A Public Forum for News, Opinion, and Creative Thought of The Governor’s Academy
February 4, 2010 Volume 52, Issue 5
I n t h i s i ss u e
Wednesday Wanderings
By: John Damianos ‘12
Possible, Probable........................ 2
To Slide or Not to Slide............... 2
F e at u r e s
SMART Team................................... 3
Fighter Review............................... 3
Golden Globes............................... 4
Assassin’s Review.......................... 4
Bud Keene....................................... 5
Alex Carpenter............................... 5
Op i n i o n s
Necessary Evil................................ 6
Application Priority...................... 7
Ba c k Pa g e
Birthdays.......................................... 8
Govs on Twitter............................. 8
Quote of the Issue........................ 8
This issue of The Governor
Every Wednesday morning at
The Governor’s Academy, the entire
school, students and faculty alike,
meet in the Moseley Chapel, where a
member of the community presents a
topic. The speaker usually tells a story or performs a piece of music. This
tradition began with Headmaster Peter Bragdon. Before Mr. Bragdon, the
school hired a chaplain to offer wisdom to the student body. Since Governor’s is not a religiously affiliated
school, this was controversial. Mr.
Bragdon decided that “more potential
emerges from a community than from
a chaplain,” and resolved that members of the student body or faculty
would speak weekly. Thus, a committee formed; every Tuesday, members
of this group would meet with Mr.
Bragdon after dinner and discuss who
and what would be spoken in the chapel the next day. Students of all agesnot just seniors- had the opportunity
to present.
Mr. Bragdon recalls that there
were many “wonderful talks” that he
will “never forget.” For instance, he
remembers when a girl spoke about
what it was like to be poor, and how
thankful she was to be at Govs, where
Photo credit: Bill Franson
The Chapel
she had three meals per day and a
bed to sleep on. An Asian student discussed what it was like to be a person
with different colored skin from the
rest of the student body. One faculty
member told his story of how he was
incarcerated upon coming back from
WWII.
Over the years, there were also
some
controversial
presentations.
During a presentation on the horrors
of Buchenwald concentration camp, a
German girl ran out crying. Another
time, the school invited a chaplain to
come speak. He told the community
that God’s love was not available for
those who had abortions.
Mr. Bragdon calls the chapel
tradition, “a wonderful forum,” saying he doesn’t “know what we would
do without that chapel.” According
to him, it is a place to express “our
joys and sorrows.” He recalls the time
when a member of the student body
died of leukemia, and the whole community met in the chapel to hear the
announcement and mourn. Another
memorable time was on September 11, 2001, when Mr. Doggett announced the terrorist attacks in the
chapel in front of the community. In
both instances, times of sorrow and
mourning, the community came together as one in the Moseley Chapel.
Today, the tradition of the chapel still stands. Mr. Bragdon’s belief
that “every student and teacher can
act as a moral leader” still holds true.
It is proof that we can truly learn from
one another, and that “wisdom can
come from all ages.”
The Shot Heard Around the World
By: Tina mcgrath ‘12
One look at the eerie smile and
crooked stare in Jared Lee Loughner’s mug shot is enough to send
chills up the spine. He is the young
man charged with the shootings that
took place Tucson, Arizona on January 8, 2011. The attack, which took
place that Saturday morning at a supermarket, left six dead and 14 others
wounded.
.Numerous sources reported that
prior to the shootings, Loughner’s behavior indicated that he was mentally
unstable. He suffered from personality transformations, which may have
been enhanced by drug use. Friends
confirmed that after he dropped out
of high school in 2006, his odd behavior became apparent. He secluded
himself for periods of time without
speaking to others. In the next few
years, he was fired from several jobs
for strange behavior at work and
deemed “unqualified” to serve in the
U.S. Army in 2008. Although Loughner clearly dealt with psychological
problems, he did not seek help.
The attack was most likely an
attempt to assassinate Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords was shot in the head, and although she survived, she was left in
critical condition. One friend reported that Loughner was known to
dislike Giffords. In 2007 he attended
a campaign event and asked Giffords
a question, which he complained
she did not address. Another friend
shared Loughner’s belief that women
should not hold government positions. Although Loughner targeted
Giffords during his attack, he opened
fire on other bystanders in the area.
Nine-year-old Christina Green, the
focus of President Obama’s memorial
speech for the victims, was one of the
six people killed during the shootings.
.In the aftermath of the shootings,
the question lingers: Could this tragedy have been prevented? Perhaps the
store where Loughner bought his gun
should not have sold it to him. Maybe
one of his friends or employers could
have convinced him to seek help to
improve his mental health. More importantly, as Americans look ahead,
we need to wonder how we can prevent any similar attacks in the future.
Send to:
Editorials
Editorials
The Governor
A Public Forum for News, Opinion,
and Creative Thought of The Governor’s Academy
December 16, 2010 Volume 52, Issue 4
Editors-in-chief:
Katie Reilly ‘11
Nora Kline ‘11
David Lim ‘11
Ma n a g i n g E d i tors:
Rachel Cabitt ‘12
Dylan Binnie ‘11
A. Okeke-Diagne ‘11
Advisors:
Ms. Sue Hofmann
Ms. Brenda Riddell
P h o t o g r ap h y
Editors:
Michelle Gallipeau‘11
John Damianos ‘12
Christine Lee ‘12
Mas t h e a d :
Abby Matses ‘11
S taff A r t i s t s : :
Kaylee Ryu ‘12
Rory Burke ‘11
Emma Collins ‘12
S taff W r i t e r s :
Tina McGrath ‘12
Andres Saenz ‘12
Lauren Labrique ‘12
Rachel Cabitt ‘12
Ryan Kelly ‘11
Kayla Jenson ‘11
Skylar Frisch ‘11
Doc Bradley (Faculty)
Editorial
To Slide or Not to
Slide...
Nora Kline ‘11
As I started to open a suspiciously small envelope on the afternoon of December 17, 2010, I could not resist the final surge of pressure and stress that had
undoubtedly overcome my body, along with those of my classmates, for the past
three months. Rather than handling the piece of mail delicately, since I may
have wanted to keep this particular envelope forever, I aggressively tore open the
defensive seal and ripped out the letter from Vanderbilt University.
I wish I could say that all my worries vanished and I no longer felt any stress
about schoolwork or applications, but that would be a lie. Of course I was ecstatic about the news this letter brought, and especially relieved, but in the back
of my head I could not help but think about my performance on my exams that
week or the amount of reading I had to do in the Scarlet Letter over break. But
I suppose that was a change from the norm; those thoughts were in the back of
my head, not banging around in the front. Without a doubt, I was still going
to be the overachieving, uptight, and grade oriented student I had always been,
regardless of the college acceptance letter in my hand.
I face the judgmental looks and side comments every day -- the “why are you
studying, you’re already into college,” remarks and the “you’re doing homework
on a Saturday … really?” quips. As much as I want to “slack” and “senior slide,”
I just can’t find it within myself. But I know longer feel the overwhelming pressure of high school transcripts, and perhaps this is the ingredient to success.
I will admit that I, along with the majority of my classmates, cannot help
but shoot teachers judgmental glares when they give us the motivational speech
about not giving up second semester, because motivation, at this point, is only
going to come from within us. We have the power to choose whether or not
we want to work hard and succeed. Since grades are no longer a daunting and
crucial part of school for us, there is not much teachers can say or do to keep
attention and focus high in a classroom full of seniors. But without the added
stress of transcripts and college applications, it seems as if success is now easier
to achieve than it was before. At the end of the day the only work we now face is
schoolwork. We don’t have to make time to tweak our CommonApps or finish
up the fourth draft of our college essays; we can simply just enjoy the lost art of
learning for the sake of knowledge.
Of course there are multiple perks to the notorious “senior slide.” Rather
than studying for that calculus test, you can catch up on a Keeping up with the
Kardashians episode you’ve missed or simply just sit in your dorm room staring at the wall as study hall passes. Instead of doing thorough annotations for
English, you can just flip through the pages of the book and underline random
sentences minutes before class (the majority of you do that anyways). Yes, the
senior slide is meant to cater to the lazy and the unmotivated.
The people who show that they do not need grades or teachers to motivate them to work hard are the people who will feel the most gratification and
achievement when graduation arrives. So, to slide or not to slide? You be the
judge.
The Governor 2
Editorial
Possible, Probable,
Time Wasted
Dylan Binnie ‘11
Mr. John Halligan’s convocation is the model that the other convocations
should follow. It excelled in every category, and I don’t believe there was a single
student with whom Mr. Halligan’s message didn’t hit home. The story of his son
was a horrific story, but whose power left a lasting impression so that people
are still talking about it, a week after the speech. It was not only because of Mr.
Halligan’s delivery, whose emotion and the poignancy of his position pushed
through his speech to make the entire audience want to give him a hug or some
comforting gesture, but because of his message.
The purpose of the convocations is to teach the student body something.
Often these blocks are filled with the useless ramblings of people who have an
exaggerated opinion of themselves. These people stand on stage and preach that
the secret to their self-avowed success was “hard work, setting goals, and selfconfidence.” The extent of their rhetoric is just the rehashing and regurgitation
of clichés. These people call themselves “motivational speaker,” yet I doubt they
have ever inspired anyone to brush their teeth everyday let alone change the entirety of their lifestyle. Telling me I need to be confident will not suddenly fill me
with confidence. The speakers are not Moses—and if they think this is possible,
they need to get their god complex sorted out.
The poignancy of Mr. Halligan’s speech came from the fact that he did not
believe he was better than his audience. He did not attempt to preach, but instead to present you with the situation he was faced with, the mistakes he made,
and surrounding circumstances, and allowed his audience to draw conclusions
of their own. The wisdom he espoused was not centered around clichés, but instead around a story—one that cannot be summarized in three sentences.
The most refreshing thing about Mr. Halligan is that he admitted to his
mistakes, but most importantly he did not apologize for them. He regretted
them surely, and no will would ever contest that, but he admitted to them. He
did not appear to be this monolith of morality but rather a human, just like all of
us. Mr. Halligan’s convocation is the only one I can remember where the entirety
of the student body was silent upon its completion, instead of talking, they were
contemplating the speakers words—exactly what the convocation periods are
suppose to provoke.
I am not suggesting that the school’s only option for a quality chapel is
to bring someone who has suffered a horrible tragedy every week, there is no
need to, if anything that would dilute the power of their words. Life lessons are
called “life lessons” for a reason, in that it takes a lifetime to learn them. Most
importantly, these life lessons are numerous enough to be taught arbitrarily every week.
When I asked a student which convocation has had been their favorite or
had the most impact on them, the predominant response I got was “Mr. Halligan’s, then the faculty meetings that replace convocations, because those free
blocks are really nice to have.” The school would better accomplish their goal
of teaching these “life lessons” to the student body by concentrating on getting
fewer speakers but of a much higher quality than its current system.
Please Visit:
www.ryanpatrickhalligan.org
to learn more about the
negative impact of bullying.
f e at u r e s
Govs’ SMART Team
By: Andres Saenz ‘12
For the last couple of weeks a group ten students, led by Mrs. Rokous, have
been doing research on two proteins and their structures: OpcA and IgG. This
group of students is known as The Governor’s Academy SMART team (Students
Modeling A Research Topic) The idea of this project is to model one protein and
find it’s important components.
Last week the SMART team went to the University of New Hampshire
where they learned about the immune system from an internationally renowned
professor and scientist, Dr. Tom Laue. Then the SMART team spent some time
in the UNH labs learning more about the structure of IgG, the antibody in which
the project is based on. As one of the SMART team members, Ryan Kelly, said
about the visit, “It was interesting, and unexpected.”
On early April the SMART team will be going to the Annual American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology meeting in Washington D.C, along
with many other SMART teams, in order to present their project.
The SMART Team program started in 2001. Since then it has expanded
throughout the nation. Mrs. Rokous brought the first SMART Team idea to the
academy last year. According to Mrs. Rokous this project is a great way to involve students with actual science. They have the opportunity to work on a real
lab and learn with the necessity of a book.
This year’s SMART team is comprised of a variety of students from many
different grades. They are Reina Arakawa ‘12, JaKyung Bang ‘13, Cheng-Wei
Chang ‘11, Ryan Kelly ‘11, Kwan Woo Lee ‘11, Jen-An Liu ‘11, Michael Rotondo
‘12, Noah Sherman ‘12 and Andres Saenz ‘12. This group of students is going to
be the first Govs’ SMART Team to represent the academy in the Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology meeting!
Photo Credit: SMART Team
Mike Rotundo ‘12, Noah Sherman ‘12, Andres Saenz ‘12
Review:
The Fighter
By: Lauren Labrique ‘12
It’s Rocky with an Irish twist. Film makers have finally discovered the
magic ingredient that can make anything better. It’s the story of overcoming
adversity, working hard, and success. Yes, it’s The Fighter. Loyalty and family
are key pieces of a film that North, South, and those unfortunate enough not
to identify with either shore, feel an overwhelming sense of pride for. There
is drama, inspiration, and accents that will transport you into the struggles of
“Irish” Micky Ward. The true genius of this film is not just recognized by the
bias fans who may remember watching the true story play out in Lowell about
ten years ago. No, the critics have spoken, and the genius of this film is tangible
to all. The only way to believe what everyone is raving about is to see it.
t
5 ou
of 5
Govs
The Governor 3
ATTENTION!
The Wedding Singer
will be performed on
February 17th (7:00 pm)
February 18th (7:30 pm)
February 19th (7:30 pm)
by
The Governor’s
Academy Drama Troupe.
f e at u r e s
The Governor 4
Glamour at the Globes
Want to write for
The Governor?
Please email us at:
[email protected]
Review:
Assassin’s Creed
Brotherhood
Ryan Kelly ‘11
Following the success of Assassin’s Creed and Assassin’s Creed 2, comes
the new Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. For those not familiar with the series,
you play as Desmond, a man who must relive memories of his ancestry in order
to divulge his family’s secrets and ultimately save the world. Like Assassin’s
Creed 2, the game centers around Enzio, an Italian assassin living in the Renaissance period. It’s essentially just a continuation of the previous game as the
locale is the same, the same characters, and the same weapons. While this seems
like a bore for those that have played the old installments, there are some new
additions. Enzio now has the ability to recruit his own assassins. While there is
some maniacal joy that comes from watching enemies fall from unseen allies, I
found myself relying on the crutch more and more, to the extent where sometimes I felt more like a supervisor than a trained assassin.
Also, there is now the new multiplayer system. In this new gameplay feature, you are hunting a random online player while there is a player constantly
hunting you. It may sound exciting, but the core gameplay shifts quickly into
boredom. Essentially it boils down to this: you have a weapon. There is a bunch
of people just chilling in an open area. Now you walk around and your screen
goes berserk because your target is now right next to you. You go in for the kill
… and oh, hold on a moment. Did you not realize the guy walking behind you
was actually following you? Too bad, you are dead. The multiplayer frustrated
me so much that I actually considered shutting off the game and getting some
fresh air. Crazy, right?
Overall, the graphics are fantastic, the story is complex, and controls are
near flawless, however, the game seems routine and familiar. I give Assassin’s
Creed Brotherhood a 3.5 out of 5 because who wants more of the same?
Photo credit: photobucket.com
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
(and a little bit of ghastliness too)
Rachel Cabitt ‘12
The 2011 Golden Globes started the New Year off on the right foot, fashion wise. On the evening of January 16, 2011, Hollywood’s most famous stars
walked down the red carpet. Some looked glamorous while others looked questionable. From the rookies, such as True Grit newcomer, Hailee Steinfeld, to the
veterans, such as Angelina Jolie, all of Hollywood’s famous dressed to impress.
Whether they actually impressed is the real question.
The young ladies of Hollywood impressed the fashion critics the most.
Lea Michele of Glee flaunted a long, ruffled, light pink Oscar de la Renta gown.
Emma Stone, of Easy A, wore a modest, coral Calvin Klein gown that was simple
yet modern. Newcomer Hailee Steinfeld dressed appropriately for her age in a
long, elegant, distressed white Prabal Gurung gown. Another Glee star, Amber Riley, glowed in a one-shoulder, shimmery, metallic silver Oliver Tolentino
gown that showed off her figure. These young ladies obviously knew how to
dress themselves, or at least their stylists did. Unfortunately some other stars
weren’t so lucky…
The less fortunate included Michelle Williams, Helena Bonham Carter, and
Sandra Bullock. The Jenny Packham dress that Bullock sported was beyond gorgeous, but nobody could focus on the beauty of the dress because they couldn’t
take their eyes off her out-dated hair cut! One’s appearance at the Globes isn’t
just about the outfit; it’s about the whole look! The next train wreck that chugged
down the red carpet was Helena Bonham Carter. Everyone knows Carter to be
an eccentric character but her ensemble at the Globes was just dreadful. Between
the mismatched shoes, to the half-teased, half dread-locked hair, to the puffy
mix patterned dress, there was just too much ugly for one person to look at.
The next victim, Michelle Williams, wasn’t as bad as Bullock or Carter. The only
word to describe her look was “blah.” From the plain color, to the daisy print,
she looked boring and out of place. Fortunately, there were some veteran stars
who knew exactly how to dress for the Golden Globes.
One of these veterans was Angelina Jolie. The famous actress didn’t wear
black for once and instead wore a sparkly emerald green Atelier Versace gown.
Catherine Zeta Jones also came out in green. She flaunted a gown designed by
Monique Lhuillier, which had faded rose flowers embossed onto it. One other
actress that deserves honorable mention is the one and only Anne Hathaway.
The move star modeled a beige sequined Giorgio Armani Prive gown that is
hard to pull off, but she of course pulled it off without a hitch.
Now, in this paragraph I would usually talk about the men’s fashion at the
Globes, but let’s face it, nobody notices what the men wear. Yeah, they might
throw in a velvet bow tie, big whoop. When an actor steps out of the robot black
and white tux, then maybe he’ll be worth mentioning. Other than that, the fashion at the 2011 Golden Globes was phenomenal and hopefully the Hollywood
starlets can keep their fashion act up for the rest of 2011.
Works Cited:
http://w w w.elle.com/Fashion/Celebrity-Style/Gold-Standard-The 2011-Golden-Globes-s-Best-Dressed/%28imageIndex%29/9/%28play%29/
false
http://www.eonline.com/photos/gallery.jsp?galleryUUID=2824#107958
http://w w w.teenvogue.com/st yle/2011/01/best- dressed- goldenglobes#slide=6
Photo credit: socialitelife.com
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at the
Golden Globes
f e at u r e s
The Governor 5
Bud Keene: Big Time, Real Deal
Kayla Jenson ‘11
On Tuesday January 11, 2011, Olympic Snowboard Coach, Bud Keene, came
to The Governor’s Academy as a guest convocation speaker. Mr. Keene has spoken to countless groups all around the world, including high school graduations,
colleges, Olympic committees, coaching groups and corporations. He came as
a motivational and inspirational speaker, bringing countless photos, minutes of
never-before-seen footage, and hundreds of pieces of advice. Although he spoke
mainly from the point of view of a snowboard coach, he related his speech to
everyone in the audience with a goal. Along with many other topics, he spoke
about goal-setting, personal confidence, sacrifice, and commitment.
In 2002, Bud became part of the coaching staff for the U.S. Snowboarding
Halfpipe Team. In 2003, he was appointed the head halfpipe coach and in 2006
led the Olympic Halfpipe team to success in Torino. His team of eight athletes
brought home 2 gold medals 2 silvers, two 4ths, a 6th place and a 10th place.
Post Olympics, Bud was named the 2006 U.S. Ski and Snowboard Associations
International Snowboard Coach of the year in addition to USSA’s 2006 Overall
Coach of the Year. Four years later, in 2010, as Shaun White’s personal coach,
Bud led Shaun to his second consecutive Olympic Halfpipe Gold Medal. With
the hopes of defending the Gold Medal for a third consecutive year, Mr. Keene
will head to Sochi, Russia with Shaun White once again in the 2014 Olympics
and no one can say what Shaun might pull out of his bag of tricks.
What many don’t know is that in addition to being a big time snowboard
coach, Bud is a snowboarding pioneer himself having made many first descents
on many international expeditions. He set a new world record for the highest
altitude ever snowboarded in 1986 when he and few friends made the risky
decent down Mt. Aconcagua, a soaring 22,000 feet. Bud also worked as the assistant navigator for Ned Gillette’s Voyage to Antarctica in 1986. The men on this
expedition launched with the hope of being the first to row a boat from Cape
Horn to Antarctica; 605 miles across some of the worst seas in the world via the
Drake Passage.
In addition to being a snowboarding legend and Olympic coach, Mr.
Keene is an ACF Certified Chef, an award-winning Master Ice Sculptor and has
ridden his bike across the country. Bud has proved himself in many ways and
we were thankful to have him speak to the school community.
We all have goals, ambitions, and hopes for our futures and what we decide
to do with them is in our hands only. When people like Bud, come to motivate
and inspire an audience, we only take away what we choose. Bud emphasized
the important of perseverance. Things in life are not easy and it’s those who try
and try again that achieve the impossible. As Shaun White’s coach, Bud has been
through many ups and downs with Shaun and he has seen what it takes to be
the best. Throughout his speech he preached that a strong personality, self-confidence, and a lot of courage are the keys to success. Although we may already be
in high school, on our way to college, or even teachers with families, as George
Eliot once said, “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”
Photo credit: radionowindy.com
Shaun White and Bud Keene
Alex Carpenter: Not Just a Hockey Phenom
The Governor: What is your favorite thing about playing hockey at this
Skylar Frisch ‘11
Alex Carpenter was recently the youngest member of the 2010 U.S. Women’s National Under-18 Team. As a senior on the Girls Varsity Hockey Team,
Alex has already gotten a total of 155 goals and 136 assists for 291 points over
three years. But off the ice, Alex is a great student, friend, and community member at Govs.
level?
Alex: My favorite thing about playing at the level is definitely the challenge. Having to prove yourself to your teammates and coaches every time you
step on the ice is always fun. You have to make a name for yourself when you
play at this level and the only way to do it is to face the challenges your coaches
put in front of you.
G: Where is the most exotic/farthest place you have traveled to because of
hockey?
A: Sweden and the Czech Republic were both probably the farthest places
I’ve been to, both about 8 hour flights. They were also pretty weird places, weird
as in very different from here.
G: Do you get to go sightseeing when you travel to these places?
A: On our off days when we have no games we usually get to go into the
city as a team. Two years ago we got a tour around Chicago and this past January we took a bus tour and then got to walk around Stockholm, Sweden. It’s
unbelievable how different everything is compared to here.
G: Do you ever feel like you’re missing out on the “high school experience”
because of your time consuming commitment to hockey?
A: Of course I do. I always have to tell myself that it is worth it though,
what I have chosen to do. I get to travel around the country and the world with
20 other people just like me playing the sport that I love. I think that makes up
for missing out on some of the high school experience.
G: What do you want to major in at Boston College? What are your academic areas of interest?
A: I’m hoping to go pre-med, we’ll see how that goes. But I am enrolled in
arts/ sciences and hope to go somewhere with science. After college I hope to be
a physical therapist or trainer, hopefully one day for USA hockey.
Photo credit: Vaughn Winchell
Alex Carpenter
G: What is your favorite thing to do other than hockey?
A: When I’m not playing hockey I like to be at my lake house with my family and cousins. We used to go there every summer before hockey took over our
summers. It’s fun just to go there and take a week or two off from hockey and
be able to do the things that everyone else does during their summer instead of
chasing a piece of plastic around.
f e at u r e s
The Governor 6
AP Classes: A Necessary Evil
(from a teacher’s point of view)
Doc Bradley (Faculty)
I have resisted teaching AP Chemistry for a long time. I once taught a
course called Advanced Chemistry, a half-credit course that averaged 10 to 12
students each year, had no lab, and met three times a week. (Mr. Long took this
course and aced it). It was great fun. The students took it as an elective because
they wanted to study more chemistry, I picked topics guided by what I thought
would be useful, but also by what I thought would be fun. I remember that a
student came to class one day to ask if we could study a chapter on organic
chemistry she’d looked at near the end of the book. We finished what we were
doing and started on this chapter. Having the flexibility to pursue a student’s
interest is about as good as it gets. Academic freedom, the freedom to teach what
is on your mind, or your students’ minds, is too important in education to be
shackled to a rigid syllabus.
The beauty of this situation was that it produced a flexible academic environment. The discussion could twist and turn as interest dictated. This sometimes resulted in the sort of learning a teacher cannot anticipate, the sort that
students might carry away from class because it was organically connected to
something they already knew. A routine exposition of the unusual properties
of mercury led to the following discussion: we may treat wool with mercury to
make felt; felt is used to make hats; mercury is a dreadful neurotoxin; and the
expression “mad as a hatter” (read Alice in Wonderland) may have nothing to
do with the chemistry of mercury, or chemistry at all for that matter. But the
conversation was interesting!
My Advanced Chemistry class evolved into a course with a lab and 1.5
hours per week. But the number of students electing the course started to drop,
and students started asking why there wasn’t an AP Chemistry course. One student commented that he liked chemistry but could not take the course if it was
not AP. It finally came down to a matter of time, money and space, and we discontinued the course in favor of AP Chemistry. The number of students electing
the course shot right back up.
The Governor’s Academy is a prep school. Its most important goal, arguably, is to get the senior class into college. A strong academic transcript is one
part of a student’s admissions profile, and the AP courses play an important role.
The original intent of the AP program was to give talented high school students
the opportunity to place out of introductory college courses. Over the years, as
GPAs have risen, colleges have come to look at AP courses as an external measure of a student’s performance. The Governor’s Academy is under pressure
from prospective parents and ambitious students looking purely at the number
of AP courses offered as a measure of the quality of the academic program. We
currently offer 18. Faculty may prefer the academic freedom of a course of their
own design to the manacle of an AP curriculum, yet we teach as many APs as we
can. There are problems with this.
If you teach AP you teach to the test. Learning the material and enjoying
the subject is one thing, but getting a 4 or 5 on the test is more important. If I
mimic the AP Chemistry test, my students will do better on it. Teaching to the
test is more of a problem in some AP courses, such as biology, chemistry, and
history, than in others, like English.
Another problem is the loss of academic diversity. A student’s first opportunity to indulge their curiosity comes in the junior and, especially, the senior
year. From the perspective of faculty considering a senior elective, a particular
teacher may be fascinated by the platypus, a period in history, or the history of
pi; they come alive when they teach it, but if it’s not on the AP test there’s no
time for it. The talented student won’t take it anyway; they need the APs on their
transcript.
The private boarding school has a unique opportunity to create an environment of its own devising for its students. The intellectual life of the community must
start with the course catalog. Every AP course you put in place removes a spot for an
idiosyncratic course, informed by the whim of talented faculty, in favor of a course
Photo credit: westsidewired.com
Students at Another School Practicing for an AP Exam
designed by a committee which knows nothing off your school. The non-AP senior
electives are marginalized as soft, or they vanish.
The Governor’s Academy must have the courage of conviction. If we feel
that our commitment to learning, among the other values espoused in our mission statement, is real, then we must recognize AP courses for what they are:
an industrial strength intrusion into the academic life of the school, backed by
a company giving 3,000,000 of these tests a year for $87 a pop; backed by the
text book publishers who create AP texts and study guides, and the myriad of
groups offering AP prep courses. Some private schools with very strong academic reputations do not offer AP courses. For the rest of us they are a necessary
evil to be used with caution.
Campus snapshots
f e at u r e s
The Governor 7
AP: Application Priority
(from a student’s point of view)
Katie reilly ‘11
Attend an information session, lecture or presentation hosted by an expert
on the college admissions process and one of the most common questions asked
of the speaker will undoubtedly be, “Is it better to take an AP class and earn a
B or take a regular class and earn an A?” In response, the speaker’s answer will
almost always be, “It’s better to take an AP class and earn an A.” Thanks. We
knew that.
For high school students, Advanced Placement classes are a source of
stress, pressure and, when facing the predicament described above, confusion.
Parents and college counselors will encourage students to take more of them.
Students will stress about working to get into them. Teachers will worry about
adequately preparing students to excel on the exam. All in all, the courses take a
toll on every involved party.
The standardized curriculum frequently includes more material than
classes will have time to cover. As a result, material is taught quickly and students adjust to the fast-paced workload by cramming for tests and regurgitating
the information. Not only is it tiring, but this memorization game is also a far
cry from what was intended when the AP program was developed years ago.
In the years following World War II, the Ford Foundation began funding committees studying education, something that later grew into the College
Board. The first study was conducted by three prep schools not unlike our own
(Lawrenceville, Phillips Andover and Phillips Exeter) and three well-known
universities (Harvard, Princeton and Yale). In completion of the study in 1952,
the committee released a report entitled General Education in School and College: A Committee Report. Essentially, the report argued that the curriculum
during the first two years of college repeats much of what is taught during the
last two years of high school. An excerpt from the report reads, “For well-prepared students this means boredom, loss of intellectual momentum, and serious
waste of time in moving towards academic and professional objectives.” With
the intention of making education more of a “continuous process” and giving
high school students a chance to study college-level material and receive college
credit for it, Advanced Placement courses were created.
Ideally, advanced academic courses provide great opportunities for the
aspiring physicist, linguist, chemist or historian to delve deeper into his or her
favorite area of study. Advanced courses can give intellectually motivated and
passionate students a challenge and a chance to jumpstart their college education. However, as professors are forced to “teach to the test” and as students lose
hours of sleep over courses that they are taking for all the wrong reasons, it is
safe to say that the College Board’s Advanced Placement program has come to
lack the essence of the ideal and intended educational system.
Ironically, the courses that were created in the hopes of bettering a student’s
education have actually shifted the focus from the student to the applicant. AP
courses have become less of a tool for furthering education and more of a pawn
in the college admissions game, which serves only to intensify an already stressful curriculum. The driving force for taking AP courses tends to be admission
to college rather than prevention of a repetitive college education. Admissions
officers will tell applicants that they evaluate the rigor of the courses taken by
the applicant during his or her high school career. As a result, more often than
not, students take AP courses so they can showcase an impressive high school
transcript, not so they won’t have to take U.S. History again during their freshman year of college. It’s also important to consider that if students are cramming
for tests and robotically memorizing material, their chances of retaining the information long-term are slim, which means that, even though they took the AP
course in high school, students just might need to take that course again anyway.
Today, there are more than 30 different AP courses offered in subjects ranging from World History to Macroeconomics to Music Theory. By the time I graduate, I will have taken seven of them. The courses have the potential to challenge
high school students with college-level work involving interesting subject matters. The problem isn’t the rigorous and demanding workload that comes with
these classes. That’s to be expected and, for those who enjoy the subject matter,
even welcomed. Advanced classes will be effective only if students choose to
take them. Unfortunately, with the competition surrounding college admissions,
enrollment in AP courses is not a choice, but a requirement. The real problem
is that the Advanced Placement program no longer offers what it intended to.
Until the courses become more about advanced education and less about college
admissions, there will continue to be a cycle of stress and pressure surrounding
AP courses.
Photo credit: superfuture.com
AP and SAT Study Aids
Winter 2011
t h e b a c k pa g e
The Governor 8
Happy Birthday in January!
Seniors
Juniors
Sophomores
Freshmen
Hyun Jin Lim................... 1/07/1992
Tae Yoon Lim.................. 1/07/1992
Kwang Woo Lee............1/30/1992
Austin Dubus..................1/02/1993
Cole Forbes.....................1/04/1993
Madison Schneider.......1/10/1993
Alexa Balboni................1/15/1993
Bria Ruffen....................1/21/1993
Carolyn Hoffman.........1/25/1993
Robert Bogart.................1/11/1993
Todd Moores..................1/25/1993
Shaquille Bennett.........1/02/1994
Camden Means.............1/03/1994
Grant O’Brien.................. 1/10/1994
Katie Rudolf.....................1/11/1994
Greg Duchard................ 1/12/1994
Robert Haran.................. 1/19/1994
Aakash Patel...................1/23/1994
Peri Schaut...................... 1/31/1994
Cameron Laughlin........1/04/1994
Rongbing Zhang............1/17/1994
Josh Cronin.....................1/05/1994
Conor O’Dea....................1/11/1995
Esther Tram......................1/11/1995
Ariana DiCroce............... 1/16/1995
Kelly Callahan.................1/23/1995
Ma Jiacheng.................... 1/18/1995
Eddie Holmes................. 1/01/1996
Wotton Nicole................1/03/1996
Richard Chute...............1/21/1996
Suraj Patel........................1/22/1996
Anthony Sosa.................1/22/1996
Sara Cook.........................1/25/1996
Colby King.......................1/28/1996
What we think Govs
should “tweet”...
Govs on Twitter
(actual)
Four win coveted art show awards
http://bit.ly/dHH2ad
6:27 AM Jan 28th via twitterfeed
Two snow days in one year? Mr.
Doggett is going out with a bang.
9:13 AM Feb 2nd via Web
Student Art Show, Secrets & Lies, in
Student Center tonight, 6-8pm. Come
support your talented friends!
Mr. Rokous just drove to the dining
hall again... G3.
7:34 AM Jan 26th via Facebook
3:04 PM Jan 27th via web
Mr. Robertson is singing another song
Less than a week until the February Fa- no one has heard of.
ceoff begins - a competition between 10:02 AM Jan 31st via twitterfeed
young alums in ISL schools!...
Mr. Doggett has yet to let a class out on
http://fb.me/SiNQnZ0t
12:52 PM Jan 26th via Facebook
time.
11:58 AM Jan 21st via twitterfeed
Alum Francois ‘04 headed to SuperBowl
http://bit.ly/hrXB3l
6:51 AM Jan 26th via Facebook
Just when we thought Friday morning
meetings could not get any more awkward...they let Thad on stage.
8:02 AM Jan 28th via Facebook
Follow @GovsAcademy
Quotation
of the Issue
“Flying is learning how to throw yourself at
the ground and miss.”
-Douglas Adams