It feels as though an overwhelming number of the restrooms—toilets, sinks, and urinals—at Harriton are always broken. And to top it off, when one is broken, it remains out of order for quite some time. This inconvenience is an aggravation that every student shares. It seems that Moaning Myrtle has left Hogwarts and found herself some new bathrooms to haunt at our school.

Everyone has had that moment when they cursed the sink that wasn’t turning on. Adjoa Mante, grade 11, says of Harriton bathrooms, “They are a blessing and a curse. The automatic sinks and toilets are convenient, but there is at least one sink in every girl’s bathroom that never works.” Her feelings are shared by a majority of the students at Harriton.
There are several sinks throughout the school that just do not work at all. You find yourself walking up to a sink and waiting there wondering why no water is flowing out until you finally realize that it is never going to turn on. For some, this has happened so many times that it is just an accepted fact—“Oh, that’s one of the sinks that doesn’t work.” There is one sink in the first floor girl’s restroom near the cafeteria that has been broken since the new school opened in 2009. It is now 2012, and not a single drop of water has left that faucet for 3 years.

There are many other sinks spread out across each floor that are in a similar condition, boys’ and girls’ bathrooms alike. This can be very annoying at times. There are three other sinks in the bathroom, but why shouldn’t you be able to use the fourth? Why should a new sink in a school that is barely three years old be broken? And why for so long has it not come to the attention of administration? Similarly, one of the toilets in the girl’s locker room was broken for a long time (about 2 years). This was highly inconvenient during sport seasons; the locker room can get hectic. When there are a lot of girls in there, the toilets are in high demand. So when one of the four toilets broke, the long line of girls waiting for a bathroom was made even longer.

It took two years for this toilet to get fixed. Until that time, a dirty orange cone sat on top of it, a depressing sign to a girl opening the door with hope, telling her, “Forget it, this toilet is useless, it’s a lost cause.” Why did it take so long for this toilet to get fixed?

The cause could be from inappropriate use by the students of Harriton. This is not an unreasonable assumption to make, since Harriton students as a group have proven to be less than proficient at taking care of facilities (e.g. the JSL with cleanup and the cafeteria with getting food from the plate to the mouth). The paper towel dispenser could easily be broken by rough treatment, but automatic sinks would appear to be more difficult and less prone to break. If it is the case, then Harriton administration could notify the student body in general and let the chips fall where they may, but leaving signs of decay around the school helps no one.

This is the looming question that, along with many others such ones about broken facilities, we all want an answer. However, what we want even more than an answer is for our bathrooms to be fixed and hopefully stay that way. The unusable sink, toilet, and urinal annoyance is getting old. A school barely three years old should be able to hold up. Although we may enjoy her company at Harriton, someone needs to send Myrtle back to Hogwarts for good so we can get our bathrooms working again and keep them in working order!

Gold
David Graeffe- Art
David Graeffe- Super Quiz Relay
Won Chung- Math
Sam Alexander- Interview
Jake Marks- Music
Jake Marks- Language and Literature
Jake Marks- Super Quiz Relay
Steve Tromley- Math
Jessica Vitale- Interview
Jaye Aster Broder- Super Quiz Relay

Silver
Liz Bacarella- Music
Ian Hunt-Isaak- Art
Ian Hunt-Isaak- Language and Literature
Jordan Rosenthal-Kay- Interview
Jake Marks- Math

Bronze
Jasmine Jaros- Art
Jasmine Jaros- Music
Jasmine Jaros- Interview
Sarah Weiser- Math
Liz Bacarella- Math
David Graeffe- Interview
Ian Hunt-Isaak- Super Quiz Relay
Jake Marks- Art
Steve Tromley- Super Quiz Relay
Josh Ross- Super Quiz Relay

In past years, A.D. has taken a backseat to other clubs at Harriton, but a new record is starting a new tradition.

“Harriton A.D. is really starting on a clean slate,” says senior Liz Bacarella.
Mr. Kritzer adds, “There is a new commitment by the students and so far their hard work has paid off.”

United States Academic Decathlon, or USAD, known as AD for short, is composed of series of ten subjects based on specific historical eras, in which teams of nine students from each school may compete.

The subjects are Math, Music, Art, Economics, Social Science, Super Quiz, Speech, Interview, and Essay.

Students are split up into Honors, Scholastic, or Varsity teams depending on their GPA. They compete with other students, but only within their own divisions.

All students are required to compete in every subject in competitions for regionals, states, and then nationals. Each competition year is dominated by one assigned theme, and this year’s overall theme is the Age of Empires, focusing on European colonialism and its impact on the world.

Mr. Kritzer and Ms. Gehret, the coaches of AD, provide their expertise in the areas of Economics and Mathematics, respectively. Their tutelage has turned these previously two most difficult A.D. subjects into a strong suit of the Harriton Academic Decathlon team.
The team hopes that their hard work toward both of these subjects will pay off in upcoming competitions.

The latest competition was held at Phoenixville on December 10th, which was their second of three scrimmages before regionals.

The team has been meeting weekly and is currently reviewing presentation for its prepared speeches. Any subject may be chosen as the topic for the speech, giving students the opportunity to express unique creativity.

The team has also been cracking down on the music and art sections, as their next upcoming competition will be the last time to compete in these subjects in the ASL (Academic Sports League.)

At regionals the team must place in one of the top three spots in order to continue onto states. They hope to do well through the rest of their academic competing season and qualify for the state competition in Erie this March.

All students are welcomed to join Academic Decathlon. Anyone interested is encouraged to contract either Mr. Kritzer or Ms. Gehret.

What most people don’t realize is the amount of isolation that many people had to live in or the lack of access to information the average person man or woman had until the past few decades.

People alive before the turn of the century hardly held relationships over state borders, let alone across countries. Today, I have Facebook friends as far away as New Zealand, Poland, and Chile. I can share information instantly on Twitter or Facebook, Wikipedia or Youtube.
This monumental change is due to something known as “the new media.”

“New media” is roughly defined as electronic communication made possible through the use of computer technology, or content accessed on a digital device. The key part of “new media” is its interactivity. This “new media” emerged in the 1980’s and has been evolving since then.
Perhaps one of the most important results of new media is globalization. In the past two hundred years, the average person’s world has grown from one local town to the entire world.
With the click of a button, one can donate rice to the hungry in third world countries, read about economic affairs in Europe, or simply chat with a friend across the globe.

Basically, new media “… radically break[s] the connection between physical place and social place, making physical location much less significant for our social relationships,” states a 2003 study by Croteau and Hoynes.

With this globalization comes social change; people have such a myriad of resources now available to them. Movements can easily share, educate, and communicate their ideas to a global audience.

Take, for example, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. This group, which has been fighting for a Mexican revolution since 1994, is widely regarded as the first major example of new media stimulating social change.

One of the strategies this group uses for gaining support stems from the idea that media attention of an event is more important than the event itself.

As communications scholar Denis McQuail says, “[The] communications revolution has generally shifted the ‘balance of power’ from the media to the audience.”

The Zapatistas choose to give information to the people who have the ‘power’ in the most effective ways possible.

The EZNL broadcasts their information on both leftist and mainstream media outlets and even receives endorsements from popular bands like Rage Against the Machine. As a result, the group has gained support across the world.

We have created an information society, where gaining and losing information is seen as not only an intellectual activity, but political and economic as well. Information is becoming a sort of currency in the modern world.

And this brings up an important question: should it be this way?

Unlike any time before, we have the world at our fingertips. In the recent uprisings of the Arab Spring, many protests were organized by rapid communication through those with computers or smartphones and access to internet.

Citizen reporters can disseminate information, providing quick information from almost any event. But are all people qualified to report in this way? Should information be treated with more care, not only manipulated for economic and political gain?

The role of new media in our lives is not a matter that’s just come into question. There have been people using new media to all ends.

Next time you check your iPhone or Blackberry, look at the little piece of future that you’re holding in your hands.

Santa also accomplishes this in one evening. Even taking into consideration time-zones, that is still one intense journey that Santa Claus has to undertake every year.
About 33 percent of the world’s population recognizes the Christian religion, and about 30 percent of the world’s population is under the age of 18, the age that Santa caters to.
However, the percent of naughty vs. nice children is a decidedly subjective statistic, so let it be assumed that about eighty percent of children are “nice.”

The entire world population has just passed 7 billion. Let us consider that, for the purposes of this article, St. Nick needs to bring presents to a little over half a billion kids on Christmas Eve.

No mean feat to accomplish, Santa. Not to mention that he has to give coal to all of the naughty kids.

In addition, the gift-giving aspect of Christmas has separated sufficiently from the religious aspect to make the case that Santa, in fact, delivers presents to all children, regardless of religion.

It may be argued that delivering all of those presents in one night is simply not humanly possible. May it also be brought to light that Saint Nicholas started making appearances starting in the 4th Century, so it is also unlikely that he is even alive today, in the year 2011.

Flying reindeer, although widely touted as his main mode of transportation, also fall under the category of almost entirely implausible. If his highly daunting task, extreme old age, and transportation issues (being mythical and all) aren’t proof enough, it must still be concluded that Santa has some help on the gift-delivering front.

After all, he has to spend all year overseeing the construction of presents, as well as sorting through which kids get what they want and what kids get coal. After all, Santa knows when you are sleep and knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good (so be good for goodness’s sake).

In the early days of his operation, St. Nicholas probably took the time to deliver each gift personally. It must be acknowledged that his operation has grown significantly, rendering that particular feat impractical.

Logistically speaking, Santa must have outsourced his efforts and created many branches of the North Pole, his alleged operating headquarters. This of course would require millions of volunteers, all who know the children very well. And who knows each child better than – the parents.

It makes so much sense. Parents spend every day with their children, and can report their actions back to Santa by a quick email or text message. If Santa can’t fit through the chimney, then, no problem, the parents can put the presents under the tree, which would explain the many parents who claim that Santa isn’t real.

They probably feel that Santa is taking the credit for their dirty work. Additionally, there ais a large enough number of parents in each community to account for all of the children present.

So, if your parents or any adults you know are feeling frazzled during the holidays, don’t be too hard on them. Santa’s probably just mad they haven’t filled their daily present-wrapping quota.

Sincerely,
I’m In It For The Ornaments

Dear I’m In It For The Ornaments,

While we are all tempted to join in on the Christmas spirit despite our own religious denomination, asking for a Christmas tree is taking it a little too far.

Sure, hanging ornaments and candy canes seems like tasting the forbidden fruit to Jewish kids, but this is not a path you want to go down.

Imagine the heartbreak your parents will feel at hearing you want to go back on your Jewish heritage. Imagine the remedial counseling sessions with the Rabbi!

A much more Jew-friendly alternative might be amping up the Chanukah festivities or hosting a holiday party (maybe at the house of one of your friends who owns a Christmas tree).

You and your friends can participate in non-denominational activities such as sipping hot chocolate, decorating gingerbread houses, or sledding (if there is snow around.)

Additionally, you might suggest that you and your guests mix holiday traditions. That way you can decorate a Christmas tree and later beat your friends at the game of dreidle (chances are they won’t know the rules so you can make them up!)

I hope these options satisfy your need to join in on the holiday spirit.

Sincerely,
Jane

Dear Jane,

Sincerely,
I Be Worried

Dear I Be Worried,

In many cases the choice to partake in the IB program can certainly be a stressful one, especially if you and your parents have reached an impasse.

The thing to consider now is why it’s so important to them that you do IB, and why it it’s so important to you to not. If your reasons are superficial – for instance, if your decision is based on the fact that you’ve heard people criticize IB, then maybe you need to revisit the issue.

However, if you dislike IB for another reason, such as the restrictions the program places on you, or if you have a preference for AP level courses, then you need to sit down and have a discussion with your parents.

First, outline your reasons for not wanting to participate in IB. Make sure to stress to your parents that this choice does not mean you won’t apply yourself; it simply means that you do not feel that IB is a correct fit for you.

Next, collect some evidence. Bring up cases of Harriton students who have been very academically successful, yet did not participate in the IB program (excellent examples might be Barr Yaron, or Eli Darrow, our past valedictorians).

If these two tactics do not help you win this argument, then talk to Mr. O’Brien, the IB coordinator, about this issue. Although he may sing the praises of the IB program, he will in all likelihood be willing to talk to your parents about the drawbacks of compelling you to partake in IB against your will if you are intent upon your decision. Good luck!

Sincerely,
Jane

These debates allow voters to familiarize themselves with the platforms, mannerisms and passions of the candidates. Through debates, interviews and campaign speeches, the personalities of the remaining candidates are coming clearer and clearer into focus.
According to an old RealClearPolitics Average of several current polls, Gingrich has 23.8% of the vote, followed by Romney at 21.3%, Cain 15.5%, Perry 8%, Paul 8%, Bachmann 4.8%, Santorum 2.3%, and Huntsman at 2.3%.

Following the release of this poll, Cain announced his withdrawal from the race. Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachmann, John Huntsman, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum are the current declared candidates who participated in the debates, and although most have generated a stir in the media with strong speeches or gaffes, there does not appear to a definite front-runner.

The Harriton Banner decided to take a look into the candidates and their positions.

Newt Gingrich (23.8%)
Speaker of the House in 1994, 68-year-old Newt Gingrich held a position that made his a familiar name in many American households and has been gaining support amongst the Tea Party. Following the debate on Tuesday, Gingrich surged ahead in the polls and also gained the support of the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper.

Gingrich is enlisting voter help to create a list of “ideas for changing Washington on day one of a Newt Gingrich Presidency.”

Ideas currently on the list are, “End the attorney general’s assault on the states” and “Restore conscience clause protections for Healthcare Workers,” among others.

Gingrich’s past contains some demons that may limit his votes. During the Clinton impeachment scandal, Gingrich admitted he himself had engaged in an extramarital affair despite berating Clinton publicly for the Lewinsky scandal.

Mitt Romney (21.3%)
Mitt Romney, a 64 year-old former governor of Massachusetts, is no stranger to campaigning game.

After running for Republican nominee in 2008 and loosing to McCain, Romney is back and during the past few years has worked to gain support of the conservative groups whose support he lacked in the past.

Romney’s platform emphasizes cuts in federal spending, reform of entitlement programs and giving states power to expand health care access.

While Romney touts his business experience as proof that he is qualified to steer the nation’s economy, conservatives have voiced concerns over a healthcare program in Massachusetts similar to Obamacare and his Mormon beliefs.

Voters and other Republican candidates also accuse Romney of inconsistency because of his shaky stances on abortion and global warming.

Rick Perry (8%)
As the 61 year-old governor of Texas and Chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Perry is using his experience creating jobs in Texas to launch a campaign based on social conservative values and inspiring economic growth.

On his website, www.rickperry.org, Perry highlights five important issues that are key to his platform: jobs, fiscal responsibility, security, healthcare and social issues. Perry claims his Cut, Balance and Grow plan will balance the budget, create jobs and make our nation more fiscally responsible.

However, in a debate last month, Rick Perry struggled to name the third government agency he planned to eliminate as president. Perry has tried to “play it off” by doing interviews and asking voters “What agency they would like to forget.”

Michelle Bachmann (4.8%)
Bachmann is a 55 year old Minnesota state representative known for her Tea Party stance.
Michele Bachmann is running on a constitutionally conservative platform that includes limited government and tax increases. Bachman states that her priorities are to “restore the economy and create millions of new jobs”, “repeal Obamacare”, cut spending, “strengthen the family and defend marriage” and “rebuild respect” for our nation.

John Huntsman (2.3%)
The 51 year-old former governor of Utah has extensive foreign policy experience, having held diplomatic positions under both Bush administrations.

Huntsman is more socially moderate than most of the other candidates, and on his website focuses on economic and trade issues as opposed to social issues.

Huntsman has targeted Romney as one of his top competitors, featuring a video of Romney flip-flopping on various political issues.

Ron Paul (8%)
At 76-years old, congressional veteran Ron Paul has long been challenging American policy while touting his libertarian views.

Ron Paul has strong positions on many political topics. He is pro-life, wants to end the Federal Reserve, lower taxes, create a “Liberty Amendment” to abolish the income and death taxes, protect gun rights and enforce border security.

Rick Santorum
Pennsylvania’s own former senator, 53 year-old Rick Santorum is a conservative not oft spoken of in this presidential race.

Santorum is receiving support from Sarah Palin and has written anti-abortion legislation.
Fun fact: Santorum’s comments on homosexuality in a 2003 interview angered some of the LBGT community and in retaliation, gay columnist Dan Savage attached an “unsavory” phrase to Santorum’s name in a website, which now frequently appears whenever one googles his name.

Herman Cain
The 66-year-old Herman Cain gained support in the Republican race when he burst onto the scene with his refreshingly simple solutions that appear to address the nation’s economic problems.

However, he announced his withdrawal from the presidential race due to attacks on his reputation through claims of sexual harassment and infidelity. It appears that Ginger White, an Atlanta businesswoman, admits to having a 13 year affair with Cain, and her confession may have had something to do with Cain’s choice to run, although he called the allegations false.
He officially pulled out of the race, closing with a lovely quote from the recent Pokemon movie, and announced that his “Plan B” for voters would be to influence politics through a website called “Cain Solutions” instead of through the White House.

Aside from the shining radiance of a Florida sunrise, Hindman came upon a life-sized discovery. Greeting him was an 8-foot-tall, 100-pound, fiberglass sculpture of a giant, yellow, red, and green Lego man. On its stomach, it sported a grammatically incorrect, “NO REAL THAN YOU ARE”, a curious message.

Additionally, on its back appeared a giant numeral 8 and the words “Ego Leonard.”

Who is this giant man and where did he come from? Similar Lego figures to the one found on Siesta Key Beach were found in Zandvoort, Holland, and Bright, England in 2007 and 2008.
We do know that this Lego man has no assosciation with Lego or the Orlando Legoland park that it recently opened. Lego has denied releasing the figure as a publicity stunt, but Julie Estrada, the spokeswoman for the company, says it was a “brilliant guerrilla PR stunt.”
As it turns out, Ego Leonard is the name of a Dutch artist that has been creating paintings and sculptures featuring giant Lego figures for years.

His other paintings include depictions of Lego men as the Statue of Liberty, solving the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, or wearing shirts with messages like, “HELLO! HOW ARE YOU DOING TODAY.”

A message was sent to the artist, to which he responded, in character, “I am glad I crossed over. Although it was a hell of a [swim]. Nice weather here and friendly people. I think I am gonna stay here for a while. A local sheriff escorted me to my new home.”

Leonard is also staying in character on his Twitter and Facebook pages.

While this stunt was fun for all, the giant toy has been taken into “protective custody” by the Police department, and will be held there for 90 days. If no one claims the figure in this time, then Jeff Hindman will be the lucky owner of one giant Lego man.

He has stated that he will probably put the Lego man on eBay if he gains ownership.
Whatever message or statement this artist was trying to portray, he surely put a smile on faces everywhere.

Only time will tell where the next Lego figure will wash ashore. Keep your eyes peeled for any tall and boxy creatures.

So proclaim Harriton’s famous ‘sheets’ that are freely available in our weight room. A third of the way through my junior year at Harriton, I am all-too-familiar with these all-powerful pieces of paper, these edicts of exercise that give every athlete at Harriton a set routine of workouts. These exercises will make the athlete bigger, faster, stronger.

Freshman year, I worked out with the basketball team during preseason, hoping to make the team, and was exposed for the first time to regimented exercise; purposeful movements and activities that were designed just so, optimizing physical prowess.

The following year, I ran cross-country, and though the focus was much less on weight lifting, track workouts still carried the same intensity—the workout was tailored by professionals so that you could achieve maximum potential.

Two years later, I have begun to question these methods and routines, as I have become more aware of the ever-changing nature of sports philosophy.

This gave rise to the question: How far can I push myself? I want to get the best results, and the changing consensus on workouts and number of sets and order of routine clearly shows that what experts believe might not be 100% correct; if the sheet says I should bench 100 lbs., couldn’t I be able to do 105 lbs.? If I’m told to do a 200 workout in 35 seconds, couldn’t I do it in 34 seconds?

When I first thought about how far athletes can push themselves, I thought about the physical limitations that accompany the unfortunate condition of being human. No matter how dedicated or gifted an athlete is, he or she will never be able to run a marathon in 20 minutes. No man or woman will ever be able to bicep curl a bajillion lb. dumbbell; it’s physically not possible.

There are dramatic instances of pushing limits, of physical feats that are close to humanely impossible. Take the exmple of Stafon Johnson, the USC running back who dropped a bar on his throat while bench pressing, or the two runners in the recent Philadelphia Marathon who collapsed and died, one at the finish line, the other a quarter of a mile before the finish of the race. Think of some rowers at our own Harriton High who literally row until they were blue in the face.

When athletes push themselves to the limits of their bodies, several things can happen. They can hobble off to the water fountain, thrilled at having participated in such vigorous exercise and anticipating a good night’s sleep. Or they could die.

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) during exercise is not unheard of; it happens throughout the world, from the casual adult hoping to slim down at the gym to the elite marathon runner Ryan Shay, who passed away while trying out for the Olympics.

Ryan Shay, in particular, presents an interesting case. Aren’t elite athletes supposed to be invincible? Don’t distance runners, especially good ones, have ridiculously efficient hearts? While it is true that exercise results in longer lifespan and lowered the risk of obesity, there are some aspects of health that exercise cannot influence.

Young athletes, no matter how athletic, no matter their resting heart rate (affected by exercise and a great way to tell how ‘in shape’ a person is), may be born with one of two common preexisting heart conditions that can endanger them: the first is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and the second is long Q-T syndrome.

HCM is a genetic disorder that results in a thickening of the heart muscle, often asymmetrically. Wait, bigger muscles are good, right? Wrong. Thickening of cardiac muscle actually obstructs blood flow.

Though sedentary individuals might not feel HCM, an athlete who consistently needs high blood output increases the risk of pushing his or her heart over the edge.

The heart could reach a point where it is unable to supply the body and itself with the oxygen and other nutrients found in blood, and could attempt to remediate this by simply increasing its beats per minute. This would, in theory, increase blood flow, but can actually be counterproductive.

The heart eventually enters tachycardia, a condition which is characterized by such rapid beating of the heart that it is not able to refill in between beats; the heart may be beating a lot faster than before, yet the output is actually less, as it is unable to send the same volume of blood to the body per beat. This often results in loss of consciousness and more often than not, death.

Long Q-T syndrome is a bit more complicated than HCM. In order to understand it, we must first define some aspects of the heart and how it is monitored.

Essentially, the heart beats because of electrical signals being conducted throughout the cardiac tissue. It has a certain rhythm to it, a pace that is set by areas of your brain that even you cannot control.

After a beat, the heart needs to repolarize, or, in simple terms, ‘get ready’ for the next electrical impulse (it does this by recreating the gradient of ions outside and inside the membrane of the cell. Welcome back to Biology, everyone). The heart cannot contract without complete repolarization. The period of time that the heart takes to repolarize is called the QT period; a long QT period means that the heart cells of a person take longer than normal to repolarize and prepare itself to send blood throughout the body once again.

As you can imagine, this could be lethal during exercise, the time when your body needs oxygenated blood most and in the biggest quantities. In fact, long QT syndrome’s most deadly manifestation is through arrhythmias.

As mentioned earlier, the heart has a pace, a cadence set by electrical signals received from the brain. The brain sending electrical signals faster than the heart’s ability to process them (repolarize) can trigger tachycardia, causing the heart to undergo the same phenomenon caused by HCM.

Both of the above conditions are most prevalent in young athletes under 35. Young athletes at Harriton have to turn in a completed physical form in which their physician asserts that the student is in good enough health to partake in a sport.

Fortunately, part of the examination that takes place while filling out a physical form includes routine heart tests, including the measurement of blood pressure and auscultation (vocab word! It means to listen to the heart with a stethoscope).

Unfortunately, none of these tests can detect HCM or long QT syndrome. Yes, these disorders can be detected using a cardiogram, but when was the last time your doctor stuck a bunch of electrodes on your chest and hooked you up to the iconic ‘heart monitor,’ House M.D., style?
Though our physical forms do a good job of making sure athletes don’t have any obvious conditions that would endanger them, they do not adequately address SCD.

Exercise is fun. It’s invigorating, and choosing to integrate it into your lifestyle is possibly one of the best decisions you will make in your life. But don’t go overboard. Know your limits, and try to push yourself as far as you can go in a healthy way.

The burning feeling you get in your muscles is healthy. Don’t stop for slight discomfort. But if you start feeling light-headed, or you feel weird in your chest, stop. Sometimes these might simply mean you haven’t had enough water today; sometimes they might mean you haven’t eaten enough today; and sometimes, they might mean that you’re in danger.

Be smart. Be sensible. Be safe.

Newscasters report on recession-caused bankruptcies, liquidations, layoffs, and inflation—a list that virtually has no end. It’s clear that the recession has had a detrimental effect on working adults, but how does it affect us?

Teens don’t run businesses, own stocks, or provide for a family; parents do.

Teens aren’t the ones who have to pay for medical bills, taxes, or insurance; parents are.
As teens, we only just feel the squeeze. As we grow nearer to adulthood, that squeeze will come to be tighter and tighter. This suggests that we might have a few difficult years after high school.

A part-time job, once a staple of our adolescence, is becoming harder to find. Working has always been an important experience to take into the adult world. These jobs teach responsibility, encourage independence, and improve life skills.

It is unfortunate, however, according to a CBS piece, that teen unemployment, now around 24%, has nearly doubled since 2000. Adults displaced by the economy have taking up jobs once reserved for teenagers.

Teenagers are now heading off to independent lives with less experience and considerably less money in their pockets, both of which are important as we head into adulthood.

The daunting monster of college tuition worsens this predicament. Today, a college degree from a private university can cost up to $45,000 per year, not including the cost of room and board and books.

This sum is becoming increasingly difficult for teens to pay because unemployment rises and wages fall. In order to avoid this, more students are choosing to go to public or community colleges to save money.

Public universities cost considerably less than private institutions, and community colleges are cost even less. Beyond the undergraduate years, more young adults are now attending graduate (or other higher degree) schools as a means to move up.

By the time they are done with education, most young adults will be tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

Student loans and scholarships, once a godsend to students in need, are also now harder to obtain. US News and World Report states that many universities have lost access to these loans, while others lost investments during the stock market crash.

To help cover these costs, universities are increasing tuition beyond the already inflated prices.

Another option that is becoming increasingly popular for young adults is enrolling in the ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) or federal service academies (The Military, Naval, Coast Guard, Air Force, and Merchant Marine Academies).

These will pay full college tuition in exchange for service to the nation through the armed forces. The enrollment in these programs and military-based academies has been rising in recent years as teens try to combat rising tuition fees.

To those getting ready to attend college, don’t be too worried. There are still ways to earn a degree.

First, though many merit-based scholarships are now gone, many colleges offer to pay full need-based aid. Some don’t even give out loans, but scholarships that don’t need to be paid back.

Second, as mentioned before, there are different collegiate options (community colleges, ROTC, etc.) that will lessen the financial burden.

As for the unemployment situation, consider applying for an internship instead of a paying job. These open connections and teach more specialized skills, and are a great addition to any resume or application.

THB: Thanks for talking to us again. First, what improvements have been made regarding the firewall in the past month? What challenges are you still facing?
GF: I have one small correction; it’s not really a firewall. A firewall is a device that protects a network like Lower Merion’s from outside intruders. What we’re encountering issues with is, in fact, web-blocking software. The web-blocking software had three issues and we believe we’ve corrected two out of the three issues. One issue was “the gray screen of death.” We sent out a software update on a Monday that corrected the “gray screen of death.” Another issue we had was slow performance and we think we’ve fixed that through updated hardware. The final issue that we’re still trying to correct is some secure webpages are blocked. And we’re working presently with the manufacturer of the web-blocking software to correct that.

THB: What specific technical difficulties have the Information Systems Department faced in the past months and how is it working to correct these problems?
GF: Every summer we collect all the student laptops and we reimage them with the newest software that we have available. Since we’re putting new software on them we try to test them as much as possible for compatibility and any issues. Sometimes we discover new issues after they’ve been deployed. Primarily those issues come out as a result of scale. Its one thing to test software on one or two laptops, but when you deploy 6,500 laptops you can imagine the scale suddenly becomes an issue. So each year we implicitly encounter issues and we try to prevent those issues as much as possible.

THB: How has student and parent feedback changed in the past month, if at all?
GF: Interestingly, we were getting two types of feedback in the beginning of the year first month. Parents were thankful that we were taking steps to put filtering software on the machines and students were encountering issues with the web-blocking software. As soon as we resolved the issue, I started receiving feedback about the ability for more web-blocking parents were asking us to do more: to block Facebook and ichat. We believe that students use both Facebook and ichat for communication and collaboration and we’ve asked parents to reconsider not blocking that website and that application because of the use of the students for collaborating and communicating for projects. It was interesting that as soon as we straightened out the problems the feedback changed and the new question was can you put more on?

THB: Can you give us any additional insights?
GF: We certainly hope to continue getting feedback from the students on what we can do to improve the 1 to 1 laptops. I think in each high school there is a student in the student government who represents technology, and I would encourage students to share with that student their feedback, and that person can share that information with me.

THB: Thanks for talking with us.
GF: My pleasure.

The Lower Merion School District combines network-level filters and OS-level software blocking in order to ensure three things: that students obey the contract they signed at the beginning of the year, that the school does not violate federal law by allowing access to inappropriate online material, and that the laptops are more useful for education than other uses, or distractions.

Internet filtering is enforced both at school and on the rest of the planet. The system does a relatively good job of categorizing domains as appropriate or inappropriate.

The real difficulty lies in what it does not or cannot categorize; the “unknown” category. This includes many low-profile sites, such as databases that students end up using for research. It also includes anything we choose to host on our home computer.

So the filter must take the model of a “whitelist” instead of a “blacklist,” meaning that everything is blocked by default until, or if, it is screened.

Student feedback does show that the district seems to have fixed the problem with the computers failing to connect to the filtering server and respond to individula issues if they are brought to the technology department’s attention.