PHS’ competitive and goal-oriented student culture is undeniable. Rigorous classes and mountain-high piles of homework not only create stress, but also often dig into sleeping hours. As a result, a majority of the student body files into the hallways plagued with foggy brains from sleep deprivation and simply being overworked. 
In order to make up for this sleep deprivation and maintain their busy lifestyles, many students choose to turn towards sugar and caffeine. The high school vending machines offer a couple of options, but since the beginning of this year, one predominant candidate has entered itself into the pool — Celsius energy drinks. Containing 200 mg of caffeine (the equivalent of two cups of black coffee), the drink has quickly gained immense popularity amongst students. However, Celsius’ focusing abilities come with dangerous side effects. In 2020, the CDC found that drinking highly caffeinated beverages such as Celsius can lead to long-term effects like increased blood pressure, and heart complications. Even in the short term, the effects are damaging; research done by WebMD in 2018 found that relying on artificial high doses of caffeine causes numerous negative symptoms to the drinker, including anxiety, irregular heartbeats, and insomnia, highlighting how this temporary fix for fatigue often leads to a more permanent, detrimental problem to long-term health. 
Instead of drinking energy drinks, students should consider tea for their pick-me-up beverage of choice. Tea delivers a moderate amount of caffeine that doesn’t disrupt the nervous system. Matcha, for one, contains l-theanine, which slows the effect of caffeine, creating a more stable energy boost. While caffeine from coffee or energy drinks takes mere minutes to be absorbed into the bloodstream, it takes around three to six hours for the caffeine in matcha to be fully absorbed. This gradual absorption cushions the blow to the nervous system, prolonging the body’s energy and preventing sudden crashes and withdrawals from occurring. Furthermore, tea boasts a much higher nutritional value to the body compared to caffeinated drinks, as it’s packed with antioxidants and vitamins that help regulate blood sugar, heart health, nervous systems, metabolism, and many other bodily functions. 
All of these factors demonstrate tea’s nutritional value over caffeinated drinks, being able to regulate students’ sleep schedules and stress levels much better compared to less healthy alternatives. The options for tea are vast, providing options for any palate. So next time you feel tired, avoid that celsius drink and reach for tea instead.

Pouring Positivi-tea: tea's positive impact on your health

By the time his fingers grazed the leathery surface of the tea plant, the war had been won. He might’ve looked at that tall, unassuming bush — the complex of ridges and the white flowers peeking through clusters of fat lanceolate leaves — with a sort of pity. He might’ve remembered the nations marred and uprooted in its name, the warships crumpled like the furled flag of its apical bud. He might’ve thought a lot of things, really, but in 1848, Robert Fortune did exactly what the British East India company had paid him to do: With precision and with delicacy, he reached down towards the stem of the tea plant and tore it from the earth.
A mere decade earlier, Fortune’s operation would’ve been unthinkable. China had been cultivating tea for millennia, and by the 1800s, the leaves were steeped not just in hot water but in a rich milieu of spiritual and philosophical traditions, carefully guarded agricultural secrets, and powerful economic incentives. Thanks to their virtual monopoly of the tea plant (a few seeds had escaped to Japan in the ninth century, but their fruits were barely commercialized), China’s tea became a vital, lucrative commodity once Dutch and Portuguese traders appeared on the country’s shores. This economic dependence was deepened in 1661, when Portugal’s tea-loving Queen Catherine of Braganza married Britain’s soon-to-be-tea-loving King Charles II, and China’s foremost export became the quintessential drink of the European aristocracy. Before long, it was hard to come by tea that was selling for less than ten times the price of coffee.
In the face of China’s control over the tea, porcelain, and silk markets, Europe found itself without a sought-after good of its own to rectify the growing trade imbalance. For decades, mercantilist leaders fumed as silver poured into the Chinese port cities of Guangzhou and Tianjin, and only teabags floated back in return. In the early 18th century, though, Europe stumbled across an export that Chinese citizens were willing — and eventually, due to the drug’s addictiveness, desperate — to pay for: opium. 
The Qing dynasty was dismayed. Imagining, rightfully, that importing massive amounts of a narcotic drug would harm Chinese society, they began to resist Europe’s opium smugglers. They began to openly question Europe’s power-hungry trade tactics. And so, in 1839, British warships began to dot their harbors.
To call the three ensuing “Opium Wars” a series of sudden, unexpected conflicts is to say that Robert Fortune’s heist — where he (in perhaps the grandest display of cultural appropriation in history) learned to speak Mandarin; pretended to come from western China; bamboozled the owners of tea plantations across the province of Fujian into letting him observe their cultivation processes; and sent 10,000 stolen seeds and 13,000 young tea plants alongside ovens, woks, rolling tables, and eight hired Chinese experts back to the British East India company in Calcutta — was nothing more than a crime of passion, conceived and performed in the heat of the moment. It is to pretend that in 1839, Britain hadn’t already stretched itself across India like a moth-torn canvas, that France hadn’t imperialized what is now Southeast Vietnam. Colonialism is no haphazard romp. No, it is precise, and delicate. It is pernicious — an opium, washing across the body like a somnambulatory tide. It is the story of today's tensions, and, yes, of today’s tea — once a delicacy, then combined with sugar harvested by the enslaved laborers of Britain's Caribbean colonies and made available the European citizenry at large, now more popular than any beverage besides water itself. Spread across the earth, but torn from it too.

War and Teace

Background: 
Tea cultivation is a carefully controlled process, with every step executed perfectly to ensure the best flavor possible upon brewing. The two primary types of tea are true teas (oolong, white, green, yellow, black, pu’er, etc.), which are made from the Camellia sinensis tea plant, and herbal teas (peppermint, ginger, hibiscus, chamomile, etc.), which do not contain the tea plant. Although true teas are all made from the same plant, they all taste very different due to their specific cultivation process. 
Harvesting:
High-quality tea is harvested by hand to prevent damage to the leaves. Tea plants reach maturity after three years of growth, and harvests occur twice a year. Plucked tea leaves are taken to a processing center, where they complete the following steps to a certain extent unique to the type of tea plant.
a - Withering leaves:
A tea leaf starts to wither the instant it is picked. Many production facilities choose to harness this by placing leaves on outdoor mats either in direct sun or in the shade for an extended period of time. Most plants undergo daily cycles where their stomata open and close to let out and keep in moisture. The tea leaves’ stomata open and lose moisture, but the stomata cannot close because of the sun. As a result, abscisic acid is released as a sealant for the stomata, which gives the tea leaves a unique floral flavor. 
b- Rolling:
The rolling process consists of breaking and damaging the cell walls of tea leaves to release juices and distribute moisture evenly across the leaves. This can be executed in several different ways - mechanical rolling, rotorvane rolling, and hand rolling all produce very different results that determine the durability of the leaves in a tea bag. 

c - Oxidation:
Oxidation is a process by which tea leaves darken after exposure to the sun. The time at which a tea leaf’s oxidation is halted determines the color it will take on when brewed and the exact flavors it will release. For example, the oxidation for white tea leaves is stopped soon after picking, which produces brews  with a light yellow color and sweet and delicate flavors. Meanwhile, the oxidation for black tea leaves is stopped much later, producing brews of dark red and orange colors and bold and rich flavors.
d - Drying: 
Once tea leaves have reached the desired level of oxidation, they are taken onto trays of tea leaves and dried by being sent through hot air dryers. This reduces their moisture content to around three percent and makes them ready to pack and sell. 
Bonus: CTC Method
During World War II, the CTC (or cut, tear, and curl) method was used to make tea that could be packaged in greater quantities due to its low weight. In this method, withered tea leaves are sent through a roller covered in sharp spikes that curl and tear the leaves into many tiny pieces suitable for bagging. The tea leaves are then oxidized and dried.

Steepin' it real: how is tea made?

Bubble Tea

Ficus, Fruity Yogurt, Junbi, Kung Fu Tea, MTea: These are just a few of the bubble tea stores Princeton has to offer. But what is bubble tea? Bubble tea was invented in the 1980s by Taiwanese tea house manager, Lin Hsui Hui. While bored at a staff meeting, Hui had the revolutionary idea of dumping her tapioca pudding (“fen yuan”) into her iced Assam tea. Awestruck by the flavor and deliciousness of the beverage, it was added to the menu of the teahouse and rose to popularity almost instantly. Soon, adjacent teahouses added it to their menus too while experimenting with fruit teas, tapioca pearls, and other traditional Chinese dessert add-ons. Today bubble tea has become a globally known beverage and a social media sensation. 

Matcha

Though originating in China during the Tang Dynasty, matcha today is considered the quintessential Japanese tea that has taken the world by storm. When Buddhist merchants reached Japan between 6 C.E. and 7 C.E., they established a variety of Buddhist monasteries around the empire which utilized specific rituals, one of them being the drinking and celebration of matcha. This was quickly taken up by samurai-in-training programs in order to help the warriors cultivate their inner strength and develop a calm, clear mindset. Almost instantly, matcha’s popularity boomed and became a cultural tradition in Japan. So how is it made? Instead of being steeped, matcha is made by whisking hot water with green tea grounds in order to create a frothy drink. Nowadays, there are two kinds of matcha cultivated, ceremonial and culinary, which both act as representations of pleasant virtues such as harmony, tranquility, and purity, originating from their unique history. 

Chai
A chai latte is one of the more popular drinks ordered at Starbucks, Dunkin’, or any local coffee shops. However, the average “chai” you might purchase at those places is far from its ancestor. “Chai” is the Hindi word for tea, dating back to over 5,000 years ago where it was used mainly for medicinal purposes. It was not until after the British colonizers arrived when locals started to add sugar and milk to their chai; soon after, a chai culture erupted throughout the Indian subcontinent that has outlasted British rule. The sweet, spicy, rich flavor of chai is what makes it so popular today. 

Teatime with Vanguard

The deep sea is one of the most mysterious places on Earth, less accurately mapped than even Mars. Many robots and remotely operated vehicles have been sent down to explore the deepest known parts of the ocean, the Mariana Trench and Challenger Deep. However, previous deep ocean robots were too big and bulky, making maneuvering through unknown territory nearly impossible. This changed in 2021; a Chinese robotics team, led by Guorui Li of Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, sought to apply soft robotics to deep sea exploration. The team’s soft robot was based on the Mariana hadal snailfish, a creature native to the Mariana Trench. The team mimicked the snailfish by creating a more flexible “skull,” able to withstand crushing pressures and by incorporating fins so that the robot could move more freely. After preliminary testing, the robot was sent to explore the Mariana Trench while attached to a deep sea lander, a mission it returned from with great success. Although the soft robot was slow and weak against currents, its navigability, small size, and deep diving prowess were a big step forward in biologically inspired robotics and deep sea exploration.

Deep Ocean Tech

The ocean is quite a poetic oxymoron. For hundreds of thousands of years, it has separated cultures with vast seas and treacherous storms, and yet it has also unified them in contemplating the same majestic waters. As they gazed, they thought of stories. What does the ocean hold, hidden beneath its seemingly endless waves? 
One story in particular has transcended both cultural boundaries and time: the lost city of Atlantis. This myth originated some two thousand years ago when the Greek philosopher Plato wrote the “Timaeus” and the “Critias,” in which a fictional character, Solon, tells Critias a story about a land that sank beneath the waves some nine thousand years before his time. According to Plato, Solon heard of Atlantis from some Egyptian priests while journeying in Africa. In reality, Plato probably made it up.
In his tale, Atlantis was at first a utopian kingdom, built on a mountainous island and filled with virtuous people. However, the inhabitants gradually grew corrupt and too proud of themselves. In a blind lust for power, they tried to invade Athens, which did not exactly please the Greek gods. Divine judgment rained down from the heavens, floods and earthquakes ensued, and Atlantis fell into the murky depths of the ocean. Plato likely intended this as a cautionary tale on the dangers of excessive pride and – of course – messing with Athens, but that intention has not prevented a myriad of later scholars, writers, and conspiracy theorists from searching for this “lost land.”
Many have tried their hand at finding where Atlantis once stood. Plato stated that Atlantis lay in the Atlantic Ocean, near the Pillars of Hercules (mountains flanking the Strait of Gibraltar). And while the numerous claims of finding the actual submerged island are generally considered pseudoscience, the story of Atlantis might not be entirely fictional. Some have speculated that Plato drew inspiration for the destruction of Atlantis from a real-world event, such as the Minoan eruption that devastated the island of Thera (modern Santorini), or the tsunami that destroyed the city-state Helike.
Our fascination with Atlantis has even spilled over into our literature and media. After Plato, the first source referring to Atlantis is from the Roman historian Plutarch. In the second century, he wrote a biography of Solon (the actual Athenian statesman), in which Plutarch described Solon’s supposed travels and recounted the Atlantis tale as if it were fact. From there, Atlantis made its way into science fiction with “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea,” in which French author Jules Verne wrote about voyagers walking around the underwater ruins of the city. Atlantis has further been referenced in television shows like “Futurama” and “Phineas and Ferb,” and has served as a motif in countless movies, animes, and operas. There are far more examples than I could name in this short article; the Wikipedia page for “Atlantis in popular culture” has over two hundred items (yes, I counted).
As we gaze upon the ocean, we think of stories. Stories that grow and change like the crawling roots of a mangrove tree, that entrench themselves deep in the shifting waters of society, that weather the ebb and flow of time. Perhaps the true legacies of these myths lie not beneath the waves, but in the influence they have had on humanity.

Diving Into Myth: the Legacy of Atlantis

It's mind blowing to grasp that the vast expanse of dark blue water we watch while relaxing on the Jersey Shore makes up less than a fraction of the entire ocean, which in turn  occupies almost 71 percent of the Earth’s surface. The ocean creates a habitat occupied by over 276,878 known species of marine animals that have thrived for millions of years. As with all mysteries, questions arise and studies accompany them: marine biology, the study of marine life and human impact on the marine ecosystems, places a focus on the miracle that is our oceans. As pollution and climate change become a recurring topic in current times, the need for environmental awareness has surged, and a general environmental science class may not meet the demands for in-depth study of marine science. 
Due to the diversified nature of the PHS science curriculum and courses, students are able to take a deep dive into specialized science topics, including organic chemistry, planetary science, environmental science, anatomy, forensics, and more. Yet for some reason, Marine Biology is absent. On a hot summer day, the common thought process of a New Jersey resident would be to spend a day at the beach and swim in the ocean. Being exposed to the East Coast staple that is the Jersey Shore, many New Jersey students develop a love for the ocean, and in turn the marine sciences. 
“We are a coastal state. New Jersey is famous for its beaches. There's so many opportunities in the state that I think we should take advantage of… we should absolutely be integrating more into our curriculum” said biology and Research teacher Mark Eastburn.
Unfortunately, a day trip to the shore might be slightly out of reach for the average student. Including a marine biology course at PHS, however, could make learning about the ocean just that bit more accessible, fueling the curiosity of students who don’t have the resources to go down to the shore.
Aside from fostering greater curiosity about the ocean among students, a marine biology class could also help point students toward a prospective major. More and more, students have been undecided about their majors when entering college. Fortunately, providing more specialized courses that properly direct students could remedy this disorientation. In essence, a marine biology class may just be the specialized science classes PHS students need. 
Though even without a course of direction, Eastburn mentions that still he has and had students who were particularly interested in marine biology. 
“I have multiple students who want to pursue marine biology. And I have students, even outside of the research program, who come to me with an interest in doing a project associated with marine biology,” Eastburn said. 
The sheer amount of undiscovered and understudied marine could have a plethora of uses – explaining the unknown, discovering alternate biofuels to save the planet, and even curing diseases. PHS’ resources and university-collaboration opportunities can play a role in new developing scientific interests, which may result in future discoveries. 
“This is a very unique place where you can make amazing things happen. You can't do this anywhere else. One town over, Westminster, they can't do this; Montgomery, they can't do this. We can do this. And we're the only ones, so let's leverage that. Let's not be West Windsor. Let's not be Ewing, let's not be Montgomery. Let's be frickin Princeton.”

Why Marine Biology Class

   Due to the ravaging effects of climate change, coral reefs globally are on the decline. United against the same problem, both scientific and local communities in the Coral Triangle are working to protect their reefs. At Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok A team led by Dr. Suchana Chavanich is focusing on coral spore cryopreservation, a technique by which scientists preserve coral sperm for future generations. Additionally, native divers of Tidung Island, Indonesia, concerned about damage caused by pollution and overfishing, are transplanting coral all around the island to encourage growth. Thankfully, these efforts have been working. On the island, coral growth rates are 10-15 centimeters annually, and projected to increase even more. This island’s success story really goes to show that every community can make a difference, and that the ocean can be saved. 
The destruction of coral has been one of the worst repercussions of climate change and overfishing in the ocean. As one of the places most affected by these issues, Southeast Asia is working towards reversing these damages. United against the same problem, both scientific and local communities are working together to protect their reefs. A team led by Dr. Suchana Chavanich is focusing on coral spore cryopreservation, a technique used by preserving coral sperm for future propagation. Native divers of Tidung Island, Indonesia, concerned about pollution and destruction created by ports and fishing, are transporting coral all around the island to encourage growth. The growth rate on the island is currently 10-15 cm a year. By setting up concrete cube frames for both coral to grow on and fish to live in, sea life has a better  chance of survival. 

How South-East Asia is Fighting Back to Save Corals – Photo Essay

How has exercise and fitness helped you in your life?
With all the nerves and anxiety that's been going around with the coronavirus for the last two weeks, [exercise has helped me] more so than ever before. I've made it a point to do my personal fitness, which is lifting three times a week and running. Each and every time I've done it, I felt myself get calmer. It's great to have that ability in moments like this.

In your experience as a gym teacher have you seen the positive impacts of sports and activities on students' lives, specifically their stress levels?
What I've seen more is the impact on their social gratitude and behaviors when they are around someone. Even if they're not good at an activity, but they share either conversation, or they do something that surprises themselves, you can see the joy in their face. So maybe overall, they're not coming out more fit, if you will, but they're getting certain aspects that are making them better.

Do you think PHS puts as much emphasis and value on physical health as it does with mental health?
No. My daughter's a senior and this place is an absolute pressure cooker, both mentally and physically. So the simple answer is I don't think they can do enough. And are they getting close to it? I mean, we had that wellness push and this and that, but I think it's a goal that always needs to be chased. Especially for [PHS].

When you ask so much of a student population academically, they themselves put so much pressure on themselves and they lose sight of what's the [big] picture for wellness. So they'll want to leave physical education in order to get a chemistry lab done. [It’s] great that they're so conscientious about their academics, but they tend to forget that [how their minds and their bodies feel] go hand in hand. And when [their physical health] is at its peak, their academics will be at their peak. 

What do you think is the biggest challenge teens face in regards to fitness?
Princeton High School students are incredibly intelligent. So with that, I put a lot of faith in them figuring it out. But that also being said, they're in a period of their life where they're learning and, like anybody else, they get pulled in different directions. So I think the two things that are their biggest challenges are one, the academic stress, and two, when they do have downtime, what does that represent? And for too many of them, it's getting lost into the cell phone, which isn't doing anything really positive. So I think a lot of them need to step up their game on both their mind and their body.

Do you think that the media on the internet sends dangerous messages to teens about fitness?
Yes. For instance, I used to have a shirt that said “Short is Normal.” because I'm told that I'm not normal, because I'm five feet tall. Too many times, the media portrays what is desirable. And that's just somebody's opinion. Sometimes students are made to feel bad about themselves when there's absolutely no reason they should ever feel bad about themselves. [No matter if] they’re short, they're skinny, they're whatever they are, [it doesn’t matter] so long as they're doing what they're able to do to make themselves feel good and healthy. You be you. Be yourself. I think the media does send some harmful messages.

Do you have any tips or tricks for teens for incorporating physical activity into their day, especially for students who often sit at desks for long periods of time?
Yes. Here's one thing. It's kind of like when you're a little kid and you [usually] walked everywhere. … [Then], you've learned how to ride a bike and your world exponentially explodes with adventure and excitement. Fitness is the same way. Once you get into it [and] it becomes habitual, … it's addictive and … you crave it. So my message to them is to push through that period where your mind's telling you [that] you don't want to do this because once you get through that, then you crave [exercise].

PHS Fitness with Mr. Wilkinson

	I spent the first few exciting afternoons of my freshman year standing in a freezing trash can. At one point or another, I was joined by almost every other girl on the freshman cross country team. Whether it was for twisted ankles, battered knees, or strained hip muscles, we would all hobble down to the PAC basement after a grueling practice to spend 30 minutes squirming in icy water. And while many of my injured teammates would return to the starting line soon enough, I never did. I spent the next eight months numbing fractured shins in a frigid bin, occasionally glancing up from the Milesplit content crowding my Instagram feed to seek comfort in a quote stapled to the hallway bulletin board: “Pain is nothing compared to what it feels like to quit.” 
The no-quit mentality is what first attracted me to distance running, and for seven years long runs were the most enjoyable and rewarding part of my day. The greater the distance, the more brutal the weather, the steeper the incline, the more fulfilled I felt when I tapped my mailbox to finish. I ran for the wonderful sensation I felt after pushing myself to my limit, for the satisfaction that came with seeing my work ethic displayed on a stopwatch. I ran for my own personal enjoyment and betterment. Competitive cross country changed that.	
Come preseason, I happily joined the group of eager, impressionable young runners fascinated by the thrilling new world of high-tech running watches, glossy medals, and neon spikes. I was enthralled by posters capturing decorated mud-covered athletes crying out as they charged through treacherous terrain, inspirational videos of Olympic sprinters with torn hamstrings dragging themselves over the finish line to the cheers of a roaring crowd, and articles celebrating collegiate runners who sprained their ankles mid-race but toughed it out for the remaining few miles. My gratifying hobby became corrupted by the mindset championed through vibrant banners at Nike stores: “No Pain, No Gain,” “Taking it easy won’t take you anywhere,” “Train Insane or Stay The Same.” I trained through agonizing shin splints because a proper athlete would tough it out and race the pivotal championship meet. I justified each excruciating step towards the starting line with “Pain is temporary, but victory is eternal.” 
	The self-destructive mindset I adopted as a student athlete is tragically common, and disturbingly endorsed. I’ve seen it manifest in teammates on the floor of musty locker rooms, desperately tugging at knee socks to hide the ankle braces beneath their shin guards; friends in the cages beneath the bleachers, icing swollen knees behind stacks of broken hurdles so coaches won’t see; older siblings in the darkness of our garage, holding flashlights to gruesome bruises and a finger to their lips begging, “Don’t tell mom, I need to play tomorrow.” I see it now in my little sister, a state-ranked swimmer with a fractured spine who I constantly scold for sneaking in push ups when she thinks no one’s looking. I recognize it in my freshman self, who dodged her coach in the hallways for weeks and choked on tears when she finally admitted to him that she was too weak to run on broken bones. It’s the cruel paradox plaguing sports: the commendation of athletes willing to compromise their physical wellbeing for the sake of pursuing success. 
	I haven’t jogged up to the starting line in three years. But every Saturday morning I walk to the base of my driveway, lace up my running shoes, and head off on a quiet run. I still subscribe to the no-quit mentality, still sprint up the steep hill at the edge of my neighborhood and refuse to walk no matter how exhausted I feel. But there’s a difference between pushing yourself to be better and driving yourself into the ground. Exercise for your own betterment, compete for the satisfaction it brings.

Taking Long Runs Too Far

Our society as a whole is becoming increasingly sedentary, but nowhere more than at school. PHS students go to school and sit for six hours or more, before going home to sit for another six hours to study and fulfil various responsibilities, most of which are completed from a desk. Sitting for such a large fraction of the day is unhealthy. Sedentary behavior is linked to many chronic diseases and conditions as well as decreased creativity and intelligence. The human body responds badly to extended sitting because maintaining the same position all day is unnatural, and	
graphic: Jennifer Ren 		         inevitably leads to an imbalance. Slumping back in 	         an uncomfortable metal chair all day accelerates spinal disk degeneration, among other problems which lead to pain and injury later in life. 
One might think that exercise fixes the problems of sitting too much, but it doesn’t. According to an article in Harvard Health Publishing from 2015, an analysis of 47 studies showed that sitting for extended periods of time is associated with adverse health effects regardless of physical activity. If you sit all day, you are more likely to die young, even if you work out with perfect consistency. This isn’t to say that exercise is unimportant; it has a variety of health benefits both physically and mentally, but it doesn’t fix this particular problem.
Though standing desks might reduce time spent sitting, they create problems of their own. Standing still for extended periods of time puts strain on the legs that can lead to swelling or even injury. The problem here is the same; staying in the same position for a long period of time is bad. The best way forward is a lifestyle change; we should all regularly vary our position throughout the day.
The nature of high school is what causes a lot of kids to adopt sedentary lifestyles. High schools need to allow kids to get up and move around in class if they feel tired or unable to concentrate. If a student wants to stand or sit on the floor for part of class, they should be allowed to as long as they are still paying attention and not disturbing their classmates. Opportunities for kids to get up and move around as part of the lessons could also improve class participation, as well as giving the kids the chance to change their position. Of course, as teens, we ourselves also have a responsibility to make sure we move around and reposition ourselves and if we absolutely must sit for a long uninterrupted interval of time, sit up straight. The part of the brain that processes movement also processes learning, so learning will actually be easier for us if we move around more.
To achieve a state of optimal health, we should combine traditional exercise with smaller changes in movement and good positioning throughout the day. Exercise is for strength, cardiovascular health, and weight maintenance, while microactivity and position changes are to promote spine health and avoid imbalance. It is essential to remember that physical self-care isn’t limited to time spent in the gym or training for sports. During your entire day, you should be thinking about how to make healthy choices in movement and positioning. We don’t have to allow ourselves to become a sedentary society.

A Sedentary Society

As we transition to the new decade, one thing hasn’t changed: New Year’s resolutions. Every year, people across the world make promises to better themselves the coming year, whether it be by performing one act of kindness each day, spending more time with family, or quitting an unhealthy habit. According to a 2019 article published by Statista, eating healthy and being more active were amongst the top three resolutions for the new year, and with good reason: exercise has more benefits than one might think.
We may hit the bench press to get ripped, the treadmill to enhance our endurance, or the yoga mat to improve our flexibility, but all of these activities yield the same beneficial result: they leave us feeling uplifted and rejuvenated afterwards. This is because physical health and mental health are oftentimes directly correlated. Unfortunately for me, I learned this the hard way. 
I’ve consistently made promises to start exercising this year, but have always been unable to bring myself to start. I used to dance, and after graduating from my studio, the amount of physical exercise I got each week dropped drastically. Without practice and rehearsals to keep me busy, I spent most of my time afterschool each day at home in bed. Further, I had always received exercise plans from my instructors, who never taught me how to create my own.
 And as my physical health declined, so did my emotional wellbeing. My mental health was suddenly deteriorating, yet I never considered exercise to be a solution. Regardless, I desperately craved a more productive way to spend my time, to replace the long hours spent scrolling through social media that were only exacerbating my daily struggles with my mental health.
	Luckily I was able to look to my sister, an avid exerciser who improved her life by committing herself to working out. She had always promoted the benefits of exercising, describing how it helped boost her confidence when she was feeling insecure and calm herself down when she was anxious. With her back home, I discovered that her perspective on exercise holds a lot of truth: the more I worked out, the better I felt. After only a few workouts, I felt like I could suddenly tackle the world. I understood how it had improved my sister’s life.
	We see the physical benefits of working out — larger biceps, six packs, slimmer waists — but rarely recognize how workouts make us feel emotionally. By improving our physical health, we advance our mental health as well. So the next time you feel stressed, try getting off your phone and doing ten jumping jacks or taking a five minute walk — it might just brighten your day.

Mind and Body

The teacher has just asked a question and the answer that was so clear in your mind is now clouded by questions: What if it’s wrong? What if everyone laughs at me? What if I trip up my words and embarrass myself? The hand that you were about to raise goes back to your lap. To a teacher, this lowered hand could automatically lead to a lower grade, an assumption that you didn’t do the assignment, or an overall sour feeling about you. Very quickly those questions about your participation become questions about your grade leading to a new anxious spiral from a want to participate to the fear holding you back. 

Quiet people are often perceived as uninterested, unopinionated, or even disrespectful as they tend not to engage in large groups. Although we have this assumption in schools that quieter students can be coaxed out of their shells, the participation grade incentive that schools use to get students to open up does not work. This incentive leads to greater anxiety as the desire to bring up this grade is overshadowed by the anxiety that comes along with raising it. In general, participation grades are an inaccurate representation of students’ academic performances that ought to be replaced with a more inclusive analysis of students’ understanding of the material.

The desire to remain quiet comes from natural parts of peoples’ personalities such as shyness or introversion. While both traits can coexist, it is critical to make the distinction between the two. Shyness is fear of social judgment. Everyone has shyness to some extent and that is how the initial fear of raising your hand comes out in the first place. Introversion concerns how individuals respond to stimuli. Extroverts typically need more stimuli, while introverts thrive best in low-key environments. Our society tends to idealize extroverts as outspoken people who are often those with the greatest power or influence. PHS is guilty of this idealization as well. This is reflected in our participation grades, who we elect to student government, and even the people that we view as the smartest in our grades. We wouldn’t be placing our more extroverted peers on a pedestal if they didn’t make us believe that they deserved to be there through their outspoken tendencies. However, this idealization of more talkative students completely minimizes the work that quieter students do to maintain their grades, their positions in extracurricular activities, and their efforts to create a social presence at PHS. 

Having established the difference between shyness and introversion, we can dive into why shyness is impacting students’ participation tendencies in the first place. Researchers at Northwestern University theorized that “kids face a social stigma for publicly making an effort to excel”. This stems from a school’s overall academic based culture. We would like to assume that given the pressure to take AP courses, apply to top colleges and fill our plates full of extracurriculars, PHS would fall into the “cool-to-be-smart” category of schools, however this is not the case. It is always incredibly awkward to be the student who breaks the silence in class when it seems that no one knows the answer. In that situation, it is far easier to keep your hand lowered rather than draw attention to yourself for being the know-it-all or the dumb one if you get the answer wrong. Although the chances of that actually happening are incredibly low, human’s inherent shyness creates that narrative within our minds which makes it easier for us to follow the masses. Rather than penalizing people for their inherent shyness, shouldn’t our teachers be understanding of that fear and encourage participation rather than enforce it?

Modern-day teaching needs to embrace all types of learning, listening, and communication styles. In an inclusive learning community like PHS, we should encourage introverts and quiet students to reach their academic potential using a multitude of ways to demonstrate mastery of learning material. A more equitable participation grading technique could help to make it easier for quieter students to demonstrate what they know. The canvas discussion boards can be an effective way for students to interact virtually with a way to edit what they say to feel the most confident about their responses while also maintaining conversations with other students. This would eliminate the overwhelming stimuli of in-class discussions that can be daunting for many students. Regardless of the volume of their voice, every student has one, and it’s time we learn to listen.

Hands down — quiet people, speak up

Community service is no foreign concept for many students around the nation. Many school districts, including Princeton High School, require their students to fulfill a certain number of community service hours during their time in high school, ticking off the graduation requirement prior to leaving their senior years. While this requirement can be extremely beneficial and helpful for communities and students alike, it also raises many questions pertaining to the ethical aspect of mandating community service hours: Does requiring community service in schools undermine the intrinsic nature of what community service is? Does it instead build a strong foundation for the students while opening new pathways for students to explore their interests? While there is no definite answer, mandating community service for students infringes upon the intrinsic nature of what community service is supposed to be, despite still posing as a pathway for students to explore their interest and give back to their communities.

Community service at its core has been defined and recognized as an act of voluntary help for one’s community. The essence of community service is based on the foundation of volunteering, rather than a mandated requirement. By setting requirements for students to accomplish for the sole purpose of graduating, schools directly infringe upon the very nature of what volunteer work is, thus damaging and reducing the noble act of giving back to your community from the selflessness of your heart, to yet another “assignment” that needs to completed before the end of high school.

Reduction of such sorts can also prove to be harmful to not only students, but communities alike. By mandating community service, students may start to draw parallels by comparing it to schoolwork for classes, assigned homework, or class credits that need to be fulfilled in order to graduate. Such activities that usually carry negative connotations, due to their mundane and stressful natures, may in turn inflict a similar message upon community service. By requiring community service for graduation, students may start to shy away from taking part in any form of community service after they fulfill their hours or even after high school due to the weak first impressions they experienced as it being a requirement. As such, mandating community service may end up damaging the future of community service, rather than fostering one.

However, despite the concerns raised pertaining to ethics of mandated community service, the system can actually be beneficial for some students. The required hours for community service have created many opportunities, both in the school and within the community. Students are exposed to various forms of community service around their towns, and can pursue different passions or interests that they might have, while at the same time fulfilling their hours for graduation. With more than 20 community service clubs in the school and many more outside in the community, students are given a plethora of options to choose from when deciding how they want to complete their hours, and as part of that process, students may find a passion for a service project. They might continue pursuing that passion for the rest of high school, and maybe even carry that passion beyond, building a strong foundation for students to carry with them into the real world.

While the premise of mandated community service infringes upon the intrinsic nature of what community service is meant to be, its positive impacts can be seen reflected upon the school and community. Students can find boxes of canned goods filled to the brim, elementary children refining their musicality after school, and empowering posters to spread awareness on issues in the PHS hallways. These actions of the student body come as a result of a simple graduation requirement, and while the main intention is to tick that box, the process of reaching that point often leaves a positive mark on our school community, expanding our worldview and making new connections.

College apps or kind hearts: the truth behind community service

“It almost looks,” wrote Sigmund Freud in “Analysis Terminable and Interminable,” his dark, sobering final paper, “as if analysis were the third of those impossible professions in which one can be sure beforehand of achieving unsatisfying results. The other two, which have been known much longer, are education and government.” It’s a strange claim for the man credited with founding psychoanalysis — a field which defines what Freud called “neuroses” as results of unchecked unconscious desires — to make: imagine a teacher ending the school year with a lecture about how their class had been predestined to disappoint. And yet the impossibility of fully satisfying the psychoanalytic patient was at the center of Freud’s theories. To understand why — and to understand whether Freud’s ideas, and the discipline that arose from them, matter at PHS — we have to talk about transference.

Don’t let its academic aura fool you: the theory of transference is, quite simply, a theory of love. In his “Observations on a Transference-Love,” Freud proposed that the “layman’s” conceptualization of love as a pure, quasi-spiritual force was shortsighted. This conclusion, characteristically, comes from a deep personal failure: in the early days of his practice, Freud pushed away a string of patients (most notably the pseudonymous Dora) who had become inexplicably attracted to him. His attempt to understand the roots of the pattern, despite being tainted by sexist misconceptions and unscientific assumptions, ended up producing t h e seminally important idea of transference: Freud posited that we bring the emotional expectations and desires of our childhood with us wherever we go — including, of course, to the analyst’s couch.

Today, analysts agree almost unanimously (a rare thing, in the fraught world of psychoanalytic institutes) that doctors can allow nothing to arise from a patient’s love. But this is not because the patient’s love isn’t real — it has the same transferential roots as any other of their romantic attractions. The rule exists simply because an analyst’s office is an inappropriate and manipulative context for genuine romantic intimacy.

Perhaps I’ve failed to explain how lonely and terrifying Freud’s theory is. Janet Malcolm, in “The Impossible Profession,” does it more justice: “even… romantic love is fundamentally solitary, and has at its core a profound impersonality. The concept of transference… destroys faith in personal relations.” Or, more succinctly: “we cannot know each other.” And yet the idea is vital to the psychoanalytic encounter, in which the analyst is often tasked with “knowing” their patient. As it turns out, only by recognizing and “harnessing” countertransference — feelings from the doctor towards the patient which arise from what Malcolm calls “early blueprints” — can an analyst ensure that their patient’s unconscious urges (and the analyst’s own) don’t destroy the possibility for a productive and genuinely helpful process. Some psychoanalysts would object to my language here. Thankfully, I’m not a psychoanalyst, and I have no institutional reputation to uphold. What I am is a high schooler — one who thinks that the classroom, too, should be productive and genuinely helpful, and that student teacher relationships form (of course) an inappropriate context for romance.

Don’t get me wrong: focusing on the erotics of a high school classroom is unhelpful and weird. And Freud — sexist, self-centered, pseudoscientific Freud — hardly seems like a figure you’d want helping teachers at PHS to relate with their students. But a general understanding of transference, as I see it, should help rectify (or at least explain) some of the expectations we form (consciously or otherwise) of the classroom.

As the analyst Leo Stone explained in 1967, rather than casting teachers as lovers, we recognize in them the “caretaking functions of the original parents.” Deadlines at school and curfews at home are subject to the same set of tangled emotional push-backs. But the same time, students crave the teacher’s parental love: we want to be cared for. Of course, openly addressing transference in the classroom would be, as Merve Emre puts it in “Are you my Mother?,” “its own variety of pedagogical failure.” Classes have neither the time nor the moral obligation to become therapy sessions. Still, students would do well to remember that a teacher is not obligated to love them — or even care about them on an individual level — in the same way a parent might. Often, instead of wanting to be taught, we yearn for the teacher to seek out our own knowledge: in a class with 30 other students, though, an educator failing to do so is a practical choice rather than a personal slight.

I’ve also come to believe (with significantly less authority, never having been a teacher myself) that PHS teachers can learn from the way an analyst deals with the urge to reciprocate their patient’s “transference love.” Caring for students is, of course, important, but replacing constructive rigor and challenge with either a doting, carefree environment or one where the teacher feels as though they must make the class wildly, unhelpfully difficult in order to reaffirm their own authority, is harmful for everybody involved. It’s hard, as someone who finds a perhaps embarrassing amount of joy in the classes I take here at PHS, to agree with Freud that education is an impossible profession. But it seems that students who want to please or defy their educators at all costs and teachers who seek to become surrogate parents or all-knowing kings each fall prey to the same misguided assumption: that the high school classroom could ever be truly satisfying.

Teachers and transference: does Freud matter in high schools?

   On October 7, 2023, Hamas, the Muslim authority of the Gaza Strip, invaded the state of Israel. In response, the Israeli cabinet vowed “to wipe… Hamas off the face of the Earth.” In the following weeks, the world watched the attack become the bloodiest war in Israel’s history. According to the New York Times, as of November 7, there have been over 1,400 Israeli and 10,000 Palestinian civilian and militant casualties, as well as 422 Israeli hostages and 1.5 million internally displaced Gazans. 

  The war has also come with inflammatory speech and calls for violent protest. The Anti-Defamation League has recorded a 388 percent rise in antisemitic incidents in the U.S. between October 7 and October 25, compared to the same period last year. Similarly, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, reports of Islamophobia were up 182 percent in the U.S. between October 7 and October 24, compared to the average 16-day period last year. Educational institutions have been particularly rife with confrontation. For instance, at UMass Amherst, a student was recently arrested for assaulting a fellow Jewish student at a vigil. Stanford has also been investigating possible hate crimes committed against a Muslim student. And at Harvard, a group of pro-Palestinian students received widespread condemnation after “holding the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all ongoing violence.” 

   Other, less extreme responses have also contributed to the deafening noise. One such reaction is performative activism on social media, and the rush to take sides; this is often caused by the widespread lack of empathy for others and a general lack of understanding of this nuanced situation. You have probably seen it online; a binary stance, or lack thereof, becomes a part of one’s character. This pressures people to hop on social media to share a quick something about the war and get it over with. A global conflict becomes a box they can check off, a guilty feeling they think they can dispose of with a simple click. This leads to a common sentiment — when people lack compassion and time and space for reflection, the results are horrendous. In October 2022, AP News conducted a poll that found that around 75 percent of adults in the U.S. agree that misinformation leads to violent views and behaviors.

   Incorrect, radical, and often conflicting messaging related to the Israel-Hamas war can make it difficult to discern the truth and process our reaction to it. However, instead of trying to easily address the situation with a simplistic perspective or opinion, the most effective solution is to take time to develop a complete understanding and keep empathy at the center of thought.

   While not all responses to the war have been peaceful, we are fortunate that at PHS, we have had thoughtful and constructive opportunities for reflection. On October 17, PHS invited Rabbi Merow from The Jewish Center to help students process their reactions. On October 20, PHS hosted a Gathering for Peace and Hope, in which the Muslim Student Union, the Jewish Club, and the Middle Eastern Students Association came together to recite Amanda Gorman’s poem “The Hill We Climb.” 

   Rather than making rash and violent decisions or participating in performative acts without a true understanding of the issue at hand, we should continue to encourage each other, and ourselves, to take time in making decisions and keep an open mind. It’s not an easy topic. That’s not to say that one may not have an opinion on the subject; individual opinions are encouraged and valued, but it is essential to maintain an anti-violent and open-minded approach when developing them. This war, and our reactions to it, are anything but a justification for hatred. If we want true unity, true resolution, and true peace, the best reaction is a thoughtful and empathetic one. 

Embracing empathy amidst the conflict in Israel and Palestine

  In the past, celebrities were shining stars: singers, dancers and politicians only seen by fans on the black screens of television. Now, in the age of unrestrained usage of social media, the distance between celebrities and fans is stripped. From convincing fans to purchase a product they endorse to imposing their views on important world events and issues, celebrities and public figures now hold the power to influence an impressionable audience with the click of a button. 

  After the senseless killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement saw a massive influx of attention on various media. From trending Twitter “blacklivesmatter” hashtags to the 28 million Instagram users who participated in “Blackout Tuesday,” publicly proclaiming support on social media for BLM was deemed the right thing to do, and keeping silent was perceived as immoral and almost racist. Brands and celebrities rode on this social media wave, blacking out their social media profile pictures and professing their support to the movement in posts. While these popular gestures were intended to show solidarity with the movement, it set a larger precedent that activism simply meant announcing one’s alignment with a cause without the intention of further support. 

  Mass distribution of misguided statements is the central cause for the spread of misinformation, an all too common consequence of celebrity “activism.” A study conducted by researchers at Reuters Institution in 2022 found that 20 percent of posts containing misinformation about COVID-19 were created by influencer profiles. Even more damaging, because of their large monopoly on social media, celebrity posts on important issues often overshadow expert opinions and helpful resources posted by lesser known accounts, devaluing the function of professional journalism. The often performative nature of celebrity activism becomes clear upon nuanced situations such as the Israeli-Palestinian war, which saw much less celebrity engagement. Given the extreme nuance of the conflict, there was no longer a clear-cut, “politically-correct” side to side with or to jump on the bandwagon for. Many fans blasted their idols upon observing their “silence,” questioning why they weren’t using their platform to weigh in on the situation. However, celebrities shouldn’t be pressured to “speak up” on political issues that they have no background in when expert opinions hold more importance in informing the public. 

   The influence celebrities have on impressionable fans regarding social issues often unfolds on an emotional level rather than from factual evidence, resulting in unacceptable behaviors by hot-tempered fans that attack individuals who speak out against the misguided ideologies spread by biased public figures. For example, in April 2020, the actor Woody Harrelson shared his claim regarding the 5G network being the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic to his two million followers on Instagram. The time frame of his claims correlated with at least 20 cell tower polls being burned to the ground in the UK. Telecom employees were also harassed on the streets while attempting to set up 5G fiber optic cables. Kanye West, also known for his anti-vaccination stance, told Forbes that he believed COVID-19 vaccinations would “put chips inside of us” during the pandemic. This proven-false conspiracy theory snowballed and soon became a popular statement spread by anti-vaccine groups. Furthermore, the misinformed statements of celebrities are often regurgitated in popular media in order to generate more clicks, consequently exacerbating the spread of their falsified claims.

   As teenagers, the demographic most susceptible to celebrity influence, PHS students should be mindful of avoiding valuing their favorite celebrities' opinions over expert opinions in order to make informed decisions. In a time where rampant false information is spread online, it’s important to realize that the power of reliable research to uncover truths is longstanding and undeniable. 


Stop relying on celebrity activism

First dreaming about becoming a history teacher in the first grade, this fall marks Social Studies Teacher Elizabeth Taylor’s 13th year teaching at PHS. Growing up in Wichita, Kansas, Taylor debated between journalism and teaching history in high school, but the difficulty of attending a journalism college and the lack of a newspaper at her high school compelled her to choose education as a more secure option. 
After receiving her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Boston University, Taylor taught United States and World History at Westford Academy in Massachusetts for nine years before she and her husband moved to South Jersey, where it was closer to family. Budget cuts caused by the 2008 Recession led to fewer available teaching positions, with the only one being PHS at the time. She took the offer to work at PHS knowing the challenge and reputation of the district.

“I chose education over journalism [because] I thought that I had a more secure job as a teacher. I shadowed a reporter at a local newspaper for a day during my senior year and remember them telling me that to get a job as a reporter, … you had to have worked on your high school newspaper. My school didn’t even have a newspaper, so I figured I didn’t really have a chance,” said Taylor. “I liked history; I was good at it, and I had several great history teachers. My mom was also a teacher, as was an aunt and a cousin, so I could easily picture myself as a teacher.”

Taylor strives to create a learning environment that is both intellectually engaging and inspires students to consider different perspectives. In order to keep students engaged, as well as make each year different for herself, Taylor adjusts her curriculum each year to incorporate current events and new resources that fit the needs of the new class. 

“Current events definitely help to make each year unique; this has especially been true over the last several years. Also, getting a new group of students, with their own interests and personalities; realizing that students in one period aren’t as engaged by a topic as students in an earlier period were, and moving on more quickly,” Taylor said.

In addition to social studies, Taylor also teaches Sociology Accelerated at PHS. Because of her limited knowledge on sociology and the time she had to allocate to her baby at home, Taylor was initially reluctant to adopt the new course. However, after five weeks of teaching the subject, Taylor fell in love with the creativity it allowed as well its applicability to students’ lives.

“Professionally, it is the best thing that has happened to me. … I love that it’s a rigorous course without the pressure of an AP exam,” Taylor said.

Having been regarded as a tough but fair teacher by previous and current students, Taylor finds that both of her courses teach students study skills and time management habits, which they can continue to apply in high school and throughout college.

“‘Tough but fair’ sounds about right. I hope to create an environment that is intellectually engaging and where students feel supported as they try new things and perspectives,” Taylor said.

Through her teaching, Taylor hopes to develop students’ desires to keep up with current events and become active members of society. Emma Liu ’26, a student in Taylor’s AP U.S. History class, appreciates her commitment to helping her students.

“She provides a lot of support for her students and really tries to help them succeed whether [that’s] in the classroom or for the AP Exam,” Liu said.

Outside of the classroom, Taylor strives to find a balance between work obligations and spending time with family.

“The demands on teachers are simply too great, and it definitely got much harder once I had kids,” said Taylor. “The best I have done is to ignore anything PHS-related during the summer, and to instead focus on the rest of my life as much as possible, … but during the school year, teaching takes up the majority of my time and attention.”

In her limited free time, Taylor enjoys gardening, dancing, and reading. Having been a dancer her whole life, she finds that her weekly tap dance classes give her the opportunity to unwind from the stresses of teaching.
“I take an adult tap class now that is probably the best hour of the week for me, because I’m just focusing on something that I need and not what my students need, or my kids need, or my husband needs,” Taylor said.
As her two children grow up, Taylor notes how she’s been able to relate much more to her students and their ambitious high school classes and extracurriculars as she learns to deal with her own children’s ambitions.
“I see high school students who are just trying to do it all. … They want to take five AP classes, be president of this club, etc. … and as a teacher, there’s just not enough hours in the day to do all of this, right?” Taylor said. “Now as a parent, I’m struggling to make those same types of decisions because it’s not like we’re pushing them into these things … and it’s really hard as a parent to say no when it’s something that they’re passionate about, because you want to encourage their passions, but you also don’t want them to burn out. … So, I definitely have more sympathy for my students as I watch my children navigate this themselves.”
For incoming and current APUSH students, Taylor hopes that they recognize that the class is much more than just learning history. She stresses how all of the challenges that come with taking APUSH are what makes a student’s journey in her class so special.

“A lot of it is about the journey that they go through over the course of the year. APUSH is a really hard class, but at the end of the year, students overwhelmingly tell me how worth it it was and how they learned so much more than just US history, and even more than just how to be a historian,” said Taylor. “I like seeing the journey from how they first approach the class, and what they think their goals are, what they think they’re going to get out of it, and then seeing at the end of the year, how much that has evolved.”

PHS Profile: Elizabeth Taylor

   This year, Princeton High School welcomed the first cohort of Princeton Middle School students who took part in the Community Park Elementary School’s Dual Language Immersion program. Having been recognized as a model program for Spanish Dual Language Immersion by the New Jersey Department of Education, CP’s full DLI program engages students in the Spanish culture and language from a young age with half of the core instruction taught in English and the other half taught in Spanish. While this program has gained much praise since its inception in 2015, it has also been met with some criticism, as it provokes the more general issue of overcrowding in the other elementary schools in the school district.
   With over 1,000 new housing units projected to be completed in Princeton by 2026 resulting in consistent growth in enrollment, expansion has always been a discussed topic in the community. In recent years, concerns have been raised by many parents, especially those whose children must be rerouted around the unfilled CP elementary school that is currently exclusively for students in the DLI program. 
   “DLI has become an issue [as] … it's not popular enough to consistently fill a whole school. If you don't want to do DLI, you have to go to another school. So we’re busing kids all over the place. kids that would walk to CP, we're busing them to Johnson Park,” Bouldin said.
   Sharing the same view as Bouldin is District Supervisor of World Languages Priscilla Russell, who explains that while CP is indeed experiencing a lack of students in the DLI program, the district’s other elementary schools are not overcrowded, but full. 
   “We need to be careful — [the other schools] are full, but they're not overcrowded,” said Russell. “[CP] does have some empty classrooms … but our goal had always been to create a dual language immersion school, which we were doing pretty well until the pandemic hit and changed just a whole lot of things.”
   CP Principal Dineen Gruchacz further describes the hindering factors brought by the pandemic, detailing how they have contributed to a lower-than-expected number of students in the DLI program.
   “[During the pandemic], lots of people shied away from anything different than a very basic education program,” said Gruchacz. “The recovery time to build back the numbers in the [classrooms] … is definitely something that needs to be addressed.”
   A DLI program at CP was first proposed in 2013 with the hopes of strengthening bilingual and multicultural learning in the district by taking advantage of Princeton’s extensive diversity. Rather than supplementing English classes with a single world language class, the DLI’s aim was to create a more holistic approach to language and culture, immersing students by teaching half of their subjects in Spanish instead of English. 
   DLI programs have become increasingly popular across the country in recent years due to the cognitive benefits associated with learning more than one language from a younger age and in response to the undervaluation of foreign languages in English-speaking countries. In fact, according to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the universality of English is one of the main reasons why English is the most commonly taught language worldwide by a factor of 20, a discrepancy that DLI programs hope to address.
   “Princeton is not a huge town, but it's a town [made up] of really diverse community members and perspectives … [and] a large international community,” said Kimberley Tew, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction. “We want to make sure that we're honoring that being bilingual and biliterate is a superpower … in an increasingly globalized world. [That] is the goal of the program, not just to develop [linguistic] skills, but to develop cultural competency.”
   Along with welcoming DLI program alums at PHS for the first time, the district has extended the DLI program past the elementary and middle school levels by introducing a new horticulture class tailored to teach basic biology principles in Spanish, taught by science and research teacher Mark Eastburn. Eastburn, who is fluent in both Spanish and English, reflects on the tremendous positive impacts that learning a new language can have on a child’s cognitive abilities and consequently believes that many more people should be signing up for the program.
   “I remember, many years ago, the evidence being overwhelmingly strong that dual language immersion programs are a way of supercharging childrens’ brains,” said Eastburn. “The evidence has only gotten better over time, and why we can’t get more people to sign up in a community which truly cares about education is baffling to me.”
   While the district does offer Spanish classes in the traditional route in all the other elementary schools, many parents believe that language education in the traditional method of language learning is not sufficient for students to gain fluency, leading them to choose DLI. Nicole Pezold, a current CP parent, believes that foreign language education is not prioritized in the traditional curriculum. 
   “I think it’s kind of an American approach to learning foreign languages to just not prioritize them at all. And I think that our schools in Princeton are trying to prioritize it way more than schools elsewhere in the nation, but we still are approaching it from an old perspective of language learning. I think immersion is the future, or one potential road for the future of language learning for people who really think that that's an important part of a rounded education,” Pezold said.
   Some parents who compare the immersive education of their children to their own experiences with the traditional method point out the effectiveness of DLI over the traditional method. Georgette Stern, who currently has three kids enrolled in the DLI program, shares her satisfaction with her kids’ improvement in the language. 
   “My husband and I both took Spanish throughout middle and high school, but you don't get the same level. I often speak to [my kids] in broken Spanish and … it’s great to see the level of comprehension,” said Stern. “It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to have your kids hear another language for half of their day, and also get core instruction in those languages.”
   In addition to offering enhanced opportunities for students who may not speak a second language at home to become bilingual, the DLI program intends to aid the large Spanish-speaking population in Princeton by helping them strengthen their bilingual skills and learn about their heritage more deeply.
   “One of the original goals of the program was to close the opportunity gap,” said Tew. “A lot of times when students move to the school district or move to America, they lose some of the foundational skills and pieces in their heritage languages … so we [are] targeting our [Spanish speaking] multilingual learners so that they can strengthen their knowledge base in both languages.”
   Olu Ogunyankin, a CP parent and a native of Guatemala, shared that the main reason her family chose to move to Princeton from South Brunswick was for the DLI program.
   “[Before starting at CP], even though we speak Spanish at home, [my son] would reply in English because he was in a Pre-K where they just spoke English. And [although] it’s been two months since the classes started in kindergarten, I see a huge difference in the amount of Spanish that he uses at home. He’s giving me sentences in Spanish, he’s replying in Spanish, and soon he’s gonna write in that language too,” Ogunyankin said.
The program is intended to help both native Spanish speakers and the already multicultural and multilingual families in Princeton who may not speak Spanish but want their children to continue learning in different languages.
   “We're targeting any family or child who believes in multiculturalism, biliteracy, and bilingualism. We have a lot of families who don't speak Spanish at home, but they might already be a trilingual or bilingual family, and they want their child to have that experience in school as well,” Tew said.
   PHS freshmen who took part in the first cohort of the DLI program highly recommend it for incoming elementary students at CP, finding that in addition to learning a new language from a younger age, the cultural immersion provided by the program has given them a different perspective of the world around them.
   “I feel like you're connected to a different culture. You're more immersed [and] you have a better ability to understand things around the world because you get to know people who were specifically part of that culture,” said Charles Baglio ’27, a member of the first DLI cohort. “[CP] did it really well … and it'’ an experience that you’ll take with you for the rest of your life.”
   For the parents who aren’t considering the DLI program, Milania Kapoor ’27, another freshman who participated in the DLI program, recommends that parents try the program for their children before they make a decision, expressing that the program will provide profound benefits.
   “I would say try it because you can always switch out of it … and ask to go to a different school,” said Kapoor. “It was an incredible experience for me. Not only are you learning a language but it's just a different experience … because you learn math in Spanish, you learn science in Spanish, … and you [become] so smart as a young kid.”
   With a growing Spanish-speaking population in the United States and an increasingly globalized world, learning a second language will become an important skill for future generations. How Princeton schools will balance an immersion program and potential overcrowding issues, however, may require compromise. 
   “It's a matter of everyone getting along and understanding each other better, and then building those bridges to actually move everyone forward as a society, which Princeton has the opportunity to do,” said Eastburn. “We really need to hammer that home to the public, because [an immersion program is] such a unique and important thing that we can offer as a district.”

Eight years on, PPS’s DLI program continues to bridge language gaps

   On November 16, Princeton Public Schools’ English Language Learner and Title 1 families gathered in Princeton Middle School for the third annual Parent Community Night. The Night included Interactive workshops on family financial planning, technology assistance, and K-12 academic support that hoped to provide a way for attendees to connect and learn about available resources.

   “[Trinidad] Rodriguez and I decided to create this event after noticing many of our ESL families requesting outreach to help understand and know of all the offerings within the school system in the United States,” said Vanessa Bernal, a co-organizer of PPS’s Parent Community Night along with Rodriguez. “Both of us [grew] up with families who immigrated from other countries, [so we] felt this was so important and necessary to do.” 

   At the event, student volunteer translators from PHS were available to assist non-English speaking parents in registering their children for school athletics, the Dual Language Immersion program, and specific school counseling. Several local Princeton organizations — including the Princeton Public Library, Community House, YMCA, the Princeton Health Department, HiTOPS, and Corner House — were also invited to share out-of-school resources with attendees. From providing free academic tutoring for low-income students to helping attendees schedule flu and COVID-19 vaccinations, the variety of community offerings all work towards ensuring that families can have their needs addressed. 

   As an effort to build a sense of community among families, a free shared dinner was hosted at the event with the help of a $1000 Princeton Regional Educational Support Staff Association grant. Following the meal, attendees listened to a keynote speaker, Levi Geurrero, share tips on how to support their childrens’ education, as well as his experience in K-12 and higher education as an immigrant student. 

   “I [want] to be a voice for people that don’t have a voice,” said Guerrero. “I feel like if [people] see someone that looks like them, speaks their language, and comes from the same background, [then] they can relate to them. It’s great to have families engaged in [their] kids’ educational future.”

  Growing up speaking English as a second language in PPS, Guerrero understands the importance of creating a school environment that fosters cultural inclusion and enrichment. As a multicultural school district, PPS’s English Language Learners Program plays an integral role in bridging connections between students who are learning English and their peers. Having at least one ESL teacher in each school, the growing program develops student English proficiency in four fundamental skills: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. 
	
   “[School] districts are required to provide programs taught by ESL certificated teachers if there are ten or more [ESL] students,” said Priscilla Russel, the District Supervisor of World Languages, ESL/Bilingual, and Dual Immersion Programs since 2004. “Our ESL students contribute to the demographic and cultural diversity that characterizes our schools.”

   Individualized classes for ESL students are based on their English screening performances, a language proficiency assessment required for non-native English speakers upon registration in the school district. At PHS, students with limited English proficiency can enroll in Welcome Center I, II, or III, ESL English, History, Science, or Math, where they develop English vocabulary through specialized instruction.

   With the goal of eventually integrating ESL students into mainstream classes, students are taught and expected to complete grade-level history, science, literature, and math assignments in English, allowing them to strengthen their English proficiency while progressing alongside the school curriculum. While classes are primarily taught in English, ESL instructors put emphasis on creating an environment that promotes bilingualism and respects linguistic diversity. 

   “We always emphasize the importance of home languages,” said Ted Holsten, an ESL teacher at Littlebrook Elementary School. “All studies show that students who continue speaking and learning in their home languages have an easier time learning English.”

    At PPS’s elementary schools, ESL lessons combine grade school activities with formal English instruction, with students playing games, singing songs, and writing Halloween stories. 
 
  “I like to let students shape their learning when possible. Some beginners want to start trying to speak right away; some are quieter and are not comfortable trying to speak,” said Holsten. “I try to be sensitive to each student’s personality and interests. I enjoy seeing the way that students are motivated by wanting to communicate with each other and help each other.”

   Opportunities for enrolling in adult ESL classes, or English Conversation Groups, at Princeton Public Library were also offered at the Parent Community Night. 

   “What helps the families the most this evening is just being able to connect, to see themselves in the speaker and the teachers, and to see their children be in the school building and connecting with other students,” said Bernal. “That sense of community is really important.”

Families gather for annual ELL Parent Community Night

On October 22, the PHS community received an email from the Board of Education stating that Dr. Carol Kelley would be resigning from her role as PPS Superintendent following a nine-month leave of absence. In a later email to parents and guardians, Kelley offered her own words of explanation.

“This week, after much consideration, I made the difficult decision to resign as Superintendent of Princeton Public Schools. For personal and professional reasons, I must take some time to reset and recenter myself so I can later return to public education and continue to positively impact students,” Kelley wrote in an email.

Following Kelley’s announcement, Rebecca Gold stepped in to serve as Acting Superintendent and Dr. Kathleen Foster was appointed as Interim Superintendent ten days later.

Gold and Foster are both long-time administrators, in Princeton and elsewhere. Gold served for more than 25 years in Lawrence Township, serving in various leadership positions, such as the Director of Personnel. She currently serves as the Interim Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources in PPS. The temporary role of Acting Superintendent added to her current responsibilities.

When asked to describe the role of Gold and the Interim Superintendent, Dafna Kendal, President of the Board of Education, said that it was important to have someone to “sign the checks,” or in other words, act as a formal authority in the district decisions made by the administrative team.

“The board wants someone in charge; even though we have a really strong administrative team, we just want that one person,” Kendal said.

Deeply familiar with Princeton’s educational landscape, Foster most recently served as the Interim Principal for Princeton High School following the dismissal of Frank Chmiel. Prior to that, she held a longstanding administrative position in Robbinsville before joining the PPS district in December 2021 as the Interim Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction. On November 13, the board approved her appointment as Interim Superintendent, which is expected to last for the rest of Kelley’s contractual term. 

According to Foster’s contract, the Board wants to “enhance administrative stability, financial security, and continuity within the schools while the Superintendent is on a leave of absence.”

Rashone Johnson, the assistant principal at PHS, believes that PHS is used to these types of changes and can adapt well to them.

“[The] high school administration is still going to do everything in our power to make sure that things still run smoothly for all of our students and staff,” Johnson said.

As PPS changes administrators, students and staff have found ways to continue to achieve the goals of the district, namely quality education. Kendal agreed that students and staff are at the core of the district.

“I think what makes our district great is our teaching staff. And, I know there have been a lot of administrative changes … [but] our teachers just continue doing their jobs and focus on teaching and learning. So while I think it’s important who we have as a leader of the district, I think we’re led by … [what is happening] in our buildings,” Kendal said.

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