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Wilmington Friends School's Community Newspaper Wilmington, DE Since 1884

hittierMiscellanyHoliday Issue

2015Innovation and

the Mind

Marley Morton ‘18News Writer Procrastination is the gap between intention and action, or the putting off of higher priority tasks until a later time. Typically, non-essential tasks are done in lieu of the critical ones. Avoidance, distraction, denial, and laziness are just a few of the ways peo-ple allow themselves to procrastinate. Every human procrastinates, sometimes not even intentionally, but why? Procrastination is so relatable because, as it turns out, the human brain is wired to do it. It can be ex-plained as a fight sparked between two different parts of the mind when faced with a distasteful activity. In technical terms: a battle of the limbic system (the un-conscious zone that includes the pleasure center) and the prefrontal cortex (the internal “planner”). When the limbic system wins, which is often, it results in putting off for tomorrow what could be done today. Unlike the limbic system, however, the prefrontal cortex is the weaker portion of the brain, and it is not automatic. It is what allows a person to integrate information and make decisions. As soon as one is not consciously engaged in a task, his or her limbic system takes over. Then, they procrastinate. In today’s world of technology and the Internet, people are procrastinating all the time. John Perry, author of the book “The Art of Procrastination: A Guide to Effective Dawdling,” says, “If you went through history and took away all the stuff people were doing while they were supposed to be doing something else, you wouldn’t have a lot left.” The amount of time that the population is spending on websites is evidently shown in statistics, and proves that many are wasting away time. According to Face-book, 1.23 billion users log into the company’s site for an average of 17 minutes each day. Addie Trudel ’19 states, “Social media distracts me because I get so focused on how others view my life more than how I should view my academic life.” One solution to procrastination is the Pomodoro Technique, which involves working in 25 minute chunks, divided by long and short breaks. When facing a large task, break the overall project down into several smaller checkpoints and set up rewards for achieving each new deadline. At the core, humans procrastinate when they allow themselves the emotional pleasures of the moment to have more influence on their actions than the un-pleasant task that must be done. However, it is pos-sible to learn new ways of putting emotions aside and creating new strategies to increase motivation to complete unpleasant tasks.

To Read Now or Later? “Hello Barbie”: Creepy or Companion? Cecilia Ergueta ’18News Writer According to a recent study, 99% of girls from ages 3-10 own at least one Barbie. Since its creation in 1959, Barbie has not only been one of the top-selling toys of all time but also a cultural icon. However, de-spite its historical success, Barbie sales have dropped over the last three years in unsettling acceleration, with sales falling by the double digits for each quarter just in 2014. In an attempt to adapt to modern inter-est, Mattel is releasing Hello Barbie, a revolutionary doll that mimics human conversation while raising important ethical questions about giving children a ro-bot companion. The technological capa-bilities of Hello Barbie cre-ate a convincingly realistic, intelligent playmate. From the outside, Hello Barbie looks like all her predeces-sors; only upon closer study can one see the critical dif-ferences: slightly thickened thighs which contain re-chargeable batteries, and a USB port in the small of her back. The play begins by pushing Barbie’s belt buckle and speaking into the microphone in her neck-lace. In a split second, the audio is transmitted via Wi-Fi to the computer servers of ToyTalk, a company specializing in artificial intelligence, where it is fleetly analyzed and sent back to Barbie, who immediately replies with one of her 8,000 scripted and recorded lines, which include conversations, games, and refer-ences to popular culture. Barbie’s ability to have long, continuous conversations are the result of the intense labor put into mapping out conversation routes with branches upon branches of potential answers. Her Wi-Fi connection means that creators can constantly add new lines to Barbie, which is especially important in keeping the doll’s cultural references up to date. Try asking her about Taylor Swift. ‘‘She is one of my super favorites right now!” Barbie will reply with a peppy voice. Despite her technological prowess, concerns have been voiced regarding the ethics of Hello Barbie, with many raising the frank question “is Hello Barbie creepy?” One of Barbie’s most unique features is her ability to reference previous conversations from her digitally stored memories. Whatever is said to Barbie is stored in the Cloud, which contains a data reposi-tory which makes it seem that Barbie can develop a

relationship with a child. ‘‘She should always know that you have two moms and that your grandma died, so don’t bring that up, and that your favorite color is blue, and that you want to be a veterinarian when you grow up,’’ Wulfeck, a ToyTalk employee, explained in an interview with The New York Times. Donovan Aldridge ’18 states, “I know that kind of technology makes the Barbie a really fun and interactive toy, but having access to what children say is a little bit creepy, and at some levels might seem like an invasion of pri-vacy.” The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Child-

hood recently launched a petition urging Mattel to stop the doll from being sold, protesting the idea that Mattel could hold and store files on all of a child’s intimate conversations with her doll, which could be ex-ploited for marketing. The group’s executive director, Susan Linn voiced, “Kids using ‘Hello Barbie’ aren’t only talking to a doll, they are talking directly to a toy conglomerate whose only

interest in them is financial.” Putting aside the ethics of storing all records of a child’s chatter with her doll, perhaps an even big-ger concern held by psychologists centers around the danger of administering robot-like companions to children. Barbie has been notorious for its influence on a girl’s body confidence; but psychologists argue that making Barbie more real will only increase her impact. By creating a robotic companion, even Bar-bie’s personality is artificialized by programming and public-relations concerns. Some psychologists claim that the 24/7 availability of an ever-cheerful best friend who never annoys, challenges or disappoints creates a severe deterrent to a child developing realis-tic relationship skills. They suggest that another other fundamental problem is that Hello Barbie substitutes character constructed by technology for the vivid imagination of a child. Hannah Kushner ’17 says, “I think it’s really sad how kid’s conversation and play with Hello Barbie is all about real life, adult things rather than what should be supplied by a kid’s imag-ination, like fairies and princesses and all that fanta-sy make-believe.” While maintaining a conversation with the doll is interesting and unique, it substitutes the development of a child’s imagination. Hello Barbie’s impact on the toy industry is unde-niable...Continued on page 12

Hello Barbie, wearing a microphone necklace

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Founded 1884Volume CXXXV, Number VII

Holiday 2015: Innovation and the Mind

The Whittier Miscellany is published six times during the school year by the upper school journalism staff of Wilmington Friends School, 101 School Road, Wilmington, DE 19803. To access the Whittier Miscellany online, go to www.wfswhittier.com.

The Whittier Miscellany welcomes responses in the form of letters about the articles, editorials, and features of this paper.

Contact: wfswhittiermiscellany@gmail.com ‘Like’ Whittier on Facebook at ‘WFS Whittier’

Editors-in-ChiefJodi Lessner ’16

Alex del Tufo ’16

AdviserDaniel Scott

News EditorMaddie Ireland ’16

Entertainment EditorsSadie Proud ’17

Katrina Skibicki ’17

Photo EditorMegan Flanagan ’17

Web EditorEvelyn Wakeley ’17

Sports EditorMatt Tornek ’17

Features EditorsSarah Gooderham ’17Chris Stanborough ’16

Copy EditorsMerritt Gates ’16Chloe Hudson ’16

StaffJohn Blackwell ’18

Matt Byer ‘17Tess Beardell ’17Mike Coons ’18

Allie Fulginiti ’17Leah Johnson ’18

Quinn Kirkpatrick ’16 Caroline McGinnis ’17

Julia Delzingaro ’16

Emilio Ergueta ’16Hareena Houston ’18Zack Horowitz ’17Maya Johnson ’16

Maggie Martelli-Raben ’18

Emily Rossi ’17Zareef Khan ’19

Evie Kortanek ’18

Marley Morton ’18Lindsay Weber ’17Nolan Delaney ’16

Abby Kleman ’18Alice Irwin ’18Krystal Xu ’19

Charlotte Donoho ’16Olivia Garber ’16

Cecilia Ergueta ’18

TheWhittieriscellanyM

Community

The Whittier MiscellanyHoliday Issue 201502

The majority of people, if not everyone, have seen the effects of drugs and alcohol at some point in their lives. Whether through their family, friends, acquaintances, or even strangers, the effects are ev-erywhere. This does not mean that everyone has seen drastic or horrific changes in the people around them, it simply means that everyone has witnessed what drugs and alcohol can do. Wherever you may fall on this scale, drugs and alcohol impact your life. As we continue through high school, go off on our own in college, and experience the world as adults, we will be given endless opportunities. It is a constantly ac-tive decision in our lives to either try drugs and alco-hol or not to. Neither decision has to drastically influ-ence one’s life, but having all the information to make these choices is crucial.

In a building bustling with teenagers, the occa-sional use of drugs and alcohol in the student body is inevitable. Although this does not make it acceptable, it brings up the normalcy of drug use. Hannah Feld-mann ’16 says, “I think [using drugs and alcohol] is simply how teenagers are. I think that it’s very nor-mal for teenagers to experiment and be curious about substance use.” This opinion seems to be common with WFS students. The correlation between common

perception of teenage drug use and that of the WFS populus seems to differ depending on who one asks. If drugs and alcohol are illegal and considered to be dangerous, then why do teenagers continue to use them? Some point to media and cul-ture as a leading cause. Others to peer pressure. Drug Prevention Specialist Bren-da Conlan, often referred to by Friends students as the “Drug Lady,” comes every year to speak to soph-omores about the dangers of drug and alcohol usage. She sees drug us-age as a form of social order, “High school students see some of their smart, talented, and nice class-mates getting drunk and high on the weekends with no apparent consequences. This all leads to the belief

that drugs can be used safely and it’s just a matter of control. But nobody ‘experi-ments’ long term [with drugs] and even-tually you will be faced with the hassle of stopping or having problems.”

Other theories as to why students use drugs and alcohol range from just wanting to have fun and let loose, to attempting to cope with a serious men-tal illness. There has been extensive research attempting to decipher this phenomenon. Head of Upper School Rebecca Zug says “Research and the ex-perience at different schools show that there are a variety of reasons that stu-dents engage in risky behavior, includ-ing using alcohol and drugs. Sometimes, there is an addiction or mental health problem. Sometimes, it’s to feel a sense of power against authority. Sometimes, it’s to fit in with what people around them are doing.”

According to several students at WFS, another major reason for drug and alcohol use is the simple desire to have fun. Feldmann says, “In my opinion, the main reason that students do drugs/alcohol is because it’s fun...I think that no matter what steps are taken, students will always use drugs and/or alcohol. It’s just a matter of being responsible with it. Instead of just telling kids not to drink, they should tell them how to safe-ly drink.” Drug and alcohol profession-als explain that there are reasons lying underneath this simple exterior, but it is important to acknowledge why students at least think they are participating in drug and alcohol use.

Conlan looks beyond teenage rea-soning for drug use, and considers the safety risks to consumption, “I approach all teen drug use, which includes alco-hol, as a health and safety issue. I focus on health and the social and emotional impact substances can have on a young person.” This emotional impact, Conlan

says, can disrupt the way that teens view and react to-wards daily life, “If young people relax or have more fun when they drink, they may have trouble relaxing and having fun without alcohol. If one learns to enjoy

life and relation-ships so-ber, alco-hol abuse is not as a p p e a l -ing or interest-ing.”

Con-l a n ’ s c o m -m e n t s c o r r e -s p o n d w i t h s t u d i e s conduct-ed by the National Institute on Drug

Abuse (NIDA). In one study, it was shown that mar-ijuana interferes with attention, motivation, memory and learning; so much so that regular heavy marijua-na use by teens can lead to an IQ drop of up to eight points. The same results were found in relation to al-cohol use, according to a study conducted by the Cen-ter for Disease Control (CDC). Problems range from school and social issues, to physical issues as a result of a hangover or poor decisions made while drunk, to abuse of other drugs.

Drugs and alcohol have an enormous impact on the brains of young people. A person’s brain does not stop growing until they reach their mid-20’s. During teen years the brain essentially goes into rebellion mode. At this stage, the brain has not yet developed the ability to react with caution, leading to experi-mentation without thought. According to Psychology of Addictive Behavior, the use of alcohol at a young age, even in small quantities, can influence a child’s memory and attention span. Similarly, the use of mar-ijuana has been known to influence attention span and overall “laziness.” A report from Popular Science states that according to PET scans the dopamine lev-els found in people who smoke cannabis regularly are significantly lower than those who do not, indicating a lack of energy and motivation found in regular mar-ijuana smokers.

There has been extensive research showing that there is an obvious correlation between alcohol con-sumption and depression. The question that remains is whether people who are depressed tend to look to alcohol as an escape or whether excessive alcohol consumption can cause depression. Both are true. Re-search shows that depressed teenagers and children are more likely to resort to alcohol as a means of es-cape. Alcohol is also a depressant. It is meant to re-duce energy and slow a person’s mind. The excessive use of alcohol can cause a person to have both a tem-porary period of depression or a clinical diagnosis.

Despite the effects of marijuana, according to a Pew Research study, 7 in 10 Americans believe that alcohol is more harmful to a person’s health than mar-ijuana. Whether this popular perception is true or not is hard to say, as conclusive research towards the ef-fects of marijuana is yet to be produced. This is in stark comparison to alcohol, where effects of usage are commonly known and more publicly accepted. According to the CDC, alcohol is responsible for more than 4,300 annual deaths among underage youth.

Drug Dilemma: Should Students Stand Up or Stamp Out?Jodi Lessner ’16Alex del Tufo ’16Co-Editors-in-Chief

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Graph depicting when illicit drug use begins.

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03The Whittier Miscellany

Holiday Issue 2015

In 2010, approximately 189,000 people under 21 visited the emergency room for treatment as a result of injuries and other conditions relating to the con-sumption of alcohol. As a result, 11% of all the alco-hol consumed in the United States is drunk by people aged 12-20. This has drastic effects on health. Ac-cording to the CDC, youth who start drinking before age 15 are five times more likely to become alcoholics later on in life than those who began drinking after they turned 21.

In a recent survey conducted by NIDA, in the past year, 27.2% of higher schoolers have used an illicit drug. In the same study, it was found that drug use by American high schoolers has continued to annually decrease in terms of the usage of alcohol, cigarettes, and prescription pain relievers. The one drug whose usage has remained steady, and, in other studies reportedly even increased, was marijuana.

The increase in marijuana usage among high schoolers comes at a time where the drug is legal in states such as Colorado and Washington. It comes at a time where 64.9% of high school seniors believe that occasional smoking of marijuana does not put the user at great risk. It comes at a time where the usage of marijuana has become so normalized for high schoolers, that 81% say that the drug is easy to get. A pattern towards high schoolers’ usage of weed has emerged: as teens begin to see mar-ijuana as less dangerous, it is smoked more often.

Most people use drugs for the first time as teen-agers, with a majority of new illicit drug users begin-ning with marijuana. Because of this, marijuana is the most commonly used drug. According to NIDA, 78% of the 2.4 million people who began using marijuana last year were teenagers. Not surprisingly, drug use is highest among people in their late teens and twenties. Despite common perceptions among high schoolers that marijuana does not greatly affect one’s health, out of all drugs, it has the highest dependence or abuse rates.

Although drug and alcohol use do not have to be life altering or threatening, they often can be. The ef-fects that drugs have on causing mental health issues or worsening already present ones is severe. Drugs can even simply affect the motivation students have to learn and thrive. This ever-present danger brings up the question for students, “Where do I get help?” Many students have friends, family members, or pro-fessionals they can discuss their lives with. For those

who can not, the school may be their only outlet. An anonymous student says, “I think WFS tries to ed-ucate the students as much as possible which both helps and hinders the situation. Making sure people are educated and informed of the dangers of drugs is good, although I think that sometimes the repeated talk of drugs could deter people from openly seek-ing help about something because they could feel ashamed for being in the situation in the first place.” This situation puts adults in a difficult position to both protect the safety and privacy of the student. When talking about whether or not WFS provides a safe en-vironment for students to talk to faculty about issues

Graph depicting alcohol dependence by age.

Center for Disease Control

regarding drugs and alcohol, an anonymous student says, “I don’t think Friends has the most open envi-ronment for communication when it comes to drugs and alcohol. I feel like no one would be upfront if they had a drug problem because of fear of getting kicked out of Friends.”

Drug addiction is a complicated problem, and it is important to remember that people can get addicted

to virtually anything. When asked what the most addic-tive drug is, Conlan’s answer was quite simple, “Whatev-er drug a person uses is the most dangerous drug to that individual. A drug can’t hurt you unless you’re involved with it. Addiction has more to do with the user than the drug itself.” If a person becomes ad-dicted to a drug, this drug becomes the most dangerous drug for that person. Some drugs, though, are more harmful than others due to potency and substance. Conlan commented, “Cer-tain drugs have the capacity to cause death by overdose,

which clearly makes them more immediately threat-ening than drugs like marijuana that don’t have those catastrophic effects. Drugs that depress the central nervous system [such as opiates, sedatives, and al-cohol] can cause fatal suppression of respiration and should be considered highly dangerous. Alcohol poi-soning is a serious condition that can result in death without medical intervention.”

Conlan has advice for teenagers doing drugs, “Let yourself grow up and become your natural, won-derful self. You’re too important to risk addiction or other harm by using substances. All the good people who care about you wish you a safe and joyous life!”

Budget At Friends Reaches Nearly $20,000,000

The budget for the 2014-2015 school year was $19,956,274. The majority of this income, 83.4%, came from tuition and fees; another 7% from other programs such as ASP, summer camps, and the cafe-teria; 57% was spent on the salaries and benefits for the faculty and staff; 15.3% was spent on classroom and educational expenses; finally, 7.3% was spent on facility maintenance and operations. How is a budget worth nearly $20 million created?

Every year in January, the Wilmington Friends Finance Committee meets to set a preliminary budget for the coming year. This budget is revisited in Sep-tember of the following year, where it is then finalized and implemented. The creation of this budget starts within each department. Each department completes a budget sheet that accounts for all programs that the department sponsors. After the division head reviews all sheets, they are sent to the Head of Finance and Operations, Bill Baczkowski.

Sometimes programs are added to the budget based on competitive appeal or connection to the school curriculum, such as the robotics program. But in order to add, expenditures must be cut. If programs are losing enrollment; for example, currently the lower school, the funds may be reallocated to where they are needed more.

Exactly thirty years ago, the budget of Wilming-ton Friends School was published on the front page of the Whittier. The budget for the 1984-1985 school year was $3,407,631. As is the case for last year’s budget, the majority of the income came from tuition

and fees, exactly 87.42%. In a common trend, the largest expenditure in the budget money went towards faculty and staff salaries and benefits, exactly 71.8%.

Baczkowski explained that the budget is so much larger today than it was thirty years ago because of inflation and market competition: “[The budget in-crease] all starts with the need for all human beings to attain a higher standard of living. In order to be the best school we can be, we must recruit the best faculty, staff and administration that we can get and in doing so we face market competition for their ser-vices. We must pay market rates to get the best and therefore we have to increase tuition to cover the cost of not only our personnel, but our other resources like classroom supplies and electricity that have also in-creased from a desire for those companies to pay for their resources.”

Indeed much has changed since 1985 as technol-ogy has taken off. These priorities are the reason that close to 57% of the budget is comprised of faculty and staff salaries and benefits. In addition to this primary allocation, a new priority since 1985 is financial aid. Currently, financial aid makes up 16% of the budget, an increase since 1985, when financial aid comprised only 7% of the budget. This change in allocation, Baczkowski reasons, is due to the financial downturn of 2008.

Much has changed since 1985, including the recent additions to the Friends campus, such as the Global Learning Center and the Library Learning Commons. But unlike the funding of programs or salaries, projects like the GLC are created through the funds from a capital project, not from the bud-

get. Once these projects are created, the budget then

absorbs their costs. In the case of the Global Learn-ing Center, due to its lack of carbon footprint from the solar panels on the roof and the geothermal wells, the relative costs to run the building are fairly small. From a budgetary standpoint, its costs can be ab-sorbed. On the other hand, after a capital campaign funded the new theater, more money in the budget had to be allocated to its cost and maintenance. The goal in the creation of new facilities is to draw more students, and thus more income to pay for the new expenses. The recent additions seem to be having this effect, as enrollment this year has increased since last year with 286 students in the upper school, and 736 students overall across divisions.

Intellectual development has recently become the forefront of budgetary goals. Baczkowski says that this commitment manifests itself in the new One-to-One program with the Apple laptops. In order to tap into this innovation, Friends offers Curriculum Inno-vation Grants that are available to the faculty. To qual-ify for one such grant, faculty must submit a proposal to the administration, and if granted, their work would take place over the summer when there is more time to do so. Faculty can also take advantage of Master Teacher Grants, a program where teachers are given a certain amount of money to study something that would enhance the classroom experience, as well as their professional development budget to “seek and learn more about innovation in their discipline.” Fac-ulty engagement, Baczkowski argues, “that’s where real innovation comes from.”

Jodi Lessner ’16Co-Editor-in-Chief

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Holiday Issue 2015

Leah Johnson ‘18News Writer

In the last 100 years, humans have used technol-ogy and science to create countless new inventions that many now take for granted. From the zipper, to the aerosol can, to the internet, humanity has grown and learned about itself and the world through these creations. Each year brings reality closer to the science fic-tion world that is depicted in many classic books and movies. Back when those stories were created, a fu-ture with hoverboards, wireless communication, and holograms seemed far off, if not impossible. One of the most iconic scenes from Star Wars: A New Hope is one where Princess Leia sent the holographic mes-sage to Obi Wan Kenobi, saying that he was her “only hope!” In 1977, when the film came out, holographic imaging seemed like a far-fetched invention. Howev-er, new developments in technology have now made holograms a feasible idea. Scientists think that in using something called carbon nanotubes, they can potentially create holograms, and they are exploring new possibilities presented by the use of this material. Despite skepticism, it is impossible to ignore the benefits that have come with the development of long-distance communication. For example, people who live far apart from each other are able to stay in touch. When asked about the effects of the devel-opment of holograms as a communication method, an anonymous student responds, “I think holograms would benefit our society, because even though we already have programs such as Skype we don’t really feel as much emotion because it is not 3D. However, the hologram can better give the impression that the person is there.

Movies of the Past Become Innovations of Tomorrow A common theme in modern films, such as Wall-E, is the idea that increased technology has led to a more independent and isolated society. One disturbing scene from Wall-E shows two friends talking to each other on a video chatting program, much like modern day Skype, while sitting right next to each other. The animated fim depicts advancements in technology, specifically the robots they created, as rendering hu-mans unnecessary in most jobs, causing the society to become useless and uncreative. With the potential to make life easier, the concept of robots has always been a fascinating one in soci-ety. Young kids often imagine a robot that does their homework and chores for them, while adults imag-ine robots that can do dangerous and time consuming work that is unsuitable for humans. When asked what she would use a robot for, Kate Hendrix, librarian, comments, “I would use a robot for the stuff that I yell at my children to get done, like rake the leaves, mow the lawn, etc. Also [robots could be used] to go into dangerous places that we can’t go to. There are definitely situations where a robot would be useful.

Like deep sea exploration because they don’t have our limitations.” However, those fantasies are starting to look like a reality with some of the new advancements in robotics. On the other hand, the stronger and more auton-omous robots become, the more humanity needs to take caution so that it doesn’t fall victim to a grim sit-uation of helplessness like the one depicted in Wall-E. When asked her opinion on the advancement of ro-bot technology, Grace Para ’18 comments, “I think we are heading towards that kind of future, because there is so much we don’t have to work for now that is just given to us. We take technology for granted and I think technology can be a beneficial, but not when it is being used for petty purposes. An example of this is when I went to the movie theater and there were seats that recline and have a table. I thought, ‘This is literally Wall-E.’” There has always been some con-cern about how society uses technology and where the line should be drawn. Another fear is that one day, in-ventors may create something that can’t be controlled; this theme appears in several movies, from Termina-tor, to The Matrix, to Age of Ultron. Fortunately, as of now, it is unlikely that there will be any robot apoca-lypse in the near future. What society has done, from the creation of the wheel to landing on the moon, has been amazing. Sci-entists have quite literally reached for the stars, and the next few years will reveal crazy and seemingly impossible new things just as in the last 100 years. With a potential for robots and holograms, the future will be very different from the world today. Society may have to be careful that the dystopias depicted in books and movies do not become a reality, but luckily it seems that today’s innovations will benefit society long before it hinders it.

Investigating the Dangers Behind Self-Diagnosis Charlotte Donoho ’16Olivia O’Donnell ’18News Writers

A runny nose, a cough, and congestion are all symptoms of both the common cold and the flu. Although these two illnesses share common symptoms, they require different methods of treatment. When first experiencing symptoms, one’s immediate response is usually to try and use online symptom checkers to self-diagnose. In some instances, one could misdiagnose one’s symptoms, which could have serious consequences; however, in other instances, self-diagnosis can be a useful tool in deciding whether or not one should seek professional medical help. In either case, the most common tools for self-diagnosis are online symptom checkers, such as WebMD and the Mayo Clinic symptom checker. Therefore, technology plays a key role in the process of self-diagnosis. Although self-diagnosis can be dangerous, it can actually be a useful tool when used appropriately. One example of this is when it is used to determine whether or not one should seek professional medical help. For instance, Greg Miller, Director of Technology, believes, “On one side, self-diagnosis is sketchy because it is a self-fulfilling prophecy; however, by the same token, I’m not going to ignore it if my kid has a fever. Self-diagnosis is all about being realistic.” Another positive aspect of online symptom checkers is that it allows patients to play a bigger role in their health care. Instead of ignoring symptoms, patients who attempt to self-diagnose are being proactive. This is beneficial because patients can use self-diagnosis tools to educate themselves about their symptoms, and then share this information with a doctor for a

more accurate analysis and diagnosis. One student, Drew Pittenger ’16, shares his experience with using the internet to diagnose his symptoms. Drew explains, “while I was with Noah Landis, I was knocked unconscious by a door. I looked up my symptoms online and learned I was at risk for a concussion, so I went to see a doctor.” This is just one example of how online symptom checkers can be used by patients to diagnose injuries and illnesses that could become dangerous if not acted upon quickly. Therefore, the key to using self-diagnosis is to use it as a tool to promote a better relationship between doctors and patients. When patients are able to have an active role in their health care and they feel that their doctors listen to them, patients are more likely to trust their doctor. Not only does this benefit the patient, but having a patient who is educated about symptoms makes the job of the doctor a little easier. On the other hand, diagnosing one’s symptoms without the aid of a doctor or other healthcare provider proves to be hazardous, and in some cases fatal. When asked about the dangers of self-diagnosis, Louisa Spinner ’19 replies, “It’s dangerous because we are not professionals and we don’t know the real things that can happen. We tend to freak out and do the worst possible thing. You are lying to yourself and your body by not seeing an actual doctor.” The use of symptom checkers, which tends to lead people to stay at home rather than seek the appropriate medical care elsewhere, undermines the role of the doctor, and in doing so, negatively affects the relationship that the patient has with his or her physician. Also, by only relying on information from websites, one cannot be diagnosed properly. According to Doctor Srini Pillay, founder and CEO of NeuroBusiness Group, “When you self-diagnose, you are essentially assuming that

you know the subtleties that diagnosis constitutes. This can be very dangerous, as people who assume that they can surmise what is going on with themselves may miss the nuances of diagnosis…. Here, the danger is that you may misdirect the clinician or even yourself.” In addition to being the tool used to create the divide between one and his or her healthcare provider, symptom checkers allow one to continue to be in a state of denial about one’s symptoms. Oftentimes one may ignore potentially serious or even fatal symptoms because they may not seem important to him or her at that time. On the whole, the use of online platforms that provide a range of healthcare tasks is to diagnose symptoms in the place of a physician or healthcare provider. By accessing the internet, a sick or injured person can save the time and money it would take to make an appointment to see a doctor, and draw his or her own conclusions that are not supported by a professional. Although there are some benefits to using this device, there are also its share of negative repercussions. Ateev Mehrotra, the associate professor of health care policy and medicine at HMS and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, states: “These tools may be useful in patients who are trying to decide whether they should get to a doctor quickly, but in many cases, users should be cautious and not take the information they receive from online symptom checkers as gospel.” While self-diagnosis allows patients the opportunity to be more active with their health care, the practice the of self-diagnosis can either belittle or overexaggerate the symptoms of the patients, both of which can be damaging to one’s health. It is unlikely that self-diagnosis will ever disappear; however, the safest way to diagnose one’s symptoms is to vist a professional.

Image of Pixar robot, Wall-E

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Features

05The Whittier Miscellany

Holiday Issue 2015

Tess Beardell ’17Features Writer

They say that good things come in bundles—the Harry Potter series, kittens, and, for Wilmington Friends School, this bundle of good things came in the form of our various new additions and upgrades. Among these is the fabulous new Design Lab, ded-icated to Ira T. Ellis ’52. The lab is a designated space for students taking the robotics class, known as Smart Machines, and members of the Robotics Club or Science Olympiad to build and test their ro-bots. Anyone who has seen the enthusiasm of Sci-ence Olympiad clerks Jayna Jones ’17 and Margaret Sullivan ’17 is aware of the great deal of work that is required for success in any of the robotics disci-plines. It is the same level of work comparable to that which was needed to design, dedicate, and imple-ment the lab itself. The hard work that went into the lab is allowing all robotics students in sixth through twelfth grade their own place to work and learn. Due to its location, many students think of the lab as an exclusively high school classroom. However, it is also used by middle school students. For example, the middle school has an after-school program called Tin-ker Time, where students can design and build vari-ous things. Since the installation of the lab, students in Tinker Time have been able to work in a bigger space with a wider variety of tools. John Huxtable, Head of Middle School and sponsor of the Design Lab, states:

Design Lab Opens New Doors for Friends“It is really a place where exploration and creativity happen. We now have a big cupboard of tools for stu-dents to use.” Administrative Assistant Margot John-son adds: “Kids in middle school love playing around with these tools and this room really provides kids with an opportunity to get familiar with their functions.” While the tools provided in the lab are useful for robotics students, the room itself has proved to be a valuable space for the whole school. Huxtable also stated, “It’s a great place for teachers and students to communicate and do fun things together without disturbing others.” Another perk of the space is that students and teachers can leave things they didn’t fin-ish on a table and come back to them at a later point. Miranda Peak ’18 says, “In Chinese once we made spring rolls in the Design Lab, and since we didn’t have enough time to finish them, we just left our unfinished rolls there and came back during study hall. It is really a cool space to do activities.” This comment is just one of many that highlights the pos-itive impact the Design Lab is having on the school community. In addition, these comments should in-crease the gratitude students and faculty have towards the construction and design put into the new space. With an incredible amount of work put into the lab, marvelous things are also coming out of it. Self-pro-claimed “sole Upper School representative of Com-puter Science” Jenks Whittenburg, who teaches the robotics class, mentioned that because the Friends curriculum does not provide a woodshop class, stu-

Students Finding Support from Teachers

dents who may be interested in building things rare-ly got the chance to do so. However, because of the Design Lab, students are now able to work with their hands. He stated, “When students first come in, they’ve often never used a lot of the tools before, which makes sense because it doesn’t really fit into the existing curriculum. It’s exciting to see students learn how to use the tools and do really interesting things with them.” When asked to describe some of the tools provided for students in the lab, Whitten-burg responded with a laundry list of items—most of which previously unavailable in his computer orient-ed classroom. He and students agree that the Design Lab provides for much more efficient and in-depth learning experiences. As Margaret Sullivan ’17 puts it, “The lab is really great because it gives a designat-ed space where we can work on science and robotics with great tools.” Sullivan also points out the added benefit of not having to interrupt Whittenburg’s com-puter classes when she says, “It’s also helpful because we don’t have to interrupt classes anymore to do what we need to or get the things we need.” Matt Hinder-hofer ’17 voices more of these advantages, “The tech-nology and tools are a lot better and it’s better orga-nized so it doesn’t take 45 minutes to find things. It’s also made more people want to join robotics because everything in it looks so cool.” The Design Lab is providing all students, middle and high school, with incredible new opportunities and materials to broad-en and add depth to their understanding of robotics.

students) and any classroom teachers or coaches with whom a student has truly connected can be wonderful support for students who are facing life’s challenges and just need an ear to help noodle things out.” She voiced her support of students consulting teachers with personal issues. Puritz-Fine believes the school staff helps create a welcoming environment, “We are so lucky to have a faculty of positive, firm, caring adults (not buddies or confidants) who students can trust to keep the discussions to themselves when they should, and to take the information where it needs to go when health and safety issues are involved.” A divide between students and their teachers also comes from school policy. Any personal connections are strained by the teacher’s obligation to divulge alarming information to parents. “If the issue is se-rious, the teacher is put in the awkward situation of whether or not to tell the student’s parents,” says Josh Pincus ’16. “I personally don’t believe that students should feel comfortable coming to teachers with per-sonal problems, as that is putting an unfair burden on the teacher.” It is important to consider not only feelings of the student, but those of the person they choose to reveal information to. Teachers lead busy lives; seeking their help with issues outside of school-work may increase their stress. They might be faced with the decision to either follow school policy or act as a human-diary in order to help the student cope. Wilmington Friends School has done all it can to establish and maintain a safe and close commu-nity; but the school has its limits. Students and their teachers are meant to be comfortable with one an-other in order to achieve a successful education, but most agree that personal issues should not be shared. There are exceptions. For example, if a student hap-pens to share a strong connection with their teach-er, but the responsibility of mending private prob-lems lies mostly in friends or family members. Even though teachers should not be relied on for person-al issues, they are able to help any student in need of academic help. A student can count on his/her teacher to be understanding when these problems surface, but it is important to not drag them into it.

Matthew Byer ’18Features Writer

The story of the average teenage student is one that almost everyone must endure. It often includes angst, confusion, self-discovery, procrastination and a lot of stress. The world shapes each individual through a series of challenges during this time. These chal-lenges come in many shapes and sizes, but all share a common trait: they make academic and personal lives harder. When these challenges surface, they may often be too big for any one person to handle alone. From a student’s perspective, if untreated, these problems may seep into academic performances and increase already heightened anxiety. Help is usually wanted, but try-ing to locate a source for it can be difficult. Where is a distressed student to go when faced with such strug-gles? Most younger people appear to have the propen-sity to seek guidance from elders. However, students are reluctant when it comes to approaching teachers. Wilmington Friends School offers an accepting and tightly-bound community, one that is hard to find, yet the student body is hesitant to confide in teachers for personal help. Why don’t students feel comfort-able seeking non-school-related help from teachers? Whether or not students feel comfortable going to teachers for problem-solving, they can rely on them to be tolerant if personal challenges lead to incomplete work and extensions on assignments. “The teachers at this school are very understanding about not being able to complete assignments because of family prob-lems or something going on at home,” states Samantha Conner ’18, “If people have something going on they should talk to someone.” It is not unreasonable to con-sider reaching out to a teacher or advisor; however, students tend to rely more on friends for emotional support. When asked about his stance on the topic, Jay Handwerk ’18 says, “If the student feels a strong connection to the teacher, then they should definite-ly talk to them; if not, then personal issues are best left to a guidance counselor or supporting friends.” Lynn Puritz-Fine, Dean for Students, offers her input as well: “Advisors, grade level clerks (and the dean for

Isabel Crowther ’18Features Writer

A large part of high school is complaining about classes. Everyone seems to have a least favor-ite class that they dread going to every day. There are countless reasons that can cause students to be disinterested in a class; maybe that subject has seemed more difficult than the others since kindergarten, the teacher is a particularly hard grader, or the student just cannot seem to do well no matter how hard they try. But can approach-ing a class with this hopeless, pessimistic atti-tude affect how well a student does in said class?According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition of attitude is, “A feeling or way of thinking that affects a person’s behavior.” Com-ing into a class already having a feeling of disin-terest and dislike is the settled way of thinking, and the way it is reflected in a person’s behavior is the student not doing well in that class. But where does that feeling of disinterest come from? The source of a student’s dislike for a class is key to understanding how it affects their schoolwork. When asked what their least favorite classes are and why, many students said that the classes they dislike the most are ones where they feel like it is difficult to succeed. It is frustrating for a student to be in a class where an aspect of the curriculum makes the student feel ill-prepared for assessments, which Erica Rodi ’17 gives an example of: “Some-times we take too long on random stuff that we don’t need to know for a test and then when we are test-ed, it’s on stuff we never actually went over.” When a student feels like they do not know how to suc-ceed in a class, it is stressful for them, and they are discouraged from even trying. Classes can place a

How Does Atti-tude Affect Perfor-mance?

(Continued on Page 12)

Features

06 The Whittier Miscellany

Holiday Issue 2015

Evie Kortanek ’18Features Writer

By driving our cars, heating our homes, and using electricity, the world’s population is emitting more than thirty billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. Emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are contributing to the greenhouse effect, a phenomenon where the greenhouse gases act like a blanket on the Earth, absorbing radiation and preventing it from escaping into space. This is causing the gradual heating of Earth’s atmosphere and surface, a process known as global warming. As we continue to go about our daily lives without much consideration of the direct effects our choices make on the Earth, global warming might become life threatening, with stronger hurricanes and heat waves among many other disasters. With the option of renewable energies such as solar panels and geothermal technology, Wilmington Friends is substantially decreasing its carbon footprint on the environment by using renewable energies and setting a great example as to how we can still go about our daily lives without causing such harm to the environment.

Ken Aldridge, head of the Upper School, explained the innovative technology, “The GLC has a significant solar power array that provides power to the building. Additionally, there are geothermal wells, which help regulate the water used to heat and cool the building. Each classroom has LED lighting and 4 solar tubes. The solar tubes capture natural sunlight and can be opened/closed through the use of dampeners.” The administration’s goal is to have these innovative choices for our school inspire not only other schools to become environmentally friendly, but also the individuals within. Jerica Xu ’18 shared, “I’m proud to go to a school that makes environmentally friendly choices by using energy efficient alternatives, especially because global warming is an increasing problem.”

These innovations in the GLC not only provide inspiration for students, but also improve learning, as Upper School Spanish Teacher Chamby stated, “Compared to the former language rooms on the third floor, it gives students a little more space to move around, a little more space to be creative, and it’s a Global/Language wing, which gives it an international feel. There is lots of space outside of the rooms as well, enabling students to get extra help and/or work on skits or presentations.” Similarly, Aldridge added, “We’ve already witnessed how students have used these spaces and the renovated Library Learning Commons in imaginative ways.” The administration is focused on learning inside and outside of the classroom, as they make structural and environmental innovations in the school, and let the students’ imagination and creativity flow outside of the school.

As greenhouse gas emissions increasing, with electrical emissions contributing 38% to total emissions, drastic changes must be made to secure the well-being of our planet and its inhabitants. By supporting our school’s electrical needs with renewable energy, we are supporting the fight to save our world. Mr. Aldridge sums it up, saying, “We have a mission-based obligation to always work to reflect and to test ideas and practices against experiences and changes in the world. Our sure philosophical foundation requires us to innovate, recognizing that the only true innovation is continuing innovation.”

Connor Miller ’19Features Writer

Thousands of students around the world loathe homework. It can be extremely stressful and can take away from time to enjoy outside-of-school activities. Taking away from free time outside of school at a young age can result in a dislike for school, even if the goal is to help build a strong work ethic for the future. An online survey by education.com showed that 74% of people do not think students should have homework. Another study showed that too much homework each night can be counterproductive because of the amount of stress it causes. 99% of students said that homework created some form of stress in a poll from healthline.com. A study conducted by Brown University found that, “Stress and tension for families increased most when parents perceived themselves as unable to help with the homework, when the child disliked doing the homework, and when the homework caused arguments.” These research findings demonstrate the many reasons why homework is unpopular.

If individuals are struggling in class, homework can help them learn the material better outside of class. But if you aren’t struggling in class, should you have homework? Why is it a standard aspect of school? The recommended amount of homework per night is ten minutes multiplied by your grade level. When asked how much homework they usually have per night, a freshmen claimed to have at least two hours of homework, a sophomore had about three hours, and a senior had four and a half hours per night. Dr. Susan Miller, a professor who teaches sociology and criminology at the University of Delaware, explained, “Homework takes away quality time that I can have with my son because he doesn’t get home until 6pm from sports and then has a lot of homework before and after dinner. Some of it does not seem related to reinforcing class material.”

One of the main reasons why students have homework is to review material covered in class. Jake Luckangelo ’18 said, “We should study more in class

The Big Green GLC Machine

for more free time at home.” Simon Wakeley ’19 added, “Half the people don’t do it anyway.” When too much homework gets assigned to students, it can be counterproductive. Dr. Miller shared her homework philosophy: “I assign homework to reinforce material taught in class and to develop the students’ study habits for exams. I won’t just give out homework for the sake of it and, for high school students, if you get homework in all of your classes, it can be way too much to handle.” This particular take on homework seems balanced.

In order to better understand the merits of homework, or the possibility that it is not that helpful, it is helpful to ask some current college students and professors about their thoughts. A lawyer, a psychologist, a sociologist, a statistician, and several college students were invited to share their opinions on homework. Most of them believed there were some benefits, and all agreed that it is a necessity and is extremely helpful for learning, with the exception the psychologist, who shared, “Homework can limit or even preclude other activity that is vital for students, especially teens, who are developing mentally and need time to explore and uncover individual interests and abilities for the growth and well-being of teens.” If a psychologist’s area of expertise is people and how they develop, shouldn’t her professional knowledge be trusted? Similarly, the statistician and the lawyer believed that busy-work that was routine and not reinforcing did not help students in the same way that practicing concrete problems and reading outside of class accomplished. In other words, they did not believe in homework for homework’s sake.

If prestigious college level professors believe that the merits of homework are limited, it would make sense for high school teachers to reconsider the amount of homework they assign. Several students believe that adding a little time to each class is a better idea so that we have more time to learn the material in class and would not have to go home and essentially teach ourselves. If the merits of homework are controversial, perhaps it’s time to experiment with these proposed alternatives.

Making Mental Health Days HappenMike Coons ’18Features Writer

The name “mental health day” has a connotation of mental illness or instability. However, a mental health day comes in handy simply when the stress of life becomes overwhelming. These days off from work or school help people recover. Students occasionally feign sickness in order to stay home for the day. Sometimes it’s a fever, sometimes it’s a stomach ache, but in any case, the student is still physically able to go to school; despite this, they might feel they just need a day to rest their overworked minds. A mental health day would replace these “sick days” with a more honest reason to miss school, and would take away any incentive to fake a few coughs. Other schools in Delaware already include these days in their policies. Mental health days have the potential to be a key tool in combating student stress and boosting overall productivity and wellbeing.

Sammie Conner ’18 supports the idea of mental health days: “They can be necessary and beneficial as long as they’re not too often. It can be good to just get organized, take a break, and reset—although that is what the weekends are usually for.” Others, however, say weekends are not effective in resting and recovering some students’ mentality. For many students, weekends may be just as busy as regular school days, and they might feel as though they never get a real break. Both football and wrestling teams have games and tournaments that consume almost the

entirety of the student athletes’ Saturdays. Starting center Jason Saville ’18 shared his experiences with football on weekends: “We had a football game where we were gone from 9:00am until 7:00pm. We choose to take this time because we love the sport, but it makes it tough to finish weekend assignments.” From these perspectives, mental health days seem like they could be constructive for students with sports commitments.

The concept of mental health days seems appealing to the majority of the student body, but there are issues that need to be addressed, such as how the school would go about managing these days. Clearly, there would need to be some type of regulation that sets a maximum amount of days off for each student. It would be up to the school to decide the balance between providing enough time to recover, and preventing students from taking advantage of the system. These problems are important to consider, but all of them can be easily solved if students and teachers work together openly on this.

Mental health days are something that can relieve anxiety from WFS students. The question then is how to use mental health days productively; students must be able to recognize when they feel overwhelmed and need to release stress, versus just worrying about a test or presentation that day. Hopefully, the school will take this concept into consideration for the good of its students. If the system were to be established, students could start using mental health days to reduce stress, increase productivity, and boost focus in the classroom.

Homework: Necessity or Waste?

Sports

07The Whittier Miscellany

Holiday Issue 2015

Football Does its Part in Fighting DiseasesJohn Blackwell ’18Sports Writer

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Breast cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed form of cancer. Doctors around the world are working towards a cure, and are coming close. They need all the help they can get to raise money and awareness for this terrible disease. Right now, the best way to prevent this disease is to get screened early and often; however, most Americans do not. The National Football League (NFL) has part-nered with The American Cancer Society and start-ed a campaign called “A Crucial Catch.” The Crucial Catch campaign is about raising awareness for getting annual breast cancer screenings. The campaign start-ed in 2011 and has been thriving ever since. However, many still wonder just how it has been so successful.

Football holds the title of “America’s sport.” During the football season, stations like CBS, FOX Sports, ESPN, and NBC’s ratings go up due to foot-ball coverage. In fact, Sunday Night Football has been known to be the #1 program on Sundays. It is obvious that the American Cancer Society partnered with the NFL because of the popularity of the game. Many be-lieve that the NFL does not really care about the mat-ter on hand. Kasey Drane ’18 is one of those people. She says, “I think that the NFL does it to make like

they seem like they care.” If they are just running the Crucial Catch for sympathy from others, they make it convincing that this is not true.

Anyone that watches NFL football during Octo-ber will notice all of the pink worn by players, of-ficials, and coaches. They get customized gear, paid for by the NFL and the American Cancer society. The players receive socks, cleats, gloves, compression gear, towels, and small breast cancer patches to put on their jerseys. The NFL also makes pink fan gear, like shirts, sweaters, and replica jerseys. At the end of October, the NFL auctions off all of the player and official’s gear. All of the proceeds are said to go the American Cancer Society, but there have been reports that there is, in fact, no money donated from the NFL that is used for Breast Cancer research. American Cancer Society spokeswomen Tara Peters came out and said this: “The money that we receive from NFL has nothing to do with our research program”. On the other hand, many people also think that the Crucial Catch campaign is an amazing idea. “It’s great,” says Ryan Fischer ’18, “It spreads awareness of how breast cancer affects people and urges people to screen themselves.” Regardless of whether the NFL is doing this for marketing, it is still making people more aware of breast cancer. Pink is the universal color for Breast Cancer awareness, so seeing the pink gear is a mental trigger for Breast Cancer. Perform-ing Arts teacher Margaret Anne Butterfield says, “Of

course it’s for marketing. The NFL is all about money. But who’s to say it isn’t a good thing to do?”

The Crucial Catch Campaign is not the only cam-paign that NFL sponsors. This November, the NFL did a fundraiser, called Salute to Service, in the spirit of Memorial Day. Salute to Service is a fundraiser for military appreciation. During this fundraiser, for ev-ery point scored in a Salute to Service game, the NFL will donate 1,000 dollars to one of three charities: The Wounded Warrior Project, The Pat Tillman Founda-tion, or the USO. As of November 10th, the NFL has raised 658,000 dollars. Like the Crucial Catch, the Sa-lute to Service campaign has special equipment: the players are decorated in camouflage.

Even if the NFL is doing these events for mar-keting purposes, it is still making a difference; more sports teams and organizations are going pink for October to raise awareness. It is a possibility that the NFL could do this for other diseases as well. Carl Beskrone ’19 says, “I think that breast cancer aware-ness is good, but I also think that there needs to be more awareness for other diseases, like alzheimer's disease and diabetes and other horrible illnesses.” For the time being, the NFL has done a great job, but many think they should do more to make people aware of where the money they raise is going. What is important is that organizations that hold power are trying to do their part to raise awareness for diseases that affect millions worldwide.

NFL Gameday Comes With a Price for Players

While watching football on Sunday Night, view-ers see the brutal hits that many football players take on almost every play. Although the helmets and equipment that these players wear are very protective, players still experience a variety of serious injuries. One of the most serious injuries in the NFL is also one of the most common: concussions. A concussion is a very serious injury; caused by the shaking of the brain, they significantly affect a person’s brain and mental condition. Many professional athletes, espe-cially football players, have started to notice that the concussions they have gotten have led to even more serious long-term effects.

Although the NFL has done a good job of hiding the dark truth about concussions that many players suffer from, there still have been lawsuits. The biggest one led to the league paying $765 million to medical exams and concussion-related compensation for for-mer NFL players and their families. The NFL start-ed facing lawsuits after former players were found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy. CTE is described as a degenerative brain disease that affects

athletes with multiple head traumas. It is a very seri-ous condition that affects a majority of football play-ers who have gotten concussions while playing in the NFL. Most people do not think of this disease being serious because it takes a while to develop, but they also don’t know that it affects more than just NFL football players.

Doctors have also been struggling to raise aware-ness for CTE because as of right now, it is not well known. This is a result of the disease not affecting someone until multiple years after suffering a head trauma. Dr. Michael McCrea says, “The burning is-sue is CTE. The disease doesn’t manifest itself for 20 to 50 years, but it’s like a slow-moving train.” Be-cause this disease takes a long period of time to de-velop and show its full effects, doctors are now doing test on brains of deceased football players. Doctors have found that 96% of NFL players suffered from this brain disease. Not surprisingly, when doctors did a study on football players of different levels, 131 of 165 players suffered from CTE. Dr. Ann McKee, who says people think doctors are blowing this disease out of proportions, responds with, “My response is that where I sit, this is a very real disease. We have had no problem identifying it in hundreds of players.” The

NFL has shown efforts to try and minimize the effects their players suffer from. A spokesman from the NFL says, “We are dedicated to making football safer and continue to take steps to protect players, including rule changes, advanced sideline technology, and ex-panded medical resources.”

However, the NFL will always face the issues as-sociated with mental health and concussions, due to the physicality of the game. Because of these concus-sions, football players of all levels with most likely suffer from CTE as a result of how many times they get hit while playing the game. Even if the league is able to find a way to prevent concussions while allow-ing the players to still play, there will still be former players who suffer from these side effects. Unfor-tunately, concussions are a very serious injury for a player to have because of the effects that it can have on a player’s mind and the fact that they can lead to serious mental illnesses. The NFL can continue to pay for medical exams and concussion-related research for former players, but that will never make up for the suffering that the players have gone through. Howev-er, the league has taken actions in trying to prevent as many concussions as possible, which has reduced the amount of concussions that players have suffered.

Megan Flanagan’17Sports Writer

How Prosthetics Redefined Sports for AmputeesJulia Delzingaro ’16Sports Writer

Prosthetic limbs are artificial replacements for a missing limb, and can help a person regain indepen-dence after amputation. They are incredibly valuable to amputees that would otherwise not be able to par-ticipate in everyday activities, like sports. Prosthetic limbs can help restore some of the capabilities lost with the amputated limb, although they have not advanced to the point where they are as efficient as biological limbs. Prosthetic limbs are becoming very common for all amputees to use. One of the most well-known athletes who received prosthetic limbs is the professional snowboarder Amy Purdy. The snow-

boarder, who is now 34 years old, lost both lower-legs (from the knee downwards) at age 19, as a result of a life-threatening bout of bacterial meningitis.

At one time, amputees were quite rare. Before the advent of modern medicine, losing a limb was often seen as a death sentence. The idea of the prosthetic limb was not created until 1529, and the actual inven-tion of the prosthetic limb did not come along until well after that. If a person lost a limb, they typical-ly bled to death within minutes. If they survived that trauma, infection would normally take their life. To-day, the ordeal of losing a body part is certainly trau-matic, but the options for amputees have given them a whole new type of hope.

Scientists and doctors say that the near future will

include robot arms and legs that perform almost as ef-ficiently as biological limbs. Cat Clark ’16, says, “It is amazing how something that used to be almost impos-sible to recover from is now fixed by the use of pros-thetic limbs. I am very into crew, and I would be in-credibly sad if I was no longer able to participate due to the tragic loss of a limb. It is amazing that athletes are still able to compete in their favorite sports even after going through such a horrific process.” Amy Purdy is just one example of an athlete who is univer-sally admired for being exceptionally talented without having biological limbs, which shows how technolog-ically-advanced prosthetic limbs are very beneficial. Purdy began snowboarding seven months after she received her leg prosthetics, and just one year after (Continued on Page 12)

Sports

08 The Whittier Miscellany

Holiday Issue 2015

Cracking the Code to ConcussionsAlice Irwin ’18 Maya Johnson ’16Sports Writers

A rapidly growing issue in youth athletics is con-cussions. Head injuries and concussions caused by contact sports have become an extensive problem in the United States, but they are a difficult thing to ad-dress and treat. A concussion is often caused by sud-den and or repeated direct hits to the head. Head in-juries are typically mild and often heal without many complications, but more severe ones can potentially cause serious or even permanent damage. Concussion rates, an estimated four to five million annually, show the impending need for further preventative measures. Many students at WFS have experienced concussions in athletics, or by a simple accidental hit to the head. Concussions, whether athletes like to admit it or not, have an extreme impact on both short- and long-term neurological function. Due to concussions becoming such an urgent problem in the U.S., it is important to learn about and be well informed of the preventative steps and technology behind concussions.

Athletic Trainer at WFS, Devon Adams, ex-plains her work with concussions for student athletes: “Many times, athletes and parents ask why there is a six-step Return to Play progression after concussion. The primary reason is that we want to protect student athletes from returning to play before they are fully recovered. Symptoms that have resolved at rest may return when heart rate, blood pressure, and overall exertion increase. The DIAA requires that all student athletes experiencing concussion symptoms see a physician for clearance and follow the protocol list-ed on the Acute Concussion Evaluation (ACE) form.” Students at WFS must follow six stages in order to return to sports: no physical or cognitive activity, low levels of activity (light jogging, light stationary bike), moderate levels of activity, heavy non-contact activi-ty, full contact in controlled practice, and finally, full contact in game play. Patrick Haubert ’16 comments on the process of treating athletes with concussions at Friends: “Concussions are a part of contact sports; it’s a risk that we as players accept when we play the game, but at Friends we have great procedures in place to help minimize risk and injury time, in addi-tion to an outstanding training staff. The training staff here is great. Devon knew right away when I had a concussion and was really helpful. She referred me to good doctors so that I could get back on the playing field as healthy and quickly as possible.”

In addition to the ACE form six-stage protocol, another part of the formalities relating to concussions is the Baseline Concussion Test. The test is usually taken before the sport season(s), about every two years, when an athlete has not been subjected to train-ing or competition yet. The Baseline Test is a com-puterized test that measures a person’s reaction time, memory, speed of mental processing, and executive functioning of the brain. Greg Smith ’17 comments, “The test includes a bunch of challenges that are used to evaluate different brain functions like recognizing and responding to different colors, memorizing spe-cific lines and shapes, counting backwards from 25 in a certain amount of time, and memorizing a list of words and remembering them on both a short-term and long-term basis. According to how well you do in each of these challenges, it determines the severity of the injury.” By having baseline test information, it allows the athlete to take the same test by the athlete again, to compare pre- and post-injury scores. This increases the chances of diagnosing, treating, and ul-timately preventing a concussion. Smith ’17 adds, “It helped the doctors realize the parts of my brain that

had been affected by the impact and also helped me to heal by understanding what I needed to focus on in order to recover.” It is crucial to follow the appropri-ate procedural actions in order to safely and healthily address the issue of a concussion.

Recent research shows that high school athletes not only take longer to recover, but also tend to expe-rience a greater severity of symptoms. Approximately 53% of high school athletes have sustained a concus-sion before participation in school sports, and 36% of collegiate athletes have a multiple concussion histo-ry. Many effects of concussions can cause severe and long-term effects that will hurt the athlete later on in life. Some common signs of a traumatic brain injury include confusion, nausea, headaches, slurred speech, sensitivity to light, and sensitivity to noise. The fron-tal lobes of the human brain continue to develop until the age of twenty-five, thus it is very important to take care of concussions and traumatic head injuries for optimal neurological development.

In the U.S., there are many models and new el-ements to technological equipment for preventing concussions. These products are advanced equipment to counter the traditional equipment used in sports by creating some type of new and/or extra construction to provide impact absorption and minimize the effects of forces against the head. Jack Coons ’18, explains, “Since I have had a few concussions, I use extra pad-ding inside my lacrosse helmet. The padding helps reduce the force of the hits and therefore reduces the chances of another concussion.” In addition to simple innovative products like Coons’, there are also more sophisticated and progressive products. Two relative-ly recent developed and upcoming examples of pre-ventative gear are Gamebreaker Headgear and Storel-li Protective Head Guards. Alumna Elena Veale ’14, wears a similar head guard while playing field hockey at Haverford College. Sister Simone Veale ’17, ex-plains, “It is for dulling the impact, so if something were to hit her in the head the band would help to stop the vibration and would soften the impact to her brain. By wearing it, it makes her feel more comfortable and more confident while she is playing. That is the most important part.”

Multiple traumatic brain injuries can affect the development of mild cognitive impairments, or cause chronic traumatic encephalopathy or post-concussion syndrome. Long-term effects that can emerge include memory problems, lack of inhibition, personality changes, problems organizing and problem solving, and language impairment. Older athletes who have previously suffered from concussions have symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease. In addition, further testing shows that older athletes who had suffered from concussions experienced a thinning of the cortex – the same part of the brain that Alzheimer’s disease affects.

Concussions, although they can seem inconse-quential now, are likely to have detrimental effects on the brain and someone’s basic neurological functions. The preventative technology and protocols in recent years have become major components regarding the issue of an increase of concussions in youth athlet-ics. Adams concluded, “The great thing about such updates is that we can get a better idea of how the individual athlete responds to testing. By knowing an individual's strengths and weaknesses, we can better identify when there are deficits post-injury. This helps twofold. First, we can accurately determine where an athlete is having the most difficulty and apply accom-modations to help them in school. Second, it allows the athletic trainer and physician to determine when the athlete has fully recovered, indicating that it is safe to start return to sports.”

This Robot Can Help Prevent Concussions Zareef Khan 19’Sports Writer

Concussions are a big issue throughout sports. In fact, Dartmouth University has taken drastic measures towards preventing concussions during practice. For the past five years, the head football coach at Dartmouth, Buddy Teevens, did away with tackling during practice. Instead, he used dummies during practice as a preventive measure for concus-sions. At first, there was skepticism, but Teevens used this method to eliminate the risk of severe in-jury. However, two students at Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering, Elliot Kastner and Quinn Connell, decided that there was need for change. Soon after, the MVP was created.

The MVP, or Mobile Virtual Player, has the po-tential to become something widely used through-out the football community. After two years of being worked on as a capstone project by Kastner and Connell, funded by Teevens, two MVP’s were revealed on August 26th, 2015, with a third one soon to come. Kastner is a former defensive line-man, and he says that concussions are very serious injuries that the MVP can help prevent.

Some may wonder how the MVP is any different from a stationary tackling dummy. The MVP takes the stationary part of the dummy out of the picture. It is remote controlled, and can travel 40 yards in 4.8 seconds. When it gets “tackled,” it goes with the force of the player tackling it, and it provides a much more cushioned body for players tackling it as opposed to dummies. However, some are critical of the MVP, despite what it does for concussion prevention.

It’s still a dummy. A robotic, moving, much safer dummy. Danny Nakamura ’19, states, “It still doesn’t replace an actual player, no matter how real-istic it may be." More voices of concern were raised about the MVP. Daniel Adebi ’18 adds, “It sounds like a really good idea, and I think it’s great that it’s being developed. But what if something goes wrong? What if the robot malfunctions?” These are issues that may concern a lot of people, and Kastner and Connell are currently working more on creating a safer and bug-free robot.

Thanks to the MVP, people need not worry whether or not it’s completely realistic, as it is not meant to be anything more than a safer mov-ing target for practicing football players. Devon Adams, the Head Athletic Trainer at Friends, says, “I’m looking forward to seeing the MVP become programmable. By having it run predictable routes, players will have an effective tool in practice that can potentially reduce risk of concussions. By hav-ing a robotic, predictable ‘athlete,’ athletes will be able to safely learn tackling, new plays, and elimi-nate human error.” Hopefully as the MVP is further developed, new features like programmability can be added so that it can become both safer and more useful. Morgan Taylor, WFS’s Junior Athletic Train-ing Student from the University of Delaware, says, “I feel that it’s a good stepping stone for people who are new to football. Allowing them to practice on a robot rather than a human will allow them to be able to mess up and cause no harm.” The MVP could spread to more schools and have more ad-vanced technology. Despite the current minor flaws of the MVP, if development continues, the MVP can go from a safe robotic tackling dummy used in a couple schools to a fully programmable robotic training dummy in schools around the country.

Entertainment

09The Whittier Miscellany

Holiday Issue 2015

How Does the Holiday Season Affect Mental Health?

Oftentimes, the holiday season is referred to as “the most wonderful time of the year.” Most houses and familiar places around our community are adorned with lights in many different, vibrant colors imaginable and decorations covering every square inch of properties and dwelling spaces. Cheerful holiday songs are blasted on every ra-dio station and in every store, and people begin to break out their festive holiday sweaters with matching miniatures for their children. Howev-er, the holiday season does not only bring about external changes in our everyday lives. With the holidays comes significant changes in mental and emotional states. November, December, and Jan-uary may bring bright colors and happiness; how-ever, these few months may also bring stress and depression into the lives of many people.

No matter what one’s religion or practice may be, there is always excitement and anticipation for the traditions and family gatherings that are brought about by the holidays. It is a time when family and friends come together to celebrate an important day to all of them. Even here at WFS, we celebrate the holidays in many ways, varying from the holiday celebration to festive drinks in

the Java Nook. Being surrounded by loved ones can bring a sense of peace and happiness to many people, even if the particular holidays being celebrated by each individual are not identical. Matt Killingsworth of The New York Times concludes from his study of over 20,000 people that, “spending time with our friends and family turns out to be a robustly positive predictor of our happiness.” The company of loved ones who may live far away and only come on special occasions may be an uplifting experience that enhanc-es the cheerful essence of the holiday season. Mason Tschantz ‘19 described his love of the holiday season saying, “Having all of my siblings and family together makes me a lot happier. All of the decorations and fes-tive music puts me and my family in a better mood.”

Although the holidays seem to bring cheer into the lives of many, this season can also be an indicator of stress and anxiety. The Mayo Clinic is a leading medical practice, research, and education program.The Mayo Clinic staff describes the holiday season as “a dizzying array of demands.” Recognizing the men-tal toll and stress that parties, gifts, and guests the sea-son brings with it, the Mayo Clinic has created a guide to keeping oneself from slipping into a depression during this time of mental strain. The expectations to provide friends and family with presents can become a major mental burden on people and their families.

The stress that accompanies midterm exams also

impedes on the opportunities of high school stu-dents to enjoy holiday festivities. Margaret Sulli-van shared her thoughts about the upcoming sea-son: “Although I love the Christmas music and decorations on every corner, the holidays do also tend to bring a lot of stress into my life. Especial-ly with midterms usually the week before winter break, it can be difficult to find time and babysit-ting opportunities to make enough money to buy gifts for friends and family.” Having school during the holiday season may make it difficult to fully experience the joy that the holidays have to offer.

For the majority of America, the holiday sea-son puts pressure on millions in the sense of time, finances, and trying to satisfy everyone’s needs as well as live up to their expectations. Expectations regarding gift exchanges, making others feel com-fortable and welcome in your home, and finding the time and money to put towards shopping and travel can be very stressful for any individual. However, although this season may bring unwant-ed stress, it also may bring happiness to people all over the world. The holiday season reunite families and friends, bringing people of all back-grounds together.

Allie Fulginiti ‘17Entertainment Writer

Does the holiday season get you down? Don’t worry, you are not alone. Up to 20% of American teens admit to feeling less energetic, productive, and happy during the winter months. Between the lack of sunlight, early mornings, hectic holiday planning and overbearing family members, it is only natural to feel the winter blues. Luckily, there are natural food reme-dies that will certainly make any dark winter morning a look little brighter and the holiday season as a whole feel a little less stressful. With the right mix of healthy and tasty ingredients, winter will become a joyous season filled with homemade treats.

Food plays a major role in overall mental health-especially for teenagers. Fortunately, out of all of the uncontrollable obstacles and factors in our daily lives, food intake is one of the elements we can control. A healthy food intake not only affects physi-cal appearance and wellness, but can also affect basic brain chemistry which later influences moods, emo-tions, and mental health. According to doctors, the best 3 types of nutrients to intake for mental health are folate, vitamin D, and omega-3 fatty acids.

Folate is found in green leafy vegetables and high-protein foods. Kale, fruits, nuts, and beans are examples of folate-rich foods. Folate is vital for the production of cells, healthy hair, skin, and eyes, and is proven to reduce symptoms of depression.

Vitamin D is found in any form of citrus, and is an important catalyst for happiness. Rates of depres-sion are proven to be higher with people with vitamin D deficiencies, and vitamin D helps combat seasonal affective disorder, or the “winter blues”. Vitamin D is known to help the body absorb calcium for a stron-ger body, immune system, and mind. Our bodies nor-mally produce vitamin D as a result of being in the sun. However, during the winter months, there is not enough sun for our bodies to produce vitamin D with-out the help of food and/or supplements.

Lastly, omega-3 fatty acids have also been rec-ommended to help mental and general health. Ome-ga-3s are normally found in walnuts, flaxseed, or green leafy vegetables like spinach and kale. Ome-ga-3s are incredibly helpful for the prevention of de-pression, and are known to be mood stabilizers. They have also been proven to aid antidepressants, reduce inflammation, and even help with ADD and ADHD symptoms.

During a hectic school year centered around tempting holiday treats, it is extremely difficult to stick to a mental-health aware diet. However, with the help of delicious and fast recipes, this winter will be filled with a little more happiness, focus, and fun. Here are easy recipes that pack all 3 important nutri-ents in each bite:

Craisin Crumble:

Ingredients:Filling-4 apples1 tbsp lemonjuice of 2 orangeszest of 1 orange1 cup craisins2 tbsp potato starch

Topping-1 cup oats (roughly ground)6 dates1 tsp maple extract1 tsp vanilla3 tbsp soymilk

Directions:Preheat your oven to 350° F, and grease a large

pie pan. Dice the apples, and juice and zest the two oranges. In a medium saucepan, add ½ cup of water, diced apples, orange zest and juice, and lemon juice.

The Best Foods for the Best Moods Throughout the HolidaysOlivia Garber ‘16Entertainment Writer Put this over low heat for about 10-12 minutes or

until the apples are soft. Add in the craisins, and stir for about 2 minutes. Let cool. Next in a blender or a food-processor, roughly grind the oats. In a large bowl, add the mashed dates, maple extract, vanilla and soymilk. Mix this together until it forms a crum-bly texture. In the pie dish, add the filling and then place the crumbly oat mixture on top. Put this in the oven for about 25-30 minutes or until the crumbly top is golden brown.

Blooming Apples:

Ingredients:6 Apples (cut in half, and only cored half way)10-12 dates7-8 Tbsp cinnamon1 tsp nutmeg½ cup milk (any kind)¼ cup of chopped walnuts

Directions:Preheat your oven to 350° F, and fill two large

baking pans with a ¼ inch of water. Cut each apple in half, horizontally. Core the two halves only halfway, leave a bit of the core at the bottom. Next, with a par-ing knife make two circles in the whites of the apple. Flip the apple over, and cut the edge about 5 times. Flip the apple over again, and spread the cuts so it looks like a blooming flower. Next, in a large bowl mash the dates until it forms a thick paste. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, and walnuts. Lastly, add the milk until the paste is slightly thinner. Take a spoon and fill the cuts between the apple with the paste. Once all the apples are covered, place them face up in the pans. Place the pans in the oven for about 30-35 minutes. Best served with vanilla ice cream!

* For more fun and healthy holiday recipes visit

Entertainment

10 The Whittier Miscellany

Holiday Issue 2015

Quinn Kirkpatrick ’16Entertainment Writer

On December 18th, 2015, millions will travel to movie theaters across the United States to watch the midnight premiere of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. The Force Awakens is the seventh installment of the very popular Star Wars saga. When the tickets went on sale, Fandango saw web traffic increase to seven times larger than its previous record held by Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part Two.

The Force Awakens takes place thirty years after the defeat of the Galactic Empire. After killing Darth Vader and blowing up the Death Star, Han Solo and his allies are faced with the task of defeating a new enemy, Kylo Ren and his army of Stormtroopers. The film brings back actors from the original hexalogy including Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), and Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker).

Instead of using the most modern technology and effects, JJ Abrams, the director of the new film, used old school special effects to connect the new film with the original trilogy. Abrams felt that the “prequels were flawed by the fact that they had every [CG] tool known to mankind and used everything at their disposal.” Abram’s and his team extensively researched the techniques used in the first three films. In terms of visual effects, they shot as much in-camera as they could, which meant building extensive sets, big models, and using matte paintings instead of relying on the green screen technology that was so prevalent in the prequels. There is still going to be CGI (Computer-generated imagery) in the film, but it will only be used in strategic places. The Force Awakens will bring the audience back to the original galaxy shown in the first three films.

The highly anticipated first full-length trailer aired during ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game between the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles on October 19th, and it lived up to its expectations. Afterwards, both the internet and social media blew up. The footage has been viewed nearly 60 million times on the official “Star Wars” YouTube channel (as of November 20, 2015). The number of tweets jumped from 3,700 per minute before the trailer aired, to more

than 17,000 tweets per minute — or about 283 tweets per second. There were 1.1 million about the trailer over the first twelve hours after it aired. On Facebook 1.3 million people engaged in 2.1 million interactions within the first hour of the trailer release. When asked about her favorite part of the trailer, Wilmington Friends School student Sydney Gardner ‘16, said, “my favorite part was seeing some of the characters from the original movies like Han Solo. I can’t wait to see it in theatres. It is going to be great!”

Movie complexes all over the United States quickly added more showtimes in order to deal with the high demand for tickets. The movie has already sold more than six times the previous record holder for presales in IMAX theaters bringing in $ 6.5 million. The film passed The Dark Knight Rises, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and Avengers, all of which earned approximately $1 million in presales.

The hype that comes with the premiere of The Force Awakens has even reached the Wilmington Friends School community. Whittier asked Drew Mangan ‘17, a well-known Star Wars enthusiast, about his feelings towards the seventh film. He commented, “I am very excited for the new Star Wars movie. I think that JJ Abrams and Disney will continue this wonderful saga. I have already bought two tickets for opening weekend, but I plan on seeing it five more times before it leaves the theaters.” Drew is one of the few premiere ticket holders, and when asked how much he would sell them for, he replied saying, “They are priceless, but if I had to put a price on them I’d say $100,000.” When asked who his favorite and least favorite characters were, he answered with, “Jar Jar Binks is my least favorite, and my favorite is Luke Skywalker. I am looking to forward to seeing Kylo Ren in the new Saga because of his mysterious background.” Mangan clearly has a respectable opinion on the film.

The 7th film in the Saga, produced by LucasFilm and Disney, opens up in theaters on December 18th as the first of multiple films planned for the future. A new Star Wars film is planned for release every year until 2019. It looks like for the next 4 years, no box office records are safe. The Force Awakens is predicted to gross more than any other film ever and could possibly pass $2 billion in earnings. The Force will not only be awakened, but revitalized in American culture.

The Force is Strong at the Box Office

Can We “Autocorrect” our Obsession With Technology?Maggie Martelli Raben ’18Entertainment Writer

Since the 2012-2013 school year, Wilmington Friends School has been a part of the 1:1 program in which each student is given a personal MacBook laptop. Along with this program there are now 3-D printers, a theater with advanced light and sound capabilities, and the new upper school Design Lab. Computer Science teacher Jenks Whittenburg commented, “Technology here is an extremely helpful tool for my class especially, however that should be used productively, else they can consume too much time.” Tools such as the SMART Board improve learning by enlarging everything you can see on your computer. However, as technology advances, the addiction and fascination with it increases. In a recent study by The New York Times, it was revealed that high school students spend up to eight hours per day staring at a screen. Whether it be a large screen or mobile computing device, the hours seems to add up much quicker than most kids, and adults, would assume. Extra technology has affected high school students and their ability to learn.

Studies conducted by NPR and BBC suggest that excessive technology can alter our sleep patterns. The artificial light from a T.V., computer, or phone screen,

affects melatonin production and can prevent one from reaching deep sleep. Sleep Foundation recommends spending 30 minutes away from a screen before going to sleep. Lack of sleep reduces academic and athletic productivity, which WFS students value. It impedes on attention spans and reaction times. A study conducted by Microsoft confirmed that the average attention span dropped from 12 seconds to 8 seconds since 2000, later adding that 77% of people aged 18 to 24 responded “yes” when asked, “When nothing is occupying my attention, the first thing I do is reach for my phone.” Joslyn Gardner ’16 responded to the issue, “Technology is a huge distraction because if I have the option to watch T.V. or be on my phone, I’m more susceptible to procrastination, and that affects grades.”

The increasing accessibility of technology encourages kids to spend too much of their free time glued to electronic devices and “social networking,” rather than staying active and making friends. Some students at WFS fear this might lead to anxiety in social situations. Jay Handwerk ’18 said, “it should be used with caution because too much technology enables people to hide behind screens to bully people, or it can slow the development of social skills and give kids an outlet that makes them antisocial.” A term coined (continued on page 12)

Television Embraces Mentally DisabledEmily Rossi ’17Entertainment Writer

The film industry has been embracing diversity. There have been mentally ill characters in many recent shows, including Glee, American Horror Story, and Orange is the New Black. In television, mental illness has been portrayed in both positive and negative lights.

Fans of Glee praise the show for its depiction of Becky Jackson, a cheerleader with Down syndrome. However the Fox hit generated controversy after airing an episode in which Jackson, played by developmental diasbilities activist Lauren Potter, brings a gun to school, prompting a lockdown. Vice President of the National Down Syndrome Society, Julie Cevallos argued, “Taking a gun to school is something very serious and would likely come with a mental health condition. That’s not appropriate for someone with Down syndrome and not a stigma they need.” Potter’s mother, Robin Sinkhorn disagreed, telling The Huffington Post, “If Becky’s going to be fully included on the show—which they’ve done such a good job about that and giving her these juicy stories—then why not Becky?” The debate regarding the characterization of Becky continues, and Glee creator stands by the episode, calling it the “most powerful emotional Glee ever” on Twitter.

Another hit show to spotlight a character with mental disabilities is American Horror Story on FX. Autistic actress Jamie Brewer plays Adelaide Langdon in the show’s opening season, “Murder House.” While Adelaide warns the other characters to stay away from the “Murder House,” she appears very sinister. Many worry this character is a misrepresentation of those with mental illnesses. Skeptics of this depiction in American Horror Story question the show’s true intentions with Adelaide Langdon and the other mentally disabled characters that appear through its seasons.

Many appreciate the depiction of Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren, who stars in Orange is the New Black. Suzanne is portrayed as an emotionally unstable inmate with a violent past. Suzanne’s childhood was disturbed from frequent bullying due to her mental health issues. While considered a comical character, Suzanne is offended by the label associated with her nickname. Uzo Aduba, who plays “Crazy Eyes,” earned Emmy Award recognition in the comedy and drama genres for her role.

It may seem that the film industry is opening up to the idea of disability, but some find that disabled characters are being represented negatively. Katy Shannon ‘17, says “It is a good thing that they are portraying characters with mental health issues at all. Still, they have a long way to come when portraying characters in a positive and more “normal” light, not just as a punchline or something to be afraid of.”

Mrs. Kenney shared her view, saying, “The truth is, many directors and writers have used mental health issues as a way to question what is “normal.” To writers and directors, looking through the eyes of people who are different then themselves is another way to see the world. Many artists and writers have mental health issues themselves, so they are examining the link between mental health and creativity.” There are multiple cases where the film and television industries embrace the mentally and physically disabled. Sometimes though, disability has been portrayed in a negative light. The film industry might be welcoming new ideas, but they still have a long way to go.

Community

11The Whittier Miscellany

Holiday Issue 2015

Essena O’Neil and her Critique of Social Media Lindsay Weber ’17Freelance Columnist

There are very few teenagers these days that can say they haven’t spent hours and hours on Instagram and Facebook, scrolling through the accounts of models and celebrities with seeming-ly perfect lives. Essena O’Neil, a former Youtu-ber and Instagram model, is looking to change the way we perceive and present ourselves and others on social media. O’Neil had over 600,000 Insta-gram followers and 250,000 Youtube subscrib-ers before she decided, very publicly, to quit all of her social media platforms altogether. Before deleting all of her Instagram posts, she edited the captions of her seemingly colorful, carefree life to expose the truth behind them. Her “tell-all” video is called “Why I think Social Media sucks,” and in it, she renounces all of her media and admits that her posts and pictures, particularly on Instagram, were completely contrived and contrasted sharply with how she felt on the inside. She states: “It was never my conscious intention, but I deluded a lot of people... Call it deception, manipulation, lying, not saying the whole truth... I was both addicted to social approval and terrified no one would value me for myself. So I rewrote the captions of these false photos with short shots of reality.” In place of her old internet persona, she has started up a website, letsbegamechangers.com, that aims to be a hub of artistic expression, social awareness and positive change. O’Neil has received a truly mixed bag of responses to her anti-social media message, with many praising her bravery, but others fighting back against the idea that social media is purely a neg-ative thing. Her drastic call to action has sparked an important dialogue on social media and its im-pact on our society. I admire O’Neil’s bravery in renouncing her contrived life on social media to favor an internet presence that she feels is more positive and authentic. She challenges her viewers to go for one week without social media, which I think is a great goal; social media can often be distracting and limiting, and it can be very refresh-ing to take a break. However, I can’t bring myself to agree with some of the generalizations she has made regarding social networking as a whole, and I believe some of her statements are discrediting some of the positive changes it can inspire. This isn’t to say that it is in any way healthy to become obsessed with likes and follower counts; except to say that her case represents an extreme within the realm of social media obsession. Becoming consumed by petty numbers is an obvious danger on a platform on which we can view the amount of people have liked, commented, shared, and fol-lowed. There is no denying that social media can be a catalyst for this kind of insincerity and nega-tive self-image. This doesn’t mean we can invalidate all of social media as being contrived purely for at-tention, wealth, and fame. A lot of the media we see in general is fabricated in some way; this isn’t limited purely to social websites. We should know to always question the media we consume and the messages we take in. It is crucial to be aware of...(continued on page 12)

Are Cars an Invention of the Past? Emilio Ergueta ’16Freelance Columnist

Most of us cannot imagine a life without cars. Whether to go to school, to visit our friends, or to go to the movies; we all use cars on a daily basis. With gas prices so low and free drivers education at our school, why wouldn’t we? However, what few of us realize is that cars may soon be rendered obso-lete. I’m not talking about flying cars, jetpacks, or teleportation; I’m talking about cars disappearing in our cities. While it may seem impossible today, many suggest it is just around the corner. A few weeks ago, the city of Oslo, Norway, a city of nearly 600,000 residents, announced that it would be going “car-free” by the year 2019. This may sound like an impossible feat, but they are well on their way to making the whole downtown area a restricted zone for cars. In removing all cars, they plan to make more room for pedestrians to walk and enjoy the city with-out having to be wary of drivers or breathe in polluted air. As part of the program the city is also expanding its cycling network, building another 35-40 miles of bike lanes, as well as expanding the public transporta-tion system. A final measure the city is taking is a larg-er rental bike system, which allows users to rent bikes from any part of town, use them for up to 12 hours, and then return them. In essence people will be trad-ing in their cars for subway passes, and car keys for bicycle locks any time they want to go into the city. Oslo is not the first place to make this shift. A year ago, Madrid pledged to do the same thing by 2020, abolishing car traffic from 500 acres of the city center. Paris is also beginning to phase out cars from certain popular tourist sites like Notre Dame. Both these cities have excellent public transportation sys-tems that run more efficiently, and certainly more eco-

Are Breaks as Valuable as Class Time? Nolan Delaney ’16 Freelance Columnist It is second period, 9:45 in the morning. You are slouched over in class, stomach rumbling. You didn’t have time to eat breakfast before you left for school. You should be attentive to the teacher, but you’re not. Your eyes are glued to the clock with a zombie-like stare, watching as every second goes by slower than the last. You cannot focus any longer; what you need is your five-minute break, but for some reason, the teacher is not giving it to you. Five-minute breaks around the middle of a dou-ble period give students the opportunity for a much needed ‘brain break.’ They divide up what can oth-erwise be a grueling ninety-minute block. Many stu-dents find it difficult to pay attention to any subject for such a long period of time, regardless of whether or not they enjoy the subject. Student-athlete Jona-than Gardner ’16 agrees, sharing; “without a break I start to loose focus and I zone out by the end of class. Five-minute breaks help me pay attention during the second half of a double.” Gardner’s opinion on breaks are actually backed by scientific research. In an article posted online by The New York Times called “To Stay on Schedule, Take a Break” by Phyllis Korkki, Korkki quotes the research of John P. Trougakos, assistant management professor at The University of Toronto. Trougakos says “Mental concentration is similar to a muscle… it [the brain] becomes fatigued after sustained use and needs a rest period so it can recover - much as a weightlifter needs a rest before performing a second set in the gym.”

logically friendly than cars. A personal example, for me, is the city of Montpellier, France, where I lived for a year. The city had been battling traffic problems for years, especially in the densely packed, historic downtown. To solve its problems, at the turn of the century, it decided to to make a radical change. In the year 2000 it built a system of trams that provided a cheap, reliable, and environmentally friendly way to travel the city. The trams ran mainly on roads previ-ously used by cars, cutting accessibility for drivers, and in the historic downtown cars are completely banned. Although a large risk for the city, the tram was a huge success, and now 282,000 people use it every day. As it connects to the bus system and even the downtown bike sharing system it provides a wide variety of travel opportunities. Also with a year- long card costing approximately $240, it is cheaper than any car. Downtown has also become much friendlier to tourists and town residents alike. A hidden benefit to this change was that because the downtown is still accessible for utility vehicles, if there is ever an emer-gency, they can respond quicker than before. All of this makes Montpellier a cleaner, greener, and safer place to live and go out. Bringing a system like that in Montpellier to the U.S. would be extremely difficult, but not unthink-able. Already the downtown areas of cities like New York City, Boston, and Washington D.C. are investing millions in the expansion of their public transporta-tion systems. These are; however, exceptions to the trend the whole rest of the country is following We have what some sociologists call “The culture of the car.” Every aspect of our lives is structured around it. Cities like Wilmington are laid out for optimised flow of car traffic and are meant to be completely accessi-ble by car. As someone who does not have a car (continued on page 12)

I am cautious and appreciative of the 15-minute break given in-between doubles, but to argue this as being sufficient enough would be missing the point. The 15-minute break is a great opportunity for stu-dents to go to the Java Nook and de-zombify them-selves with a cup of coffee or finish homework missed from the previous night. This break is not, however, sufficient; even with 15 minutes in-between doubles to look forward to, or back on, 90 minutes is still too long for most students to stay seated and successfully pay attention. Doubles have the same taxing effect on the brain as a marathon has on the legs: both are strenuous and exhausting. Ultimately, the five minutes of class time that some teachers at WFS keep to themselves hurts the students. I believe the five minutes of missed class time is not as valuable as the break that allows the student to pay better attention for the last 45 minutes of class. During double periods, teachers have 90 minutes to cover the material; a short break is hardly a difficult sacrifice for teachers to make. Furthermore, given the numerous scientific studies in support of the brain break’s ability to ben-efit the student, it seems only practical for teachers to universally implement this break in their classes. In my own experience, I find that it helps me retain more knowledge in that it divides the class into two 45-minute chunks of information rather than a con-stant 90-minute overwhelming list of information to remember. Many teachers fail to recognize the extremely small amount of free time many students have. (continued on page 12)

Continuations

12 The Whittier Miscellany

Holiday Issue 2015

Page 1 - Hello Barbie the vast technological advancement that competes against artificial intelligences such as Siri is as radi-cal as the new way children interact with their toys. But despite Hello Barbie’s technical successes, its creation raises important ethical questions. While Hello Barbie’s impressive ability to remember im-portant things about a child depends upon her stor-ing memory, people worry whether toy companies should hold the records of all the intimate things a child says to the doll she holds in bed at night. Likewise, while Barbie serves as a positive, entertaining role model and companion, it is alto-gether possible that her pre-programmed personal-ity and actions could stunt a child’s utilization of her imagination, an essential skill. Hello Barbie, while a major innovation in the toy industry, starts an important discussion about the introduction of artificial intelligence to society’s most vulnerable audience.

Page 5 - Attitude and Performance ...high importance on tests and the grades earned, which can remove the fun from a class and make the student disinterested, especially when they feel like they will do badly no matter how hard they try. “I don’t like when teachers don’t make it clear what we’re being tested on. I like when teachers are exact with what we have to know,” one student explains. Students’ confidence can also affect their per-formance a great deal. A study at the University of Southern Mississippi on the correlation between achievement and attitude in fifth-grade math stu-dents found that, “Extroversion was the only trait to have a significant relationship with achievement, showing that students who were more extroverted scored higher on the test.” Nick Gauthier ’17 agrees with this: “If you’re in a positive mindset that you know the material, you’re more likely to be able to recall relevant information.” If a student has not done well in a class before, they are likely to be less confident when participating and performing in assessments in that class. Something that is not always accepted in tra-ditional school systems is the idea that some people just have an innate ability, or lack thereof, to do well in certain subjects. “Math has just never clicked in my brain like it does for some people, and I just don’t find it interesting or engaging,” explains one student. Despite most people having a particular-ly bad subject that they have never seemed to be able to understand, this is not something that school systems allow for. It is natural for people to have strong and weak areas, and most students will go on to work in somewhat specialized fields as adults. However, students are expected to be well-rounded and perform well in a variety of subjects while in grade school. Perhaps students would be more open to try-ing new, riskier subjects if they were not graded so harshly in them, or if there was not so much impor-tance placed on grades. “I like the idea of no grades in theory, but I feel like a lot of people would be less motivated to do well,” one student shares. Students can feel disinterested in classes when they don’t have the tools to succeed or the confi-dence to perform to their full potential. Perhaps teachers are the key to helping students feel more engaged in classes, or students themselves need to try to be more engaged in class in order to perform better. Either way, this is something everyone in school can relate to at some point, and is trying to

improve.

Page 7 - Amputations ...her legs were amputated, she finished third in a snowboarding competition. This shows how the prosthetic limbs allow athletes to continue to play their favorite sports almost just as well as before amputation. As with almost every global topic, prosthetic limbs have caused controversy in the sports world. Oscar Pistorius is an example of the issue people have with this. Some people feel that his prosthetic legs were an unfair advantage to his running career if he was competing against people who do not also have prosthetic legs. This is due to the fact that the legs he used are a lot lighter and are more air re-sistance than regular legs. Scientific studies carried out in regards to this issue have shown that Oscar’s prosthetic limbs make him 15-20% faster than he would be with regular legs. Ellen Johnson says, “It is tempting to say that corrective use is all for the good, while enhancement, as in athletic training, opens many ethical questions. It may seem that the use of prosthetics for injury/developmental repair or reconstruction is not controversial at all. How-ever, as with all technology, there are many models from basic to state of the art. And not all individ-uals will have the same access to the same newest and best features. But we do not turn away from technical advances in other aspects of our lives – is there something different about technology con-nected to our bodies?” In addition, because of how the legs position his upper body, he is able to leave the ground for a longer period of time, causing more energy to be generated with each stride. Sloan Maas ’18 says in response to this, “I don’t think that people with prosthetic legs should be forced to participate in specific leagues, because even with the advantage, they are still working just as hard as the other runners to prepare for the competitions. They shouldn’t be banned from competing in the olympics simply because they were born at a dis-advantage.” Other scientists with the same response began conducting more research to see just how much of an advantage the legs actually gave Pistorius. The results of the Rice University study were present-ed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzer-land in 2008, which decided that Pistorius should be allowed to run, revoking the IAAF’s decision. Unfortunately, he missed qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Olympics by 0.7 seconds, and did not end up competing anyway. Prosthetic limbs are seen as an amazing tech-nological advance for those in need of them. They have allowed athletes to continue to participate in the sports they love and devote their time to even after tragic events. This is just one of the many rea-sons why they are such an admired invention.

Page 10 - Overuse of Technology“Facebook Depression” is becoming more and more common amongst high school teens, and is defined as “emotional disturbance that develops when preteens and teens spend a great deal of time on Facebook.” Internet bullying has become preva-lent now that kids have continuous access to social networking sites. A study by Huffington Post stated that 39% of teens on social network have been cy-berbullied in some way. Students at WFS also ad-mit to being frequently distracted by the incessant fashion or technology advertisements that follow us no matter what website we visit. This is not to say that technology is always a bad

thing. Technology allows us to complete assign-ments with efficiency and creativity. Many people also credit technology for the ability to communi-cate with friends and family across long distances. With the help of technology here at WFS, last year’s 9th grade Peace and Social Justice corresponded with students in Sweden for several months. The advancement of medical technologies saves lives, by expediting cures and advanced research and dis-coveries. WFS students should of course be grate-ful for the laptops and tools they have access to at school everyday. However, the disturbing statistics regarding technology use among teenagers invite us to reconsider what forms of technology use are truly necessary and beneficial.

Page 11 - Essena O’Neil ...how powerful social media can be in our lives and be careful to not become wrapped up in its allure. Despite this, online media can be a powerful tool for social commentary and artistic/self-expres-sion; it is negative only when it is used in such a detrimental way. To discredit the platform of social media is to deny that it can be a powerful tool for innovation and change. I am inspired by O’Neil’s drive to ‘take back the internet’ in a way that raises awareness of issues and causes that are bigger than just the persona we try to convey online. However, I am not convinced that social media is completely to blame for the problems of inauthenticity and the need for social approval that she cites. I believe that social media can go in either direction, and it is up to us to de-cide whether that direction is negative or positive. There is nothing inherently wrong with using social media, as long as you don’t allow social media to use you.

Page 11 - Disappearance of Cars...and lives in Wilmington, I can tell you it is vir-tually impossible to get from one place to another. Drivers in Wilmington have no respect for the biker or the pedestrian. If you try to take the bus, you will be faced with a complex system which is far from being intuitive, and suggests routes for you that are entirely nonsensical. Instead of moving towards more public transport for the future, Amer-ican Venture Capitalists are investing in Uber or Tesla. We are constantly trying to improve upon our car-based system, attempting to make it less noisy, less polluting, and more efficient. What if, however, the best solution is to remove them from the equation entirely?

Page 11 - Class Breaks For example, IB student/ athletes: due to a busy schedule filled with a varsity sport, extra-curricular clubs, and an IB certificate curriculum, one may have to routinely work through breaks and even lunch periods. The five-minute breaks a teacher gives to a student may very easily end up being the only brain break a student enjoys in a school day. A five-minute breather may be the only moment during the day a student can find his or her sanity. Teachers need to appreciate not only the value of the five- minute break, but also how much the student appreciates it. Our brains are capable, cre-ative, and clever, but no muscle can be used for 90 straight minutes without driving it to exhaustion, just like a muscle in the gym. A single double pe-riod can have the wearing effect of a marathon if a break is not given to the students. A brief five minutes of break time is a fair trade for 85 minutes of focus.