are trying to implement merit pay programs so that they can pay teachers less. “Due to the state of our economy, lawmakers are probably pushing for merit pay because it would permit the government to free up funds for the state budget,” Ravan said. “No longer would those teachers who have been teaching for 20 years make a set salary that is higher than younger teachers. It would ‘be based on merit.’ It sounds idealistic; however, I predict that the government would find a way to bring down more salaries than it increased to help balance the budget, especially in the first few years of implementing a new system.” Merit pay can create unhealthy competition for higher pay between teachers. Teachers often discuss teaching strategies and share lesson plans with their colleagues. With merit pay, many teachers would refuse to share their resources with other teachers that they might have otherwise shared. All merit pay programs have a set amount of funding, so the more teachers that prove themselves worthy of a higher salary, the lower the salary for all of the teachers involved. Civics and Economics teacher David Minnich says that merit pay discourages teachers from collaborating to enhance their students’ educations. “If we did have merit pay, then there’s a chance that I might not help someone else. If not helping them helps me, there’s a chance that I might not share,” Minnich said. “Would I give my materials to another teacher? Not if it costs me.” Additionally, merit pay programs would make teachers financially motivated to cheat and manipulate the system. Many merit pay systems use standardized test scores to determine the pay of teachers, a fact that could tempt them to cheat when administering the tests. In a recent study, economist Steven D. Levitt proved that 27 of 1,000 teachers who were involved in a merit pay program in the Chicago School District altered their students’ test scores to raise their salaries.
CON 61% •
wingspan
Talons & Feathers Feather to the administration for organizing a Hawaiian shirt day to welcome back English teacher Cliff Searcy after his illness Talon to Rebecca Black for the insanely catchy, yet annoying song “Friday” Feather to Athletic Director Kent Parent for his daily recognition of spring sports Talon to the lack of students applying for local scholarships
he horrific earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the revolts in Libya and surrounding countries and America’s struggle to come out of the Great Recession have overshadowed another tragedy. In the past few months, 70 dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico have washed up on the shores of Mississippi and Alabama dead, 52 of them newborns, Katie King according to Mississippi’s www.wlox.com. These numbers are significantly higher than the typical one or two dolphins that are usually found washed up on shore during the months of January and February. There are several theories as to why this is happening, but the most prominent idea is that the deaths were influenced by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill that occurred last April. The gestation period for bottlenose dolphins is usually 11 to 12 months, and as we approach the anniversary of the spill, the 49 million barrels of oil that leaked into the Gulf seem to be a logical cause. This is the first birthing season since the spill. Many scientists believe the toxins in the oil may have compromised the pregnancies of these dolphins and led to complications in the development of the calves. From the time the spill occurred to the end of 2010, 89 dead dolphins were collected, compared to an average annual rate of about 30. The incident has been declared an Unusual Mortality Event by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA and the Institute of Marine Animal Studies are investigating the deaths, and BP is under a criminal investigation by the Justice Department and is facing a civil suit under the Clean Water Act and Oil Pollution Act. Many people seem to have forgotten about the oil spill in light of other recent tragedies on top of their own personal agendas. The extensive coverage of certain events has almost made some people immune to the tragic events of the news. But with dead dolphins still haunting the shores of the Gulf, this is not the time to forget, and these things don’t go away. Despite the fact that the spill has been somewhat contained, tiny balls of oily tar are still washing up on the Gulf shores. The consequences of last year’s oil spill — and the consequences from the nuclear power plant disaster in Japan — will be affecting people and wildlife for years to come, yet all the government seems to be able to do is postpone shutting itself over disagreements over how much to cut the budget. What does that accomplish when there are real issues at hand? Of course the economy is important, but our elected officials need to know that people do care about what happens to the world we live in. Even simple measures like writing to your local representatives can have a powerful impact. The fact that these issues continue to cause problems has opened my eyes to the fact that while our personal issues are only temporary, environmental tragedies will leave scars on the earth forever.
The student forum of West Henderson High School is published seven times each year by the newspaper journalism class. The purpose of Wingspan is to convey school and community news to the students, faculty, administration and community. Wingspan content is determined by an editorial board of student editors. Wingspan is a Southern Interscholastic Press Association All-Southern, National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker and All-American, Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Medalist and N.C. Scholastic Media Association AllNorth Carolina and Tar Heel Award publication. Staff editorials express the opinion of the editorial board. Columns reflect the opinions of the writer. Circulation is 1,200. Printed by The Mountaineer of Waynesville, NC 28786. Contact the staff at wingspan@henderson.k12.nc.us.